The Dreaming: There’s a positive review of the book already up at AnimeFringe.com!
Article at Newsrama: It’s mighty strange to be called “Chan”… not least because there are so many “Chans” around. I would prefer to be called “Queenie”, not least because there are alot less “Queenies” around. Anyway, to be fair, AnimeBoredom is running the transcript of the interview if you want that version.
2D-fighting game: Most of you may know I now work part-time at a gaming company, colouring animation frames for a 2D-fighting game. The game is called Chaos Code, and will be published in Japan and South-East Asia by Arc System Works, which is the company that published Guilty Gear. It will be released in PC format, because despite being quite suitable for PS2 and the XBox, the game is meant to be available for online challenges. The PS2 has internet connection, but it’s not a fast enough connection to play fighting games on (RPGs okay), so the game wasn’t developed for either the XBox or PS2 because there’s not much point in ONLY developing it for the XBox. It costs money, you know, to reprogram the game to a console.
I’m unable to show any art, because the project is co-owned partly by the publisher, and no promotions are to be done without their approval. However, I can tell you how this small company in Sydney managed to snag a contract with a big Japanese gaming publisher. The company, called FKDigital, started off with a couple of guys who liked to draw, and then one day decided to do “art with a purpose”. They’re obsessed with 2D-fighting games, so they decided to make one themselves. And it was when Arc System Works saw this fan game, that they decided to hire these guys, who just went on to form a studio. Quite frankly, this is a very impressive game.
The game is made in KakutouTsukuri, which is like the 2D-fighting version of RPGMaker. I know all about RPGMaker so I understand the mechanics behind this game, and people who have RPGMaker knows that it can have error messages show up when you load it to non-RPGMaker installed systems. Well, same problem here. The game will work beautifully on some computers, and be real buggy on others.
New Art: I’ve gained myself a new idol. I want to draw like Kentarou Miura of Berserk. I kid you not. His art is fantastic, and despite not having an ounce of feminity to it, is able to express emotional moments very well. Berserk was always my all-time favourite violent manga, but after having the chance to sit down and actually read it from the beginning to vol28, I have to say I am floored by the skill of the art. I’ve always loved black and white art, with cross-hatching, and I adore fantasy stories as well. So I actually bought volumes of Berserk just so I can copy the art.
This is the first time I’ve EVER wanted to directly copy a manga-artist’s art – quite frankly, up until now, I have NEVER attempted to open a manga and copy what’s inside. I made it a point not to, because if I did, my art will end up being a copy of that artist’s art, and back when I was trying to find my own style, I decided it would be a very bad thing. So, I have a great deal of aversion to copying another artist’s art. Even now, I’m only studying Berserk art and putting it down before drawing it.
Girls wanting to draw in the Berserk style must be quite rare, but I can’t help it if I like sweeping canvases, illustration-level drawings and adventure stories. Explains why I’ve never had great passion for “typical shoujo”, though there’s alot of good shoujo out there. I prefer a strong, muscular style of story-telling that is solid, tells you what’s going on without going Super-deformed, and about complex issues. This calls for a more “serious” and “mature” style of art, so perhaps now is a good time to start practicing. And besides, I need all the help I can get on anatomy anyway.
More Zelda FanArt. This is probably what Link will look like if he ever ended up (Nintendo forbid) in Berserk.
None of these took me very long to draw – but they’re hard because I have to THINK about it. I also had to even adjust the wireframes, because a more realistic style of art calls for… a more realistic drawing style. Which is something I lack training in, and god, self-teaching myself is damn hard!