Archive for September 2013
But then to the twist of fate, during the sem break, my friends decided to go to a last minute movie outing. Though the ticket we got was 12 midnight, and we were already there since 9pm, so we waited out by eating out, fooling around at the arcades til the time arrives.
And the movie begun.
The movie experience?
It was AWESOME. I already fanboy-ed like mad when Gipsy Danger was activated. One thing that I love this movie is the sheer scale of it. The Jaegers are HUGE, around 80 meters, it's literally a walking building. And they depicted that scaling beautifully. You can feel how tiny you are compared to them. The fights (which what we all came for) was spectacular.
You see, the thing about most giant monster/robot show is the amount of collateral damage done (buildings smashed, roads broken, basically, damage to the city). They did that quite well, though I have to say, battles at the city was rare, most of them happened in the deep sea or near the shore.
The designs behind the Jaegers was good too. They avoided all the cliche robot designs and came up with unique ones (especially Cherno Alpha). I also LOVE how they drive the Jaegers. I have to say, it's the most realistic way of driving a giant mecha other than the usual 'driving it with your mind' or 'driving it with two joysticks for no reason'. The Drift (the act of synchronizing two pilots and the Jaeger) was cool, but unnecessary. I think the only reason was because they can use it as a plot device. I mean, sure, they have the logical explanation behind it (mecha so huge you need two brains two control them), but they can always throw some technological bull shit with some sort of brainwaves multiplier booster or something.
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| The whole premise is logically not possible, but yeah, boat sword. |
The designs behind the Jaegers was good too. They avoided all the cliche robot designs and came up with unique ones (especially Cherno Alpha). I also LOVE how they drive the Jaegers. I have to say, it's the most realistic way of driving a giant mecha other than the usual 'driving it with your mind' or 'driving it with two joysticks for no reason'. The Drift (the act of synchronizing two pilots and the Jaeger) was cool, but unnecessary. I think the only reason was because they can use it as a plot device. I mean, sure, they have the logical explanation behind it (mecha so huge you need two brains two control them), but they can always throw some technological bull shit with some sort of brainwaves multiplier booster or something.
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| Cherno Alpha. You don't see giant mechas shaped like nuclear cooling towers so much these days, do you? |
And finishing/signature moves, a nod to the old super robot genres. And it was flashy and gimmicky, just what we wanted.
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| Striker Eureka's chest missiles. My fanboy-gasm exploded when they 1st showed them. |
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| Crimson Typhoon with the 'Thundercloud formation' stance. Its a giant robot with three arms and rotating blades piloted by triplets and know kung fu .. what more do you want?? |
Anime to live action??
Well, as we know, anime was an inspiration for this movie. Yes, there are loads of mecha anime out there.So when I see a typical mecha anime oriented story getting the Hollywood treatment, I was quite surprised by it. It went really well, and it looked awesome. So it got me thinking, what other genres can the anime medium give to Hollywood that can translate well into live action. Some of you might think of it being stupid, saying that 2D must stay 2D, or say that anime is bad, but hey, we need to try new things.
Sure, the live action Dragon Ball and The last Airbender got terrible critical reception, but i think the fault lies with the directors. Death Note was great as live action. You see, to make a cake, you need a chef, but you need a chef that specializes in cakes, not a chef that specializes in Steaks (okay shitty metaphors, whatever). If you wanna make a movie, you make sure the ones in charge know and LOVE the story genre they're making. You see, the director of Pacific Rim, Guillermo Del Toro, is already accustomed to fantasy and sci-fi settings, so he was perfect for this. Furthermore, he is an avid anime fan, so he really knows what the fans want. I also heard he was attempting to do the live action of the anime Monster on HBO, but i do not know the details...
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| If Del Toro made a live action Madoka Magica.....argh, cant even think about it |
So..
Well, I'm trying to say is I would like to see more manga of various genres getting the big screen treatment. Western comics are fine too, but they are monopolized by DC and Marvel (which means superhero movies 24/7). I would like to see how the Hollywood directors push their minds on how to translate the ideas from 2D to live action.
So because of Pacific Rim, I started to do my own project on how to translate an anime genre, mahou shoujo (too ridiculous? challenge accepted). And it seems Pacific Rim also re-ignited the spark on how I love robots and mechanical stuff (All I draw is robot these days. So here is my fan art of the series
So because of Pacific Rim, I started to do my own project on how to translate an anime genre, mahou shoujo (too ridiculous? challenge accepted). And it seems Pacific Rim also re-ignited the spark on how I love robots and mechanical stuff (All I draw is robot these days. So here is my fan art of the series
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| My fav Jaeger, Cherno Alpha |
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| Jaegirl art is seemingly popular in japan, so did one me self,. Since they got nerfed so badly, I drew Cherno Alpha and Crimson Typhoon |
Pacific Rim
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| My latest art as of this writing |
Microsoft Pain-OH NO!
Well, that is the general consensus regarding using MS Paint to do artworks. People just treat it as a plaything for the 90s kids to waste time upon on the family's computer. It's kinda true though, the tools and features are VERY basic. There is no layer functions too. So yeah, it's quite the inferior product.
Anyways, I still used it as my 1st program to draw digitally (mainly because I have no other software at that time). I took a picture from a manga and decided to colour it. Well....it took forever. And the end result? AHAHAHA, only one soul have feasted his eyes on it. I PM the artwork through Facebook. Now only 2 (including me) people knew how that horrible artwork looks like.
GIMP
GIMP, a free image editing tool. Some call it the poor man's Photoshop. Well, the only reason I used it because my friends was using it....and it was free. So I decided to give it a try.
I tried the layers. and it was much easier. I started to to like digital art. But alas. I never used this software for long.
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| My GIMP colouring practice. I still used manga images to practice on. I only used thee burn and dodge tools for the |
Scanning artworks
Well, since all my previous exercises are just manga images that I colour, I decided to do my own drawings and colour it myself. Thankfully, I have a scanner at my house, so I proceeded to draw on paper like I used to, and ink them with technical pens, and scan them. But it was hard to get a good scan with clear lines and crisp contrast, which was my main source of complain.
Paint Tool SAI
Alas, after some research and googling, I stumble upon this software. Many recommended it, especially for sketching and drawing purposes. It's not free though. But it's really good. It's extremely lightweight and resource friendly (it can run on my toaster of a netbook). The layout is simple and uncluttered, straight to the point.
Anyways, I started to do my own drawings. Even though I scanned it, when I opened it using SAI. The bucket tool is not detecting areas very well, so I painstakingly use the curve tool to re-do every outlines of the drawings I scan.
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| Clickclickclickclickclickclick until the whole artworks finished. |
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| The end result for all those clickings. |
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| Aaaand finish! |
I used this after that, I colored it using bucket and stuff. I used this method and trained reeeaaall hard to get better.
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| One can still produce a good digital artwork without a mouse. It just takes patience, time and practice. Don't give up! |
Drawing Tablet
After getting good at my digital art, I decided to expand my potential further and purchase a drawing tablet. After asking recommendations, test-driving and borrowing my friend's draw tab, I decided to buy the most basic and cheap Bamboo tablet available.
I already practiced a bit with my friend's draw tab, so I already had a running start with mine. It didn't take that long for me to be familiar with (it took around a week). I definitely helped a lot in my drawing, now I can do more complex textures and have more control in shading. I also do all of my sketches digitally now too. So my scanner is pretty much of little use now (but you will always be my treasure, my trusty little scanner!)
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| Sketches are now digital! |
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| Lots of effects doable using drawtabs |
I'm still learning the tricks of digital art and will always strive for the better! So expect more from me. Follow my blog and deviantART (links in the contacts section on the homepage)
Thanks for your time~
Thanks for your time~
Digital Arts: Ramblings of a newbie
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Well, as of the writing of this post, the last post that I made was 9 months ago. What happened?
.....
Well, I continued my studies....as a graphic designer. And frankly, the schedules are tight...well, if you can manage time well, it isn't so bad, but I suck at that. Sleeping reeeaally late and waking up early is the norm. And when weekends cometh, it's time to pay your sleeping debts.
In other words, when there's time to relax, you either sleep or have FUN.
And because of those implications set upon myself, I spend my free time playing games, drawing, anime and sleep. Yes....sleep...lots of it.
Well, I'm trying to piece back all of my composure together...and my now on hiatus checklists (updating this blog for example).
I might post some of my experience and opinions regarding my studies, but most of it seems to be rather bland, so I might refrain from doing that.
Anyways, as you can see. I re-branded the blog with new looks and what not. I will try to update this cobweb of a blog back to it's glory days.Too bad this blog never had a glory day. I will update with stuff....whether it be my creative output, or some random image that I find amusing. So I re-branded it with new looks and what not.
Thank you for your time, and do hope to see future updates.
....
Here's a teaser of a new project I had in mind. I will post about it when it's done.
.....
Well, I continued my studies....as a graphic designer. And frankly, the schedules are tight...well, if you can manage time well, it isn't so bad, but I suck at that. Sleeping reeeaally late and waking up early is the norm. And when weekends cometh, it's time to pay your sleeping debts.
In other words, when there's time to relax, you either sleep or have FUN.
And because of those implications set upon myself, I spend my free time playing games, drawing, anime and sleep. Yes....sleep...lots of it.
Well, I'm trying to piece back all of my composure together...and my now on hiatus checklists (updating this blog for example).
I might post some of my experience and opinions regarding my studies, but most of it seems to be rather bland, so I might refrain from doing that.
Anyways, as you can see. I re-branded the blog with new looks and what not. I will try to update this cobweb of a blog back to it's glory days.
Thank you for your time, and do hope to see future updates.
....
Here's a teaser of a new project I had in mind. I will post about it when it's done.
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| Got myself a drawing tablet. Drawen stuff is easier now. |
What happened?
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0
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About Me
- Zabran Adam
- Im Zabran, and I like to talk about alot of stuff (mostly related to my interests) but not necessarily, hence my blog's name. So watch out!