Pain is as pain does 9:37 AM

Hell, do I ever hurt. I don't think I'll make it through the day.

It's sorta like remixing, visually 9:56 AM

Getting excited about the upcoming deadline for HNK. Drawing and inking and getting pages ready for scanning. I need to gather up all the logos I've made in SVG and send 'em to Bruce in EPS format. Cover ideas are floating around, too. I think this is gonna be good.

Still need a "lil' nurse katie" logo and maybe a "magical pill pals" logo.

I was thinking, I was gonna make a "What is OtakuHELL?" comic, but I didn't really know what or how I was gonna go about it. I thought maybe It'd have me or Katie in it, but now I'm thinking having the Magical Pill Pals do it. In a very similar vein to Don Hertzfelt's Introduction to The Animation Show. Thanks, Magical Pill Pals!

Gotta put this banner up to kawa/yoo:


http://www.interq.or.jp/asia/kwawyoo/index.html

Silly frikkin' me 1:38 PM

New rule: Don't blog angry.

Sick as a Dog 2:38 PM

I feel lousy. And I'm trying to find video of the Speed Racer X show. No luck so far...

Zinework 4:10 PM

I want to eat sushi off of naked chicks with this guy ... 5:38 PM

It took me a while, but I'm slowing figuring this out. And it's been a tough nut to crack.

I was having problems putting together the PGZine, and I wrote about it on the PsychommuSlamFest:

The core problem is the size of Tim's Travelogue. It's just too ginormassive and eats up too many pages.

So, I sat down last week and tried to figure out how to break it down and make it work.

Here's my solution:
I needed to set a page limit. What would be a good and reasonable limit? How about how many sheets of paper can be mailed at letter rate? In other words, how many sheets of 20lb bond copy paper to an ounce? The postage scale at the office tells me 6 sheets is 1 ounce. 6 times 4 zine pages a sheet makes a 24 page zine that I can drop in the mail for $.41.

Of course I didn't include the weight of a couple of staples in that. So lets say the limit is 5 sheets. So that'd make a 20 page zine.

Everybody with me so far?

My plan is I'm gonna break up Tim's Trip to fit in as many 20 page zines as it takes. As soon as I get the first 20 pages done I'm printing up a batch of zines and start working on the next 20 pages.

Of course the 20 page PGzines won't just be Tim's Trip. I'll wedge in some Stuff Good and any beer/music/resturant reviews that'll fit on a page or two.

In fact I'm almost ready to go to print with the first PGzine of 2008, thanks to Uncle Steve posting a couple of nice rants.

Crossed communications 10:21 AM

Crossy Edit00 from tohoscope on Vimeo.
Interesting, but not there, yet. Need to get the eyes blinking and the eyebrows moving, too. Working on it.

Consumed by fire 8:50 AM

Ed came home from Deep Ellum at 3:30am. The old floors of the Edstead made it sound like Ed was either tap dancing or driving a mule train through the dining room. I got up and went to the bathroom and then said good night to Ed before climbing back into slumber.

I've been a little concerned since Ed had replaced the light fixture and switch in the kitchen. I'd come back from our gone to Bruce and Mundee's Sunday meeting last week to find a strong acrid smell in the Kitchen. That smell like fried electrics and toxic plastic fumes. To make things even more alarming, when I tried to point out the odor to Ed he couldn't discern anything at all. Swell, I thought, we'll die from the lethal vapors before Ed would notice it. Maybe Ed's inability to smell could explain his cooking.

I didn't realize how heavy this weighed on my mind. Not Ed's cooking, but the possibility of a fire.

Somewhere in the night I dreamt that the Edstead burnt down. No details, I just found myself standing in the smoldering timbers of the Edstead. Everything I'd owned, everything I'd drawn or painted was gone. Even the cat was gone. I couldn't find Ed, either.

So, I got into my car and drove away. But I thought, I'm really tired, I shouldn't be driving. So I pulled the car into a driveway and fell asleep. Until somebody crashed into the back of the MyRage. I pull myself out of the car and find myself being screamed at by strangers. And that's when the police cruiser pulls up and out steps Eric Estrada. Officer Estrada comes up to me and starts asking questions, in spanish. I reach for my wallet for my Texas driver's license but it's gone. Officer Estrada continues talking in espanol and I'm getting really freaked out. A faceless crowd has gathered to watch my humiliation. I'm getting frantic, so I run.

I'm running down the streets of Arlington. The crowd has now become a pitchfork and torch baring mob, screaming for my blood. Gunshots are going off around me. As I come around an old tree I take a blast from a shotgun in the guts.

I fall down face first on to the perfectly mowed South Davis lawn. Crap, I thought, I'm dead. Just then a heavy tool box is dropped next to my head. "You saw it," a voice says, "he was stealing my property."

Officer Estrada, still speaking spanish, turns me over with his boot. The mob has gathered 'round me, closing in. Someone probes the ruins of my belly, but I can't feel it. It gets dark. Erik Estrada is now speaking latin over me. He's giving me last rites, and I chuckle at the thought.

There's a backhoe there now, tearing up the South Davis lawn. Officer Estrada oversees the whole operation as the crowd digs my grave and rolls me into it. And somehow I'm feeling at peace in the darkness.

And then the alarm goes off.

Crossy asks the question 10:26 AM

Crossy Talks from tohoscope on Vimeo.

Ok, next I'm gonna have to rebuild the Crossy digital puppet. I need to make switch files for the hands/arms and the eyes need to blink. And if I'm gonna get any mileage outta this I need to consider lip syncing for an emotional range. I need sad and angry and maybe bored or a neutral expression. Maybe I should experiment with Moho scripts, first, get to know what I can do before a complete refit.

I also need to do something longer, and add another character, and a background/foreground. You know, the stuff that'd make it more complex. Gotta aim high.

Of course all of that doesn't really matter if I don't come up with a good script to animate the damn thing with.

What I was considering is something like the Don Hertzfeldt's opening for The Animation Show. But instead of explaining what animation is I'd have Crossy explaining what AnimeHELL is. Don's animation is simple, but it's the writing that makes it work so well. I need to do that. Time to do some brainstorming.

Think, what can I do with this?

No Love for Crossy 1:24 PM

You know, I wanted to do some sorta Hell Nurse Katie Valentine thingy for today but I suck so that just didn't happen. But hey, the day ain't over yet.

Pulled PGzine off the shelf and started formating it in OpenOffice instead of Scribus. It's not as pretty, but I'll tart it up with what's at hand. Give it that old zine look I guess.

Hell Nurse Katie's Magical Pill Pals? 8:23 AM

Ah, a classic.

Crossy MOHO importing problems could be over. It looks like the best way, heck the only way that really works, is using Vector Magic to convert PNGs of my scans into EPS and SVG files. So, I'll redo the digital puppet with the Vector Magic files tonight. Maybe I can get some usable footage together. Now to get that music.

Crossy talks 3:00 PM

Worked out the Crossy lip sync. Still figuring out the fun of converting from bitmap to vector and importing into MOHO. But I'm certain I'll get it worked out at this rate. Then I can rebuild a Crossy digital puppet and start looking for sound bites to harvest. I may even have to record some Crossy dialog myself. Which means I'll have to write a script, too. I need to get back to figuring out a walk cycle for the Pill Pals, also. The more visual the better for these animations. Maybe then need to be more designed, more like eye catches.

While going through the old Maxtors I found a Studio 04C file I hadn't watched before. Makes me ashamed of what I've been doing. sigh.

Working on an idea for a bunch of HNK comics, too....

Sold 9:50 AM

Looks like I didn't get through. So, I guess I need to redouble my efforts.

On the other hand I think I did get something done on the OtakuHELL Opening animation. Looks good if I say so myself. And I've got a good start on the Crossy animation. I'm gonna use pencil to do the rough animation of things like Crossy walking and hand gesturing. Then turn those into switch layers in MOHO. Then do the final editing and compositing in something else, like AvidFreeDV or something similar.

If I can work out a deal with Michael for the music. I have no idea if that's even possible at the moment.

7 Faces of Dr. Lao - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 3:15 PM

7 Faces of Dr. Lao - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "'The world is a circus if you look at it the right way. Every time you pick up a handful of dust, and see not the dust but mystery, a marvel, there in your hand. Every time you stop and think, 'I'm alive. And being alive is fantastic.' Every time such a thing happens, you are part of the circus of Dr. Lao.'"

I'm drawing pills with happy faces 1:28 PM

And germs with big toes. Who'd a thunk it?

Sometimes it ain't there 2:07 PM

Tried to knock out a flier for ninjaHELL. Failed. It wasn't working. I don't know. Maybe It'll look better tomorrow.

OtakuHELL sells out 10:32 AM

Yeah. It's a do over.

I'm gonna say that A-Kon will be the first OtakuHELL of the year, so we've got enough time to do this. I'm gonna turn the show over to Bruce and Katie and Bob. I'll have them get me a list of videos and finds and I sit down with them and edit all their clips onto a DVD and that'll be what we'll show at A-KonHELL. Because that's what they want. So I'll give it to them.

I also think there's time to make an OtakuHELL opening like Gavv makes for his show. I'm writing it up and hope to have an animatic for the meeting on Sunday night.

OtakuHELL Opening:
30 seconds?

Anime Parody Op?
Music? What about what Michael's composition? Or maybe talk to Brian about creating something?

A story or gag to hang the images on?

Must have:
Intro Bruce
Intro Katie
Intro Danno
Intro Bob? Maybe? If Bob shows up?

And OtakuHELL Title Card
(maybe an "If there's a hell below, we're all gonna go," before the title card?)

Possibly have quick cuts of popular HELL videos drawn in a anime style and cel shaded?
Sid Davis's daughter from Live and Learn
Forklift Driver Klaus
Master Ninja Gordon
Yellow faced narrator from My Japan
Mister T from Be Somebody

A possible plot to hang the visuals on:
Somebody Goofed
A decent into an otaku hell. Visions of fat crossdressing cosplayers and annoying Narutards in a lake of fire, etc...
Danno is the ferryman at the river.
Katie is a vision of an angelic nurse.
I'll have to ask Bruce and Bob who they'd be.

Any Giant Robots?

Eh. Just a thought.

I like to start with the audio if possible, that way I could time the cutting of shots to the beat and accents of the music. But that's not possible. So start with a storyboards and flash animatic without sound.

"Ladies and Gentlemen"
"Welcome to HELL!"

"Katie"
"Bruce"
"Danno"
"Bob?"

"If there's a HELL down below,"
"We're all gonna go!"

"www.animehell.org"

And if we can get this done before ACen maybe we could put something like "Coming to A-Kon 2008" in there and send it off to Gavv to show at his HELL. And that's only a short time before A-Kon. Hmmm.

ACen-May 16th
Anime North-May 23rd
Project A-Kon-May 30th

OtakuHELL revamp and retool 12:03 PM

I had set up www.otakuhell.com to direct to the OtakuHELL blog and then apparently forgot all about it for a month or two. Yesterday I realized what I'd done and started to fix up the blog and get it ready to be the store for HNK. Much work must be done.

Need to finish two projects ASAP: Business cards for OtakuHELL and Hell Nurse Katie, and ink stamps for OtakuHELL.com and HellNurseKatie.com. I'll use the ink stamps on HELL money for cheap advertising for the sites and show. That's the plan, at least.

Set up a HNK cafepress store that needs to be dressed up and filled with stuff. Start with a HNKstore logo and work my way up. The "I heart HNK" tee for Hans is a must.

The great work ain't so great 2:02 PM

I'm trying to post to AnimeHELL at least once a week, but it's not always easy to get my shit together enough to do so. Here's hoping I can get another post together before the end of the week. And I need to backup the AnimeHELL website, again.

Ugh.

ModShopPlace Xbox Premods Covetime 11:08 AM

ModShopPlace Xbox Premods Covetime

Setting the world on fire 9:25 AM

Yeah, right.