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tenshinoakuma) wrote2011-05-13 09:15 pm
tenshinoakuma) wrote2011-05-13 09:15 pm
Entry tags:
Why is being creative so hard
I AM NEVER COLOURING TWO TONE MATERIALS IN A STYLE THAT DOESN'T HAVE ALL SHADE ON A MULTIPLY LAYER. /KILLS EVERYTHING.
That said, the Joshua as Onion Knight picture is slowly plodding along for the first time in a while. I tried out some old things in combination (second layer of hatched inks, non-multiplied painted soft shadows, multiplied hard shadows), where I usually use one of these on a picture, and I think it's looking pretty good... except when I did the inks, I kind of forgot to give myself a light source so some of the hatching is a bit weird, which made my shades look a bit weird... and on top of that, I switched from watercolours to a plain old brush in SAI, so the shading style is a little bit inconsistent. I don't think it's too noticeable, but. Well. I guess you'll have to wait and see.
Some parts there are not quite done, since when I first tried out the shading, I wanted to see how it'd turn out before I coloured the rest of the picture. Sooo instead of laying all the non-multiplicative shadow out first before doing the multiply shadows, I did them both at the same time. I'm probably going to have to go through the picture after I'm done to add some spot highlights on the metal and other shiny things.
It occurs to me that I've gone from writing 800 word one-shots to 3k+ one-shots. I've been idly plunking away at this story every now and again (scrapped whole sections and rewritten them a few times) and I think this is one of the rare times that I've written something non-Joshua centric in any detail. In fact, I think in the editing stage, I'm going to have to do a voice check, because everyone's not sounding quite in character. Heck, even writing Joshua is tough in this one, because it's not often he actually explains things. I do think it's time I started branching out from writing Joshua.
Tangentially, I've kind of realised that for a lot of my better bits of art, I've been using the exact same expression for two years. That's actually pretty depressing, regardless of the fact I mostly do pin-ups. I'm thinking I should start drawing scenes from the one-shots I write. Like, one of the harder things for me to do in art is to imagine a picture, straight off the bat. So having some content already there will help with that, as well as make me draw some new things.
So, for that Rhyme one-shot I've been working, I went and flipped through the Secret Reports to give myself a refresher on what was written in them, using online sources since uh. My current copy of the game isn't up to New Game+. And I was surprised at just how much I've forgotten of canon. Which is kind of funny because I always thought I had a pretty firm grasp on at least the behind-the-scenes part of the Game, since that's kind of what I had to deal with a lot when I write Joshua stories. I haven't written anything particularly erroneous, thankfully.
What was even more surprising on re-reading, though, was that some of the recent TWEWY background theorising I did actually have basis in canon that I forgot about. I'm mainly thinking about the whole Imprinting -> Inspiration -> Imagination thing (except inspiration isn't capitalised in the reports) that I'd just been idly thinking about a month earlier. And really, it should be Imprinting -> Interpretation -> Inspiration -> Imagination, if the Secret Reports are anything to go by. I guess it feels a little satisfying to know that I seem to be on the same train of thought as canon, even when I forget something like the nature of Soul in TWEWY.
I totally forgot that Soul was the name for the constituents of Noise and people in the UG. I remember spending ages agonising over the Digimon/TWEWY crossover's prologue because I knew there was a term for it, and I couldn't for the life of me recall what it was and didn't think to actually, you know, check the source. Eventually I brushed it off as maybe me thinking something existed but didn't (because having so many mental interpretations of canon + RPing in an AU setting makes things kind of muddled when I haven't replayed TWEWY in a while).
I KNOW CANON GUD.
Man, I don't even know how I'm going to keep facts straight when I get down to something like the FF7 Compilation, where some things happened in some version of the same event, but didn't happen in the others. I would like to do the same kind of theorising for the FF7 Compilation as I did for TWEWY, but I'm not entirely sure it'll hit my conceptual pings as hard as TWEWY did. I guess we'll have to see * A*.
Now that all my assessments (not counting the project) for the semester are done, I can focus more on my upcoming piano exam and project work. Woo, I guess?
That said, the Joshua as Onion Knight picture is slowly plodding along for the first time in a while. I tried out some old things in combination (second layer of hatched inks, non-multiplied painted soft shadows, multiplied hard shadows), where I usually use one of these on a picture, and I think it's looking pretty good... except when I did the inks, I kind of forgot to give myself a light source so some of the hatching is a bit weird, which made my shades look a bit weird... and on top of that, I switched from watercolours to a plain old brush in SAI, so the shading style is a little bit inconsistent. I don't think it's too noticeable, but. Well. I guess you'll have to wait and see.
Some parts there are not quite done, since when I first tried out the shading, I wanted to see how it'd turn out before I coloured the rest of the picture. Sooo instead of laying all the non-multiplicative shadow out first before doing the multiply shadows, I did them both at the same time. I'm probably going to have to go through the picture after I'm done to add some spot highlights on the metal and other shiny things.
When Rhyme accompanies Beat to Hachiko, smiling at his impatience at the others’ tardiness even though it’s they who are early, she wonders what had happened in those days she never truly experienced in the Game. She wonders what the point of it was. Of playing the Game, that is. Things have, more or less, remained the same. Beat still fights with their parents. She still calms him. Nothing has changed.
... Maybe that isn’t quite the right. Beat has stopped running away.
And then she sees Neku and can’t help but think how different he looks, when he has a small smile that makes him look like an awkward kid who doesn’t quite remember how it goes, but is too shy -- or proud -- to ask. She shows him how it’s done, and he quickly mirrors her broad smile... before Beat catches him in a rough headlock. As Rhyme laughs with them -- boys -- she can’t help but wonder what happened to the moody teenager to make him willingly seek company.
She doesn’t have long to wonder; someone has arrived and Rhyme doesn’t recognise her, but Rhyme does recognise the toy she carries.
“Shiki!” Neku calls, breaking out into a broad grin as Beat lets go of him.
And with that, they’re all reunited. Even though Shiki looks different and her body language different, Rhyme can see the same glimmer of mischievousness in her eyes when she laughs and teases everyone. No, that’s not right, Rhyme amends when Shiki laughs again. The bitterness that used to be there, buried behind a smiling face, is gone.
All of them have changed.
Except Rhyme.
It occurs to me that I've gone from writing 800 word one-shots to 3k+ one-shots. I've been idly plunking away at this story every now and again (scrapped whole sections and rewritten them a few times) and I think this is one of the rare times that I've written something non-Joshua centric in any detail. In fact, I think in the editing stage, I'm going to have to do a voice check, because everyone's not sounding quite in character. Heck, even writing Joshua is tough in this one, because it's not often he actually explains things. I do think it's time I started branching out from writing Joshua.
Tangentially, I've kind of realised that for a lot of my better bits of art, I've been using the exact same expression for two years. That's actually pretty depressing, regardless of the fact I mostly do pin-ups. I'm thinking I should start drawing scenes from the one-shots I write. Like, one of the harder things for me to do in art is to imagine a picture, straight off the bat. So having some content already there will help with that, as well as make me draw some new things.
So, for that Rhyme one-shot I've been working, I went and flipped through the Secret Reports to give myself a refresher on what was written in them, using online sources since uh. My current copy of the game isn't up to New Game+. And I was surprised at just how much I've forgotten of canon. Which is kind of funny because I always thought I had a pretty firm grasp on at least the behind-the-scenes part of the Game, since that's kind of what I had to deal with a lot when I write Joshua stories. I haven't written anything particularly erroneous, thankfully.
What was even more surprising on re-reading, though, was that some of the recent TWEWY background theorising I did actually have basis in canon that I forgot about. I'm mainly thinking about the whole Imprinting -> Inspiration -> Imagination thing (except inspiration isn't capitalised in the reports) that I'd just been idly thinking about a month earlier. And really, it should be Imprinting -> Interpretation -> Inspiration -> Imagination, if the Secret Reports are anything to go by. I guess it feels a little satisfying to know that I seem to be on the same train of thought as canon, even when I forget something like the nature of Soul in TWEWY.
I totally forgot that Soul was the name for the constituents of Noise and people in the UG. I remember spending ages agonising over the Digimon/TWEWY crossover's prologue because I knew there was a term for it, and I couldn't for the life of me recall what it was and didn't think to actually, you know, check the source. Eventually I brushed it off as maybe me thinking something existed but didn't (because having so many mental interpretations of canon + RPing in an AU setting makes things kind of muddled when I haven't replayed TWEWY in a while).
I KNOW CANON GUD.
Man, I don't even know how I'm going to keep facts straight when I get down to something like the FF7 Compilation, where some things happened in some version of the same event, but didn't happen in the others. I would like to do the same kind of theorising for the FF7 Compilation as I did for TWEWY, but I'm not entirely sure it'll hit my conceptual pings as hard as TWEWY did. I guess we'll have to see * A*.
Now that all my assessments (not counting the project) for the semester are done, I can focus more on my upcoming piano exam and project work. Woo, I guess?
no subject
Rhyme is so full of tragedy. :( Nice snippet. That could very easily stand on its own.
Interesting! Makes me want to play TWEWY again. It's amazing how many bits of canon you can forget after a while. And god, good luck working out a set of facts in FF7 compilation. It is all over the place - like the massive variations in how Zack met his end, just for starters. Or the various materia systems and usages. TWEWY is at least just the one game, keeps it manageable. (Although I have been hearing rumours of a TWEWY sequel/spin-off?)
no subject
Yeah, I heard rumour, too. But I'm going to wait until ~July for E3 to confirm/deny it. I was actually replaying and updating some parts of the TWEWY script, and it never fails to amaze me how just optional script there is in the game.
I recall going through at least 300 thought bubbles from random NPCs... on the very first day of the first week! And some thought bubbles change depending on the trends or the week or the location you're in! Not to mention the different things shopkeepers say at different friend levels, and the things your partners say whenever you meet an objective... And if you talk to Joshua enough, I believe you can map out the Reaper Routes! :3b