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Monday, September 29, 2008

Dissidia Final Fantasy

Voice Character Introduction


Trailer 2


Final Fantasy I Fight Demo


Tidus VS Jecht (FFX) Fight Demo


Onion Knight VS Cloud of Darkness (FFIII) Fight Demo

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Animation Mentor Student Reel Summer 2008

Friday, September 19, 2008

Local Color - Trailer

A meaningful movie trailer that draws my attention and reminds me of what had happened to me. And also seems like a great movie to remind everyone of us to keep our passion burning and have faith. Though some may not able to achieve what they wanted to achieve due to certain life related problem, but doesn't mean that is the end of hope. Keep inspired, keep the passion burning no matter how long it takes to achieve in real life. You never know what good would happen next... you just have to have faith and patience. That is what I believe.

The above and following are specially dedicated to a friend of mine who is still holding hard the edge in order to achieve what she wanted to achieve in life. Hang in there my friend. I believe in you. You will get there someday soon, have faith. =)


Online Videos by Veoh.com

-End, but Never End of Hope-

The Alchemy of Animation

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Osaka & Kyoto Summer Trip

Last week was my one-week summer vacation. And I spent 3 days outside Tokyo. I went to Osaka and Kyoto with my colleague.

The trip was great, and I especially like Kyoto the most. Compare to Tokyo, Kyoto is totally different city. It has a different type of atmosphere and the feeling was just different. When you are there , you can tell. hehe...

Here are some of the pictures I took during the trip.


Album 1
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Album 2
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-End-

Friday, September 12, 2008

The Sky Crawlers

I watched this movie with my friends 2 weeks ago.



To be fair again, before I start sharing my own view on this movie, I would like to declare here that, everyone's review of movies in this world is totally subjective based on ownself's knowledge of technicals, entertaining level, acceptance to public depending on different races, cultures etc. So there is no right or wrong, the only thing left is just about Agree or Disagree. =)

So, lets begin shall we? haha... Well, after watching the whole movie, I did have a feeling that this movie is not my cup of tea. haha.. The overall feeling about this movie is like a Wong Kar Wei (Hong Kong famous award winning director) movie. Except that I like Wong Kar Wei's movie better. hahaa...
I'm not saying that Arty-Farty movie isn't good, but sometimes it just doesn't work well if the director doesn't "slot in" the correct montage into correct space and timing. That's what I feel for The Sky Crawlers, although I realise that the story is adapted from a novel, which in fact I never read it before.

By just judging from the movie alone (watching as a brand new audience without knowing the original novel story), The Sky Crawler movie looks like a draggy movie with no better reason. Half way through it may seem like Arty-Farty, but after almost finish the movie, I just feel that the Arty-Farty was inserted with not much good reason, and in fact, most of the draggy shots are not so necessary, in my very humble opinion.

For example, most of the shots in The Sky Crawlers ended with long pause with frozen poses and almost lasted for 5-6 seconds. I'm not saying this type of movie-making style isn't good, but this type of style should be used carefully and meaningfully without over-using it. For The Sky Crawlers, this type of frozen poses at the end of the shot could be used in may be 2-3 shots which are considered necessary to bring some different taste to the audience once in a while throughout the movie. Unfortunately, the director has over-used them and put almost half of the movie into such dead silent frozen pose draggin all the way which doesn't look like meaningful or other words, kinda too much. Again, my point of view. Well, you may say I'm not the type of too-Arty-Farty person who may not appreciate super Arty-Farty movie which almost becomes much more boring than watching a screen saver of 3D square box rotating itself over 100 times. Sorry for the bad metaphor... haha.. =P



Well, story wise, there may be some little surprise at the end, but the technique of conveying is kinda "not fresh", and doesn't look like a surprise even though the story seems like trying to tell a small surprise to the audience. hahaa.. Anyway, overall feeling is, monotone.... sorry to say that, even though some may say "Hey! This is the famous Mamoru Oshii who made Ghost in the Shell you know! Who are you to judge his brilliant work!". hahahaa... well, I may not as old as him and as experienced as him, but when comes to movie and general entertainment, be it on the theater or small TV show, your feeling cannot lie to yourself. If your feeling feels something not right, that means that something is not your cup of tea or may be it doesn't work well to some other people.

I wasn't expecting funny or gags from this movie, I even knew that this movie is serious since it's an adaption from a existed novel. However, overall, it was really over-done. When it is overdone, the climax will be killed. Speaking of climax, I just want to say that, as far as i remember, I really couldn't find any proper climax which really could touch my heart (when i said touch, doesnt always mean related to crying.. if you know what i mean, ok). Again, overall, the graph of this movie pacing and excitement was just almost Monotone....not totally, but almost..

Enough story and pacing talk, lets move on to more technical stuff, like animation and CG adaption. Well, I dont feel like want to comment much, but i just wanted to say, the character animation is not really impressive compare to what I expected before watching this movie. Some parts may look good, but mainly , throughout whole animation, they just look flat and unlively and like almost dead zombies talking to each other (this may be over-exagerated but almost true..haha). Another specific pick is that, unnecessary fun dog animations had been inserted into too many scenes, which is also overly-done. Those effort should have been transfered to other character animations to make them better and lively. Other than that, there were also some parts which had no consistency of the main character's personality. From my observation, one character has been established to be having personality A, but all of a sudden, the animation style of the character in certain scenes gives away the believability of the first establishment for that character, and ended up confusing all the observant-type of audience. It may be not obvious to normal audience, but it just can't work for us who worked in the same field. Well, I'm not sure about how other animators think about this, but that's just my own view. May be that's what it is from the novel.. I never know. Pardon me if I'm wrong. =)



Ok, next, CG. There were quite a lot of CG in this movie especially those Fighters scene and Base n stuff. As far as the color and style concerns, I would say, it can be considered a weird combination, which may be or may be not acceptable to a lot of people. Well, it started to make me feel that it worked for me, but slowly observing more scenes like sky view and mountains and other scenery, i realised there were too many types, in terms of color schemes and textures. I could at least find 3 different types of backgrounds schemes and styles throughout the whole movie. Well, for normal audience it may look good or stylish or something new, but well, to me, I wasn't trying to be stone-head, but but... i just thought that it's kinda like a bit inconsistent in terms of overall movie designs.... well, it's subjective again... that's just what i feel..hahaa... =P

However, I have to say that I love the designs of the planes and the mood of the planes with certain backgrounds was good too, IF, I judge it scene by scene without considering consistency with other scenes. =)

Ok lar... I guess it's about time I pen off.. though I never use any pen to write this.. Duh~!! hahahaaa...
Well, finally, like other reviewers around the world, I would like to rate for this movie based on my own humble personal view of movies (coz I love movies!). =D

My Rate for The Sky Crawler is as followed:

Overall Story: 5/10
Technical (Animation): 6/10
Technical (CG/Designs): 6/10
Technical (Story Editing/Pacing): 5/10
Technical (Sound Effects/Music): 6.5/10

Average Rate of the movie: 5.7/10

p/s: Although I'm not fan of Ghost in the Shell, I think I like it much better than The Sky Crawler. =P

~End~

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Back From Osaka & Kyoto Trip

It was a fun trip... going to show some photos and talk a little bit more, but i'm pretty tired now... head is empty... so.... will blog other day about my trip... Just to stop by to say that I'm safe back home in Tokyo. ....so.... stay tuned...

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

World of WarCraft - Wrath of the Lich King Cinematic

Thanks to a friend of mine, Danny, I was able to realise another Blizzard's latest release of a marvellous cinematic!

Character designs, atmospheric musics, atmospheric colors, camera angles, camera motions, particles simulations, even narration are all wonderfully done! Speaking of character designs, I specially love the cool Dragon!! Super duper COOL!!! I hope they will release the figurine in the market in future, and I will definitely be waiting... It will be worth for my dragon collection! haha...



** Click here to watch Higher Quality version.
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/38881.html

~End~

Monday, September 01, 2008

Square Enix Party DKΣ3713 2008

This event was a private party exclusively for Square Enix Online Members only (http://member.square-enix.com). Of course, I'm one of the members too since long time ago. haha...

This event was held beginning of last month (August). And this event was just meant for around few thousands members for just 2 days at Shibuya. What do I mean by "meant for few thousands members"? It means, we, members have to apply online and within one month, they had a lucky draw and those members who are luckily picked will be allowed to attend the private party. And guess what!! I DID apply online in July and eventually DIDN'T get the lucky pick. Super SAD! I hate lucky-draw! I always have no fate in that thing ever since I was a kid... That is so unfair! (T-T)

Anyway, after reading recent game magazines reporting what had happened in the private party, I felt excited and feel like sharing here with you all, especially those Square Enix's gamers or supporters, who of course haven't found out about this.

I've captured some pictures from the magazines that I bought, but sorry for the bad quality if it doesnt turn well to everyone. I snapped with my mobile camera which only 2MegaPix. hhahaa... And I also dug some videos from the youtube and compiled them here together for your viewing pleasure. Well, the quality may not be as good as original (that is most definitely..haha), but I still want to thank them for uploading online for everyone to view. THanks! =)

Well, whether or not I could get the first-hand view of the stunning trailers, I just hope I could get the first-hands-on on the game during their release dates respectively. hehe...

Oh by the way, I'm really looking forward the coming Tokyo Game Show next month! Hope to see more stuff coming up. Yesshh !!! Can't wait!!






























For those who are interested to know about their release dates (in Japan):

「FABULA NOVA CRYSTALLIS FINAL FANTASY XIII」Series

* ・FINAL FANTASY XIII (PLAYSTATION 3) [release 2009]
* ・FINAL FANTASY Agito XIII (PSP) [To Be Announced]
* ・FINAL FANTASY Versus XIII (PLAYSTATION 3) [To Be Announced]

「KINGDOM HEARTS」Series

* ・KINGDOM HEARTS Coded (Mobile) [Coming Winter]
* ・KINGDOM HEARTS 358/2 Days (Nintendo DS) [Coming Winter]
* ・KINGDOM HEARTS Birth by Sleep (PSP) [release 2009]

DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY (PSP) [release Dec 2008]
PARASITE EVE - The 3rd Birthday (Mobile) [release 2009]
SIGMA HARMONICA (Nintendo DS) [Already Released]
FINAL FANTASY VII ADVENT CHILDREN COMPLETE (Blu-ray) [release Mar 2009]

Square Enix Party DKΣ3713 2008 (IGN Report)


Square Enix Party DKΣ3713 2008 (Some Fan's Photography Compilation)


Dissidia Final Fantasy (PSP) Latest Trailer


Dissidia Final Fantasy (PSP) In-Game Demo


p/s: Ever wonder what Party DKΣ3713 stands for? hehe.. ;)