Crazy things people do in shockwave!

Research

Today I am doing research. Research into one of the greatest of ancient cities. I have books. I have the web. I will exhaust every resource. The time has come to truly create something.

Today, something will be created.

Be Amazed?

Yes that is Jean Reno. If it is not already clear this is an intro the the Japanese Onimusha 3 website. It appears that it will feature the return of Samanosuke from the first and take place, at least in part, in Paris for new adventures. I don't know if Reno is a good guy or not, but I am surprised, if not amazed, that Capcom has him appearing in what I can only assume must be a high profile title.

Anyone who suggests that one particular 3D software application is the clear-cut winner and best solution overall is someone whom you should promptly ignore. Dismiss them as religious zealots. It's amazing how artists go to such lengths to defend their beliefs and choices in 3D software, as if to convince themselves as much as others.

This is from a cool article on choosing the best software for your needs. Read it here!

End?

The last pages of the manga have been turned in as of last night. Whether or not this will spell the end is entirely unknown. Experience tells me it will not. Still, this was supposedly the drop dead deadline. I won't even bother going into a rant about the whole manga process.

A few days ago I had a digital camera. I kept it with me at all times. Unfortunately it was the "point and shoot" type offering no real control over what you get. I need a professional solution. I don't mean to get into details of what camera or what resolution is best. I already know what I am going to get. The important thing is the idea of always having it with you.

There was a guy at Rainbow Studios when I worked there who always had a camera with him. It was a film camera, but this was the mid nineties. It did not take long for him to build up a very impressive texture library. Every cool rusted sheet of metal, brick wall, patch of dirt or bark of tree he shot. This stuff was useful!

When I am attempting to create a anime film as a single artist, it is all about speed. The use of a digital camera will be instrumental in attaining to the level of detail and quality the audience expects. I don't know if I wrote about this before, but my mind, when it comes to production, now constantly thinks in "elements". Every cool brick wall I capture can be used somewhere. Anything which might pass in front of the camera may serve a purpose to the end of building better backgrounds.

I remember these cool, old rusted sheet metal walls I shot a couple o days. They were out in the dirt by some train tracks in South Central. Now I not even have scene to do in such a location, but imagine: I may take those walls and cut out the ground, the sky and replace them with other elements, even sci-fi elements. The walls were shot in broad daylight, but I may color correct them for a cool, blue night shot and even add a light source to them. (Mirage has a great lighting plugin) The point is how much better backgrounds I can come up with, and quickly, than me trying to paint up incredible amounts of detail from scratch.

I remember watching an interview with a matte painter recently. He said that they don't paint everything from scratch anymore, they use digital photographic elements to create what they need. The goal, after all, is photo realism, why not use the real? My goal is not photo realism, but it is for the level of realism seen in backgrounds of Ghost in the Shell, Animatrix: Beyond and other high quality anime. I now have a means to achieve that and still keep on Chaos type schedules.

Fully Implemented

After all the mixing and matching, a full 3D anime was bound to happen sooner or later. Now, of course, there have been a few others, such as Urda, but this has to be the first major production of a major property. It is none other than Appleseed!

Now I will let it be known up front. I prefer traditional. Even though I use 3D techniques, and even that has lessened due to Mirage and a WACOM tablet, I do not want it to ever look 3D or seem to have any aspect of 3D to it. Still, this looks to be a very interesting project.

Ghost of a Chance

Anime distributors Manga Ent. and Bandai Ent. will jointly distribute the all-new Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex TV series worldwide (except Asia). The 26 half-hour episodes will be released on DVD this summer, followed by a U.S. cable television broadcast.

I still remember when I was in Japan in 2002 and toured Production I.G. I saw the greatness which was GITS: SAC in the works (shortly before the door to that secret room was closed in our faces.) I also saw at least the first half of the series in fansub form. No doubt in incredible. So much so that I can imagine animation fans won't want to wait around until summer to see it all.

As I wrote in another article, the show was co-produced by Manga Ent., affectionately called Mangle Entertainment by many "fans". I put forth the assertion, then, that American co-production may be what led to "stand alone episodes", making it better for American TV. Time will tell if that turns out to be a success story or not.

When I think of Cowboy Bebop, Witch Hunter Robin and a few other shows, I notice it seems that more shows are adopting this format rather than going with a singular operatic storyline throughout the series like X TV, or Escaflowne. I personally prefer the operatic story. Maybe I should show just how much in a future project!

I just finished writing the "name", the rough storyboard form, for the final chapter of this first World of Hartz book. Throughout the week, while beginning setup on a major video series project, I will finish the final line on those very same pages.

I did something a bit differently this time. In the beginning of the project, I did my "name" at one quarter scale, thus fitting four pages per page. When I went to final, I would scale up the page and line it to the final and then draw over it. This time, I did them at full scale. The advantage here is that while the drawings are rough, the text and sound FX are final. Going to final line simply means cleaning up the drawings and doing tone. By the end of the week I expect to be uploading the final pages for this book.

I recently had the thought that it was high time for some upgrades. I had been doing music on that old 500Mhz Vaio for so long that I hadn't realized that technology had in some ways passed me by. I was using a game port MIDI connector to hook my keyboard to the computer. That was all well and good, except my new system has no game port. After a quick look online I see that most everything is USB now, even MIDI devices. So I will get a simple USB MIDI connector to solve that issue.

I also thought it might be time to give Adobe Premiere pro a whirl. I was also admonished to check out their DVD authoring software which is pretty good, I am told, and works with Premiere and with a similar interface. I will look into it, but since I have DVD authoring tools that do all I need at the moment, that isn't as much a priority. Premiere Pro could be very useful though, especially with all the new built in MPEG tools.

I have had many more ideas for Occult Salvation recently. I have lately been really impressed with what Kawamori-San is doing with Macross Zero. I am somewhat surprised by their release schedule though, but I guess considering the visual quality of the show it shouldn't be too astonishing. I have been wanting to d such a series for a very long time. I am curious, with all that I have learned over the last year, just what kind of release schedule I could do.

I just had a dream where I was a Major Falcon (sometimes called Hawk for some reason) on some kind of mechanized troop fighting an underwater foe. My commander was a hard woman who seemed to hate everyone and everything. At one point, one of the men was killed by an enemy. As they brought in his body, the top half seemed fairly normal, stiff from rigor mortis, but not really distorted. The bottom half was about three or four times normal size, mixed with something like octopus tentacles and full of huge bulging sacks of skin. The commander popped one and a nasty jelly like mix of blood and other stuff came out. Later, the commander asked me to check and make sure one of my men was prepared to do his patrol task and I told her my men are on the ball. She asked that if she went to check on him and he wasn't on his way to do it, would I take responsibility? I said yes and she left. Somehow I knew my man wasn't really doing it and prepared to do it myself. I knew I was in trouble.

Who can tell me the interpretation thereof?

Can it keep going down?

While Pixar isn’t very interested in adding roman numerals to its movies, Jobs remarked, "We feel sick about Disney doing sequels because if you look at the quality of their sequels like The Lion King 1-1/2 and their Peter Pan sequels and stuff, it’s pretty embarrassing."

It just isn't going to end is it?

"The truth is that there has been little creative collaboration with Disney for years," he said. "Pixar creates the original stories, then creates and produces the films with very little creative input from Disney. You can compare the creative quality of Pixar’s last three films, for example, with the creative quality of Disney’s last three animated films and gauge each company’s creative abilities for yourself."

Pressing Towards the Mark

This month will mark the end of a year long journey to complete my first graphic novel. It was truly an experience. It's not over yet, but I am now pressing towards the mark which is the finish line for this project as to open the door more fully and freely to others.

Today I will begin writing the "name", the rough storyboard form, for the final chapter of this first World of Hartz book. I hope to also finish the same during the late night hours coming. Once it is done, it will be interesting to do a post mortem on the project in general.

I do not believe it needed to take a year, nor do I believe it should have. There were many factors which led to this end. I can, at least, say that I have learned an incredible amount during that time that will aid me greatly in future projects both in film and in manga. As I gather together all those things which shall lead to the projects upcoming this year, including my first one-artist anime feature which I believe will be started and completed this year, I will try to better organize this site for the future rather than lingering on the past efforts.

It's time to work!