April 24, 2007

Ikkitousen Dragon Destiny - For SDB

A fate worse than death has befallen our beloved Kan-u Unchou! Tremble in fear at the visage of... more...

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The Kanon Project: Update 3!

I hit a brick wall around 10 days ago. I couldn't get past the first 15 seconds of the AMV-in-creation, and got REALLY frustrated.

...and then I got smart and said "$*&@# it, it's called a non-linear editing system for a reason."

So, I started jumping around inside the AMV, doing chunks that I was secure with. Three seconds here, a chorus there, guitar solo in the corner, hey presto! I've suddenly got about half the video done and still have a bunch of the easy parts to go!

Suddenly the frustration has been replaced with a feeling of elation! There's a lot of work left to do, but there's been major progress made.

Anybody want to volunteer for betatesting duties?

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April 20, 2007

Ah-HEM!

Steven:
"And to the kind person who shared this with me, I'd give you an 'Order of the Duck', except that I'm not a duck and anyway you already have one."

That's Order of the Honorary Duck, my friend.

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April 18, 2007

"Brigade"? Where'd THAT come from???

Over at Chizumatic, Steven is asking:
How much of the legend, or perhaps "cult" would be more accurate, of Suzumiya Haruhi is the creation of the fansubbers? For instance, the fansubbers have translated the name of Haruhi's club as "SOS Brigade"... ...So where did "brigade" come from? Well, it's funny, of course. But did the original author make it funny, or did the fansubbers make it funny?

I think Steven forgot that the anime ISN'T the source material: the novels are. In the first book, there's an explanation as to why they're using 'brigade' as opposed to group or association... unfortunately, I'm rushed for time and can't find the exact quote right now. IIRC, it goes something like "we don't have enough people to be a group or an association...".

Of course, the version I've read is fan-translated, too, so is therefore suspect, right? Yes, but... the 'offical webpage' of the US anime release is using 'brigade' too, so SOMEONE got something right.

I will point out that two or three fansub groups, working independently of each other, all wound up with the same translation (brigade). No 'regiment', no 'army', no 'squadron' (actually, that one would have been funnier)...
'...and I said it's the SOS Brigade, so it IS.'

UPDATE: Steven responds, saying that since the source could have been a fan-translated effort, it may very well be wrong, which I acknowledged. However, I'll point out that, without actually having the original novels (in the original Japanese), we don't really know. Either way, it certianly appears that the various companies involved accept it.

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April 15, 2007

First Episode Thoughts: Lucky*Star

There comes a time in any anime fan's viewing life when he or she comes across a show that they find a show that... well... that they can't make up their mind about. Do I hate it? Do I dislike it? Do I like it? Do I love it?

For this duck, that time is here. And Lucky*Star is that anime.

How many fetishes can YOU find in this picture?

People are saying that it is Azumanga Lite, in that it's based on a 4koma about high school girls that has no visible plot. They also say it's the Seinfeld of anime, in that it's about nothing. Like both of these shows, my initial reaction towards Lucky*Star is, at best, 'meh.' I actually didn't like Azumanga Daioh the first time I gave it a shot (now it's my favorite anime), and I never did learn to like Seinfeld.

I wish I could disagree with her.

Like many other people out there on the intartubewebb, I really wanted this show to be good, and maybe it will be. After an episode where 10 minutes is spent discussing the best way to eat desserts ("Do you eat the strawberry on a strawberry shortcake first or last?"), I'm leaning more towards the "...the hell?" camp.

I can praise two parts of Lucky*Star unreservedly, however. First is the animation, which is quite lovely to look at. From all I've read, it follows the source 4koma very closely, which is a plus, which results in a... well, cartoony appearance quite different from other shows done by KyoAni (Haruhi and Kanon 2006, to name the two most recent).

Second would be the OP, which you can view by clicking this linky right here, and may St. Fangio The Quick have mercy on your soul. It's like sugar-coated, chocolate-covered crack for your eyes and ears, as the Brickmuppet has already learned.

As of right now, I can't recommend Lucky*Star. There just isn't enough THERE there, but I'll watch a few more episodes, see what comes of it and let you know.

There is one thing I noticed, however:
Where is your Haruhi-sama now???
... sometimes I wonder about KyoAni. Are they doing this on purpose, or is it just a coincidence?

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April 09, 2007

The Kanon Project: Update 2

Right, it's taken a little longer than expected, but here's the status report on The Kanon Project:

Clip creation is (tenetively) finished. Six Gigabytes worth of clips, to be exact... at roughly 10mb/second of video.

Audio is confirmed finished. It's not just the song, it's some incidental sound, too (telephone ringing, wind blowing, that sort of thing). There's one optional audio clip that I may need to create, but that's something on the back burner for the moment.

Mental storyboarding is (mostly) complete. I know what I want to do, I just have to make the clips work for it, or change the storyboard to fit. Unfortunately, one clip that was essential to the original plan is unusable; I forgot that there was scrolling text at the bottom of the scene, courtesy of BS-i. I'm not sure how I'm going to work around it, but I'll figure something out.

Actual creation of the AMV in Premiere will begin on Tuesday, I think. Having never actually used Premiere before, it's going to be a 'learn-as-you-go, where's-the-tutorials' sort of thing. Fortunately, there are some good, free, tutorials online (including one for a college class that I suspect I'll be leaning on heavily).

I'd be remiss if I didn't thank Jeff Lawson again. Whenever I had a question come up (usually twice a week, more or less), I would shoot him an e-mail, and he was kind enough to reply with an answer that was both understandable to a neophyte AND in-depth, not to mention timely. I'd still be trying to figure out VirtualDub if it wasn't for him, but now I'm fairly handy at the thing.

So... that's where she stands at the moment. The pieces are off the sprues, covered with primer, and the epoxy is all set... all I have to do is put the thing together.

Further updates as events warrant.

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