Not sure how new this news is, but I just found out about it today. It’s a 2d fighter that is rumored to be developed by an ex-Capcom employee, Sugeno Tomoaki, using Enterbrain’s 2d Fighter Maker engine.  There are 10 playable characters,  with unique movesets and combos, some pretty cool designs, and local multi-player (no online).

More info and videos after the jump!

(ignore the geeky guy commentating in the background. NO idea who he is.

The combat seems to harken to the styles of Guilty Gear, BlazBlue and Melty Blood. It looks incredibly well polished.

It’s a freeware download, so go download it now! It only works with Windows OS that support reading Japanese folders or have the Japanese language pack installed.

Windows XP Instructions

Open the control panel located under your start menu, then select regional and language options. Choose the languages tab and check the box for East Asian languages installation. Select the advanced tab next and choose Japanese as the default language for non-Unicode programs.

You will then be prompted for the operating system installation CD. The computer has to be restarted once the entire process is completed.

App Locale

For those who want to use applocale to run this game, just rename the two files ヴァンガードプリンセス.exe and ヴァンガードプリンセス.kgt with an English name (e.g. Vanguard Princess.exe & Vanguard Princess.kgt); you can choose a name yourself, but the two files need to have the same name, while keeping their original extentions. After the renaming of the two files, start applocale and follow the instructions, don’t forget to choose Japanese (日本語) and choose to make a shortcut for accessing the game later easier. After all this the game should be able to start via applocale.

The creator’s site can be found here.

The game can be downloaded here.

Here’s a moveslist.

A full gallery here.

Congratulations! I’m one more year closer to death. Time’s running out! Gotta go have fun!!!

Mmm… McDonald’s and KFC… two of my favorite foods. Looks like I’m a lot closer to death than I think!

You know you’re getting old when you have to refer back to your wordpress profile to remember how old you were…

So how to celebrate? Well, for starters, my Raquel Gothic figure has come back from e2046. What a great present! And my wife is not working today too! I’m going out for dinner tonight with family to a fancy restaurant where I can eat Kobe beef! A rare occasion! (no pun intended)

How do you celebrate your birthday?

Update: I just heard Michael Jackson died. On my birthday too! Wow…

Update2: pix of the birthday cake after the jump!

Update3: been watching the news all day, and reading blog entries, and twitter feeds about Michael Jackson, and all the lives he’s touched. Hard to believe that one man’s death has moved every single person on the face of the planet in one way or another. Truly legendary.

Many still troll about his alleged pedo-acts, and other controversial things, but more importantly was all the charitable work that he did, and the absolutely amazing music he brought to the world, and the deep meaningful humanitarian messages some of them held.

Incidentally, Lisa Marie Presley wrote about how MJ told her one time “I fear I will end up just like your father.” Elvis Presley died in 1977, just less than two months after I was born.

Definitely, this will be a day I’ll remember forever.

This is the cake box.

The cake itself.

Thanks everyone for all the wonderful birthday wishes! It’s really interesting to know how people celebrate their birthdays in so many different ways and for different reasons!

Cheers to you all!

It’s been a while since I posted a figure photo shoot.

One figure I would like to share is my Yuki Nagato (Suzumiya Haruhi) nendoroid. My second Nendoroid, it took a lot of back and forth before I committed. So here for you all is my Yuki in relatively high resolution images. You can use them as wallpaper or  something if you like. More pix after the jump! (caution, high bandwidth!)

I seem to be on some kind of painting frenzy for the past week. I’ve been having a lot of fun making time lapse videos of my own work. It’s very interesting to see your own work kind of “appear” out of nothing in 10 minutes!

My latest one is a relatively weak attempt at painting Aya Hirano of Haruhi fame. Overall, I wasn’t satisfied with this one, and actually got pretty frustrated. Probably because it’s the first time I’ve tried to paint an asian girl. That and the fact that I lost a bit of work in the beginning due to an encoding error during the capture added to the frustration. Overall this took 80 minutes plus whatever minutes at the beginning. Still, after all that frustration subsided, I enjoyed making the time lapse, and adding the music to it. Enjoy!

In addition to the speed painting of Aya Hirano, I had done two other speed painting works, which I might as well share here:

A speed painting of my friend wearing a pair of Grado RS-2 headphones. It took approximately 50 minutes to paint this from beginning to end, sped up 8x

A speed painting of a forelorn man done in photoshop Speed painting is over a period of 50 minutes or so.
Overall, a pleasant experience, and it’s helped me look at my own art in a different way and practice my skills at the same time!

My latest work. I’m most happy with this one. Have you ever wondered how they paint images in eroge or box art? I might be able to provide you with some insight. For the first time, I’ve documented my progress in video format and uploaded it to youtube. More after the jump!

After my paint of Melody, I would have to say that I was not happy with the result. It looked okay, I guess, but it lacked the sharpness and clarity of today’s modern anime. As my wife had put it, my skills were “old-school”.

I mean, check it out, this is Melody that I painted last time:

This is something that I did in 1993 in color pencil:

You might have noticed that they kinda look the same. There are some improvements in technique, sure, but generally it’s not a whole lot. So I decided I need to update my paint style. I noticed some key differences and made sure to pay attention to those differences when I started my new painting.

So here’s the sketch that I did. Since I wanted to paint something different, I decided to draw something a little different to go with it:

Right from the getgo, you’ll notice that I am trying to put more attention to detail in just the sketch itself. Though the sketch is still rough, you can already see the final results forming. My sketches are generally really rough, so this one is a bit of an improvement. Being rough has its advantages of looser definition and freedom, but that’s a double edged sword, as then there’s ambiguity. Trying to define shapes properly in the final line-art tends to make the line-art more stiff. In other words, being more restrictive in the rough will actually help improve the final line art.

There are two things I picked up from my observations of the more modern-day anime style. Firstly is line weight and quality. It seems that thick lines are out. Thin lines produce a much sharper image. It doesn’t fight with the colors to define shapes.

Secondly is shading. My previous method involved lots of gradiants transitioning from dark to light. This was great in defining depth and roundness, but it also made the anime subject look rather unnatural. These days, hard edges are used. Though more modern anime tends to do away with that, and use Superflat coloring.

I found that creating a shadow guide is helpful in painting in the shadows. Drawing those shadows in during the paint process is inaccurate, and leads to undefined results. You’ll notice that a lot more time has been spent in the pre-paint aspects now.

I didn’t think to record me painting this image until after the drawing was completed, so alas, you’ll have to wait until next time for me to record a drawing. So from here, instead of still images, I’ve created a video recording time lapse of the painting process. The painting took roughly 6 hours to do, and this has been compressed into a more digestable chunk. I’m sure you won’t have the patience to sit through 6 hours of me painting.

Enjoy!

Since I was at it, I decided to create a black dress version too.

Which one do you prefer?

How? Some of you may remember my article “Are you a Hentai-Otaku?!” of heated debate. This article is no different. So my wife watches anime based on eroge. She’s also fine with yuri, and she quite enjoyed a series full of otaku-trivia. Before all that, she was never interested in anime, and never really appreciated the art style. So how did it happen? You want your significant other to enjoy anime with you too? I might not have the answer specifically for you, but my story may provide you with some insight. (note this only covers anime series, and not OVAs or movies)

About a decade ago, I tried to expose my wife to some anime. Problem was, the first real exposure was to La Blue Girl for reasons I can’t remember. It was a mistake at the time that I didn’t realize, or intended as a first viewing. What I really wanted to do was show her Love Hina. She got mad at me (like Naru would) within the first 10 minutes of the show when Naru showed up in the hot spring with Keitaro. On her mind, “all anime and all Japanese pop-culture revolve around sexual perversion. Most Japanese people are perverted, and focus on a perverted society of sexual innuendos, and sexual promotion.”

This was not a good start to getting my wife to share my interests. I quickly gave up.

This is where all the hot perverted sex happens.

A few years ago, I decided that the only way to get her to watch some anime, was to show her something that she would like. Something incredibly girly and cute. As a result, I sat through 70 episodes of Card Captor Sakura with her. She had gotten some previous exposure to it before with a few images here and there, and a theme song or two.

I think it was difficult for her at first, but she watched, and started to really like the show. The characters were adorable, and there was some form of love story in there (though it’s more of a crush instead). She didn’t like the darker tone of the second season, but watched anyway. I was only mildly into it. But it was good watching anime with her. (as a side note, this was her first exposure to a relatively innocent form of yuri)

What normal girl would not want to watch this series. C’mon.

Immediately after, I showed her Chobits. I figured this was a fairly decent natural progression, bringing in the best of Clamp, and introducing her to a series more mature than CC Sakura. “It’s by the same people who did Card Captor!” I said. This got her a little more interested in watching the series. She liked it. The romance was good, she thought Chii was sweet, but stupid, and she wasn’t entirely put-off by the fan-service.

Hot loligoth yuri action = win.

Shortly after, I started watching Azumanga Daioh. She was mildly interested in it, and thought Chiyo-chan was incredibly cute (the penguin costume won btw). She didn’t like Osaka because of her incredibly dense personality. This was probably the weakest response I’ve gotten from her in watching anime. Not sure what it was that she didn’t like about it. I think it was because the humor was not clever, and just seemed silly. At the time, our exercise machine was in the same room as the TV, so I literally forced her to watch it while she was exercising. She now seems to have no recollection of what the series was about. I intend to have her watch it again sometime for the win, but the priority for that is pretty low.

To me, this series wins the internet, and will always win.

After a while, she wasn’t interested in anime anymore. I asked a mutual friend of ours for recommendations, and he suggested Nodame Cantabile. I had no idea what it was about, so I gave it a go, since he said it was a good anime. She was hesitant at first, not knowing what she was in for. Personally, I liked the show too. It didn’t have as much romance as I had thought it would, and actually focused a lot on the motivations of the two main characters, and their struggles to reach their goals. I don’t think my wife really realized this was the case, and thought the series had a lot of romance. She thoroughly enjoyed it.

This scene turned my wife into an otaku.

After Nodame was done, she was wanting to watch more anime. When she heard that the manga continues on where the anime ends, she obsessively searched for scanilations. My wife, reading scanilations! Who’d have thought! After she read up to the current volume, she had nothing else to do. I asked my friend for suggestions again, and he said “Why not watch Haruhi?”. This was unusual. I hadn’t seen Haruhi yet at that time, so I thought it might be cool. I insisted that our friend recommended it. She has only met the guy once, but seems to hold a good deal of respect and compassion for him. Probably because he’s a respectable and compassionate guy.

She thought that the Haruhi series was weird and didn’t make sense. She liked the characters, thought the fan-service was unnecessary, and liked the art style. She thought Haruhi was a pretty likable quirky character. After seeing the God Knows scene, she came to understand more why I collect anime figures, and appreciated my Bunny Girl Haruhi more. This was an interesting step that I thought I would never see.

This series made my wife understand what anime is all about.

It seemed pretty evident at this point that she was ok with watching anime, but a lull suddenly came, and we didn’t watch anime for almost half a year. Mainly because there was so much other stuff we had to do, and didn’t have the time to watch anymore.

I tried again, this time with Haibane Renmei. Did not want. She didn’t like the old-style fantasy setting, and it’s evident that she will probably never watch any anime based in a fantasy setting, or old-european setting. (I intend to change that someday, but not now). Switching gears, I tried Manabi Straight. This was another girly-girl series, with ultra-adorable characters, and a very clean art style. Again, like Azumanga, we watched it during her exercise, as it was also the only real time we had to watch something together. She didn’t like it. It was too cutsey, too plotless, and again, there’s a dumb and dense girl in it.

This girl ruined the series for my wife. Why Mikan, WHY??!

Personally, I liked the series, and Mikan was my favorite character from the series. Regardless, I stopped watching the series half-way and decided to bring in something along the same slice-of-life lines, but a little bit less childish. This came in the form of the epically awesome Lucky Star. Since my wife was on the exercise machine, there was nothing she could do but watch and try to enjoy the series. She got into it very quickly, and really liked the characters. The series wasn’t really about anything in particular, with no plot as well, but she seemed to enjoy the banter between the characters.

Even my wife can’t resist the beautiful Konata.

After the span of 2 months and 6 episodes later, we started to watch the series in the bedroom on our Macbook. It was a lot more comfortable there, and she continued to enjoy the series. Ocassionally we would hook it up to the widescreen in the living room too. The only problem she had with the series actually was the rather empty conclusion. To me it was a great ending, but she felt a bit robbed that they didn’t actually show the final performance (though I thought there wasn’t a need to, and the way it was portrayed worked out better). Oh, and she hated the Lucky Channel. I guess she doesn’t like overly peppy squealing girls.

To keep the momentum going, I quickly started her on Kannagi, recommended by another friend. She liked the characters, made parallels between Nagi and Haruhi, and was pretty hooked to the series near the end. The drama was quite nice and gripping. Surprisingly, she never remarked about the fan-service as she usually does. There isn’t much of it other than a few deliberate gratuitous thigh shots, but it was strange she never said anything. Again though, she was disappointed that the ending didn’t really have much of an ending. I had to explain to her that the manga stalled partway through, so the series couldn’t really continue.

Did I have to choose such a yuri-suggestive screenshot? Of course not!

At this point in time, our anime-watching became obsessive. We would watch several episodes in one sitting, sometimes until 2am (this from a couple that normally sleeps at 11pm). Did we have enough? Of course not! After burning through Kannagi, I had another anime lined up immediately! I realized at this point that watching a series we would both enjoy was the ticket. Upon getting another recommendation from a friend, we started watching Tora Dora!.

This was by far, the most memorable series, and probably one of the best we’ve seen together. I could tell that my wife enjoyed it immensely. There was just the right mix of comedy, romance, and slapstick humor, and I’ve come to really dig tsundere archtypes. My wife really loved the good-natured personality of Ryuji, and I really loved the contrasting but adorable little Taiga. Minori was also a blast.

Damn straight she does. How can you beat that? You simply can’t.

Needless to say, the voice actress for Minori became the start of an unreal enlightenment for my wife. I’ll explain later. I picked up Aria next, but that was quickly shot down after two episodes. Again, fantasy-based worlds, boring slice of life anime, zero plot. Dropped. I decided to backtrack into an older drama, which at the start of all this, would never imagine my wife watching – an anime based on an eroge.

All Japanese girls love to be patted on the head. Try it!

Kanon. What some believe is the origin of moe. I read only quick reviews on it, from animenewsnetwork. Since it was one of the top 20 anime to watch, and it was a romantic drama comedy, I figured this would stand up to Tora Dora!. Well, it didn’t. Not to the same effect, but my wife was into it nonetheless. The first 4 or 5 episodes or so, she couldn’t stand the absolute airheadedness of all the female characters. But soon afterwards, when the plot finally started to pick up, and the mysteries abound, she settled down and accepted it for what it was worth. Overall, she thought that the series didn’t make her feel very good. It was full of broken girls, depressing situations, and even suicide. The series was a bit too emotional. One thing that did highlight it a little was when my wife suddenly realized that Ayu’s voice actress was the same voice actress as Minori from Tora Dora!. I was incredibly surprised that she managed to pick that up. Truly on her way to otakudom.

Minori… I mean, Ayu… do you always sound like a little girl?

Having watched depressing Kanon, I figured we should try something much lighter. I dug through my backlog again, and pulled out Rizelmine. The amount of fan-service in this was definitely phenominal. I remember watching it many years back, and thought it was funny, only remembering that there didn’t seem to be much fan-service. Maybe my tastes at the time were a bit more extreme than now. Needless to say, she enjoyed the show. Not to the same level of Tora Dora!, but the humor was purely something worth laughing at, and the characters were colorful. She didn’t like how childish it all seemed but was glad it was a switch from Kanon. She liked the little bit of light romance that was in the series too.

So much fanservice… this show is definitely NOT for kids!

Soon after, we started watching Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. It was during this time that I started downloading Nodame Cantabile’s second season. I figure I’d use that as a trump card if necessary. My wife was surprised at the interesting art style of beautiful japanese patterns, bloom effects, and cherry blossoms. But she thought the series was too weird for her. She enjoyed the obsessive strawberry cake scene, and the chain stalkers scene, but overall she couldn’t really get into it. Looks like this is a series I’ll be watching myself instead.

Sayonara… Zetsubou Sensei…

What next? I thought. I was running out of ideas, and there were still series I was downloading. It was too soon for the trump card anyway. Since we were on the old-school track, I decided to brave the one thing that had been bothering me since the beginning of all this: Love Hina.

Love Hina gets a second chance. But it was me that killed it.

“Are you trying to trick me?!” she asked. I said no, it really is not what you think! I tried to convince her to watch it again before, or to read the manga before, but this was different now. “It’s a romantic comedy. You have to put aside the lame fan-service though.”

She gave in, and decided to watch it. Though she didn’t hate it like she had before, she also didn’t like it. And to her defense, I didn’t like it either. The series was shallow, the pacing was wrong, and the characters weren’t likable. “I liked the manga more. That one made more sense, and was more heavily emphasized on the romance.” I concluded to her, but she didn’t really feel like reading the manga. This wasn’t a loss, as she did sit through the series to the end. I didn’t even bother with the OVAs, even though she asked “What about the rest?”. I personally wasn’t invested in this series anymore, and just started reading the manga again. What I did like though, is how she again, recognized Yui Horie’s voice. “That’s Minori!!”

So that’s it, right? We’ve come full circle. Don’t forget about the yuri!

Read the review here!

As I had posted a review previously, I won’t delve into the details. My wife was totally weirded out by it. It wasn’t that she couldn’t accept lesbian romance. It was just foreign to her. I explained to her the whole symbolic reasoning behind Hazumu being a girl, and I think she got that. She did enjoy the romance though. She just wished it wasn’t with a bunch of girls…

This time, I was the one that pointed out that Yasuna was voiced by Yui Horie. “It’s Minori!”

Having gotten off old-school train, I figured it was time to give her a rest. I could tell that she wasn’t enjoying anime as much as she was before Kanon. I began to notice the reason why, and decided to pull out the trump card. At this point, I no longer considered it a trump card, but as a reason.

If you’ve read this far, and you’re thinking you can get your significant other to watch Death Note or Ghost in The Shell with you, then you have missed the point entirely.

Throughout this journey, I’ve discovered that my wife doesn’t want to just watch anime. She wants to spend time with me, sharing an interest that we can both enjoy together. This isn’t just about getting her to watch anime. It’s about getting me to watch anime with her. Not just any anime. But an anime that we can both enjoy.

So for you, you really have to just test the waters. Find out what she likes, what she doesn’t like, and aim towards that. At first, you may not enjoy watching some “lame anime series” with her, but you will appreciate the fact that she is watching anime, and understand that she’s watching anime with you.

Well, I’m going to enjoy the remainder of Nodame Cantabile Paris. Then I’ll probably bring on some K-ON! sprinkled between some Honey and Clover.

Comments? Suggestions? Agree or disagree? Bring it on!

Browsing through the internet, I stumbled upon this figure. I have no idea what series she’s from, but then again, I don’t really care. I really like this! A kimono coupled with a scooter is such a nice contrast, yet at the same time, the soft lines blend itself well. More pics after the jump!

She’s so pretty…

She even comes with a completely separate outfit! I’m sure they just use cast-off technology. But it looks like even the slippers are different. I also wonder how they did the flower in her hair without leaving a hole. Replacing the whole hair is quite a bit. If it’s just the bangs, then that’s pretty easy. The flower looks like it is placed fairly far back though.

DO WANT!!! NAO!!!

Manufactured by Moon Toys. I know nothing about this company. Do you? After the likes of Atelier Sai, Orchid Seed, and Yamato, I’m extremely hesitant to take the dive into this 12,000 yen investment.

Does anyone have experience with Moon Toys, or have any more info on them?

Going through my anime backlog, I decided to give Kashimashi a try. Having watched Kanon with my wife, it was a bit depressing. Rizelmine helped with that but it was a little silly.

I’ve read a few volumes of Kashimashi, and quite enjoyed it. It was a decent romance, with some light-hearted humor to it, so I thought my wife might enjoy it.

The premise behind this yuri anime is about a really feminine boy named Hazumu getting rejected by the love of his life, Yasuna for reasons unknown to him at the time. Through some freak accident involving aliens, Hazumu is transformed into a girl. This event triggers confusion in Hazumu’s childhood friend, Tomari as well as prompting Yasuna to confess her feelings towards Hazumu. Thus a love triangle is formed.

I’ve never read a yuri manga, or watched a yuri anime before, so I don’t know to what degree of yuri-ness this would count as. There wasn’t any heavy petting, or hot girl-on-girl action. It felt very much like a regular romance-drama. It had a much more serious tone than the manga did. The only humor was fan-service provided through Hazumu’s father and Hazumu’s best friend Asuta. I also read that the manga’s plot is slightly different, though I can’t really say at the moment, as I’ve only read 3 volumes. The manga has taken a different turn of events from the anime, but I won’t know how it will be resolved until I get the remaining volumes.

While it seems Hazumu’s transformation into a girl is just an excuse for yuri, the anime presents itself in such a way that Hazumu never feels out of place. The characters’ motivations are thoroughly convincing and clear, making the love triangle seem like a very natural occurrence. Hazumu’s femininity is further reinforced by Hazumu’s best buddy, Asuta, developing feelings towards Hazumu. Though Asuta’s struggles seem mostly for comic effect, it was effective in strengthening Hazumu’s believability.

After watching quite a number of romantic comedy anime from Tora Dora to Nodame Cantabile, Kashimashi seems to really get it right with the emotional heart strings. Most anime seems to derive character developement through lots of conversation and inner-monologue. Kashimashi has practically no inner-monologue, and not a whole lot of conversation. Much of the development is understood through the characters’ facial expressions, and occassional flashback, turning out to be much more effective, and making the characters much more believable and easier to identify with.

With only 12 episodes, the series doesn’t drag on with a whole lot filler, and gets right to the point without it feeling rushed. At the same time, the pacing is rather slow compared to the more ADD-targetted anime of this generation. Considering that the series is fairly old, it can at times, seem a little slow and boring. This is definitely a drama of a different nature. The humor, when present, is pretty shallow and recycled.

Character-wise, you see the standard archetypes personified blatantly in this series. Tomari fills the Tsundure type, while Yasuna the gentle, proper rich-girl type. Hazumu is the typical bubble-headed overly girlie-type, and then there’s the intelligent motherly type, as well as the annoying squeal-type from the supporting characters.

It seems that Hazumu’s role in this series is both major, and minor. The love triangle centers around her, but she’s also helplessly being dragged through the whole relationship problem. Overall, the love triangle ends up being a copy of Archie, Betty, and Veronica. Heck, their hair colors match to that archetype as well! However, it works really well with Hazumu being a girl, as it strengthens the believability of her fragile vulnerability.

The ending was what I expected it would end like, but not the way I wanted it to end. I’m sure many people who watched the series felt the same way. An OVA was released later providing a conclusion that I had originally wanted, but reaching that point in one OVA seemed rushed, and very unconvincing.

I would recommend watching this series, if you have the time for it between K-ON! or Haruhi S2. It’s definitely not something to write home about, but it’s also an anime worth experiencing if you’re into romance dramas.

A while ago, when my friend returned from Japan, he bought me a souvenir box of cookies, called “Maid Cookie”. Has anyone ever seen these or tried them before? They’re quite good. More pix after the jump!

I’ve seen it more than once, as some of my other friends have recieved it as gifts before. The little maid on the box front is so cute!

“Maid in Tokyo

MAID COOKIE

Milk & Maple”

A close-up of the kawaii meido. I’m assuming the tiny Japanese characters on the cookie say “Meido”.

The cookie box has a flap opening, revealing individually packed delicacies inside. And there’s Mikuru, ready to serve some delightful tea-time favors!

Each cookie has a printed expression of the maid. I have to wonder, who was the artist for this? Why would a cookie company shell out for such a product? What is their target market? Need I really ask? It’s Japan.

Each cookie is individually wrapped, and comes in either Milk flavored, or Maple flavored.

It’s tea time! I hope you enjoy your cookie. I know I will!

Another painting with photoshop diary! I haven’t painted anything anime in quite a while, and it’s something I’ve been wanting to do, but have been putting off for some time now. Getting back into it was difficult, and I gave up on a piece mid-way because it just was not what I wanted. Check out how this one was made after the jump!

You may have noticed in the past, there was a little purple-haired girl blinking at you at the top of my blog. I’ve been playing with the site mascot idea for a while now, and I liked the main aspect of her a lot – her headphones, and that cute purple/pink hair. But one thing was definitely missing – clothing design. She started off wearing a simple school uniform, which was in my opinion, pretty generic, but worked at the time, and was pretty cute.

Starting with a base moe-model, I sketched several different articles of clothing that might be suitable for her moe-ness. The first one was a revamp of her current school uniform, followed by others like the loligoth. I quite like the Lara-esque Adventure outfit. I finally settled on the adorable raincoat. It’s definitely the cutest one. And since it rains a lot in where I live, it made the perfect statement.

I was going to write a post asking readers what her name should be, but then it dawned on me pretty quickly. Her most prominant feature were the headphones she wore. She wears them everywhere. So it made sense that she liked music. “Melody” sounded like a pretty fitting name for her.

I started painting a full-body illustration of Melody, but as it had turned out, I had been losing my skills as an anime artist. I’ve been concentrating so much on non-anime work that my drawing just didn’t look good. I switched gears and for the heck of it, started sketching Melody as a mature looking female.

There’s something about the sketch that I really like. I think it’s just how raw it looks compared to the finished, more sterile result. After sketching, I started a new layer, and began drawing a cleaner line-art. I wanted this one to look clean for some reason.

The solid colors usually go in as base first before painting in highlights and shadows. As you can see, my palette is pretty simple. Just like how I had painted the face, I proceeded to do the same with the hair.

Hair is a little different from most other objects. Especially for anime. It’s a solid mass, yet it also has to appear like it’s not. How it’s shaded is very important. You have to give the hair definition so that it doesn’t just look like a solid blob, but not so much that it becomes a horrendous mess of lines. At this point, I did some revision to the line-art too, and fixed her eye a little. It was too long, and flattened her face too much.

The coat has a nice red tone to it. I decided to change the hair color a bit to compensate and create a nicer blend. Cloth is a bit like hair, in the regards that it requires definition to make it appear like cloth. As you can see from the line art to the colored one, more depth is created, more folds are created to give that definition.

The headphones were fun. They’re actually Audio Technica, ATH-ES7. They’re not the best performing headphones, but they look slick with the mirrored finish. I’m not sure if that particular model will be a permanent accessory, or if she’ll try wearing other types down the road.

From here on, it was adding layers and layers of FX to create this image. This is the version that is posted as the blog banner right now. After I was done though, I looked back on her hand and felt it was very unnatural looking. I didn’t use any reference, and it showed. I decided to take a photo of my own hand, holding a cellphone, and use that to redraw the hand from scratch.

The final result of the hand is a lot more natural. I also changed the FX to be white instead. This gave a more pure look to it.

I darkened the background, as well as added some motion blur to it. This helped make Melody pop a little more without it being overbearing.

Overall, I can’t say that I’m super satisfied with this one. Looking back at my other works, I feel this is up to par with Alternate Mikuru, and that makes me feel a little dissatisfied. Alternate Mikuru was good at the time, but it kinda shows that I haven’t improved that much, but my bar has been raised. If I keep at it, I’ll most likely get better results.

It’s another celebratory 10k worth of hits! I’m pretty happy that I am able to share my work with so many of you. At some point at the beginning of the year, some of you may have noticed a sudden change in the way I blogged, if I even blogged at all.

I was having trouble finding any reason to post anything. Photoshopping figures felt kind of meaningless as I realized I wasn’t doing it for the joys of creating photoshop images, but was doing it for the sake of getting attention. This was wrong. This was not what I wanted. I wanted to share, and I wanted to share it with as many people as I could.

Somewhere along the way, that line blurred, and I began linking the number of hits to the results of my work. When I noticed that the hits kept coming even after I stopped posting for a while, the hits became meaningless, and so did my work. As well, I noticed a drop in the number of comments I got to some of my posts. This only added to my depression and made me question whether or not it was all worth it. Like Shino, I was very tempted to give up on blogging entirely.

I had forgotten that I posted my reviews and my photoshop work to share with everyone.  I was still teetering on the brink as I was posting sometimes, but it really did feel like posting for the sake of posting. It wasn’t until I read Shino’s new blog entry that I felt something important had left me, and that I needed to get it back. In a way, Shino was the one that brought me back, and for that I’m truly grateful for.

A few commenters on Shino’s blog seemed to echo the same sentiments, but were able to find their way. As such, I’m back now. My reason to share has come back, and that reason is the pride I have in my own work, and the passion I have for my work. The passion I have for this hobby is what I want to share. In my own way, and by my own standards. The hits really don’t matter. Just as long as I’m able to do what I like doing, and be able to share my joy of doing it with you all.

- Radiant

Vote for your favorite moe!

International Saimoe League 2009!

Moe (萌え ^?, /mo.e/, pronounced “mo-eh” literally “budding”, as with a plant) is a Japanese slang word originally referring to fetish or love for characters in video games or anime and manga. For example, 眼鏡っ娘萌え, meganekko-moe, “glasses-girl moe“, describes a person who is attracted to fictional characters with eyeglasses. “Moe!” is also used within anime fandom as an interjection referring to a character the speaker considers to be a moekko. It is even used in some anime, such as Ouran High School Host Club, Lucky Star, Kaichou-wa Maid-sama!, K-ON, and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. There are various interpretations of what moe is today. While some argue that moe is a pure, protective feeling towards a character^[1], popular use denotes moe as an adjective used to describe any features of a character that particularly “turn on” the person, sexually or otherwise.^[2] The expanded use of the word has led to it being used to describe anything “hyper-cute” as well, such as the genre of anime-inspired music unique to Akihabara.

Both the spellings moe and moé are used in English.^[3] Some writers add an accent mark in an attempt to indicate that the word should be pronounced as two morae, “mo” and “e”, but this usage does not conform to any standard of romanization. Compare bokeh (other non-standard romanization).

My votes:

As promised, the much anticipated review of Asuka on Motorcycle. I wasn’t even aware that my site has reached 61k hits now! But priorities first – a review of this absolutely amazing investment (yes, investment). More photos after the jump!

Asuka is a 1:6 scale figure, though I feel the approximation is closer to 1:5. I’ve never seen a 1:6 figure this big before.  Her bent over is already comparible  in height to many of my standing 1:6 scale figures (in retrospect, I should have taken a comparison shot).

The detail of this figure is absolutely amazing. The bike looks really good too! This combo really sells it as a complete package.

This was resin-casted and painted by the great gods at e2046 by Gathering. Made out of solid resin, she actually feels very sturdy, and VERY heavy compared to most kits I’ve seen. If you don’t know, the sculpt is done by Vispo. I unknowingly, am a fan of Vispo’s work. He also did Morte, as well as Raquel Goth, which I did buy, btw.

The decal work is incredibly well done. Pretty flawless!

Detail in the boot is nice. I kinda thought that the ring should be metallic colored though…

More awesome decaling, and the zipper is so cool! The sculpt of the leather looks totally awesome.

She has painted nails! I’m surprised at how well the detailing came out from this cast. I’m sure a lot of clean-up work was done to it too. The fitting was a little loose though. Her hand would fall out sometimes if I moved it. It’s essentially the handlebar keeping it in the socket.

The handlebar in itself deserves much attention. The different color/shine of the materials really bring realism to this already highly detailed aspect of this figure.

The wheels are awesome in detail too, though they don’t seem as clean edged as the rest of the figure. The wheels actually do turn, btw.

An e2046 exclusive is this awesome display base. It’s embedded with blue LEDs that light up the whole figure all around. Unfortunately, the one I received is broken somehow. The wiring was obviously done without any skill whatsoever. But I don’t really mind, since blue LEDs would make this figure look like crap anyway.

Visit the site. vispo.cc and check out the making of Asuka, as well as some other really cool stuff they’ve got. It’s amazing and worth looking.

A close up shot of the NERV logo, and gas cap. Check out Asuka’s necklace! <_<;

Speedometer. SO. DETAILED.

The rear… of the bike. GAINAX, and another Asuka logo. <_<;

She has a star on the back of her leather jacket! Very Rock Howard! <_<;

This is one of my favorite shots. The lighting, the spokes on the wheels, the chain, the angle… love it!

Somewhat redunant, but here’s her ass.

More amazing detail. This thing actually comes with a metal stand to hook onto the peg, like a real motorcycle. But I found that I don’t really need it since Asuka props it just nicely. Check out those spokes!!

The exhausts are quite nice.

Rear suspension. The cool thing? It actually works!!

Asuka’s amazing hair. It reminds me of Cheetos.

UCC Coffee in hand. Most excellent.

Vanity shot. *heart*

I’m normally a Rei fan, but seriously, Asuka makes the better appearance, hands down.

I’m very impressed at how clean the sculpt lines are, and how sharp everything is. Vispo did an excellent job, and Gathering an excellent job of casting this amazing figure.

Full shot. I was originally going to do an awesome awesome photoshop image idea, but couldn’t get the proper angle, or find the proper photograph for my needs. Looks like I probably won’t be getting a chance to do that anymore, as my interest in doing one for her as died.

This didn’t come with the figure, but I thought it was suitable.

This didn’t come with the figure either, but sits very nicely on the display base. It’s almost race-queen-like. So wraps up another figure review! Stay tuned for the rest of the week, as I’ve got a little something more to celebrate the 60k hits.

http://www.radiantdreamer.net

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted any of the recent figures I’ve purchased. Yet, I’ve been constantly complaining about my lack of space, and the figures I have been selling, I’m not actually getting rid of my entire collection – space or not. Many of my figures are packed and stored in my closet. Well, less than 30%, if I would have to make a guess…

There are quite a few figures that I just can’t part with, even if they’re put away in the closet. I’m sure many of you have the same problem. My own personal solution? Cycle them ocassionally. I’ve done it once or twice already, and it’s always fun, and your shelves never look boring. I like re-arranging my figures so they have a theme, or some sort of cool looking composition, or maybe I feel like “featuring” one particular figure, and place her under the spotlight.

As such, I’ve decided to document how my collection changes over time. This would be the second time I’ve taken photos of my own collection.

More photos after the jump!

My current favorite in my collection, is the beautiful and elegant Gwendolyn, from Odin Sphere. Manufactured by Alter, she’s 1:8 scale. A beauty to behold in a full-length shot. Hopefully I’ll have time to review her in depth at some point.

Besides the beautiful Gwendolyn, I also purchased the Human Mage from Lineage II. Interesting, she looks a lot sexier than I ever remembered.

To the left of my Human Mage is Saber Gift. That’s right, AFN readers. I decided NOT to cancel this one in favor of Saber Lily. I think when Lily get here, she’ll make an excellent compliment to Saber Gift.

Recognize anybody? This shelf is situated right above my computer desk. The shelves themselves are Ikea LACK shelves installed into the wall. I had to drill the lights into the LACK shelf above, and do some special stuff to tuck the wiring inside the shelf. I hope to someday fish the wire through the wall so that it’s not so unsightly, but well…

I’ve got two Ikea DETOLF shelves in the hallway, and they fit beautifully into a relief in the wall. It’s almost like they were meant to be there. This is my lowest shelf, where I put all my waitresses, and maids. I’d unfortunately have to call this shelf the “Bottom Feeder”. The problem with display shelves is that people rarely look at the bottom most shelf. This is the reason why most of these girls are sitting down. Figures standing up are even harder to see because of the angle. With them sitting down, they cover more space, and as such are more visible.

The shelf just above the Bottom Feeder. Currently, the “Goddess” themed shelf, so to speak. Yes, I do consider Sakura Shinguji a goddess, but only because she was a gift from my wife. Truly my very first 1:8 scale figure. The other 1:6 scale figure is a resin kit that I painstakenly painted and put together. I love it.

Above the Goddess shelf is the “Quirky Pose” shelf. They’re dynamic, but don’t really make much sense. Rize used to be in the Shuraki themed shelf, but a peg broke, as many of you Rize owners may have experienced. Yes, that telephone jack does work. Some of you may recall in my previous Current Collection, the back wall was yellow. I think that painting it this accent dark brown really brings out the figures.

The shelf above the Quirky Pose shelf is my featured Asuka on motorcycle. This baby is supposedly 1:6, but it seems MUCH bigger than that. The detail is astounding. I’m definitely going to do a review on her at some point. My readers deserve to witness the beauty of this one. The two little Asuka gashapons were a later addition. I’ve had them for a while, sitting on my LACK shelves, but never made the connection to put them here. It complements well, I think.

Now, onto the DETOLF directly to the right. This top shelf feature is the “Oriental Battle Weapons” theme. Though Shall doesn’t seem to belong in that theme, the pose certainly does!

The shelf directly below the “Oriental Weapons” theme shelf is my Final Fantasy shelf. These three are completely cold cast. I’ll do a review on them at some point.

The shelf directly to the right of the Goddess shelf, is my “Militia” themed shelf. Guns, guns, and a cute little Alvis Hamilton doing a salute. It can’t get much better than this!

This isn’t the end, of course. I still have two more shelves in another room, and another two shelves in the living room which I haven’t covered yet! Stay tuned!

Here’s a figure that I’ve had for not too long. Sakura Shinguji, from Sakura Taisen. She’s 1:10 scale, PVC. Made by Good Smile Company’s Max Factory. Considering her size, the detail on her is very meticulous. You can’t even tell she’s a small figure. Actually, the size of it adds to the overall neatness of this figure.

More photos after the jump!

The display base is nicely decorated, adorned with a golden pathway and fallen sakura blossoms. I wish I had time to do some photoshop, because I’ve got some ideas for this figure.

A close up shot of her shows some excellent detail in both her eyes, and her hair. The pose is quite dynamic, and looks great at multiple angles.

Close up from the other side. Check out the detail on her glove! And that face is absolutely adorable!

You may be wondering why she’s in a box. Yup, she’s for sale. Why do I want to sell such a wonderful figure? As I had said earlier, I’m clearing some room. If you’ve read My Story, you’ll know that I already have a Sakura Shinguji from my wife. Though the quality if this figure is obviously far superior, I think that I don’t need to have two anymore. If I had the space, I’d keep her. She’s up for grabs here first, for my readers if anyone is interested, send me an email at info (at) radiantdreamer (dot) net.

UPDATE: This figure is now sold. Domo arigato!

Completely off topic, I know. But this is too amazing to pass up.

A guy named Kutiman went though youtube and sampled all sorts of random clips of people playing instruments, and mixed them all into some absolutely amazing music.

His site where the videos are hosted, thru-you.com, is currently down due to too much traffic. But I’ve gone and found them on youtube for your enjoyment. It’s some good stuff!

1. Mother of All Funk – a fun song featuring some sweet jazzy instruments and some awesome guitar solos. I’m guessing this is his first experimentation with this project.

More after the jump!

2. This is What It Became – a pretty interesting reggae style song with some good mixes.

3. I’m New – this is definitely one of my favorites. The singer is beautiful, with a soft soothing voice.

4.  Babylon Band – awesome drummer in his own right, but Kutiman makes it better. A heavy track but sounds great!

5. Someday – the mother who sings in this is very good. A cool mellow jazzy song.

6. Wait For Me – very nice electronica R&B track. A lot of the people in this seem to know what they’re doing to begin with.

7. Just a Lady – the song isn’t my type of music, but I can appreciate the singer. The focus is definitely on her through the whole song.

8. About Thru-You Kutiman – a video showing how he works.

The credits are on the site, and each credit links back to the original youtube clip where he got the sample from. Some of those in itself are worth a watch, especially the singer in I’m New.

This is a very pretty figure that I’ve had for a while. I bought her from the Diamond Comics Previews catalogue. I just love how elegant and simple she is. Manufactured by Kotobukiya, she’s approximately 1:8 scale. More photos after the jump!

Here she is packaged up. Yeah, I decided to sell her. That’s been happening a lot lately, eh? This one, like Caren Hortensia, sold before I posted her here. The packaging is actually quite nice. It works very well as a display piece on its own.

As you can see, they put quite a bit of attention to the inside of the box as well.

The amount of detail in this simple figure is pretty good. The creases in her clothes look realistic. The collar is nicely detailed, and so are the earrings. She has a very pleasant face to match the dress.

Words can’t describe how buying her own a whim lead to an artistic admiration of the elegance of this figure. I’ve had her for a while now, but never really took the time to appreciate her. I’m sure that her new owner will value her more than I ever did, since this is the first figure in his collection.

I’m glad that this figure is the first in his collection. It’s a great figure to start with. He’s about maybe in his late 40’s, so it could be a midlife crisis sort of deal, but if such an innocent and elegant figure is his start, then that’s a good sign. Unfortunately, he had also asked me about some Ikki Tousen figures. Perhaps it’s not going to be an innocent collection after all.

I know it may seem like there are many photos of the same angle, but they are different lighting exposures. Some photos will look better on your monitor than other photos.Which photo is your favorite?

Yes, she has a nice rack. Is that what you’re looking at? Pay attention to the beautiful collar instead!!

A lower angle showing her collar more. It’s still quite difficult to see.

More composition play.

For those of you who have a foot fetish, or like to look as shapely teen girl ass. We’ve got you covered.

The detail is quite nice on those toes. The folds on her dress look astounding. The base is also made of velvet! It’s a dust-catcher though. A lint remover cleans that right up. (Which is what I did before packing and delivering her).

THIS was the deal breaker for me. The most detailed design on her is located in an area which you cannot see unless you flip her over. And gentlemen never flip their women over for something like that.

Another figure come and gone… you will be missed, Rei! Rack up another point for Asuka Langley.

Hope you all enjoyed the photos! See you again soon!

My Pleinair “Earlybird” Mug arrived today! I got it at RosenQueen for 9.99! They are having their 2nd Anniversary Sale. Pretty sweet deal!

Pleinair ( プレネール, Purenēru) is a fictional character who has made appearances in several games in Nippon Ichi’s tactical role-playing game series. She is something of a mascot character for the artist and character designer of these games, Takehito Harada.

The name “Pleinair” is two French words put together; “plein” meaning “full,” and “air” as in English. Together, the phrase means “outdoor”.

Due to her appearances in video games being little more than cameos, not much is known of Pleinair outside of her physical appearance. She is typically portrayed as a petite, blue-haired girl with red eyes, wearing a red ribbon, a white dress, white stockings, and sometimes glasses. She is often accompanied by a stuffed rabbit named “Usagi-san” and a stuffed shark named “Same-san.” A common motif in images of Pleinair is Usagi-san being eaten (or at least gnawed or bitten) by either Pleinair or Same-san.

She appears as the receptionist in Disgaea, and is a playable character in the DS version (if you beat the game). She’s also part of a news crew in Disgaea 2, and as a class rep in Disgaea 3.

The beautiful Caren Ortensia, from Fate/Hollow Ataraxia. Manufactured by Alter, she stands 1:8 scale. You may have seen pics of my desk at work if you are part of the Anime Figurines Network on Facebook, and she may have been in there part of the background. Sadly, I never really had her on display for very long before packing her up and putting her in storage.

I’ve taken her out to do a shoot of her because well, she’s another figure for sale. Surprisingly, she was sold to a friend of mine on AFN even before I put her up here.

More pics after the jump!

Full body shot. I’m not really fond of her “ribbon”. Not because I don’t like it, because I think it really adds flavor. But more like I think it looks and has the texture of a strawberry Fruit Roll-Up.

I really love the profile of this figure. The melancholic look with her siler wavy hair is quite nice.

… I guess it’s possible to regret selling a figure…

Melancholy…

I quite like this angle for some reason… she has quite the soft expression. Though I have to say, her mouth is a bit too small looking.

Here she is without her hat. The shiny silver hair looks much more apparent without the hat.

I spent a lot of time getting really tight framing of her because of the way she’s curled up. Her arm and shoulder frames her face very well.

I always love some good frillies.

The pic is a little blurry, but you can kinda see some seam lines. They’re pretty small though.

Well, that wraps up this figure, before it gets sent out. Hope you enjoyed it.

I apologize for the brevity of my posts. I’m quite sure that you readers sense that I’m posting very different these past few months. Things have been a little bit all over the place for me lately, and there’s been a lot on my mind.

More figures have arrived in the past few months, and some figures that I’ve had since last year still remain unopened, in my closet. This is bad news. I’m obviously running out of room, and I need to make room as well as sell off some of the figures I have stored away and will probably never display again. It’s a shame because many of these figures are quite nice.

Estel Freesia

I never thought I would sell her so early. I obtained her less than a year ago. While she is one of the cleaner, neater looking figures, She didn’t make the cut, and am really strapped for space. Made by Kotobukiya, she stands 1:8 scale tall.

I really liked the simple shape and stature of her. She’s very “proper”. I know nothing else about her though. Since I’m at it, here’s a synopsis on her with my findings. She comes from a series called “Brighter Than Dawning Blue” (Yoake Mae Yori Ruri Iro Na). It seems she’s a very limited character that appears in the PS2 version of the game, and is some sort of religious and mysterious girl. That’s about all I can find, and all that I can really care about.

Her tunic is removable. Though I find the tunic design rather interesting.

Her features are rather interesting. It’s a very clean, symmetrical, near perfect sculpt.

Pretty good detail on that book too. The bracelets are also removable as well as the book.

That’s about it for her. She’s up for grabs for any readers who are interested in owning her.

A hallmark milestone! Radiant Dreamer has reached over 50,000 hits! Thanks, everyone who helped make this possible! This site has definitely come a long way! Thanks for being there for my lows, and for celebrating the highs! This site exists because of YOU!

So I stumbled upon this pretty wicked resin kit on hobbyfan. It’s most impressive with excellent detail, and a creative idea. For $100 for a prepainted statue of this caliber, that’s a pretty slick deal. Especially considering standard PVC figures nowadays can cost upwards to $80 a pop. I would have bought it. But, well… there’s a reason why I decided not to. (NSFW)

Yes. Bare breasts. You’d think that something this cool would have some sort of non-breast-bearing version. I REALLY like this figure, but with the boobage for all to see, it’s been striked off my list.

I’m sure this would interest some others, so that’s why I’m posting this. So enjoy more pics!

Hmmm… looks like there’s some sort of tube going up her vajayjay too. But whatever. This figure is freakin’ COOL!

Look at the incredible detail! It’s like Optimus Prime meets Armored Core meets Anime! DO WANT! *sigh* I suppose if I REALLY wanted to, I could shave off the nipples, and just paint a skin-tight black body suit, but that’s just silly.

There’s even a wicked black version! Well, if you want to see more pics, or heck, buy one of these, check out hobbyfan!

http://www.hobbyfan.com/product_info.php?bcAdult=yes&products_id=7485

So why am I against it? No, I’m not against it, but I do think that figures are meant to be displayed, and displayed without large breasts distracting from what is truly an artistic and magnificent sculpture. That and I don’t think my wife would be very happy about this figure. Well, if they do decide to create a more “covered” version, I’d definitely buy it.

EDIT: My mistake. This is for an unpainted figure. Hmmm doesn’t make it so worth it after all. But for you hobbyists out there, this is definitely one to get!

Happy New Year everyone! I originally had a great idea for a New Year’s photo, but didn’t have time to set it up and photoshop it. My wife was generous enough to buy me an entry level dSLR camera for Christmas this year, a Sony a300k.

…which I happily returned for a Canon 450D (Rebel XSi). Long story on that, but don’t worry, it was NOT a heartless decision. So while the first photo I took with it was that of my wife for obvious reasons (it turned out terrible because I didn’t know how to use the thing), the first photo post of the year is of Kureha with my new camera.

Overall, I’m in love with what a difference dSLRs make. They’re able to capture light so much better, and with greater depth of field. I took the same shot with my previous camera, the Panasonic FX-9, and honestly, I can’t go back anymore.

Messing with the settings are quite time consuming, but with the Canon’s Live View mode, it’s a lot easier to do properly exposed photos than with previous dSLRs! Being a first-time dSLR user, this makes learning a lot easier too. The only problem with Live View is AF doesn’t work, so I use Live View to adjust my aperture and shutter speed, and go back into viewfinder mode to do auto focus. This particular picture I’ve posted however, is done using manual focus, which Live View supports.

I’m still struggling with the camera, as for some reason it doesn’t take nearly as sharp an image as my FX-9. With the FX-9, I can see the dots in Kureha’s eyes exceptionally clearly, while the 450D doesn’t do nearly as good.

Here’s a cropped view of the photo above, using the 450D. It’s a 35mm kit lens, with 1/125 f5.6 ISO800.

Here’s a cropped view of the camera that I’ve been using for all my images up until now, the Panasonic FX-9 in Macro mode. The ISO is not nearly as good, with a maximum of only 400, and this camera decided a 1/60 shutter speed. I can’t control it. I’m either doing something wrong, or the lens just isn’t capable of outputting a clear enough image.

Forum posters on neogaf suggest that it could be the kit lens, and not the camera itself. I’m inclined to agree since I really know nothing about dSLRs. Some also pointed out that the FX-9 could be processing the image.

Overall, great camera, so expect many better quality images in the future!

Happy holidays everyone! It’s the first day of my holidays, and fortunately all my shopping is done. It’s been snowing a bit here, and apparently, record temperatures, but nowhere near as bad as say, Halifax or something, where the temperatures fall below -40c. Now THAT’S crazy cold!

This festive season is when most of my friends have gone back home to visit their families. This of course, makes a boring holiday season for me. But what better time than to put some effort into improving my art, and playing Valkyria Chronicles!

I’m fortunate that most of my family is local, so I don’t have to travel long distances to celebrate Christmas with them.

In case you’re wondering, no I didn’t get a special variant Loligoth Asuka figure. I am a photoshop artist after all. More on that after the jump!

Tada! The original, untainted, spontaneously taken photo of Asuka.

I started by painting (yes painting) a layer of red over top the black sections, and set the layer to Color. I then adjust the opacity and brightness of the red to get a tone that looked more natural and realistic.

Because the black absorbs a lot of light, the clothing looked a little dull. When it has color, it should reflect more light. I wanted more shine, so I started a new layer and with a slightly off-white color, painted highlights on the specular areas and set the layer to Color Dodge.

Because the dress is no longer black, red color should be reflected onto the white frill of the dress. This is called radiosity. Here you can see me faking that radiosity with a soft airbrush set on color dodge. In this close up, you can also see how close to the edge the red was painted. I’ve discovered that painting is more accurate than using the marquee tools.

What’s Christmas without a Santa hat? This is the first santa hat (and probably most popular) you get when you do a google image search.

The hat is then color and tone adjusted to fit into the scene, shadows are painted underneath and around the hat to blend it in more. It’s not perfect, but it gets the point across. Finally, a lens blur effect is added for the final image.

Less than five more days until Christmas! I wish you all a safe and happy holiday, and may you get the PVC girl you want under your christmas tree!

It’s been a while since I have posted. I wish though, that it was under better circumstances.

Last night, I helplessly watched my adorable little hamster Mochi, breathe his last painful breath while he lay warm in my hands.

He had a great run, though for only a short one year. He provided great therapy for my wife and me, and was always there when we needed him. We did what we could to give him a happy home.

He was our first furry friend, and I still think he’s the cutest little guy we’ve ever met. He learned to love, I think, and appreciate. My wife and I learned to love and appreciate what he had to offer for us too. He will be missed dearly.

Here are some videos of his life:

Mochi’s first video.

Mochi loves food!

Mochi tries to exercise.

Mochi at night.

Mochi wants to go home.

Mochi love sunflower seeds!

Mochi really loves bread!

Hopping Mochi!

Mochi falls asleep while eating

Mochi the fluffball

Mochi doesn’t know what he wants

Mochi’s everyday life.

Goodbye, Mochi. We will miss you forever…

From Radiant Dreamer to you, Happy Halloween!!

From left to right, Shadowlady, Alice, Gothic Devil Girl, Melissa, Suigintou, and Loligoth Asuka.

My sister just got back from Japan and gave me a gift – it’s a Sega Prize figure. But I have no idea who this is supposed to be. Does anyone know? More pics after the jump!

This looks like a fairly standard Sega Prize accessory pack – I remember Evangelion Rei and Asuka had the same desk, chair, and school bag, though I could be wrong. It’s cool that it comes with a backdrop and props. Helps make setting up scenes a snap. (ha ha I made a funny).

Fairly typical Sega Prize figure quality. The hair is nicely colored with a sort of orange to yellow gradient. Overall, she’s a pretty cute little figure.

She carries a whip to school! That’s BADASS!!

No idea who this little dude is, but I’m sure that it might be familiar to some of you anime otaku out there, and may help me identify exactly what series this is from, and who the heck this girl is.

You’ll notice some mould roughness on her sleeves, but that’s pretty typical of Sega Prize figures, and heck, most gashapons. It seems that it’s the type of PVC they use coupled with the small scale that causes it.

Overall, I like this figure. I wish more figures came with accessory packs like this. It would save me a whole lot of trouble when it comes to figure photoshopping. Oh yeah, there are going to be new Nendoroid accessory sets coming out, starting with the computer desk. I’m sure it’s to satisfy all those Haruhi Nendoroid owners…

OMG, I can’t believe I’ve been sick for more than a week… and I’m still sick! Still interesting how even while I’m sick, games are still part of my life.

It all started with a simple sore throat on Sunday, that evolved into a full on hack-fest the following day. It worsened on Tuesday as I turned into a snot-erpillar. I was pretty much on the couch the whole time.

I shouldn’t have “taken advantage” of my sick time off to play Uncharted. At the end of it, I was hacking worse than a 12 year-old script-kiddie. At least I finished it. Probably wasn’t worth the fever that night though…

On Wednesday and Thursday, I found myself playing the most unlikely games. Since intense action games required lots of focus and energy which I didn’t have, I decided to take it easy and basically “read a book”.

I played and finished Unsolved Crimes for DS, and also played and finished Jake Hunter for DS. Both games were mystery/homocide games that required no reflex action, and was more entertaining than grinding in an RPG.

While graphically, neither of them are very impressive, the story and small amount of problem solving kept me entertained while I was chained to my couch.

Actually, now that I think about it, the art style for Unsolved Crimes reminds me of an old Super Nintendo game that I played heavily while I was sick 15 years ago – Vegas Stakes.

If you’re ever given the opportunity (like if you get sick) play these games. It’s better than lying in bed, and feeling sick, with nothing to do.

After four days off, I’m back at work, ready to spread my germs around the office. Good thing other people at work had already been getting sick, so they couldn’t all just blame me when I returned.

My Queen’s Gate Alice arrived today. No time to actually do a photoshoot or a photoshop image, but there’s always time to boast.

She was the last one in stock at e2046. Lucky me! Or unlucky me, depending on how you look at it. (Chun knows what I’m talking about).

Hopefully, she’ll be my next photoshop subject. With Halloween coming up, she is a good candidate for some goth-y girls and some pumpkin pie!

In the next couple of months, I’ll most likely be VERY busy. Work is starting to pick up again, and I still have art to do at home. In addition, my backlog of games are getting bigger every day (okay, I exaggerate). But November and October is really crazy in terms of gaming.

See why, here:

http://mirrorsedge.wordpress.com/2008/10/14/so-much-gaming-so-little-time/

Wow! It’s only been a short amount of time, and already Radiantdreamer has reached 40,000 hits! I’m happy to provide content to my viewers, especially the photoshop kind!

I apologize for the lack of a photoshop celebration image, but it’s been pretty busy lately, and Little Big Planet beta had me hooked for quite a while!

Thanks everyone for the continued support! I will do my best!