The amount of whiners I'm seeing regarding the Wii's U.S. release date (Nov. 19th) and price ($250) is bordering on excruciating. While all these guys have a right to complain, they're griping about how it is launching a few days after the PS3, which is odd since they've been shitting on that system and shouldn't care about it. And the price? Nintendo had said many, many times it would be "no more than $250", and a rule of business is that the maximum promised price is likely the closest to the final one.
I just wanted to get that off my chest quickly. There are some really idiotic posts I've been seeing.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Monday, September 11, 2006
Character Test 1
The first batch of basic poses for some of the main characters in my next series. They're still going to be tweaked here and there, and the one on the very right is actually a one-time-only pose that won't be seen often.
If the Wii's release date isn't announced during this Thursday/Friday batch of press conferences, I'm going to get a bit nervous.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
New Stuff
Despite how this has looked throughout summer, I haven't totally forgotten about this blog. College has just gotten in the way of things.
Besides working on Wario Ware Tooned 5, I've started work on an entirely original Flash 'pilot' that I intend to expand into a series. Scriptwriting and casting is done, and character designs are nearly finished and just being polished a bit. I'm trying to come up with a better style for backgrounds- possibly have everything handdrawn in Photoshop and imported in as picture files. Because I'm alternating between both of them, WWT5 will probably take a while to be released, but only about 20 people really seem to care so it won't affect the Internet as a whole.
Random game note: Star Fox Command is actually very addicting and is a worthy entry in the series. It makes up for Assault and almost for Adventures, but the fanbase will have to fix their own problems.
Besides working on Wario Ware Tooned 5, I've started work on an entirely original Flash 'pilot' that I intend to expand into a series. Scriptwriting and casting is done, and character designs are nearly finished and just being polished a bit. I'm trying to come up with a better style for backgrounds- possibly have everything handdrawn in Photoshop and imported in as picture files. Because I'm alternating between both of them, WWT5 will probably take a while to be released, but only about 20 people really seem to care so it won't affect the Internet as a whole.
Random game note: Star Fox Command is actually very addicting and is a worthy entry in the series. It makes up for Assault and almost for Adventures, but the fanbase will have to fix their own problems.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
The plague of Kiddy Sidekick Syndrome
A few days ago, I found out that a fair amount of time in the live-action Michael Bay Transformers movie coming out next year would be dedicated to human characters, played by Shia LaBeouf and Jon Voight among others. While the director alone was enough to get my hopes lowered, finding this out dashed almost all my interest in seeing this upon release. Kiddy Sidekick Syndrome has claimed another victim in American cinema.
KSS is a common disease in Japan. Symptons include the following: An adaptation or new iteration of an established franchise, be it a TV revamp or an anime series based on a video game; a completely new child character, often announced out of the blue following initial press releases or with no announcements at all; and said child character proceeding to fuck things up by having plodding subplots, needless focus, and a tendency to get in the way of things and attempt to make the viewer forget what the show is based upon.
Famous franchises such as Sonic, Kirby, Viewtiful Joe and Gundam have fallen prey to this baffling disease, and Transformers was once afflicted previously with Armada. The cause of KSS is still unknown, as no people seem to want these kids to exist, and they tend to turn viewers off. Some theorize that executives and writers may be the root of the disease, and hopefully these can be sterilized in the near future. Until then, look for more signs of KSS in future shows and avoid them.
If anyone reading this cares, Wario Ware Tooned 4 has been finished for a while and can be viewed here:
Part 1
Part 2
KSS is a common disease in Japan. Symptons include the following: An adaptation or new iteration of an established franchise, be it a TV revamp or an anime series based on a video game; a completely new child character, often announced out of the blue following initial press releases or with no announcements at all; and said child character proceeding to fuck things up by having plodding subplots, needless focus, and a tendency to get in the way of things and attempt to make the viewer forget what the show is based upon.
Famous franchises such as Sonic, Kirby, Viewtiful Joe and Gundam have fallen prey to this baffling disease, and Transformers was once afflicted previously with Armada. The cause of KSS is still unknown, as no people seem to want these kids to exist, and they tend to turn viewers off. Some theorize that executives and writers may be the root of the disease, and hopefully these can be sterilized in the near future. Until then, look for more signs of KSS in future shows and avoid them.
If anyone reading this cares, Wario Ware Tooned 4 has been finished for a while and can be viewed here:
Part 1
Part 2
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Things that need to change in animation
American theatrical features need to stop being so formulaic. In the 1990s, everyone made musicals just because Disney did it well. These days, everybody makes CG silly animal-populated movies full of fart jokes because Pixar made some.
Maybe the kids like these now, but these movies will prove to be very forgettable and never get so much as a nostalgic mention from them when they're older. They offer very little outside of what is hip and flashy at the moment, and rely more on endless promotional tie-ins than good writing for high box-office. The sad thing is that this is unlikely to change, as this is pretty much the way Hollywood has always worked.
American TV animation needs to have less corporate intrusion. People who know little about the art are responsible for what gets made and what gets passed on, and the amount of stuff that will never see the public's eyes is countless compared to what tripe does get put on. Executives are terrified of shows that dare people to actually think to understand a joke, or have a well-done action scene that they're too scared to spend the money for a new surround sound system on. It is purely business to them, as opposed to a creative field.
The Japanese industry has these same problems and then some. A lot of disturbingly perverted jokes get on the air, and I don't just mean the normal big-breast stuff- there's a lot of bizarre loli stuff going on over there. Apparently these are too big a part of the crazy Japanese culture to go away completely, but the amount of shows that revolve completely around it is mind-boggling, not to mention embarrassing to those who enjoy anime but hate fanservice.
Also, no country should ever try and emulate an anime style in their show if it's made outside of Japan. There's just nothing good that can come from that.
Maybe the kids like these now, but these movies will prove to be very forgettable and never get so much as a nostalgic mention from them when they're older. They offer very little outside of what is hip and flashy at the moment, and rely more on endless promotional tie-ins than good writing for high box-office. The sad thing is that this is unlikely to change, as this is pretty much the way Hollywood has always worked.
American TV animation needs to have less corporate intrusion. People who know little about the art are responsible for what gets made and what gets passed on, and the amount of stuff that will never see the public's eyes is countless compared to what tripe does get put on. Executives are terrified of shows that dare people to actually think to understand a joke, or have a well-done action scene that they're too scared to spend the money for a new surround sound system on. It is purely business to them, as opposed to a creative field.
The Japanese industry has these same problems and then some. A lot of disturbingly perverted jokes get on the air, and I don't just mean the normal big-breast stuff- there's a lot of bizarre loli stuff going on over there. Apparently these are too big a part of the crazy Japanese culture to go away completely, but the amount of shows that revolve completely around it is mind-boggling, not to mention embarrassing to those who enjoy anime but hate fanservice.
Also, no country should ever try and emulate an anime style in their show if it's made outside of Japan. There's just nothing good that can come from that.
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