PAST EXPERIENCE part 3

Oh god, I am so slack I should be taken out the back and shot. When I die I'm going to Procrastination Blogger Hell where devils dance around my cage promising to torture me... tomorrow.

It's kinda funny that no matter how hard I work during the week I'm always rushing my ass off at the end of the week to get things done. I think it comes from a serious inability to say, "No" to fun projects. Instead, I just line them all up and then balk at the amount of work that has to be done.

Right now I'm doing some huge posters for Spacedog's New York Comic Con booth. I can't wait to see them 8 feet tall! I've also got some correx to do on a friend's movie pre-vis pieces.

But let's get back to Kimiko.

LAYOUTS

JT, the writer (I figured I better remind you as it's been awhile. I hear they've also invented jet-packs between my last post) suggested that the first panel should mirror the last panel of the last page. In fact, he had very clear directions for how he wanted the scene to run. I looked over them, and they were great. It was just a matter of designing the room and the placement of Kaito and Kimiko to make it work.



LINE ART

I noticed I copped some flak from some posters on 9th Wonders who didn't like my George Takei. At this stage of the game I was ready to print panel 1 out on nice piece of photopaper and mail it to his agent I was so proud. Seriously, that's George Freakin' Takei! I was so happy with it at this stage. I'm still proud of the linewor. Little was I to know that all my efforts would be thwarted by my inability to colour him.

I do like the picture of Kimiko on panel 4 also. I think it really looks like her, and I like it how at the one moment that her father actually looks at her, she looks away.

If I remember correctly, it was about at this stage that my computer was so under-performing I thought it had been taking tips from some of my ex-girlfriends.

It was so sluggish that if it had a pulse I would have checked it to see if it was alive. This page took me 2-3 days to do! And look at it, there's really not much to look at! But I was so frustrated by panel 3, I knew that I would have to look at other, more time effective ways to finish this. I opted for the first of my photo textures for backgrounds.


TONE

George still looks like George here, and Kimiko looks far more Kimiko-like. See? I write gooder!

I remember almost rubbing my hands in glee at how well this page was turning out. I really dug the lighting on the two characters and loved how it accentuated the scale of the room.

Somewhere around this stage I'm probably chanting over my laptop in latin wearing rosary beads and a dog collar. A good old fashioned exorcism is about the closest you're going to come to any sort of technical support from me.

But, despite my best efforts to call out an unholy spirit frommy laptop, there was no screen spinning 360 degrees, no vomit and my laptop didn't even try and climb down the stairs backwards. Following in the footsteps of those pre-mentioned ex-girlfriends, my exorcism was a let down.

I decided to try another tact.

PHOTO INSERTS

So here's Jason trying to save his ass and deadline with photo textures. I can't tell you enough how much I *HATE* doing this. I feel cheap. I feel like I've asked for a refund at a $2 store.

But they look nice don't they? And how about those spiffy glass effects!

I can just see your reply now, "Boy, Jas, you do a GREAT glass effect! Don't tell me you actually DREW that glass in. You didn't put your back out actually DRAWING something did you?"

Shut up. My computer was possessed by a slavering devil from an outer circle of hell that thought that shoulder pads were still a fashion accessory and my time should be played like fingers down a blackboard. Slowly and tortuously.


COLOUR

I want you to marvel at the magnificence at which I have destroyed a perfectly good likeness of George Takei. What the hell was I thinking?! If another colourist had done this to my work I would have hunted them down, nail gunned them to a chair and fed them their toes.

As it was, I plead insanity.

For those of you who've met me, what you see is what you get. I'm one of the most chilled dudes you're gonna meet. Well, chilled as in "not gonna get angry" not as in "relaxed and laid back". I can't remember the last time I got angry at anyone. So believe me when I say I was ready to totally reenact every part of every rage zombie in 28 Days Later. I was especially looking forward to setting myself on fire and running around after people. I think it would have been cleansing.

Like the eye of the hurricane, a calm possessed me. I remembered that my friend Xander Black mentioned that he'd become pretty savvy at putting together computers and had about 8 desk tops at home. I called him and he offered to look at my laptop. So I headed around to his place.

He figured that the graphics card had crapped itself and turned itself off. He turned it back on and made some adjustments to my computer. I would of paid more attention to what exactly went wrong if I hadn't been forcefully kidnapped by his Playstation. All I know is that a couple rounds of Guitar Hero and Tekken later, my computer was working again. Oh the wonders of Playstation and its healing properties!

So Xander sat down and we throw down for some Tekken Tag (yes it's retro, but it's what we used to play against each other, and it's the last Tekken we both learnt to play).

FINAL TOUCHES

Yeah, so here's some lighting and blow out effects from the window. Blah, blah, blah. No one cares. What you wanna know is who won, right? Right?!

Yeah, I know I'm right.

I whup his ass at the start, but then he makes a comeback so brutal it has since been outlawed by the UN as a crime against humanity.

Finding my dignity and my Tekken skillz crushed under his designer boot I make a final resurgence at the end when my main man, Jin Kazama (also my digital man-crush - see below) remembers who he is and interfaces with me on a spiritual, emotional and intellectual level to unleash a mountain of destruction so big they set up a memorial service for Xander.

I hear that broken Tekken players make pilgrimages to this mountain of pwnage to pray at the shrine of Xander's broken spirit.

As you've probably gathered, I LOVE my Tekken. I just haven't had time for it recently. So come walk with me for a trip back in time. I promise to include an embarrassing photo to make it worth your while.

At the time, I wasn't the only one who liked Tekken. My entire martial arts club was into the game. We loved it because if you know how to fight, you can play. In the closest I ever came to cosplay, I organised my martial arts club into a performance called, "ENTER THE TEKKEN". I cast various members of the club as different characters from the game in a martial arts play that I scripted and choreographed.

Of course, I had to play my man-crush. =)

Yes, that's me. I painted those pants with a little help from a very talented ex-girlfriend. I used to wear those pants out clubbing and I got quite known for them. Another friend of mine did the makeup, tattoo (which you can't see) and hair.

I did the abs. =)

ENTER THE TEKKEN went on to win the Grand Champion Trophy in showmanship in an international tournament. Of all the martial arts trophies I won, that was the one I was most proud of.

See? Embarrassing photo. Told you it would be all worthwhile.

Next post soon, I promise!