SimonGannon In reply to eliotie [2013-01-28 16:52:30 +0000 UTC]

Awesome! Thanks for thinking of me -- I'mma have to think about these they're hard XD;;;;;

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eliotie In reply to SimonGannon [2013-01-28 20:26:59 +0000 UTC]

So I've been told by the few people who started doing it xD
Oh, also, happy early birthday! (I know it's tomorrow, but I didn't want to miss it )

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SimonGannon In reply to zero-damage [2012-10-20 15:38:56 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for the big compliment!!
I've been reading "Shortest Distance!" --Actually, reads it to me while I play videogames... We're both enjoying it! Thanks so much for the watch! We're not all the way through it yet, but we'll get there. :3 Do you plan on updating on dA at all, or should we be checking Fanfiction.net?

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zero-damage In reply to SimonGannon [2012-10-21 15:51:13 +0000 UTC]

Thanks! Super glad you're enjoying it Updates will be on fanfiction.net for now. DA and Tumblr are not very effective for chaptered stories.

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SimonGannon In reply to Javachip67 [2012-10-11 15:53:25 +0000 UTC]

Haha, you sure do :3! Thanks for watching!
Hope I pull out some stuff that you enjoy!

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SimonGannon In reply to TatsumiKanji [2012-09-28 18:02:20 +0000 UTC]

Oh hey!! Woot! Two watches for the price of one! Haha!
I do remember you! But I might be blending several people together now, I'm really bad with names and faces! - but I remember your name for sure
Thanks for the continued support!! It's really appreciated! I'm on a Kanji kick! I'm currently working on some game art I can't post, but my spare time will probably be spent drawing Kanji as my newest model for practicing!

I didn't think so at first, because superficially there's very little resemblance, but I was actually a lot like him in high school. I think I still have some of those problems XP At least I'm not wearing ear cuffs and chains because I think it makes me look badass. (I think it had the opposite effect on me anyway <_<;; I am tiny. I was probably also wearing them with sweaters, so I dunno. I think 15 year olds have pretty bad judgement, no offense to anyone. Just, when you think back on it when you're older, you're like ...what? Why was I doing that? I didn't really need to go that far...? Buh...? It's hard to remember what it's like, because it's so radically different.) That's why I love Persona4 so much. I think it manages to embody that. It's cool that it's Shin Megami and stuff, but it's pretty great literature, at least for videogames! That's really why it's so popular. It's real, and speaks to people. It created a resonance and created a community that 3 didn't manage! Success!

I wish I'd had this game when I was younger. I wonder if it would have changed something...?

Thanks for the watch, woot!!

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SimonGannon In reply to HedgehogBeeblebrox [2012-09-25 04:34:19 +0000 UTC]

My pleasure!

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SimonGannon In reply to Cehem [2012-08-01 04:16:18 +0000 UTC]

Hi! I run MUSEbasement, so we're at 265 and 266, which is actually in the guest area. :KrisRix: is also an official current member. As unlikely as it seems I don't think my other staff actually have dA accounts. o. o

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Cehem In reply to SimonGannon [2012-08-01 07:15:29 +0000 UTC]

Thank for the answer.

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SimonGannon In reply to JaayNo [2011-02-02 05:58:01 +0000 UTC]

Thanks! I can`t believe I actually had to look up Starblazers. I watched a different anime by Leiji, Albator (which is known as Captain Harlock to everyone else) along with lots of french kids in the early 80`s, in France and in Quebec, because my parents would let me watch all the cartoons I wanted if they were french ones! Most 'french cartoons' back then were actually Japanese. My parents thought they were French productions, probably thinking the animation was outsourced, but it turns out my childhood was filled with anime, long before I discovered modern anime on my own in the late ninties. What I long called a `french`style, (and oddly, no one I`d ever spoken to ever even disagreed) was actually 70`s anime style, which I've taken to liking more and more as the animation industry worldwide gets cleaner and cleaner with more and more 'appealing' type characters, and streamlined, less-'dateable' designs.

The music is now ultra nostalgic to me (and probably many french nearing or in their thirties), and they cut a LOT less plot and visuals than the english/american imports have. There was some deep stuff, and there was one show that always made my mother cry. (I'm pretty sure it was Belle et Sebastien, which was, as far as I can tell, about the hardships of an orphan boy in the Alps?).

I think I have been rather firmly imprinted, the way a lot of other kids are burned-in with Disney, Marvel/DC, or recently, modern anime.

[link]
[link]

and one of my all-time favorites:
[link]
The music in this one was great throughout, and when I rewatched it, I was surprised to note its quality. Looking up other pieces, this level of quality was pretty standard. It wasn't by any means high-budget, but it took some competancy, and attention to detail. TV-budget anime today tends to feel a lot more static, and hangs straight and still on the screen.

And I thought I was just remembering old animation as better than it was :/

It's totally (maybe) not fair to pick on gundam seed but it was the most striking example of what i'm talking about I've actually watched in recent memory, i picked something at random that seemed to have humans in it. I don't watch a lot of anime these days and I don't want to pick something I never even tried to watch, that's just not fair

Starting with the decline of Disney and the quality of anime as the OVA industry stalled I've really started to pick at animation It's a beautiful art and it's losing momentum and finesse every year :/

I walked out of The Princess and the Frog really disheartened, for example, with the exception of the bad guy - who was totally animated by an old expert, the rest looked like students who did a very good job reading and understanding the principals discovered by guys like Walt Stanchfield in the golden age, but it just lacked the -life-. I went back to my books to try to find what was missing, but it just has to be between the mind and the paper:

[link]

SORRY YOU TOTALLY GOT ME TALKING ABOUT ANIMATION AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED LOL XD;;;;

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JaayNo In reply to SimonGannon [2011-02-02 13:07:28 +0000 UTC]

LMAO NO! I LOVE IT!!! xD Now when I write an essay geeking out on animation I know you'll read it lmao! But I'll still control myself lol.

That's super interesting because it was the same for me growing up in Barbados, we had shows like G-Force (Gatchaman) and I just figured it was old American animation, never occurred to me that it was 70s anime until the mid to late 90s when I was "introduced" to anime through the Fatal Fury OVAs, Ghost in the Shell, Ninja Scroll and Akira. I can definitely see the 70s anime influence in your style, but I couldn't place it at the time so I was just like "duuurrr... Starblazers!" lol. I know of Harlock too though! Just not as familiar with it.

Thanks for showing me Bell et Sebastien; I've never seen that before. I have however seen that one about the golden cities, waaaaay back when... It's English name is totally escaping me, but you're right; the animation quality is amazing, especially for a series, it's almost Miyazaki-esque. Don't worry, as an actual Gundam fan I was disappointed with Gundam Seed's art and animation too actually lol. But if you want to see some truly spectacular Gundam animation, I'd suggest you check out 0083 Stardust Memory from the 80s and more recently the Gundam Unicorn OVA is tres impressive.

[link]
[link]

I'm glad someone else finally agrees with me about Princess and the Frog! And I soooo wanted to love it because (not to be a stereotype but,) I'm black! lol So I was pretty excited and I agree the villain animation is great, but the rest is so so and there's really nothing wrong with it per say, it just doesn't grab you. It also kind of failed for me on a storytelling and emotional level as there's nothing in it on the plateau of that scene from Beauty and the Beast that you posted by Glen Keane. Also why couldn't the prince be black too? Why does he have to be of "nondescript race"? I guess if he were black they wouldn't have been able to give him swishy hair and "classically handsome" looks... but I digress... lol I did still enjoy the film but was just slightly let down. I also heard that for the first time in Disney's history most of the animation was actually outsourced to Korea, so that may have been part of the whole animation quality thing.

Anyway, I said I'd hold back but I wrote an essay too lmao. Yours was a fun read though. xD

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SimonGannon In reply to JaayNo [2011-02-03 04:38:14 +0000 UTC]

0080 is one of my favorites actually, and Unicorn is looking great so far!! I felt bad picking on Gundam, but SEED was pretty surprising when I saw it.

I was like aauuugg bllbllblb when I saw Audry's hair because I was in the middle of scraping for character design ideas for the visual novel I'm doing (what all the pilots are for) and now I couldn't do any woman-regents or anything like that. Daaarrr I'm not a good designer, it's tough for me to come up with interesting things like that XP I like straight hair, because it cuts into such crisp angles, and curves can be very fickle on you if you're not careful. The main character's design is actually modified from a different story I'm working on (Adrien in the other drawings) because the writer saw some concept art for him and told me only he could be the star Now I've got two very different Adriens, which I'm glad for because that hair is fun to draw - if a little terrifying to get right. It has such wild folds that you can do it wrong (and clip into his head) easily if you're not planning things well.



Yeah, at first I really liked the 'nondescript' race thing many creators were doing, but now it's getting sort of weird. People are actually diverse, not homogenous, as much as we seem to want to pretend? Has our fear of racism made us fear acknowledging race and how people around us are different than us? Is that still somehow not okay? Jeez.

As a note about the 'handsomeness' factor, I used to hate the beast's human form. I think in retrospect, given what Glen Keane was going for as far as what he was taking in from his museum visits, it's really supposed to be like a sculpture come to life, but man, there was something much more ...attractive??? to his beast form. Not sure how to put it I think I mean just that. Attractive, something that pulls you to look, and doesn't repulse you to regard. Despite his nubby fangs and underbite, you can look at his face a long time without feeling weird. Human beast looks a little weird. He's really stylized (ethnic?) - which I should appreciate, but is so odd next to the other characters who are so cartoony and much less chiseled He has so much more FACE

Anyway, regarding Princess and the Frog, darn there are some really ludicrously good looking black dudes out there, I could even say 'classic' really. Everyone knows what that looks like. Maybe it's just too hard to draw so many distinguishing features, when white cartoons (cartoons who are white) are so established. Then =everyone's= gotta have distinguishing features and then it becomes a clusterf**k of lines which isn't the disney style - or change the style to simplify everyone the =same way=, which isn't disney style either. It's some other style.

My vote, walking out, was that the movie should have been done entirely like this: [link] this was definitely the best part of the movie, and the most vibrant and creative. Also, the most 'black', since historically jazz was very hip at the time, and all that, and that there is some jazz poster images. It resonates culturally and historically and was well done to boot - everything moved a lot more and was vibrant, reminiscent (in both meaning and visually) of 'I just can't wait to be king'.

Almost every scene and song in the movie is cut and pasted from other Disney movies, an almost desperate attempt to ensure that it 'felt' like a Disney movie. It was a downer that the confidence was gone. It was a double downer that nobody seemed to even notice. It's not that it wasn't done creatively or well, it was just so predictable and worse - desperate. I would have enjoyed a fresh, 2-D animation that featured something that was a little different instead of the Same disney movie I've actually watched a million times by now. Treasure Planet? It was different. That did poorly at the box office though, sadly.

I find our princess looks a whole lot like jasmine - but her mom is believable, now that I look at her? Boy they tried hard to put lines that are not traditionally 'caracturish' JUST IN CASE. I have to applaud them for managing with just facial outlines. That's pretty tough in this particular artstyle.

I feel like this movie suffered from a bit of the Obama effect, where everyone was so excited and pleased that there was a black movie now that no one wanted to - or dared - say anything bad about it. Thankfully there was totally nothing -wrong- with it. Sadly, that's about it. Most previous Disney films did, at least the major ones -something- new, even if it does have a very particular feel to it (maybe in part due to the people animating it). The ballroom scene in Beauty and the Beast (at the time it was pretty awesome), or the astonishing stampede in the Lion King.


If you watch her motions at the beginning of this clip, several times she moves her arms or head, and her body doesn't move at all. That's actually so anti disney that it jumped out at me even at the time. Every line from the wrist to the ankle is normally treated as an object unto itself. If the arm moves, the entire figure moves with it, in some way or another. Stuff sticks to each other, pushes a lot, that kind of thing. I can imagine, as the mother pulls the broom from her, her arms going a lot further than they do here, making her bend over more, and then have to travel back, maybe even making a face, as the mother continues to speak. Here, the motion is discussed rationally and realistically rather than flamboyantly. If you're missing the plot (because you are just too young to understand anything or don't care, for example) then there's not much to look at or be dazzled by, when characters are delivering lines. It just wasn't very -entertaining-. Given the plot is quite simple, I think adults were probably more bored than they'd like to admit, compared to films like the Lion King, which was bright and active for little kids, and had sufficient darkness for adults - like the actually kind of shocking Nazi march. I didn't notice up until my most recent viewing. I had to wonder what my parents had thought of that! The plot is sort of ludicrously simple in that film too, but I don't think a lot of people mind all that much.
[link]
This was always my favorite disney movie, as much as Beauty and the Beast was awesome. They could never, never get away with that much violence if they were humans! In what other Disney film does a woman get backhanded so hard she flies across the room?
So it was exciting, and I happen to think animals are great and I love watching them move - they did such an excellent job convincing us they were real lions. That talked (Even the way Scar slowly sits up at the end there is wholly accurate to the animal kingdom)

Scenes in the Frog where people just aren't 'following through' enough on motions is really where the life drained out of the movie, I find. Maybe it does have something to do with korea - not the country or its skillset, but the fact that a lead artist who has been doing this for decades is not there to help a younger artist through a troublesome scene as the disney style would dictate - a style that wasn't just arbitrarily decided, but was crafted by the masters as they worked through their own problems, sketching for bambi or figuring out just how Ariel would move this way or that while totally floating in near-zero G the whole time.

Now watch how she moves in the 'poster' styled wish song. It's completely different - it isn't just the flashy style or inventiveness at work here, it's actually animated better. There's a lot of really fast cuts immediately after that and a scene change that I think disguises the difference quite a bit.

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JaayNo In reply to SimonGannon [2011-02-04 23:25:24 +0000 UTC]

I know what you mean, I'm totally not the best at design myself, but looking at other exotic cultures and the way they dress/do their hair is always a big help. lol I like Audry's design too, she's very classic Gundam. That visual novel sounds awesome, I've always wanted to do something similar myself, so I've been putting one together for a while.

I would say that the "nondescript race" thing is most likely because everyone is too careful about "racism" now, but it can totally backfire like Princess and the Frog where you could easily ask "Well... she's a black princess? Why can't she have a black prince? Is that wrong?" Not something that made me angry or anything, but it made me giggle a bit. Also I totally don't doubt the Korean skill; hell I go to SVA with tons of them and I'm NOTHING compared to their levels awesome lol, but I think you're right that it's possible they didn't have the exacting guidance of the Disney directors. What you pointed out in those scenes where some parts of the character don't move; I totally couldn't place what was wrong with the animation until you mentioned it.

The Beast is probably more "attractive" because at that point in the film you're just so used to him as a character, that I believe it may be more that you accept that form of him psychologically and then when you see his human form you're like "wait... what?!" lol.

I agree that in light of Princess and the Frog and Tangled, (which I thought was an improvement, if not by much) Disney now has to do something new to survive. To their credit though as you've mentioned, last time they tried that, they made Atlantis and Treasure Planet. Both two of my fave Disney films, but box office flops by most accounts, so I'm really confused as to what they do exactly. I guess the Broadway musical style is over in animation, but their audience totally doesn't appreciate the more mature adventure stories either sadly.

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SimonGannon In reply to JaayNo [2011-02-05 05:37:51 +0000 UTC]

naw I just liked his stupid lips better when they were beast lips. Then he was a human and had the same chiseled lips and I was like wat. I think his artstyle just doesn't match anyone else's. Man it would be neat though if everyone had the same look as he did. It's not the art that was a problem, just the fact he was so distinct. I'd have to actually check, but that's my impression of it~

Yeah, I was hyped for those, and I was the demographic, but everyone was like meh. I'm still confused about that XP

Tangled seems to have extremely competent animation by contrast? [link] It's shocking (to me), since 3D is usually worse (imo). But I've seen some really good stuff I can't fault lately. I guess the 2-D guys are working for these guys now. That's cool, so long as the art form's still around. Somebody's still gotta draw it initially, and think up the motions themselves, the characters, how they'll move. Basically, if you can animate, and your characters are cartoony from the outset, it'll be just fine. It's when we get into realism that things fall to pieces. I'm not a big fan. It's always weird looking, and that makes me not care ~.~

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JaayNo In reply to SimonGannon [2011-02-06 00:21:34 +0000 UTC]

I think that's because Tangled was very much meant to look like a "traditional" Disney film, but in 3D. I too am more a fan of 2D animation though and I definitely hope it survives theatrically so I'm looking forward to what they do next. Interesting you'd bring up that the 2D animators are basically working for the CGI guys now because Pixar in recent years have just proven that they're just better storytellers than traditional Disney (imo). Up is one of the greatest films (not just animated) ever for me, so whatever Disney 2D animates next, I'd love if Pixar's peeps just wrote it themselves lol.

As for realistic CGI I'm a sucker for that stuff so I'll have to disagree with you there lol, but I know that's mostly just me and my video game cutscene mentality. I love Square's CGI work. I think they manage to pull off realistic feel while still keeping it stylized enough to not be distracting.

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SimonGannon In reply to JaayNo [2011-02-06 04:24:02 +0000 UTC]

I think Pixar's great, and I think you're right about that.

Up's opening sequence with its silent telling, not to mention Wall-e which had the same silent narrative for a long time was considered impossible in modern cinema (I think due to people's attention spans or something), and nobody even noticed, because they were powerful enough.

I remember saying to someone recently, about recent games, (I think FFXIII in particular) that had CG cutscenes been so decent a decade ago [or more accurately, had people just waited until they could actually successfully show something that didn't look garbager than my imagination) I would have been fine with them this whole time. But I'd say that cutscenes looking decent has been the last couple of years, max. Maybe a bit longer if you're talking about more cartoony things.

But when I grew up in the 8 and 16 bit eras, I was fully capable of using my imagination, and cutscenes just made everything stop, showed me something ugly, and didn't let me engage the story on my own. I'll agree with you that now, they're alright, and I think people are starting to deal with the issue of the gameplay just stopping completely. We'll see, but I can't complain about the graphics anymore. They're definitely decent now And while I'm in the middle of a game, that's important :0

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JaayNo In reply to SimonGannon [2011-02-07 19:47:05 +0000 UTC]

I was still into them a decade ago lol Square had me by the balls from like... FF8... and that was what? 98, 99? Games are pretty insane now though. To me there are no "bad" looking games anymore per say, rather "passable" and "excellent" ones. Uncharted is probably the pinnacle of ingame engines at the moment and I know they'll get even better but right now I have to say I'm pretty satisfied. When I finished Uncharted 2 it was like I could just roll over and go to sleep lmao.

And yes, Final Fantasy 13 looked great, speaking of which, did you see the new Versus 13 trailer? [link] The CGI scene at the very beginning almost looks live action with its insane facial animation and hair. If the main character's hair weren't styled so "anime" it probly would've fooled me completely for a moment.

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SimonGannon In reply to JaayNo [2011-02-09 00:12:37 +0000 UTC]

I was totally blown away by that opening segment in the car. Wow! It looked just like a live action movie. There are totally actors with crazy hair like that there lolol- what I didn't like was that main girl. Omg, she was so bland it shocked me, after the hyper nrealistic opening. But that's a design problem, the cutscenes look fantastic.

As for hairstyles being too anime, I'm not even sure if that's possible anymore XD
[link]

I actually thought he looked a lot like a regular japanese movie star. In some kind of Yakuza flick or something where he gets to be shiny, of course.

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JaayNo In reply to SimonGannon [2011-02-10 16:31:30 +0000 UTC]

Y'know I never noticed it before, but that's probably a testament to how bland she actually is lol. Now that you mention it, yes, he does look like the average Japanese movie star, especially with that new live-action series they have for Sega's Yakuza games, cept his hair is blue-ish. If it were straight up black or maybe even brown then yes, they totally would've had me there.

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SimonGannon In reply to JaayNo [2011-02-12 00:49:38 +0000 UTC]

But that's what really floored me about the car scene in particular. Some of the other shots just somehow aren't as good, but that entire car thing was like

O_ o

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JaayNo In reply to SimonGannon [2011-02-12 01:43:23 +0000 UTC]

I agree, cuz the ending CGI scene, while good, wasn't "fool me into thinking it's live action" good lol.

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SimonGannon In reply to JaayNo [2011-02-12 02:06:02 +0000 UTC]

Exactly~
Still, I'm expecting quite a few more stunning movies from that game :3

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SimonGannon In reply to roll002 [2010-04-09 20:47:27 +0000 UTC]

Kris has adorable spasms sometimes. ~~

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natasmai In reply to SimonGannon [2010-07-30 01:44:44 +0000 UTC]

Oh heeeeey, I just got it too!

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roll002 In reply to SimonGannon [2010-04-09 23:18:34 +0000 UTC]

yeauh.

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SimonGannon In reply to hymakr [2010-03-12 17:18:35 +0000 UTC]

No problem. I know people love comments, but I couldn't even formulate what made me like it. I almost never can, or it's some long ridiculous list that's just weird to express

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hymakr In reply to SimonGannon [2010-03-12 20:14:53 +0000 UTC]

You add to fav my art, that is make me very happy.

Please forgive me my poor English and thank you again.

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SimonGannon In reply to hymakr [2010-03-13 01:05:42 +0000 UTC]

Not a problem at all. :3

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SimonGannon In reply to roll002 [2009-12-28 18:59:47 +0000 UTC]

Maybe for spring break or something, depending how long they let me go for? :3

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roll002 In reply to SimonGannon [2009-12-28 20:30:48 +0000 UTC]

Yeaaaa. I miss Simon!

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SimonGannon In reply to roll002 [2009-12-29 16:34:12 +0000 UTC]

Haha, I miss you too dude

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