Chucks Anime Shrine

Astrophotography with the Canon 60Da

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Mon, 21 May 2012 15:07:34 PDT

Some of you may know that I've recently got back into my old childhood passion for astronomy. No time like the present and actually...there's been much news pertaining to space this whole year like the plans for asteroid mining, the solar CMEs aimed directly at us, the retirement of the shuttle, Vesta being discovered as a proto-planet instead of an asteroid, the recent solar eclipse on the west cost of the US and Japan, and the upcoming transit of Venus.

Either way you slice it, Astronomy has come back in a big way and as a child of the late 80's/early 90's...it's had a long time coming. It was since my childhood that space and astronomy has taken a back seat in the public eye. Some people might look at the NASA budget and think, "wow, that's a lot of money." Well, it's not, and especially not for for something that should take far more presidence in this world if we are to honestly call ourselves a modern species. Just to put things in perspective...NASA's entire budget is around $16 billion... that's nothing when the US military's budget is ~$650 Billion. The cost for the A/C units found in every army tent in Afghanistan is actually more than ALL of NASA's budget. A sick realization of our "leaders'" so-called priorities.

Anyways..I'll step off my soap box for a moment to show you all what I wanted to make this post about...Astrophotography.

Over the weekend I got the luxury of borrowing the new Canon 60Da astrophotography DSLR. Here's an image of just the camera body:

The camera is an upgrade from the 20Da and is basically the 60D but with increased infrared & hydrogen sensors. It's 18MP and for the most part..it's actually still good for regular, non-astro photography. The issue you'd get if you shoot terrestrial objects is that you might get a red hue. I saw it the most when taking photographs of my family...it gives the look of a slight sunburn....kind of like this image of my nephew:

The extra red isn't that noticeable actually.

This was the first time I actually got to use an SLR despite my working as the co-webmaster at a pro-camera store for the past 6 years. It was fun though working with the long exposure shots. I got the hang of the Bulb setting toward the end of my night of photography at the Custer Observatory (which I'm a member of now ^_^)

The images I'm showing here were done with a Canon 18-135mm lens, a tripod and a cable release....very important if you are to take long exposure shots of anything as you don't want the camera to shake from pressing the shutter button. I hope in a future post or update to this one, I can get some shots with this rigged to a telescope. Eventually I got the hang of tings but you can see I was getting my bearings straight trying to focus the background more (and reduce noise in spite of the high ISO needed for such shots ~1600+)

For those wondering the settings...this is a guide but once you get a hang of the area in the night sky you are shooting...you should try out other settings and maybe vary the exposure time using the Bulb setting:

In Manual (M) setting

~1600 ISO
30'' exposure
5.6 aperture

Some of the images are edited using photoshop to bring out the details (you'll tell from the duplicates)

As a bonus... and to put anime in here some how... here's a photo I did with my iPhone and my telescope...with a much needed edit ^^

TOONAMI Returns 5/26/12

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:17:32 PDT

As somebody who became an anime fan thanks to a friend of mine (who works for Cartoon Network now) and because of Toonami back in 1996/1997..this is obviously heart warming news. Apparently, the whole April Fools joke of playing Toonami on Saturday 4/1 and the twitter trends did in fact bring enough popularity for those over at William's Street and Cartoon Network to take notice.

So, as announced today, on May 26th Toonami will officially be brought back from the grave. This isn't the first time the mainly anime savvy late night CN viewers brought back a show from the past cancellation. We all remember the rebirth of Family Guy thanks to Adult Swim viewers. Reason I stated "anime savvy" viewers is because at that time, Adult Swim was really just a newer version of Toonami's midnight run. It was us anime fans who brought Fam Guy back as well. Problem was, the popularity (and ratings) of Family Guy and it's revival brought in an entirely new and usually anime hating community.

Adult Swim was riding strong on Inuyasha, DBZ and other shows at that time as anime in general was seeing a huge growth in the American market. Sadly, at around 2005-2006, the vast majority of the newer and more abundant viewership (and even some crew members at William Street) added to the growing anime hatred. Add that to the fact that anime piracy became rampant (thanks in part to anime studios being prejudice and still weary of non-japanese viewers/consumers)..the trend faded. Within this time, Adult Swim opted for cheaper, homemade and at times rather tacky/crappy original programming to pad around their main money maker, Family Guy...which then began just being newish repeats from FOX's reclaiming of everything Family Guy.

By 2008, Toonami got cancelled and since then, anime got shoved into just Saturday nights where on a daily bases, the mouth-breathing basement dwellers who hate anime at Williams Street posted bumps that would poke fun at anime fans.... obviously not something one should do to the very viewership that was the reason for that block of programming to be there in the first place.

Well, as they say, "Money talks and the rest walk." Twitter trends and more importantly virally rampant viewership means money to Cartoon Network. I ask you all, fellow anime fans to do what you can to make the revival of Toonami be as great as a return as Family Guy and Futurama was to TV. I know we have torrents, crunchyroll, hulu and netflix to get our anime fix now...but if we don't do something to bring back anime in at least a bit of positive limelight...then the anime deserter CEO from Tokyo Pop would be correct when he ditched the US a while back believing anime was dead in the US. It's not and Toonami can make people who weren't otaku (like me in 1996) become part of this awesome fandom. Make it so that anyone who talks bad about anime at adult swim eats their words when their bosses at CN headquarters would lose a valuable asset if canceled again.

Check out http://www.adultswim.com/shows/toonami/index.html and tweet #ToonamisBackBitches

Princess-Battles Video Game

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Tue, 15 May 2012 10:12:55 PDT

Wow, almost a month since my last post ^^;; Pardon the hiatus... was busy with the anime figure business and knee deep in some Tenshi-Oni coding. In addition the many hats I seem to wear, I'm also now a member of the Custer Observatory as an amateur astronomer and of course...as I'll bring up here, my attempt at anime voice acting hasn't ended.

Thanks to a tip from one of my classmates from the Bang! Zoom! anime/game voice acting classes, I got to audition for an anime card game that'll be released this year... Princess Battles by Nekomura Games.

I made sure to try out for all 4 male roles ^^. Was great to get some use out of my mic and my newly acquired pop filter.

Here's a video of the game in action...

I'd post up some of my audition files for the game but for at least at the moment (as to not cause any legal issue) I'll hold off on that.

Norton Moe Shrine Maidens, Protect Your Data

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:34:02 PDT

With my website's name, I'd think it's be a crime for me not to showcase this...

Norton, the guys behind the various internet and computer virus products (that us computer programmers sometimes see as "bloatware" at times) came up with a commercial for their new omamory software featuring, Moe Shrine Maidens that protect your data. These are indeed the idols from dempagumi.Inc in case some of you might recognize them.

Here's the commercial below... I might need to hire them to protect the anime figure section of the anime shrine, lol

Thanks to alafista.com for posting this.

A Decade of Chuck's Anime Shrine

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:44:07 PDT

Just wanted to post up something I really should have posted last month when the site technically hit the 10 year mark ^^;; Yesterday was actually mine and Danielle's 10th anniversary as well so I guess it was fitting to post this.

The past 10 years have been what you'd expect for 10 years of time...lots of change, different levels of awesomeness and also level boring drudgery. The site was something I thought up back in the summer of 2001 before my senior year in high school. 2001-2002 for many reasons being a New Yorker was a tumultuous time in our history. Despite all of the crap that was going on, I made this site and also met the love of my life a month later in April of 2002. The following year in 2003 we cosplayed at I-Con as Tidus and Yuna (seen in the kind slapped together montage above) and we were the "cute couple" of the cosplay contest...and we also reenacted the FFX make out scene in from of Inyuasha's English voice actor Richard Cox and the entire Viz Media crew ^^;; We've been engaged since about the time I added the store to the site in 2007;we'd be married already if the costs of weddings on Long Island weren't so high and they are indeed over priced...on a criminal level might I say -_-

As for the site, it started as a simple fan site in 2002, dedicated to my love of both Dragon Ball Z and Final Fantasy VII; this sort of explains the fact the site has always had a black, orange and yellow color scheme. Thanks to Toonami and my friend Tiago who now works for Cartoon Network, I became a true anime fan and continued to put more anime series into the site. This time, if some of you remember were the days of the various anime fan sites/shrines... sadly all but a few; this site, temple-o-trunks, deviant art, and Gaia Online..are still left.

The early success of the site stemmed from both us being one of the first AMV hubs...years before youtube was a glimmer in their founder's eyes. 2003 had so much traffic from the AMV sections and from sites like angelfire and xanga (the pre MySpace and pre facebook) that the site was down on a number of occasions. From 2003 and up until the end of last year...our AMVs, Love Bites and Big In Japan were a part of the Newgrounds.com collections; receiving almost 1 million views before the asshat anime-hater parts of the site took them down. Newgrounds was also the place where you can find my first shot at Flash animation, the Sephiroth Vs Mogs short....which I still really need to get back and finish ^^;; The AMV "Love Bites" was actually loved so much by the original music artists, QED that they contacted me directly looking for me to work with them in editing their future music videos...

sadly, it seems QED split and thus I never got that gig, but the short lived success back in 2003 made Danielle and I think up of mascots to the site and a video game I could maybe code in Flash's actionScript. Thus, that's where Project Fumi, now known as Tenshi-Oni, got it's start.

Then....came 2004. I was still working at that horrible job at Friendly's icecream while in college for Computer Science mainly studying to be a video game programmer. Oddly, back then game programmers in CS was looked down upon; idiot professors who never worked outside the class room thought game programmers and web designers were "stary-eyed and pointless"...simple put, they wanted us to work mundane data entry jobs at cubical-slave hells like Computer Associates (CA) or Sun Microsystems. CA is/was headquartered here on Long Island with most of the schools like Suffolk Community College and Stony Brook University doing what they could to butter up the execs there by aimlessly prepping us for jobs that one year later.... got sent to Mumbai, India. 70% of the jobs got outsourced and looking back at it, any CS major at that time knew how fruitless the degree was unless.... you became a game programmer.

As for me in 2004, I was in a position where I hated the hell I worked at at Friendly's Ice Cream. For anyone looking to work there..don't, let them finally go bankrupt this year and just sell icecream in grocery shelves. I worked 10-13 hours straight with no break and with the worst customers people can imagine....hungry, fat, stupid customers from Selden, NY. The work environment was so bad that I got kidney stones at age 22 from the dehydration of not being able to eat or drink. I weighed a measly 115 pounds at 5' 7".

At this same time, my site continued to grow and it was then I was deciding to move on and do something different from the status-quo...and since I saw the "No Track" signs that other in the CS majors didn't..I was checking my options. I at first thought to start a store here on the site (yep way back in 2004)...but before I could further that path and continue building this site & further my Flash animation & game skills...I got a call from a friend of the family looking for help with their business. I thought I was a job interview but it ended up being an Amway business opportunity. I wasn't upset since I am the business type...I simply loath having a boss and my overall goal to this very day is to be my own sculptor of my life. Having a boss and place to "clock in" to is NOT the life for me.

I had a good start in that business but unfortunately I was looking for freedom from the 9-5 rut more than those who I brought along and their shortfall lead to me financially getting hurt really bad and about 4 years of my life dedicated to that freedom...gone. From 2004-2008, I was an active person in that business but I traded working on this site, seeing my fiancee more and lots of money to make it come true. It's nothing at fault with Amway and I still like/use the business.... hell put in amway.com/chuck and yep..that's me and yep I will still take your order if you want anything...but gone are the days of me going to meetings and actively trying to get people to try the business. Sadly, many here in New York are the "sheep" type and want a boss to tell them where to be...not many want the freedom of being their own business owner :-/

I still wanted that freedom and in 2007...I came back to actively working on this site with the site's blog being started in mid 2006 (thanks to inspiration from Dannychoo.com). Job-wise: I quit Friendly's in August of 2005, worked a bit at Office Max printing during the x-mas season of 2005-2006 and then worked for a bit at an eBay consignment company called Money Tree Auctions until they and that entire business model tanked (thanks to customers sending in crap yep looking for gold). Shortly after I used my associates in CS to work to be one of the webmasters to Berger-Bros.com. To this day I still am working for Berger-bros (but hopefully my anime business will change that soon though...in 2008-2009 I quit for a month before unfortunately going back -_-)

It was back in 2007 that I used what I learned from the eBay consignment job to start selling on eBay by myself. It was tough though to find what will sell for a profit though...I started selling bulk items I bough on overstock.com and eventually just called up a Swarovski wholesaler whom I know from the old job. Thus, I began selling on eBay starting with Swarovski crystals..which I still do a little today ^_^

I wanted to work doing what I loved and thus I thought that maybe I could start selling anime products. Not too long after finding the non-bootleg distribution lines thanks to AAAanime.com, I added the store to my now revived website. That year I even somehow lucked out and bought anime.fm...which to this day I need to upgrade to a better site (more on that in a bit though)

Since 2007 the store has been doing great...over half a million dollars in sales has gone through since I began just on eBay. Today I anime figures directly on the site, on amazon and on eBay ^_^

Of course since 2007, some things have changed, back in 2011, the whole blog got practically deleted by google removing their FriendConnect service to focus on Google+ -_- I've since added Disqus but I think I've lost a bit of my community due to that loss -_- seems that in these 10 years..my site has outlived a number of the sites and services I've long linked to :-/

Forward a bit from the store's beginnings in 2007 to 2009. That year I got luxury of attending a meeting at the CEO dinning room at Business Week (pre-Bloomberg takeover). My political views and long rants against people like Paulson got me to be one of their top commentors ^^;; It helped with the credibility of this site as now I have a full link back to business week.

Later that year, thanks to my contest winners for my store's Banner Contest..I got the ball rolling on the game and mascots I conceived back in 2003... Fumi and the other mascots for the video game later named... Tenshi-Oni.

Just before I get into Tenshi-Oni...I can't forget what happened in 2010 with regards to anime and me...I'm speaking of course about me getting involved with anime voice acting thanks to Bang Zoom! Studios. Since then I've taken a number of classes...gotten some booth time and hopefully soon I might actually be a character in a popular English dub ^_^ In the mean time though, thanks to Kenneos and the other fan artists...the game Tenshi-Oni has come to life and is now as I speak an actual game on my iPhone. Kenneos, my fiancee Danielle, my voice acting friend from the Bang Zoom classes, Madi and I will be providing voice work for the game and as you guys have seen...it's coming into focus and though the game was suppose to originally come out last month (delayed mainly due to a move to a new place)..it's happening this year in 2012.

As of a few days ago, I got the rights to use amazing music for the game's boss battles (and soon to be made trailer) by the Japanese Gothic Trance artist, Setsuna. The music is in addition to original music made by my fiancee and maybe some written by me. Also, the in-game sprite of Demon Fumi is now complete. With the songs now in the game...expect anime.fm to get geared up for this as I plan on using it to promote Setsuna's work, my own music and of course, any game/anime related music. Also, on a side note...I recently joined the Custer Observatory since my love for space and astrophysics (in part thanks to Gurren Lagann) is something I enjoy and I might soon add more to the site. For example... here's a picture of the Moon I took with my old childhood telescope.... and of course the anime edit that must be done with the Moon.

In closing to this long rant...the future looks bright for Chuck's Anime Shrine...some bumps will be on the way (like the whole gallery needing to be revamped thanks to Apple removing their Gallery function -_-) but I hope that there will be another 10 years of this site with more for the fans, more video games after Tenshi-Oni is complete, more Flash animation shorts and of course... more pages dedicated to the anime we love.

Thank you everyone who's been fans to this site since the beginning and all of those throughout these crazy 10 years ^_^

-Chuck

Demon Fumi Sprite

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:15:06 PDT

Here's the first look at the Demon Fumi in-game sprite by Kenneos. I'm still going to bug her for some action animations and maybe even Super Mode animations ^^;; but now all three of the forms are ready to be placed in game.

I'll update you all once she's in the code of the game and of course there's the really cool MetamorphosiS music we got the rights to... so this game is looking better and better by the day ^_^

Next up...level and enemy designs...

The Music of Tenshi-Oni

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:43:58 PDT

Big news regarding our video game, Tenshi-Oni. We have official gotten the rights directly from the artist in Japan to use some of his music in the game! ^_^ Three songs will be in the game with maybe a secret 4th song.

The artist name is Setsuna; also goes by the name: Kokuyasou (Black Funeral Night). above you can see the art to his album containing these song, MetamolphosiS ^_^ Below you can see the art to one of his latest albums, Vermillion - D allice Syndrome. Setsuna's website can be found here: http://kokuyasou.verse.jp/

While I was creating some J-trance play-lists for my own person listening and as a (hopefully) soon-to-be revealed section of Anime.fm...I stumbled across these stunning songs. My fiancee Danielle has already made a few songs for the game too, with one being heard in the first demo video to the game. Both me and her will be making some original music for the game but these songs with the gracous blessing of Setsuna will absolutely add some emotion to the game's final stages and boss battles.

This is so exciting to announce ^_^ (be sure to check out and buy Setsuna's music). So without further delay... here they are...

黒夜葬 - 虚華咲夜姫～コノハナノサクヤヒメ (Konohana Sakuya Hime ~ Roh Sakuya Hime Hana imaginary)

This will be Fumi's Theme

第ⅦALICE (First Ⅶ ALICE)

This will be Angel Fumi's theme

幻想喰礼 (Specimen - Girl)

This will be Demon Fumi's theme

This was definitely a wonderful 10th anniversary present for the website ^_^ Thanks so much Setsuna...we hope to make the game express the emotions of these songs.

Tales of Xillia: Milla Maxwell Figure

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 08:49:23 PDT

This figure was so amazing looking...I had to restart my figure blogging because of it.

If you are a fan of the Tales series of games like me, you know who this is and Alter did an amazing job in this prototype figure of Milla. The game itself will hopefully come stateside in due time with Namco Bandai purchasing the US license.

As for the figure, she'll stand about 210mm tall (8-9 inches tall) and is of course designed by Alter..who you know will make the final product look like the prototype seen here.

Check out more images of this amazing figure below oh and happy #figurefriday (and #fanservicefriday)

If you want to pre-order her, here's her respected product page ^_^

Do You Really Need a Voice-Over Resume?

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:29:31 PDT

Do You Really Need a Voice-Over Resume?

You've decided to pursue a career as a voice-over artist. Congratulations! Whoa, not so fast, there. Where's your resume? Don't think you need one? Guess again. Your voice demo may be what gets your foot in the door, and yes, it's necessary to land voice-over work. But a resume will give you a leg up over other applicants who don't bother with it. It can also give your potential employer a lot of important information that can't be included in your demo. So do you really need a voice-over resume? Read on and then you be the judge. A fantastic voice is a gift. If you can alter your pitch and tone, inhabit different characters, and even convey emotions just with your voice, you're in a unique position to build a career as a voice-over artist. The thing to remember, though, is that voice-over artistry is still work, and when someone hires you to provide a voice for a product, whether it's a radio commercial or a video game, they're hiring you to do a job. Employers, including those in the voice talent field, want to know they're hiring professional people with workplace experience. That's where your resume comes in.
Even if you're just starting out as a voice actor, and your resume is full of work you did while sitting in front of a computer, it's valuable knowledge for your potential employer. A resume that shows a lot of bouncing from one job to another might mean that person is a little flaky, and maybe they just won't show up at the studio one day when they're scheduled to record that commercial.
By the same token, a resume that shows a steady work history, with positions of increasing responsibility, can be an indication of someone who is reliable, trustworthy, and who has a good work ethic. And who doesn't want to work with someone with those qualities, regardless of the industry?
As you start getting more voice work, you'll need to trim your resume so it doesn't end up being too long. Your previous work history descriptions will become shorter to make room for your voice work experience. Keep the highlights, like job titles, main responsibilities, and length of employment, and be ready to provide more detailed answers if you're asked about previous jobs.
When adding voice work to your resume, list the types of work you've done such as television commercials, automated telephony systems, and employee training videos. Indicate whether you've had any formal voice training, and list any production services you may offer, such as ISDN, MP3, and sound effects. And don't forget to include extras like languages spoken, a singing or acting background, and any script-writing experience.

(image: me doing mock anime voice dubbing with Bang Zoom Studios at their Adventures in Voice Acting Class)

(Special thanks to Sarah Stockton from voices.com for this informative post. Anyone looking to be an voice actor in anime, video games, commercials, and more... be sure to utilize voices.com. It could be your spring board to a voice acting career. I know there's been a gap in my voice acting progress post but stay tuned...more posts are to come and who knows... you might soon hear me in the next anime or videogame. )

Anime Blog is Back

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:15:42 PDT

My Tenshi-Oni programming and the busy life of still having a 35+ hour desk job along with the steady anime figure business and add in the fact that I moved to a new place...one could see why the blog and the other parts of the site have once again collected a slight bit of dust.

As of this month, ChucksAnimeShrine.com is 10 years old! ^_^ Thought the main parts of the fan-site haven't grown nearly as much as I'd like it to have in this decade. It's great to know that I'm one of the first anime fan sites and also one of the last anime fan sites left from 10 years ago. I've seen 3rd party features die off a number of times; particularly those of the Google variety. Here's a list of features my site has outlived....hell just in the past 4-5 years:

Blogger suddenly changed their whole format to a "newer" DRM-like coding... thus why my original web page for the blog changed to this url back then. (and my god was it a pain in the ass to transfer..particularly when you had the SEO all correct originally and also a bunch of followers/subscribers)
Google Friend Connect: As of the beginning of this month...Google moronically dropped their FriendConnect service...obviously due to their main focus aiming at Google+. I'm all for Google Plus and I've had an account on there since when it was "invite only"...but I'm still scratching my head to why FriendConnect followers, etc didn't get migrated to a the Google+ system. As a result...@(1)all 300+ followers to this blog...got erased >_<. This is why you see just me at the moment as the only follower to the blog. oh and of course (2) All of the comments got erased.
Google's not the only ones mindlessly killing off features that shouldn't be removed... Apple's MoblieMe service, that I and many others pay for...is being removed since now iCloud will replace it. The problem is...they are removing the only features people actually had reason to throw money at it.... the Gallery and the iDisk service. The pathetic government tyranny that lead to Megupload.com's demise...is a sign of the times where governmental and old hat policies simply don't get the internet...and of course will do what they can to keep progress from moving at speeds comfortable for them & rip people of their liberties. Political rant aside, the removal of the iDisk means I now have to move my video game and important file backups to Dropbox it seems. Worse though is that the Anime Gallery will become empty if I don't do anything about it before June 30th >_< Then again...it's best I fill in the gaps in content on this site, renew that whole anime sanctuary thing...and also finally fix up sections of this site that as one can see....haven't been updated since 2002-2004 ^^;;

Lots to do but...as you guys can see; the commenting is back. Thanks to Disqus, you can comment, rate, retweet, etc on the blog posts. Once I finish installing it to the Members Blog...it will make that section of the site actually worth blogging on. Hopefully, Disqus will be here to stay for a long time...I'm tired of dealing with what essentially is "internet rust."

TenshiOni: Combos and More

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:49:56 PDT

Though nothing much seems to be different on the outside...there's a bunch of underlying code in my Tenshi-Oni game that has been added since last time I made an update. There's now unique deaths for enemies based on what attack you finish them with (and with the ability for me to customize each individual enemy's reactions to moves.) Of course, I really need to change these enemies now from the old space game engine I bought to start this off.

I've also added a combo system (very slightly seen in this screenshot) Finally I'm currently making the final part of the player's moves before I move on to voice acting, level design, enemy design and story development. That final aspect of the game play I'm currently dubbing "Final Attacks"; similar to Final Fantasy Limit Breaks. The framework for the Final Attacks has been coded..just keeping them a little secret for now as I make them work, bug free.

Soon Kenneos will have the first Demon Fumi sprite ready (plus some others ^^) as well so this might be a good week for the game. Sorry it didn't come out this month as I wanted. Those waiting patiently really sorry for the delay...I want to make the first version of the game a hit so that I can wiggle free from this damn day job and then make the game 10x better with future updates and more platform options (like Android, Chrome, Flash, Xbox versions). Would be a great way for me to make more games in the future as well.

TenshiOni: Defense Shield

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 08:23:12 PST

Finished adding the newest move to the TenshiOni game... the defense shield. Playing the demo of the game I noticed this urge to block attacks and so now you can. Up-swiping on iPhone/iPad quickly creates a shield that for now just blocks and repels enemy fire. I might make it lower the attack enemies give if they collide into you...but I mainly have that determined by which form you are in comparison to the enemy, ie: if you are in human form, an angel or demon type enemy attack will hurt more. I might change the coloring of the effect and maybe even have some reflected attacks hurt the enemy. (particularly in boss battles)

Here's what's next in line:

finishing the combo system (maybe the Down swipe be a finishing move in-combo)
Create the Super-Mode finishing moves.
more enemies, bosses and levels (dropping the space theme since that's really just left from the game engine I bought and am vastly rewriting.)

Once the combo system is done and the basics of the Super-Mode finishing moves are set... my voice actors for the girls will get their much delayed lines ^^;; Sorry about the wait Danielle, Kenneos and Madi.

FriendConnect, Anime Gallery & Other Site issues PSA

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 08:03:59 PST

Just a little PSA about some things with the site so people don't wrongly think I've left the site ^^;; Trust me, it's the complete opposite...

1) Google deleted their FriendConnect service and now this leaves me with no comment system -_- Really sorry about that...this site turns 10 years old this month and so many times have I used 3rd party tools, just to see my site outlive them... as with the next issue...

2) As of June, Apple will be removing their MobileMe service, replacing it with the iCloud service only....problem is, as those of you who use it know...they are removing the iDisk and Gallery services -_- The iDisk is where I save backups of TenshiOni as I'm coding it and even a backup of my websites With MegaUpload taken down by governmental tyrants...me and others will be using DropBox instead.
The Anime Gallery I created as well as the Idols, Cons and anime figures images all run on an iframe to that service...so in the coming months..I have to replace it....probably need to get back to that whole Anime Sanctuaries thing ^^;;

3) The contest that expired a few months ago is technically still going....pardon the lack of update with that and in general, the move to our new place and trying to sneak in time at night to work on the TenshiOni game is to blame ^^;; If anyone does wish to send in sprites that will go into the game...be my guest. Verbiage on there and also verbiage on the store site as well will be updated in due time.

...being it's the 10th Anniversary of the site..I guess it's time for some updates ^^

More Tenshi-Oni Updates: Anti-Aliasing and Enemy Reactions

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 21:02:24 PST

Been slaving away all weekend fixing some nasty bugs brought on by updates to the software I use to program the game -_- Yet, the work has payed off as most of the bugs are done and I have a few new tidbits to share about the game that I'm thankfully getting the much needed time to work on.

First off, what can't be seen so much just yet but I've yet again reworked the space game engine that I bought to get the game rolling. This time, I created more to the initial GameObject class allowing for reactions to each type of attack Fumi duels out. Before this, I already reverse engineered the thing to understand Soul Types (Angel, Human and Demon), but I can't have every enemy react the same way to every attack. You programers probably know of the wonderful Object Oriented Design topics of Inheritance and Polymorphism. What I was able to do was make a default reaction to Fumi's three main attacks..this would have been done sooner if the Physic Engine I use didn't suddenly parse data in a different order than my one file originally did (if you read my tweets you'll see what I mean).

For more info that artists and graphic designers will get..I also cleaned up Fumi's in-game sprites. One of the major tasks in the art aspects of game design is making sure to do some anti-aliasing (jagged edge fixing) when needed. Kenneos did an amazing job making my job with that relativley easy and I did my editing touches to give Fumi a smoother look. I also did some contour embossing to make her pop out. The demo background I'm using so far (that will be changed to Kenneo's submission and others) is dark already thus works great for this purpose.

Check out the image above to see what I mean and here's hoping I get more time this week to create the different enemy types programming-wise (ones that can be thrown, cut in half, blown away and/or put into combo moves...just to name a few). Doubtful the game will be released for the 10th Anniversary next month but it should be out this year in honor of this site's decade and hopefully the final nail on the coffin for my day job so I can be working full time with the site, anime.fm, the anime store here, games, anime voice acting and my anime hobbies...instead of rotting like many others are in some office working for somebody else.... Row Row Fight the Powah!

Anime is Art

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:41:04 PST

Been seeing lots of supposed "art experts" trying to look down on any budding artist who's using anime-styled pictures as their spring board into art. Sad thing is, some of this hate has come from not only artists who have some bastardized hate to anything anime-like, but even art teachers in supposed art schools here in the US are telling art hopefuls NOT to put anime-like images in their portfolios. First off, I run a business that's catered to anime...that's all I look for for when I need help with design. The whole, "nobody will hire you" verbal diarrhea spewing from self-proclaimed art institutions...is a load of bullshit. I'm proving that with artists like Kenneos and Eefi (and others). Though I haven't fully and officially hired them (yet). I've paid them in anime figures for their help and my goal is to pay them in royalties (and cash) from my projects / games that involve their art.

The only thing these anime-art hating rejects have right is that yes, you should diversify your portfolio. Don't let anime-style be the only thing you can do...but to say somebody who say...drew this Guilty Crown piece you see above isn't an artist, well...here's a nice little rage comic I made for you. Enjoy.

Anime Valentine's Day 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:21:03 PST

Just wanted to wish everybody a very happy Valentine's Day. Hope in the future I could post some pics of Fumi and the Tenshi-Oni characters in the way you see Mio fan-drawn here ^^

Best wishes on this day and don't fret if you are alone (trust me, was there for the first 18 years of my life ^^;;).

If you are with somebody, take time out from your busy schedule to enjoy the day with them and be appreciative. I know as I approach 30, I see people in love with work instead of others and life itself; don't be that.

If you have somebody you admire, don't be a creep. Stay confident in yourself (but don't be an ass with said confidence) and don't let rejection destroy you. The comatose/pathetic styled love seen in movies like Twilight..isn't the way to live. It's great to love somebody with all of your being but don't let the rejection make you an empty husk; just improve yourself and the right person will be there. It's best to be the best you so that you find somebody in the similar position whom can lift you up if you start to fall; not somebody who will drag you down or visa-versa.

If you have nobody, again, don't fret and see read above as it can pertain to you. Also, don't be desperate or on "the hunt." Coming from a straight guy's point of view... I got nowhere when I was single and was constantly looking. The moment my now fiancee found me, it seems that I became more attractive through confidence. In other words, if you are single and don't want to be that way; act like you have somebody already...girls (and guys, too) seem to gravitate to those with confidence. The moment I started dating my fiancee back 10 years ago when I was 18...all of a sudden girls seemed to notice me. They didn't a crap about me the previous 18 years of my life -_- but my god did that change the moment I stopped worrying about being single.

Anyways, pardon my rant. Off to have a fun day as I purposely take off on Tuesdays to either catch up on anime biz work, do extra video game programming or simply take a day off when the rest of the world is busy running around with their hair on fire in the work place. (at least, that's how people are here on Long Island -_-. Seriously people...relax a god damn moment, will you?) Trust me, it's very calming and zen-like to go to a restaurant at 1pm on a Tuesday.

Angel Fumi In-Game

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:47:03 PST

I wasted no time in getting Angel Fumi in the game ^_^ Again... note the game is still a work in progress so the resume/ quit buttons are actually just for more of a debugging function; I plan on having a nice pause screen similar to other mobile games. More stages, enemies and Demon Fumi soon ^^

Angel Fumi - First In-Game Animation

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:57:58 PST

The first animation of Fumi in her Angel form has been completed by Kenneos ^_^ She looks great and now I can start the transformation animation in the game (currently I just have a different colored "aura" around her when she transforms.)

Thanks again Kenneos and I hope you'll enjoy being her voice, too ^^

Angel Fumi Preview & Tenshi-Oni Voice Over

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:22:36 PST

Kenneos is hard at work with many commission images and in her spare time, she's been gracefully helping us out with graphics for the Tenshi-Oni game (and Eefi's been helping too ^^)

She is currently working on the in-game graphics for Angel Fumi...and she's probably going to be more attached to this version of the game's protagonist....that's because I'm going to let her be the voice of her as well ^^

Check out her Tumblr page here.

The game is finally being programmed again and I'm currently working on Enemy AI and death reactions/animations...but I'm almost up to the point where I have to start adding some enemies, stages and also the voice work. Mainly reaction sounds and quick lines to start but already my fiancee Danielle has put her voice in as the "Start" opening sequence (and she made the music). My friend Madi who was with me at the Anime voice acting classes with Bang Zoom Studios will be Demon Fumi. I'll of course put my still rather green experience in the anime voice booth to work and be the voice of any enemies, the Chuck Doll and Thomas if I can get him in the game.

Here's the current (but tentative) voice-over cast for the game:

Danielle Ambrosio ( Fumi (Normal Form), Yumi, opening sequence)
Madi (Demon Fumi)
Kenneos (Angel Fumi)
Chuck Gaffney (me) (Chuck Doll, Thomas, various enemy voices)

Sadly, doesn't look like the game will be done by March at this rate but I'd rather do it right than make it a rushed mess when it first appears on the iPhone app market. After about a month / month and a half hiatus, it's back on track ^^

Anime Pic of the Day: 2/9/12 Jiburiru/BiriBiri Crossover

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:57:58 PST

Been some time since the last Anime Pic of the Day (and any blog post in general -_-). The 10th anniversary of the site is quickly approaching and so I want to do something special for the site amiss all of the crazy personal life on-goings that keep me from my love and craft -_-.

This pic is of BiriBiri from Railgun cosplaying as Jiburiru ^^

(hope to post more posts, updates, anime news and Tenshi-Oni news very soon)

FanService Friday 1/20/12: Nisemonogatari Nadeko

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:53:42 PST

Sorry for the long delay..so here's ..moved into a new apartment and I've been helping in efforts to fight back those terrible bills that could destroy the internet: SOPA, PIPA and maybe a new player, PCIP. As an anime retailer, I can safely say that piracy is an issue and does hurt sales but nothing like the MPAA, RIAA and others like to make you think is being lost in their content. More o this issue and hopefully some Tenshi-Oni updates soon as well.

So..for now, enjoy this beautiful photo of Nadeko from the Bakemonogatari sequel, Nisemonogatari.

oh and the Tenshi-Oni Sprite Contest has been extended to a future date (it's not 12/31 anymore..will fix that)..so if you have sprites you want to maybe show up in the game...send away.

Merry Anime Christmas From Kenneos

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:48:48 PST

Kenneos, the artist who's doing much of the art for the Tenshi-Oni game, recently finished this great anime Christmas picture.

Again, pardon the lack of updates and blog posts...there's of course been lots of anime and gaming news that I've been not mentioning but been busy with the anime figure business and work in general ^^;;

No matter what holiday you celebrate or religion you have (or don't have) hope you have some time this weekend to sit back, relax and spend time thinking about something more important in life than work.

Tenshi-Oni: Fumi iPhone 4/4S Case

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 10:18:33 PST

Got the new iPhone 4S to both test/debug the Tenshi-Oni game on the newest device and to replace the need for my old 3G beyond debugging the game of course.

Artwork thanks to Eefi

The case can be found here.

New Fumi Animation - Sword Attack

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 10:09:55 PST

Not too new but it's been way too long since I've updated the blog (programming the game, did an other anime voice acting class with Edge Studios, x-mas rush with the anime figure business been keeping me busy ^^;;)

Thought I'd quickly let you all see the first true movement of Fumi in the game. Kenneos has been great help with the art for the game thus far and I can't wait to see what Angel and Demon Fumi in-game graphic will look like.

Also, for those who still want to make some game sprites that will be in the game as either a bonus "skin" or at least displayed one way or another...there's still that contest going on...but it's ending soon and since Kenneos was the only one thus far to make any sprites...she'll by default win the prizes ^^;;

Anime Mech Figures

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Gaffney) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 07:25:00 PST

One section I've been lacking in my anime store for a long while has been mechs. I have a Gundam section but granted the pickings have been rather slim ^^;; Well, I've changed that and now there's an official Mech Section in the anime store.

...Granted, there's still not much to choose from but as sales increase I plan on increasing the number of awesome mechs (both per-assembled like the ones there now and model kits) to order.