Humans of Los Santos
October 20, 2013 11:00 AM   Subscribe

 
For the rest of us, please explain "GTA V."
posted by charlesminus at 11:06 AM on October 20, 2013


It's the fifth installment of the popular video game franchise Grand Theft Auto. It was released in September and is very popular.
posted by So You're Saying These Are Pants? at 11:09 AM on October 20, 2013 [7 favorites]


He has a great eye for framing shots and using lighting. Pretty cool that his real world skills carried over into this game.
posted by naju at 11:17 AM on October 20, 2013 [1 favorite]


Looks like the perfect environment for a crime spree.
posted by bird internet at 11:29 AM on October 20, 2013 [1 favorite]


I haven't played these games. To get these photos, is the photographer doing anything to set up the scene (ie, does he choose the poses or the characters that are walking by)?

Or does he just pick a spot, let the game world churn along by itself, and wait for a shot he likes (i.e., like you would in real life)?
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:32 AM on October 20, 2013 [1 favorite]


Lobstermitten, the latter.
posted by mulligan at 11:39 AM on October 20, 2013




It's the fifth installment of the popular video game franchise Grand Theft Auto.

The Wikipedia article says it's the 15th title in the series. I always wondered why they numbered the GTA's that way, since it needlessly confuses laypeople.
posted by FJT at 11:43 AM on October 20, 2013


That Jonathan Jones piece ("meet the grand masters of digital art") was weirdly antagonistic and ignorant.
posted by Rory Marinich at 11:51 AM on October 20, 2013


Each new numbered game represents a major leap in gameplay, graphics engine, or both. Often, they also start new story lines as well.

So for example: the fourth series got one main entry (Grand Theft Auto IV) and two expansion packs (Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned; and Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony).
posted by 2bucksplus at 11:52 AM on October 20, 2013


Plus the Christmas Specials
posted by Flashman at 12:11 PM on October 20, 2013 [12 favorites]


Plus the Christmas Specials

Look, we don't talk about those, okay?
posted by jpolchlopek at 12:13 PM on October 20, 2013 [5 favorites]


This is great. He really duplicated the classic 35mm rangefinder steet photography aesthetic.
posted by scose at 12:16 PM on October 20, 2013


There's a strong Edward Hopper vibe there.
posted by elgilito at 12:16 PM on October 20, 2013 [4 favorites]


Reminded me of Diebenkorn, for some reason.

Maybe the angularity and the light.

Cool project!
posted by notyou at 12:35 PM on October 20, 2013


I missed a nuance at first, which is that he's taking the photographs with the in-game "camera". I'd assumed they were just cropped screengrabs with some post-production.
posted by nev at 12:49 PM on October 20, 2013 [1 favorite]


I was wondering a while back when this would start to become a thing- not with GTA specifically, just when games would look good enough and be dynamic enough that photography in-game could become an art of itself, not just posting screenshots- which are, I guess, the game equivalent of snaphots?

Anyway, these are great.
posted by BungaDunga at 12:53 PM on October 20, 2013


The photos are cool but they seem a little low quality and consoley to me - maybe that's the in-game 'phone' aesthetic. I'd like him to take the Dead End Thrills approach of heavily customising the video and camera settings to give more photographic control.
posted by forgetful snow at 12:56 PM on October 20, 2013 [2 favorites]


Right now GTA V is only on console, so the ability to customize video is limited.
posted by squinty at 12:59 PM on October 20, 2013 [1 favorite]


I only like a couple of these. Most of the compositions are really boring and bring out the technical limitations of the game. There's something extremely unconvincing about those pedestrians -- parallel-walking, same gaits, not going anywhere or standing nowhere.

This one is dramatic but it kinda looks like it was "posed" by the designers. This one is also dynamic and interesting.
posted by grobstein at 1:06 PM on October 20, 2013 [1 favorite]


nev: I missed a nuance at first, which is that he's taking the photographs with the in-game "camera". I'd assumed they were just cropped screengrabs with some post-production.

This Tumblr post describes a bit about the photos are taken:
Being a big fan of GTA, I went to the midnight launch and played the night away. As I played, I noticed that the characters had cameras on their phones, which could be uploaded to Rockstar’s Social Club under my username, ArtCows, and from there, I could save them to my computer. With this new tool, and the huge world of Los Santos, I started experimenting with the camera and the digital streets.

What I found was remarkable. The game is so realistic that it felt like being in the streets outside, running around for shots, anticipating passersby’s movements and reactions. In a way, it was also incredibly frightening that these algorithms could look so real, or is it that we ourselves are becoming ever more algorithmic?
Here's a forum post on how to take and retrieve in-game photos.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:41 PM on October 20, 2013 [3 favorites]


I wish they could make the photos smaller and grainier. They aren't quite ugly enough for me, nor do they fit on a postage stamp.
posted by Justinian at 2:17 PM on October 20, 2013


I think this collection of images is great. GTA is terrificly beautiful and seeing attention paid to it in this way is nice. Particularly interesting to see a simple personal view of people, since most of the game is mayhem and fast cars. It is weird that she's doing it with the in-game camera though. It's all sort of a play on Instagram; the camera is called "Snapmatic" and deliberately has all sorts of ugly filtering in it. She's done a good job working with that constraint, but like Instagram the filter has a way of making mediocre images look meaningful.

You can see in-game photos other players have taken at this link (requires age verification, not login). Also lots of images at this subreddit, many from video capture without the Snapmatic filter. Some images will be NFSW.
posted by Nelson at 2:34 PM on October 20, 2013 [1 favorite]


I really liked those, but one thing they drive home is just how amazingly hard it is to animate believable human movement. There isn't one of those images where the humans don't scream "computer game!" I don't know if that's because bipedal motion is intrinsically difficult to render (thus we have all those over-bent legs and so forth, which, interestingly, are rather reminscent of biledal robot movement) or because we are just so attuned to human gait and posture and its various meanings that we instantly detect even the smallest errors.
posted by yoink at 3:08 PM on October 20, 2013 [1 favorite]


Each new numbered game represents a major leap in gameplay, graphics engine, or both. Often, they also start new story lines as well.

So for example: the fourth series got one main entry (Grand Theft Auto IV) and two expansion packs (Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned; and Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony).


The fan wiki classifies 3 universes - I'm not clear on how official Rockstar has made that. Everything before GTA 3 is the 2d universe. GTA 3 and its kin (Vice City, Liberty City Stories, etc) form the 3d universe. GTA 4 and its expansions, Chinatown Wars, and now GTA 5 exist in the HD universe.
posted by dumbland at 4:21 PM on October 20, 2013


I really liked those, but one thing they drive home is just how amazingly hard it is to animate believable human movement. There isn't one of those images where the humans don't scream "computer game!"

Well, It's not claiming to be the Matrix or anything. But I think if you haven't played, you would be surprised at how fully realized of a world they've created. I wouldn't say "lifelike", but it all feels very natural within it's own context.
posted by billyfleetwood at 6:57 PM on October 20, 2013


elgilito: There's a strong Edward Hopper vibe there.
That is just what I was thinking too.
posted by smcameron at 7:52 PM on October 20, 2013


This is the first thing that's actually made me want to play GTA V.
posted by bicyclefish at 6:27 AM on October 21, 2013


My contribution to the genre was a selfie taken after I punched out a living statue on the Pier, but, like, a study in chiaroscuro.
posted by eddydamascene at 8:33 AM on October 21, 2013 [1 favorite]


GTA V time lapse photography (via Full Glass Empty Clip)
posted by mbrubeck at 4:08 PM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]


Since FGEC has been down for a couple of days (since right after I posted that), here's a direct link to the GTA V Timelapse on YouTube.
posted by mbrubeck at 3:56 PM on October 27, 2013


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