Vandred

(This image is from funimation.com)

I have just finished watching the Anime series Vandred on Netflix. It is a science fiction, comedy, adventure about three men from a planet of all men getting kidnapped by a ship of all female space pirates. Just as the description sounds, it gets to be very interesting to watch. There are some interesting episodes and situations that come up in this series.

However, this series at times seemed to be lacking. There are times when the dialogue is way too complex, and certain situations don't ever seem to get resolved. I think there might have been a lot in the manga that the anime didn't include.

Also, at times I don't really care for all of the space battles being done with computer animation while the rest of the show is done with 2D animation. Movies and shows usually are better when everything looks like it belongs in the same universe. Sure this is partially a comedy, but the space battles are usually the more serious parts of the show, and it just seems odd.

There have been worse and better anime that I have seen.

Page 6 of Webcomic is Up

The next page of my Zheph Skyre web comic is up on the site. Also, there have been some improvements to the navigation, like the title image is also a link to the newest page. There are still some pages I have yet to edit, like the fan art page and the archive. The web comic has yet to develop for those things.

Today we Zheph Skyre taking a grenade of some sort out of his pocket in order to take care of the pesky knights who are chasing him. What exactly will this device do? You will find out next time...

Perhaps I should have drawn in some more detail on the last panel, or blurred out the background a little more.

Magic The Gathering: Rotation

I just came home from playing in another Magic the Gathering Type 2 tournament. Unfortunately I did not do as well as I would have hoped for. Also, there were a very large number of players, so
 there were 5 rounds insted of four which was a little tiring.

I know early in October, there will be a rotation for what editions are allowed in Type 2. The Scars of Mirrodin block, which includes Mirrodin Besieged and New Phyrexia, will be banned at that time. I find that unfortunate because I have collected quite a few cards from that block, and my current deck is focused on that block. Not to mention that this block provided some interesting abilities that I have doubts we will see again. I am constructing a new deck for the shift, but I am just sad that my current deck that I spent a while to make won't be usable in these tournaments.

Oh well, it will be interesting to try this different deck. It might do better than my current deck, though I am not certain. I will have to complete the new deck before that scedualed time.

Zheph Skyre Page 5

I have uploaded page five to my Zheph Skyre web comic. I know most of these pages so far have been somewhat serious, but I am going to have some pages with comedy in them. I like the Anime stories that have characters that can be serious at times, but then react to regular life situations in a funny manner.

In my web comic before this, I had introduced the Captain of the Knights within the narrative text, but again, I think I should introduce things more progressively instead of all at once. I may need to change his name before I reveal it depending on how I feel about it.

Kirby's Return to Dreamland

(This image is from en.wikipedia.org)

I have just finished Rayman Origins recently. It was a lot of fun. I have just began to play Kirby Returns to Dreamland, and I have also been enjoying this game immensely.

Yeah I know, it is a little weird for a full grown adult to like a video game with a pink, cute character, however this game is very entertaining. The only games I have only played with Kirby before this one were the Super Smash Brothers games and Kirby's Epic Yarn, so I don't have much experience with this specific character. Even though this character can pretty much just hover around endlessly, they still made this game challenging at times with the mechanics and the multitude of abilities you can harness are just amazing.

I liked playing as this character in the Super Smash Brothers games because even though he is light, he can copy other characters and he has a few interesting moves of his own.

There were a few parts of Kirby's Epic Yarn that I liked, but it doesn't nearly hold up to this game. Sure Kirby can transform in his previous game, but there were plenty of problems with it. Collecting beads was just weird, especially since the only negative effect of getting hit was losing a good number of your beads like Sonic when he loses his rings. The Beads are able to unlock certain things if you collect enough of them, but it is not much of anything special. You can never die in Kirby's Epic Yarn, which sort of makes it seem ridiculous that you never have to start over in a level and can just allow the bad guys to hit you endlessly. It helped in some of the boss fights, but boss fights should not be that ridiculous to beat.

In Kirby's Return to Dreamland, I really like the power ups at certain parts of certain stages that pretty much allow you to demolish everything in the stage. As you can see on the cover of the game, Kirby wields a giant sword several times his size, which is one of the special powers. It is hilarious and awesome to swing these massive blades, summon a giant dragon made of fire, turn into a giant rolling snowball, or even create a giant sphere of magic that you can send floating in any direction.

I have not tried multiplayer mode yet with anyone, but I look forward to seeing the mechanics for Metaknight and King Dedede. I don't get why there is this character called Waddle Dee. Honestly, he looks like a character no one really wants to be. You can play multiplayer with four different color Kirby characters, but I would like to see the different characters.

Holden Days & Art Lot

(This image is from townofholden.net)

The town of Holden will be holding the 33rd annual "Holden Days" August 25th along a portion of Main Street. I will try to get a table at the Art Lot in order to sell my artwork. I am hoping to split the table with the Art Committee of Genesis Club in Worcester. I think it would be a great opportunity for us to at least get some publicity. I will at least bring the canvases, puzzles, and framed image I am trying to sell on Etsy.com as well as some flyers for my webcomic, some prints of my work, my business cards, and my portfolio to show. Obviously I won't need a 20 by 10 or even a 10 by 10 foot space for my own artwork, so that is why I hope to share the space with other people. Also, sharing a space will allow us to take turns watching the table and explore the grounds.

There is plenty that goes on during Holden Days. Many stands are set up for local businesses to hand out flyers and possibly candy, to sell a wide arrangement of items, to sell food, and raffles. Even the library will be selling old books for a dollar or less. It is at least reasonable to explore for about an hour or so.

Page 4 of Zheph Skyre is Up!

Here is page four of Zheph Skyre. On this page Zheph is just explaining a few details about the city called Corthon. Before I tried explaining a lot more about the city in the comic, but it seemed to be way too much of explaination too quickly. Other details about Corthon will be explained at a better pace.

Brave

(This image is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_%282012_film%29)

I went to see the new Pixar movie "Brave" the other night with a good friend. I really liked it, even though there were some other films by Pixar that were better. I was afraid this film would resemble certain other films with the same theme of "women should have equal rights," but this film stands as it is. As I watched this, I suddenly recalled that Disney did a movie with someone turning into a bear, but I know from rumors that this film was much better. I have a feeling that Pixar made this film in response to DreamWorks producing "How to Train Your Dragon," but I think both films were really good.

This movie had a lot of good humor, and took computer animation to new heights. I found it surprising sometimes of how far this film would go with it's humor. I have a feeling Pixar might come out with a PG-13 movie at some point, and I think that would be cool.

I have been a fan of Pixar's work for some time, except for the "Cars" which I refuse to see because it doesn't make sense to make a computer animated film about living cars. Vehicles have very limited movement capabilities as it is, and it seems ridiculous to make a film about them after making movies about bugs, living toys, robots, super heroes, and other great stories.

I have not seen "The Dark Knight Rises" yet. I might see it, though I heard it wasn't as good as the other two movies. There are still some other movies I want to see this summer.

Page Three of the Zheph Skyre Webcomic is Up

The next page of my Zheph Skyre webcomic is up. Here we have the main character introduced riding a strange, steam-punk vehicle. I based this vehicle that balances on one wheel from a picture of such a vehicle that may actually be produced I found online. I decided to use it for this storyline because it seemed interesting to me.

He is wearing a helmet for safety reasons, and I wanted to have a different panel where you see his face.

I may use this free $100 in Google advertising soon for this webcomic. I can not promote my portfolio page business wise, but the web comic has potential in that sense. The only question is how I might be able to gain advertisements on my webcomic website from other businesses. I would prefer not to have advertisements on my website which usually annoys people, but I want to start making money for my webcomic and the store is far from sustainable right now.

Connecticon 2012: Part 2

Here we have the program booklet for Connecticon 2012. I have no idea why there are only two characters from Japanese Anime while all of the others are entirely American cartoons.

There were numerous panels that I went to including a little bit of Anime Unscripted which was an improv show that was humorous.

I did check out the AMV contest, which had some decent Anime Music Videos, but I have seen much better.

I checked out parts of the Masquerade which had some decent costumes and some funny skits. I almost missed the Masquerade because I was waiting for the Questions and Answers with That Guy With the Glasses, but there were so many people waiting in line for that panel on Saturday that they had to have a second one in the main auditorium that could seat far more people. I found that extraordinary that Doug Walker agreed to it despite having to catch a plane right after the convention.

I went to Creating Indie Games, Creator's Roundtable and even Webseries Roundtable. All of these had some interesting tidbits that could help me out with figuring out what I can and should do with my talent.

I saw the panel for 50 Years of Anime Openings. It had a lot of Anime openings that I already knew of and some others that I found interesting.

I even went to the Dominic Deegan Questions and Answers panel. The webcomic is really cool, and it was interesting to find out what the creator was planning to do after the series ends in about ten months.

There were a lot of other panels I went to which were interesting. I did not go to the dance because I heard it was like a rave and it was more annoying than fun.

Tomorrow I will post the next page to my webcomic!

Connecticon 2012: Part 1

I had an awesome time at Connecticon! There were a bunch of panels I went to, a few special items I bought, a bunch of awesome people I met, and some interesting things to see. The only thing that I didn't like was the food at the cafe. It was overpriced cheap food. At least there was a food court connected to the Haynes Convention Center at Anime Boston, so you had a good verity of tasty food to choose from. Oh well, at least there were venders who sold some Japanese snacks. I will definably try looking up some places to eat if I do go to Connecticon again.

Here is a cosplayer dressed up as Canti from FLCL. It is one of the only Canti cosplayers I have ever seen and they did a good job.

Here Team Four Star and Doug Walker are reading a passage from the erotic book "50 Shades of Gray" in numerous hilarious voices at the over 18 panel for Team Four Star. The video will be posted on That Guy With the Glasses at some point.

Honestly, there was no need to separate the over 18 panels from the rest. No one restricted themselves from swearing at times and there was never any pornographic material shown.

I liked the fact that this con was smaller than Anime Boston, though I heard that the attendance was over 10,00 people.

Zheph Skyre: Page 2

I have returned from Connecticon! However, I won't go into much detail about it until tomorrow. Today I have posted the next page in my Zheph Skyre web comic.

This page is a closer view of the city called Corthon, and some of the inhabitants who live there. What you see in the last panel won't be revealed until Thursday, unless if I post it Wednesday which might be a possibility. It depends on how many pages I can get finished within my schedule.

The green on the outside of the panels is just to go along with the previous page. When the pages are printed out onto paper, it will make more sense.

I also have another item available in my Etsy store. I am selling some magnetic puzzles.

Page 1 is Here!

I have the first page of my revised Zheph Skyre web comic up. Hopefully I can set a schedule of 2 pages up per week on Mondays and Thursdays at the very least. That means I should have the next page uploaded on Monday the 16th after I come home from Connecticon.

I just wanted to start the first page with an introduction to the city and the narrator. I decided to leave out a lot of detail as to where this city is located in this world and when this takes place. Those things might be better to save for later at a much more smoother pace.

I have changed the title image of the comic and I have also made navigational buttons to go to previous and newer pages.

I might not have a post tomorrow as I will be at Connecticon. I am just letting you all know.

Joanne Boudreau

My aunt and uncle sent me a birthday card that I received in the mail today. On it there was this image of a piece of artwork printed on it by a friend of theirs, Joanne Boudreau. This particular peice is in a four part series of mixed media with watercolor, iridescent paint, and rice paper with a theme of a small New England Brook.

Unfortunately, this artist does not appear to have a website, as she is not a full time artist, but she does have an email address, so if you want to commission her to make some artwork or ask her to see more of her artwork feel free to send her a message. I thought this image looked nice. I see rocks, leaves and water, but it is abstract so different scenes may appear to different people.

Happy Birthday Jay!

Last Saturday was my little brother's 24th birthday, so I am dedicating this blog post to him. Here is a picture of him and our cat that has unfortunately gone missing. My sister and I got him a hammock, my mother got him a bunch of things he asked for, we had waffles for breakfast, burgers for dinner, and chocolate cake with a few different chocolate toppings. He had some friends over for a little bit while I helped a friend move out of her apartment later on. He seems to have enjoyed himself, and I am glad.

This Saturday will be my 26th birthday and I will be at Connecticon. I am looking forward to it!

Web Comic Title Page Finished!

Here is the finished image for the title page of my web-comic. Unless if I hear any really convincing recommendations to change certain details, I am going to leave this as it is. Feel free to see this image at www.jdaltobelli.com/webcomic.

I will also have this image on display on my portfolio website.

Webcomic Coming Soon

I am determined to have the first page of my redone Zheph Skyre web comic online by this Monday. I have been working diligently on this image for the title page for some time now and I just want it to be perfect. I will make a post on this blog when I have it complete.

11 Second Club July Results

The results for the 11 Second Club July 2012 competition are in. It seems that I got a better rating for my animation then the last three, but I still did not get nearly as high of a rank as I wanted to. I read the comments that were written for my animation and I agree with the criticisms. I have to figure out how to get the mouth of the character to move with the voice of the sound clip better.

Perhaps I don't require completely constant movement within a 2D animation as well. It just takes up much more time to animate in the end when I should be working on certain other parts of the animation.

The sound clip for this month sounds really promising, but I don't think I can do it this month. There is too much going on. I want to get my web-comic started again anyways.

Again, Happy Fourth of July!

Today I went to the 4th of July Parade in Rutland MA. There were many things to see like tractors, floats, bands, farm animals, dancers, old cars, and even fight demonstrations. It was interesting.

There were quite a few people within the parade that were throwing candy out to the children on the sidelines. The children mostly scurried to grab as much candy as possible, but a good majority of them didn't grab any peppermint candies. I however like them and picked up a few as I passed by when the parade was over and we were going back to the car. It would be a shame to let good candy go to waste.

I have realized more and more that most of the floats and displays that come are all advertisements for something. I received two flyers for two different types of aerobics classes. Personally, I could do with less advertisements in life, but I understand that businesses must get customers somehow.

Again, I hope you all have a happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July!

Tonight I just did the simple celebration for Independence Day, I went with my parents to Colombo Park in Worcester to watch and listen to the orchestra and fireworks. We brought the dog, but he was shivering most likely due to the loud bangs and the smell of burnt gunpowder. I don't know why they have the celebrations on the 3rd instead of the 4th. Now I am wondering what to do for tomorrow.

The orchestra was really good, and the fireworks were okay, but I have seen fireworks much closer before and that is spectacular. It is still nice to hang out with my parents and dog once in a while. Happy 4th of July everyone!

Robot Sketches

I realized that I had not done any sketches of robots recently. I decided to change that and make a sketch of a series of battle drones for my Zheph Skyre series.

I believe I have refrained from drawing any robot sketches for a while because it seemed easier to draw living creatures. However, you can base robots on living creatures. The complete sketch of the humanoid robot is mostly based on the human body. I guess it might look a little like the robots from the movie "I Robot", but there are parts that I gave to it in order to remove as much human features as possible. I think the "mechanical musculature" is closer to human musculature though.

I don't think robots really need two eyes. They don't really need depth perception if they can zoom in and out with camera like lens. They do however require plush sensory parts on the hands and feet. People forget that you need the sense of touch in order to walk so that detail should always be included except for perhaps the flying robots.