Production Update 70

The holiday week is here, which means it’s crunch time on some of the projects I have been working on. While I am pretty much wrapped up with one, I did inherit a little bit of extra work this week for a friend, which means I didn’t get the texturing done I wanted to this week, but my friend needed some help and I couldn’t say no to that. I hope you all can understand that.

The holiday is acting as a deadline for the projects so they need to be wrapped up in a few days. I put in quite a bit of time in on them this weekend to ensure that they will be done. Pretty excited about one that I wrapped up today, and really looking forward to working on the friend project, which I hope to have done on Tuesday or Wednesday.

The holiday will be a good day to relax and enjoy good food and family as a break. Since everything will be done before the weekend, I plan on getting all sorts of Cosmic Rage work done over the weekend and have artwork and details next week for you. I won’t let you down this week! Speaking of which, obviously since the holiday is on Thursday, I will probably push back the Thursday posting to Friday.

Again i apologize for not sticking to my post last week of new production art, however I will do my best to make it up to you in next weeks Production Update. Enjoy the holiday!

Recent Viewing: Tsuritama

When I was traveling in Japan last summer, I came a cross an advertisement for the show Tsuritama. The cardboard characters, with fishing gear in hand, were the first fishing characters I really recalled. Of course there was characters in shows, but not a show entirely about fishing. So I put the show on my radar and Sentai Filmworks released it in the US. It took me some time to get around to watching all 13 episodes, but I made it through the show. Check out the trailer and review below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQBw_XrZWkw&w=560&h=315]

First off, I must admit that when I was growing up I fished a ton, almost every day in the summer since I lived about a half mile from the river in the city I would ride my bike and take my fishing pole and gear. So I was really interested in seeing a fishing series and had to watch it.

IMG_0570

(*cut out advertisement in Japan)

The premise of Tsuritama centers around Yuki, a new student at Enoshima and an alien friend he makes named Haru. The first half of the series focuses on character development (like most shows, of course), but Yuki also starts to develop his fishing skills. The show follows a little bit of a formula in which one of the characters doesn’t know much of a certain topic, in this case fishing, so the audience learns some things with the character.

The later half of the series (which runs 13 episodes) fleshes out the underlying plot of the story. Overall I felt the series was a fun and entertaining series. Nothing groundbreaking, I can’t imagine anyone calling this a must-watch series, but if you want a unique title, give Tsuritama a shot. The education of fishing throughout the series isn’t super realistic or too advanced that it could be a turn off.

The music for Tsuritama is light hearted and fun, it matches the art style of the show. The backgrounds are a little untraditional. Most anime backgrounds are designed to look traditionally painted, with brushstrokes and all, or more recently, 3D backgrounds. Tsuritama employs backgrounds that appear as if they are cel shaded, so the same style as the characters are typically done. It was a unique style that I haven’t really seen before, so I enjoyed it very much.

If you are an Evangelion fan, the voice actresses of Asuka and Misato are used for a couple characters in Tsuritama. I always enjoy hearing familiar voices and trying to trace who they are. There is even a cute animal sidekick in the show, Tapioca the duck.

Here is a little more on Tsuritama from Anime News Network.

Production Update 69

Production is starting to get a little more on track this week. I did have some early travel for the holidays, but I made some great progress on the freelance front this past week in terms of getting things set up to render this week before piecing some things together. I did have a chance to work on some Cosmic Rage this past week.

I did have to dive into the project file and get a little familiarized with it again. However, I can report there are only 2 sections left that need texturing. Although I might revisit the texturing of the walls, in the scene. My goal is to get everything textured this week and have new production art up net week. You guys deserve it for being such great fans and checking out the progress, even though it has been a little light.

Once the freelance project is wrapped up I can start working on some test renders for the scene and moving on to more environments. Looking forward to getting back on the project this week and can’t wait to have new work up for you! Thanks again everyone!

Recent Viewing: Gantz (Live Action)

It’s good to have a little free time again. I wanted to write about one of my favorite franchises. I need to first be up front and say that I am a pretty big Gantz fan, so with that in mind, check out the trailer below and we will see you on the other side.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuuHv1rZMhE&w=560&h=315]

First off, Gantz is broken into a couple films, and this is a review of the first one only. The trailer above showcases clips from both films. For those who aren’t familiar with the Gantz universe, it started as a manga series before being adapted into an anime series and eventually into live action films.

The premise of the franchise is that when people die they are taken to a room by a black orb and are given weapons to hunt aliens for points. I haven’t finished the manga series yet, I have completed the anime series a few times and am now working on the live action films.

The first film covers the first several games of the Gantz series. The live action adaptation has its ups and downs. As with any series, when condensing it down into a film you have to make sacrifices. In this case, the sacrifices came at the cost of character development. At times I felt they were stringing key scenes and buzz words from the anime series. It is probably some unfair harsh criticism, since I do hold the anime series in a pretty high regards from a character development stand point and also from a social commentary stand point. I felt they lost some of that in the first film.

The visual effects were pretty solid for the film, nothing to complain about. The film from an action stand point is also solid. If you are looking for an entertaining and action packed film, Gantz may be worth checking out. If you are a fan of deep character development, you may want to check out the anime series instead. The film takes a lot of inspiration from the manga series, even though the manga and anime are very similar for the first several volumes.

I think I am going to check out the second film at some point and see which direction it goes as well. It is possible the second film will focus on more of the character development too. I won’t know until I check it out 🙂 If you have watched Gantz, I would love to hear your point of view. Like I said, I am a little impartial because I enjoy character development above all else.

 

Production Update 68

Well, I think it’s official to say that winter has finally arrived in South Dakota. We have had snow on a couple occasions now, and it melts and then comes back. Pretty surprised to wake up to snow this morning, time to come to terms with reality I guess. Anyways, let’s dive into the production update.

The week started off pretty well, I was able to get into the environment project file and texture another section of the scene. Then on Tuesday the freelance project I am working on had a quick turnaround extension added to it, so the rest of the week was spent working on those items. The turnaround items were for today so they are all done and now I can get back to wrapping up some of the other items on the project and getting back to Cosmic Rage.

On Sunday I unplugged for most of the day to give my eyes some rest from the screen so I can get recharged for the week. I have a couple nights of setting up some renders but outside of that I should be able to get to Cosmic Rage this week. I have told myself after this project I am focusing on Cosmic Rage for an extended period of time, so again, I appreciate you all checking back in and I am looking to get back on track for Thursday posts again as well! Stay tuned and thanks again everyone!

Production Update 67

Not much to report on the Cosmic Rage front this week. I am sure most of you expected that since I skipped the usual Thursday post last week. I have things lined up for Thursday posts, but I put in good workload on the freelance project this past week and we had a beautiful day on Saturday so I needed to unplug the majority of the day and go hiking.

IMG_2840(One of the trails in Oakwood park near Brookings, SD)

I have made some great progress over the week on the freelance project and should be able to get into Cosmic Rage a bit this week. The other freelance project has been sent in and is complete.

I can not express how thankful I am that you all continue to read up on the blog as production and updates have been a little slow over the last month. I assure you that will turn around over the next couple weeks and I will be back into the swing of it. Thanks again everyone and stay tuned for more!