SunMorn: Some time w/ Super Mario World

  **NOTE:  Apologies this didn't get put up yesterday.  Irene threw me really off-schedule, and I didn't have much time to write.  Also, chances are I will not be posting any new art until the next Saturday update b/c I don't feel I have enough done w/ the pictures to warrant an update this week.  Everything next time should be about done tho ;)**

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  It's funny to mention this now, but for a while I just wasn't a really big Mario fan.  I always appreciated the little Italian plumber's role in the industry; he is our Mickey Mouse after all.  And as such, his games have touched us all in a very important way, making us feel like adventurous children all over again.  They're also some of the most technically polished offerings on the market.

   And yet, to me Mario was just "that dude" for a long time.  I tried a little of 64 on the N64; it was neat, but nothing compelled me to complete it.  Again w/ Sunshine on GC; fun, maybe a little finicky, but in the end it just didn't hold me over.  Not even offerings like Smash Bros. Melee or Mario Kart made me want to REALLY venture out to play the main games.  I blame part of this on my age at the time of those games; being either a child or teenager then, my interests gaming-wise did not lie in what I perceived subconsciously as 'child-like' fare.  I was either too busy catching up on older consoles like the Genesis or making up stories and drawing, and then of course there was school to deal w/ as well.

    However, recently over the past year and so, I have slowly been getting into Mario's groove, opening myself up to his main adventures-old and new-and finding for myself why everyone holds them dear to their hearts.  Good, unadulterated slightly nonsensical fun.  My time w/ Mario has now culminated w/ a somewhat feverish playthrough of Super Mario World, the first Mario game I might actually play through to completion.  Right now, I'd like to share a bit of both the awesomeness I find in it, and some of the more naggling features that persistently bug me.  It is a classic, yes, but that doesn't mean it's perfect.

   --WHAT I LIKE--

   As the first Mario game on the SFC/SNES-and coming right off SMB3-SMW had a lot to live up to.  Thankfully it manages to meet the challenge, and I think most of that is attributable to what it gets right.  The game doesn't visually look much better than B3, but what's there is very clean, crisp, festive and vibrant.  The colors are energetic, the enemy designs are on-point and creative, Mario's own sprite has a good deal more detail, and the backgrounds really help pull and hold these vast visual elements together quite well.

   The music, although not as diverse as B3, is damn catchy and downright hypnotizing at moments.  Variations are done well and come just in time, and at default doesn't drown the sound effects or voices out.  Speaking of which, I really like the implementation of whimsical sounds here; that's been a Mario staple sure, but in World I think they finally got hardware powerful enough to pull them off strongly and marry them w/ visuals that resonated just right.  Everything in World sounds full of life and splendor.

    The level design, on the whole, is actually very impressive.  If it sounds like I'm trying to be shocking for the sake of shocking, that's not true.  It's just that the first couple of opening levels in World didn't have the same punch in their design as the same opening set in Bros.3, so it was starting on a lower mark.  But the twists some of the levels make are pretty inventive, sometimes ingenious, and most of the set-pieces work w/ aplomb.  Also, there are a few really neat moments in some of the stages-such as Ludwig Castle 4 (probably my favorite level in the game so far)-that made me very giddy.  I can see why Shigeru Miyamoto considers this to be his favorite Mario game, and for all I know it could be mines as well (but let's wait until AFTER we play the others fully-ed.note ;)

   I like the introduction of Yoshi and how he helps to bring a very slight Kirby-esque feel to the game (tho he's never as good as the Kirbster).  This being Yoshi's first appearance, he's introduced in a pretty logical fashion and he makes some sections quite more manageable.

   I also have to mention Mario's control as a whole: despite some frustration (motl), I'd say he controls about the same as he did in Bros.3, which until it's time was the pinnacle of control in a 2D Mario game.  His jump has a real sense of weight to it, he builds up running momentum reasonably, and his button inputs are pretty much dead-on responsive. 

   On that subject, his range of attacks is also relatively plenty for this being a Mario game.  I still really miss moves like the buttstomp and triple-jump from the 3D games (and I have played a fanmade 2D flash Mario game that's extremely well-made and proves those techniques would work well in an official game), but everything he has here, from the spin jump to the dash to slide to the shuffle (yes you read that right; it's Mario's little dance and it rocks.  Just sway him back and forth rapidly and there you go; look at 'em little feet dance their toes off xD!), functions to serve a direct purpose and looks pretty good doing it.

   --WHAT I DON'T LIKE--

  For everything Super Mario World has going for it, there are a few things that do pester me about it.  I will get the biggest one out of the way first: controls.  Yes, I know I said the controls are fairly rock-solid...and they're certainly not to a level where even a quarter of deaths could be attributable to them being slightly shoddy.  But-and this isn't even really a control issue as it is a physics/inertia one-for me, Mario seems to get too much forward momentum coming off average-height jumps into landings.  For landing and STICKING on very small foundations, this can be an issue.  The problem doesn't seem to exist when it's Yoshi, just Mario, suggesting he either packed on too many spaghetti and meatball meals prior to heading out, or decided to take jumping lessons from Luigi.

    Honestly, if I could describe the physics and jump inertia model of Mario in world, it would probably be " .75Bros. 3 Mario + . 15Bros. 3 Luigi + .10 Bros.2 (U.S ver) Peach"...if that makes any sense.  Not that there's anything wrong w/ that, but I would've preferred a Mario who was that much closer to his Bros.3 incarnation, b/c of the 2D Marios I've played, that is his best in terms of jump interia and weight, which directly impacts the controls.

  Another issue I have w/ World is the length.  I don't really profuse to disliking a game simply b/c it's short.  I like many arcade games and plenty of them are quite short once you know what to do w/ them.  But in the case of World it's different.  It's actually decently lengthy for a platformer of its time, clocking in at seven worlds (of which I'm currently on World 6).  However, the reason I don't have an issue w/ arcade games being short is b/c either that's the expectation or you eventually learn them inside-and-out to cut down the time, and the process of that learning is through fair difficulty.  W/ World, there's no expectation of it to be short, so it actually isn't so.  What actually makes me consider it shorter than it is, is that the moments where progress stalls is where I found myself dying more to Mario's delay in inertia and stopping; if it wasn't for those moments I would have been quite further along.  Granted, in those same moments the levels themselves were often genuinely more challenging (and I can't claim to be a saint in patience), but the point stands.

   Yet another, much more miniscule but still annoying thing, is that the collision detection on the sloping platforms seems to be a bit "off".  Take World 6-2 for instance, once you go past the green pipe.  You have to make a series of jumps on sloped platforms.  This isn't really a big deal, but whenever I landed on one of the slopes at their very edge w/ Yoshi, I would pass right through them.  I naturally assumed those areas would still be solid, but apparently the game doesn't like that idea, and so it was life after life after life.  Little things like that kind of infuriate me b/c the rest of the game's collision detection is more or less spot-on when it comes to platforms...so why not these platforms?  *Sigh*...

   Moving away from more technical stuff, I do have to say that the power-up system in World is kinda weak in comparison to Bros.3.  Bros.3 has a megaton of other really neat power-ups-namely the Tanooki, Frog, Hammer and P-Wing suits-that are omitted from World for reasons I'm not clear on.  I might be premature in that assumption-as the cape in this game actually combines several power-ups into one and there's a balloon power-up that functions mostly like the P-Wing from 3-but in the case of the former it doesn't pop up enough times and in the latter's case, it's only appeared ONCE across all of the 5 worlds I've cleared.  For the most part, it is mainly the regular super mushroom or fireflower suit to be had, which actually shifts the focus closer to SMB1 than 3, and maybe that's not all bad but still, a little more variety wouldn't hurt.

   (P.S:  I should mention that, thinking on it some more, the power-up system in World might actually be fine as-is.  I say this b/c if you take into consideration there IS Yoshi there, having both Yoshi and all the Bros.3 powerups would've made the game too easy.  Yoshi appears frequently enough and w/ some enemies he can absorb a power from them.  So really, the usual power-ups are probably gimped to balance out the presence of Yoshi and increased capabilities of the cape power-up).

    (P.S.S:  On this note, I could've also mentioned my dislike for the lack of the spade card and power-up panel houses from 3, but for the most part that also seems to work out in the end.  3 is actually pretty generous w/ power-ups if you play it smart, and w/ World you would need to venture back to older stages to get extra lives or certain other power-ups useful for other future stages (like needing the cape for stage 6-1, even tho there is no cape power-up anywhere on that stage).  I think it actually adds an extra layer of strategy and tactics to Mario that, while annoying at first, I'm getting used to, and wished Bros.3 employed and hope some of the later Mario games DO feature., backtracking syndrome notwithstanding).

--CONCLUSION--

    In the end, despite some of my personal issues w/ World up to now, I would have to say it's a damn fine platformer, and earns its reputation for a reason.  It's slightly inferior to Bros.3 but that shouldn't take away from its charm, and it has a LOT of charm.  World is packed w/ tight level design, great physics and jumping control, endearing visuals, ear-massaging music and sound, and some inventive enemy designs.  It's also a fairly moderate challenge, tho it takes until about Donut Plains Level 2  to begin showing it ;).  Makes me pine for the Special and Star World levels that much more xD.

     Below I'll share some of my favorite moments from my time w/ the game so far: good and bad, all comical in their own way.  But for anyone else on the fence of playing a classic gem like this one, hopefully I have convinced you it's worth the time.  If not, all I can do is dance the Mario Shuffle and hope it fills you with the highest levels of envy x3.  

    Thanks to everyone taking the time to read this; hope you've enjoyed it.  I'll be back this weekend w/ some art and hopefully big progress on that front, so look forward to then.  Until next time, be awesome and see 'ya l8r :)

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BONUS!!!

    The following's just a jaunt through some of the more memorable aspects of the game I've experienced up till now.  Both downright neat stuff, and frustratingly ambysal moments, all wrapped in one quick list of blurbs.  Yeah!

   >The prairie dogs:  Hate them.  Hate them w/ a blood-soaked passion.  Way more of a hassle for me than the Zeus-wannabe Koopas in their respective level.  I almost hate them as much as..

   >The baby dinosaurs:  Don't know what they are; look like triceratops, but less dinosaur-y.  They're more random than the dogs and that's where my increased hatred for them comes from xD.

   >Bubbles are NOT my friend.  I think it's Forest of Illusion 3 or 4...definitely one of those two stages, but anyhow...I just couldn't believe how many times I died from having a jump cut off by colliding w/ a bubble.  I guess Mario's a bit more lightweight than I give him credit for :S.

   >The pipe Lakitus:  bastards!  One of them PERFECTLY spawned a spiked koopa shell to kill me just the very moment my feet were saying 'hi' to his bald head.  Could not have timed that any better if he tried.  Needless to say I would love to use spiked boots on them.

   >The double chain hallway bit in Ludwig Castle 4; ingenious.  I still think that might be the single hardest section in the game for me as of this writing, and also one of the most fun.  It's just a little section...near the end of the hallway you get a big mushroom and yadda yadda yatta.  Still, the level of precision needed to get through them w/o dying, and the build-up to getting to that point, really enticed me.

   >Ludwig Castle 4, in the sequence right after the hallway.  A very pressure-heavy area, my favorite part is after you hit the switch and need to run your ass like MAD after clearing the fireballs as the ceiling's coming down.  Only the second time in the game where the dash feature is mandatory, and just as fun as the first time (but w/o invincibility to aid you).  There should've been more moments like that..hopefully there will be in these last two worlds.

   >"The Jump".  You know, the one where you're in that stage w/ all the triceratops-looking dinos for the first time, and you get Yoshi, warping into the silver pipe to launch out into that giant open space w/ the flying koopa.  I was actually pretty pissed w/ this part b/c it seemed no matter what I did, I just could NOT clear this section.  No amount of timing or momentum out of the pipe would work..unless you had the cape feather.  Since I did not have that power-up, it meant backtracking to the nearest stage w/ one (Forest of Illusion 1 I believe) and not fucking up.  Backtracking,...in a Mario game?!?  Yes, but it wasn't that much really and I liked having to do that, 'cuz it forced a better playthrough on that particular stage.  I was also accustomed to the level-back trick earlier to get extra lives for Ludwig Castle 2, and that one was much more time-consuming.

  

  

  

Wednesday Updates moved to Saturday (for now)

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  What's up peeps; this is a flash update blog, just to let you know why I'm going yet another Wednesday w/o a blog update.  I'll just be upfront; the past couple of weeks it's been very difficult to squeeze in the time to write and post those blogs any other time but the weekend.  In fact, that's generally when I type up ANY blog.

  So for now on-at least until more time opens up for me-I'll be switching to posting two blogs per Saturday.  One in the morning just on randomz (since I've been playing so much Super Mario World I'm bound to cover that), and one at night (or late evening) posting the art.  That sounds like it'll work out pretty well, and who's to say this update process is permanent?  It could switch back @ any time ;).

    Anyway, it's dinner time so I'm off to eat.  See you this Saturday for a double dip in fun; until then have an awesome week and don't stress yourself out too much.  L8r.

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    Howdy everyone; it's another Saturday and that means it's time for another art update.  Before I begin, you'll probably notice that this one will be shorter on the text than usual.  That's because I'm actually finding it harder to get the energy to talk about these lol.  Between actually working on these pictures (which over the past week's meant neglecting some of them and figuring out how to dramatically streamline my process to set up an environment where these pictures can get done in roughly a day or two, as it should be ;) and life in general, there isn't enough time to devout anymore in writing up a bunch of stuff for these uploads.  I'm just getting more into the set of working to actually get stuff done nowadays, so everything here is pretty much on some level of near completion...almost everything...

If this looks like she has a facial cleaning mask on, then I've succeeded.

    First up is my current work on Suzuka.  This one got neglected later on the past couple of days, so there hasn't been as much done as there should be.  However I'm likely going to take a day out to work solely on it, and get her done then.  Possibly early next week on Monday..in fact I might just do that w/ all three of these.  Take one day out for a few hours and just finish them..should work that...

    Okay anyhow, the picture itself really needs to be injected w/ a bit more life, and the colors and value mapping needs to get done as well.  At this point I've gotten the process streamlined to a point where this should be finished faster than I originally thought, just keeping fingers crossed everything holds up well.

Probably needs a little glaze of some Burnt Sienne-ish color...

    Like Suzuka my cloud painting's gone unworked on the later half of this week.  But, I still managed to inject some color in there, to where it's a bit closer to the source image.  All I have to really do is blend a bit more in most spots and add in the effects, and it should be done.  But, chances are I'll hold off until Suzuka's finished to tackle this one.

Still a ways to go, but at least it can get done much faster now

    This Poison picture managed to surprise me w/ it's original size.  @ the moment it's practically life-sized, and this version imaged here takes a hit as a result of the resizing I had to do and the compression of the JPEG format.  Actually, I've been wondering if it's best to scale down the image size period, but if this scale-down has proven anything it's that there might be too much data in the original to scale down too small before producing some ugly aliasing and artifacts.  As for work on the pic itself, yesterday it came to my attention I was moving WAY too slowly on this, so I've begun moving at fuller blast and it's paying off big time.  I'll get some more done on her Sunday but put off until Wednesday to get the bulk of the rest finished :)

     Actually, this whole "slowness" deal has always been a problem for me.  I've always been very meticulous about minute little details.  That in itself isn't bad, but something felt wrong about me tackling that level of precesion right off the bat.  In other words, I don't think I've been tackling my pictures w/ the right amount of "energy".  Ever since I revamped my drawing process those have been coming along much faster than usual from basic concept to realization (inking is another matter; I could get inks done much faster now but I have another idea for doing them which would require a printer w/ working cartridges, as far as inking digital work, given I lack a tablet and wouldn't dare use a mouse for something like inking), but I didn't bother to take the same effor w/ the painting.  And yesterday, when I was yet again going through meticulous stuff w/ Poison, I thought "this is boring.  Let's bring some ENERGY!".

       At that moment I recalled an article of a traditional artist who said that some of the most expressive stuff utilizing all the possible variety of tools and techniques available to the artist.  They mentioned, for instance, that the first few stages of a painting should be where the energy is exploding, perfection be damned.  Let loose and refine later on.  Well,..it wasn't *quite* like that, but all the same.  I had been doing the opposite even w/ these digital paintings, and it just wasn't feeling right.  So, at least on some level, I agree w/ that notion and I've been pressing fuller tilt on at least Poison since, which has resolved my eagerness and confidence.  That fits my mindset just fine, b/c I actually DON'T like spending a long time on these pieces; the onset of new ideas tends to draw away my interest of old ones pretty quickly so it's best to fufill them to their peak in the short while they hold my attention.

Lol, it's like Chop Shop Master Onion meets Mr. Potato Head!

      Righties...so that'll complete it for me as far as today's concerned.  I'll likely spend some time catching up on games and watching a few films, or just visit a good friend.  In the meantime, and until next week, I hope everyone does their best to find some enjoyment and stride in their pursuits.  I'll be back w/ something Wednesday, and finally put an end to this WIP madness next weekend and maybe let crack on a few other pictures in the wings.  So until then, take care and prosper.  Catch 'ya all next time; l8r :)

      

The Usual Saturday

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  What's up people; sorry about skipping out on the usual Wednesday update.  I've just been too busy to find the time to even think of something to write about then, let alone take time out to type it.  But, I'll make up for the absence this Saturday, certainly.

   In other quick news, I hear that Ridley Scott is directing the new Blade Runner movie.  Sounds like a good deal to me.  BR's a pretty good film, tho I dunno if I can say it's a favorite, if only b/c I've seen it thoroughly just ONCE lol.  But it would be such a fresh breath from the usual movies coming out in the box office these days, likely everyone is willing to welcome it.  And, it's Ridley Scott for god's sake; that pedigree is nigh-legendary :)

  I leave you all to your own devices, so until the weekend, have a great night and a bangin' Friday; catch you l8r.  Peace.

Poison Proof

  Cool everyone, nothing too special or big here.  I'm actually ready to eat dinner before I resume work on the actual painting in an hour or so, but this past Saturday inbetween Zelda, Mario and some other games I had an urge to play around in Corel and test out some painting for the Poison picture. 

  I also went ahead and created most of the palette that day too.  I've been most curious in how to get more realistic coloring, and taking what I've learned from classical approaches and some curious tinkering of my own, I think I've gotten somewhere to a sweet spot so far.  This here is really just a test of the color depth; the shading's all messed up and it's very obvious some stuff wasn't even proofed any further (like her short skirt and hair), but as I said this is the low-res version and I have to begin painting the real version later tonight, just making sure I have time to finish up the lines of my Garuda picture ;)

  Okay that's all for now; be back Wednesday.  I'd like to give an extended thanks to my followers; truly I didn't even think anything interesting enough was going on here to warrant you guy's interest.  Special big up to Enrique; your stuff is truly awesome man, keep up the gr8 work.  Alrighty then...I'm gonna stuff my face.  See you all l8r. 

SatAft Update

 

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     Good Saturday afternoon everyone; just a while ago I fired up Super Mario World again.  I'm still oddly stuck on the level w/ the koopa wizard, but I figured it would be smart to try and find an earlier point to rack up extra lives, which I did.  So now I have triple the starting number of lives and the two spots before "that" level are pretty easy (barring any daredevil stunts that get me killed in the most stupid of ways imaginable), so I hope I can finally get it done and move on to the newer areas of the game.

     But of course, the real reason I'm here is to post up some more artwork.  Before that, though, I'd like to state a re-evaluation of my practices on my deviantART.  Basically, I'm just deciding to keep my current stuff on my account, and let it be.  Those pieces helped me in some way or another and they should stay there as a result.  Anybody who turns away a part of their past feeling that through simply ignoring it they can move on and get better, is a puppet's fool.  At least in my case, there is no reason to get rid of those pictures onto another account.  The gallery isn't bloated and it might be nice seeing the progression that's been made.

   Okay, so now we can get to the pics.  I'll keep it short this time b/c I'm probably gonna be needing time to work on these and begin a couple of others today while I try to relax, but as always, we do things pretty informatively here ;)

     Are they waves, or are they clouds?  Is it life, or is it death?  Is it good, or is it evil?"...please don't ask questions like that xD.  I should confess that I'm a big fan of clouds, and all things nature.  There's something innate about it all that attracts me; clouds in particular, puzzle me for how much form they can seem to have, despite being of no physical form to speak of.  They can take on complex shapes and yet seem to be created w/ no care but that of a whim, seemingly so quick to outpace the design of anything man could ever dream or hope to create.  It's pretty crazy, and one night probably this time last week I was rummaging through some pics of clouds I pulled off the internet, and this one here...

   .....interested me a lot.  I haven't tried doing any "epic" scenery as of yet so I've decided to give it a try w/ this one, using that photo as an inspiration reference. 

     There's really not too much more I can say about it.  Would probably be finished by now if it were the only piece being worked on, but that's never the case x3.  Anyway, I'll have it wrapped up by middle of next week, tho it won't get uploaded until the following weekend.

 "Out with the old..."

    Speaking of being done soon, I have the same goal to complete this Suzuka picture as soon as possible.  But you see, when I was working on it this past Tuesday, I...just didn't feel it.  You know, that *feeling*, that it was going as it should.  As I said before, I'm pretty new to digital art and am just transferring what I know traditionally to it, so it's taken a little longer than expected to come up w/ a working process that both suits my comfortability and allows for some flexibility to get energetic.

      I've only only recently gotten a grip on working w/ some preferred brushes through just 'feeling' what they're good for, and when to cut back and switch to a different one.  I could probably be using more brushes surely, but I'd rather stick w/ a small selection b/c it's easier to keep track of.  It wasn't just the use of brushes and layers getting used to, tho; I also needed to understand the use of color both in regards to digital art and in general a bit more.  That's likely to be something ongoing, but from figuring out some stuff I've been able to figure out how to better get a final image w/ the depth and range of colors I have in my head.

 

"...and in with the new..."

     Unfortunately,..well, somewhat unfortunately, it means I started on the Suzuka picture again from scratch the following Wednesday, making some big adjustments.  The good thing is it's going much faster than the old version was, which is good b/c a deal's more work has to get done in comparison.  That's alright tho; as long as the final product achieves what I'm aiming for, it's all well and good :)

     As a result of all this, what I have here is pretty rough and definitely hasn't gotten to the good stuff yet, but it's a solid foundation that determines a work's real strength.  This whole process, is certainly interesting, if there were any way to describe it.

     That'll do it for today; I'm gonna be starting the Poison picture later too, but after that I'd like to maybe draw a dude xD?!?  Seriously, I haven't drawn one in forever, so maybe it's about time.  I already got some sketches for Garuda (SFEX), whom I've always admired (just 'cuz he looks awesome; certainly not for his evilness), so that seems like a good bet.  I really just want to be pretty diverse in what I do, thematically speaking.  There are a lot of artists I like who could probably be typecasted in one or two areas.  I understand having a 'familiar ground' to tread to is important b/c it shows you have a distinct taste and keep consistent.  But at the same time, I fear growing stagnant or accused of being a one-trick pony, and I do have a natural interest in many things.  Guh, maybe it just comes down to figuring out how to best present those interests in what's being done...or I probably shouldn't even worry about this, amirite?

      Okay, that's all for now, seriously.  I have fried rice to cook (and red pepper overdose to indulge in).  I'm definitely gonna beat at least one wizard's ass today.  Alrighty everyone, I'm out; take care and stay awesome.  L8r :)

Watched: Quarantine 2

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    Good afternoon peeps; last time I dropped by some thoughts and progress on games I had been playing recently.  I hope to be able to work in a session of Snatcher tonight, since that slipped by over the weekend.  As for Zelda ALTTP I'm stuck on the wizard; that tower is no joke, but I'm pretty much used to its rooms now.  It's solely the wizard battle that's the challenging bit.  It's not even so much being unable to hit him as it is when he shoots off that lightening...maybe I should try pseudo-kiting him w/ the boomerang or a bomb...something, b/c my current strategy is quite flimsy.

    Anyway, the real reason I'm here is to share my thoughts on a film I recently had the "pleasure" to watch.  It happened to be the sequel to one of my favorite films of 2008, the action-horror piece Quarantine.  The original Quarantine came out at about the tail-end of the 'shakycam horror film' craze that got kick-started w/ Blair Witch Project and was zealously overdone w/ Cloverfield.  This might come as a surprise but I still HAVEN'T seen BWP; I've seen Cloverfield a few times and thought it was a fun movie with some solid action and sense of scale, but not anything too special (and its shaky cam effect was heavy-handed at times).

     Quarantine certainly isn't unique enough to be presented on some pedestal higher than those other two, but for what it was I enjoyed the film quite a lot.  It had a plausible, believable scenario, a good 'limited' setting to confine the horror (intensifying it and the drama, since things are so near each other), and decent-to-solid performances from pretty much the whole cast.  Best of all, it had some real tension and gusto to it, and the shaky-cam effect wasn't hammered out to death (at least, not until near the ending parts).

      So imagine my surprise when I discovered there's a sequel.  Granted, this was a mixed, verging on tepid, feeling.  Like I said, Quarantine was one of the better horror films to had come out recently; on the merits of its technical accomplishments it probably deserved a sequel.  OTOH, it's kinda one of those movies where there isn't probably much room for a sequel.  The concept was solid, but not unique enough to spin a follow-up, regardless of how good the tension, drama, horror, acting etc. was...at least that's how I felt.  Apparently a few people in Hollywood felt otherwise and decided to try and push the series ahead; unfortunately what we end up with is one of those sequels that regresses most progress and looks absolutely flaccid in comparison to its predecessor.  It might even be bad enough to sully some of the good of the original, but I'd have to watch it again to confirm that...needless to say I'm not rushing to do so.

       I don't like having the plot for anything being spoiled for me, so let's just skip the plot synopsis and jump into ripping this one up, shall we?  The first mistake this film makes is something that should be obvious to anyone in the first five minutes:  it calls itself Quarantine 2.  Seriously, off the opening minutes in this, you would probably think this to be another Snakes on a Plane ripoff, a feeling that's only intensified in the following few scenes.  All the archetypes from that film are roughly on-board (pun unintended) here, right down to the dick of a douche who everyone would want to see the first killed.  It even works in the rats/lab rats angle, which could be analogous to snakes (granted, the first movie established the unfounded idea the virus was a form of rabies, and animals like rats can carry that virus.  But even so, the writers should have assumed we viewers, picking up on the SOAP feeling, would have tethered the lab rats as being analogous to the damn snakes).  The only difference we'd of had was a bunch of rampaging crazies running down the isles and hopping around the seats of an airplane...which is almost so convoluted (given the realistic horror scenario the movie wants to paint) to be funny.

       Thankfully, the plane only serves as the opening salvos for the movie as the cast quickly makes haste to the airport, which, like the apartment building of the first film, is closed off by the CDC.  Now that the plane was (somewhat) out of the picture, I was able to get the parallelisms out of my head and just focus on this movie in relation to the first..and that's when things got even worst.

      First off, one big problem with the cast is out of their hands; it falls back on the script being unable to define them interestingly.  We went from SOAP archetypes to rehash archetypes from the first movie.  Yes the archetypes weren't any more clever in that one, but it had good actors and good acting on its side.  This sequel, does not.  I can't recall a single noteworthy performance here, or maybe there were a few, but since their characters hugged so closely to similar types much better presented and defined in the first film, I couldn't notice.  Even w/o the shadow of the original looming over, the cast performance and character writing in this film could be called mediocre at best.

       But, I could live w/ that.  I did live w/ that...but the ending itself really bought the movie down several notches, since it highlighted some of the worst examples of poor logic I've come across recently.  Trying not to spoil it for anyone (I do think folks should watch this at least once; even bad films deserve their one chance, someone may find them enjoyable), let's just say that the obvious pick for survival manages to survive.  The big question is, "how did they survive by doing THAT?!?".  See, (this shouldn't be spoiling much) they manage to get out of the airport by morning the next day via a secret tunnel exit beneath the airport foundation and systems.

        I'm not so much taken aback by them escaping that route,...I'm not even that puzzled as to how the secret exit was in fact kept from all other employee's knowledge, or that the manager(s) of the airport in general. What I'm really shocked by is how the CDC and gov't failed to secure surroundings around those exits for containment.  W/ something as big as a viral outbreak, you would think they'd get a full blueprint schematic on the airport's infrastructure, including all possible exits, which would INCLUDE the sewer systems.  Yet by some miracle, they miss this one exit, which isn't too far off from the airport mind you (likely just beneath the air strip area), and the kid just carries off to the ending credits.

         Actually, what kinda ticked me off even more than that is how quickly the CDC, SWAT etc managed to leave the scene.  As I said before, the kid escapes the area not even 12 hours after everything goes down, but when they rise up out of the sewers (catching a shot of the airport), it looks extremely scarce, not really even a sign of patrolling units around.  One could argue the part of the airport shown then isn't where the cast was being held in at, but seeing that there were no signs of patrol units around even the relative area of the airport when the kid makes it out, it's probably not far of a stretch to say they might've packed up, called it a day and went back home before they missed their Today Show episode.  There's not even so much of a hint that they even did an inspection into the airport and surrounding area to see if the survivors were around where they thought they were, or even alive.

         Maybe that's where suspension of disbelief comes in...even the first movie had some questionable moments.  But at least in the original no one actually survives; whether CDC, SWAT etc. went to check in afterwards or left too early would be moot.  We the viewers knew everyone was dead, so they-even off-screen-would learn that fact eventually.  Here, however, a little kid just managed to escape from an area that by all accounts should have been secured, and the one shot of the airport we last see before the credits shows it to be sparsely populated w/ little vehicles and no reinforcements on-site.  For all we know, they're already gone, and for all we know they might not had even checked through all of the area before having done so.  Or maybe they did but the kid beats them to the punch and escapes...whatever.  I just felt that an area as big as an airport would of had a small militia force around all it's points and maybe even a quarter a mile outward...at LEAST someone guarding that goddamn, easy-to-spot sewer exit, geez!

           So that probably about closes it off for this one here; I can't really say what this movie did *right*, b/c I'd have to discern btwn technical and creative reasons.  It technically gets things right; the lighting is pretty accurate, color choices fine, sound on-point etc.  But it certainly plays by-the-numbers in all those regards, so nothing pops out in that sense either.  And, if something did, I probably didn't notice b/c the mediocrities of the plot and acting were diverting my attention.  In the end, that probably describes this movie best:  mediocre.  It's not an abomination.  It's not so painful to watch as to make you want to stab your eyeballs out.  It's not even so bad as to drive the thought of quit watching halfway through.  But that doesn't mean it's good; the movie just feels very plane jane and does very little to push anything terribly exciting.  Granted the original is no breakthrough either, but at least it has some good acting, tension, and plausible scenarios and logic on its side.

         And truly, it's the lapses in some logic here that kinda kill this movie for me.  I know about suspension of disbelief..I read manga xD.  Kidding aside, if something wants to make you put certain reasoning logic aside, it has to roughly come at you w/ an angle that already pushes into a more fictional scenario in comparison to reality.  Since Quarantine 2 is heavily stooped in realism and reality (from the setting, to the characters, to the abilities of those characters etc), it can't really ask for too much forgiveness in skimping on this or that logical possibility in regards to the plot.  But the stuff I touched on above...I feel the film REALLY pushes the line and I personally can't suspend my logic reasoning any longer.  So,..yeah, I'm not giving it a grade, but if it's not great but not a failure, and simply straddles in the middle..and we're basing off the public school grading system, you can probably guess what my grade would be ;)

          That's all I got for today; I'll be back this weekend w/ some more art (as usual), hopefully a couple of finished pieces.  Until then I hope you all continue to do well w/ your pursuits, as I'll try w/ mine.  Be awesome, and take care.  L8r.

SatMorn Update

    

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     It's Saturday again, and you know what *that* means!  Finally somewhat of a break xD.  But before I go and do any recreational activities (and it feels really good outside at the moment; perfect breeze, sun's up, just enough clouds in the sky...watching my step before this becomes some poem) or wind down on some gaming goodness needing to be goodified, I'm here to post up some more progress on a couple of artwork pieces.

     Before that, though, I do feel the need to mention that I cancelled the Valkyrie comission w/ the client between Thursday night and Friday morning.  Thankfully they did not take it too hard and I even said that if and when I feel up to that again, they can reinstate the request and I'll likely do it.

   However it has donned on me the past couple of weeks that this was NOT the proper time to start comissions.  I had been working w/ this client for a while actually, when in truth I maybe shouldn't have.  I say "maybe" b/c doing those pictures for them helped expand my skill reach, and likely helped give the motivation to begin my own push for self-improvement again.  On the other hand, I probably kept changing styles and direction w/ each piece, which isn't so much a sign of being daring as it was a sign of being very unsure on even basic fundamentals like anatomy, perspective and the properties of the tools I was using.

     So yeah,..that was then xD.  I've been focusing very hard on improving in all the fundamentals and pushing myself to try harder each time, and it feels as though I might finally be producing some results that are living up to what I want to do.  As I say, art is a continuously evolving process of improvement and experimentation; I can never be sure if I've settled into a "groove", and when that does happen I have to be careful not to get too comfortable or else the boredom and complacentness begins to settle in.

     For now I'm feeling just the right balance is there, and would like to keep it that way.  As for the "commission" stuff, well it's like I told that client; maybe sometime in September.  There would still need to be a lot done in terms of setting prices, some payment model etc, but at this point I'm really more concerned w/ producing good enough work to get some publishing, maybe w/ a few magazines, books or comics.  Commissions can be set to the side in the meantime.

   Alright, so enough of the boring stuff eh?  Let's get to it...

    I said I'd be giving Poison a shot and am living up to that tease.  First off I have to say 'damnit' to Ono and Harashi-san for forcing Ikeno to make a Poison so sexy.  Or maybe I should say slutty..those are some *really* short shorts after all.  Secondly I have to say 'hell yes thank 'ya!' to Ono and Harashi-san for forcing Ikeno to make a Poison so sexy.  Or maybe I should say slutty...those are some--ah, well, you get the idea x3.

    She's an enigmatic character despite being so flamboyant, but you could say I was only going for some sexiness here and not much more.  I definitely wanted to show off her glutes in this, since that's what recently attracted me to the character.  Hmm...'exxaggerate' her glutes his maybe more like it.  For anyone worrying that her holiest of holies is getting a squeeze too tight into cameltoe territory, keep in mind it's kinda more like a skirt those jeans are now.  Or atleast are supposed to be..they might need to look more skirt-like.

    I've been trying to find a balance between my influences for a while now, and this Poison pic is sort of an evolution in that regard.  Talking about a "style" isn't really relevant; it's just a reflection of what I've been learning for a long time now and am managing to put into practice.  What others make of it is on their hands.  I just want her to look hot xD.  Painting hasn't started on her yet; I haven't even settled on a palette or color scheme/mood, but tomorrow looks alright to get that done.  And from there hopefully it won't be much time to finish.

      If it's not a problem, can we divert for a second?  Up above is a sort of "test" I've been doing to see how certain elements would mesh together in terms of the art.  The drawing itself is of a character named Anubis from the really old anime series Ronin Warriors; he was my favorite character in the show :).  Anyway, I've been trying to get a better grasp of color, shading, and lighting and just sorta used this old picture as a test to see how my manipulation w/ certain painting and brush techniques would work out in combination w/ line art.  The palette I drew the main colors from is about the same as the one I'm using for Suzuka, minus the skin, which I made a more unsaturated, deeper color.  So far I'm really just doing this to see if my understanding on color saturation and temperature is on-point, although I wouldn't call the coloring on his face near finished :S. 

     Specifically, since I want a more realistic style in general, I have to adapt to more realistic rules of lighting.  I come from a traditional background and that will always shape my view on color, which is a very good thing.  A while ago I read up on some stuff speaking of how the temperature of a light source can affect the shadow of objects contained in its range.  I think the general rule is, in real life, the way colors and light works in that regard is that brighter, saturated colors (on the rainbow scale) absorb more light while darker, 'purer' (unsaturated, is what I'm trying to say) colors reflect more light.

     This is immensely interesting, as we also know that brighter colors reflect heat while darker colors absorb heat, so there's maybe a proportional relationship between a color, it's saturation level, and the amount of light it absorbs being counter to the amount of heat it absorbs.  If I can keep this in mind while painting, I maybe can finally break past some of the color and lighting barriers I feel have been keeping me on lock for some time..though I still need take many other things into consideration.  Honestly, a topic like this is too in-detail to talk about in a post like this, but I just needed to get that out there, it's been on my mind like forever and will be there for all the same.

"Nevermind the orange streak there...working on it..."

    Okay, so w/ that in mind maybe this Suzuka picture can be seen in a different way..or not x3.  So far the painting is still in the other stages, as is the blending.  The blending is actually very tricky; I want the colors to still stay clear and somewhat present, but too much blending will start making things murky.  Maybe this piece has an Impressionists tone going for it right now?  Truly I wouldn't know; I've only been trying to work w/ color and blending in a way that feels good and by some chance it is going in this direction x3.  I don't even know much about Impressionist art, so maybe that's worth reading into in the near future as well.

   Regardless I think I'm starting to get a solid grasp on how to shape the rest of this picture, so now it just comes down to how soon it can be done.  Being the way things are, I'm in no rush to speed through this piece unless I'm being very careful along the way (I've barely been touching the Undo button except when the mouse gets super-screwy when I lay a stroke, and most of the actual painting is being done on one layer...yeah, that's more traditionalist habits carrying over).

    That appears to be all I got for this week; well, there are other pictures around but I don't feel ready to show anything about 'em just yet ;).  Their time will come, surely.  Meanwhile I just want everyone to enjoy their weekend so they're refreshed for next week.  Do what 'ya gotta do, basically.  I'm off to have some fun (well, wash clothes and cook lunch, then fun) for now, and next week I'll part some words on that crappy movie I saw (sad really; the prequel was pretty awesome).  L8r out everyone.

Midweek Post: What I Play

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   Good Wednesday to you all; the past few days I've been toiling away on Suzuka, restarting Valkyrie, and polising up Poison (still haven't started painting her yet, sadly :S; maybe today'll change that) and beginning work on another girl (on the one hand, having this many ladies around is quite pleasing...on the other hand I don't think I've drawn a dude in who-know-how-long).  But I'm actually not here to post up anything on that stuff; it can wait until the weekend.  Instead I'm going to start mid-week updates that have nothing to do w/ that stuff.  I can take this time to talk about stuff that interests me in general, or just what I've been up to.

    I'd like to consider myself a big gamer.  True, I don't play as much as I used to (the time simply isn't there, and it'll only get worst in that respect from here) but when I do, I like to absorb myself into their world and turn each play into a little adventure.  I enjoy seeing how the game works, and somehow bending its reality to my twisted sense of humor.  Also, I do thoroughly enjoy messing up a lot, but that's something else entirely. 

    The past few weeks I've been making a transformation from being a guy who plays mostly fighting games to being a guy who plays mostly Zelda.  I was never a big Zelda fan before, but that had more to do w/ not getting an opportunity to play them.  As A Link to the Past has shown me, it's probably Nintendo's best-regarded series for a reason.  It's simply pure fun and a smooth-going (in terms of the absorption factor) affair from start to end.

   So far I've managed to grab all three pendants, the Master Sword and that Triforce-looking symbol thingamajig (as I mentioned in the last blog post), so sometime this weekend I would suppose it's back to the Castle to once again save Zelda...yep, she's been kidnapped again.  You would think the King would have the witch create some anti-kidnapping amulet or atleast give his daughter a dagger and weekend swordsman practice; if Link can attack w/ the equivalent of a broken toothpick (sorry, still can't get over that, coming off the Mongolor boss) and survive pretty well, Zelda should do about as decent w/ a sharp daggar.

    But continuing w/ this old-school feast of playing games I missed out on when they came out (b/c, understandably, I was too young to play them then), I also decided to start up Super Mario World.  I actually tried playing through the other older Mario games earlier (or at least tried getting a feel for them), and the general concesus was:  Mario 1- jump=bad; Mario 2 (US version)-me=dumb, Mario 2 (Japan version)-game=HARD (tho I might can do it now), Mario 3-sun=bastard (tho I owe Arino of Game Center CX a thanks for showing a, honestly obvious, method to dealing w/ him.).  In other words, Mario was serving me some nasty pasta :S.

    But, who would think it would've taken World to finally get me on his good side!  Everything feels just right here; I have no issue w/ his jumps and the stages ramp up nicely in difficulty.  Right now I'm around 3-3 (having just gotten past that Boo house; those green floating balls kept giving me some headaches, not to mention times in 3-1 and 3-2 where I died needlessly, forcing my own restarts), so this weekend I'm aiming to get atleast through the end of World 4 completed.  If it's like the other Mario games, that'll be half the quest complete, which is about good enough for me given the time frame.

     Then there is, of course, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts.  There's no reason for me to lampoon on it's story, history or mind-exaberating challenge; this is all historically and scientifically documented.  Yet being the fiend I am, I come to relish that challenge.  Spending a good deal of time w/ the American version and some w/ the Japanese original, it's pretty obvious Capcom skimped on the challenge in the former, though that's only relatively speaking.  I was almost ballsy enough to just play the Japanese version through..I got up to start of Stage 2 before things really discouraged me, but for now I'm content to try and get through the American version first.

   Still, there's a vast deal of differences (little differences to some, but they do add up) btwn the two I'd love to outline the future once I get through both versions, though there's no solid time I'm aiming for doing that.  Maybe this weekend I can have the stride to beat the Level 2 boss and carry onward to Level 3, as Level 1's pretty much a joke by this point (gasp, how could I even think of saying such a thing on a such a...lol nah it really is now, I swear) but the watercraft part of level 2 is still causing some headache.  Most brutal of all is the set of...arrows I believe?...it gives you in the middle of that ocean.  As any respectable GnG player will tell you, the holy trinity of weapons in those games are (in order of power) Daggars, Chakrams, and Lances.  Play w/ any others and you are asking for an early(ier) demise.

   Given all this, right now of all the games I'm playing through the one that impresses me most is actually a Sega CD gem...on a system that had a lot of pretty bad games, a few good games, a handful of greats and a couple of gems, can you guess what game it is?  I'll give you a hint:  it doesn't involve hedgehogs.  I'll give you another hint:  it's company is currently in danger of being accused of pimping out Metal Gear Solid.  Yes, I'm speaking of none other than Snatcher, and I'm happy to finally get into this one.  "Happy" is a bit of an understatement; "estatic" is more the word.  I'm already a HUGE sucker for dark sci-fi and cyberpunk everything (well, it has to be GOOD too, but you get the picture x3), and Snatcher covers both highly well. 

    However, it's not just that; huge doses of Blade Runner notwithstanding, I can tell Kojima poured his heart into this game's story and universe.  It's crammed w/ extremely meticulous and thought-out backstories and mythos, interesting concepts and well-written characters that are very human.  It also has some of the best animation, visuals and voice-acting I've seen of any 16-bit game; even the action segments (this being a graphic adventure game..or a visual novel-meets-graphic adventure game...action comes off as very smooth which isn't typical of these sorts) are well done.

    The level of story to this game, honestly, puts most modern-day efforts to absolute shame; they try to be cinematic in ways that are overly artificial (or end up feeling that way, since the substance for that 'cinematic feel' is not there), forgetting to create a WORLD for their characters to inhabit, even the parts that the player may never visit.  Something should be there, something should let the player know of these interesting tales and oddity facts.  Kojima's one of the few designers out there that I think still cares and has the drive to do that sort of stuff...I just wish he'd do it w/ properties other than MGS.  I...smell a Snatcher/Policenauts sequel petition in the works here x3...

"And since I am calling it here..."

        That's all I have to say for this afternoon; just some general thoughts on four games I've been circling through.  Moreso than just playing them, I'm more interested in the little oddities of these games and seeing how they work and why they work, so some time soon inbetween all the artwork I'd love to do some deep analysis on each one and other games I happen to really enjoy.  All I can say is, it'll be interesting to see what happens w/ this, and it is a nice break from the artwork, as I mentioned above.  So while I'll be back this weekend w/ some new progress on current pictures, at least next week I'll maybe try this again, just a general blog post...there's a bad movie I want to wash out of my head at the moment, maybe I'll talk about that xD.

         Anyway that's all for now; thanks for reading.  Take care and see 'ya l8r.