fresh...

we're not much for sitting back and relaxing. while we have definitely enjoyed the past few days off with family...we're ready to face the new year with some fresh new stuff.

we've found that iPhone development is really cool and an avenue that offers us tons of opportunities to introduce folks to our library of IP. so we're going to do just that...and, of course, a little bit more:)

there are a few developments that we hope to be announcing here soon.

one thing in particular is our next game. mathias has spent some of his "time off" working on some gorgeous new artwork that we're going to be using to produce our sophomore effort and follow up to Squish Squash.

so...long story short...we're not going anywhere and neither should you guys. keep on coming by and checking in on us because we promise lots of new iPhone-centric developments this year.

happy holidays...go buy squish squash!!

heh...HOPE may be jealous of Squish Squash being the dreamhive's very first 100% independently produced IP, but we couldn't be more giddy.

this game is an incredible testament to what a small group of focused, talented folks can do once the power is in their hands to realize a singular vision.

we promise much more to come and will have some really cool announcements to make during this upcoming year.

in the meantime, go out and buy squish squash. play it. tell your friends if you like it and take the time to write a review. you can check out a video of the game along with some info and pro tips at the official site here.

tom, mathias, and i would like to personally thank wes for his incredible dedication and crazy amount of time he spent on this game. wes came up with the initial game design, learned to program on the iPhone, wrote all of the code from scratch, modeled the bugs, and created the "outer fringe" artwork for the playing board to name a few things. he stayed focused...kept his eyes on the prize...and delivered one HELL of a great product.

thanks wes!!

i also would personally like to thank mathias for his awesome art direction and tom for putting together some kick ass sets and very fun levels...and being nice enough to throw in a couple of my suggestions. i was working on another project and was only able to contribute by creating our font and testing. that's actually why i can say with 100% honesty that this is a fun game...it was the first time in forever that i'd been able to be part of something in such a way that it stayed fresh to me. i have to tell you it was great getting new builds from wes and seeing how everything came together so perfectly in just 9 weeks.


in the midst of all the craziness this year...the dreamhive gained two new "members" of the hive...little tommy angus and noah grandmont. congratulations to you guys and your families...mathias and i wanna know how you found time to do this? LOL.

finally, our thoughts go out to our commarades in the entertainment industry that are feeling the brunt of our tough economic times.

the dreamhive wishes you all the warmest holiday wishes. here's to the hope of prosperity for us all in 2009!!

...and the beat goes on....

heya folks sorry for the radio silence. we're super busy here at the dreamhive trying to wrap everything up before the holidays.

i thought i'd take a moment and give some major blog boost to our friends at GameBeatStudios. these guys are based out of chicago and did all of our sound design for squish squash. sorry for the pun...but they KILLED it.

anyway, darryl duncan from gamebeat actually made my job easy for me this time around and posted a clip on their site about their experience working with us.

so...take it away darryl:
GameBeat is BUGGIN'!

billy to do masterclass in mudbox at pratt

heya folks.

just wanted to drop a quick bit of info about me doing some teaching and demo work for autodesk in NYC tuesday day and night.

you can go here for more details:
event details from awn

i'd love to catch up with any old friends and colleagues while i'm out there...so drop me a line if you're in the area early next week.

i'll make sure to blog afterwards to let everyone in on what i talked about.

love, peace, and hair grease!

happy thanksgiving from the dreamhive!!

we HOPE you all enjoy this time with friends and family. we certainly are!

Battle the Bugs in "Squish Squash" -- the Hot New Game for the iPhone and iPod Touch!

Addictive New Game from The Dreamhive to Launch at iTunes AppStore in December 2008

Orlando, FL November 25, 2008 -- The creative minds at The Dreamhive (www.thedreamhive.com) announce the development of a cool, addictive and exciting new game for the iPhone(TM) and iPod Touch(TM) mobile platforms that finally addresses the age-old question, "Is it better to crush your enemies? Or squash them?" Once iPhone users get their fingers on The Dreamhive's new game Squish Squash... the answer will be clear: Squash 'em!

What is Squish Squash? It's as fast as it is fun -- a colorful, entertaining and pulse-pounding game that superbly spotlights the very latest in iPhone and iPod Touch technology to the fullest. In Squish Squash, you'll need to defend your crumb from being eaten by wave after wave of clever, colorful and determined bugs, by squishing and squashing them first. But you have to hurry, and do it before your crumb disappears!

"The Dreamhive Animation Studio created Squish Squash as an enjoyable, addictive and fast-paced 3D game that really showcases the entertainment capabilities of the iPhone and iPod Touch mobile platforms," comments Wes Grandmont III, Co-founder and Senior CG Supervisor at The Dreamhive. "Squish Squash is set in a rich, vivid and stunningly stylized 3D world of bugs, and was designed to provide a satisfying immersive experience that fully utilizes the iPhone, as well as the iPod Touch's unique touch-based interface."

Squish Squash features four modes of gameplay to challenge everyone from kids to adults, with 100 challenging levels to master, bonus rounds, awards to earn, special super-squashing power-ups, high score tracking and more! The game's highlights include five different types of bugs to battle, each with their own unique personalities and tactics as they try to get a bite of your crumb: Crush and smear the slow moving Brutes to slow the other bugs down, avoid the Hunter bugs that can bite your finger, and the Hoppers, who can only be squashed when they're on the ground. Watch out for the fast moving Wimps -- as well as the hordes of hungry Peons. These bugs are bad news -- and must be squashed!

In addition to addictive gameplay and stunning graphics, Squish Squash features amazing music and sound effects from GameBeat Studios. "Once we saw the game art that The Dreamhive provided to us, the inspiration for the music and sound design came instantly," says Darryl Duncan, President/CEO of GameBeat Studios. "This is going to be a truly amazing game, and GameBeat is thrilled and honored to be a part of it."

The Dreamhive's Squish Squash game perfectly spotlights the technological capabilities of both the iPhone and the iPod Touch, with beautiful and innovative use of the platforms' multi-touch technology, real-time 3D graphics, and sound. The game was developed entirely in-house over a nine-week period by The Dreamhive's founding members, with the game designed and programmed by Wes Grandmont III, who also contributed work modeling the bugs and environment. Art direction and conceptual design work was handled by Mathias Lorenz, and level models and level layout were accomplished by Tom Angus, with assistance from Billy Harper, who also created the game's unique font and acted as lead tester.

"We're proud to say that Squish Squash really features some of the best 3D graphics among applications for the iPhone/iPod Touch technology," adds Grandmont. "Squish Squash will be priced at just $3.99 on the iTunes AppStore, so look for it for purchase and download in December 2008!"

About The Dreamhive:
The Dreamhive was founded in 2006 by skilled veterans of the game and film industries. Together the studio's managing partners have more than forty years of experience, with credits on dozens of AAA games, music videos and national television spots -- and they do it all from outside Hollywood. Based in Central Florida, The Dreamhive is dedicated to producing stunning HD and film-quality visuals and assets for its clients, pioneering new technology that converges film and interactive media, and bringing original creative properties to market.

For more information on The Dreamhive, please visit their website at www.thedreamhive.com. To interview The Dreamhive team on their work on Squish Squash or other recent exciting creative projects, or for knowledgeable quotes and industry insights, please contact Wes Grandmont at contact at thedreamhive.com.

Meanwhile, to evaluate Squish Squash for press review, or for public relations materials, bios, logos, images, or further backgrounders, please contact publicist Angela Mitchell at (904) 982-8043 or Paramitch at aol.com.

All companies and products referenced in this press release are the trademarks of their respective owners.

initial artwork complete!!!

hey folks. i just wanted to drop a quick blog in here to give you guys a "first look" at our game on the iPhone.

not much i can say to add to this but...WOW!! needless to say we are very proud of how this turned out.

now, we're tuning the gameplay...adding levels...and implementing some really cool stuff that will add to the depth of the game. i'll be posting a blog about that really soon.

in the meantime, enjoy the pretty, pretty:)

work in progress--anatomy of an enviroment

the really fun thing about creating a game on the iPhone/iPod Touch is it takes you back to the garage days of creating games. stripping out the "fluff" and sticking with what is strongest visually, simplest to learn, and most fun to play.

when we decided that squish squash would be our first game, we broke one of our own rules about "keeping it simple"...we decided to do a game about bugs. "what's the big deal?" you may ask. well, we're talking about nature. when you talk about nature, you have to make your environments feel organic and alive. environments in games have always been a big cookie to crumble...but outdoor environments are especially challenging.

however, for our first game developed completely in-house...we knew that a game that marries core play elements from games like space invaders and fantavision and wraps it around the concept of squashing bugs was something that would be super fun for parents and kids alike. so creating organic environments was a hurdle we knew we couldn't avoid. not only could we not avoid it...we had to conquer it in a way that sticks with our mantra of making everything that comes out of our studio top notch.

big question is how do you create something interesting and unique looking while keeping the art assets efficient enough so the game can run smoothly.

i've already blogged about how we're using time of day to add that element of emmersion and variety. while a very handy and gorgeous tool to use when getting mileage out of the art we create, that's only one piece of the puzzle. the other is to keep the number of unique assets to a minimum and reusing them in unique configurations. however, lots of times that equals the artists losing control over the minute details and variation that gets applied.

in the past while working at studios like Naughty Dog, EA, and Microsoft...the answer was very powerful, yet complex tools and game engine architecture. things we simply didn't have the time and budget to fit into our production schedule. we had to come up with something that gave us the ability to pack a visual punch, yet be a process that's simple and straightforward.

we started thinking about those dioramas we all had to do in school. you remember those things, right? i remember mine, it was about the cretaceous period. i took a shoe box, cut it up to create a stage, i lined the walls of the box with foliage. i then created the ground by adding sand, created little clusters of trees, plants, and rocks, and finally i bought little dinosaur figurines to populate it.

we decided to apply that same exact approach to our environments for squish squash.

we're treating the area where the bug's roam as the shoe box/stage. we're surrounding the playing field with 3d foliage and we've created a nice sandy texture for our ground.

the image above is our ground texture element. this is applied much like the ground element in a diorama

so, we've got our "shoe box stage" set up. now comes the hard part...adding environmental elements that breaks up the ground plane and give art directed variety while not slowing down the game. just as with the old school dioramas, we chose to create a library with clusters of environmental elements. much like those little decorative doo dads folks buy to put in their fish tanks. see, most of the time the solution becomes something where the artist creates individual pieces and that gets placed randomly by the game. most times this ends up giving the environment a lack of cohesion or artistic interest because there is much less creative control. our approach allows the artist to hand create complete little sets of artwork that THEN get placed in the game engine. efficient, yet more controlled on an artistic level.

during pre-production, we did all sorts of concept artwork for various elements one would find in a forest.

the image above is a collage of some of the select concepts for enviromental elements. there were several elements we kicked around, ultimately settling on mushrooms, rocks, and blades of grass. these were the elements that worked best game design-wise and also efficiency-wise

next we took these concepts and created 3d versions of them in Maya. once all these individual elements were created, the task was to assemble them into unique and art directed clusters.

the series of images above show how the concepts were interpreted in 3d within Maya to first create individual mushrooms. then we would take the individual mushrooms and create a specific cluster of mushrooms. those clusters are then placed in various configurations in the game. all of these clusters applied in various combination's on the iPhone gives a nice sense of lushness while not sacrificing the performance of the game.

here real soon, you'll be able to experience for yourself how all this stuff adds to our game. in the meantime, click on the "WIP" image below to see a mocked version of the camera looking over an assembled enviroment.

click on the image above to view the preview.

work in progress--what time is it?

heya folks.


just wanted to drop in really quick and shoot you all some more pre-production artwork for Squish Squash created by mathias.

this stuff is geared towards the time of day color treatments for our enviroments. here at the hive we're all about immersion...even in a small world. variation with time of day is something we feel is an important factor.

enjoy!

work in progress: bring on the bugs

heya folks. just wanted to take some time to post some more of mathias' gorgeous concept artwork for squish squash.

the first image is a line up of the various classes of bugs you'll be going up against:


(from the left)brute, warrior, peon, hopper, and wimps


next up is some looks at the variety of colors and patterns you'll be able to see within each class of bug. this is actually a key part of some combo/puzzle based gameplay we're thinking about implementing:



finally, here's a neat look dev piece for how a bug will get squished:



that's all for now, but make sure to keep checking back. we definitely have a great deal more to share with you guys as we near our release date.

thanks for stopping by!

happy halloween from the dreamhive!!!

on wednesday of this week, wes and i decided to step out and attend a really cool get together that our friends at profile east put together. it was a halloween party at a great murder mystery theatre here in orlando called slueth's mystery dinner shows. wes and i were also invited to talk about our studio and show some of the stuff we've been up to. well, i feel it was a huge success and something worthy of a blog post! if anything, as you'll see, it definately is perfect for a halloween blog post.

(from left) gary davis--autodesk 3D animation and compositing specialist, me--goober, wes grandmont III--cool guy, rick pumphrey--autodesk territory manager for southeast america

there were around 80 people in attendance and our demo really seemed to please. wes and i have done several talks, demos, and classes seperately...but never together. i have to say that i think we work well together;) wes stood up front with the mic and talked about the studio while i got set up. he gave a little backstory about our work on the iron and the maiden project(the chase massacre) while i provided a little color commentary. ya see...i like to think i'm funny. once i was set up we showed footage from the chase massacre. people were really floored and applauded quite a bit when it was finished.

wes then talked about squish squash--our upcoming iPhone game--while i showed a slide show of mathias' artwork for the game. some stuff we've posted here, other stuff that's brand spankin' new. don't worry, i'll be sharing mathias' new artwork for squish squash this weekend.

after that i added to our squishy halloween themed presentation by providing a little splatter. i talked about our current work on namco's upcoming revival of the original survival horror game and huge cult hit...splatterhouse. we're helping our friends at bottlerocket with this game by providing character art and animation. i did a quickie demo on how to model and texture brains on one of the zombies we'd modeled for splatterhouse. things went smoothly as i showed off some of the coolest features of mudbox 2009. finally, we showed something extra special. an exclusive world premiere teaser for splatterhouse!!

see, when i told the guys at bottlerocket that we were doing this halloween themed demo for the studio...they proved to be a very generous client indeed. they allowed us to show artwork for one of the many zombies we created for the game and then they surprised us with the opportunity to show an exclusive video that was only going to be available one other place. it was awesome and was received very well by the crowd.

after the demos, we were all treated to dinner, free drinks, and a very, very entertaining murder mystery show.

we would like to thank the folks at profile east for giving us this great opportunity and we'd like to thank bottlerocket for the great video.

now, as our little halloween treat for you folks, take a peek at the exclusive trailer for yourselves...

click on the image to view the preview.

Squish Squash

is it better to crush your enemies? or squash them? once you get your grubby fingers on Squish Squash...the answer will be clear.

"what is Squish Squash?" you may ask.

well, the short answer is that it's the upcoming iPhone/iTouch game currently in production at The Dreamhive.

the long answer...well, it's long and i have artwork to create. plus it's a lot more fun to see than read about. so, we'll save the long answer for later when we plan on treating you guys to some gameplay footage.

however, i wanted to take a moment and hit you guys with some killer pre-production artwork by mathias.

enjoy and make sure to keep popping by because we plan on sharing all kinds of goodies with you guys as we work diligently on Squish Squash.

fun to say...ain't it? Squish Squash.

heh, heh...

even more fun to play!


Squish Squash :)

join the cause with roxy calhoun!!

here at the dreamhive we love us some new IP. this has been one of the things we've been putting a great deal of effort into the past few months. as a result, we have some great new ideas to share with you folks.

having said that...meet roxy calhoun.

in the 1940s a group of daring young women did some-thing women weren't supposed to do then: they flew fighter planes, bombers, and every other kind of plane the army had. they were WASPs: Women Airforce Service Pilots and they were some of the bravest, unsung heroes of world war II.

roxy was one of these daring pilots. an orphan raised in small southern towns, roxy learned early that no one was going to hand her anything. she had to earn it. growing up in the south, she developed a tenacity and moral fortitude that served her(and her country) well in her life.

she left the south as a young woman and made her way to new york working her way up within the ranks of the booming newspaper trade. she became well known as a fast learner and someone able to dig up any news she puts her mind to. this reputation landed her a special assignment in hawaii. one that had her reporting on the growing unrest in the area.

following the advice of a trusted friend, roxy became a pilot to have better access to the hot spots around the pacific. she was literally flying high and reaping the benefits of her hard work and go get 'em attitude. she had no way of predicting how her idealistic world and newfound sense of freedom would get blown to bits.

when the japanese attacked pearl harbor on the morning of december 7, 1941, roxy watched from a small training plane in the sky...

...the very next year she was one of the first women to join the WASPs.

the story of how she became a WASP is well known. exactly WHAT she did for america during the war is not. in fact, roxy thought the secrets of her past would stay hidden forever and she would fade away secretly. as years passed, she became more certain that the fact that she was one of america's greatest unsung heroes would never be discovered. that is...until her grand-daughter, aspiring to become a journalist like her grandmother, was able to locate some of roxy's journals.

coming soon...the dreamhive invites you to join in the investigation and discover exactly what this daring dame did for her country.

the dreamhive is getting touchy feely!

The Dreamhive has become an official developer for iPhone games. We received word this past Friday and are now hard at work on getting our first game "Project Squish Squash"(game title TBD) out the door in time for Christmas.

The Dreamhive chose iPhone/iPod Touch as the platform for our gaming debut because we feel with iTunes and the App Store it’s the quickest way for us to deliver awesome games directly to folks.

Expect to see fully immersive worlds wrapped around fun and addictive game play. We're just all kinds of excited that we've found a perfect match for our ideas.

stay tuned...in the meantime, check out one of Apple's ads for the new iTouch.

the dreamhive creates cinematics for nerf n-strike

the dreamhive is proud to announce our involvement in the upcoming super-hot nerf n-strike wii game. we were fortunate enough to get to work with some collegues at EA-Salt Lake on this kid friendly first person shooter that's coming out in November exclusively on Wii. this was a great experience for us because we got to do character and background design along with full in-house production on the cinematic cut sequences. the co-founders of the dreamhive all have worked with the studio's art director, dustin hansen, in the past. therefore, he had no problems trusting us to focus internally on the art direction for the cinematics while he focused on the game. after some initial art direction and feedback during concepting and design stages...we were set loose on the project with the task of making these things cool. it was a BLAST!!

you can judge for yourselves on the outcome in November when the title launches...however, until then, here's a taste of what to expect from the game and what you'll be treated to with our cinematics.

we'd like to thank our friends at EA-Salt Lake for providing us with this awesome sneak peek!

Dreamhive Gets Special Thanks in Warhammer Online

We just wanted to say thanks to the guys over at Mythic for letting us help them out with effects for Warhammer Online : Age of Reckoning. We're also very appreciative of the Special Thanks we recieved in the credits, which you can check out in the September 2008 newsletter here:

Warhammer Online Newsletter - September 2008 - Issue #35

Warhammer Online:Age of Reckoning

The Dreamhive is very proud to announce our involvement in this greatly anticipated MMORPG from EA's Mythic Entertainment studio .

The Dreamhive was responsible for over 70 VFX for Warhammer Online:Age of Reckoning which launched yesterday.

Mythic was a great group to work with and to say that we were excited about getting this awesome opportunity would be the understatement of the century. Thanks guys!

If you get a chance go check out their website and learn more about Warhammer Online and the crew at Mythic that cranked it out.

what's new?

hey folks.

first off, take a peek at the image above. we decided to dust this image off and post it here so you guys could see some newer stuff by us since most of our recent work cannot be seen publicly yet. this image is some artwork we'd done while putting together an alternate cover for jason rubin's Iron and the Maiden: Brutes, Bims, and the City. the book was a "making of" art compilation comic released a while back by Aspen Comics.

second, as wes pointed out in his blog about our exciting involvement with the u.s. olympic trials, we've been VERY busy the past three months. we've had our heads down plowing through some VERY cool stuff. hotly anticipating a time when we could talk about it.

well...now that time has come! between our blog and other various PR outlets, you guys are going to be hearing a lot more about us over the next couple months. new IP, art community education, and super cool projects are going to be what you can expect to hear about.

for now, i'll give everyone a little teaser of things to expect:
*specifics on 3 new IPs in development here at the dreamhive
*specifics on some character design and cinematics work we did on a soon to be released EA Salt Lake Wii game
*specifics on some VFX love that we sprinkled on an extremely popular MMORPG that is launching very soon
*specifics on character modeling and animation work we're doing with the fine folks at BottleRocket for Namco's revival of SPLATTERHOUSE
*specifics on cinematic artwork we've been doing for Sony's upcoming PSP release of Resistance:Retribution


so stay tuned and keep an eye out for us out there in the press!!

Dreamhive at the US Olympic Track & Field Trials

We've been busy :) So busy we haven't posted in 3 months! Lots to talk about though and we'll do so over the course of a few posts. First we've got to catch up on some older news we should have posted a month ago (during the Beijing Summer Olympics). We completed work on a custom motion data importing tool for Ralph Mann, PhD., renowned as a leading expert in the biomechanics of sports performance. Data from our motion re-targeting system was used to generate animations shown to the US Track & Field team during the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon at the end of June.

madge's show--more pics

the image above of the newpaper clip about the show mentions the laser work we did on Give It 2 Me. we were glad they made reference to the 80s...because that is exactly the vibe we were told to go for.

the flek below features some images from the show. sorry for the poor quality of some of them...but they were the best we could do to get stuff where you could view some of our work.





also, here's a review of the show...we're stoked about the comments made about the production quality and the graphics that mimicked the video. that was us specifically:

MTV review of the Roseland Ballroom Prom Concert.
Category: Live Performances & Tours.
NEW YORK —

You’ve got to hand it to Madonna — she never does anything half-assed.

The Queen of Pop, whose album Hard Candy dropped Tuesday, pulled out all the stops at New York’s intimate Roseland Ballroom on Wednesday night (April 30), dazzling the packed-to-the-rafters crowd — including Fran Drescher and Rosie O’Donnell — with an energetic, fast-paced, six-song set that featured a guest appearance from Justin Timberlake for Madonna’s latest single, "4 Minutes."

It was an event better-suited for Madison Square Garden and one that these fans — many of whom probably had to call a sitter for the evening — won’t soon forget.

The pre-gig vibe was one of unadulterated excitement, with 45 minutes of candy-themed music (Bow Wow Wow’s "I Want Candy," New Edition’s "Candy Girl"), compliments of a DJ stationed center stage. Behind the expansive, five-platform stage, the cover image of Madonna’s latest LP flashed on the big screens. Madonna, wearing a skintight black suit and a lace top, was certainly punctual, taking the stage promptly at 10:04 p.m. ET, to thunderous applause, as the first bars of "Candy Shop" reverberated off the packed venue’s walls.

One segment of the stage rotated to reveal Madonna sitting on a gold-and-black throne, wielding a golden walking stick. Images of confections flashed on the television screens flanking the back of the stage. Madonna, along with her six dancers, gyrated in choreographed harmony to the sexy club jam. This performance, even if only 38 minutes long, was production-heavy, with a four-piece band and no fat. One song seemed to blend into the next, with Madonna saying very little to her adoring fans, who hopped on the opportunity to snap pictures of the pop icon with their camera phones as she strutted across the edge of the stage.

Next, Madonna strapped on an acoustic guitar, tossed back a swig from a champagne bottle and strummed her way into "Miles Away," a midtempo number about being far from home. Images of planes taking off and landing, airports and various locations around the globe were projected across the screens behind her.

The crowd cheered at the first few notes of "4 Minutes," which mimicked its video with a flashing countdown clock. After Madonna belted out the song’s first verse, Timberlake emerged from a rotating pylon, wearing a white jacket and black scarf. It was the high point of the evening, and the production value of the performance was arena-size.

Madonna paused for a moment to reflect on the talent she’s been able to work with lately, including Timberlake, Kanye West, Timbaland and others. "I feel like the luckiest girl in the world," she said, before dedicating her next number to her longtime fans — the ones she’d seen "sleeping on the sidewalk" the night before in line for tickets. She then played "Hung Up" from 2006’s Confessions on a Dance Floor, followed by the disco anthem "Give It To Me," with pink and green disco beams pulsating across the crowd. Madonna danced like a woman less than half her age, and her vocals were at their peak.

"Give it to me, New York," Madonna yelled. "I don’t see you people dancing up and down enough."

The stage lights were reminiscent of those at a Daft Punk gig, and that didn’t change during the night’s final song, "Music." Madonna started out at the very front of the stage, singing the opening a cappella, and was joined by all the concertgoers, who screamed in unison: "Music/ Makes the people/ Come together." As her dancers emerged from a faux silver subway car (destination: "Freshville"), she pranced across the stage, touching the dozens of outreached hands grabbing for her attention. The show ended with Madonna racing up the stage to the subway doors, behind which she disappeared.

And at 10:38, she was done. In and out.

whee!!

the dreamhive backs up madonna and jt!!

how awesome is that?

if you guys watched the free madonna concert on msn tonight, you were treated to an awesome spectacle.

...and the dreamhive is PROUD to say that we were a part of that spectacle.

that's right!! the dreamhive got to work on graphics for two of madonna's new songs. two HUGE songs. first, our work was backup for her majesty and justin timberlake for an awesome set of "4 minutes". i cannot tell you how cool it was to be getting footage of madonna and justin from the set of the music video to apply our cg work to.

man...i'm STILL geeking out about having our work featured behind those guys. i mean, madonna? justin timberlake? come on!! how sick is that?

okay...sorry...i'll stifle myself.

the second song which featured some dreamhive love was "give it 2 me". that song is one of my personal favs on her new album. for that one, christian lamb(the show's director) coordinated cg lasers we produced with a live laser light show. again...more geeking...drool...wipe...geek some more...more lasers...madonna dancing...drool...wipe. repeat:)

anyway, we hope some folks out there got to see it and while madonna is pretty tough to take your eyes off of on stage...hopefully you enjoyed some of the dreamhive's handy work.

we'd like to thank the crew at frank the plumber, the fellas who we worked on this with. this was an awesome opportunity for our studio and we appreciate it very much.

watch the show again!!!

free madonna show...

make sure to check out madonna's free show in new york tomorrow night:
madonna live from NYC

then make sure to check back on our blog the very next day for some cool news!

Let us introduce...

...a few more characters from the HOPE universe.

MISTER X--believed to be either a disgruntled employee of OMNICORP with senior management level security clearance or a world class hacker. this mysterious individual provides inside information about OMNICORP'S most clandestine ops to PROJECT MIDGARD.

MASAMURO HIROSHII--once an employee of OMNICORP for which he invented the holo-technology that is still closely guarded. called "OSHI" by those who know him, this techno-imp is now a (retired) independent holographic blacksmith supposedly equipped with his own holo-forge and...an excellent cook.

HOLOGRAPHIC NINJAS--HL-HP technology ninja: hyper-flux magnetically induced super-condensed lumo-energy field. the result is a hard-light holographic projection of a limited number of cybernetically enhanced assassins. hard to understand and even harder to defeat.

behind the scenes--the dreamhive's realtime rendering pipeline

first off, happy st. patrick's day folks!!! in true celebration of this fine day, the dreamhive would like to share with you an old irish blessing:

May love and laughter light your days,
and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours,
wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world
with joy that long endures.
May all life's passing seasons
bring the best to you and yours!

the dreamhive was proud to recently announce that our resident cg wiz, wes grandmont, will be presenting a behind the scenes look at the hives proprietary software/hardware hybrid rendering pipeline at this year's siggraph in los angeles. wes developed the pipeline during our recent collaboration with jason rubin on iron and the maiden. the Autodesk Maya MasterClass at SIGGRAPH 2008 in LA: Synthesizing Film & Games: Creating a GPU-based Studio Rendering Pipeline is something that we're sure a great deal of folks will be interested in attending.

you'll hafta check out wes' presentation to get the full skinny. however, i will divulge a smidge and say that the R&D on this pipeline was a major internal goal of ours when taking on jason's property. we were very fortunate that jason shares our love of innovation and allowed us to use his comic book property as our proving ground. we were very, very proud of how we pulled it together and it is one of THE main reasons we were able to complete the iron and the maiden animated short at the quality level and in the time that we did.

as an artist using wes' shaders, i cannot stress enough how much time/money is saved in finalling the look of a character when you see EXACTLY what the final rendered product is gonna look like.

anyway, wes is preparing an amazing presentation for this year's siggraph. so make sure to sign up for his class for a peek at what we consider a truely groundbreaking accomplishment!

for a few more sneak peek images...stop by the dreamhive's gallery to check out some new "behind the scenes" images we've posted.

new gallery images!!!

heya kiddies,

we just updated our website's gallery to include a ton of new content, including some content we created for the iron and the maiden sketchbook that didn't make it into the book.

enjoy!

Hope fashion concepts

here's some of the various types of outfits Hope will have. we know it's quite a bit for a CGI production...but hey, she's a teenager!!

enjoy.

dreamhive website re-vamped

make sure to stop by The Dreamhive studio website sometime soon! we just finished a big update to the site that showcases some of the work and progress we've made over the past year and a half.

we're really proud of how it came out and the new artwork featured on the site.

here soon we'll be featuring the Iron and the Maiden animation we did for Jason Rubin. so stop by often!!

enjoy!

new dreamhive logo

check out our new(and final) treatment for our logo! we like it. hope you do too. we're also in the process of updating our site.

right now, we have a new splash page at the dreamhive website that features some of our more recent artwork including some renders from the animation we recently completed for jason rubin's iron and the maiden.

hope opening credit's layout

here at the dreamhive we like to get idea into 3d space and in a "post" product as quickly as possible. this allows us to explore a great deal and then be totally confident with what we're doing before going into final 3d stages.

the flek above is an example of that. it is a very,very rough version of what we're going to do for an opening credit sequence for Hope. however, as you can tell...we already have a very good idea of what it's going to "feel" like.

once we get into actually creating the final piece, we'll post progress to give everyone a good idea of how we like to work through things.

enjoy!!

Dreamhive Kids

dreamhives are who-ville meets willy wonka's chocolate factory style orphanages funded by omnicorp. the orphans, or dreamhive kids, that inhabit these "playlands" become a key component in Hope's adventures. they start out as orphan mind-slaves who's ideas are harvested by profit, but in a large number of situations...they are Hope's strongest backup. as Hope scours the globe infiltrating super secret omnicorp facilities in search of her past, she helps dreamhive kids escape, teaches them how to control their massive wardenbots, and asks them to join her cause.

hence the birth of the DREAMHIVE BRIGADE.

this component is a key part of what will be a very unique interactive experience for folks who watch the show...

...stay tuned to find out more!

kidscreen 2008

wow!

kidscreen was a blast. NYC was awesome. my flight out there and back had its headaches but nothing i couldn't live through. The best part was flying into the city and there being a fresh coat of snow on the ground.

kidscreen is the most organized and "newbie friendly" conferences i've ever been to. usually, i go to a convention for the first time just expecting to learn the ropes enough to make my trip the next year a fruitful one. not the case with kidscreen.

i hit the ground running my first day with a "crash course" workshop they offered for folks like me.

the combination of workshops and clinics and networking events they offer is really useful. they also have their own take on speed dating for creators wanting to pitch their ideas to broadcasters.

the big thing this year is multi-platform properties. properties that have been built from the ground up with multiple media outlets in mind. for example, an animated tv series that is also created as a game in tandem. it is great to see how much the internet is now involved in everything broadcasters are doing.

i quickly came to find out that our idea is right on the crest of a big wave hitting the major channels in the upcoming years. this is very, very exciting for us. the pitches went very well and we have a few broadcasters that are seriously interested in the Hope Universe.

so stay tuned for more on that.

one other thing that i must comment on about my trip in general. it was soooo refreshing the amount of sharing that i witnessed during my trip to new york. at kidscreen, you have folks there that are pitching their ideas. for most people, this is their big chance,and in some cases their only chance, to have their ideas heard. for me, having served a brief stint in the ad business, i fully expected this fact to equal a very subdued...cut throat atmosphere.

it was just the opposite. everyone there was so stoked about their properties that they wanted to talk to anyone and everyone about them. the level of sharing and creativity in the air at the hilton in new york was inspiring. not only did folks share their ideas, but they gave open and honest help in most situations. it was great.

i would personally like to thank my friends jesse and zeenet for letting me stay at their apartment and for feeding me some of the most awesome lasagna and carrot cake i've had. thanks to jesse and zach for giving me a tour of KAOS studios. thanks to jason for giving me the tour of blue sky and a private screening of horton hears a who. thanks to everyone who shared their ideas and input with me during the days i was there.

finally, thanks to my buddy "wynnie" whom i ran into at a coffee bar in union square and talked mountaineer football with and bought me a couple pints.

i really feel that something is going to come out of this trip...and that i actually managed to come out of there with some new friends.

love, peace, and hair grease!

Finding Hope at Kidscreen

whelp...here we go. the BIG trip is upon us.

next week i'm going to the big apple and a convention called Kidscreen to meet with folks from nickelodeon, disney, and BBCKids to pitch Hope--The Animated TV Series.

all you folks out there take a little time next week to keep your fingers crossed for the dreamhive. i'll be representing three other uber talented folks that i started the dreamhive with and an idea that has been in the making for 3 years. it's a ton of pressure on my shoulders...but it's easy to deal with when the idea is this good.

it's go time.

just 'cause we're all about sharing here at the dreamhive(and because we've already secured rights on this stuff:))...here's what we're pitching. please feel free to comment and let us know what ya's think. especially you guys out there with kids:

The Dreamhive is currently hard at work combining all of their different experiences into a unique form of tweenie-based entertainment. A project called Hope.

The show is centered around HOPE - a 16 year old girl with emerging mysterious powers, fractured memories and unknown side effects of decades of genetic experimentation. Her quest for the truth about her mysterious origin interferes with the secret and sinister machinations of a seemingly omnipotent global corporation.

HOPE teams up with the members of PROJECT MIDGARD, a rag tag eco-activist group. They provide her with the necessary infrastructure, intel, and experience to uncover OMNICORP'S closest guarded secrets. This group also provides her with a pseudo-father figure...their leader Jacob Jacobson.

Furthermore, HOPE learns to rely on her ever growing network of Dreamhive kids and their pet WardenBots. This resource was accidentally discovered during an infiltration of one of OMNICORP's super secret H.I.V.E projects. It is the bloodline of OMNICORP's world dominance, the ability to harness and channel childlike energy and creativity.

Once she finds a way to overcome the WardenBots defense barriers, HOPE frees dreamhive children across the globe, teaches them how to control their ‘bots and ultimately invites them to join her cause - the birth of the Dreamhive Brigade! HOPE's ultimate backup and in alot of situations...her savior.

As the adventure progresses, HOPE acquires more sophisticated weaponry, surrounds herself with stronger allies, and masters some fantastic abilities of her own.

At the end of her journey, will HOPE decide to go back in time and reunite with her loved ones, jeopardizing the stability of time itself, or will she stay with her new friends and destroy the potential doomsday device, depriving herself of the only tool that could help her discover the secrets of her origin?

HOPE's adventures unfold in a futuristic world populated with robotic sharks, holographic ninjas, techno-imps, cyber-hippies on hoverbikes, rollerskating assasins, kids mindlinking with their massive pet-bots, holo-whips, jellyfish with laserbeams and psycho-kinetic toddlers practicing dr. seussian kung-fu ........ in this universe, hong-kong-action is set to disco-funk, double-barreled plasma-gunfire is just another way of locomotion, light can be a weapon, sound can be your best friend, and fast-food is being downloaded from the internet.

To escape the omnipresent corporate elevator-music blanketing all airwaves, people are counterprogramming their digital assistants and pet-bots. Setting their playlists to shuffle provides them with a continuous score for their lives, drowning out the muzak and the mindnumbing din of perpetual newscasts, reality shows and advertising.

In a world almost totally controlled by OMNICORP, sound IS your best friend! Music remains one of the great tools of individualism - people express themselves as much through music as they do through fashion, words and actions - from ballads to bebop, from hip hop to heavy metal, from rhythm and blues to drum'n' bass - constantly flowing, changing and evolving, music accompanies the moodswings, amplifies the drama and comments on the action. Whereas moments of friendship and love would be accompanied by the harmonious and lilting strings of a vienna waltz, a holo-fight sounds more clashing and shrill, like a futuristic DJ-battle: the resulting soundtrack for the HOPE-universe is one continuous musical mash-up.

Hope is a unique interactive episodic based universe that starts as an animated television series...but is soooo much more. Kids ages 9-14 will be able to create their own online Avatar, or persona, and safely enjoy the world of social networking as a Dreamhive Kid with their own pet wardenbot that they design and continously personalize. While enjoying the simple pleasures of posting messages on other kid's boards, personalizing their robot with unique powerups and music playlists, they will also be able to follow and ultimately interact with the Hope universe in a way that will not only follow the storyline...but DRIVE it. They will help decide the fate of our heroine, Hope, and join the fight against OMNICORP.

as it is with current online social networking outlets, like Facebook, kids actively participating in the online Hope universe will be rewarded in various exciting ways. in fact, once every season a lucky kid will be chosen to have their Dreamhive Kid and Wardenbot be featured in a Hope episode as a Dreamhive Kid that gets rescued!

i hope you all dig it!!

Hope is a copywritten property currently in development at The Dreamhive. www.thedreamhive.com

IRON AND THE MAIDEN: Cover by Dreamhive!

A quick update for all of you who check in from time to time to see what we've been up to. We're very excited to have been given the opportunity by Jason Rubin to create a collectible cover for his IRON AND THE MAIDEN: BRUTES BIMS, & THE CITY #1 C sketchbook, on sale now from Aspen Comics! If you pick-up a copy, in addition to the cover art, you can check out a full page spread featuring a sneak peek at what we've been up to for the last year! A big thank you to Jason and Aspen for allowing us to be a part of this awesome collectible!

Check it out online here: Aspen Online Store