Visit the kelpforest....

Alright, time to stop messing around on teh intarwebs and get busy. I have pretty much one costume down and two to go before tomorrow. Hopefully, it won't be too many years before they can start putting them together themselves...

Angus decided he wanted to be a plague doctor. If you've seen those fancily decorated Renaissance-type masks with a long beak on the front, that's what they were inspired by - special doctors who only treated people who had the bubonic plague. They wore long coats, gloves, a mask with glassed-in eyes and a long beak-like extension that was often filled with aromatic herbs and spices. Since the plague was believed to be caused by "bad air," this was supposed to ward off infection. Weirdly enough, he came across this from an Adventure Time reference - Princess Bubblegum was wearing a mask in her lab that was said to resemble the same kind the plague doctors wore. We found this mask, and with a black bandanna under it, a pair of steampunk looking sunglasses over it, a musketeer-type hat (and they gave us a discount on it because it didn't have the musketeer plume, which we didn't need anyway), gloves, and a gradauation gown found at Goodwill, plus his grandmother's cane, I think this is about done. Looks pretty cool, too.

Avalon decided on being the Corpse Bride. We couldn't find a wedding-type dress, but we found an angel costume for $9, which I'm going to modify. I still need a pair of white pantyhose I can cut up to draw her skeleton arm and leg on.

Both boys declared a couple of weeks ago that they are Bronies. This amuses me, although I still can only take MLP:FIS in small doses; I like the animation, but it's just so pastel, and the music mostly makes me cringe. However, Gareth told me he decided he wanted to be Rainbow Dash; coincidentally, earlier the same day I came across this cosplay in the Artisan Crafts group I belong to, which is just perfect. The creator doesn't mind other people putting together their own versions of it either. Gareth says he doesn't want to tell his friends about though (although some of them are bronies as well). He's just decided to be helpful and place a cutout of RD next to the monitor as I type this.

(The whole Brony thing makes me snort; why is it such a big deal that boys like a show marketed to girls? I know a ton of girls who like Dragonball Z - why don't we get a special name?)

Gah, spent way more than I should - and even bought a small cheap sewing machine so hopefully I can throw these things together a little faster. Plus some things for Gareth's birthday tomorrow. Kids are out of school for a teacher development day - glad I have tomorrow off, too.

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Posted to Animated Adulthood (Gather.com):

NPR: Apple Visionary Steve Jobs dies at 56

While I'm more of a Microsoft user, I can't say I'm totally without influence by Steve Jobs creations, and I will not deny the world has lost a creative genius.  Steve Jobs is credited with being the first to make computers available to the average person, kickstarting the music download industry, and changing the way we purchase and listen to music.  As a family, we own several iPods of varying sizes (mostly older models, though), and I've been a user of iTunes for a number of years.  He also had a hand in getting what has become a large part of the movie industry started. 

In 1986, I was attending Humboldt State University, and was excited to get tickets to a two-day animation film festival, the second day of which was entirely computer animation.  It was extraordinarily expensive at the time - I believe I remember a quote of about $10,000 per hour of animation to produce, using very large supercomputers, so most of what existed then were shorts.  One of the shorts I saw then, sitting in the dark in a college auditorium, was by a new company (most of them were) of a large and a small desk lamp interacting - the large one acted as if it were a parent, while the small one hopped about, balanced on a ball and generally acted like a puppy.

 

According to NPR article above:

Jobs was eventually fired in a 1985 boardroom coup led by John Sculley — the man Jobs himself had hired to be CEO of Apple. But Jobs was driven to make computers vehicles for creativity, and after he left Apple, he purchased a little-known division of Lucas film and renamed it Pixar. In 1995, Pixar released the first animated feature to be done entirely on computers. That film, Toy Story, was a huge success, and Pixar followed it with other big hits including Monsters, Inc., The Incredibles and Finding Nemo.

(my emphasis added)

Luxo Jr., above, was nominated for an Academy Award in 1987 for best animated short and  later became part of Pixar's logo; he can be seen at the beginning of every Pixar movie, forming the "i" in the name.

While sometimes I complain about how some animation is "too" computer generated, Jobs set it on an inexorable path, and computer animation is now found in almost every kind of visual entertainment, sometimes where you might not even suspect it.

On Facebook, the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco quoted a statement by John Lasseter and Ed Catmull, Pixar's heads:

"Steve Jobs was an extraordinary visionary, our very dear friend and the guiding light of the Pixar family. He saw the potential of what Pixar could be before the rest of us, and beyond what anyone ever imagined. Steve took a chance on us and believed in our crazy dream of making computer animated films; the one thing he always said was to simply ‘make it great.’ He is why Pixar turned out the way we did and his strength, integrity and love of life has made us all better people. He will forever be a part of Pixar’s DNA. Our hearts go out to his wife Laurene and their children during this incredibly difficult time."

Good-bye, Mr. Jobs.  You'll be missed.

My mom passed away at the same age, 16 years ago.

(I started a group at Gather.com for grownup fans of all kinds of animation...this was originally posted there. I'm sure you guys, being far more internet savvy than the folks over there, have all seen it already...)

About six years ago, I came across a funny little Flash web series from Korea, made by animators SamBakZa. If there's one thing I love, it's a story that's understandable whatever your language. Simply drawn, but extremely well animated if (I wish certain other of my favorite shows were this smooth), they're set to some catchy K-pop/rock songs, which I find myself humming even if I don't know the words. They can be found at the animators' Korean site, or at Newgrounds (the North American community, sort of YouTube for Flash). They also can be found at YouTube, where some have English subtitles for the songs, but they're not really necessary to enjoy the animation; in terms of quality, they are probably best viewed at the sites where the creators first submitted them. For a very long time I was only aware of the first two, then recently I came across some fanart that directed me to the final three in the series. As a rule, I generally avoid rabid cuteness, but in this case it overwhelmed me and now I must inflict it on everyone else. XD All of these shorts are around 5 minutes long.

There She Is was intended to be a stand-alone animation. It involved a reluctant male cat and a rather obsessive female rabbit, who meet at the vending machines in the local park. ( oops forgot the cut-tag, sorry for clogging your FL... )

I love all kinds of animation, and this video was a free download from iTunes awhile ago. The song's not bad either. I think the little sock fish are my favorite part.



( The making of it... )

So, Angus has decided, on a few viewings of reruns (seen fairly often in this household because my father recently became a fan), that he's soured a bit on Avatar: The Last Airbender because he didn't care for the ending.* Turns out that at 12, he's a total Zutara shipper. He decided to come up with his own solution. After viewing a few Kaput & Zosky episodes on YouTube (to jog his memory - it hasn't been aired in some time), he announced his latest comic book project is an ATLA/Kaput and Zosky crossover.

(Kaput & Zosky being another Nicktoons animation no longer being aired - a French import by way of Canada, I believe - about two bloody-minded bean-shaped aliens who go from planet to planet attempting to conquer them, usually being abysmal failures at it. It has a very simple, stylized art style, which I very much like, but it's very different from ATLA.)

( Spoilers? But who's watching anymore... )

Well, FAIL at the post-once-a-day-in-July thing; I got a bit distracted in the last week. o_O

I meant to keep up better on the monthly scavenger hunt. And I think these are out of order because I already posted a couple with Sackboy's photos. I am a big loser. :p

Anyhoo, we went to Anime Expo for the first time three years, as it moved from Anaheim/Long Beach, closer to where I live, up to Downtown L.A., which can be more than an hour's drive away, depending on traffic. Finally decided to take the train from Long Beach and not have to deal with parking/gas, etc. My favorite part is just watching all the cosplayers - which I'd love to do, but I'm really only fit to dress up as Kaede from Inuyasha. If you'd like to look at all of them and help me out with characters I know nothing about, you're welcome to go here for the whole set.



Goku in Funimation booth. - then asked if kids wanted photos with him. Picking Avalon up was a complete surprise (and a thrill for her).

Anime Expo
Los Angeles CA
Canon EOS 1000D
3 July 2010

( a few more, including OMG LOOKIT TEH KYOOT!!!!1!!!!1 )

09. Repetition ♥
28. Robot ♥
25. Train ♥

Sackboy went with us to Anime Expo, although I forgot to pull him out until we were going home on the train. Here's a place that's famous sort of near me - the Staples Center where the Lakers and Kings play (Los Angeles basketball and hockey teams, for those elsewhere).

Staples Center & L.A. Convention Center
Los Angeles, CA'
Canon EOS 1000D
3 July 2010

( cosplayers and something in the mail... )

21. Famous/Important place where you live ♥
(July Scavenger hunt here)

So last week, Angus and I stopped by Big Lots to pick up a couple of plastic bins. On the way out he caught sight of a bin full of $3 DVDs and I relented and allowed him to pick one out, pending parental approval. He picked out a one containing some Garfield cartoons; not the series, but three half-hour shows that I think must have been primetime specials. I rolled my eyes a bit but said he could have it.

Now, I used to like Garfield the strip, it was actually funny when it first started. I even bought the first book; Garfield was huge and fat and obnoxious, and Jon had an actual job as a cartoonist. It got dumb about the time Jon's roommate Lyman disappeared and Garfield started walking on his hind legs; everything became round and cute, even Garfield himself, who wasn't supposed to be. I stopped paying much attention to it decades ago, but a few months ago, Angus brought home the same book, given him to the school librarian because it was beginning to fall apart.

Anyway the kids love, love, love this thing. Avalon has watched it four times in the last couple of days. The one special "Garfield's Nine Lives" is interesting because it's a bunch of different shorts, some done with different animators and art styles. Two of them appear very Disnyesque; "Dianna's Piano" doesn't seem like it had anything to do with Garfield at all, being all pastels and colored pencils and a long-haired female white cat, the other "Lab Animal" looked a lot like Dragon's Lair, which, now that I think about it, came out about the same time this was originally aired (I didn't recognize any of the animators in the credits - but a lot of people are alumni of Disney). Another,"In the Garden" with a sing-song narrator describing Chloe and the orange kitten in an endless childhood fairyland, resembles someone's psychdelic LSD drug trip, complete with rainbow mushrooms, and disturbing floating balloon faces. Of course, that short happens to be Avalon's favorite one. One of the other specials, with Garfield playing a film noir detective (Sam "Spayed") had music vocals by Lou Rawls.*

(edit (8/16/2011): Aha! Here's a playlist with all of the shorts! In The Garden, the weird one, is #3.)

Huh. Well, I guess it's bearable every once in a while.

------------
While searching for a video of the Garden bit (which I could NOT find), so I could show you just how weird it was, I found it was based on a book - which I vaguely remember but didn't read - but reviews said it was a series of stories (not comics) and more oriented for adults. Also that it (the show) was nominated for an Emmy, but was beat out by the Garfield detective special mentioned above. Must not have been a lot of choices that year.

I love all kinds of animation, and I obviously love anime, or I wouldn't be wasting so much of my time on it. I do have some little annoyances with it though. Please note that I am in no way trained in doing any kind of animation, aside from a flipbook or two I doodled in school notebooks when the lectures were boring. My art experience is limited to a handful of drawing classes in high school and junior college, eons ago.

One of the reasons I like Cowboy Bebop and others like it so much is the animation is fairly sophisticated and realistic-looking. There is very little use of what I'll call "shorthand" - the stylized sweat-dropping, veins-popping, chibi-appearing, fangs-growing, kitty-faces, expression of emotion. We get what the characters are feeling without being beat over the head with it. I think Faye gets googly-eyes for exactly one frame, when she surprises (or rather, is surprised by) Gren in the shower. I really didn't care for Tenchi in Tokyo (Shin Tenchi, I think?) just because that kind of shorthand seemed really over used. It was annoying. For some reason, this doesn't bother me so much in Fullmetal Alchemist - maybe because without it, it would be hard to tell what Al was feeling at all, since he spends most of his appearance in the show as a big metal suit of armor. So I can put up with a little "shorthand," as long as it fits the context, and isn't overdone.

What does bug me, even in a fairly high quality shows like CB or Trigun is this. Note the following graphic, which someone sent me in an email.

( walking... )

( Noses... )

All ranting aside, I really have very little to complain about. For the most part, in the face of so much network programming in the form of "reality" shows, I'm grateful for a form of entertainment that's given me so many hours of pleasure, and that it's become so much more available, even in the few years I've been watching it.

( An aside - Google oddities... )

(crossposted to anime and otaku_over_30)