Super Cruel and Terrible tales of Mangaka

http://www.onemanga.com/Super_Cruel_and_Terrible_Tales_of_Mangaka/


a lot of these sarcastic tales are based on truth, the sad side of a life of mangakas, in Japan, it's still relatable here.

Akumetsu

http://www.onemanga.com/Akumetsu/

god that's one extreme manga, and it's for adults only, (I think it targets young adults more...)
I think I am really getting old when this kind of manga interests me....
If I have to describe it.... It's Death note with a completely different style, hot blooded shoenen beat them evil up kind of deal. Except in this one, the bad guys are the people who toy with money and law in their hands, not just low life criminals.

Caught up on One piece, read a bit of D.Gray Man, lost interests after a few volume (its too much for high school girls.)

Just noticing my taste changes....

I suck at Cityscape, but being with Edepth and also... the coming wild city, I imagine I will be stuck with doing cityscape for a while.

I am running out of ideas, not out of reference... ideas to imagine and design buildings that has some sort of personality and history to it. I struggle with modern cityscape so much is because they tend to lack it.... so one needs a real careful eye, find the reason behind their designs.

another problem I have is style.... right now all I do is ink every freaken line I drew.... but that gets boring, I thought of other ways I saw before doing a cityscape, and think there must be more....

I don't dread using photographs for textures and reference, but I absolutely dread the way sooo many mangas use the photographs edited to do cityscape, it lacks personality, it lacks thought. I rather see a simple cityscape drawing, than photographs that obviously does not match the style (unless the artist is doing it to make a joke)

At first... all of the concept art on futuristic city seemed cool to me, now I can look at some and see the lack of knowledge behind the design, or the deep thoughts that went into designing.

Right now... I find my distaste in art that obviously lack knowledge and just following trends. (felt like I sounded like my brother... for a sec.)

Just simply one word.... 俗。 (So common it lacks depth)



最近對看得圖越來越挑....
那種看起来好看却亂遭遭的，和没有知識在後面的作品，真的不耐看....刚開始覺的很酷的作品，
有些看起来都俗氣了

serious set back

I haven't wanted to draw anything for like... 3 days now. That's the first time it has happened in years. @_@

Thinking of all the stuff I still need to finish... but I need my rest too. -_- Gah. Go get rest.

I got my new laptop and Tablet, and I am ready for SVA. >:)

有3天不想畫圖.... 很嚴重耶.... 這還是很多年來才第一次這樣.

想到開學前該畫的東西就.....
還是別想了, 好好的玩和休息吧...

新的手提電腦和光筆到了, SVA, 我準備好了~ >:)

idolizing

Here I was thinking about how hard it would be to animate None on high frame rate...
Look at these Japanese pro work shuts me up.

Argh, I want to get a DVD, slow it down like 8 times, study them frame by frame!

Time to work hard.

還在心理碎碎唸無的動畫會有多難做的時候看看這些就會讓我閉嘴...
啊啊啊!我要買DVD, 把速度放慢8X 一張張看!!

oouuuch

My grandma's fractured bone x-ray...... today she's going to get some surgery. The wait before it is just.... bad. She's not allowed to eat or drink for some of the proceedure.... doesn't that weaken her even more?
I hope someday we get better procedure than that.

argh... my messed up animation process

Not doing animation in the order which it should be developed has its consequences.

Edepth Opening animation was done in.... rough first without any storyboard~ I just did it with music that inspired me instead of the sound track i am going to use.

then music is composed for it while it's incomplete, the musician didn't even know what is my whole content. (I didn't even know either)

When music is near completion, more editing need to take place but we don't even have the whole storyboard to pin point where it should be changed, then I jumped right ahead to make an animatic cuz the music is near completion. XD

Whatever happened to scripting and storyboarding? *scratch that*

I totally neglected the fact if I want to work with someone else on the music.... I better have the visuals to communicate what I want. OTL Being completely uneducated about music composing process doesn't help.

I learned alot working with Katie, thanks for putting up with me, girl.

嘖嘖~動畫不按照順序作果然有不好的後果...
E-涯天使的開頭動畫是從我隨興要畫什麼就畫做起, 還是用非正式的音樂配畫的,
畫沒完就開始製作音樂, 但是因為storyboard都沒做出來,
音樂師不知道所有的內容(其實我也不知道)
音樂都快做完了, 要求更改的階段無法溝通才發現需要用storyboard來做視覺的溝通用具.
但是因為音樂都快做完了... 直接就跳到animatic. XD

啊啊~完全不知道做音樂的人的需要真是不好. OTL

這次合作學到很多, 很感謝Katie 容忍我的不全.

taking turns

We now need to take turns each night to help watch over my Grandma, my turn is 1-3 am on Tuesday, in case if she needs something, as she can not walk to the bathroom herself, nor stand up on her own.

That fall broke her arm, there's 3 pieces of fracture in her bones, we are waiting for a surgery, this period of time of intense caring for her will go on a while...she suffers great pain when she tries to move. It's kind of painful to see her like this, I can only imagine the great discomfort and inconvenience, and for such an independent woman, it's a tough time.

現在我們全部要輪晚班照顧婆婆, 我的時段是星期二 1-3AM. 但是最累的還是我媽他們那一代的.
她那一跤跌斷了她手, 骨頭分成3段, 現在要等動手術, 這樣要看顧她的時間可能要一陣子.
現在她無法自行走路或是上廁所, 只要移動就會想吐, 疼痛等等, 看了聽讓人心疼.

原本她是很獨立不喜歡麻煩人的, 現在這樣很痛苦吧... 我也只能想像她的感受了.

those little rascals

Those little rascals... I love teaching them, but they totally worn me out today.

Especially one new kid Christopher, he can't sit down for like... 10 mins, he's quite hard to deal with. He's already 4 but got the drawing ability of a 1-2 year old. @_@ He's a sports' type, I swear, I felt like this is how Randy (my character) would be in an art class, if I was his mom, I would send him to a few more sports class instead of a drawing class.

But for now, I need to make him do the best he can.... even if it's scribbles.

那些小子, 今天把我累壞了. 雖然很喜歡敎小朋友了, 但是真的很累.
尤其是那個新的小子 克雷斯福, 都4歲了, 畫圖的能力還停在1-2歲...坐不住10鐘就要跑, 勉強敎了3小時實在是太長了, 我一不注意他就惹麻煩. X_X 這小孩真的該多上幾個運動課而不是畫畫課.

至少現在他是我的學生, 儘量敎就是了....

stock trading

Sent at 9:20 PM on Saturday

Peter: well, that's not really my area of expertise, but I was thinking more along the lines of....

like, Coca-Cola...maybe McDonalds...Proctor & Gamble...some big manufacturing company

that kinda thing

me: ooooo

yeah

food

its a must

Peter: yup

3-5, 7 great names

sit on 'em forever

me: all the needed stuff

are those stocks expensive though? @_@

let me check etrade

Peter: gotta diversify

me: you mean checking different sites?

Peter: no, I mean, it's best to choose, say

3, 5, 7 good names

that are, additionally, unrelated

like: a food company, a drug company, a technology company, an energy company, a financial company

that's the idea. so that at any one time, it's unlikely that they're all doing badly

me: oooo~~~~

台灣的禮物~ <3

今天收到阿芬的包裹~差點感動落淚, 好幾個大大心飄出~ <3 <3 <3

現在還太興奮了~先謝謝大家的禮物~~!


Today I got gifts from Taiwan, so happy I almost tear up. So many hearts~ <3 <3 <3

Now I am still way too excited, I thank everyone from Taiwan for the precious gifts~!

Grandma emergency

Grandma fell down, she managed to climb her way from the deck to my dad's room and knock the door with her staff... (cuz most people are out of the house at the moment, and the rest of us are downstairs...)

Dad immediately called 911, and I accompanied her to the emergency room as a translator, right afterwards uncle came, and then my mom, and my aunt.

It seems like Grandma broke her arm on her fall, the right arm has swollen bad.

I returned home at 10 pm to prepare for work the following day.

It has been a rather eventful month...

婆婆跌倒了, 老爸叫了救護車以後我陪程去做翻譯. 可能右手有骨折, 還要看檢查. 隨後老媽, 阿姨, 舅舅都到了.
我10點左右被放回家, 因為明天一早還要工作, 我在醫院也不能做什麼.

我前幾天生病才剛好... O_o 然後就...
最近的日子過的真是起伏很大啊....

Starting a business-study til you drop

Want to start a business? Step one, study til you drop. XP

I swear.... there is...

So much to read......!!!

But I feel empowered knowing how money works and know who I can turn to, where to get it.

The ladder to climb in money market for starting business:

1. Pocket money- I will try to work and save up 10'000 first. That's an achievable goal.
I just opened a savings account with HSBC bank, first deposit is 200. In the future I will save 100 or more every time I earn something. Business credit card is another option but I want to avoid that.

2. Friends and family chip in- for some reason I really really want to avoid involving my family, but the idea of having a group of friends chip in a certain amount together works for me.

3. Angel investors- (so tempted to use this in my manga now. lol~) Individuals with money who band up together to invest in starting business, they are more likely to take higher risks on small business than banks. The typical range for angels to invest is 250'000 to 1 Million.
(Solid business plan is required)


4. Venture Capital- Banks, and firms investor group, who will only invest in business that has already started and running smoothly, they may lend from 1 million to 2 million typically.
(Solid business plan is required)



想開始創業? 讀讀讀~讀到你死~ XP

有.好.多.要讀阿啊啊~!!!

但是讀得越多, 懂得越多, 就越覺得有掌控自己生命的活力.

在錢的世界, 也是有階梯的:

1. 自己的存款: 我打算先工作存到1萬美金, 現在已經開了另一個戶頭, 專門存款用
.
2. 朋友家人支助: 因為個人信念, 我絕對不想藉助家人的錢, 朋友幫忙一起分擔是好選擇

3. 天使投資者: (突然有想用在漫畫裡的衝動~XD) 有錢的戶頭投資, 有這類的組織分佈各地, 他們喜歡投資接近自己居住所的企業, 但是要求也多. (投資1元要賺7元的) 這類的需要完整的企劃.
比較可能支持開始的企業, 大概會投資250,000-1 M.

4. 創辦資金會: 這類的只會投資已經開始營業的公司, 投資達到2M.

Dan's otakon marketing research

Pieces that did well in the auction:

1. High quality print on canvas does well
2. One favorite character tend to do better than a group of characters
3. No one likes to bid for whore-like pictures
4. Most bidders are men
5. If you write on describtion saying: This is the only print that will be in this size ever- bids go higher

6. Lowest starting bid was 0, only several pieces have 30 as base bid, and one of them is an original.
7. You have to get at least 7 bids to go to mouth auction, so starting low is more profitable.
8. Artwork with flowy composition, clear strokes, great value contrast, and strong emotions do well
9. Popular characters: link, Zelda, Samus in zero suit, Final Fantasy characters, Kingdom hearts, Naruto (very high profile), Bleach

Naruto is too high profile for better profit.

Originals can do well but it needs to be extra good.

Almost all of them are framed.

otakon... and sick

I got sick over at the Otakon while working way too hard to make portraits... :/ The air con blowing on me all day and the fact my brothers were just sick a few days before me with the stomach flue problem (it's contagious) didn't help. A combination of those got me REALLY sick afterwards.

In many aspect, I wish I had skipped Otakon this year, but I am also glad I made it, with Nainsoo, Budgie and Shilin's help all together.

It's good to have friends for conventions, making it much more meaningful.

I missed the chance to meet Luciole this time... XO awww... but I did meet up with other neighboring artists, and did print trades with them, that was nice. But their prints were so nice I felt like I ripped them off. lol~ I met Na and Nicole like last year, and JC, it was a pleasant meeting.


I was really sick last night, the day after returning.... I couldn't eat any solid food, and it happens to be family reunion time, this timing couldn't be worse..... (This is the second time I fell sick at family reunion~ it sucks, majorly!) All the food and sharing I can't participate. It felt extra lonely, such loneliness makes for good scripts.

Dan was being surprisingly attentive, he understands the full affect of the flu, my dad... impatient as usual, mom nagged him for it. lol~ Though later on he apologized for it, I didn't take it personal so it was hardly an offense. (I know him well by now... @_@)

I will rest a bit more before returning to normal routine....

Choking, panic and Stereotype threats

http://www.gladwell.com/2000/2000_08_21_a_choking.htm

"Steele and others have found stereotype threat at work in any situation where groups are depicted in negative ways. Give a group of qualified women a math test and tell them it will measure their quantitative ability and they'll do much worse than equally skilled men will; present the same test simply as a research tool and they'll do just as well as the men.

Or consider a handful of experiments conducted by one of Steele's former graduate students, Julio Garcia, a professor at Tufts University. Garcia gathered together a group of white, athletic students and had a white instructor lead them through a series of physical tests: to jump as high as they could, to do a standing broad jump, and to see how many pushups they could do in twenty seconds.

The instructor then asked them to do the tests a second time, and, as you'd expect, Garcia found that the students did a little better on each of the tasks the second time around.

Then Garcia ran a second group of students through the tests, this time replacing the instructor between the first and second trials with an African-American.

Now the white students ceased to improve on their vertical leaps.

He did the experiment again, only this time he replaced the white instructor with a black instructor who was much taller and heavier than the previous black instructor.

In this trial, the white students actually jumped less high than they had the first time around. Their performance on the pushups, though, was unchanged in each of the conditions. There is no stereotype, after all, that suggests that whites can't do as many pushups as blacks. The task that was affected was the vertical leap, because of what our culture says: white men can't jump."



Oh man.... look at the power of stereotype.... O_Ob I can't say it doesn't affect me, now it's how do I remove it?

Progress

WIP from two different series I have been working on... Shenshu is no where near ready for publishing... but I just want to test out the style and tools of choice to make it more caligraphy-manga like....

Currently on page 10 for Heart of the Mountain inking.... -_-b Thank God its Black and white, after the inking it's practically 60-70% finished.

神書其實根本不到可以畫成品的計劃進度...因為很多情結都重新計畫... 這頁是第3-4單元的其中一頁, 拿來測試90%筆刷畫風.

還有鬥字特別難設定~雖然一開始是單字為主, 會漸進到詩和詞, 其實一想到就會怕~ 還真希望這個能有人專門幫我想... OTL

山之心上線到第10頁了... 還好只是黑白...上線完後基本上是60-70%完工~

ComiComi

http://www.comibook.com/index.php
(right now it's alpha stage, members only)

台灣終於也有這種類型的網站了, 看到挑戰者這樣我放心了,
有信心他們這樣走可以成功.
神書有地方擺了, 笑.

I'm relieved when I see this is the direction Challenger is taking,
I believe they can make it this way, this is definitely the next trend for publishers.
Now Mystic Shenshu can go somewhere. :)