| writing |
[Aug. 25th, 2004|02:09 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  grumpy | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | I've - 02 - hyouketsunoyoru | ] |
good lord. today has been a friggin mess. everything that could slow me down today has happened. Between having to backtrack time and time again, to dealing with morons calling me lazy (yeah, right, i have flaws, lazy aint one of em) and almost getting killed by a fire truck... ya, i think i need to rant royal on the big box (aka Megatokyo) so that i shall do.
more ALA poster work too. whee. Oh, here's a link to the mockup. pay no attention to the layout, its the art im doing now poster mockup |
|
|
| focus and drive |
[Aug. 24th, 2004|10:27 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | determined | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Nitrous Flesh - Abominations | ] |
location: old home
I was reading an article in Wired magazine yesterday about some of the great Anime directors (Miyazaki, Otomo and Oshii), all of whome i revere and Miyazaki in particular who I look up to as having a great influence on me... and the one thing i read from listening to what is said about the efforts of these great creators, is that they seem to be driven, they have a focus and determination that is inspiring. These people have vision and drive, its both inspiring and depressing at the same time.
Drive, focus... Something i think i'm lacking, and i should have... but for some reason much of the energy ends up going to dev/nul or is dissapated in random freewheeling. I mean, sometimes i'd rather do anything than think about what is next with megatokyo. I've cleaned the kitchen rather than work on it sometimes. I think that's because writing is hard. With a clear vision, i can draw without break. When the vision is muddled, or not completely there, its hard, its really hard.
and, of course, whenever i start feeling this way, i get emails like this:
----
that if you took your story to any creative writing professor and got it
graded, you would get poor marks. Your writing has gotten worse over the
years as you don't seem to understand principles such as creating round
characters, writing unpretentious dialogue, showing rather than telling (a
manga principle!), or creating a plot that is believable, let alone able to
be followed (which it isnt).
The sad part is now that you make money off of MT, you won't fold up the
project and start of something newer, better, more mature (in terms of the
skills with which you create the comic). Even the most popular, profitable
shows on TV are often unmitigated sh*t. Something to think about.
-former MT fan
----
I don't think its this person's opinions that bother me, its the things that i personally feel that might be reflected by (or the cause of) this person's rather harsh critique of me. Yes, you can't make everyone happy, but you should at least make yourself happy. I'm not really happy with MT right now. I could be, it's just within reach, i just gotta reach out a little more, maybe i can manage to get some tufts of fur out of it.
(wanders off to write the next script...) |
|
|
| o shigoto, o shigoto... |
[Aug. 23rd, 2004|12:25 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | productive | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Covenant - Tour de Force | ] |
location: the factory
Ok, while it would have been nice if i had been able to get into a productive mood over the weekend, at least i feel somewhat productive today. I'm gonna finish the layout of this ALA poster today even if it kills me. The first frame of it looks really cute, actually. Some of the best ideas come while drawing it. I just hope i can use real magazine titles in the drawings :)
I also am gonna do a side poster idea, just for fun - featuring Saeko, cuddled with a book saying 'read - it warms the heart' and have 'tobari saeko' like she's a celebrity or something :P Maybe when Warmth comes out i can do that :P
I've recieved a lot of emails from people who play RO, esp after mentioning it in my rant. Some sound somewhat sane too. My free subscription is up in a few days, which is fine (i have no prob subscribing) but its amusing how many people complain about having to subscribe to it. hehehe. people always want everything for free... |
|
|
| muddling |
[Aug. 22nd, 2004|08:33 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  calm | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Bestia Centauri - "The Self Immolation Rite" (samples) | ] |
I suppose i need a button here that simply pastes the stock phrase "well, i didn't get as much done yesterday as i needed to..." it's like a standard ingredient in most of my whining. And as such, yesterday was a bit like that.
I was actually able to get a pretty good handle on the first frame of the ALA poster, at least as far as layout and solid penciling goes. There are three frames in all, stacked on top of each other. I think i'll try to get the backgrounds sketched out this morning for the second two, that way i can work on the characters at some point today. I really want to be able to email a rough layout of the poster to them tomorrow. The trick is gonna be to get a start on tomorrows comic, so that i can get that done, then turn over to the poster project.
One of the most frustrating things for me is that each comic really does suck up an entire day, even when i get to the point i am able to finish early. It's like it wears me out, or the creative part of me, and even if i am done early and have time to work on other things, the energy isnt there. Actually, i don't think that's true, its more of a fact that winding things back up again is just hard after you finished something. Its hard to repress that 'i deserve a break now' feeling you get when you finish something. Thought i had myself trained... bah. :P
Anyways, starting to wander from listinging to the more poppy EBM industrial stuff that is so prevalant on Rant Radio, and finding myself listening to the more somber offerings over at somnabulant corpse radio. It comes from a more thoughtful bent, i think...
ah well, time to look into getting something done. Maybe it's the right mode for what i need to do with todays comic. |
|
|
| inbeetween day |
[Aug. 21st, 2004|10:32 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  groggy | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | none... just the sound of traffic outside | ] |
I don't know what the deal with last week was. It was like a massive struggle just to get the comics done and other things too. A lot of the things i had to deal with were like problems that just kept coming up again and again. By the end of the week, i hadn't touched the ALA poster, and i think i barely skimmed my emails. Definately not a 'together' week.
I tend to like fridays because they are like a day off - once the comic is finished that is. It just blew my day completely yesterday to have to continue the struggle to finish the goddamn thing into the afternoon. After that, my motivation died. That's ok because sarah and i ended up doing other things yeserday afternoon, one of which involved getting this mop i call hair cut into something less embarrasing. Later that evening we did something even more rare - we wen't out to dinner with some friends. Haven't done that in ages. Oddle enough, i even managed to get a rant up last night (about RO, i can see there are already a ton of emails about it that i need to get to ^^;;) I even played a few hrs of RO, and i'm pretty close to finally leveling up to be an archer, tho i have no idea why i am following that particular path (other than it might be some subliminal desire to level up to a dancer... which should frighten me for some reason ^^;;)
It's saturday morning, and i woke up with the normal 'agh, gotta get going, im late' panic that eventually subsided when i realized its saturday. Fridays are kind of decompression days. Saturday's are like an 'extra' day that give me a chance to catch up. I rarely do, but the opportunity is there. It's like that day that is inserted into the week that gives me the oft blown chance to maybe, for once, get on top of things.
And, tod that end, here i sit working on email, trying to straighten my day out. The main goal of today isnt email or really anything else other than to get that ALA poster design finalized. It's almost like a huge comic project. Most people get to do one big drawing. Me, i gotta draw tons of characters in several views of a library setting. Sheesh. :P
anyways, back to email. I'm kinda liking the LJ thing, for it's kind of 'not officially main to the MT page and if no one reads it i dont care' kinda thing. I'm thinking that i might nudge this into the 'newsbits' section of the fredart site - i am pretty sure i could embed it there with little difficulty. Ah, to have the time to worry about things like that.
anyways, off to work. |
|
|
| concequences |
[Aug. 20th, 2004|04:25 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  pensive | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Lamb - Transfattyacid (Kruder and Dorfmeister - Session Mix) | ] |
Good lord, but friday's comic was like pulling goddamn teeth. That'll teach me to take a few hours and goof off at ANY point in my week, look at the result? (sigh). I know it wasn't the result of not working wednesday night, but it sure feels like it. Not so much the fact that i was directly made late because i was playing RO rather than working on the comic - but that because i took a little time to goof off, i paid for it the next couple of days.
That seems to happen to me a lot - whenever i do break away and do something fun, something else breaks or goes to hell and i end up paying for it. It's making me jumpy. I mean, i feel guilty enough when i'm not working on things, i always feel guilty if im not doing MT related things. It would help if when i DID take that occasional break, things didn't line up to make me pay dearly for taking some time to myself.
oh well, thats life i guess. Todays comic took, i swear, took 14 hrs of drawing, writing, struggling. It's a mess, and it could have been a lot better, it is late, and its almost depressing... BUT, its done. i've been steady with the comics since that friday after i got back from SDCC, which isn't too shabby, considering the fact that we got the MT store stuff going in the midst of that.
Anyways, i have GOT to get that ALA poster drawn up this weekend. That'll be next... |
|
|
| distractions |
[Aug. 19th, 2004|10:58 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | busy | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Maenad - Daughter of a Strange God | ] |
location: the factory
gah. what is it with today? I've been dealing with everything except the two things i REALLY need to do today - the comic, finishing that rant. Grrr. The weird thing is can't blame it on the seemingly obvious - playing RO till 4am last night. My probs today have nothing to do with being tired or bombed out. Its just a lot of little things taking up time. Well, its 12:52, and i have got to get cracking, or i'm gonna end up blowing my 3 per week comic thing again, which i don't wanna do just because i'm addlebrained today.
that and the fact that for some reason some print setting changed and my damn layout sheets arent printing properly. grrr. I'm thinking its time i took the tick marks off anyway, i don't use them much anymore. I end up erasing them more often than not anyways.
(wanders off to try to get something done) |
|
|
| store frustrations |
[Aug. 18th, 2004|10:02 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | irritated | ] |
location: old home
I'm starting to get really frustrated with this store software. I can understand if things break when you are trying to change things, but this fsking software has this tendency to just suddenly, and for no apparent reason, stop working. Its one thing if things break on the forums and are down for a while, or the main website goes offline for a short bit - but this is a store. When its not up, no one can buy stuff. Right now, you can browse, but no one can buy stuff. And whats worse is that it gives the impression that the site is unstable, and that can really hurt people's impressions of the site. I want the MG store to be a real solid, well respected store. Thats what i want. This software isn't helping.
anyways, its just really really frustrating. I have a lot of things to do today, and this is just one more thing i need to work on. I really need to write a rant, but i keep avoiding it for some reason.
anyways, off to the factory. |
|
|
| uguuu... |
[Aug. 17th, 2004|09:46 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | tired | ] |
getting a late start today. I think that i need a new alarm clock. I'm so used to turning the one i have off in my sleep that i think that its completely innefectual. That is also my fault - its dumb to set the clock to 7:30am when you go to bed at 4am... well, at least i got to bed a little earlier last night, and i actually don't feel mind crushingly tired this morning. The brain is blank of even the foggiest idea of what comic i actually work on now, but some coffee might fix that... |
|
|
| tweaks |
[Aug. 16th, 2004|12:04 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | chipper | ] |
ok, added a picture and changed the colors to something more tolerable. :) Now i need to stop messing with this thing and get some work done... |
|
|
| flopped clocks |
[Aug. 16th, 2004|09:58 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
One thing that i've noticed over the past two years, a phenomenon that has happened that i can trace back to the time when seraphim and i stopped being tied to other people's clocks... i keep staying up later.
When i started doing Megatokyo, it was a stretch to have to stay up till 1am finishing the comic, as i had to be to work by 8:30am the next morning. Pretty soon, i was getting used to 1am. Then, as i started doing this full time, i started getting used to being up till 2am. Then, as soon as seraphim quit her job to work with me on MT related things, we were soon up till 3am many nights. Most of the time it was nessisary - we quite literally were working on things until then. But what disturbed me was that there were also plenty of times when we'd go home, tired around 1am or sooner, only to stay awake and muddle around till our normal 3am sleeptime.
What's worse is that now, it starting to stretch out until 4am. :)
Not really sure what to do about this, or even if this is a problem. it's kind of Cali time, really, even tho i live in Michi time. I suppose that its only natural, considering that my life revolves around three arbitrary deadlines = 1am on monday, wednesday and friday, that my clock would get messed up.
anyways, i have to be at the office because now that i need to be back somewhat in the operational world because of the fact that we have to ship stuff do the whole MegaGear thing, there are times, like today, where two levels of tiredness crash together.
audio:
been listening to Pattern Recognition while drawing for the past two comics. Really love gibson, don't know why audiobooks help me draw better.
Been listening to a lot of industrial lately, but i find myself leaning towards house again. No real direction in my listening needs right now.
edit: testing out a LJ entry soft for the PC. Semagic seems pretty decent so far... |
|
|
| a little place to prattle... |
[Aug. 15th, 2004|04:17 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  blank | ] |
Not really much of a start, and one could argue that the last thing I need is a LJ account. ^^;; But there is a lot of random prattling I do, mostly to myself, as part of the thought process... Most of the posts here will not be visible to most people - it'd give way too much of the story away, but it will give me the ability to share some of it with some people, if i choose.
Anyways, it's a start, and we'll see if this is a worthwhile entity or not.
fredrin |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
fredrin's journal