I don't like spiders n' snakes...

Got another picture from the Japan files here for you all...

I seem to recall hating spiders when I was very little. I learned to get over my fear of spiders and most insects because as my parents only daughter, I had to stand up against my three (well, technically two and a half) brothers. And any fear that may have lingered? These Japanese monsters took care of that...


From about late May to early October, about thirty of these things would string webs straight across the walkway from the stairs to my apartment door. And not just these lovelies; there were other brown ones, twice as big in body with shorter legs.


It was basically a 'run-for-your-life' situation when I came home at night. With the walkway lights on, all the spiders would come out in full force and I'd have to double-over and run all the way to my door with keys in hand. Getting hit in the face with one of their threads (and it happened frequently) was like walking into used bits of dental floss.


One time, I watched one of them fight with a bird that had actually got wound up in it's web. The bird got away, thankfully. If it hadn't, I would have packed my bags right then and there.

Spirit Photography

I’ve mentioned my obsession with yokai in previous blogs. You may have also noticed I’m rather fond of photography. So, I suppose it was only a matter of time before the two came together to form...

Today’s blog!

My second year living in Kurihara-shi, I set out to produce a series of photographs capturing modern rural Japan while subtly showcasing a specific yokai in each image. I had planned for a series of at least eight photographs; only three were finished.


Karakasa

One of my favorite yokai. The leg was created from Super Sculpey, armature wire and hand-painted. The geta I made myself from some scraps of wood and cloth. The setting is the ‘lost umbrella’ bin from Kannari Junior High’s copy room. All compositing and shadows were done in Photoshop.


Yuki-onna

This shoot was a lot of fun despite the fact that we both got horribly sick afterward. The lovely Lindsey Matsuo agreed to pose for me as the foreboding Yuki-onna and in the nude no less! The setting is the outside bath at the local onsen in Kannari (the best thing about my town). We had to smuggle the camera in (photography is not allowed for obvious reasons) and sneak pictures while some nearly toothless obaasan explained to us that New Zealand was really close to New York City. The snow was created later in Photoshop although it did start snowing shortly after this shot was taken.


Chochin’obake

Another fun yokai and in the same class as the Karakasa above. The setting was a yaki cart that set up shop in front of the MaxValu almost everyday. All yaki carts have lanterns so it seemed like the perfect place for a chochin’obake to hang out. The eye was created in Maya and with texturing and compositing done in Photoshop.

Fit the First

Went on a little trip yesterday in spite of the rain. A brief break in the work flow allowed me a few hours to head all the way up to E 88th St. to visit the Church of the Holy Trinity. What for?



These stained-glass friezes were completed by Henry Holiday, a prominent London painter in his time and the illustrator for Lewis Carroll’s nonsense epic The Hunting of the Snark.

A short while back, I came across a worn, but well-cared-for copy of The Annotated Snark at a flea market. Martin Garber talks a bit about Holiday's career in the book's introduction and speaks highly in particular of his work with stained-glass which the artist himself apparently cited as some of his best work.


Unfortunately, as far as his work on Carroll’s Snark is concerned? Well, let’s just say Tenniel is a hard act to follow. Though Carroll spoke very highly of Holiday, most critics found his work to be inferior to Tenniel's illustrations in the Alice books.


His stained-glass work is beautifully detailed and thoroughly realistic.

But that is a hindrance when it comes to the Snark illustrations.


The characters are completely realistic with nothing but the occasional oversized head and accompanying goblin or beaver.


In fact, most of the surreal nature of the illustrations is nothing more than a byproduct of the surreal nature of the poem.



That being said, his work, no matter what the medium, is wonderfully detailed and rich with texture. His drapery is particularly exquisite.

Only one of Holiday’s sketches for Snark was rejected by Carroll.


Later, he explained why:

'One of the first of three I had to do was the disappearance of the Baker, and I not unnaturally invented a Boojum. Mr. Dodgson wrote that it was a delightful monster, but that it was inadmissible. All his descriptions of the Boojum were quite unimaginable, and he wanted the creature to remain so… I hope that some future Darwin, in a new Beagle, will find the beast, or its remains; if he does, I know he will confirm my drawing.'

So sumi(-e)!

I posted a while back about a video game demo I had collaborated on with a friend of mine, Eric Robinson. While scanning through my older posts, I realized the images didn’t do the art any justice. At least, you couldn’t see any of the elements very well...

The game, called Kanji Kami, is meant to help the player study Japanese. It isn’t necessarily meant to teach you kanji; it’s mostly meant to help you recognize certain kanji and match them to their bases. To do this, Eric decided the gamer would play as one of two characters: Matsuo Basho and Murasaki Shikibu.


The inking was done with a calligraphy brush while all the shading was done in Photoshop. We wanted Basho’s geta to stand out so they were actually colored in. Unfortunately, we never reached the point of design for Shikibu.

Aside from characters, there was the matter of creating all the background elements. Eric wanted only a few assets but each one had to be versatile so we could use them multiple times and in different areas of the game at different scales.

The most important part, as with most productions, was to stick to the style. We wanted to mimic a traditional sumi-e painting as best we could.



Some houses…




Various trees and mountains…



Shrubs...


... and, of course, a neko.



Basho’s finished run-cycle. The animation was only tested in After Effects.


After the animation was approved each drawing was then compressed into JPEG form and re-sized to a perfect square so that it could be imported directly into Torq, the program we used to make the final demo.

One from the hardrives...

I've decided to start a new string of once-a-week entries in which I pull a photo (or photos) from my Japan pile and write a little blurb about it (or them). Fear not... I shall do my best to ensure they are interesting and somewhat in focus! Here we go...

Several of the other ALTs had to teach an Eikaiwa class at night. I didn't have to so, instead, I'd go to theirs to help out on occasion. This particular evening involved a discussion about how American parties differed from Japanese ones. We explained the 'tradition' in America of tormenting the first person to pass out.


Luckily, we had a volunteer to help demonstrate. We did try the whip cream trick shortly thereafter, but he just wiped it on the floor.

Not seen, but heard...

Here it is! The post you’ve (all three of you) been waiting for! The audio collected for What is Animation?

The idea for What is Animation? came from a class exercise in which we had to interview someone and animate to the audio, producing something like a Richard Linklater short.

We were only really suppose to record one person but I got a little carried away. I got an answer out of almost everyone in the animation department and several students and faculty from the illustration, sculpture, film, dance and theater departments, as well as school security guards, random people on the street and almost every person who worked in the cafeteria across the street at the Bellvue Hotel. Oh… and a bunch of people at Barnes and Nobles down by Rittenhouse.

The results were obviously varied. Some people were kinda close to what might be a 'right' answer (at least in the technical terms).



Some people were really off.



And some people were just spouting off philosophical nonsense.







The most popular answer was 'cartoons' which, while funny, isn't a great answer for any number of reasons...







A few folks (notably the perplexing Karl Staven) opted for the 'what it's not' definition.





Arguably the best answer came from my then instructor Chris Magee. His answer formed the glue that held the film together.



There's a ton of other audio but I'll save those for another day. For now, against my better judgment, I'll close this posting with probably one of the only clips from the film I'm actually kinda proud of (congratulations, Kyle!)...

Who you gonna call?

One of the main reasons I prefer doing stop-motion is that I like working with my hands. I'm pretty sure I get that from my father. I like building things, fixing things, taking things apart, putting them back together… the whole she-bang.

A long time ago I was hanging out at a friend’s house. How long ago? Let me put it in perspective for you: we all rented a VHS and had just popped it in when the VCR preceded to eat the tape. Typical. Well, for any number of reasons (none of which actually matter), I sat down and decided to fix the tape.

Now, for those of you who don’t remember the joy of VHS, you can’t just wind the tape back up like a cassette. You have to crack open the casing. Last night, I popped a tape into the VCR and heard the familiar sound of crinkling plastic. It actually kind of excited me.


If you ever find yourself in this kind of predicament, relax.


Find yourself a small screwdriver and, depending on the tape, some kind of edge you can cut with. Next comes the hardest part: fighting with the VCR to remove the video. Here’s where it can all go wrong: if you rip the tape, it’s all over.


Luckily, I was able to separate the VHS from my TV. Then I sat down to work on fixing what very well maybe one of the few surviving copies of The Real Ghostbusters: Showdown at the O.K. Corral on VHS (and yes, I paid for it).



Remove all the screws and try to keep in mind which holes they came from. Gently pry open the case. You may not be able to open it all the way. Some old tapes have labels and unless you absolutely need to, you probably want to refrain from removing them.


Wind the tape back in and screw the casing back together.


Ta-da! And for those wondering, I did manage to fix the tape my friends and I rented. I have no recollection as to what it was, though. Apparently, my joy at resurrecting the VHS overshadowed the feature.