That was a glorious movie. I think it’s the first time that 3D generated characters actually looked better than flesh and blood humans. By the end, the humans looked pretty ugly and clumsy compared to the graceful Na’vi. The alien designs kind of reminds me of the CLAMP aesthetic. Totally a must watch for anyone with even the smallest interest in pushing forward the frontiers of visual art.
Screw this, I’m leaving for Japan in a couple of weeks anyways…
By ruto
This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for water. Why? Because the water piping in my house burst and now we don’t have any water any more. I don’t think we’ll be able to get it operational again today since everything is closed for the holidays. Yes, that means no operating toilets, no showers, no sinks, no drinking for an entire day.
Well, I guess it’s only for today though. But certainly, the water pipe chose a super day to break.
No comment, aside from no, this is not me in the video. (why would you ever think of such a thing?)
I did say that I was going to re-decorate the blog, didn’t I?
The full logo picture, drawn by Sixten back in the days when the Sunrider project was still operating:
By Sixten
I will be taking a short break from all serious blogging operations and heading to the metaphoric mountains to train my art skills. Results of the training will be put up every now and then. Let’s hope that I gain a couple of levels from this experience…
Except I forgot what the hell I was going to write about. I vaguely remember planning to write something about Japanese visual novels, but that doesn’t sound that interesting any more.
Anyways, what’s more important is that I’m loosely wondering about making some changes to the blog.
First thing, I’m starting to dislike the overall look of the blog. It’s way too dark and difficult to read. Maybe it’s time for a new layout…
Second, I’m loosely pondering about changing my overall review strategy. In the past, I’ve reviewed only visual novels that I liked. I may change that and start reviewing all the visual novels that I play instead. Even though it won’t be that enjoyable to me to spend time writing 1000+ word reviews of games that I don’t even like, we’ll at least have some more reviews up here if I do that.
Third, I’m wondering whether if I should forget all that and go all in on turning this into a strictly art related blog. It would be nice for me to spend some more time improving my skills, and since I already work as a writer, if I manage to boast my art abilities, I’ll have the two most important aspects of visual novels covered.
Fourth, we need some more fun things here. The previous couple of text intensive essays have bored and depressed me, so no more of that for awhile. Maybe I should take up Tohou… I heard it improves your art skills.
A visitor apparently challenged me to show off a couple of non-anime pictures. Actually, I kind of wondered if I should include some other pictures in the last post myself. In the end though, I kind of got tired of hunting down all the pictures, so I just decided to stick to the theme of this blog and just have anime-styled images. Even if it doesn’t really have much to do with this blog itself, there are still a bunch of other works of art that have awed me. Of course, most of these works are by internationally celebrated artisans who are known as nothing other than artistic geniuses, so that’s kind of a obvious conclusion, right?
I’m sure most of you must know The Gates of Hell by Rodin. This is an absolutely incredible sculpture. First, you need to understand the absolute size of this thing. It stands nearly four-five times higher than the viewer and if you were to actually stand against it, your head would come up only just a bit above the very lowest of the human sculptures. Also, the horrific details of the hundred+ condemned souls engraved into the gate is nothing short of amazing.
This is actually my favorite painting of all time. This is the master piece The Coronation of Napoleon by David. The craziest thing about this painting is its size. It is in fact 10 meters wide and six meters tall… That’s bigger than the floor plans of some French houses! All the people that you see in the picture are in fact, virtually life sized images and the entire picture is detailed enough to actually feel like you can step right into it. I’ll just let the picture speak for itself and move on now…
This is the Galerie des Batailles from the Palace of Versailles. Can you tell that that I have a weak spot for bombastic French paintings? And it does not get more vainglorious or bombastic than this, folks. This is an entire gallery dedicated every single French military victory from 495 to 1809. I kid you not, the French actually built this entire crazy, extravagantly decorated gallery just to stroke their own military egoism. It is the epitome of vanity and absolute crazy ass shit architecture and the most baroque of all paintings. Here are some highlights:
Battle of Orleans – Joan of Arc is actually my favorite historical figure, so this one jumped out on me.
Battle of Taillebourg, by Delacroix.
L’Impératrice Eugénie parmi ses dames d’honneur by Winterhalter.
YOU WANT GOTHIC LOLITA? YOU GOT GOTHIC LOLITA!
I guess this entire gallery did turn out to be too pro-French. I’m a bit biased here I guess, since I’m most likely to pick works of art that I have seen personally over other paintings that I’ve just seen through the computer. I think if I went to Italy, then I’d definitely put the Sistine Temple paintings here, or if I had ever been in Spain, I’d put in more Picasso. I’m not a pretty big fan or most American or Russian art though, so I don’t think I’d put any of that stuff on my list, although if I were to make a list of influential or novel paintings rather than paintings I like personally, then the abstract artists from either countries might make an appearance. Bombastic and vainglorious as it is, I think when it comes down to making impressive and aesthetically intricate and complex pictures, the French definitely aren’t that shabby at all.
One of the best ways to learn how to draw is to study off of expert artists. I guess a perk of my job is that I can glance over the shoulders of the artists as they work. They also have a lot of incredibly cool art books that I can read through too. It’s too bad that I’m not that great at drawing, but I guess it couldn’t be helped since I decided awhile back that the life of an artist was not for me. Here are some examples of experts in the field. Their work really is level SSS stuff and completely slaughter what I could ever make.
(Warning: Image intensive post – click to continue)
Read the rest of this entry »
By Horiguchi Yukiko
Music can be a very big part of visual novels. Unfortunately, not many of us have either the training or the equipment to make our own. Luckily, thousands of talented musicians have made their works freely available on the Internet for people like us. All you have to do is just search deep enough to find the songs that you need. Here’s a list of ten original soundtracks that I’ve found to be of impressive quality that’s great to use in visual novels or just to listen to while you’re working.
Disclaimer: Most of these sound tracks are licensed under the Creative Commons license. None of them are available for use in commercial games, and various other restrictions apply.
1. Celestial Aeon 1, 2, 3, Mind’s Eye
Aeon 1
Aeon 2
Aeon 3
Aeon Mind’s Eye
This is actually a collection of four great sound tracks best used for fantasy and sci-fi settings. The synthesizer emulates a real orchestra very well, but the songs aren’t as memorable as they could be. Regardless of that though, Celestial Aeon guarantees hours of quality music for free.
2. Butterfly Tea Collection
Action and Adventure
Magical and Fantasy
Drama and Emotion
Electro Synthe
Ethnic Flavor
Heavenz Butterflies
The Source
Butterfly Odyssey
This is a massive collection of some of the best free music you will find in the Internet. The songs are suited the best for epic space operas and Middle Earth fantasy realms and have a very cinematic feel to them. Hours of great music!
3. Tilia’s Flower
This is a sound track of 10 beautiful piano tracks. They’re all very stirring and great for emotional scenes.
4. Tebe Poem
A collection of 6 Gothic choral pieces. They’re all religious chants and are hauntingly beautiful.
5. 3 Metallophone Solos
A collection of three very Key-esque metallophone songs. Great for flash backs to childhood promises!
6. La Voz de los Angeles Rotos
Some beautiful, slow songs using assorted instruments. (Generally the piano and strings) Great for slow paced ren’ai games.
7. Klassik – Album 2008
Three great classical songs. Some of them are useful for military settings, while there’s one with a humorous, light hearted feel as well.
8. SAM Free Music
Instrumental songs
Hatsune Miku songs
Well, you’ve pretty much got to be living under a rock not to already know SAM Free Music. For those of you who don’t know what this is, it’s a collection songs very typical of Japanese dating sims. They’re all very charming and cute. There’s also a collection of great Hatsune Miku songs that might be useful for OPs and EDs.
9. Teslaskite Free Mp3s
This is a collection of various songs by Japanese composer Susumu Hirasawa. The standout tracks are the two vocal pieces that are great for OPs and EDs.
10. Secrets
A collection of various high quality songs on the synthesizer, piano, strings, and guitar. Some of the piano pieces are outstanding. There are other more amazing sound tracks by this artist – unfortunately, none of them are authorized for derivative works, so looks like we’re limited to just this sound track. A shame, since all the songs are amazing.
