Thursday, December 20, 2012
Sandviches!!
Since I have finally completed all my final exams and feel as free as a bird (I have a HUMONGOUS list of everything I want to get done this break....including finishing one of my books!! XD ) I just decided to post a fun little video like this. ;D For some reason I get this song, if you could even call it that, stuck in my head. XD Gotta love Heavy! And now there are subtitles too so we can all sing along (if that's even possible!)!!!! :D {Please note that this animation was not done by me.}
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Fun Animations! --Round 6 (not by me)
Here's another fun animation I found. It's called Round 6. For some reason I kinda relate the helmeted good guys to clone troopers. ;D I would really love to see a follow up to this as, if you read the description on Youtube, they were talking about a game with other cinematics. I think it would be pretty interesting to see what happens next or learn the backstory of what's going on. :) Hope you enjoy it!!
Monday, December 10, 2012
Animation--Ruin
Here's a neat animation I found recently. It's called Ruin and I think it may be made into a film sometime! :D I like the destopian design and the interesting, almost electrical/mechanical abilities the character has.
Clone Wars Season 5 Review: Younglings Arc
WARNING!: contains spoilers for the Clone
Wars episode arc about Younglings (little Jedi). You may want to see this before reading on.
Ok, so instead of doing all the episodes in this arc I decided to do just do the arc as a whole and kinda rate it as such. Overall I would rate the arc a 5.5 out of 10 for my regular reasons (not enough plot, kinda random Jedi action, not much intellegence from the characters, and NOT ENOUGH CLONES!!!!). However, the two ending episodes were actually quite enjoyable simply because they showcased two great characters (in my opinion): General Grevious and Commander Cody!! Not only did I really miss Cody in season 4 (because that season was so dark and more indepth than any so far and I wanted to see him in all of that chaos), but I just really missed him in general. XD He's such a great character to expand on (I'm speaking from experience ;) and comparing the following seasons after 1 didn't really contain the same amount of clones, much less Cody. He really should be showcased more. Not only am I still worried about what they're planning to do with him (possibly bad stuff :/ ) but I would just like to see more of him on screen before we all leap into the New Republic era/Disney's versions. :L I also missed seeing Grevious be, well, Grevious! :D In the books he was always so crafty and viscious. I could remember him using his foot to crush clones before. I was really hoping for more a fight from Obi-Wan though. Kenobi has been coming off as kind of a wimp in this show. I'll get into that later though. ;) Grevious and Cody literally made this arc for me. The Cody episode I rated 7/10 and Grevious garnered a 6.5/10 for me. First lets go into the younglings themselves though.
I liked the prospect of Illum as a screen version of the planet has never been done before. That's one of the reasons why I love the Clone Wars era so much. You get to go to and see all these amazing new planets and cultures untouched by things like the Empire. I liked the layout of the planet and interior of the 'cave'. However I was ultimately disappointed. I've read multiple Jedi Apprentice books featuring Illum, and what I learned from them is that the crystal cave is filled with illusions that require them to use their physical, mental, and Force skills to manuver. This excusion was timed, which added an unneeded rush to the whole thing. I thought some Jedi spent days searching for their crystals. True, in the end, the ice barrier proved to be of no hinderance to the Jedi, but I always thought of the journey being more thoughtfilled rather than just a race against time. They were more focused on finding their crystal to escape than finding their crystal to find their crystal. :( It seemed like they were just more interested in finding their crystal and getting back, and building their lightsaber than the other purposes such as understanding their fears or what the lightsaber should be used for: protection. I missed all the crazy hallucination-like Force illusion things that were in the books too. In one, I think the most memorable one, Anakin saw Darth Maul and had a confrontation with him. I liked them because they revealed the inner fears of the individual Jedi. All these younglings did was complain to themselves (which is weird enough) about their situation. This was more annoying than interesting. I didn't like how some of them acted out of anger/frustration but still reaped their reward, like the Nautolan. There didn't seem to be that many lessons learned from any of the Jedi as I didn't really see them change all that much in the following episodes. :p
Overall, the parts with Younglings bored me. They weren't changing, as one would expect, from their experiences. They complained about their situations and were too lucky for their own good. I did find it interesting to compare them to young clone troopers. The mentalities were completely different. (sorry if I digress a lot right now XD ). The clones congradulate each other, and though a few of them were not too terribly nice to "Lucky", they ultimately worked together. The Jedi younglings were too quick to leave each other and work to satisfy their own needs. True Petro resqued that one girl but it didn't really seem that honest to me. They were bonded out of fear not compassion. I would have liked to see her stay with him so she could help him escape the iceflow at the end. There was just not really any cooperation between anyone. Though this improved somewhat in the later in the arc, I still found it lacking in these younglings more so than clones.
I think this represents well, that the Jedi teachings are lacking in some discipline that is allowing the younglings to guiltlessly leave eachother for their own selfish reasons. :/ Sorry to say, but this makes total sense to me. Jedi are powerful individuals who are made even more so by their ablity to be attatchmentless and carry on even when their allies are dead. Clones on the other hand are taught to be completely selfless and though they still are to carry on the mission even when their brothers are killed, there's this undeniable humanity about them that develops into a huge respect for life. It's interesting to see these two upbringings/morals clash in Cody and Obi-Wan in my books and, though subtly, in this arc.
Which brings me to my next high point: Cody. I loved seeing this guy in action again. What's more, I loved seeing his face again. I don't know why the writers for this season find it nessessary to still put so many shallow episodes on even though probably the majority of the audience is young adults. We can understand that stuff! Even little kids watching this show would probably rather watch clone troopers than Maul, who, by the way, I don't like his character any more. He speaks in broken sentances and makes ridiculous plots that are only geared at killing Jedi. For some reason I can never justify his reasons like I do Grevious. No one is commanding Maul and the Jedi don't seem to be openly confronting him, if he really wanted to he could just build his forces and then just show up and attack the Jedi and the Republic troops across the galaxy. Sorry but Maul is coming off as another unintelligent character who seems like he knows what he's doing. XP
Anyways, back to Cody. XD I loved how they kind of showed the friction/difference of beliefs between him and Obi-Wan. It totally backed up what I'm doing in my books!!! I also loved how Obi-Wan was so inept at fighting Grevious. He was relying totally on his lightsaber skills and open confontation, when, sorry to say, that didn't work on the cyborg before. Didn't he learn from his past mistakes?!? To me, it was clear he had not, and it cost him the lives of countless clones. Also, the fact that all of these deaths were for a group of younglings who weren't really in any danger and, ultimately, a single Jedi. It just goes to show the lengths some of these Jedi endanger their troopers to save only a handfull of Jedi. :'(
I loved how Cody basically ordered Obi-Wan to throw the fuel barrel so he could blow it up when it hit the Separatist when Grevious threw Kenobi into the gunship. I think this shows how intelligent the clone really is and perhaps how much he holds back to let the Jedi have things their way. This also was a brilliant display of how creative Cody is. Thinking back to another episode, I think in season 2, Cody and his men literally monkey pile on Grevious to slow him down. Not a single Jedi has EVER gotten that close to punch Grevious in the face like Cody did!! I find that so amazing. It worked this time with the fuel barrel and it worked with the monkey pile because Grevious was not expecting it. The Jedi have become predictable and so Grevious will always beat them. I'd like to think that this is what Cody would have done if he had the force. That the fuel barrel-toss move and probably a million others would have been executed in steady succession until Grevious was nothing more than a black smear on the deck. In a way this saddens me because it seems as though the people who would actually use the Force to it's full potential cannot because they simply haven't been gifted with it. :L
On to Grievous. I loved his duel between he and Ahsoka in the final episode in this arc. Like I mentioned before, she was using tactics he'd already seen in hundreds of Jedi so he could have easily beat her. >:) I loved seeing the Youngling's scared faces when he was roaring and crawling on all fours. I was like, "Yep! That's the probably the guy who's going to kill you someday! >XD Look long and hard at him because he will always be better than you!!" . Yeah, I'm not really a fan of the younglings. Wookie or not I hope Grevious gets all their precious lightsabers in the end! >:D I also loved how Ahsoka, all confident and 'grown up', was clearly floundering during the fight. If he had grabbed her with any of his limbs it would have been an insta-kill. I think that battle put her in her place again. Reminded her that she and the Jedi are not all-powerfull and they need to shrink their head sizes a bit. I guess that's the main thing I saw in this arc: Jedi get their butts handed to them because they're letting their powers and "their" victories (notice I put that in quotes...probably because it was more of a combination of the clones' efforts too! ) get to their heads.
Anyways, hope you enjoyed my ranting about this arc. I haven't been watching the Droids arc (save for the beginning of the first episode that began with Cody and Rex meeting up {war-buddies!!!! XD } and Neyo's appearance ) but I'm almost positive Commando Gregor will be in the mix soon so I'm super excited for that! XD
Ok, so instead of doing all the episodes in this arc I decided to do just do the arc as a whole and kinda rate it as such. Overall I would rate the arc a 5.5 out of 10 for my regular reasons (not enough plot, kinda random Jedi action, not much intellegence from the characters, and NOT ENOUGH CLONES!!!!). However, the two ending episodes were actually quite enjoyable simply because they showcased two great characters (in my opinion): General Grevious and Commander Cody!! Not only did I really miss Cody in season 4 (because that season was so dark and more indepth than any so far and I wanted to see him in all of that chaos), but I just really missed him in general. XD He's such a great character to expand on (I'm speaking from experience ;) and comparing the following seasons after 1 didn't really contain the same amount of clones, much less Cody. He really should be showcased more. Not only am I still worried about what they're planning to do with him (possibly bad stuff :/ ) but I would just like to see more of him on screen before we all leap into the New Republic era/Disney's versions. :L I also missed seeing Grevious be, well, Grevious! :D In the books he was always so crafty and viscious. I could remember him using his foot to crush clones before. I was really hoping for more a fight from Obi-Wan though. Kenobi has been coming off as kind of a wimp in this show. I'll get into that later though. ;) Grevious and Cody literally made this arc for me. The Cody episode I rated 7/10 and Grevious garnered a 6.5/10 for me. First lets go into the younglings themselves though.
I liked the prospect of Illum as a screen version of the planet has never been done before. That's one of the reasons why I love the Clone Wars era so much. You get to go to and see all these amazing new planets and cultures untouched by things like the Empire. I liked the layout of the planet and interior of the 'cave'. However I was ultimately disappointed. I've read multiple Jedi Apprentice books featuring Illum, and what I learned from them is that the crystal cave is filled with illusions that require them to use their physical, mental, and Force skills to manuver. This excusion was timed, which added an unneeded rush to the whole thing. I thought some Jedi spent days searching for their crystals. True, in the end, the ice barrier proved to be of no hinderance to the Jedi, but I always thought of the journey being more thoughtfilled rather than just a race against time. They were more focused on finding their crystal to escape than finding their crystal to find their crystal. :( It seemed like they were just more interested in finding their crystal and getting back, and building their lightsaber than the other purposes such as understanding their fears or what the lightsaber should be used for: protection. I missed all the crazy hallucination-like Force illusion things that were in the books too. In one, I think the most memorable one, Anakin saw Darth Maul and had a confrontation with him. I liked them because they revealed the inner fears of the individual Jedi. All these younglings did was complain to themselves (which is weird enough) about their situation. This was more annoying than interesting. I didn't like how some of them acted out of anger/frustration but still reaped their reward, like the Nautolan. There didn't seem to be that many lessons learned from any of the Jedi as I didn't really see them change all that much in the following episodes. :p
Overall, the parts with Younglings bored me. They weren't changing, as one would expect, from their experiences. They complained about their situations and were too lucky for their own good. I did find it interesting to compare them to young clone troopers. The mentalities were completely different. (sorry if I digress a lot right now XD ). The clones congradulate each other, and though a few of them were not too terribly nice to "Lucky", they ultimately worked together. The Jedi younglings were too quick to leave each other and work to satisfy their own needs. True Petro resqued that one girl but it didn't really seem that honest to me. They were bonded out of fear not compassion. I would have liked to see her stay with him so she could help him escape the iceflow at the end. There was just not really any cooperation between anyone. Though this improved somewhat in the later in the arc, I still found it lacking in these younglings more so than clones.
I think this represents well, that the Jedi teachings are lacking in some discipline that is allowing the younglings to guiltlessly leave eachother for their own selfish reasons. :/ Sorry to say, but this makes total sense to me. Jedi are powerful individuals who are made even more so by their ablity to be attatchmentless and carry on even when their allies are dead. Clones on the other hand are taught to be completely selfless and though they still are to carry on the mission even when their brothers are killed, there's this undeniable humanity about them that develops into a huge respect for life. It's interesting to see these two upbringings/morals clash in Cody and Obi-Wan in my books and, though subtly, in this arc.
Which brings me to my next high point: Cody. I loved seeing this guy in action again. What's more, I loved seeing his face again. I don't know why the writers for this season find it nessessary to still put so many shallow episodes on even though probably the majority of the audience is young adults. We can understand that stuff! Even little kids watching this show would probably rather watch clone troopers than Maul, who, by the way, I don't like his character any more. He speaks in broken sentances and makes ridiculous plots that are only geared at killing Jedi. For some reason I can never justify his reasons like I do Grevious. No one is commanding Maul and the Jedi don't seem to be openly confronting him, if he really wanted to he could just build his forces and then just show up and attack the Jedi and the Republic troops across the galaxy. Sorry but Maul is coming off as another unintelligent character who seems like he knows what he's doing. XP
Anyways, back to Cody. XD I loved how they kind of showed the friction/difference of beliefs between him and Obi-Wan. It totally backed up what I'm doing in my books!!! I also loved how Obi-Wan was so inept at fighting Grevious. He was relying totally on his lightsaber skills and open confontation, when, sorry to say, that didn't work on the cyborg before. Didn't he learn from his past mistakes?!? To me, it was clear he had not, and it cost him the lives of countless clones. Also, the fact that all of these deaths were for a group of younglings who weren't really in any danger and, ultimately, a single Jedi. It just goes to show the lengths some of these Jedi endanger their troopers to save only a handfull of Jedi. :'(
I loved how Cody basically ordered Obi-Wan to throw the fuel barrel so he could blow it up when it hit the Separatist when Grevious threw Kenobi into the gunship. I think this shows how intelligent the clone really is and perhaps how much he holds back to let the Jedi have things their way. This also was a brilliant display of how creative Cody is. Thinking back to another episode, I think in season 2, Cody and his men literally monkey pile on Grevious to slow him down. Not a single Jedi has EVER gotten that close to punch Grevious in the face like Cody did!! I find that so amazing. It worked this time with the fuel barrel and it worked with the monkey pile because Grevious was not expecting it. The Jedi have become predictable and so Grevious will always beat them. I'd like to think that this is what Cody would have done if he had the force. That the fuel barrel-toss move and probably a million others would have been executed in steady succession until Grevious was nothing more than a black smear on the deck. In a way this saddens me because it seems as though the people who would actually use the Force to it's full potential cannot because they simply haven't been gifted with it. :L
On to Grievous. I loved his duel between he and Ahsoka in the final episode in this arc. Like I mentioned before, she was using tactics he'd already seen in hundreds of Jedi so he could have easily beat her. >:) I loved seeing the Youngling's scared faces when he was roaring and crawling on all fours. I was like, "Yep! That's the probably the guy who's going to kill you someday! >XD Look long and hard at him because he will always be better than you!!" . Yeah, I'm not really a fan of the younglings. Wookie or not I hope Grevious gets all their precious lightsabers in the end! >:D I also loved how Ahsoka, all confident and 'grown up', was clearly floundering during the fight. If he had grabbed her with any of his limbs it would have been an insta-kill. I think that battle put her in her place again. Reminded her that she and the Jedi are not all-powerfull and they need to shrink their head sizes a bit. I guess that's the main thing I saw in this arc: Jedi get their butts handed to them because they're letting their powers and "their" victories (notice I put that in quotes...probably because it was more of a combination of the clones' efforts too! ) get to their heads.
Anyways, hope you enjoyed my ranting about this arc. I haven't been watching the Droids arc (save for the beginning of the first episode that began with Cody and Rex meeting up {war-buddies!!!! XD } and Neyo's appearance ) but I'm almost positive Commando Gregor will be in the mix soon so I'm super excited for that! XD
Friday, November 30, 2012
Master Chief without his helmet
Here is a drawing/GIMP painting I did for my bestest friend's birthday. He's a Halo fan so I thought it fitting to do Chief. XD GIMP is a kind of art software. It's non-vector which makes me happy because I can just undo stuff and edit as I go rather than deselecting lines/forms every time I create them. :p Just never really figured Adobe out.....This painting actually started as a sketch which I 'inked' over/through using GIMP. This is my official first time using GIMP for a fullscale painting so I've still got some kinks to work out! ;D Overall though, I'm really happy how this turned out! Hope you like it! XD
Would I have done Order 66?? --An Insight into one of the Core Topics of My Books
I've been thinking lately, apart from my usual brainfartstorming ;) , about what I would actually do if I were in the same place at the same time as Cody in that single defining moment known as Order 66.
I don't want to give away what exactly happens at that part (sorry guys) because the books tend to lead up to that point, but I will give you what I might have done. First of all, I'm actually a pretty shy person, and half the things Cody goes through I probably would make it out alive or with my sanity. Xp I don't even quite know how he does it! XD Going off of this, some of the things Obi-Wan does in my books...well, they are purposeful but not very thoughtful. There are times in the book when Kenobi is trying so hard to separate himself from the commander that I wonder why Cody is still loyal to him at all. It's very sad, because Obi-Wan has the best intentions, he literally cannot be friends with someone who, after the war, is more of a political, ethical, and economic problem than the Jedi can handle. And Jedi don't want to be seen with 'instruments' of war.
With all that said, I think I might not have been as quick witted or steadfast as Cody was when the Order was given. :L I would have ultimately been thinking about myself and my brothers, as well as my own interests instead of that of someone who had practically abandoned me. And the after effects of Order 66 sometimes make me question if I could have foreseen everything as clearly as he had. So sorry guys, I'd of probably ended up killing Kenobi. I don't think I would have done it out of hatred or frustration but probably out of desperation because I couldn't bear to see my brothers pay with their lives if he lived. Nor would I have been as quick as Cody was to see that third option, one that would require even more stress, and been able to act on it as perfectly as he did. (Obi-Wan fans please don't hate me! :( )
If anything, all this random babbling has kinda lead me to see how intelligent I've made him as well as unfortunate. :( I guess I really am wanting people to see how good people don't always get rewarded for what they do.
I don't want to give away what exactly happens at that part (sorry guys) because the books tend to lead up to that point, but I will give you what I might have done. First of all, I'm actually a pretty shy person, and half the things Cody goes through I probably would make it out alive or with my sanity. Xp I don't even quite know how he does it! XD Going off of this, some of the things Obi-Wan does in my books...well, they are purposeful but not very thoughtful. There are times in the book when Kenobi is trying so hard to separate himself from the commander that I wonder why Cody is still loyal to him at all. It's very sad, because Obi-Wan has the best intentions, he literally cannot be friends with someone who, after the war, is more of a political, ethical, and economic problem than the Jedi can handle. And Jedi don't want to be seen with 'instruments' of war.
With all that said, I think I might not have been as quick witted or steadfast as Cody was when the Order was given. :L I would have ultimately been thinking about myself and my brothers, as well as my own interests instead of that of someone who had practically abandoned me. And the after effects of Order 66 sometimes make me question if I could have foreseen everything as clearly as he had. So sorry guys, I'd of probably ended up killing Kenobi. I don't think I would have done it out of hatred or frustration but probably out of desperation because I couldn't bear to see my brothers pay with their lives if he lived. Nor would I have been as quick as Cody was to see that third option, one that would require even more stress, and been able to act on it as perfectly as he did. (Obi-Wan fans please don't hate me! :( )
If anything, all this random babbling has kinda lead me to see how intelligent I've made him as well as unfortunate. :( I guess I really am wanting people to see how good people don't always get rewarded for what they do.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Death of the Author
Ok, I'm going to kinda rage-write here. :P Well, not really rage-write. More like annoyed-write. Xp
Have you ever read one of those books then discussed it in class and suddenly half the class is commenting on how the author IS some character in the book? (It's mostly in college so I don't expect you to if you haven't made it there quite yet.) While it is interesting for them to compare the author to the character in the book, it has always annoyed me for some reason. I think it is because of the fact that, as a writer, if I really wanted to, I could go through all my characters and plots and melt them down to find the basic experiences in my life that I subconsciously created them from. Not only would this take a lot of time and effort, but it would once more prove the simple fact that literally all written anything is gleaned from a combination of life experiences and other books.
Yeah, it may seem kinda sad at first but it really makes sense. Maybe that's why my sister keeps telling me I should read more. :P (I probably won't though..... ;p ) The truly inspiring stories really come from a more original mix of stories and real-life experiences. That's why I dislike it when people point at some of my female characters and claim they're me. Especially Gretta Orbur because she may resemble me the most. I think it's funny how they don't see my characteristics placed in the male characters. I'd say that I'm pretty much in all my characters so there! >:D I've also used my incredible best friend and bf in much of my characters (because he's so awesome). I probably also use a whole bunch of my family members too!
This is where this blog's title comes in. "Death of the Author" was a 'movement' or something that was kinda a revolt against those (in my opinion) diluted books/stories that really were up to the reader's interpretations, and, thus, were most often connected to their author's lives. While that's all fine and dandy (so long as I don't have to read it! XL ) since there's not much else interesting (once more, in my opinion) about those stories, I'd appreciate it if these same things weren't applied to my stories. I'm not hating on anyone, just giving a kind of feedback on how to think when reading my stuff. If you want to think about how my characters or their experiences are like my life, then go right ahead, I can't stop you. Please take into account the fact that the point of my books is not to write a biography about myself (I'd write an actual bio if I really wanted to tell you about my life ;) ) but to write a book about a bunch of characters and the crazy stuff that happens to them. This also applies to my artwork. I might use myself as a reference but, by no means, are the characters supposed to represent me as I am not nearly as epic as they are. XD
And now that I'm done ranting here is a peaceful song for you to listen to if you want! ;D
Have you ever read one of those books then discussed it in class and suddenly half the class is commenting on how the author IS some character in the book? (It's mostly in college so I don't expect you to if you haven't made it there quite yet.) While it is interesting for them to compare the author to the character in the book, it has always annoyed me for some reason. I think it is because of the fact that, as a writer, if I really wanted to, I could go through all my characters and plots and melt them down to find the basic experiences in my life that I subconsciously created them from. Not only would this take a lot of time and effort, but it would once more prove the simple fact that literally all written anything is gleaned from a combination of life experiences and other books.
Yeah, it may seem kinda sad at first but it really makes sense. Maybe that's why my sister keeps telling me I should read more. :P (I probably won't though..... ;p ) The truly inspiring stories really come from a more original mix of stories and real-life experiences. That's why I dislike it when people point at some of my female characters and claim they're me. Especially Gretta Orbur because she may resemble me the most. I think it's funny how they don't see my characteristics placed in the male characters. I'd say that I'm pretty much in all my characters so there! >:D I've also used my incredible best friend and bf in much of my characters (because he's so awesome). I probably also use a whole bunch of my family members too!
This is where this blog's title comes in. "Death of the Author" was a 'movement' or something that was kinda a revolt against those (in my opinion) diluted books/stories that really were up to the reader's interpretations, and, thus, were most often connected to their author's lives. While that's all fine and dandy (so long as I don't have to read it! XL ) since there's not much else interesting (once more, in my opinion) about those stories, I'd appreciate it if these same things weren't applied to my stories. I'm not hating on anyone, just giving a kind of feedback on how to think when reading my stuff. If you want to think about how my characters or their experiences are like my life, then go right ahead, I can't stop you. Please take into account the fact that the point of my books is not to write a biography about myself (I'd write an actual bio if I really wanted to tell you about my life ;) ) but to write a book about a bunch of characters and the crazy stuff that happens to them. This also applies to my artwork. I might use myself as a reference but, by no means, are the characters supposed to represent me as I am not nearly as epic as they are. XD
And now that I'm done ranting here is a peaceful song for you to listen to if you want! ;D
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Jeesh! (movie remix song)
Sorry I've been gone/not posting lately. November's been a REALLY busy month and I haven't had much time to do really anything creative. :L Please forgive me! Q_Q ......XD
So here's a neat song that's kinda in the same movie-remixing style as Pogo. It's by Youtube username, Jeesh. Another interesting aspect about it is that it features sounds/tones from the movie Lupta's (I probably spelled that wrong :p ) Castle in the Sky. I love Studio Ghibli stuff so this made it extra awesome. Pogo has been working on a Spirited Away mix that I check on Youtube from time to time so I'll put it on here once he's done! X) My favorite part is the beginning! Enjoy (and Happy Thanksgiving!!)!
So here's a neat song that's kinda in the same movie-remixing style as Pogo. It's by Youtube username, Jeesh. Another interesting aspect about it is that it features sounds/tones from the movie Lupta's (I probably spelled that wrong :p ) Castle in the Sky. I love Studio Ghibli stuff so this made it extra awesome. Pogo has been working on a Spirited Away mix that I check on Youtube from time to time so I'll put it on here once he's done! X) My favorite part is the beginning! Enjoy (and Happy Thanksgiving!!)!
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
laksdjflkajdguoiwaeghekajfd!!!! CODY!!!!!!!!!!!
Thumbs up!
Sorry I've been gone from everything for so long!! :p I've been hard at work here at school with papers galore and other fantastic things to do for classes. ;) Now that I've basically finished/gotten back ahead I think it's time to celebrate with this adorable video I found a while ago. This kid is so cute. XD Enjoy!!!
Friday, November 2, 2012
Brok's Dubs
Happy Friday everyone!! XD These are absolutely hilarious. I found them years ago but am just now getting to them on my "What to Post on Blog" list. X}
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
;_; Star Wars and Disney
I don't know if you guys have heard but....Star Wars is officially owned by Disney now. ;_; And I can hardly believe it. It feels like someone I used to know died. Sometimes that's how I feel about Star Wars, because I write about characters that don't really get a spotlight view in the movies, games, or shows. But it's hard to believe that the person that created Commander Cody and Jango Fett....that they don't even technically belong to him anymore. :'C
The whole idea of belonging....I don't get that sometimes. Despite my apprehensions of what could happen to my characters when they go out into that big world out there (haha, they're almost like my children in a way. ^^) I've come to realize that I can't stop them. I've got to share them with others because as soon as someone cares about your character, that character is alive in them. I think some people don't get this, they throw characters around and half-create them. And the funny thing is, is that these characters still manage to find a home in the minds of people. I guess that's the problem I have with Disney. I never really got to experience anything with their characters. :L Now there are some good Disney movies (in my opinion) like Pirates of the Carribean, Fantasia, Toy Story (that's kinda Pixar's movie isn't it)...but those movies never truly satisfied me in the end. I always went away feeling like there was something missing. I feel like this often when I read books or watch movies, so I guess I'm kinda hard to please. ;)
I can get the part that he wants to retire and open the books, games, and graphic novels to be made into shows or movies, but I'm not sure that Disney will know exactly how to keep the storytelling traditions of Star Wars. I have a feeling that it's going to be very different than the Star Wars we know. :L Like he said though, it would make publishing books easier so I'm still hoping to get my books in. Xd It kinda still disturbs me to think Star Wars will become kinda of a mushy, superficial thing. Didn't mean to offend anyone or ruin anyone's day. Which, by the way, Happy Halloween! XD
The whole idea of belonging....I don't get that sometimes. Despite my apprehensions of what could happen to my characters when they go out into that big world out there (haha, they're almost like my children in a way. ^^) I've come to realize that I can't stop them. I've got to share them with others because as soon as someone cares about your character, that character is alive in them. I think some people don't get this, they throw characters around and half-create them. And the funny thing is, is that these characters still manage to find a home in the minds of people. I guess that's the problem I have with Disney. I never really got to experience anything with their characters. :L Now there are some good Disney movies (in my opinion) like Pirates of the Carribean, Fantasia, Toy Story (that's kinda Pixar's movie isn't it)...but those movies never truly satisfied me in the end. I always went away feeling like there was something missing. I feel like this often when I read books or watch movies, so I guess I'm kinda hard to please. ;)
I can get the part that he wants to retire and open the books, games, and graphic novels to be made into shows or movies, but I'm not sure that Disney will know exactly how to keep the storytelling traditions of Star Wars. I have a feeling that it's going to be very different than the Star Wars we know. :L Like he said though, it would make publishing books easier so I'm still hoping to get my books in. Xd It kinda still disturbs me to think Star Wars will become kinda of a mushy, superficial thing. Didn't mean to offend anyone or ruin anyone's day. Which, by the way, Happy Halloween! XD
Monday, October 29, 2012
CW Episode Review: TIPPING POINTS
WARNING!: contains spoilers for the Clone Wars episode Tipping Points. You may want to see this before reading on. :) Also please remember that this is my opinion and that I really love the Clone Wars and appreciate being able to watch something new with Star Wars for most of the year. :)
Wow, I'm not going to say "I told you so." because you guys probably agreed with me in my last review. This episode wasn't as blatantly lacking in intelligence as its predecessors but I could still pick apart some things in their plan that I wouldn't have done.
Like the part where they broadcast their central figures. Why on earth would you do that?! Sure the people know and love the old king and his allegiance with the rebels would get them motivated, but it could have backfired so easily. The fact that they're basing so much off of what they're hearing these rebels saying. How do the citizens know if the rebels aren't just trying to take over just so they can form a completely radical governmental system?? If I was a citizen I'd be really wary of these 'freedom fighters'. Not only are their tactics kinda haphazard, but they keep making these public announcements that give the enemy the knowledge of what their leaders look like. If they wore masks or helmets they could have avoided this problem and made this number of announcements. I'm also assuming that they have been 'bouncing' their hologram's signal so it's untraceable. Otherwise, if I were that Sep. General, I'd just bomb their random little hideout because that's where all their leaders congregate.
That brings me to my next point: Why did they keep all their leaders in one place? I could understand if it was to keep them from their hologram channels being tapped or if they were so few in number that they needed to keep close, but as this is apparently not the case I could only look at it as an extremely fatal flaw. Like in the part where all three of their 'leaders' ran off to the exact same place on the battlefield. I was like "WHAT!?" one rocket or one shot from a tank's turbolazer and they would have all been killed at once. Oh yeah, except for that one general-guy, 'cuz they didn't like him anymore for some reason and stuck him out in the way front. :P
Which, again, brings me to my next point: You NEVER demote someone like that right before a stinkin' battle. Not only did that general-guy save basically all their butts in the last episode, but that kills morale. Both his and the men he represents. It's like telling clones who trained years for battle that they're not as good as some three day trained rebels. It's like Obi-Wan just on a whim, demoting Commander freaking Cody that he's got someone better to do Cody's job. >:C I have parts in my books where Kenobi does get into a bit of a conflict with Cody (the war's coming to a close and Jedi can't be seen with beings that were bred for war, so he's got to sever his friendship with Cody. ;_; ), and just that public friction snowballs into deeper matters with the rest of the clone troopers. I digress....
Other comments include: Why wasn't Steela's head/body completely broken up from that fall? Why wasn't Ahsoka's arm torn off from that turret blast (I mean, come on! That's a bomber! It's guns are meant to mess with heavy artillery from destroyers and random people on the ground. They were such a pain in Battlefront 2!!)? Why are the tanks still so vulnerable to a few grenades??!! I liked the commando droids being more of their regular selves. And I'm actually kinda excited about the next episode because it has to do with Illum. I hope they have some amazing 'hallucinations' in those caves like the ones from Jedi Apprentice! XD Those were epic. I'm also looking forward to an episode (hopefully!) centered around Cody FOR ONCE!!!! XDDD He needs more screen time so I don't have to write another book to cover all these plot holes their leaving me with. ;D
Wow, I'm not going to say "I told you so." because you guys probably agreed with me in my last review. This episode wasn't as blatantly lacking in intelligence as its predecessors but I could still pick apart some things in their plan that I wouldn't have done.
Like the part where they broadcast their central figures. Why on earth would you do that?! Sure the people know and love the old king and his allegiance with the rebels would get them motivated, but it could have backfired so easily. The fact that they're basing so much off of what they're hearing these rebels saying. How do the citizens know if the rebels aren't just trying to take over just so they can form a completely radical governmental system?? If I was a citizen I'd be really wary of these 'freedom fighters'. Not only are their tactics kinda haphazard, but they keep making these public announcements that give the enemy the knowledge of what their leaders look like. If they wore masks or helmets they could have avoided this problem and made this number of announcements. I'm also assuming that they have been 'bouncing' their hologram's signal so it's untraceable. Otherwise, if I were that Sep. General, I'd just bomb their random little hideout because that's where all their leaders congregate.
That brings me to my next point: Why did they keep all their leaders in one place? I could understand if it was to keep them from their hologram channels being tapped or if they were so few in number that they needed to keep close, but as this is apparently not the case I could only look at it as an extremely fatal flaw. Like in the part where all three of their 'leaders' ran off to the exact same place on the battlefield. I was like "WHAT!?" one rocket or one shot from a tank's turbolazer and they would have all been killed at once. Oh yeah, except for that one general-guy, 'cuz they didn't like him anymore for some reason and stuck him out in the way front. :P
Which, again, brings me to my next point: You NEVER demote someone like that right before a stinkin' battle. Not only did that general-guy save basically all their butts in the last episode, but that kills morale. Both his and the men he represents. It's like telling clones who trained years for battle that they're not as good as some three day trained rebels. It's like Obi-Wan just on a whim, demoting Commander freaking Cody that he's got someone better to do Cody's job. >:C I have parts in my books where Kenobi does get into a bit of a conflict with Cody (the war's coming to a close and Jedi can't be seen with beings that were bred for war, so he's got to sever his friendship with Cody. ;_; ), and just that public friction snowballs into deeper matters with the rest of the clone troopers. I digress....
Other comments include: Why wasn't Steela's head/body completely broken up from that fall? Why wasn't Ahsoka's arm torn off from that turret blast (I mean, come on! That's a bomber! It's guns are meant to mess with heavy artillery from destroyers and random people on the ground. They were such a pain in Battlefront 2!!)? Why are the tanks still so vulnerable to a few grenades??!! I liked the commando droids being more of their regular selves. And I'm actually kinda excited about the next episode because it has to do with Illum. I hope they have some amazing 'hallucinations' in those caves like the ones from Jedi Apprentice! XD Those were epic. I'm also looking forward to an episode (hopefully!) centered around Cody FOR ONCE!!!! XDDD He needs more screen time so I don't have to write another book to cover all these plot holes their leaving me with. ;D
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Random Commander Cody Animation by ME!! XD
Ok, this is so random it's insane. Xp This is the product of a weekend of nothing last year. It probably took me about an hour and a half or more to do. I made this by drawing the face and then erasing the parts I was changing and drawing in new lines to show the change in the face. The lines in the background was from me trying to make a set of heads, with each slightly changing the face into a frown. However, I soon discovered that making an identical head was near impossible to do without onionskin paper (translucent paper that is kinda like tissue paper only more sturdy). :P
This is officially the first animation I've ever done in my life so it is kinda randomly.....um, weird. It's supposed to be Commander Cody frowning. The clip is very short and goes by pretty quickly so you might have to watch it a couple times to see all the different parts of his face that move. :) Have a great day! XD
|p.s| I don't really get why it stops/jerks along in the middle there. Sorry. I'm pretty sure I uploaded it in HD. :/ Also, watching it full screen helps a bit.
Check out an awesome writer's story/ideas!
As a writer, I share a great deal of her views on things. I find this very interesting and witty. Especially after reading Imagine: How Creativity Works (which, in my opinion, was very interesting at first but after a while I lost motivation to finish it. :P ) and reading about how it is almost natural for creative people to be sad/depressed sometimes (not that it's required), and that as a creative thinker I can seriously relate to some of her fears. Especially since I'm writing fanfiction which probably doesn't have a very good chance at being published. :L (but I'm still optimistic!!! I'll never know until I try!!! :D )
I think this goes to show how we as creative people (because everyone is creative if they want to be! XD ) have to learn to deal with the ups and downs of our feelings and our profession/skill as they come. We have to create our way out of them!! It really proves the power of inspiration and thought! Hope you enjoy it everyone! |p.s|And thank you all so much for all the views. You guys are amazing.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Clone Wars Episode Review: Front Runners
WARNING!: contains spoilers for the Clone Wars episode Front Runners. You may want to see this before reading on. :) Also please remember that this is my opinion and that I really love the Clone Wars and appreciate being able to watch something new with Star Wars for most of the year. :)
Ok, so if you've been following my various rampages on twitter, you probably know that so far season 5 hasn't really impressed me. The plots are just 'ok', the characters aren't really developing that much, there's a lack of intelligence in their moves, and ( most importantly) THERE ARE NO CLONES!!! >:C (for me clone centered episodes = all these things these episodes so far have been lacking.) The worst thing that has bugged me about these last few episodes about Onderon rebels has mainly been the intelligence aspect of it.
In this episode the main action is centered around blowing up a power plant. Ok, it'll take down the droids eventually, but what about everyone else?? My first thought was a hospital. If people get hurt, which they will, how the heck are they going to perform even the simplest/sanitary operation without power? How are these people--who appear to live surrounded by dry desert and forest--supposed to preserve their food stuffs?! How are they supposed to get water?!
What makes this plan work even less is the fact that if there are any fuel-powered generators, the droids will get a hold of them and even more people might get injured or die. Sorry, but if I were those people I wouldn't be cheering the rebels on if they forced me to live in derelict conditions or in constant peril. Ok, so that's the sacrifice I have to make to get the droids out, well guess what, if it means possibly killing people who don't really want to be involved is that really the means you want to get them out?
And just the way the rebels conducted themselves. Jumping out of alleyways or firing off of rooftops, it reminded me more of terrorist tactics than that of a more justice driven group! If Cody or I were to choose, we would keep our rendezvous/strikes to the night. We'd dress in all black, with black plating and nightvision goggles. We'd use our hands or silencer guns to take out the droids a few at a time. Forget about destroying hundreds of droids! When you're trying to keep hidden right under the nose of the guy who wants you dead, you better work on a smaller, more stealthy operation. One with "less noise" as Cody would say. If I was the the king I'd be like, "Well, since forensics [since that's the first thing you always do when trying to figure out your enemy!] show that half the rounds came from rooftop, might as well mount cameras all over my palace walls, place electrodes onto the rooftops, and put some snipers all over the city roofs." I don't know, maybe the king guy isn't so smart. War is just an arms race. They tear the head off of a regular battle droid, you send in only supes (super battle droids). They use the hivemind of the droids to plot an attack, you keep the routes and stations changing. They stage an all out attack on your powerplant, you steal everyone's generator, and make an example of the four random people jumping up and down in front of a burning tank. Duh. The fact that this king guy does absolutely nothing, makes me believe that he is as worthless and stupid as they come. :p If the rebels did kill him, nothing would change.
At least Dooku was smart enough to say, "You need to man up and think, dude! I'm not gonna send you droids so they can get taken out because you're not doing your part!". That's like half the problem! Sure the droids apparently can't think for themselves, but that's why the Separatists have always been very good at employing these crafty leaders! i.e. Grevious, Admiral Trench (though he isn't half as brilliant as Grevious), my OC Thestius Braken, Durge, Asajj Ventress.....
That all was just commentary up there. ^ Wishful thinking, I guess. I realize that they can't possibly pack all that reasoning into such a short amount of episodes. Maybe that's why it takes me so much thought, effort, and time thinking about my books. I want them to be reasonable. I want the characters to act like real, intelligent (or mostly intelligent beings). I want my characters to prove their prowess through their actions and plans, not through just hap-hazard planning like this.
What really burned me, what I really did not like about this episode, was when Anakin remarked that the "501st had competition" from the rebels. >80 .............. WHAT?! The 501st, that had trained since practically birth, been on hundreds of campaigns, killed a rogue Jedi, and did like a thousand epic things because they're clones and Skywalker says that?! How could you say that to a man who's saved your life!?! Ok seriously?! A bunch of rebels that only trained for literally three days is somehow better than an ENTIRE legion of CLONES!?! Is Anakin on crack?!!!! And since the 501st is pretty much the posterboys of the GAR what does that make underdog-212th? Wimpy??!! My mouth literally hung open a minute after he said that because I realized how much that comment must have hurt. If any of the other legions got wind of that, they would hurt even worse. :( I know Anakin was probably joking and Rex was quick/witty enough to just go along with it, but seriously, that Jedi needs to watch his mouth. Those rebels are over confident enough as it is! I'm just waiting for one of them to just get pummeled by a supe or something, and since they took out the power whoever it is is gonna die or get some serious infection because the antibacterial juice (basically penicillin) has turned to crap since it hasn't been refrigerated. xP They need to pull a 212th and get more humble or they're going to mess up big time.
I totally agree with Steela being the leader, and love how Rex was the first one to see that. She's the most level headed, the most skilled, and probably the one who's going to make up for what the group lacks. I pretty much hate Lux right now. I don't care that Ahsoka likes him save that it might hurt Rex. :c If she were smarter she might have realized these things but I think her character has lost a lot of intelligence after the Citadel arc. :L Maybe in this next one she'll realize what's more important. Like I said before of Lux, I really have no idea why they like each other or what is really that special about him.
The last thing I like about this arc is that it gets me into the deep-writing mood!! XD I've already written at least three pivotal scenes in my earlier Clone Wars books because of the motivation these episodes put me in. Absolutely love it. I can't think of anything I'd rather do: Writing a war novel about clones drinking peppermint tea while listening to the soundtrack from The Pacific or TSFH music........Absolute bliss. X)
Ok, so if you've been following my various rampages on twitter, you probably know that so far season 5 hasn't really impressed me. The plots are just 'ok', the characters aren't really developing that much, there's a lack of intelligence in their moves, and ( most importantly) THERE ARE NO CLONES!!! >:C (for me clone centered episodes = all these things these episodes so far have been lacking.) The worst thing that has bugged me about these last few episodes about Onderon rebels has mainly been the intelligence aspect of it.
In this episode the main action is centered around blowing up a power plant. Ok, it'll take down the droids eventually, but what about everyone else?? My first thought was a hospital. If people get hurt, which they will, how the heck are they going to perform even the simplest/sanitary operation without power? How are these people--who appear to live surrounded by dry desert and forest--supposed to preserve their food stuffs?! How are they supposed to get water?!
What makes this plan work even less is the fact that if there are any fuel-powered generators, the droids will get a hold of them and even more people might get injured or die. Sorry, but if I were those people I wouldn't be cheering the rebels on if they forced me to live in derelict conditions or in constant peril. Ok, so that's the sacrifice I have to make to get the droids out, well guess what, if it means possibly killing people who don't really want to be involved is that really the means you want to get them out?
And just the way the rebels conducted themselves. Jumping out of alleyways or firing off of rooftops, it reminded me more of terrorist tactics than that of a more justice driven group! If Cody or I were to choose, we would keep our rendezvous/strikes to the night. We'd dress in all black, with black plating and nightvision goggles. We'd use our hands or silencer guns to take out the droids a few at a time. Forget about destroying hundreds of droids! When you're trying to keep hidden right under the nose of the guy who wants you dead, you better work on a smaller, more stealthy operation. One with "less noise" as Cody would say. If I was the the king I'd be like, "Well, since forensics [since that's the first thing you always do when trying to figure out your enemy!] show that half the rounds came from rooftop, might as well mount cameras all over my palace walls, place electrodes onto the rooftops, and put some snipers all over the city roofs." I don't know, maybe the king guy isn't so smart. War is just an arms race. They tear the head off of a regular battle droid, you send in only supes (super battle droids). They use the hivemind of the droids to plot an attack, you keep the routes and stations changing. They stage an all out attack on your powerplant, you steal everyone's generator, and make an example of the four random people jumping up and down in front of a burning tank. Duh. The fact that this king guy does absolutely nothing, makes me believe that he is as worthless and stupid as they come. :p If the rebels did kill him, nothing would change.
At least Dooku was smart enough to say, "You need to man up and think, dude! I'm not gonna send you droids so they can get taken out because you're not doing your part!". That's like half the problem! Sure the droids apparently can't think for themselves, but that's why the Separatists have always been very good at employing these crafty leaders! i.e. Grevious, Admiral Trench (though he isn't half as brilliant as Grevious), my OC Thestius Braken, Durge, Asajj Ventress.....
That all was just commentary up there. ^ Wishful thinking, I guess. I realize that they can't possibly pack all that reasoning into such a short amount of episodes. Maybe that's why it takes me so much thought, effort, and time thinking about my books. I want them to be reasonable. I want the characters to act like real, intelligent (or mostly intelligent beings). I want my characters to prove their prowess through their actions and plans, not through just hap-hazard planning like this.
What really burned me, what I really did not like about this episode, was when Anakin remarked that the "501st had competition" from the rebels. >80 .............. WHAT?! The 501st, that had trained since practically birth, been on hundreds of campaigns, killed a rogue Jedi, and did like a thousand epic things because they're clones and Skywalker says that?! How could you say that to a man who's saved your life!?! Ok seriously?! A bunch of rebels that only trained for literally three days is somehow better than an ENTIRE legion of CLONES!?! Is Anakin on crack?!!!! And since the 501st is pretty much the posterboys of the GAR what does that make underdog-212th? Wimpy??!! My mouth literally hung open a minute after he said that because I realized how much that comment must have hurt. If any of the other legions got wind of that, they would hurt even worse. :( I know Anakin was probably joking and Rex was quick/witty enough to just go along with it, but seriously, that Jedi needs to watch his mouth. Those rebels are over confident enough as it is! I'm just waiting for one of them to just get pummeled by a supe or something, and since they took out the power whoever it is is gonna die or get some serious infection because the antibacterial juice (basically penicillin) has turned to crap since it hasn't been refrigerated. xP They need to pull a 212th and get more humble or they're going to mess up big time.
I totally agree with Steela being the leader, and love how Rex was the first one to see that. She's the most level headed, the most skilled, and probably the one who's going to make up for what the group lacks. I pretty much hate Lux right now. I don't care that Ahsoka likes him save that it might hurt Rex. :c If she were smarter she might have realized these things but I think her character has lost a lot of intelligence after the Citadel arc. :L Maybe in this next one she'll realize what's more important. Like I said before of Lux, I really have no idea why they like each other or what is really that special about him.
The last thing I like about this arc is that it gets me into the deep-writing mood!! XD I've already written at least three pivotal scenes in my earlier Clone Wars books because of the motivation these episodes put me in. Absolutely love it. I can't think of anything I'd rather do: Writing a war novel about clones drinking peppermint tea while listening to the soundtrack from The Pacific or TSFH music........Absolute bliss. X)
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Clone Wars Episode Review: A War on Two Fronts
WARNING!! : The following contains a review of the titled Clone Wars episode. If you have not seen it you may want to watch it before reading on. :)
I thought the new CW episode was ok. Finally, it had a clone in it. My question still remains *in batman voice*: WHERE IS CODY!!!? I know they just want me to write more to fill in these places *sarcasm*, but I was sad last season because we didn't even get to see his face! X'C What is he doing on his own? Do I seriously need to write another book to fill all this in??! It was an ok episode, I felt like there was some plot holes that, ironically, I cover in my books. Like how the droids found them because their drop ship dropped them off close to where the rebel base is. I was like, "Duh!" right away because in my book Cody makes a point to land like a few HUNDRED miles away so he doesn't jeopardize the people he's supposed to help!! Sure you have to walk a ways but "if you do it smart, then you don't have to worry about another plan". I guess that's the main problem I have with some of the CW episodes: they kinda sacrifice the intelligence of the characters for an ok story. :L I think the intelligence of the characters sometimes makes the story good. Maybe that's why they had to leave Cody behind. He'd be too smart and they'd still be on their way to the rebel base. X) So in that way I'm glad they left him behind because I'd hate him to be like, "Oh sure." to their plan.
Cody would also be the guy to give Lux and that one leader guy a serious talk about getting along. You can't have people squabbling in your regiment or the whole your whole operation is in jeopardy. I don't mean to complain but the thing between Lux and Ahsoka is getting annoying. Xp I don't even really understand why they like eachother that much. Ok, so they talked and had a debate in one episode and after that they liked each other. I liked the idea of Rex and Ahsoka better. They had actually known each other for more than an episode and had been through a lot of stuff together. I'm pretty sure Rex had a sad/slightly jealous look on his face when Ahsoka was giving Lux the goo-goo eyes at the end of the episode. The poor clone gets no love, save from his fangirls. X) And Cody gets even less. DX
I liked the creatures in this episode. It seems like they've been adding more culture and flavor to the Clone Wars, which is exactly how it is! XD <3 I love seeing all the different architecture and flora and fauna. Now for the actual cultures themselves! I want to see some cultural beliefs, some culture-based rules or speculations! :D Like 'Jedi are really sorcerers' or that 'such-and-such is a bad omen so we can't go out fighting today'. Personally, (I know this is getting really digressive and long for something on twitter) I think that the Jedi are kinda like missionaries from the old days. They're kinda disillusioned and don't quite understand the culture. They have the right intentions but are kinda pushing their views on the people, and not taking into account the native's beliefs or reasoning. There are a million things that could be a fault why the people are hesitant about doing something. Example: Maybe by killing people from their planet they'd be committing an offense to the earth spirit or something. Because the Jedi never think to ask, they'll never know this. This being something that could tear their people apart and break a traditional peacekeeping mechanism...*sigh*That's all I've got to say.
I thought the new CW episode was ok. Finally, it had a clone in it. My question still remains *in batman voice*: WHERE IS CODY!!!? I know they just want me to write more to fill in these places *sarcasm*, but I was sad last season because we didn't even get to see his face! X'C What is he doing on his own? Do I seriously need to write another book to fill all this in??! It was an ok episode, I felt like there was some plot holes that, ironically, I cover in my books. Like how the droids found them because their drop ship dropped them off close to where the rebel base is. I was like, "Duh!" right away because in my book Cody makes a point to land like a few HUNDRED miles away so he doesn't jeopardize the people he's supposed to help!! Sure you have to walk a ways but "if you do it smart, then you don't have to worry about another plan". I guess that's the main problem I have with some of the CW episodes: they kinda sacrifice the intelligence of the characters for an ok story. :L I think the intelligence of the characters sometimes makes the story good. Maybe that's why they had to leave Cody behind. He'd be too smart and they'd still be on their way to the rebel base. X) So in that way I'm glad they left him behind because I'd hate him to be like, "Oh sure." to their plan.
Cody would also be the guy to give Lux and that one leader guy a serious talk about getting along. You can't have people squabbling in your regiment or the whole your whole operation is in jeopardy. I don't mean to complain but the thing between Lux and Ahsoka is getting annoying. Xp I don't even really understand why they like eachother that much. Ok, so they talked and had a debate in one episode and after that they liked each other. I liked the idea of Rex and Ahsoka better. They had actually known each other for more than an episode and had been through a lot of stuff together. I'm pretty sure Rex had a sad/slightly jealous look on his face when Ahsoka was giving Lux the goo-goo eyes at the end of the episode. The poor clone gets no love, save from his fangirls. X) And Cody gets even less. DX
I liked the creatures in this episode. It seems like they've been adding more culture and flavor to the Clone Wars, which is exactly how it is! XD <3 I love seeing all the different architecture and flora and fauna. Now for the actual cultures themselves! I want to see some cultural beliefs, some culture-based rules or speculations! :D Like 'Jedi are really sorcerers' or that 'such-and-such is a bad omen so we can't go out fighting today'. Personally, (I know this is getting really digressive and long for something on twitter) I think that the Jedi are kinda like missionaries from the old days. They're kinda disillusioned and don't quite understand the culture. They have the right intentions but are kinda pushing their views on the people, and not taking into account the native's beliefs or reasoning. There are a million things that could be a fault why the people are hesitant about doing something. Example: Maybe by killing people from their planet they'd be committing an offense to the earth spirit or something. Because the Jedi never think to ask, they'll never know this. This being something that could tear their people apart and break a traditional peacekeeping mechanism...*sigh*That's all I've got to say.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
How To Draw a Head (Like me! :D *insert TDK Joker voice *)
Wondering how I draw heads?? Want to learn how I draw heads to my characters???! We'll let's start!! :D Here's a few tips, tricks, and steps to draw a head!
One thing to keep in mind, is that the way I draw or think about things and the way you might draw or think about things are probably different. I'm basically a self-taught artist so what I do to sketch things is not necessarily by the books. (Though I did pick up some techniques and hints from various drawing books and artists.) Therefore I will apologize ahead of time if you become completely confused or your drawing (if you're sketching along) doesn't turn out quite like mine. That's the point though--to draw something that's unique to the way you think. The main thing is to have FUN!! XD [Picture examples are beneath the step they're describing.]
Ok, STEP 1: Before I even pick up my pencil I have already formed an image of what I want to draw in my mind. I think this is one of the most important steps simply because without using imagination my drawings would lack the thought that makes them interesting (to me at least ;) and fun to draw. And the more you imagine what you really want to draw, the more details you can add the better! Details, for me, are a big thing and I go a little overboard sometimes. X7
STEP 2: Now that you've got a good idea of what you're going to draw, go ahead and draw a circle. As you can (barely ]:L ) see I made this a very light circle (using a 4h pencil, but you can use any pencil you want as long as you draw lightly). While we're talking about light lines, I think it would be useful if I recommended that you make all the lines light at first. Not only does this help with erasing should you make a mistake, but these are all 'primary' lines--meaning that they are just for the layout and will probably be darkened later.
STEP 3: Like step 2, draw an equally light line vertically down the center of the circle. Or you can put it however you see the face turned as this is the center line in which the nose will lie. As you can see, mine is slightly off center, meaning that his face is turned slightly to our right.
STEP 4: Next draw the jaw and cheeks / sides of face. If your drawing's face is off center as mine is, you will have one more angled side (the jaw) than the other. If not, then your sketch should have both sides smooth arc-like lines for cheeks.
STEP 5: Next, draw a line where you envision the brows to lie.
STEP 6: There are several things going on in this step. One, draw circles were you have the ear(s). If your head is turned like mine is, then you will probably only see one ear. Then draw the hair line. This just where, if your sketch's face had a short haircut, you would see their hair end and the skin on the forehead start. I always do this to make sure I don't put their hair up too high or too low (as I often do :p ). I typically draw three to six little lines to mark the different 'corners' where the character's hair follows. (You may have to look closely to spot where I put this in my drawing as this is kinda hard to see, since the picture is so light. :L Sorry.)
STEP 6: Begin shaping the jaw corner and cheek (This is kinda one of those steps where it doesn't really matter when you do it so long as it's before you darken all the lines.). For this one, think about how you want to draw your character's face. What shape do you want to make it? Since this is a clone, I made his jaw a little sqaurer and his cheekbone (just below where I'm about to put the eye) stand out more. Like I said, it all depends on how you uniquely designed your character. ;)
STEP 7: Continue darkening (slightly, encase you make a mistake) the line along your character's jaw, chin, and cheek(s). Depending on where you imagined the sketch's head turned, you may see the top of the ear or just the side. Since my drawing's face is slightly turned I see the top of the ear a little (that funny little turn of skin, you know) but the parts of the ear closer to me will appear larger, hence why one doesn't see the back of the ear.
STEP 8: Next, draw that little weird triangle of cartilage that's under that little ridge of skin we just drew for the top of the ear. Next draw the nose. What I do to draw a nose is first I start with the bridge of the nose, just between the eyes, right on that center line we drew earlier. Then we follow that line until just past the bottom of that circle we drew to form the tip of the nose. Depending on whether your character is male of female, the nose may be completely different than mine (clones tend to have broader noses ;). Just remember that most noses aren't extremely pointy, there is a certain point where it rounds at the end. Noses are just one of those things that take practice and observation to get the hang of. :)
Draw where you imagine the tops of the brows to lie. Also this depends on whether your character is male of female and how you imagined the shape of their eyebrows to look. Clones tend to have an angled brow that is raised where the bone of the forehead slopes aside to the temple. Like step 6, it doesn't really matter which of these steps go first. However, I like to do the tops of the brows first so I can get a good feel for where the nose should lie.
STEP 9: Next, draw the tops of the eyes. I typically use a straight line that's tapered downwards in varying degrees at the ends for the tops of my characters' eyes. Males tend to have more square eyes where females have more round eyes. The shape of the eyes will also depend on the expression on your character's face. I imagined my clone's face has kind of a serious/focused expression on it so his eyes won't be too terribly wide since his brows are furrowed. Notice I've also connected those little dashes to complete his hairline and darkened around his ear more with the 4h pencil. You can also see that I've added that a slightly slanted line from the back of his head to the edge of the hairline. That's to mark where the line from shorter to longer hair length in his military haircut is.
STEP 10: Then I drew the bottom of his eyes and the pupils. Notice the little circle towards the upper right of each eye? That's the spot I'll leave white when I shade in his eyes. Depending on where you imagined your light-source this spot may be different. At this point I've also erased the 'guide/primary lines'.
STEP 11: Now I've finished in the bottom of his eyebrows. I've also drawn in his lips. Lips were soooo hard for me to draw because I would always make my male character's lips look too feminine. :/ The secret is to draw one half then the other. First I drew the left hand side, curving and shading upwards ever so slightly, before doing the right hand side. The bottom lip is just a little dash, slightly thicker in the middle, a little ways under the dip in the upper lip. Sorry if this part is kinda hard to understand, I should do a lips tutorial to explain this better. X)
STEP 12: Here a perfect example of why it's good to draw lightly first, I messed up his chin. 8C OH NOOOO! Thank God for Mars plastic erasers!!!! As you can see I made his chin/face too long. Luckily it was an easy fix. All I had to do was erase the parts below the bottom of his nose.
From the lines I drew off to the side, you can see the rough estimation one may use to gauge proper placement for the top of the head, brows, eyes, bottom of the nose, mouth, and chin. I'm bad at thinking in things mathematically, being more of a 'if it looks right, then it's good' person, but this might help you see where I went wrong before.
STEP 13: Next, I've added some additional lines to his face such as cheek bones/jaw muscle and that odd little ridge between the temple and the edge of the forehead. These lines are to make the face look a bit more 3 dimensional and do help when one has reached the final shading process.
STEP 14: Now I've drawn in the neck. This is just two lines that taper depending on how your sketch's head is turned. Since mine is kinda sideways, I drew the lines at the corner of the chine and a little past the corner of the jawbone. Cody is sort of a muscular guy so his neck naturally will be a bit more filled out. This is an important thing to consider when drawing your character as the amount of muscle will affect the shape of their face and body. Girls will tend to have thinner necks (unless their a little on the heavy side).
STEP 15: Now I've darkened the most of the lines except some of the expression lines (between his brows and above the upper 'slope' of muscle above his eyebrows), the and the line of his skull on the edge of his forehead. Like I said before, this all depends on the makeup of your character. If they are young and muscular like Cody, then they may have visible muscles like his. Most of the time they do have some muscular lines apparent when there's an expression on their face, but sometimes it's in different places or not as visible. Just something to keep in mind. :)
STEP 16: Ok, here I've shaded in his eye brows and draw in the lines for his neck. For the eyebrows I just used the base shade I wanted them to be as I'll add detail later. With the neck I drew a horizontal line to show the edge of the neck of his bodyglove (that skin tight black fabric the clones wear), and two slanted, vertical lines for his neck muscle. If you look at your own neck, you may see two lines like this on either side of where your adam's apple is. These are muscles that help your head turn from side to side or look up and down. Just put your hand on the side of the neck and move your head, you will feel the muscle tensing and relaxing. I draw these lines to help me remember where this muscle is when I shade his neck later. Like the other muscles you have drawn, the placement and structure of these neck muscles will change depending on what position you draw your character's head to be in. And whether they're male or female.
STEP 17: Now comes one of my favorite parts: the eyes!!! XD I always try to picture eyes as liquid so when I draw them I want the light to move through them. I do this by first shading the uppermost part of the eye along that top line of the eyelid. If you look at your own eye you will probably notice that there is a shadow below your eyelid. This is because the eyelid is blocking some of the light so I'll shade this area heavily. Again, depending on where your light source is and how the head is turned the width of this first shading will change (thicker or thinner).
See how I've done this in the picture below? It's just a set of lines that are very close together/overlapping. I've even done a technique where you shade very lightly first and then shade each layer darker to the eyelid. I guess whatever technique works for you, use it. :)
STEP 18: Here you can see how I erased the (our) right side of his forehead to make this brow not so large and swollen looking. If he was a caveman I might have left it the way it was but since Cody's brow is more angular, I chose to reduce the size of it. ;D Some characters might have cavemen brows so if that's your character then go right ahead and leave it! :) I guess I could liken drawing to pottery: you continue molding your work as you go along. As you can see, I've also shaded in his other eye--following the same light-to-dark as his other eye.
STEP 19: Yay!! Time for my second favorite thing to draw!: hair!!! X) Since Cody has short hair I'm going to draw it by drawing lines that kinda swoop upwards. If his hair was wet, I might draw more horizontal lines to give the effect of his hair being damp and lying more closely to his head. But since it's dry I'm going to stick with these vertical slants. (see arrow) To give the impression of there being individual hairs try to draw the lines with slight spacing and shading variation. When you do this it tends also give the effect of layers and dimension.
Ok, so Cody really has wavy hair but since it's so short we can't really tell that save for the direction it's pointing. If your character has longer hair or curly hair you may want to draw more of a swirling pattern with the direction the lines are pointing. Sorry, that sounds really cryptic. I should really do a how to draw tutorial for each of these features (mouth, nose, hair...). ;P
See how I'm drawing a lighter, more tight set of lines for the shorter hair on the side of his army cut? (arrow is pointing to what I'm talking about)
To add perspective, I put another set of lines around the edge of his head to show where the light is and the curvature of the skull. The second (see second arrow) shade is only a bit lighter and falls directly below the first, darker shade.
By now I've also darkened his eyebrows to the way I want them. This is drawing little vertically slanted lines within where I had already shaded in. This technique gives the eyebrow the appearance of actually being made of hair instead of just a block of shadow or something.
STEP 20: here I've begun to work on that black bodyglove that's on his neck. Since it is smooth and form fitting it must follow the contours of his neck. To imply the smooth texture of the fabric I've drawn the lines close together and relatively the same pressure applied to each stroke so it's more flowing (see arrow). As you can see I've begun to shade in the body glove, following the natural curve of his neck and muscles. To show where I know to draw more lightly to give the effect of light reflecting off the more raised areas of his neck, I've drawn these three light circles as guides (see rightmost arrow). I typically don't draw those circles there but for your sake, so you can kinda see what I'm imagining. :)
Yay! You're finally done! :D ....Unless you wanted to go all out and shade in your character's face. Then again, why not! I tend to use a light pencil and the technique of shading with lines close together, then going over with a blending tortillion for a smoother look. Just keep drawing until it's exactly/close to how you imagined it. :)
Then you may become as insane as me (*insert Joker laugh here* :) and draw nonstop!! X3
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
My Minecraft Adventures! --Tandem
Sorry I haven't been posting anything lately, I've been pretty busy with school. Last week I had three exams. Oh well, now I'm back! :D
Here's a world that's become my "roller-coaster" world. I call it Tandem. I was just messing around with how to create a world with numbers and got this. (sorry I didn't write down the number. :[ ) This screenshot is a little old, but you can see at least part of the main mountainous region that Tandem makes up. I'm using Glimmar's Steampunk texture pack at that moment (I just love the packs that have the neat glowstone skin like the one in my hand). Hope you enjoy this meager little tidbit of blogging! :D Now I must get back to reading psychology.
Here's a world that's become my "roller-coaster" world. I call it Tandem. I was just messing around with how to create a world with numbers and got this. (sorry I didn't write down the number. :[ ) This screenshot is a little old, but you can see at least part of the main mountainous region that Tandem makes up. I'm using Glimmar's Steampunk texture pack at that moment (I just love the packs that have the neat glowstone skin like the one in my hand). Hope you enjoy this meager little tidbit of blogging! :D Now I must get back to reading psychology.
Friday, September 28, 2012
The Ultimate Dark Knight Trilogy Trailer
Ok, this is pretty awesome! Imagine (the fire X) all the greatest clips from the movies, all the most epic lines, all the greatest characters put together.....this is what you get. XD Sheer awesomeness. The only thing that could have possibly been improved on was more of the epic scenes from The Dark Knight Rises, but that hasn't come out on DVD yet so those clips are still unavailable. Still I think it's a great cumulative trailer mix. My favorite part is the "Not everything....not yet......not yet." at the end. Look for it! It's soooo cool. X3
Thursday, September 27, 2012
And in case you were too sad from that last video.....
Ok, I was so sad after that last video (there was tears and everything ;_;) that I just had to cheer everyone up with a cooking with Heavy video. Includes flames and bread being stuck to a large human's head. X) Hahahahahahahaha!
Poor Batman :'C
This is probably one of the saddest things I've seen in a Batman show. Though I haven't seen the entire episode, mostly because I don't like it when anyone else is Batman save for Bruce, these two clips hit me really hard. One of the top comments on the page was "It was a gun that began Batman and a gun that ended him." Just really sad. And in advent of the great Nolan movie, I think this really is an excellent set up for my review of The Dark Knight Rises. :) / T.T
(I don't know why it's not showing up on my youtube list: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTmfnK6XDiA )
(I don't know why it's not showing up on my youtube list: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTmfnK6XDiA )
Monday, September 24, 2012
Babyman!
Ever liked the beat and melody of a pop song but not the wording? Well here's your chance to hear the lyrics of Lady Gaga's 'Pokerface' replaced with random things Heavy (from Team Fortress 2) says. Hope you get a laugh out of it like I did! xD (and Heavy's face is priceless in this too :)
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Zubatman
What do you get when you cross Batman with Pokemon? THIS!! xD A funny video spoof on Batman TAS (the animated series). Hope you enjoy!
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Mark of Zorro
I feel like Bruce Wayne watching this. Interesting take on the story. :) Some random music in there too.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
General Grevious Drawing from "How to Draw CW" book! :D
Here's that you probably saw in my 'Works in Progress' post a while back. Well, it's finally finished! Here is General Grevious in all his menacing glory! X) The only thing I would change would be his eyes. I really wanted to capture that loathing stare he had and for some reason couldn't really get it right. :L My pencil was beginning to show up even after I erased the eyes multiple times so I decided to just keep it the way it was at the moment. Better luck next time! :7 Anyways, hope you enjoy it! He was a lot of fun to draw (and kinda difficult too), but it was easier to get an understanding with the shape of his machinery by using the "How to Draw.." book.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
My Minecraft Adventures! --Part 2!! Starting Templar
Here's some screenshots of one of my latest worlds I've created. I've called it Templar. I downloaded the Glimmar's Steampunk texture pack, so the mobs (various creatures like spiders or zombies) all are steampunk now. Even the villagers are steampunk which is really fun too! :D The random building was built at my spawnpoint (the first place you arrive at when you start the world). It's called Arcwood and is built around about 3 trees. I play creative mode because I like flying around and sparing the lives of the numerous chickens. X) Hope you enjoy!
The exterior of Arcwood.
The first thing you see when you walk through the door. I placed some pistons shortly inside the doorway at the beginning of the walkway. This is what they look like after you activate them via a lever.
The crafting room. Those metal looking things are actually jack-o-lanterns (I think they're supposed to resemble old diving helmets), I thought they looked cool so I added them to the room. The crafting table itself has moving gears and lights!
Creeeepy zombies! There are actually about four different 'types' of zombies with this texture pack. This happens to be the half-n-half one. There is a three fourths of the way rotten one and various automaton looking ones.
Yes, my minecraft skin is Commander Cody and yes, he is wearing a 'leather cap' complete with brass goggles. X)
Feeding the clockwork wolves. :)
Huge chasm that reminded me of Joker's grin. X3
Steampunk spider!
The exterior of Arcwood.
The first thing you see when you walk through the door. I placed some pistons shortly inside the doorway at the beginning of the walkway. This is what they look like after you activate them via a lever.
Continuing on along the walkway, the main tree (left trunk) that I've build the house around. I've added some of the cool torches around the trunk and some bamboo off to the side (just because I like the way it looks :).
The crafting room. Those metal looking things are actually jack-o-lanterns (I think they're supposed to resemble old diving helmets), I thought they looked cool so I added them to the room. The crafting table itself has moving gears and lights!
This is the hall one takes to get to the crafting room. It spans over three trees, hence the name Arcwood. :)
The random 'bedroom' (if you could even call it that. :p It's more like a loft.) with the awesome steampunk bed!
Creeeepy zombies! There are actually about four different 'types' of zombies with this texture pack. This happens to be the half-n-half one. There is a three fourths of the way rotten one and various automaton looking ones.
Yes, my minecraft skin is Commander Cody and yes, he is wearing a 'leather cap' complete with brass goggles. X)
Feeding the clockwork wolves. :)
Huge chasm that reminded me of Joker's grin. X3
Two automaton villagers. Note, one is a librarian.
Steampunk spider!
I found a total of three dungeons so far on Templar, all of them in a dessert, and one that was only buried by a single layer of sand.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)