Let’s see.. Time for doing new years resolutions for 2010, but first, let’s see how this year’s resolutions panned out…
1) “One of my new years resolutions and goals are to learn how to use , and master, all the 3D applications I bought this year.”
a) “Quidam 2 Studio” - Nope
b) “Maya 8.5 2008” - Nope
c) “3DX MAX 2009” - a little bit
d) “Cinema 4D ” - a little bit
c) “And I upgraded to Lightwave 9.5 from 9.3 ”
This year, I actually upgraded to Lightwave 9.6 this year, not that I really did anything with it either…Unfortunately..
d) “I now have a ton of stuff for Poser - half of which is cataloged.”
Most of it is now cataloged, not all of it , unfortunately…..I wonder if I’ll even use a tiny fraction of the stuff I have now!
“I am not planning on getting any new 3D software this year, maybe upgradee Terrigen 2 3D terrain software, and eGeoControl 2 MaybeAdobe Aftereffects and some other Adobe movie making software. I’ll have to see…”
No, I wasn’t able to get any of those programs this year, maybe next year?
2 ) “I also want to go back to doing 2d type artwork, like drawing on paper, as well as learn how to use Photoshop (I still have version 7.0, I want to learn how to use it before I upgrade up to CS )”
I started to do allot of drawing last January, but for some reason or another, the output tapered off tremendously. I only started to do more artwork this and last month, and hopefully, it will continue into next year without stopping any…
I actually have Adobe Photoshop CS3 for a awhile now, but I haven’t installed it yet, since I still trying to learn Adobe Photoshop 7.0. I’ll probably install it, Along with the rest of the Adobe Premire Design Suit 3 Bundle that I have sometime early next year ( I really need the Dreamweaver and Flash components! )
3 ) “Anyway, now that I have most of the bugs worked out of this blog, I expect to post more offten here, and hopefully show some of the stuff I’m doing art-wise.”
I really haven’t fixed all the bugs out on this blog, and haven’t got around to doing the things that I really wanted to do with it…
But most noticeable change here is that I changed the name from “Galactamaeon” to “Shadamachaeon”, since the latter is the name I used first on my Youtube Channel ( which I don’t yet have anything up there at the moment ) and also at my DeviantArts profile page. This is to focus all my sites into one consolidated Art - Name area, my soon to be activated Shadamachaeon web site domain !
I’m going to have to move this wordpress journal over to the new place, as soon as I figure out how…
And once I do, to change my posting name to ” Shadamachaeon as well!
What are my New Years resolutions for 2010?
In addition to some new things added, they’re pretty much the same as last years, I guess…. And then some…
4 ) “So, to everyone reading this ( all two people! ) I wish you a Very Happy New Year!”
So, to everyone reading this ( all *six* people now! ) I wish you a Very Happy New Year!”
Late last month I got an e-mail from a friend that the Asahiya Bookstore is closing it’s one and only flagship store here in New York City , over between 5th ave and Madison.
October 1st was the first day of the Asahiya closeout sale, so I tried to buy as much as I could. I wanted to get some Japanese language books that I had my eye on for a few years, but they were all sold out, It seemed.
Gothic Lolita Punk Brand Catalogue Magazine ( July and August )
and
Figure King Magazine ( A fantastic magazine for collectors of all kinds of toys, figures )
I spent a total of $104.67 that time - which , on my meager budget, was the maximum money for entertainment expenses for the rest of the month ( Or so I thought… )
But they were clearing out the store, and slashing prices. Alot of books I had put off getting in the past were now in my price range.
I then decided that I was going to make an effort to get to the store before it closed completely and for good by the end of the month.
I managed to return on the 27th…And the prices for most of the remaining books were reduced even futhrer..
On this trip, I got:
The Comic Artists Pose Book Vol. 1 ( Girl home poses ) Originally 2500 Yen, now $3.00.
Comickers Art Style ( ” Color Technique book Issued Semiannually Visual Supporter ” ) magazine, Issue # 2 - 5 ( origianlly 1800 yen, Closeout sale price, now $2.00 ) Quarterly.
Hisashi Hirai Illustration Works 2 ( ” hh2 ” ) Roman Album . He was the Chara Designer for Gundum Seed, I think. ( Originally 1905 Yen, before the sale, now $2.00! )
And Hiderou Horibe Colors Art Works 2 ( Originally 2480 Yen, now $3.00 ). He did art mostly for PC Hentai Games. I think that the first Art works book was called ” Yours “. I read that he is now unfortunately deceased…..He was a promising illustrator and character designer in the Japanese PC scene ( was mostly known for illustrating the covers of the adult oriented magazine PC Angel between 1993 and 2006 ), who died a tragic death of a heart attack at age 36 back in 2006.Too bad, he was a great artist… As one can tell from the image below from one of his previous Artworks books…
Total expediture this last trip to Asahiya :$84.11 total.
I’ve been going to Asahiya Bookstore since 1993, when a friend took me there to get U-Jin manga. Back then, it was in a different location, just two blocks east of where it was now. It moved to the present location in 2003, I think it had a ten year lease or something.
Below is a picture of the site of the original store ( which once was home to the New York Savings Bank ), at 45th and Vanderbelt, across from Grand Central Station :
( You can still see the outline of the old Asahiya sign that was once there. )
And thus a passing of an age. The Japanese bookstore count in NYC is now down by one. A victim of these tough economic times…
Now it looks like I’ll have to make trips to Bookoff ( A famouse Japanese Used Bookstore ) and Kinokunya now……Both on or near 42ns street, and so they are pretty out of the way from my path home from work.
Oh well, I’ll probably be able save alot of money now ( I was often dropping about $60 average at Asahiya weekly! ).
I haven’t written anything here all summer. I have no excuse - I’ve been lazy!
Anyway, It’s fall now, and It was the time of year for The New York AnimeFest. I had to work part of that weekend, so I was trying to figure out whether or not I could go on the last day of the con, that Sunday. I figured I could swing by Javitts Center and check it out.
Then I found out that on the same weekend of the Animefest Con, there was the Octoberfest at the Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden in Astoria (aka Archiebunkerland), Queens.
About three weeks or so before that weekend, I got an e-mail from my friend Taeko , who does American promotion for her NYC - based event media production and marketing communications company, “newyork-tokyo” that there was going to be a concert at Webster Hall featuring some sort of a Japanese Girl Group that I never heard of before, called “AKB48”
The only Japanese Idol Supergroup that I am remotely familiar with is Morning Musume. I never heard of this AKB48. But then again, I don’t follow the Japanese Pop Music scene.
But Cute Japanese Girls + free event?
Definite WIN all around!
AKB48
U.S. DEBUT CONCERT IN NYC
SUPPORTED BY SKY PerfecTV! HD
SEPTEMBER 27 (SUN) 5:00PM
WEBSTER HALL NEW YORK CITY
GRAND BALLROOM
125 E. 11TH ST.
FREE 18+ EVENT WITH RSVP:
www.newyork-tokyo.com/wp/akb48
” We are happy to announce the US debut of Japan’s popular music group AKB48. AKB48 will perform at a full concert at Webster Hall in NYC on Sunday, September 27.
AKB48 is a very unique, theater based, all-female music group created by famed songwriter/producer Yasushi Akimoto in 2005. AKB48 consists of 66 female members ranging from ages 14 to 26 (as of Sep. 2009). The group is divided into four groups - A, K, B, and Trainee. With the concept of “Idols you can meet everyday”, the group practically performs almost every day at their own exclusive AKB48 Theater in Akihabara, Tokyo. Their stage presence is an eye candy to the fans due to their multiple costume changes throughout the show. These busy pop stars take on diverse challenging work by hosting their own TV show and appearing in movies and commercials. Not to mention their multiple collaboration work with artist Takashi Murakami. (Their recent single CD cover was illustrated by Murakami).
AKB48’s first international appearance was at the Japan Expo in Paris this past July. Now they are set to arrive in NYC with select members preparing for the best possible US debut! They will show what Tokyo girls are about in show business. In addition you will get to experience their cute fashion and full smile power. ”
“SEP. 27 (SUN)
Full Concert at
WEBSTER HALL NEW YORK CITY
GRAND BALLROOM
125 E. 11th St., NYC
Doors open at 4:00 PM
Concert starts at 5:00 PM”
Free 18+ event with RSVP
I sent in my RSVP, and I also told my friend Adamonkey about it as well - he also like Japanese stuff, even went to Japan ( Unlike me.. ). I sent him the AKB48 link too.
I did manage to go to the Octoberfest at Bohemian Beer Hall event that Sunday when It opened at noon, and it was raining, so there was not very many people there. I was supposed to meet up with my boss from work there, but he was running late. I passed the time talking to a friendly old Irish guy for a while. After I had my second pitcher of some nice tasting dark Czech beer ( that I didn’t get the name of, unfortunately… ), my boss finally showed up. But it was nearly time for me to leave to go to the AKB48 concert ( it was 3:30 PM, and the doors officially would open at 4:00 PM ). I didn’t want to leave my boss high and dry at the Beerfest, considering that he wasn’t feeling well that morning ( he ate some bad food at some street festival the day before, so he wasn’t up to drinking any beer ). But then I remembered that on my e-mail confirmation for the concert, it said that I could bring one guest.
All I had to say was ” Japanese girls”, and my boss said, “Yes”!
Hehehe..
We managed to get to the Webster Hall around 4:20 pm, but it seemed that they didn’t let anyone in yet. I saw my friend Adamonkey on line, and I introduced him to my Boss.
The show was supposed to start at around 5:00 pm, but they didn’t start to let people in until almost that time.
Right before we went upstairs to the Grand Ballroom, where the event was going to take place, I had to go to the bathroom (all that beer I drank earlier!). Afterwards, I checked the merchandise at the AKB48 sales table - lot of the stuff was just too expensive and the ir posters were $16 dollars ( something like $ 6.oo for a picture of each girl or something… ). Their CD music was like 35 dollars apiece ( must be Japan prices! ).
But I did like the big Webster Hall Promotional Posters of the event, I would have bought them.
I think.
Anyway, I went upstairs to the Grand Ball room, and talked to my Boss and Adamonkey. We three seemed to be the oldest people there, the rest seemed to be mostly people in their 20’s. Alot of them seemed to have come from the NY Animefest over at Jacob Javits center that was just finishing that day. The hall was not as filled as capacity, but they were pretty enthusiastic - They looked like dedicated Japanese Idol fans. They are more known in the industry as “Wotas“, which is another name for “Otaku”, but to differentiate themselves from them, they altered the spelling somewhat.
My Boss was chatting with a Japanese girl for a while, before her friends dragged her away (hahaha ).
The concert itself was interesting, I later found out that the sixteen girls that came to America were combined members from two of of AKB48 three component “Teams”, “A” and “K”. I personally liked the opening number when they were all in their Schoolgirl uniforms costumes ( Because I like that… ). My Boss wasn’t feeling well, and had to leave a half an hour in, and my friend Adamonkey left a half an hour after that ( He’s married, so I was surprised that he managed to stay as long as he did…LOL! ).
Before Adamonkey left, I ran into one of my old Metro Anime friends there, so I hung out with him for the rest of the concert, which had one or two encores, I think.
The girls were cute, in a Japanese kawaii sort of way, but the one that really stood out for me ( I mean, not acting or looking typically Japnesese ) , was a girl from “Team K”, named Sayaka Akimoto. Not only was she the tallest , oldest, and most-in-charge girl there (frontwoman?) at the show, she had the best command of English out of all the girls there. And she was the sexiest….( besides, I’d feel far more comfortable drooling over her, than AKB38’s other mostly underaged Moe-type team members - hey, this isn’t Japan! LOL! )
Nevertheless, I think Akimoto-san made another American fan that evening…. As you can see below..
( Unfortunately, she didn’t wear this at the American concert….. )
Now, as for AKB48 itself, personally, I think they would do very well in the American Anime convention circuit ( Time out New York referred to them as kind of the ” Japanese Spice Girls (!) ) , but I don’t think they would make a dent in the greater American music market. But there are some talk of opening an American branch of AKB48 girl group here in America ( “Team C” ?.
If this ever happens, I don’t know if they will have imported Japanese girls, or will use local talent and do some sort of “High - School Musical” thingy for American tastes.
Here is a video of the concert:
AKB48 NY WEBSTER HALL
And here is another….
AKB48 @ Webster Hall - Member Introductions
I would have taken my own video ( let alone pictures ) but the e-mail from newyork-tokyo said that no recording devices were allowed. But at the concert, almost everyone had a camera or videocamera.
So much for me followig the rules…
After the concert, I hung out in the basement concert events for a while, There was a really nice local New York City “Japanese horror-comical freak” punk metal(!) band called GELATINE ( I needed an antidote to all the mostly sugary goodness of AKB48 hahaha ). the lead singer, Seiko is pretty intense! I bet she could / would eat the AKB48 girls for breakfast! ( no double entendre intended… )
I would definitely check this group out in the future!
After their set ended, I stuck around for a while, then my age started to show, and I was getting pretty tired ( I just cant hang out at concerts like I used to when I was younger.. ). While exiting Webster Hall, I had to go past these huge bouncer type security guys on the steps ( they seemed to be more concerned about people coming in, than going out hahaha ) and I saw the huge white tour bus outside the place, on the street. Must have been AKB48’s bus. If I was twenty, or even ten years younger, I would have stayed, and waited around to take a picture of the girls leave and stuff, but I was tired, not to mention hungry (and just simply not in the mood to be a Wota stalker LOL! )
That was basically it. I liked the event ( considering that it was free, and I would have had to pay a pretty penny to see them in Akihabara in Tokyo ) and I was not creeped out at all going to a Japanese pop Idol group concert which half consisting girls under the Age of Consent in NY state.
But that’s just me….
AKB48 seems to be pretty popular in the Japanese Idol world - There is even an internet forum for English speaking AKB48 fans :
Those Stage48 forum people seem to be / are pretty hard core WOTAs It seems. Maybe I’m just too old, and / or not that fanatical, ( I don’t think I’ll end up like these Japanese guys…I hope… ) but I’d rather stick with Anime and Manga stuff, personally. and the only Japanese Idols I be interested in would be the Gravure kind…
Here is a free Poser Character called “Decoo” by a Japanese Poser Artist named Akatora at his site here.
It comes in two versions, a thin, regular version, and a more voluptuous model, as seen below…
There are clothes made for the Thin Version, but I have not found anything yet for the bombshell body version.
There is also a younger poser charcter that he has called “Decoco” located on that same page.
I haven’t posted anything here in weeks……I have to admit, I’ve been busy doing other things…Namely fiddling with POSER. I learned lots of new stuff in just these past weeks, considering that I have had the software for more than a year now..
I’ll try post some nice renders that I did here soon.
Anyway, I used most of my tax refund money to get Autodesk Mudbox 2009. It’s pretty good!
I’ve always wanted to get in to sculpting - even went as far as getting sculpting tools and clay, etc. But just have not really done anything with them yet. But now there is software that emulates sculpting and even painting models now.
I was originally going to get Zbrush, I saw heard of it before , the first well known and quite popular digital sculpting and painting program that many people in the CG world works with.
But I read that Mudbox has better features ( I’m not sure what they are right now ). But it is a little bit more expensive - Mudbox is $745.00, while Zbrush is $595.
I really haven’t had a chance to really work with it in depth, but I have been fiddling with it for a bit. The first model that I created in Mudbox is , like I did with the Lightwave and 3ds Max software, a simple cube, as seen in the picture above.
Well, it’s a start!
Here is a very good instructional Mudbox video off of Youtube, if you are interested..
I’m finally getting around to learning the 3ds Max CG software I have. So far, it’s pretty similar to Lightwave, but the interface is a little more complicated.
As in my previous post regarding Lightwave, I also started of by first creating a primitive base cube.
I hope to make some more complex objects soon. Stay tuned…
If you been following this blog, you know that I bought Lightwave 9.3 nearly a year ago. I really haven’t done much with it since then, with the exception of upgrading it to version 9.5.
But as one of my New Years resolutions, I wanted to actually learn the thing, or else it’s just an expensive piece of software taking up space on my hard drive. I figured that I would start off learning Lightwave, since it seems , according to many in the CG industry, to be easier to master, and has a lower learning curve than Maya or 3ds max ( which, I hear is around two years, on average.)
After buckling down and actually beginning the reading the Lightwave Manual that came with the software, I was confident enough to fiddle around in the Lightwave Modeling interface, and actually begin to create something.
In Lightwave Modeler, under the “Create ” tab menu, I clicked the “Square” option and created a simple “cube” .
Yes, I know it’s nothing to look at, but it’s a start.
There are some good Lightwave tutorials out there. Lightwave 3D Tutorials seems like a good site for me to check out for a newbie like me.
Given enough time, I hope to be going from simple primitive cube shapes to this:
While surfing recently, Youtube, I found this gem…
Battlestar Galactica vs. Star Wars
This video was originally created by a user named “starmaster115” at SpaceBattles.com site. The video was made in Lightwave CG software! Amazing!
When I was a boy back in the late ’70’s, I used to draw scenarios of what would happen if the ships in Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica got into a big space battle.
And to think that someone managed to do it in video!
I wished that the video was longer, but knowing how long it takes to render and compost in Lightwave, I understand why it wasn’t.
It does look like the Battlestars are completely overwhelmed by the forces of the Empire, but I think that liberties were taken though. In a *Real* fight between the two forces, the Battlestars would be definitely be using Nuclear Missiles against the Imperial Star Destroyers, which I don’t think that even deflector screens would be much protection against .
And I am pretty sure that Star destroyers used their turbo - Lasers, instead on Macross - Style Homing missles. But those are small nitpicks. I give this video , to use the language of the Gen Y kids today, a big WIN!
Here is a set of amazing Youtube videos of 3D computer generated animations made with the Autodesk MAYA software by a Youtube member by the name of nori98765432. He works at school of design in Japan.
His Maya model is named “MINAKO“,and has been working on her for about about 10 years!
Yes, I know, she is built pretty extreme ( for a Japanese girl! ), but hey, one has to admit, it’s amazing rigging!
The Minako Maya model uses Nucleus nCloth technology, which is a built - in cloth simulation tool for use in modeling in Maya. It gives realistic cloth dynamics to animation models wearing clothes.
Minako’s shorts look like they are created by bound/skinned/enveloped geometry (which means being deformed by the bones and not any sort of cloth simulations) .
Maya nCloth
Maya nCloth dance
Maya nCloth dance 2
Maya nCloth dance 3
Maya 3D jiggle
I like this one, of course…Hehhehe..
( I wonder, Is that the Maya Muscle tool being used here ? )
Maya muscleJiggle2 (HD)
I like this video as well..Hehehe…
According to nori98765432 the deformation of the boobs in the shirt were not created using nCloth , this is Maya’s built in “MuscleJiggle” tool.
Here, nori98765432 shows the process in which he sets up his MAYA interface on his PC:
My Maya 3D workspace
Seems like the Japanese guy has a site called Metadoll.com. WARNING! - Not safe to lok at while at work! Part of the site has some “free” pictures ( “pictures for guest” ), but most of the site is pay. But all one has to do is purchase the MetaDoll 3D CG collection 1 that is on sale there, and you get the password to the pay sections.
I really have to learn Maya software….This really gives me inspiration!
Now , wouldn’t you rather see CG animation like this, instead of CG pile of talking Jello?
Excuse me, I have to order the collection and do some…Err…”Research“….
). I sent him the AKB48 link too.
Part of the site has some “free” pictures ( “pictures for guest” ), but most of the site is pay. But all one has to do is purchase the MetaDoll 3D CG collection 1 that is on sale there, and you get the password to the pay sections.