Wolflog

Beo with Arms Crossed

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:28:00 +0000

This one's a bit of a journey because I had a mental fart when I sketched it. He's a lefty, which a strict rule I follow for him. But here, because I drew his arms crossed, I had a mental fart and put the main sword in his right hand. So, fixing it in Photoshop took a bit of stamp tool trickery. I then colored it.

Comments welcome.
Thanks for viewing.

Color Sketches - 2/28 to 3/6

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:26:00 +0000

Black and White Sketches - 2/28 to 3/6

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:16:00 +0000

Gundam Unicorn Episode 1 Review

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:29:00 +0000

Before I launch into the meat of the review, I should note a few things about me and my relationship to anime. I really hate anime, well, 95% of anime. I'm disturbed at both; how much crap is released, and how much it's eaten up by both Japanese and American audiences. I'd say that a disproportionate amount of the entire genre of anime is crap. America may release crappy animation movies from time-to-time (Dreamworks, I'm looking at you), but it's only a few bad eggs. Anime just seems like 90% crap, 10% good stuff.

Anime seems to be an industry totally based on fan service, rather than artistic growth or animation development or even wanting to tell good or interesting stories. What starts out as something fun and somewhat original, gets turned to crap when creators attempt to appease the fanbase with repetitive nonsense and story transcript padding. And that' if it even starts out good to begin with, as lots of times, you'll have a bomb right from the get-go.

Bleach started out as a kooky little story about a guy fighting demons in his home town. You get a sense of danger with him involved in this and there are stakes if he doesn't do his hero work. He's not overly powerful and has trouble coping with the challenges of doing the Soul Reaper job. Even though the characters are cookie cutter anime archetypes, there's actually a dynamic produced by having the main character and his high school friends around. There's actual character advancement and plot developments. He then had to rescue a friend, doing what is essentially a commando raid into the afterlife. It was similar to an action movie, where if you turn your brain off, you can entertain yourself for a while. Now, it's just pages of talk and talk about how one character is stronger than another or why a certain fighting move will work or why it won't work. When something does happen, it's either totally predictable, or just down right stupid. Plus, the author seems to have no idea where he wants to go, aside from producing as many stupidly designed characters as possible and prolonging what little story there is as long as possible. The main character's friends from the first third of the overall story are no where to be seen, and you're left with a bunch of boring Soul Reapers talkin' up a storm on how they're strong or why they're doing stuff.

There's an example of a good-gone-bad anime. A bad from the start anime would be something like Code Geass. I only saw the first episodes on Adult Swim, and I can say with all honesty, I couldn't work up a single thread of interest in anything in that story at all. It was just stupid preaching, a stupid premise, and stupid characters.

If you want to know what I find to be a good anime, then look no further than the first Ghost in the Shell movie. It's got great animation and a compelling story. It makes you think about life relating to technology and how cybernetics may influence the future. There characters can be a little weak at times, but they're done well enough that they're interesting. Plus you get some nice action and some cybertits!

Also, I understand the difference between an anime and a manga. Anime is animation, manga is a Japanese comic. So don't any of you fanboys give me shit about my otaku-ian knowledge. I've read a bunch of Bleach but haven't seen the anime past a certain point. That point being filler, another problem in anime that I don't even want to go into. I was using Bleach (manga) as an example of story turning bad in the face of fanbase appeasement, whilst using animes for other examples. I normally wouldn't put a paragraph pointing this out in something that's supposed to be about my background, but I've seen fanboys bitch. I've read enough 4chan to know to deploy airbags around simpler thoughts and concepts, as stupid, rabid, kneejerk anime kiddies latch on to them and use them as an excuse to sink whole arguments, trying to disregard reasoned opinions as "unknowledgeable trolling".

So, that being said, on the with the review.

Spoiler Alert!! Thar be spoilers ahead!

The first Universal Century Gundam series in 12 years (the most recent release being 8th MS Team, I'm not counting amusement park rides or CG movies) is pretty good. It rekindled some old feelings that have been long since dead. Giant robot anime lost it's appeal for me when I came to the realization that giant fighting robots are totally impractical and pointless to have in combat. You could just launch a ton of missiles or send in drones to do the work. Or, put you tank on some moving stilts, as it makes as much sense as having a hundred foot tall robot doing all the fighting.

The style of anime really died for me when all that was released were overly preachy series or content that was way too over the top, comprised mostly of super powered teenagers. I'm not saying that some things in Unicorn aren't over the top or preachy, but it's not annoyingly done. The 16 year old kid hops in the mobile suit, and off he goes. It's a standard Gundam moment, which I knew would happen when they introduced him. The advantage in this case is that his eyes don't change color and he doesn't enter into some crazy unbeatable super mode.

Well, the mobile suit does, but this brings up a major gripe about the first episode. The Gundam Unicorn starts up, powers up, then the episode cuts out before the climactic battle that's been built up. The suits are in space, beam sabers are drawn, funnels are launched, and finally they're about toooo--chop, "see you next time."

Luckily, the smaller battles make up for it, but it's still annoying to have to wait for another episode to see the fight scene, which probably won't live up to any inter-episode hype. It's like a hook in a TV show or radio/podcast before a commercial, which think of during the "commercial zone out" and build up in your mind, then when the thing hooked is revealed it's not anywhere near what you were thinking about. The fight is going to be like that, and they probably should have just had the fight happen in this episode.

The battles have the mobile suits move realistically, actually obeying the laws of physics and the movements don't look stupid. Unlike say, Code Geass, where the robots roller blade around and looking f-ing retarded, the mobile suits in Unicorn move like robots with only a twinge of unrealistic, human-like animation. It's a definite plus to see this. It's also a definite plus that they do this while looking totally awesome. In the beginning of the episode there's a Jegan taking on the primary antagonist mobile suit, and you really want to root for the random, unidentified Jegan pilot. Partly because the animation is so nice, and partly because the mobile suit looks awesome doing what it does.

On a similar note, the characters move fairly realistically. They obey gravitational laws and muscular limits. They don't jump 30 feet into the air or move ultra fast or hypnotize people with eye tattoos. Their hair also falls naturally! That's probably the best part in the whole animation, hair looks like hair. It's not spikey, expensive gel-ups. It's hair! It's soft and moves gently!

Of course, there are animation snafus. I hate 3D in anime. It never blends with the 2D animation and always looks cheaply done. It's just lazy to make this whole high-quality animation and then have piddly, crappy 3D ruin it all. The only animation I've seen that blends 2 and 3D together well is Futurama. Anime producers who want 3D in their projects should at least look at clips of Futurama, maybe they'd actually pick up something on how to work 3D elements into a production and not make it suck.

The plot's good, but not stellar. It introduces the characters, but it doesn't say who they are or what they're doing. The handful of student characters are just that, students. You're never really told what they're studying or what they want to do in the future or how they really relate to each other. I think the writers were assuming the audience would make assumptions based on previous anime experiences, but I don't really watch anime, so I couldn't really connect anything character-wise.

The main character has a female friend who I thought was a sister at first, but then she acts more like a possible love interest, but then the main character doesn't pay attention to her when she asks him to protect her. So, it's kind of confusing sorting out why she's there and what her role in the story is. She could just be a cheerleader for the main character, but she doesn't encourage him at all. There's also a male friend, who I guess is supposed to be the "mobile suit enthusiast" friend. He mentions some model names, but it's never explicitly stated if he's the mobile suit "that guy" in this series.

Then there's the main character's background. I don't remember seeing his mother or father mentioned at any time during the episode, but suddenly at the end he talks about his mother and meets his father, whom he apparently forgot about. It's pretty jarring to have that happen, and it probably would've made more sense to have that explicitly mentioned sometime earlier.

Additionally, the motives and roles of the scientists and soldiers are never really elaborated on. Maybe this will be revealed in later episodes, but I doubt it. Unless I missed a line of subtitle, I really didn't see any information on why the Laplace Box is important or why the girl is important or why the scientists are in that colony or why the Zeons are there. I remember the original Gundam series at least explained those basic things. Here's it's more of a mess of cliched Gundam things thrown together. It's probably like that to appeal to fanboys, but general audiences may be confused about what's happening.

The plot does, however, get things moving. It's not a total waste of brain cells paying attention to it. There is a sense that something will happen and that things will develop given more time, but I think that may require watching the whole series once it's released. As a first episode though, it doesn't do things a first episode should.

There were some other little things I thought were nice touches. At one point, some bad guys are looking for a runaway female lead, and there's a shot of the interior of the car. Apparently, packing tape still exists in the future, because some is used to tape a communication device of somekind to the dashboard of the car. It was pretty funny seeing the brown tape holding the device to the car and not some sci-fi-y clip or attachment, ala a MP3 player dock. A soldier gets his neck snapped and the cracking sound was so well done it made me cringe. Also, the aforementioned Jegan at the beginning. I really wanted him to win, but I guess he was just a miscellaneous casualty. There's also on point where a character views a security cam recording on a piece of smart paper. It's nice to see this concept appear in something outside of a Neal Stephenson novel, as I think smart paper is going to be a major product in the years to come.

So, in summation, I'd give Gundam Unicorn Episode 1 a score of: 3/5.
A good start, but there are really obvious holes throughout the episode. The animation was great, except for the 3D. The story could've used some work, but it did necessary things to get the ball rolling. I don't usually say this about anime, but I'll be sticking around for episode 2. And episode 3, provided the series doesn't nose dive.

Collected Drawings from 2-21 to 2-27

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:45:00 +0000

A LOT of drawings from last week. Covers several areas including faces, games, comics, Star Wars, and of course, elf crap.

Comments welcome.
Thanks for viewing.

Sketches from 2-14 to 2-20

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:35:00 +0000

All the sketches I posted online from last week.

Comments welcome.
Thanks for viewing.

Collected Drawings for 2-7 to 2-13

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:47:00 +0000

The collected drawings I've posted on Plurk and Tumblr for last week. I was sick all week, so I don't even remember drawings most of these. Tons of sketches both in pencil and in Photoshop.

Comments welcome.
Thanks for viewing.

This Week's Sketchdump

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:19:00 +0000

The sketches I've been posting on the web, now on the web!

Comments welcome.
Thanks for viewing.

New Awesome Background

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 21:29:00 +0000

The face means it's awesome. Now I just need a header image of somekind.

My New Setup

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:34:00 +0000

Right now, I'm working on organizing my web life. Reducing the social networks to a select few and meshing them all together, along with my primary websites. I've decided to show my notes and maps for how I'm working these things out.

Here's everything connected together. Double arrows are things that link back-and-forth, single arrows are one-way links, and the sites that aren't connected are sort of in a limbo right now. I just need to figure out what to do with them.

Lists of what each things does and why it's there. I'll have a straight businessy-oriented site (jamespiggott.com), my personal gallery (wolfoverclocked.com), this blog, etc.

A clean map of how things link together, except for the social networks.

One of the new things I'm doing is having a semi-regular picture update. Using Tumblr and Plurk, alternating my picture posts. I'll then collect things on this Blog each week, along with reactions (if any). Those pics will also be automatically sent to my Twitter account, so following me on any of those will result in new artwork. I'll also have Flickr/Photobucket/devTart stuff, as well as, writing. I'm going to write more, in addition to my artwork.

Comments welcome.
Thanks for viewing.

Two Random Pics

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:37:00 +0000

Here's my backyard. Showing my friend what a weak Michigan winter looks like.

Comments welcome.
Thanks for viewing.

Writing?!

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:14:00 +0000

http://www.protagonize.com/story/inner-planets--the-book-of-war

Yep, that's right, I've been writing. A little nervous about posting it, but there it is. I'll tweak what I've got there and upload more based on responses. As always, I'm looking for good critiques on how to make myself a better creator.

Comments welcome.
Thanks for viewing.

Diablo 3 - Monk Fan Art Sketch

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 01:23:00 +0000

Here's an entry for a Diablo 3 fan art thing on Twitter. I just did a quick and dirty sketch in pencil. I didn't even both finishing the monster on the left.

Comments welcome.
Thanks for viewing.

New Cards for Sale!

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:03:00 +0000

Here is a link to my cafepress shop containing, amongst other things, the cards I sold at Noel Night 2009. They're available in packs of 10, 20, or 1.

http://www.cafepress.com/youcantundrawit

Santa Crushes the Snowman Monster - IN COLOR! AGAIN!

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:39:00 +0000

Upped the saturation, lowered the yellow glow, tweaked a few things to make it look better in print.

Anyone wanna guess the font? It's a subtle joke.

Comments welcome.
Thanks for viewing.

Santa Crushes the Snowman Monster - IN COLOR!

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:55:00 +0000

More to come!

Santa Crushes the Snowman Monster

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:15:00 +0000

Like the title says. I'm currently playing around with holiday card ideas. I like to do a weird one or two along side something more normal, and this one definitely gets put in "weird" category.

Comments welcome.
Thanks for viewing.

Scarfs!

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:15:00 +0000

Here are some of the scarfs I'm working on. The green was is my first, and has several little nicks and errors in it, but it's really long, about two inches taller than I am (almost six feet tall). I've also got a yellow/red/gray shorter wool scarf, a black-and-white cotton scarf, and a purple-and-gray acrylic scarf (which was a color recommended I make by my friend James).

Comments welcome.
Thanks for viewing.

Xmas Pin-ups

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:18:00 +0000

Here are the beginnings of Noel Night 2009. I'm selling prints (framed and bare), cards, pin-ups, and scarfs this year. It's on December 5, 2009 this year, and I'll be sharing the table with Renay Mclean again.

For the pin-up with three versions, I'm still deciding on whether to do it in full color, limited color, one color with shading, or just leaving it as a sketch. Need input on that. Also, the long prints are going to be all part of one set. I'll have them individually available and I'm think of doing one or two large prints with all of them available in one go.

There will definitely be more posts like this as the artwork progresses, and I'll upload purchasable versions in my Lulu and Cafepress stores.

Comments welcome.
Thanks for viewing.

A Crap Load of Faces

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:15:00 +0000

Just one today, but it's a biggy. Common characters, new characters, obscure characters, and some random things. If you want to see it full size, DevianTART actually shows it full size: http://beonarri.deviantart.com/art/A-Crap-Ton-of-Faces-142853082

Comments welcome.
Thanks for viewing.

Elves!

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:10:00 +0000

Here's the elf based update. Lots of characters and designs from the past months. More tomorrow.

Comments welcome.
Thanks for viewing.

Monsters and Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:59:00 +0000

Well, here's an actual update. The first of a slew coming down the pipe. I'm doing a series of sketch dumps featuring a bunch of things I've doodled and drawn since June 2009. Hopefully this will get me in the habit of uploading on a regular basis again.

Here are some monsters.

Comments welcome.
Thanks for viewing.

A Report on my Goings-on

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 02:46:00 +0000

Over the last couple months, things have been a roller coaster. I've swung on the employed/unemployed tree back-and-forth. Neat things happened, none-neat things happened.

I went to Chicago two weeks ago for the Comicon there. The trip didn't lead to any job findings like I was hoping. There were almost no companies at the con, and everything else there was pretty lame. The center must have had an air conditioning problem, it felt like 80 degrees throughout the entire building. Several times me and my friend had to stop, not for people, but to avoid the dizziness of heat stroke.

We went to a museum the next day, which made up for the crappy convention. I'll upload some of the photos later, we have over 1000 total, with several repeats. It's going to take time to sort things out.

Right after I got back, my used PSP arrived. This means I was finally able to play Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions. After a week straight of playing the game, I finally got tired of it...well...not really...but I had to in order to start to get things done. Unfortunately, the seller had upgraded the firmware to it's current highest, which means no custom firmware for me on the PSP anytime soon.

I also got a flash cart for my DS, an R4, which lets me put Colors on it. Colors is a light painting and sketching program that uses the DS's touch screen. I'm thinking of using it as a portable sketching device, so I don't have to carry around a notebook or stack of paper. I wonder if it can take notes...?

Now, I'm going to get back to basics. Before the Chicago trip I was preping and preping and preping for it, which turned out to be a loss. Now I'm going to get back to uploading sketches, getting critiques, and rebuilding my social networking status.

-James

The future uploads should include:
-Pictures of Chicago
-New Artwork
-Colors Sketches
-FFT random stuff

HOLY CRAP AN UPDATE!

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Sun, 24 May 2009 22:05:00 +0000

We've got a quick facial I did last night, a goblin I painted some two months ago, an update to Vladimir Harkonen, and marker rendering of Beo. I really like the way the marker drawing turned out. I did it with markers, pencils (black and white), a little white out, and some Photoshop clean up. A few things got messed up by my over-Photoshoping it (like losing some of the line in his leg), but it's alright. I could always fix it later.

I should note that the goblin and Harkonen are old, but I thought I'd share them anyways.

Comments welcome.
Thanks for viewing.

Two Quick Ones

noreply@blogger.com (James Piggott) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:43:00 +0000

A quick generic female face and, "the fat baron himself."

And boy, did the baron's pic get dark. Darker then I thought it was earlier. Note to self: watch this with darker images.

Comments welcome.
Thanks for viewing.