fredart : blogbits

Looking back on last week, the weekend, and the way this week has shaped up, all i can say is it would have turned into two weeks of no comic anyway ^^;; So, in a way, facing up to the reality of things and not leaving you folks hanging really was the better approach in the long run. I really appreciate your patience and your tolerance of my two week in-service ‘vacation’ ^^;;

The trip to Seattle went well - Seattle is always fun, the people are wonderful, and it’s always nice to see some of our friends out there. There were a few glitches, of course - the biggest one was finding out that the Megatokyo panel was scheduled for 8:30 in the morning on Saturday…. who the hell is going to go to a 8:30am panel on saturday morning at a con? I was pleasantly surprised that quite a few did. For those of you who made that early panel, thank you - i’m not worthy of that kind of dedication. Hell, i barely made it to the thing myself. Also, It was great to see Tycho and Gabe again, and i really appreciate them coming in towards the end of our panel and us having an impromptu joint panel for a while - something that is always fun.

Processing is moving along, as well as other projects - i’ve also been trying to get some things done for the store so we will have a new line of products ready to go for upcoming conventions. Yesterday i wasn’t feeling well, so i really didn’t get enough done, so hopefully today i can get back on schedule. Still feeling a little off, hoping this nice weather we’re having will help.

On top of all of this, i have been having to restrain my inner fanboy from going nutso - while i was in seattle it was announced that Kyoto Animation would doing its own version of the Kanon anime. Few things in my fanboy world could make me happier. In fact, when watching Kyoto Animation’s “AIR” tv the one thing i wished was that these folks would revisit the Kanon series and do it proper justice. I’m bowled over by the fact that this will indeed be happening. I’m sure there are plenty of people who don’t care and think it’s a waste, but whatever. I’m sure there are plenty of keyfans like myself who are grinning ear to ear over this news.

Maybe i’ll be able to finish this book before the first episode comes out… one can only hope.

- pirotunes: Thievery Corporation - One -

As you probably read on my rant on Megatokyo this morning, I’m having to put Megatokyo on hold for two weeks as i try to hammer my way through the book preparation and take a trip to Seattle with the MegaGear store. I was really hoping to not have to do something like this but the way things fell out, i sort of had no choice. Anyways, i hope MT readers are patient. Trust me, i’d rather be doing the comics for the tail end of this chapter than the grunt work of processing book files.

The nice thing about it is that it is kind of refreshing to have full control over all the decisions that result in the final frame. All sorts of little tweaks and nudges that i can make that would not be made if i had someone else doing it. Of course, i have no idea if readers will even notice these kind of things, but hey - the book is forever. Once it’s out, its out. Better to get it right the first time, and i really want this thing to come out on time in June.

The DPD drawings will be nice little breaks - the one i posted today took about 2 hours and was a refreshing break from processing. I don’t have a specific theme i’m going to follow here, but you might see a pattern if you look closely.

I am nervous about hitting my deadline, i wont lie to you. Very nervous, even with the break. If i pull all this off, the book should come out really nice tho, and the stress of getting it done will be a distant memory when the book finally surfaces.

I’ll actually provide a more detailed write up of what i have to do to process the files at some point in the future. Its kinda neat, really, and can give others an idea of what to expect if they ever try to push their work to print format.

- pirotunes: Svartling - Afraid Of Silence -

Well, i’m knee deep in production for not only Megatokyo, but for the additional Circuity pages as well. I have some catching up to do, because the re-write took a little longer than i anticipated, and the everyday interruptions of life and business (as well as the other things involved in publishing a book) are pop up with alarming regularity. Still, there’s something gratifying about doing the work - i just wish there was a way to combat the stress of deadline issues. (sigh) It’s so tempting to go to a 2 comic per week schedule for a while, but i really don’t want to do that. I’ll just do my usual try to do it all and miss the days i can’t help but miss and deal with it.

One thing i have used on myself so often that i don’t even think about it anymore is the idea of ‘rewarding’ myself if i hit certain goals. We all do that - sometimes it’s a small as a comfort food treat for getting something done to an expensive new toy for your computer. This kind of behavior, of course, can bankrupt you quickly - unless you are me, who almost never meets his personal deadlines. It’s kinda fun to think about something you’d be able to justify treating yourself to if you were able to pull off the impossible. A lot of times, in the end, the real gratification and reward for pulling it off is the successful completion of the task itself, and the ‘reward’ bit seems unnecessary after the fact. Such is often the case for me, but it’s still fun to peg something as a fanciful reward.

What am i pegging as such a reward if i pull off getting circuity and the book material done ahead of schedule? Silly stuff, but a dip into that audiophile world that i keep avoiding (that’s a whole ‘nother rant). Last year i upgraded to a pair of Grado SR60 headphones, and while they are great and a step up from what i was using - there is still that nagging feeling that it’d be really nice to have a headphone amp to power them. That little micro plug on the front of the G4 tower really isn’t what you’d call the high end of audio outputs.

So, in my normal poking around at things i really shouldn’t be poking at, i made some fanciful purchasing decisions. First thing on the list is the HeadRoom Micro Amp - a nice little mid-range amp that seems to have had good reviews, and looks like it would meet my needs nicely. At $299, it’s pricey for something you could argue i don’t need at all, but not too bad for a decent headphone amp.

Of course, if i’m going to be fanciful, there is always that step up - lets say i finish a week early and produce 2 months of MT comics next weekend. Then i’d be able to justify bypassing that line out jack completely, and go for a digital solution, adding the HeadRoom Micro DAC (Digital Audio Converter) to the mix. Basically, music is sent to the DAC via the USB cable, and this little unit converts it to an audio signal, which is then pushed to the Micro Amp. Yes, you need both. It is also $299.

And, of course, if i were to do THAT, suddenly i really would need to consider a headphone upgrade too - the SR60’s are nice, but i’d get more out of the setup if i had something nicer, like, say a pari of Grado SR 225s. That’s $200 for something that doesn’t even look that different from the pair i already have.

So, the damage if i actually hit all of my fanciful deadlines? About $800.

And that should make everything clear about why i rarely make my deadlines. I’d never be able to afford it if i did.

- pirotunes: A Forest Mighty Black - Little Princess -

Guu. I hate it when my drawing process slows to a crawl. I was very up on Wedneday’s comic, but good god it took forever to draw. ^^;;; I suppose the fact that it was 10 frames didn’t help, but still, some of the frames took a long time to pump out. A lot of the time is spent drawing and redrawing expressions. Often the bulk of a drawing will come out fairly quickly, but the subtle crap with the face always drives me nuts. Also, im trying to do more full body stuff these days, which is hard for me. It’s good practice anyway.

Today is a “circuity” work day. Very solid on what i want to do now. Oh, and because you wanted to know … She won’t be loosing the wings. It is a common thread in several of the works that inspire me (including some things i’ve done in the past) and i felt that the focused theme i’m working on here really is quite different from Abe’s, and the meaning of the wings for me is different. Now to start fleshing it out a little.

- pirotunes: 03. Float Up From Dream - Silent Hill OST

I spent some time yesterday looking over CAD (Computer Aided Drafting) programs for the Mac. My thoughts on that ended up looking like a good MT rant, so i’ve opted to post those thoughts on Megatokyo on monday. That’s one of the troubles with having basically two blog spaces on the net - Fredart and Megatokyo. Sometimes i feel like i should just mesh the two together and have the MT site show whatever it is i’m blogging here and visa versa. Yet, maybe the idea of having two different spaces to rant is a good thing. My thoughts here are supposed to be more random and more everyday, a true blog, whereas the entries on the Megatokyo page are supposed to be more like a column or an op/ed piece. The integrity and balance between the two has to come from my own personal discipline in writing them than any set structure they have. Beah, who cares. It’s hard to apply any sort of structure to the randomness that comes from my oddly broken brain. Leave it to me to knock out a quick fredart blog that makes for a better MT rant.

My writing efforts this weekend have gone pretty well, i have a much better sense of the balance of things for the tail end of the chapter than i had, and hopeful tonight i can nail down the last little tweaks i have to the Circuity story. I’ve spent more time on the MT writing than the Circuity rewrite so far, but both need attention.

Actually, i always seem to have this kind of duality that forms up in my life. The MT site vs this one, trying to decide which of two stories i want to work on (MT and Warmth, MT and Circuity, etc) I don’t know why i do this, but when i try to focus on just one thing i barely get anything done on it. Having the pressure of something else that needs doing seems to be a necessary component of what makes me actually work on things.

Broken indeed

- pirotunes: Free Sound Collective - Tidepool -

Yes, this could very well be another ‘ah hell, i tripped up the scripting of the next dozen or so comics and need to go back and revisit them’ blog posts. Hey, it is my personal blog, i can do that if i want

Actually, ‘in service day’ was a good description of yesterday. With a very aggressive schedule in place to get book 4 finished and more work on the extra material than i had anticipated, as well as Con season fast approaching, Sarah and i had to sit down and do some planning. I’ve set a very aggressive schedule for the month of March that takes into account that this is starting to get down to the end of the chapter, and the release of comics for this is almost as important as hitting my book deadlines. I have to double my page output this month to get things done. Not something i’ve ever really managed before, so we’ll see if im up to the challenge.

Of course, page count means nothing if you have no solid writing to go from. I’ve been working this morning on fixing some things, and the flow of the tail end of this chapter is starting to flow much better now. I have to spend some time tackling the Circuity writing as well today, because i have to start production on the new pages tomorrow. Oh, and i have to help Sarah with domestic and international shipping today

Like i said, i intend to blog what i’m up to this month to see if i can balance this schedule with keeping the website up to snuff. I ended up using the Piroko artwork i was going to post here as a DPD yesterday, but i think it worked out ok. 3 DPDs in the past month is a lot, and i’m determined not to have any more as the chapter comes to a close. I don’t make promises because things overtake me way too often, but i’m really going to try. So much for keeping up with any anime series.

Oh, and the new Ph34r the Cute Ones shirt should be available at the end of the month.

in other randomness, I’m a little creeped out by the fact that you can still buy this, years after i first came across it. Yes, that is a 1:1 life sized Hoshino Ruri doll. Its on sale too, only 257,250 yen($2,215.20)! You can add it to your collection. (pic linked from here.)

Uhm, yeah.

- pirotunes: Robyn Miller - Wahrk Room from “Riven - The Soundtrack” -

February was an interesting month, to say the least. There are always a lot of highs and lows that come with any kind of big announcement. A lot of good feedback, and some bad - i’ve spent some time alleviating peoples fears that there will be unwelcome changes to the books or even editing by my new publisher. There’s won’t be. I’m a control freak, Megatokyo is my baby, and DC / CMX is working WITH me, not against me. Next question please

The best thing about getting the announcement and stuff out of the way is that now i can settle down and back to work on the books, and on the tail end of Chapter 7. I have LOT on my plate, but it’s all good. I have some new color work i want to post this afternoon that is from a new 4-color character art shirt that is now in production and should be available soon in the MegaGear store. Tune in later for that. Oh yeah, there’s new buttons in the store as well - the 3v1l set.

One of the most daunting tasks ahead of me is my re-processing of the Circuity story for the book. In it’s current form, It’s quite obviously a Haibane Renmei fanwork, which i think is fine for the web, but even so the more blatant haibane references have always bugged me.

To me, i’d like to make it stand better on its own. Quite a challenge, really, and i’m actually keen to see how successfully i can pull this off. A lot of stories have their roots and inspiration in the works of others, but only when they are set free and unthread themselves from the confines of that inspiring story do they find their own air (so to speak).

I’m honestly inspired by the challenge to do this with Circuity. For a printed volume, it is mostly out of respect for Yoshitoshi Abe that i want to do this, and to free what i feel is a solid story from the confines of a fanwork. I also do not want to seem to ride on the creative coattails of someone who’s work i admire so much.

Will she loose her wings? That’s an interesting and very metaphorical question. I don’t know yet. I plan to blog the process here because i think that it is important for readers to see what happens when fanwork ideas evolve into original work. Hopefully you will find the process interesting. I can’t really escape the fact that i have a thing for girls with wings and windmills

Oh, and for the record, the folks at DC / CMX feel there is no real problem printing it as is - there are generally accepted issues of parody and homage that covers this kind of work. This desire to make it stand more on its own is mine, not theirs, and i do it out of my great respect for Mr. Abe and his work.

Amusing issue really, since Haibane Renmei itself has elements to show a very direct influence of Murakami’s “Hard Boiled Wonderland” book. Inspiration is an interesting thing, isn’t it?

- pirotunes: Castlevania～暁月の円舞曲～ OST -03.プロローグ～弥那のテーマ