UNDER THE DOG
The first anime that got funded by Kickstarter. They got 800,000 dollars from it. That is a REALLY big number for an anime production. So naturally, some anime communities are abuzz with this news, saying how cool it is and all that.After watching it, I don't get what's all the buzz about. Story and concepts was nothing revolutionary. Other than the fact it was funded via Kickstarter, it was nothing to shout about in my opinion.
I'm not that impressed from the trailer, sure, it's not another high school, fan service laden harem adventures, but the trailer looks like any other sci-fi movie out there (fancy tight suits, fancy vehicles, fancy fights and explosions, the works). On the contrary, the plot (which you can read on their official site linked below) seems, quite interesting and managed to get pique my interest and the backgrounds and scenery art is very nice. I won't say much more, it's just a trailer, we'll wait for the final product.
But the the thing I want to talk about is about anime production via Kickstarter. Kickstarter is a popular funding platform for creative stuff (though it's popularly used for game projects). So I was surprised that an anime is using Kickstarter for funds.
Why am I surprised? Well, the Anime industry over there don't really give a damn about overseas market. They really focus on the local market, ESPECIALLY the otakus. Sure, they give licensing and stuff to overseas companies for a Western release, but most of the time, it's just an afterthought (except those HUGELY popular series/titles like Evangelion. The release their movies in a lot of places other than Japan.). In other words, they're not too fond of outsiders So I'm surprised that they're using Kickstarter, a western funding platform, that is mostly funded by people NOT in Japan (I'm not saying Japanese don't visit this sites, I'm just sure a lot of them don't visit western sites)
In other words, in my view of it, these people are, for once, trying to cater to an audience other than the Japanese. I'm not saying they're producing it exclusively for the western audience, but I guess they're opening up to it. Hopefully my guess is right.
Another thing, in the video, the producer, Hiroaki Yura said how the production committee restricts the creativity of the creators. These are probably true. Like everything else, everything boils down to about getting profits. And of course these committee, where most of them are business-minded, only green lights ideas that will promised a decent amount of returns. Hence why the anime industry is overrun with generic anime catered for otakus. I've heard stories of how many writers and mangaka are forced to change their stories as ordered by the higher-ups.
Now with Kickstarter, they can skip all the executive meddling and stay true to their vision! You see, as bad as most anime are now, I still can see some genuine ideas and concepts that is very interesting to see. And unless they are some big named established person in the industry, many won't have the chance to show their ideas to the world. So hopefully, more of them will make good use of Kickstarter to make better quality (animation and story-wise) anime that is funded and approved by a broader audience. And hopefully, anime industry will acknowledge the existence of the evergrowing overseas demography and not just cater to the local audience.
Before I go, I want to congratulate their success on Kickstarter and wish them luck producing Under The Dog.
Here are some related links:Official Site
Kickstarter
Of Kickstarter, Under The Dog and Anime
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So...games as a story-telling medium. Well, everyone likes a good story. And usually most get their dose from movies, television, books and so on and so forth. But rarely from games.
Now now, calm down boy/girl, I'm not saying video games have no story to tell whatsoever, but you some people don't really mind much about the story compared to the game play.
Games we're created for fun and people loved it because it is fun. Fun factor, for me, determines whether the game is good or otherwise. You COULD have a boring cliche story line, but if the game's mechanic and game play is fun, people would eat it up anyways. What I'm trying to say is, games can sell well even WITHOUT a story line IF the game mechanics and game play is really good and/or FUN!
How about the other way around? Good story line with 'meh' level of game play? It depends I guess. The only real pull you got is your good story. Looong walks, talks and cut scenes with a generic stabbing/shooting/exploring in between. People might get bored. The trick is getting the balance between game play and story line.
Don't make it soo plot heavy that it feels like a an "interactive movie" with some game play thrown here and there. Balance game play or story line ( or rather,60 % game play, 40% story line). As the industry have shown, though good stories does make the game really really good, in the end game play is more important.
And that's all for now. Goodbye!
Now now, calm down boy/girl, I'm not saying video games have no story to tell whatsoever, but you some people don't really mind much about the story compared to the game play.
Games we're created for fun and people loved it because it is fun. Fun factor, for me, determines whether the game is good or otherwise. You COULD have a boring cliche story line, but if the game's mechanic and game play is fun, people would eat it up anyways. What I'm trying to say is, games can sell well even WITHOUT a story line IF the game mechanics and game play is really good and/or FUN!
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| Plot was nothing to shout about, but the game play was fun! |
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| This game doesn't even have a story line. Just kill the other team! |
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| Ditto |
Don't make it soo plot heavy that it feels like a an "interactive movie" with some game play thrown here and there. Balance game play or story line ( or rather,60 % game play, 40% story line). As the industry have shown, though good stories does make the game really really good, in the end game play is more important.
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| In an unrelated note; Visual Novels. Like the name suggests, its like a (quite long) picture story book with the option to choos your actions. Plot Heavy Gameplay at it's finest. The only gameplay you get is picking choices that affects your story. The rest is wordswordswords and pictures. |
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| On an interesting not, Half-Life doesn't have cut scenes, only scripted events... sure you do have moments where you stop and have to hear the character talk you you...but then you can rund aqround the room and put a bucket on his his while he talks! |
And that's all for now. Goodbye!
Opinion Time: Video Games as a story telling medium
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It's been a while since I posted. Been busy with my last semester's finals and now doing practical/internship at a design/print shop.
Just a short post bout what I feel about this practical. The place I work at is a printing/design shop...anything from coupons to banners, books to t-shirts. So I've been assigned as a designer. There's two sections; one works at the counter up front, complete with numbering system and all that (they deal with quick jobs like business cards, posters and various other printing/design requests), the other reports to the marketing department (mostly corporate jobs or jobs that is needed in high quantity).
I am stationed at the marketing section upstairs, quiet and peaceful compared to the bustle of the counter downstairs. The designers under marketing, naturally, have more customers than marketing, so we under marketing mostly work at our own pace. Though sometimes the guys at the counters send some customers to us when they are getting too busy.
So, omitting other details that one might find when they read this, I'm just gonna jump straight to the point of why I post this; the customers.
The thing that was peculiar to me was the customer's skill levels. There's this one time when a customer asked me to type their letter. I was kinda surprised that there are still people who don't know about typing letters. And then there's one job where I made stickers for a packaging. And It was soooooo simple. Like, simple wording, some pictures, and background, done. And then there's this guy who is trying to print some words on a piece of paper. Probably for a food stall of his. It's just a blank piece of A4 paper with "SUP EKOR" smack in the middle of it. No designs, no fancy typeface. He came all this way and pay the shop for this super simple design that my sister could probably make.
Just a short post bout what I feel about this practical. The place I work at is a printing/design shop...anything from coupons to banners, books to t-shirts. So I've been assigned as a designer. There's two sections; one works at the counter up front, complete with numbering system and all that (they deal with quick jobs like business cards, posters and various other printing/design requests), the other reports to the marketing department (mostly corporate jobs or jobs that is needed in high quantity).
I am stationed at the marketing section upstairs, quiet and peaceful compared to the bustle of the counter downstairs. The designers under marketing, naturally, have more customers than marketing, so we under marketing mostly work at our own pace. Though sometimes the guys at the counters send some customers to us when they are getting too busy.
So, omitting other details that one might find when they read this, I'm just gonna jump straight to the point of why I post this; the customers.
My understanding, their understanding.
But then, it's due to ignorance on my part. Regarding typing letters, there quite a number of people (usually old people) who have very little knowledge on IT. I's just I'm just used to seeing people knowing computer basics.Regarding the stickers and food stall signs, I always fail to tell my self that I'm in a graphic design course. I've gone through a lot to study how to do all that. What seems like a simple job to me, is something else for them. There's a reason graphic designers exist, no?
Though I'm not saying all my request are of the nature I stated above. Some do have some knowledge on it, some might be even better than me.
Well that's all I wanna say for now (and as a reminder for myself). It's easy for you, doesn't mean it's easy for anyone else. Some people have knowledge of it, some don't. If all of society know how to do everything, there won't be much jobs around, will they?
Graphic design practical/Internship: The first few weeks
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It seems that I've found a new found interest, paint splash/splatter/blots/whatever you call them. I'm still figuring out how did this interest start...
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| I was playing around with paint tool SAI and this came out. I guess this was my first time doing the style |
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| I was starting to like the style, so I applied it to my Kill La Kill fan art. As you can see, there isn't much splatter...more like blobs. Well I AM improving~ |
Anyways, I've been playing with this particular style. I love the messy, grunge like feel it gives, but still have a form and can deliver a message. In a way, this style is the closest thing I might get into abstract art.
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| Madoka Magica fan art. Ink blots are fine too. |
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| Another application of it in my Madoka fan art. |
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| A cancelled OC of mine. What I like about the style is the eyes. When done right, it makes the eyes looks gorgeous...or scary, depending on what colour you use. |
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| Another application of it, with a Beyond the Boundary fan art. |
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| Farawe...I'm thinking of re-doing it. |
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| Ink blots! I love to use this style on eyes! |
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| Haruhi Suzumiya fan art. |
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| Got new headphones...dat bass... |
I'm still searching for artist who do practice the style. Yes, I know of Jackson Pollock, but his style is way too deep for me. So if you know anyone that practices splatter style without being too deep into fine-art territory , do tell me.
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| 2deep4me |
I prefer doing the paint splatter myself, making them from scratch, imagining how splatter and the flow/drips looks like, random blot, etc. I'm not a fan of just downloading some Photoshop brushes of splatter brush and just using it like that, but sometimes they look too good to pass off.
Z.illustrations and Behance
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| Yaaaay!~ |
Aaand I made a Facebook page where I upload my arts It's the most frequently updated one compared to my others. Do support it : Z.illustrations
Behance is also updated, but only relevant stuff...professional looking stuff (I have no idea what I'm saying). Anyways, link is here.
Anyways, that's all for now, stay tuned for other posts and rants from me.
Splash paint? and stuff...
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What makes it different?
Infinite Definition
Well, each stroke you do is basically a vector, you can zoom all day erry day and it won’t get pixelated and stuff, clean sharp lines all the way.
Infinite Canvas
Well, unlike some drawing software, where you need to set
the canvas size before you start, Mischief doesn’t. You start at the center,
and you draw whatever you want. No need to worry about not fitting the canvas,
your canvas is unlimited!
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| No 'borders' to worry about, for imagination is limitless....sometimes |
Unlimited zoom
Well, yes, you can zoom all day erry day, so you can create crazy detailed artworks, or make drawings inside drawings or something…hell, I don’t know ._.
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| Lets zoom in! |
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| I should probably stop now |
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| As you can see, in finite zoom...and sharp lines like a vector, even after that kind of magnification |
My Experience
I decided to try it…well, it feels quite nice!
Somehow, the response I got when using with my drawing
tablet is really good. It feels,,,I don’t know..more natural? I had a great
time sketching and doodling stuff, and unlimited canvas means my creative output
is not limited by ‘not having enough paper left’. The pressure detection is
superb too!
The tools are rather simplistic, not many choices of
brushes. There is also the lack of many shortcuts (which is quite annoying),
very simple layering system and non-existent tools to control brightness and
contrast and all that.
I searched for a pen stabilizer function, which is a must
for me when it comes to drawing with a tablet (and PS CS6 still doesn’t have
it, wth?!), and I can’t find it. But
there is a ‘Freehand curve smoother’ under the preferences. It did make my curve lines neat, but I still
prefer a stabilizer like in Paint Tool SAI.
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| It really gives SAI a run for it's money when it comes to line art...but alas SAI's stabilizer function is still the top. |
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| It's good for design concept sketches too! |
Sooo…?
Those aside, I enjoyed it, and it’s a definitely a keeper in
my book. Who knows, perhaps in the future, they will be better upgrades? I recommend
this for anyone who love sketch or do line art, which I think, in most parts,
it excels brilliantly. So grab the trial (http://www.madewithmischief.com/) and try it yourself. Do comment and share your opinions with me. And with that,
till next time!
Mischief: A newb's opinion of it
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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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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!