Friday, December 21, 2007

frustration

My router died! I have had no internet since Tuesday night. I am currently posting from Panera Bread... thank goodness for free Wi-Fi. I was going crazy without my internet. I feel rather like a junkie going cold turkey (or, well, you know, as well as I can imagine such a thing). I'm into the second season of Heroes now, but thanks to the internet black-out at my house I have made no further progress. Alas. (It may be just as well, though, as the Heroes characters were appearing in my dreams nightly). So, I made up for it by finally graduating to medium difficulty in Guitar Hero II, scoring 5 stars on all the easy mode songs (to unlock a new guitar), and... getting my first gold medal in Wii Sports (for Working the Bag, 35 points, in training mode). And I've started reading "The Woman in White," a 625-page piece of classic English literature. Ah well. I feel better after posting on different blogs. I am such an addict. It's sad, but I admit it. The first step to recovery is admitting it, right? One of the humble creators of [Art of Otaku]. Any comments or questions? Want to share your experiences with Art of Otaku? Send me a pm or comment on this post, I'd love to hear from you and answer your questions!

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Saturday, December 15, 2007

So, that's it for the semester! I'm home. All my finals went well, everything turned out alright in the end. I haven't really unpacked yet (except the essentials - like my toothbrush, some clothes, and the Wii). I can't believe how much stuff I could fit into my apartment... aiya, I have too much junk. Part of me wishes I could become a monk and give up all that stuff, but I'm an artist, and I tend to only add to it by making more things. I've started watching Heroes. I like it - but it's a little like a drug right now. I tend to binge on entertainment when I get back home from college - usually it's video games, right now it's Heroes. Hope everyone is doing well! One of the humble creators of [Art of Otaku]. Any comments or questions? Want to share your experiences with Art of Otaku? Send me a pm or comment on this post, I'd love to hear from you and answer your questions!

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Monday, December 3, 2007

stressin' and procrastinatin'

So, it's finals crunch in collegeville, and I'm stressing a little about a paper. My brain is muddled now, though, so it's best I take a break. Good luck to all of you who are also feeling the end of the semester/quarter crunch! A brief update on bioGRAPHICAL, the comix anthology in which my comic story will appear: My professor seems to have found an alternative self-publishing company that will do, so I'll let you all know when things become available. When I think about it, I really don't have that many projects to do. It's just this research paper (for Thursday) and two other projects and the finishing touches on my bioGRAPHICAL comic (for early next week)... but, it's still a sizable thing. Hopefully I'll sleep better tonight than I did last night - stress and maybe something that I ate kept me tossing and turning. I didn't feel too bad today, though, considering the lack of sleep. Hopefully I'll continue to feel relatively good tomorrow. --- Commentage: CrystalFlute: Glad you liked the movie! I was still thrown off by the animation in Beowulf. People masquerading as animation, animated models masquerading as people... it didn't sit well with me. The differences between the two (animation, and live-action) are really quite jarring to my eyes. Motion capture can only capture so much - in many cases it can be effectively used to render lifelike actions (I especially think of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, where the animations are gorgeous, and motion-captured), yet in a movie setting, motion capture can fail to capture the smaller, more subtle movements that really define humanity - and reality. Actually, I'm a huge fan of Square-Enix, and I loved the animation in FF7AC. The thing is, FF7AC had a cohesive style. The people were not realistic, they were idealistic (and very pretty), and this was consistent throughout. In Beowulf, the lines between the two were blurred to an awkward extent, and to different extents, I think , with different characters (some characters seemed more realist-looking than others, this is one of the things that bothered me) - resting somewhere between idealism and, well, reality. You know, how airbrushing/photoshopping can sometimes destroy the human quality of an image? I'm not trying to convince you of this. I'm just trying to explain the awkward feeling that the Beowulf animation/reality mixture gave me. I don't really have any problems with the story, looking back at it. And, yes, I completely agree with you that the original Beowulf story... wasn't that compelling, in terms of structure and expectations of a modern society. Agreed on that. Ah well, I'm tired, so that'll be it for tonight. Thanks for stopping by! One of the humble creators of [Art of Otaku]. Any comments or questions? Want to share your experiences with Art of Otaku? Send me a pm or comment on this post, I'd love to hear from you and answer your questions!

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Sunday, November 18, 2007

self-publishing update

For future reference for all of you considering self-publishing: get your job done before the holiday season, or prepare for delays. So, it appears that lulu.com is backlogged into the holiday season, effectively delaying my bioGRAPHICAL studio's self-published comic anthology. Tomorrow in class we're discussing our options, but, quite frankly, I think we'll just have to wait for lulu.com to catch up. We probably won't be switching publishers. It's not all bad, though... this will give us more time to sell advertising space in our comics and raise more money for the project. As a side note, if you're planning on seeing Beowulf and haven't read my last post, please do so... for my opinion of the film. Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! For those of you who are on break from school already, I'm jealous. I'll be joining you in break on Wednesday... Have a good one! One of the humble creators of [Art of Otaku]. Any comments or questions? Want to share your experiences with Art of Otaku? Send me a pm or comment on this post, I'd love to hear from you and answer your questions!

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Saturday, November 17, 2007

Beowulf

I saw the movie Beowulf yesterday. It is a ridiculous movie. I do not particularly recommend it - there are much better mindless action movies, and much better animated films, etc. What struck me most was that it is animated - I'm actually a little confused about it, because it is such a blend of animation and live-acting. It was as if there were animated models, whose actions were based perhaps on motion sensing devices on the actors themselves, and then the appearances of the people were draped over the models - but only in a few cases. Other models seemed more animated and not based on actual people - the textures of the faces more idealized and whatnot. I wasn't happy with the animation in the end - throughout the movie, I kept thinking, "something doesn't look right, something doesn't feel right." And I think that's due to the style - I feel like the style of the movie was aiming for perfect realism, which it obviously could not achieve, and in a sense it failed. The textures were done superbly, but I was not satisfied with the overall movement of the people, with the compromises they made in form. It's a dilemma with animated films - do animators try to exactly reproduce the movement and appearance of real people? Or do they stylize? It's something that Pixar has dealt with, and something I know they've thought about and discussed - and I think they achieve a better cohesion in terms of style and fluidity of animation and of "reality" by making character designs that are stylized. They have more freedom, then, in terms of animating the models - exaggerated movements may look natural on an exaggerated human form. This effect is most striking in Pixar's The Incredibles. Perhaps Beowulf's producers weren't aiming for complete realism, maybe they did want exaggerated form and movement - but, I think they failed in either regard, as it didn't seem to commit to either exaggeration or realism fully, and I was left feeling like it fell into an awkward space between, which was mostly uninteresting to look at. The few true exceptions I will note are the following - I loved the way the dragon was animated, and I love the way Grendel's mom's hair/tail/whatever-that-was was animated. These elements, it is important to note, are not human. I was most convinced by the movement of these fantastic creatures/whatevers - they moved fluidly, and in a way that made sense with their forms, and the movements were actually quite interesting to watch. I was also a little disappointed by the content of the film - it was a version of Beowulf that seemed very unfaithful to the plot of the old poem, but I feel as if that's more my fault, for not reading up on that beforehand. I really wanted to see the plot of the actual poem - not that I remember it well - but, there you have it. That doesn't bother me as much as the animation... In conclusion, really, I'll be both amazed and disgusted if Beowulf wins the title of "best animated film" at the Oscars, when it will potentially be running against Pixar's Ratatouille and Tekkonkinkreet (both of which I love, in terms of their story, and their cohesive, believable styles of animation). --- Commentage: CosmicSailor: From what I know, you've got everything right about Lulu.com. Good luck with your publishing project, I know you can do it! Be persistent! CrystalFlute: The production of Across the Universe included remixing and altering Beatles songs, and then having them performed (mostly) live on set by the actors. The songs were also altered by the dramatic context of the song within the movie - a new meaning, as well as new voice, is given to them by the narrative of the story (although, it's also true that the songs and their lyrics inspired and created the story). So, it's different because the Beatles aren't singing it, and the music is rearranged/remixed. I happen to like it so much because the actors have absolutely fabulous voices. It was extremely well done. One of the humble creators of [Art of Otaku]. Any comments or questions? Want to share your experiences with Art of Otaku? Send me a pm or comment on this post, I'd love to hear from you and answer your questions!

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Thursday, November 15, 2007

As a random note, I recently saw the movie "Across the Universe." It's a relatively artsy, Beatles music-soaked film. I was a little afraid at first about how they might treat/translate the songs into the narrative of the film, but it mostly worked out really well, with a few blips (but it's the blips that give it character, eh? well...). In any event, I really enjoyed the movie, and bought the soundtrack - and have since listened to it at least 20 times (I'd say I've owned the soundtrack for a week and a half). Love it. --- Commentage! RedViolin: I'm afraid I may not be able to do anything over Thanksgiving. :[ I'll get home probably around noon on Wednesday of next week, and then leave early Sunday morning. That leaves little time as it is to see family... I really regret that :[ But it just means that we'll have to make many more fabulous winter break meetings, eh? CrystalFlute: Of course you'll be able to check out the original pages! I'm sure we'll be able to schedule get-togethers and mini art gallery viewings in my living room. Often city-landscapes are just called cityscapes, but you could think of them as built landscapes (most of our landscapes are built or modified in some way or another, anyway, so I think it's valid). Actually, inking the characters and the backgrounds caused little strain to my hand. The pain was all in the lettering. I suppose it has to do with the way I hold the tools - I could hold the brush more loosely, as that helped create a more interesting line quality. But, I tended to hold the pen & nib in a death grip, terrified that the lines might be shaky, I suppose. So the lettering was painful. Adam: Yeah! Someone had pointed out that YouTube video to me before. I feel honored that someone would take the time to do that... And I will surely keep you posted on when the book is released! red:leaf : Thanks! Your luck-wishing may really have helped me out - I got done what I needed to! Good luck with your self-publishing project, I look forward to more details on it :D littlemissharriet: Unfortunately, you most likely won't see the book in stores unless you go to some specific sites in Pittsburgh. Because we're self-publishing on lulu.com, our primary means of reaching markets outside of Pittsburgh will most likely be through the internet, rather than physical stores. --- Thanks for dropping by, hope you have a good one! One of the humble creators of [Art of Otaku]. Any comments or questions? Want to share your experiences with Art of Otaku? Send me a pm or comment on this post, I'd love to hear from you and answer your questions!

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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

It's done!

First off, thanks to all who commented on my last post, I didn't know whether or not anyone would venture to read my journal anymore, considering my long stretches of absences. Please rest assured that I always come back! I've been with this site since it was a game boy advance site; I've seen it change, and I've also contributed to its development (think Art of Otaku and theOtaku's first T-shirt). And I'm sure I'm not done contributing to the site... so I'll always come back. I've finally finished it! The comic, I mean, that I mentioned in my last post. The past weekend was a marathon of drawing, inking, and lettering. Yesterday morning, during class, I finished it off by scanning and formatting it so that it's ready to send to the publisher/printer. Just as a note, we're using [lulu.com] to publish, it's the free, online self-publishing place. You can have them make as many books as you want, from one to as many as you can pay for, and they have different binding options. If you want to self-publish, I suggest you look at lulu.com. Also, for those of you who may not have been sure which drawings were mine on the official [biographical.biz] website, you can check out the first page of my comic here: [COMIC!]. Whew! I'm so relieved I got it done, and a little bit early too. But now... I must switch gears, because I've (regrettably) been neglecting my other classes a little to get bioGRAPHICAL done. Alas, you can't get everything done at once... or I can't, anyway. Anywho, I'll consider posting a couple more of my pages, but I don't want to give away everything, now ;] I'll also let you know when the books are available for purchase - we have a tentative release date of Dec 11, 2007. So, stay tuned. Have a good one! One of the humble creators of [Art of Otaku]. Any comments or questions? Want to share your experiences with Art of Otaku? Send me a pm or comment on this post, I'd love to hear from you and answer your questions!

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Saturday, November 10, 2007

shameless promotion

Whew, I've been absent a long time! Rest assured that I've been working very hard. This semester I'm in a class called "bioGRAPHICAL" - wherein we talked to people from the local area (Pittsburgh, for the moment), and got their stories and permission to tell them in comix form. So, coming out in a less than a month is our anthology of true stories from Pittsburgh. Our teaser website can be found [here]. There are samples of our work in the gallery. Try and guess which images are mine ;] I'm currently lettering the pages... so I'm almost done, but there's still an incredible amount of work left! It's a little daunting. But yes, that means I will be published in less than a month (self-published, to be more specific... do you think that counts?). We'll have real books available for purchase online, or in selected stores in Pittsburgh. Neat, huh? Stay tuned, I'll keep you updated on the project. Have a fabulous weekend! One of the humble creators of [Art of Otaku]. Any comments or questions? Want to share your experiences with Art of Otaku? Send me a pm or comment on this post, I'd love to hear from you and answer your questions!

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Sunday, July 8, 2007

rolling

Nothing of import to report - except that I've finally uploaded the introduction and a couple "episodes" to my "fan manga" comic, On the Job. I'm an episodic comic/anime type person. Look for new episodes on Fridays and Sundays... Check it out if you have time, I'd love any sort of feedback you could give me. Thanks for stopping by, have a great day/I hope you had a wonderful weekend. One of the humble creators of [Art of Otaku]. Any comments or questions? Want to share your experiences with Art of Otaku? Send me a pm or comment on this post, I'd love to hear from you and answer your questions!

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Saturday, June 23, 2007

future

I've started getting my act together - look to my portfolio shortly, there will be a teaser for my work comics - I've just submitted the cover for my "fanmanga" series, which I've decided to title "On the Job: The Second Summer." I would be so greatful if you'd like to give me feedback on that. Yesterday/today was interesting. My younger brother had a LAN party last night/today, a bunch of his friends came over for some intense video game action. I was afraid I was going to have to hide in my room until the storm blew over, but... actually, I fit in well enough with the Super Smash and (gasp!) Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicle-playing segment of the party... so I actually joined in. That was some great Super Smash action, and I (to my own surprise) ended up getting 2nd place quite regularly, 1st place every now and then. Fox McCloud rocks my socks! Any of you play Super Smash, and have a favorite character? Hope your weekends are even better than you expected them to be :] One of the humble creators of [Art of Otaku]. Any comments or questions? Want to share your experiences with Art of Otaku? Send me a pm or comment on this post, I'd love to hear from you and answer your questions!

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