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Welcome to Layer Tennis’ first foray into the fourth dimension.
Considering the constraints of most modern browsers, we had to skip the third dimension (depth), so the fourth will have to do. Time has always been an essential element of the game, the competitors (and commentators) face a cruel 15-minute deadline, and — hear me when I say — those seconds tick away much faster at LT HQ than they do in your office, as you kill the waning hours of your work week.
This week, however, temporal space willl actually tear through our 900x280-pixel battlefield, as renowned illustrators Trevor Van Meter and James Hutchinson face off in Adobe Flash. I pity their poor souls; if designing/illustrating/typesetting a volley isn't enough to do in a quarter-hour, they must find time to animate the volley as well. While this added challenge is likely to simplify the actual graphic content of the match (fine by me, I'm a bit of a minimalist), we're likely to see some great storytelling, as both competitors excel in that area, and each has an arsenal of ready-made characters that would make old Walt D. blush. (As I write this, I'm getting word that James, at least, is creating a new set of characters just for the match).
An aside: Let me ruin your day by telling you this: I can't hear the word "Flash" without following it up, in my head, with Freddie Mercury screaming "aaah-aaah!" and then some Brian May guitar noodling. It's a cross I must bear, and now it's your curse too.
So anyway, Flash (aaah-aaah! He'll save everyoneofus! bwah-wah, bwah-wah, bwwah WOMP bump bump bump bump) shall make its Layer Tennis debut, the ref (it's my fat a** in that striped shirt every week) shall become the commentator, and pixelated gurus shall battle snotty space kids in four dimensions (we'll all do our best to fake some sort of depth).
The shoes left behind by previous commentators (luckily for me, they're size 10.5 Diadoras) will be hard to fill (metaphorically, in reality the fit is pretty accurate). I will do my best to avoid sports/war references and to not talk about myself the whole match. I will fail miserably. I will try not to make obscure Dennis-Milleresque references to second-tier European football clubs, vintage motorscooter wiring diagrams, or bands that opened for Superchunk back in '93, and there, I will also fail. I yam who I yam. But I'll try to keep things moving and semi-insightful.
I've spoken to Trevor and James and they've been communicating as well (They've collaborated in the past, more on that during the match). From what I can tell, they each have a very solid individual game plan, and a bit of a collective framework sketched out to keep their sanity. Their dossiers:
(aka "James") is English in origin, but relocated to NYC a few years back due to, as the INS put it, "EXTRAORDINARY ABILITY." See his work at Crashlander.com. I've got other interesting stuff to say about him, but I need something to talk about during the match.
(aka "VanBeater") hails from eastern North Carolina, which doesn't look too exciting in the satellite view in Google Maps, but what do I know? At least it's sort-of near an ocean, that must be nice. Trevor's personal and professional sites are conjoined at trevorvanmeter.com. Again, more biographical details will be revealed during the match.
are skilled illustrator/animators with schloads of great commercial and personal work. Both excel at creating and developing animated characters. Both can work in a wide range of styles. They seem to speak the same language, so this should be pretty amazing as a battle and as a collaboration.
(aka "Beeb," "Bb," "The Ref") Bryan Bedell feels weird writing about himself in third person. He is a designer at Coudal Partners, and he regularly obsesses about motorscooters at 2strokebuzz. Bryan is very happily married, so, like, back off, ladies.
Here's how the game works. Jump into the Layer Tennis Forums, we'll be taking the pulse of the conversations there to declare a winner. You can also subscribe to our Layer Tennis RSS feed and follow along via Twitter.
We are alive. We are coming back. We are scheming. Be patient. ALL WILL BE REVEALED.
Congrats to totopromo, the in-forum contest winner, and Operator, the remix winner. We have some Jewelboxing and Swap Meat items to send out to you. We're also sending packs of Field Notes to reo5th, BMB and naamyo. Email your shipping info to dawson at coudal.com.
Today is your last chance to sound off about who won Friday's Layer Tennis Matches and to post your remix/contest entries too.
All matches took place on Fridays, live at 2pm Chicago time or GMT-6.
January 25 - Match 1 | View Match
Chris Glass vs Shaun Inman*
Commentary by John Gruber | Forum
January 25 - Match 2 | View Match
Jason Koxvold* vs James Hutchinson
Commentary by Rosecrans Baldwin | Forum
January 11th | View the Match
Veerle Pieters* vs Cindy Li
Commentary by Kevin Guilfoile | Match Forum
December 14th | View the Match
Matt Owens vs Jason Gnewikow*
Commentary by Joshua Allen | Match Forum
December 7th | View the Match
Jason Koxvold* vs Bran Dougherty-Johnson
Commentary by Matt Haughey | Match Forum
Match was played using Adobe® After Effects®
November 30th | View the Match
Trevor Van Meter* vs James Hutchinson
Commentary by Bryan Bedell | Match Forum
This match was played using Adobe® Flash®.
November 16th | View the Match
Aaron Draplin* vs David Nakamoto
Commentary by Steven Heller | Match Forum
November 9th | View the Match
Scott Hansen* vs Rob Cordiner
Commentary by Alissa Walker | Match Forum
November 2nd | View the Match
Marian Bantjes* vs Armin Vit
Commentary by Heather Armstrong | Match Forum
Match was played using Adobe® After Illustrator®
October 26th | View the Match
Brian Taylor vs Jason Santa Maria*
Commentary by Matthew Baldwin | Match Forum
October 19th | View the Match
Naz Hamid vs Chris Glass*
Commentary by Rosecrans Baldwin | Match Forum
October 12th | View the Match
Steven Harrington* vs Chuck Anderson
Commentary by Jason Kottke | Match Forum
October 5th | View the Match
Neil Duerden vs Mathew Star Thomas*
Commentary by Debbie Millman | Match Forum
September 28th | View the Match
Kevin Cornell* vs Shaun Inman
Commentary by John Gruber | Match Forum
* =winner
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Layer Tennis was created by Coudal Partners in Chicago. We also created Jewelboxing for making awesome disc packaging and The Deck, an ad network targeted at creative folks.
