EtherFuture Designs – Hotto Suru banner

• CG Design: here
• Design Name: Hotto Suru: Yuki Nagato style
• Usage: Blog banner request for Kiba
• Approx. Perfectionist Timespan: 7-8(?) hrs.
• Software: Photoshop 7.0
• Hardware: KanaChan laptop
• Description: I was “contracted” by a fellow blogger to design a banner for him almost a month ago. Due to getting back on my feet with commuting back and forth from my job, and being dutiful with spending time with my Chessi, I just didn’t have the time or energy to get started on it right away. About a week and a half ago though, I finally did some Yuki Nagato research, as that was Kiba’s theme request, and got started on this two Sundays ago. What I didn’t expect was to find time to do the majority of this while spending a week with my lover. XD

  Well, enough with the minor details.

  This design is a very unique case. Not only is this the first banner I have made for someone else (sigs don’t count, as they are smaller), but I usually tend to do designs in one or two sittings. For this, I stopped short in working on this design so many times and spanned it over so many days that I was constantly dissatisfied with what I did when I had left it alone. However, that dissatisfaction opened up doors to other ideas that I may have overlooked if I hadn’t been working in the presence of such a beautiful woman XD

  Honestly, everything about this design was a process. I was so lacking in ideas when I first got going on this that at first all I had was the middle Yuki, the “HS” type for the prominent “Haruhi-like” feel, and a lavender-to-black gradient in the background. For the background, I wanted to convey the mysterious and ethereal air that Yuki Nagato is characterized by. For type-setting, I wanted to have enough that would compliment the major content that Kiba writes about. For a while, I was trying to accomplish the Yuki-feel in the text and the background, but eventually, I worked myself in a better direction, as I had dealt with the background first. I started with the single Yuki behind the “H”, thought I was done, added the one on the left, thought I was done, then added the faded one on the right…and I still wasn’t satisfied. For every Yuki I added, I moved or changed my typesetting so that everything would work in aesthetic harmony within the design. Halfway though the design, I decided to make the blog title much more prominent than it was with a stronger “Haruhi-like” type-setting theme instead of my own variation…

  And the list goes on…

  To make a long description a bit shorter, I took this banner design in three parts, shifted, toyed with, trashed, and teased text and visuals countless times, and worked on each section individually until it all became as uniform as possible. Chessi even helped me cement decisions on type-setting and color contrasting. ^_^ I wanted to make sure there were other color accents in this design since staring at lavender could get dull really quick. I also attempted to pull off something like a constellation effect on the faded Yuki’s face. I can say that this was a lot of fun to design and piece together as my own design while grabbing inspiration from my own visual reserves.

• Creative Epiphany: There is a difference between a bad distraction and a good distraction. I had a good one…
• Foolhearty Sacrifices: None (seriously)
• Next EF design: Something pink, pretty, and cute for Chels

Currently Listening To: Disturbed – “Prayer”

ADV Films strikes gold: Byousoku 5 Centimeter licensed

I don’t usually do news blogging, but there’s always that occasional RSS feed that excites me to jump into the fray, even though the prey has already been mauled by a starving tigress, then picked at by vultures. So shall it be.

ANN reports on an exclusive announcement from ADV Films, a leader in anime licensing in the US, that they have obtained the license for the three-part full-length theatrical film Byousoku 5 Centimeter – a chain of short stories about their distance (5cm per second). The well-renowned independent director, Makoto Shinkai, who has also crafted such stunning, heartwarming stories such as the Voices of a Distant Star OVA and The Place Promised in Our Early Days (both also licensed by ADV) has put together three individual parts that will be released in Japanese theaters later in the year (the first, Oukashou, was shown last December), and on DVD in December.

For those who have had the pleasure of seeing Oukashou a few months after its release last December through the graciousness of fansubbing groups, they know that this is breaking news nearly on par with the licensing of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. For those who haven’t, watch the YouTube video again. I personally never saw this coming [so soon], seeing as how only 1 of 3 of the parts have been shown in Japan still. Though 5cm may not appeal to those who aren’t crazy for drama/romance, the sheer fact of such a gorgeous production being brought over to the US cannot be ignored. Tack on the reputable reputation of Makoto Shinkai, and you’ve got a DVD that anime enthusiasts should feel ashamed not to have added to their shelf collection.

I’m not a picky anime semi-otaku, but after watching the sub, I can’t wait to see this is HD quality…! Not to mention, the story of 5cm is quite similar to my own personal experiences in pursuing the love of my life, Chessi. I have shown her Oukashou, and I think she feels the same way that I do about the story and the struggles of the characters involved. I plan on showing her the rest, keeping the DVD in our collection forever.

ADV, you guys have outdone yourselves yet again. Without a doubt, you are a company that really knows what the fans want. Thank you.

Currently Listening To: Hellogoodbye – Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! – “Oh, It Is Love”

A PC user of Macs: Gaming sold separately

I really have no idea why there are bloggers out there talking about bringing gamers back to Mac. Everyone who knows anything about Macs vs. PCs is that they both have found their niche audience in what they specialize in: Macs tend to be geared for the creative mind that want to express themselves quickly and efficiently without being bogged down by unnecessary applications and misuse of RAM. PCs tend to be geared for either the casual home/office user who just want something easy to do their taxes on and/or the gamer circle who want to trick-out their case and customize their hardware innards as the tech waters ebb and recede. I personally move to no true extreme, but given the kind of work I do for a living, I lean farther towards itching for a 13″ Black MacBook than updated PC hardware…both of which I feel I require as soon as possible.

I remember when I was in preschool and I was in charge of assisting my teacher in guiding my fellow classmates how to play very rudimentary games on the old Apple Macintosh machines before Macintosh went Apple, and Apple went MacOS. Like a whirlwind, Microsoft took over my digital existence years later, as that seemed to be the standard for everyone who wanted to learn how to use a computer. I had virtually forgotten and disregarded the existence of Mac computers. That is not to say I did not have a few confrontations with the early Mac OS in my early teens and even played a game of Tetris. Sorry to say, I came to loathe Macs; I thought the GUI was stupid and troublesome to use, and Finder, ironically, did not help me find anything I wanted in the least. From then on, I did everything on a PC from online gaming, to writing my papers, to my first attempts at graphic designs in Photoshop.

Then came my college years, when I was forced to be reintroduced to them as an Interactive Multimedia major in my 2nd year of college. Over time, I came to appreciate the beauty and the user capabilities of what Mac [OS(X)] had evolved into for creative purposes, while still doing my usual dealings with games on Windows [because I had no other choice]. Eventually, I formed a distinction between Macs and PCs and decided that one was no better than the other, but simply catered to a specific circle of users. Now I love Macs, but don’t plan on shoving my PC out the window anytime soon.

Why do I say all of this? Simply this: Macs don’t need games to stay afloat in the market. Nor does Apple need to “bring gamers back” anywhere, since no matter how you look at it, Macs could be used for gaming, but not for gaming. I do agree that companies like Apple should evolve and take steps towards keeping up with where technology and entertainment is going, but for anyone to think that Apple will lose anything by not diving headfirst into the virtual 3D gaming community seems like a misled conception in my opinion. There is no doubt in my mind that if Apple pursued the thought that “casual is the way to go” that they would make more of a killing than they already do, but I would hope that they would never feel that they need to rearrange their development model of software solely for the sake of handling the number-crunching graphics of World of Warcraft rave parties or orgies in Second Life.

Being able to have dinky games like Tetris on a Mac isn’t a new concept for them to begin with — I guess that is what Apple would be bringing gamers back to — but that’s really as far as Apple inc. should go, if anywhere, with catering to the online gaming community to hook in a few more disinterested PC users…if they want. If interested in learning how the online gaming market is fairing these days, check out this overly-linked semi-related article about the top ten most popular MMOs.

Currently Listening To: T TRANCE.COM – DJ Fred & Arnold T – “So Deep So Right”