I decided to bike up to Burlington today, which is about 18 miles from where I live. What should have been about 37 miles total of biking, via me getting lost several times, became a 70+ mile ride ending in a popped tire. I couldn't buy a pocket-sized tire pump and my regular pump didn't fit anywhere on my bike, so I didn't bring one. Ended up walking for 1 to 2 miles before getting a ride back home. I was only about 5 more miles from reaching my house, too. How sad.
This might not be that much biking for some people, but I'm hungry, fat, out-of-shape guy. This was A LOT for me.
I'm an idiot and didn't put sunblock on. I'm a bit burned. My bike, at one point, made a very serious effort to anally rape me. I also, because I wear sandals, actually stubbed my toe while going approximately 15 mph. It hurt.
EDIT: So, yeah, apparently it's only a bit over 16 miles from where I live to Burlington, so I actually only biked approximately 60 miles after all. Hooray.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Best Game Ever
Maybe not THE best. But right up there in the, maybe, top 20 video games of all time? It's certainly the most underrated video game in history, seeing as how so few people know about it.
Doukutsu.
For the love of Atheist God, play this if you haven't already. It is an utter masterpiece of video gamery. It is freeware, about 4 years old and almost entirely created by 1 person over 5 years. It's genius. The game has wonderfully simplistic graphics and an easy-going play style, and can probably be beaten in 1 day. I just don't know what else to say about it.
I've played through it 5 times (I think?) and my hell speedrun time is about 3:40, if I remember. I have a life.
Doukutsu.
For the love of Atheist God, play this if you haven't already. It is an utter masterpiece of video gamery. It is freeware, about 4 years old and almost entirely created by 1 person over 5 years. It's genius. The game has wonderfully simplistic graphics and an easy-going play style, and can probably be beaten in 1 day. I just don't know what else to say about it.
I've played through it 5 times (I think?) and my hell speedrun time is about 3:40, if I remember. I have a life.
Scanner
I love to draw. I really do. Lots of people my age say that I could be a professional, but they typically don't know what they're talking about. I appreciate the complements and all, but I'm not NEARLY good enough relative to my age to work towards being a professional artist. Also, I'm a complete novice at all these digital coloring programs like Corell Painter that are so popular nowadays.
Matter of fact, I'd practice more with this sort of program if I was able to scan my hand-drawn stuff onto the computer so I could touch it up and make it shine there (I'm much worse at drawing things strait onto my computer than on paper and I just plain don't like doing it). Trouble is, good home scanners are really hard to come by. I've got 2, and neither work at all. They're fine printers, but the scanning feature is worthless.
Why I'm sort of thinking about this is I'd like to try animating something frame-by-frame in black and white on paper. Could be a good learning experience. This will never happen, however, if I don't get an actually good scanner. Blah.
Matter of fact, I'd practice more with this sort of program if I was able to scan my hand-drawn stuff onto the computer so I could touch it up and make it shine there (I'm much worse at drawing things strait onto my computer than on paper and I just plain don't like doing it). Trouble is, good home scanners are really hard to come by. I've got 2, and neither work at all. They're fine printers, but the scanning feature is worthless.
Why I'm sort of thinking about this is I'd like to try animating something frame-by-frame in black and white on paper. Could be a good learning experience. This will never happen, however, if I don't get an actually good scanner. Blah.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Unskilled people trying hard
Just saw this video. Kinda cute.
It is really very uplifting for me to see fairly unskilled artists working extremely hard on something like this. The character designs are poor and the poses are terrible. At no point to I feel a sense of life in the characters. Also, the writer's jokes are not very funny or clever. However, This video looks like a finished, respectable, cleanly-cut piece of art that a serious group of people tried very hard to create. I'm sure I sound like a jackass (what's new?), but I'm fairly sure I'm a better artist than most of the animators of this video. However, I just don't have the patience and motivation to create a polished, real creation like this.
The creators of this video deserve praise. I bet they could make a really marvelous animation if they just honed their abilities at making individual frames look good and maybe had someone better design the choreography.
It is really very uplifting for me to see fairly unskilled artists working extremely hard on something like this. The character designs are poor and the poses are terrible. At no point to I feel a sense of life in the characters. Also, the writer's jokes are not very funny or clever. However, This video looks like a finished, respectable, cleanly-cut piece of art that a serious group of people tried very hard to create. I'm sure I sound like a jackass (what's new?), but I'm fairly sure I'm a better artist than most of the animators of this video. However, I just don't have the patience and motivation to create a polished, real creation like this.
The creators of this video deserve praise. I bet they could make a really marvelous animation if they just honed their abilities at making individual frames look good and maybe had someone better design the choreography.
Mind Game
I really do hate most anime, along with most animation, along with, as a matter of fact, most televised entertainment. But I don't hate it all. This movie that I just recently watched, Mind Game, is heartbreakingly beautiful. Also funny. Created by one of my favorite directors, Masaaki Yuasa (who has consistently delivered superb quality and style in his animations along with magnificent, deep plots), Mind Game is a must-watch.
Below is one of the best scenes in the movie. Unfortunately, this is really the type of movie you'd want to watch in a more high-quality, wider screen format. I'd recommend avoiding watching clips from this movie on youtube. Still, this is awesome.
EDIT: Turn your volume up.
Be sure to check out some of Yuasa's other work (namely the shows Kemonozume and Kaiba) too!
Below is one of the best scenes in the movie. Unfortunately, this is really the type of movie you'd want to watch in a more high-quality, wider screen format. I'd recommend avoiding watching clips from this movie on youtube. Still, this is awesome.
EDIT: Turn your volume up.
Be sure to check out some of Yuasa's other work (namely the shows Kemonozume and Kaiba) too!
Friday, June 27, 2008
Arguing anime
Someone who commented on my video asked if I draw anime. I said I don't like generic anime. Then we personal messaged eachother.
I think this does a half-decent job of summing up my feelings on anime.
At 6/27/08 9:05 PM, ravemastaj wrote:
: There's a generic anime style? That's a new one! I could name 5 different animes (including flash submitions) with different anime styles easily.
:
: 1. Dendyn Dynasties
: 2. There she is!
: 3. Chobits
: 4. FLCL (aka Fooly Cooly, aka Furi Kuri)
: 5. Anything Chibi (not an anime, although that would be a cool name...)
:
: Just look any of the last 3 up in google. Generic anime my foot! That review comment made my day! :)
: Thx for caring about your fans, and I hope you learn some new styles and get some more ideas.
I replied:
I'm glad to see someone legitimately backing up their opinion. But I stand by what I said.
First off, I want to address Chobits. Chobits is as generic an anime as any. Unless you are highly trained in watching anime, all (please don't make a big deal if like 1 or 2 characters don't fit into this) of the characters look like girls. With an astounding lack of fat, muscle and masculinity, everyone is about equally feminine. Additionally, Chobits has this extraordinarily standard anime hair (set into ridiculous styles and covered in an absurd amount of sheen), these huge, massive, take-up-half-the-face glimmering eyes that, while a very good idea in my opinion, are overused beyond belief, and lastly these tiny sideways spikes for noses that I have really grown to hate.
I googled Dendyn Dynasties and it seems to share many of the generic things about Chobits (eyes and hair shape, mostly). It does look sort of different from most anime, but it still gives a person like me that bland, uncreative, 'already made up by someone else' feel. Any child can come up with the idea of taking a human body, then giving it fur, an animal face, and a tail.
I don't have any problem with There She Is. While the style is simple enough, it's a well done cartoon that separates itself from most other cartoons (anime included) and elevates itself well above almost all movies on newgrounds. Also, There She Is is korean (does anime have to be japanese?), and I really don't think I'd call it anime, but I've never looked the word up and can't say for certain.
I'm tired of 'anything chibi.' Chibis are standard. Chibis are uncreative. I rarely (but not never) see chibis used in an effective or expressive way. Also, I think all chibis look alike. Not identical, but alike.
FLCL does use many of these 'normal anime things,' but it does it very well. VERY WELL. I love FLCL, as I love most really well done cartoons. I'd even go so far as to say FLCL is a masterpiece– it's FAR better than the vast majority of shows (not just animations), to say the least.
Please don't take this stuff I'm saying offensively. You seem like a perfectly reasonable person, and I LOVE to argue. Especially about stuff I feel like I know about, like animation.
I think this does a half-decent job of summing up my feelings on anime.
Wow! I'm angry!
My video!
My precious video, which I spent so much damn time on, got a score of 1.5/5 on Newgrounds! That's outrageous! I know my thing wasn't amazing and wasn't gonna get front page or anything like that, but it's WAY better than lots of stuff that got scores of 3's or higher. take this, for example. This video, which has a score of 3.4, is NOT ENTERTAINING. There isn't one original or new joke, no good animation, no good sound, no creativity, and no good drawings. Whoever made it obviously has no ability to actively entertain (this is probably the case for most people, though, so it's not really something to be ashamed of). Despite that, people were drawn to this pile of shit and compelled to hoist it above other, better videos. Mine is maybe a one hundredth of the length of this video, but I'll bet you anything I worked harder on mine and that mine could entertain more people. The reviews about my video mostly comment on how short it is and say I need to improve that, but I disagree with their evident belief that short animations are automatically bad.
Look at this animation (I don't know who made it– if you know their name or website, please tell me). It's good. It's REALLY good. it's funny, well done, and addictive as hell. I could sit around watching this animation loop over and over all day. I was trying to go for a feeling like this. I don't know, maybe the reviewers were just giving animations a quick glance, and didn't really take the time to seriously analyze stuff. I guess I should have been braced for that. Bah. Maybe the people voting wont suck so much next time I submit something.
EDIT: Know what? That's not fair of me. My tiny practice thing might have some good qualities, but I really don't have the right to complain. I left out loads of very, very easy things like a play button that would have made the video better. Plus, if I'd only about doubled the length of the animation, I bet if would've seemed 10 times better overall.
Aside from that, frankly, neither my video nor the first video I linked to really deserve any praise at all. Sorry for being such a dick about this. I'm a hypocrite.
My precious video, which I spent so much damn time on, got a score of 1.5/5 on Newgrounds! That's outrageous! I know my thing wasn't amazing and wasn't gonna get front page or anything like that, but it's WAY better than lots of stuff that got scores of 3's or higher. take this, for example. This video, which has a score of 3.4, is NOT ENTERTAINING. There isn't one original or new joke, no good animation, no good sound, no creativity, and no good drawings. Whoever made it obviously has no ability to actively entertain (this is probably the case for most people, though, so it's not really something to be ashamed of). Despite that, people were drawn to this pile of shit and compelled to hoist it above other, better videos. Mine is maybe a one hundredth of the length of this video, but I'll bet you anything I worked harder on mine and that mine could entertain more people. The reviews about my video mostly comment on how short it is and say I need to improve that, but I disagree with their evident belief that short animations are automatically bad.
Look at this animation (I don't know who made it– if you know their name or website, please tell me). It's good. It's REALLY good. it's funny, well done, and addictive as hell. I could sit around watching this animation loop over and over all day. I was trying to go for a feeling like this. I don't know, maybe the reviewers were just giving animations a quick glance, and didn't really take the time to seriously analyze stuff. I guess I should have been braced for that. Bah. Maybe the people voting wont suck so much next time I submit something.
EDIT: Know what? That's not fair of me. My tiny practice thing might have some good qualities, but I really don't have the right to complain. I left out loads of very, very easy things like a play button that would have made the video better. Plus, if I'd only about doubled the length of the animation, I bet if would've seemed 10 times better overall.
Aside from that, frankly, neither my video nor the first video I linked to really deserve any praise at all. Sorry for being such a dick about this. I'm a hypocrite.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)