Zub Tales

Remember when I used to post artwork on this LJ, yeesh… I do… a faint memory now. Instead you guys get lame photos of sandwiches I’ve eaten (or stories of sandwiches taken away by border crossing police), me hyping Exated, me blathering about industry crapola or me telling you how busy I am.

Okay, this week I vow – Less talky and more arty!

I drew for myself today! No, really, I swear it’s true.

Initial gesture drawing.

Tightening up the form and attitude.

Colored.

I think it’s got good attitude. I’m trying to show more life than just a cold standing pose. The turn of her left foot sideways against the ground makes me happy. It should look like attitude rather than a broken ankle, heh. Most of the clothed figures I draw from my head have extremely generic looking clothes, which is something I really want to evolve away from. I’m also pleased that the tightened up version is clear without becoming overly stiff. The pattern on the skirt turned out better than I thought it would. I think, all in all, it’s a step in the right direction.

A pretty good weekend overall… I’m feeling sick and it seems I’ll be fighting off a cold for the next couple days. Enough about that though, two excellent separate lines heard this weekend, here for you, completely out of context:

LINE #1:
Eric Kim: “It’s been so long since I’ve seen a real karate chop like that.”

LINE #2:
Gal: “At least I’m not an ass raping monkey.”

TAH DAH!

I’ll be attending this tomorrow to cheer on Ken, the writer of our Street Fighter comic series:

Triple Threat as seen in The Globe and Mail, no less.

It’s right near the Beguiling and the Bathurst Street Subway station… easy access and it should be a good time all around. If you’re in the greater Toronto area you have no reason not to be there 🙂

Now you know! If you haven’t seen me in a while and want to come by and say “Hi”… that would kick butt.

I’m not one to rant about Microsoft or Windows… generally speaking I’m a pretty happy PC-user.

I went to update my video card drivers from the Nvidia website. I figured I’d keep my drivers up to date to make the maximum use of my spiffy new hardware. The drivers installed okay, or so I thought, though I did have some trouble getting them working at first. Then when I reset my computer, Windows XP told me I’d made major changes to my configuration and that I’d have to Reactivate my copy of Windows over the phone.

I finally got a hold of a live human being and confirmed that yes, by changing my drivers I now had to reactivate Windows and that each time I change my drivers or hardware I will have to call them for a new Activation code. Unlike before, only the original install can be activated over the internet… otherwise ALL Activation must be done via the phone… for EVERY driver or hardware change I make to my machine.

Okay, that’s a little insane.

The strange part is that the woman asked me how many machines this version was installed on… I said “one” (which is the truth but they seemingly had no way of knowing that)and she gave me the Activation number. So why even do it if I can just tell them something and they give me the key anyways? It’s ridiculous, invasive and annoying.

All I did was update my drivers for crying out loud!

Going a mile a minute. When I’m not busting my butt on work stuff I’m trying to get some quiet personal time…

That said, here’s a few photos from the traditional Thanksgiving family get together up at my parent’s cottage:

The place.

The people.

My Dad prepping the boat for an outing.

The nieces and nephew – Jennifer, Justin and Angela.

Jimbo.

That’s it. More on Exalted #1 and hopefully artwork updates next time I post.

Quick updates:

– Exalted #1 is off to the printers. It hits stands at the end of the month!
Two teaser pages – one is HERE (opening with a bang) and HERE (Back Up story about the Scarlet Empress).

– Today I realized a strange difference between my morning lectures and my afternoon ones of the exact same class. The morning ones I’m doing all I can to get going that early and so I pile on the energy. The drawings I do on the board are a little rusty, but I’ve got extra enthusiasm and *zing* to my step. The students laugh quite a bit and I joke with them more. The afternoon lecture is more controlled and refined… the things I’ve said in the morning and the missteps I took are evened out and the lecture as a whole is more polished, but it’s not as spontaneous or zingy. There’s less laughter but more skill shown. Both classes seem to be picking up the meterial just fine, which is good in both cases.

– The drawing roll I’ve been on continues with artwork for Exalted 2nd Edition. I’m sinking my teeth into designing the look and feel of weapons and armor for the new edition. Using the ref material from the books but not being afraid to rework something if Brian and I decide that it looked wonky before or can be more consistent. Cool. I think you guys will be very pleased with the results. It’s a step forward for me.

– Lost episode 4 knocked me on my ass it was so good. 5 and 6 are good as well, but 4 really kicked butt. Not sure when I’ll have a chance to watch more just yet.

– I paid my income tax before the summer started… the government later sent me a notice that I had to pay more. Then they later sent another one asking for even more. Today they sent me a refund that covers pretty much what I paid them for the second request. I’m not begrudging getting money back, but the efficiency on that whole thing just seems messed up somehow.

Serenity was sharp. One review I read after I came back from seeing the film called it “the best season finale ever” which it kind of is. A big budget blow out of a season ender. As always, fun dialogue and good character dynamics.

As I expected the stakes are higher and plot threads from the TV show are wrapped up, which is gratifying and sad at the same time. I would’ve loved to have watched the story unfold bit by bit in episodes with more character time and that amazing mixture of fun and adventure they had in the series. Here we ratchet the whole thing up a few notches and darken the atmosphere of the show, which totally makes sense but does leave the Fun-Western-Sci-Fi elements a bit behind. I wanted more time to see the cast in their ‘prime’ on TV… and now with some characters dead and others changed forever, it’s not the same. I left the theatre excited and sad at the same time because of that. But if they don’t make any more movies or head back to TV (which is unbelievably unlikely) then Serenity is a decent ending to a show that deserved more.

Without the TV series to build from, the average movie goer may not get a chance to tap into the emotional core of who these characters are. There’s a lot of ground for them to cover and they spare little time before they dig into it. For a fan of the TV series, it’s a dynamic whirlwind of cool stuff and character evolutions… for someone coming in cold to it all, I’m not sure.

The show’s underdog quality and resurrection from TV cancellation is amazing, where ever it goes from here. I don’t want to go all fanboy crazy and over hype it because it is worth seeing, but not worship worthy. It’s not perfect, but it is entertaining and delivers where it counts.

I’ll be curious to see what the box office numbers are like for this weekend.

Well, following up on my previous post:

3 episodes in and Lost is excellent! Compelling characters, interesting plot threads along with little and big mysterious to unravel.

So I went and bought the Season One box set just like I said I would.

Also, episode 3 has an emotional little song that grabbed me:

Wash Away Joe Purdy I got troubles, lord, but not today ‘Cause they’re gonna wash away They’re gonna wash away And I have sins, lord, but not today ‘Cause they’re gonna wash away They’re gonna wash away And I have friends, lord, but not today ‘Cause they done washed away They done washed away Lord, I’ve been crying alone I’ve been crying alone No, no more crying alone no, no more crying here. We get lonely, lord, but not today Cause we’re gonna wash away We’re gonna wash away I got troubles, lord, but not today Cause they’re gonna wash away This old river’s gonna take them away.

The episodic format works very well with an ensemble cast like this. Little stories interwoven as the personalities of the characters emerge and conflict rears its head. People stripped down to their survival selves and the core emotions they have to confront get delved in to. Fantastic.

See, not all my entertainment related rants are negative ones. 🙂

TV executives, take note (not that any of them frequent this livejournal, but hey… it’s worth a shot).

If you want people to watch a new season of your show and you believe in the quality of what you’ve produced, make a legal good quality bit torrent video of the first three episodes available. People are digitizing the hell out of your shows anyways, so why not be proactive and make those first three crucial episodes available to hook people at the source. If it’s good, people will seek it out… seriously. They’ll buy your DVD box sets. They’ll proliferate the link and content to their friends. Viral advertising working in your favor.

I watched 3 episodes of Firefly on the web through said dubious means and went out to buy the DVDs a few days after. I just watched the first episode of Lost after many friends told me how much it kicked ass – and now I see that it does kick ass. If the next couple are as sharp as episode 1, I’ll buy the first season set no problem. The quality of the content will have won me over.

I gave up TV 3 and half years ago and have never looked back. No antenna, no cable. DVD or online is the only way I’m going to interact with TV content this side of flipping through the channels in my hotel room when I’m traveling. Mind you, watching TV on the road only serves to remind me why I gave it up in the first place.

The pirate happy people who are ripping your shows, not watching the ads and not buying the content are the sort of people who wouldn’t have spent the moolah for your DVDs anyways. You’re not losing money if they were never serious potential purchasers in the first place. If a college student with no money is watching your show and getting hooked on your brand for free but has no money to buy the DVD box set, at least you’ve potentially created a fan who will buy your content once they grow up and become financial capable of doing so.

Does that mean that I think people should pirate the heck out of everything? No.

Do I think that spreading a decent teaser is a valuable marketing tool? Hell, yes.

2-3 free episodes out of 20+ is not money lost… it’s viewers gained.

Video game demos, comic book teasers, RPG core rules… everyone else is starting to understand the potential of near-instant content delivery controlled by the consumer.

The market evolves to changing social trends and desires. Ride the wave of it or be crushed by its undertow.

In Ottawa now… getting to the plane was pretty hairy stuff. I was originally told that my flight was leaving mid-afternoon. I casually looked at my itinerary and I could’ve sworn that it said my flight was headed out at 2:30pm. So I spent yesterday morning doing some work, packing and hitting the post office to ship off packages and contracts.

Then just after noon I double checked my itinerary: Flight leaves at 1:15pm and ARRIVES in Ottawa at 2:30… oh, shit! I slammed my luggage closed, dashed out the door and probably broke the law driving to the airport. Dropping off my car at the long term parking, I sprinted into the Terminal with my heart pounding until it felt like it would explode and my back screaming at me to slow down.

But I made the flight.

All I wanted last night was to chill out. Thankfully that’s exactly what happened. A patio, a couple pints and some good company. The hotel seems pretty good and ideally I’ll have some time to explore a bit of the city. There’s a bunch of things to juggle, but I think it’ll be okay. Even this morning after JoAnn and I set up the booth, I sat and drilled out a couple quality drawings already, so that’s a good start. After learning to ignore distractions while life drawing at the Zoo in Calgary a few years ago, I’m getting pretty good at just drawing where ever I need to.

Anyways, that’s the update. This afternoon I’m hoping to take some nice photos of the area, do some more drawing and have a nice dinner. As long as I can do those three things, I’ll be pleased.