Comments: 62
OgawaBurukku In reply to ??? [2012-05-09 09:50:07 +0000 UTC]
That was a hard effect to pull off, haha. I don't scrape much.
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caydett [2012-05-09 08:31:52 +0000 UTC]
I still love those top two panels~~ the toning came out so nicely ;u;
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OgawaBurukku In reply to caydett [2012-05-09 08:35:24 +0000 UTC]
Haha, thank you! Scratching is a pain in the butt, though. I am still not so good with scratching straight lines using a ruler. I keep cutting into the ruler by mistake... ;_;
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MsMissy87 [2012-05-09 08:19:18 +0000 UTC]
hey, i ordered manga studio 4 debut, it comes with like 2,300 diff screen tones and it was only 24$ on amazon want me to tell you how it goes when i get it?
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OgawaBurukku In reply to MsMissy87 [2012-05-09 08:22:39 +0000 UTC]
I have the original Japanese version of the software (called Comic Studio, haha), actually. It's a pretty great tool for digital artists, but it definitely has its shortcomings, especially with toning. It looks one way on the screen and totally different when printed out, sometimes, and it's hard to see exactly what screen tone you are using sometimes. I actually toned the 2nd to last page of this comic on Comic Studio, but I didn't like how it felt and switched to traditional.
But thank you! You can tell me how you like it, though ;D
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OgawaBurukku In reply to MsMissy87 [2012-05-09 08:36:59 +0000 UTC]
Comic Studio and Manga Studio I think have the exact same setup, but one is the English version and one is the Japanese version. The English version has a fancier package design, but I thiiink it's all the same other than that.
Eww, that's weird. I hate when that happens. It's never "what you see is what you get" when it comes to prints >_<;
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MsMissy87 In reply to OgawaBurukku [2012-05-09 08:39:02 +0000 UTC]
the print didnt look bad the color was just much more rich (kinda nice) and yeah lol they look like the same thing
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Ori-ConceptArts [2012-01-12 20:10:26 +0000 UTC]
I don't know it is correct or not but your sense of perspective can fool me and I probably wouldn't have noticed if you did not say anything (although it does seem like the door is very short in that shot).
If you are really feel that you are having trouble with this you can pickup Blender or Google sketchup(since they are both free) and just render a quick reference shot of the inside of a 3d cube from perspective, or download a Cellphone model and render it from the perspective angle you want.
I don't know how savvy you are about 3d software but I know that some manga and animation artists use 3d to get the background perspective right with no fuss and I think it is the method I am going to use from now on when making digital drawings..
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OgawaBurukku In reply to Ori-ConceptArts [2012-01-13 00:49:47 +0000 UTC]
You're right, that does look squat. I will have to fix that.
I am trying to avoid any digital modeling and such because I think I will learn more by working with my hands alone, but I may have to check these programs out just because I don't know much about them but hea they are great.
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Ori-ConceptArts In reply to OgawaBurukku [2012-01-13 01:10:27 +0000 UTC]
Yeah doing things traditionally gives more practice I think.
Digital modelling is more of a shortcut, I know the creator of Gantz draws over 3d renders to make those elaborate scifi scenes and props that would otherwise probably be really difficult to do in perspective and many manga artists seem to draw over stock pictures for props like cellphones or buildings to save time.
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OgawaBurukku In reply to Ori-ConceptArts [2012-01-13 02:20:15 +0000 UTC]
There was a big stink over here when that news got out. I wonder if he doesn't use assistants...
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Ori-ConceptArts In reply to OgawaBurukku [2012-01-13 02:44:18 +0000 UTC]
Stinker? how come? don't see how that is any different than using photo-reference. actually unlike photo reference there is at least there is some creative effort involved there.
And yes he has 3 assistants to create the 3d assets according to his name and another 1 to help with drawing out the characters.(since the 3d gives him a rough anatomical mannequin doll-like anatomical reference).
Source : [link]
Aside from that many matte painters in the Video game and PC industry (and now also Anime) tend to composite 3d and photo images in their art either to outline the perspective or get more correct shadowing and occlusion effects so I am somewhat surprised that this gets such bad karma in Manga.
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OgawaBurukku In reply to Ori-ConceptArts [2012-01-14 02:58:39 +0000 UTC]
Yeah-- his methods aren't exactly normal for manga artists. Up until pretty recently the vast majority of manga was drawn by hand, toned by hand, etc etc. Most weekly manga, like Jump or Sunday, are still drawn by hand. So when people found out he wasn't drawing a lot of that stuff people were talking about how disappointed they were. A lot of people thought he was drawing that stuff by hand, with rulers and a keen sense of perspective, etc. Then they found out he used CGI to do it and everyone went "...oh." I was watching a TV show that brought up the subject, trying to make it sound revolutionary, when almost every guest on the show that day was like "What? I'm so disillusioned! He's not as great as I thought he was", etc etc. A lot of people were talking about it for a few weeks after that. I'm sure if they'd mentioned on the show he has people creating the 3D assets for him people would have been even less impressed.
That said, I have never read the manga, so I don't really have any personal opinions on it.
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Ori-ConceptArts In reply to OgawaBurukku [2012-01-14 04:46:56 +0000 UTC]
I think the end result matters more when viewing art.
Right now I am shading a hand drawn animation sequence I'v made and going over it frame by frame in Photoshop, its torture, (and its probably going to be more torture when I will have to do frame by frame masking in After Effects afterwards...)
Could it be that it would have looked better if I have done it in 3d or flash? Sure ,it couldn't mimic the dirty style of unpolished classic animation but it would be more uniform and precise which is what some people like better.
While the animation in 3d and Flash would still require a frame by frame block-out, I wouldn't have to do this frame by frame post process for sure and even if it will end up looking good I doubt people will really care that I did things in the harder classic way.
I like Gantz mostly for its interesting concept and design (writing-wise I'm not that keen on its occasional overdone Otaku Ecchi themes though).
As far as Perspective goes, I bet he could do it with a ruler but with the amount of detail it would probably take him ages.
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OgawaBurukku In reply to Ori-ConceptArts [2012-01-14 05:52:22 +0000 UTC]
I think that's the problem-- you do less work when you rely on computers. I will totally admit that I am not a very good painter-- I have never been a good one and if it wasn't for photoshop I'd probably never color anything, or at least not as much as I do. Photoshop is full of tricks for people like me, and that ctrl+Z feature is pretty handy. That's why I am always way more impressed by traditional art than by digital art, but I still think both are valid artforms. I just think that one takes more patience and more actual skill than an another, in terms of artistic ability, at least. I've met a lot of digital painters who were great with photoshop at their disposal but weren't so great when they had to sketch from life, etc.
Animation for me is the same way-- I am floored every time I see The Lion King, Bambi, etc. Great hand drawn animation, and with Lion King the only major CG involvement is that wildebeest scene. I am not overly impressed by CG movies, and I think at times it can bring down a movie's quality. Like in Tangled, the songs didn't have the squash and stretch animation sequences that breathed life into segments like "Be Our Guest" or "Friend Like Me", and though I didn't hate the movie I can barely remember a single scene from it, even scenes I liked.
Back to manga, a professional assistant can do wonders with a ruler and a pen. One guy I worked for said my replacement artist for when I started college was absolutely amazing. What would take him an hour to draw took his assistant only ten minutes to draw. The pro assistants who have been doing the same stuff for years and years are like manga robots and get decent salaries doing what they do. Like Takeshi Obata's chief assistant-- this guy has been doing his backgrounds for years I'm guessing, because somewhere in the middle of Hikaru No Go the backgrounds went from good to unbelievable, and have been consistently amazing through DeathNote and now Bakuman. But that's a weekly manga-- that guy probably doesn't even use references when drawing buildings and things, he can probably do it all from memory because he's been doing it for so long. My biggest regret is that I never took perspective seriously until last year... if I had a time machine I would go back to 2002 when I first started taking art classes to be a comic artist and say "Master perspective and you'll never go hungry!"
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Ori-ConceptArts In reply to OgawaBurukku [2012-01-14 06:57:25 +0000 UTC]
I only watched tangled once so I'm not sure what sequences you are talking about but animation-wise, when it comes to technique and process 3d and 2d are the same(they both do squash and stretch for example) and require the same core discipline (understanding of movement) its true that traditional 2d also requires that a person would be able to draw most of the time but its rarely solo work and many times they relay on cleaners and assistants to help get the smooth finish on the illustrations. (and Chinese inbetweeners to do all the hard labor on the 'in-between' frames)
Either way, if its digital or traditional I think an artist needs to be equipped with the understanding of traditional artistic principles to succeed, even when making 3d, because typically 3d is created from a 2d reference illustration or sculpted using traditional-like sculpting in software like Zbrush.
But yeah overall I'v been creating my Illustrations and 3d from scratch for these reasons and doing some still life sketching because it is important to develop traditional skills in order to master creation.
Drawing (I consider this different from artistic talent/ability since by itself it can be very technical, drawing doesn't teach someone composition) it improves from practice , so in that sense the assistants get to master that but id be pretty bummed out to remain an assistant forever and never utilize that honed skill to create something original.
Yeah Bakuman's backgrounds are highly detailed but I think they play less of a role there than in Death-Note since Death-note was a Mystery thriller and Bakuman is comedy drama so I noticed that in Bakuman they tend to use a lot of dramatic tone backgrounds.
I'm curious why you say that he can draw from memory instead of draw from his imagination , do manga typically require to use scenes that actually exist?
I like doing perspective and environments but usually I don't keep a ruler handy so while the vanishing points help I end up eyeballing it anyway
I think we all have regrets in regards to the education about something, or at least I know I do so I empathize (stuff like 'why didn't you study Zbrush earlier, or why didn't you think doing art was a valid profession when you were in highschool) in the end though I think you used the time to master or realize other stuff that maybe that you otherwise wouldn't so its not all lost I think..
And speaking of Bakuman, I sometimes wonder how accurate are they about how they portray the Manga industry? the plot arc they had before last seemed like real nonsense.
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OgawaBurukku In reply to Ori-ConceptArts [2012-01-14 07:36:55 +0000 UTC]
The sequence I am mainly referring to is the villainess's song, I think it was called "Mother Knows Best". It was so boring and so badly done, and it tried to have a lot of the same fluid movement Disney classics had but this had none of that. I think the Shrek movies suffer from it too-- I don't get their appeal at all, and I think the animation is horrible and some of the jokes die from the stiff expressions of some of the characters.
I know 2D animators have in-betweeners and such after the key poses have been drawn by the supervising animator on a character, etc etc, but that's still someone doing the individual line work. With a computer it's more like a very fancy form of claymation. A lot of times they just move puppets around a digital stage. I'm not overly familiar with 3D animation, since I studied originally to do something in 2D animation, but I don't think it's quite the same. It can do a lot of things arguably better, like backgrounds for live action movies or crowd scenes, machinery, etc. But for me personally I'd rather see an animated movie fairy tale or animal movie done in 2D, where organic lines work better.
Personally I think it's a waste of an amazing art team-- I think Obata and his art team are too talented to be doing Bakuman, and he has really toned down his skills since the first volume. The first volume is gorgeous, but the most recent volumes have really uninspired artwork. I don't even really know why I still buy the volumes, since the story and characters don't interest me anymore, and haven't since maybe Vol. 7 or so. Most weekly manga assistants worth their paychecks almost have to draw from memory/their imagination because researching images takes almost as much time as drawing sometimes, and time is something they don't have. I know they probably use these catalogs that have stock photos of buildings, etc for things they can't just draw from imagination (I have them too), but one guy I worked for drew from his imagination and rarely used photo references if he could avoid it. Most books I buy say once you master perspective you can draw town scenes without using references and so on.
Which plot arc do you mean? The guy who used ideas from people online? Bakuman is... well... some of it is very realistic, but some of it is pretty stupid. For one thing, mangaka don't really have friends, especially if they are successful, and they don't necessarily buddy-buddy with other mangaka because they're competition! Especially when they are working on the same magazine. The only mangaka I know of who seems to have free time is Konomi from Prince Of Tennis, but I am not sure what he even does. He has a ton of assistants, wears expensive clothing, goes on talk shows, and tours around with his PoT musicals. Does he even work?? I don't know. But one guy I worked for was pretty much always working and most of his social life seemed tied to the internet or gaming, and the other guy I worked for got divorced and dumped by another woman all because he was too busy working on manga to spend enough time with them. And he was a great guy, but he never slept and sometimes he was a wreck because he'd get stuck on an idea and wouldn't rest until he thought of something. Bakuman makes it seem way way too easy, I think. Saikou learns to draw manga-styled art in a matter of months and then makes his debut? Okay... right. I also find it hard to believe that publishers nurture new talent the way they do in this manga. Aoi doesn't read boys manga and doesn't draw too well at the beginning, and yet JUMP supports her for at least three series. "She doesn't draw too well, so let's just get her good assistants". Or what's her name, Shuujin's rival... she doesn't even read manga yet she becomes a manga author doing something like Pokemon. I don't care how talented you are, you can't just magically be a best-selling mangaka on a whim! And it seems to happen all the time in these chapters. You never see the character who has potential but constantly gets pushed aside in favor of something that is already popular, like another ninja series or another pirate series, etc. You never see characters really struggling. Characters that fail are always big jerks, and if any of the "good" characters fail they always get right back on top with a new series.
Some stuff is accurate. Your success can be based on how well you were paired up with an editor, for example. My favorite part of the series was when Miura was their editor, because that editor was EXACTLY like my editor at Shounen Magazine. He was young and didn't really have a clue and tried to get me to do what HE liked, rather than what I was good at. Miura liked gag manga, so he pushed the two main characters to do a gag manga, which was really hard for them to do because they are more skilled at mystery-type stories. I think once they got back together with Hattori is when I lost interest in the manga, because then it was all "let's all be successful mangaka with an anime series for true love weeee". I don't even like most characters in the series... I only like Eiji and Hiramaru-- I like Eiji because he really loves what he does and doesn't think much of anything else (though I can't imagine anyone being like him and doing two weekly series at once) and isn't concerned with popularity or getting an anime, etc. I like Hiramaru because he is the opposite-- he doesn't want to be a mangaka but he keeps getting sucked into the work, and despite his feelings he's actually brilliant. I didn't like him at first, but he sure grew on me. When he gets depressed and is able to come up with funny stories reminds me of me a bit-- when I'm really happy and have lots of friends, I'm not very creative. I do better when I'm alone or sad or frustrated.
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Ori-ConceptArts In reply to OgawaBurukku [2012-01-14 19:01:52 +0000 UTC]
Well as someone who is doing both 2d and 3d animation I can tell you that it is in fact the same process with the exception of having computer interpolation to do the inbetweens for 3d though you can also make them manually for better animation depending on what you want, I have a colleague who loves animation and he doesn't take advantage of the computer interpolation for this reason.
3d Also has the option for motion capture which is what they use a lot in movies like Shrek for facial animations and sometimes also full body movement, and while it seems pretty straightforward and delivers more realistic results it also requires some tweaking to make it work.
Anyway 3d seems real easy from the outside but its really not so and creating elaborate objects and characters still requires strong traditional arts foundation.
About Obata-sensei, I think I see a pattern in Death Note and Bakuman being both very fiction drama oriented and I could be wrong but the only step up for him would be doing a fantasy or sci-fi battle manga , The good thing about Bakuman is that it lets him briefly explore different styles and themes within the manga (as in some of the manga pages the mangaka in the manga suppousdly make) and I think it might be fun for him.
I think the guy getting his ideas from internet buddies was at least interesting as a dramatic question, its the arc after that when the same guy returns with a company to make manga names that was really stupid and made no sense (because with that kind of money and workforce that guy could open his own magazine) so that was really stupid IMO and very unbelievable in a story that relays on at least appearing believable.
As for the fake friendship in manga vs hateful competition in the real world I read it is a common theme in Japanese society, I know that here they also have that to some extent, mostly in the music industry but also in the CGI industries to some extent but probably less because people usually collaborate to create Movies or PC games so in the end people have to be team players, I just never encountered it personally cause all of my classmates were really supportive and friendly of each other, in a way I think it would have been more healthy if there was a bit more competitiveness during the study but still to have no friends and hatred is kind of sad and now I guess I understand why many mangaka overplay that friendship theme to compensate.
And Yeah CG people who are active tend to be like Mangaka in getting no sleep and being busy it doesn't matter if they do 3d , 2d or 2.5d, it never really gets easy, in that sense starting a dating site for creative people might not be such a bad idea(since all of them barely have time to do actual dating), I mean you can't really get dumped because of work if your partner is also a CG workaholic right?
I think I identify most with Hiramaru of all the Bakuman characters, since he went into manga from a highly demanding job without realizing the lifestyle it makes thinking he just gets to create the things he love and though he really wants to kick back and relax he keeps doing it in part for the wrong motivations of hoping to get with girls and not to turn into Nakai #2 so I think its well written character.
I could be wrong but I think artists thrive on dark emotions somehow because I'm the same way as sad as it is to say, or maybe that it is that this state causes to just stop at nothing and cast everything onto the canvas so to say, or could be because of doing so being so therapeutic, hard to explain it.
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OgawaBurukku In reply to Ori-ConceptArts [2012-01-17 07:34:48 +0000 UTC]
Sorry for the delay. I wanted to read Bakuman vol 16 before I answered.
Obata actually DID do a fantasy right before he started Bakuman, and it only lasted four volumes. The art was great, but the main character was downright disturbing. The manga is Blue Dragon Ral Gard or something... I think it had an English language release but it got cancelled within a year in Jump. I am not sure if Obata did the scenarios based off the original stories or if someone else did the writing, but if it's him writing then he's not only a bit of a perv, he lacks some real story sense. Which is too bad, since the concept is fantastic.
He did a cyborg story in the early nineties about a cyborg grandpa, so there's your sci-fi. I've never read it, though.
You must be reading the story as it comes out in Jump. I only read the graphic novels because I no longer buy the magazine weekly, and vol 16 leaves off with the veteran mangaka making their comebacks with new manga and with Nanamine (or whatever his name us) still just the mystery guy on the phone. The fact that he goes this far for revenge is stupid, yeah. Where does he get the money to do this stuff? He's like twenty...
And you know, the age thing is absolutely true. They say if you are over thirty it is nearly impossible to debut. I am 28 and I have been told I am too old, which is why I've been doing events and such instead. I seem to be selling all right, despite my age...
I thought the story with Iwase was pointless. Why is she even still in this manga? She does nothing... and she's not likeable at all.
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Ori-ConceptArts In reply to OgawaBurukku [2012-01-17 11:59:57 +0000 UTC]
According to wikipedia only Cyborg Jii-chan G is Obata's Story+Art the rest is collab with other authors, its kind of strange that they do Bakuman but according to Obata and Ohba they are not really that kind of team.
I only read it on the web since I don't get Jump in my country, Nanamine gets the money from his billionaire dad supposedly which is also retarded since people don't become billionaires by making bad investments.
I really don't see the rational behind age there , I mean I get that people have more lifetime to do these things if they are younger but as far as Story and Art go it don't think make much of a difference unless a person tries to do a story around the new generation. but Obata is 42 already (not sure how old Ohba is but if he is Hiroshi Gamo then he is also well above 40) and he does Bakuman, a moderan day manga about two teenagers so... why does it really matter if what a person does is his debut or not if its also good? I mean publicity wise if its there and its good people will read it even if someone assumes a fake pen name.
Iwase is a rival they bring back every now and then for Shuujin related plots, and to make the fact that Niizuma-sensei does two stories at once seem slightly more plausible.(which it still isn't really)
The way I see it She and Nakai-san represent the characters to demonstrate the unwise scenarios in being a mangaka , at least romantically (Stalking the author that work with you, trying to hook up with the editor, being an inconsiderate smelly hamster that eats pizza, being a condescending author and so on...)
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OgawaBurukku In reply to Ori-ConceptArts [2012-01-17 15:02:59 +0000 UTC]
They say that if you are too old you are too old to know what kids today like. I kind of get what they are saying, but I don't think that young artists are necessarily the best. I am a MUCH better artist than I was just two years ago, and I'm ten times the artist I was when I was twenty. Plus, younger artists fresh out of high school don't have much life experience yet, and I think that's one reason manga tends to repeat the same ideas over and over, because younger authors only know what they've seen in manga and anime. I don't think there is a single manga I read and really enjoy that is by a mangaka who is younger than me, though I know a lot of new manga these days is by people 21-25. I get frustrated because the other idea behind having younger artists is the idea that you can train/develop them. I am still growing as an artist, my style changes and I improve every year, so I don't think it's fair to say at 28 I'm not going to get any better and to not even take a chance on me.
Iwase isn't really a rival for Shuujin anymore, though. She was clever only in the beginning-- they say over and over that + Natural sells because of Eiji's art, not her storytelling.
I think bringing romance into a mangaka's life is kind of stupid. It's not a very "romantic" atmosphere-- you don't meet many people because you are busy and, to be honest, most professional mangaka aren't as attractive as they are in Bakuman, haha. And I think I mentioned this, but one guy I worked for had a marriage fall apart because of his manga and got dumped by a girlfriend because he couldn't spend enough time with her, thanks to working all the time. I wish the manga would focus on storytelling and character development, because that is SOOOO important for manga, but I don't think Ooba is very good at developing characters (especially female characters) so maybe that's why they never mention it.
Now that Eiji has revealed which manga he will terminate, I have kind of lost interest in the story. Since he was introduced in vol. 2 I've been waiting to see what he'd do when he reached #1, and they have him end his OWN series? I am pretty sure when they had Eiji say that in vol. 2 Ooba and Obata had no idea what they were going to have him do. And you know what? They never tell us what manga takes first place now that Crow has ended! I honestly don't know if I'll buy the next volume. I don't really like Bakuman anymore, and the art is really bad now...
On the back insert under Obata's name, he said "I get more fired up drawing the manga the characters make than the actual Bakuman manga." And you know what? I believe it. Compare the first two chapters' art to newer chapters and it's totally different. His art isn't nearly as strong as it was in early chapters. I think they should just end Bakuman and let him draw something else.
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OgawaBurukku In reply to Ori-ConceptArts [2012-01-19 03:23:49 +0000 UTC]
Shoujo is definitely NOT my goal-- it's very different from what I do and I never ever read it. But I could probably do whatever I felt like if I was a popular mangaka-- Yuu Watase, who did Fushigi Yuugi and a few other shoujo manga series, one day decided she wanted to do a shounen series and they let her because she's Yuu Watase. Shounen's not really her thing though, and it really reads more like a girl's manga than one for boys. I think her female readers must buy it, though, because it's still in publication despite not being interesting since like the fourth volume. But she's got several best-sellers under her belt, so..... Same with Clamp. I don't think they've had anything really good in ten years (I never read xXxHolic, though) and their new series Gate 21 sucks and has had bad reviews, but they are Clamp, they can do what they feel like. They jump from genre to genre all the time just because they can.
Mangaka never get to run around and see the sun, so we are all either pasty and fat or pasty and thin, and malnourished either way, heh.
Bakuman just needs to understand that the polls are not the only thing interesting about making manga. In fact, I find the popularity stuff the LEAST interesting part. I am afraid they are going to make another manga after PCP instead of just give PCP an anime, but I think I'm going to stop buying the manga and just wait and see when it ends. I want it to be over with so Obata can take a break and start a new series fully refreshed, because he is clearly not doing so well. Last year he even took a break and let his assistants draw a chapter, and it was noticeably bad. I heard he was hospitalized, but there is no official report. I don't think Ooba should be doing manga for a while... he/she isn't very good, in my opinion. Death Note started out great but after L died it got pretty bad, and Ooba NEVER develops characters. They have a habit of introducing new characters and then dropping them, and did that in both Death Note and Bakuman.
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OgawaBurukku In reply to Ori-ConceptArts [2012-01-19 04:18:08 +0000 UTC]
Pfft, no. When I was an assistant I sometimes had to order food or buy food but it was always cup noodles, pizza, or curry.
I'm half Iranian, and when I was little I was a dark little kiddo because I played outside all the time. Now I rarely go outside for long and I'm pretty white because of it. I think my skin now actually reflects light, heh.
I think killing characters is totally fine-- I just don't like characters being introduced and then doing nothing. Like Matt in Death Note. He was a cool looking character, but died before he did much.
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Ori-ConceptArts In reply to OgawaBurukku [2012-01-19 05:32:55 +0000 UTC]
All that unhealthy food, makes me think that having a takeway that is healthy and nutritious might actually sell really well over there. No wonder Obata got hospitalized if he went on like that.
I find that since moving to the city I go outside far less, usually to do shopping or take the bus but its not really a place to take a walk with all the cars and people passing by smoking.
I don't know,right now for some reason I kind of wish Psycho would have a heart attack or nose bleed to death at the end when he is reunited with Azuki again, like poetic justice of him following in his uncle's footsteps that way.
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OgawaBurukku In reply to Ori-ConceptArts [2012-01-21 04:47:42 +0000 UTC]
I agree, that's totally how the manga should go down, hahaha. I actually thought it would be cool to see them fail, since I don't think they do manga for the right reasons.
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OgawaBurukku In reply to Ori-ConceptArts [2012-01-25 04:11:36 +0000 UTC]
Sorry for the late response!
For me, Shuujin does it for the right reasons-- he loves telling stories, reading, manga, so he wants to be a mangaka for those reasons. If you want to be a mangaka, you have to like telling stories, you have to want to create memorable characters, you have to be creative, and on the art side you have to like telling stories through art, etc. I don't really care if I ever become a rich mangaka, but I would like to be able to make a living off of my work-- not because I want the money, but because I want to be able to keep telling stories and coming up with characters and drawing these environments, etc. I want to be challenged and I want to hear feedback, and you can't really do that as well when it's just a hobby, mostly because you can't devote as much time to it when you have another job.
I think a lot of anime and manga fans say "Oh, I want to be a mangaka, that would be cool" because it sounds like fun. It's NOT fun (not all the time, anyway). That's where a hobby and a job differ. When I draw fan art, that's fun. When I write a chapter in my story, that's fun (the only real reason I am putting my story into a book format before I draw it instead of a script format is because I like creative writing). It is NOT fun when I stay up all night to make a deadline. It is NOT fun when I go to an editor and get told my work is "crap". It is not fun to have to read perspective books and stare at a page all day going "Why don't these lines look right?" Hand cramps and carpal tunnel syndrome suck. Not knowing how much money a comic , and basically 1-3 months' worth of hard work, will bring in sucks. It's all part of the job, though.
People wanting to jump right to having their characters animated often don't realize there's so so so much before that that needs to happen, so I get emails all the time from people saying "I want to have an anime of my characters so I am going to Japan next summer". It's NOT THAT EASY. Doing manga is NOT an easy job. You have to be willing to give up a social life and you have to be willing to lower your pride and take the hits from editors and fans, and you have to be willing to be very very poor before you start making money. With Bakuman, Saikou and Shuujin start out as kids and have two major advantages; they still live with their parents and they have a work area with all the tools they need for making manga already available. In other words, they don't lose a DIME, and they aren't really risking anything but their grades. I don't have a separate apartment to work at because I can barely afford the one I live in! Manga supplies are EXPENSIVE. Ink nibs alone can cost $30, and you go through those pretty fast. Screen tone is usually $2 a page, and sometimes one sheet of screen tone will need to cover a full page of manga. The paper and ink isn't so bad, but it can be hard to find the good stuff (even online). You never once in the series see Shuujin and Saikou go out for supplies because Saikou's uncle leaves them all they need in the beginning.
I think that's why I've grown to kind of hate Bakuman. They never struggled to get where they are, and I think because of that they don't appreciate what it's like being serialized and financially secure. They always want the next best thing, regardless of their fans and regardless of their success. For Saikou I always feel like his goals don't lie in manga, that he really just wants Azuki, and that drives me nuts. I would never draw manga to impress a guy I liked... I would never make a major decision like that based on having a crush on someone. I draw because I love to tell stories and I love designing characters, and because I consider myself good at it. Maybe not good enough, but someday I will be, even if it means right now I have to live off canned foods and hope I can scrape up enough to pay rent. That's how much I want to do this, and I am not the only would-be mangaka who has made sacrifices to do this.
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Ori-ConceptArts In reply to OgawaBurukku [2012-01-25 06:13:05 +0000 UTC]
I can relate because I think whether you are doing Comics,Manga,illustration,3d, post production or animation all of these involve immense amount of work and absolute dedication of one's time that many people on the outside(the fans and viewers) do not even begin to realize, and I know from what you said about Tangled, you may think 3d or computers make it easier but the truth is that while they are similar in some respects they do have their own set of challenges.
I think if its Manga or 3d animation, pros who have to live with it for many years often make themselves time-saving shortcuts to fall back on if the going gets really rough: if its saving a sheet of illustrations of their character in generic poses or a library of background illustrations they can infrequently trace. (Bakuman says that in that hateful 5th issue where they explore their uncle's apartment so I assume Obata-sensei 'shortcuts' in much the same way when it comes to backgrounds).
I think you are good at it Ogawa-sensei, with room for improvement of course, but you need to cheat more instead of always focusing on creating Everything from scratch, that way you have more time to focus on the important stuff.
Damn, those are indeed some expensive supplies , these prices apply even with large bulk orders? if so I think its more cost effective to use GIMP(GNU Image Manipulation program)to do the tones in that case, unless you are absolutely anti computers.
Bakuman doesn't really keep it real on the financials because it looks like Ohba-sensei thinks its OK to go all hollywood in a story instead of keeping it real and I kind of hate that stuff because I like to make believable stories instead of assuming that the audience is made of stupid teens who won't care anyway.(I guess some of them don't take it that serious but still)
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OgawaBurukku In reply to Ori-ConceptArts [2012-01-27 04:47:31 +0000 UTC]
Tangled had its own set of problems, yeah. I said CG animation was easier, but what I meant was you don't have to redraw things over and over, but it does seem there are all-new problems. I saw the making of and was surprised how hard it was to control the hair, when in hand-drawn animation that WOULD be easier.
If you can't do everything by hand, a lot of publishers won't hire you. Jump and Shounen Magazine are definitely that way. The idea is, once you get popular you can do things however way you want, but when you start out you need the basics... That is what I've been TOLD, but I have read a lot of manga where the artist clearly didn't have an understanding of anatomy and used a computer to lazily draw backgrounds. So I don't know. I'd prefer to know how to do it by hand just in case.
I don't think I've ever bought any supplies in bulk and it's been cheaper... in America that was a common concept, but here you don't see things being sold in bulk too often. Usually if you buy in bulk you only save maybe a buck or two. Bakuman would be a much more interesting manga if characters had financial strife.
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Ori-ConceptArts In reply to OgawaBurukku [2012-01-27 07:01:44 +0000 UTC]
I can understand JUMP wanting to go about it that way because traditional skills are important and yet I can't really bring myself to read manga like One Piece or Toriko because how bad the Anatomy or Design is.(The latter has ok anatomy but the grotesque style and boring story made me really curious why people find it so great)
So I'm guessing they do not do so because of the end product but more to balance the competition among-st the newcomers by limiting them to very basic tools, however that means that mangaka are measured by how fast they work first and Art style + storytelling later, also it means that mangaka with more money to hire more assistants have a higher chance of getting in.
So it may be also a play to keep more traditional assistants in the game.
And yeah someone should tell them about finance, because I think they need to have at least one starving Mangaka in that series, even if not the protagonist. I wonder who their editor is.
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OgawaBurukku In reply to Ori-ConceptArts [2012-01-27 07:56:31 +0000 UTC]
One Piece appeals to Dragonball fans, I guess. I never much liked Toriyama's art after the DB kids grew up, and I don't really like the art in One Piece for the same reason. The adult characters are awkward looking... Both mangaka have good pacing and storytelling, though. Well, to a point. Oda's previous one-shots were all gag manga and most were enjoyable, but his layouts and backgrounds, inking, and effects were baaaaad. But he was still like seventeen when he debuted, and he got better. I can't stand his art long-term, though, so I never got into One Piece, even if it had a strong start. Toriko... I hate Toriko. Hate it. Then I found out the mangaka paid a 16 year old girl to have sex with him and I am basically boycotting it and have stopped buying Jump. I cannot believe they would give that kind of sleazeball a second chance, but welcome to Japan, I guess. I think his art is shit and when I recently found out about his arrest that really made me hate Toriko and Jump. I have absolutely no idea why people like it, though.
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Ori-ConceptArts In reply to OgawaBurukku [2012-01-27 08:16:01 +0000 UTC]
Yeah I'm not too surprised that guy is child molester, his artstyle is disgusting in a really bad way and yet he has an Anime and even OVA collab with One Piece for the debut(They say the author of Toriko is friends with Oda-sensei so I wonder how that works out with the former being a pedophile).
I really don't understand how Jump readers and Jump put up with the guy being a pedophile? because it is implied that Jump never really separate the art from the artist (i.e saying that a Gaijin can't make manga for japanese public).
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OgawaBurukku In reply to Ori-ConceptArts [2012-01-27 08:25:02 +0000 UTC]
Half the men in Japan are pedophiles so... I don't know. Maybe the eitors used the same dating site...
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Ori-ConceptArts In reply to OgawaBurukku [2012-01-27 14:47:36 +0000 UTC]
That is kind of scary? is that why seinen manga often focus on underage protagonists?
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Ori-ConceptArts In reply to Ori-ConceptArts [2012-01-13 01:25:42 +0000 UTC]
However I should add that 3d modelling does take time ,especially if you are unpracticed, with the shortcut coming mainly from re-usability, since once you build a room and props you can render them from any angle you want and just trace over it so it fits with the 2d style.
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Chocobosh [2012-01-12 10:25:54 +0000 UTC]
"Come on, Morita!"
For some reason that line really cracked me up.
Maybe it's bc it's the one English phrase Japanese ppl love
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OgawaBurukku In reply to Chocobosh [2012-01-12 12:15:22 +0000 UTC]
Kamon! I don't get why they are so fond of it.
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OgawaBurukku In reply to ArtofSyo [2012-01-12 07:16:38 +0000 UTC]
Thank you so much! I am seriously considering going digital, though... but what on earth is raidograph?
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