Just a quirky little exhibit

Post by **sensei** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 6:26 pm

One of the suggestions I got from the 2008 Open House was to create a special gallery that I could re-make every so often to keep it quirky and interactive. (Thanks, Krafty!) This won't have anything new in it, but will highlight different sides of my collection that don't get as much traffic as others.

This time I decided to highlight the wonderful reanimations that Vampyreshoujo has done for me over the years, starting with some scruffy genga sets and developing to some amazingly smooth and beautiful douga reanimations. To keep people guessing, I've not provided the series titles (some will be super-obvious) and used thumbnails that give only a portion of one of the images. But if you start at the front and use the "next" links you can get a pretty overview of Vamppy's talent and also taste some of my more rarely-visited galleries.

Give it a try! (And thanks again to Vampyreshoujo for all the pokes, nods, smooches, blinks and especially for the splats!)

lcatino · Post by **lcatino** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 6:57 pm

Yay! I love the animated version of the Quirky Gallery Tour! Very cool! What a great idea to change this section to feature different types of artwork! I have to admit - I did better guessing the different series in this version than I did for the rough sketch version.

It's fun to see the scenes animated. Here's my fav. ^^

"Pokemons Revenge"

http://sensei.rubberslug.com/gallery/in ... mID=244888

"All Wrapped Up" is also gorgeous animated!

http://sensei.rubberslug.com/gallery/in ... mID=244864

Very cool Sensei!

And Kudo's to Vampy - Your talent for animating is amazing!

Penguinton · Post by **Penguinton** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 7:43 pm

Wow! Thats such a cool idea.

This has to be my favorite reanimation. Just her hair alone mesmerizes me.

http://sensei.rubberslug.com/gallery/in ... mID=244892

purple-plum · Post by **purple-plum** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 10:56 pm

I LOVE the kaitou jeanne scene! i can't believe you own that. amazing! where do you get your kaitou jeanne art work? I love them keep up the good work...

Post by **sensei** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 6:48 am

lcatino: thanks for visiting the first run as well. I'm looking for interesting themes that will get people out of the well-beaten path to CCS which currently makes up 96% of my top 50 list. (That includes a sketch of a minor IY villain that about a year ago started to climb rapidly for some reason and now is my #1 hit-on item.) True, the Yue capture doesn't help much, but it was one of the first reanimations Vamppy and I did together (as you can see from the shaky results, which come from my inexperience in getting scans all in the same registration.) But she's really helped me appreciate the design that went into other shows and willing to try out some odd tricks, like the "Pokemon flicker" in the Lina Inverse sequence.

(For those not in the know, after a Pokemon episode was televised in Japan, in which a power-up was animated by having the creature's image 'flicker" rapidly between a normal and a reversed-color cel, hundreds of kids reported sick the next day for school, and medical experts opined that the effect might have had malign neurological effects on impressionable brains. So studios were cautioned not to use the effect any more (there are "negative color" CCS cels that were painted, but not used for this reason). That's also why many shows begin with a warning to parents not to dim the lights in the room while viewing anime and make kids stay at least 6 feet away from the screen.)

penguinton and purple-plum: thanks for admiring the KKJ sequence. Art from this series comes up on YJ, but not on a regular basis. I was lucky enough to spot a nice series of lots this spring after a longish drought. There was competition, because it's common to break up KKJ lots, like FB and Chobits sketch sets, and sell the dougas individually. I was very happy to be able to keep this and a couple other nice ones together.

kathpatty · Post by **kathpatty** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 8:13 am

Spent the time looking ( I just realized) with my mouth hanging down

Thanks so much for sharing with all of us

toonybabe · Post by **toonybabe** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 12:54 pm

Its cool that your collection is so large and varied that you are able to recreate these moments. Its so much fun to just poke around your gallery and enjoy all of the art!

Belldandy16 · Post by **Belldandy16** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 10:09 pm

oh that so rocks!

how did you do that?

btw i think my favorite is "squishy Inuyasha"

haha too funny!

Post by **sensei** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 6:25 am

kathpatty: Thanks for looking! And not to worry: there's still lots of droolworthy stuff still out in the oceans to share. Like a good fisherman, you need lots and lots of patience and vigilance.

toonybabe: I appreciate your coming to poke around, and in a way that's one of the things I'm trying to encourage with galleries like this. I'm getting to a point in my collecting life where I want to appreciate the things I have rather than burning myself out browsing auctions for the things I don't have. It's very tempting to get into the habit of valuing the "coming soon" part of one's gallery more than the "still loved after 5 years" part.

Belldandy16: First get your gifs. (Oh, so easy to say!

Vamppy

)

Then the trick is to house the reanimations in a separate image site like Photobucket. Then, when you add the page in RS, under "Large image," I upload a single blue pixel (otherwise, if you don't upload anything, a "missing image" symbol will appear). Then I paste the "<img src=" link to the other image site as the first line in the "Comments."

The only fussy thing is that you then have to create and upload a custom thumbnail for the item, because RS won't automatically make one from something that's coming from off-site (or from the blue pixel!) That's another reason for the oddball thumbs.

A little dithering with format (I like to choose "Bottom" rather than the default "Side" for comments placement) and it will work for you. Thanks for your comment. I love to watch and rewatch that practiced way in which IY does the squish. And Vamppy and I have always noticed something new when the gif runs that only an animator would have taken care to get right, like that little red "swooshy" that appears right when he moves his hand to catch Myoga.

Belldandy16 · Post by **Belldandy16** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 8:06 am

sensei wrote:kathpatty:
toonybabe: I appreciate your coming to poke around, and in a way that's one of the things I'm trying to encourage with galleries like this. I'm getting to a point in my collecting life where I want to appreciate the things I have rather than burning myself out browsing auctions for the things I don't have. It's very tempting to get into the habit of valuing the "coming soon" part of one's gallery more than the "still loved after 5 years" part. .

i actually have to learn that myself. ive gotten so much into going to ebay and "aaw man that looks so cool, i gotta have that NOW" rather than just enjoying my collection that i have already (man i think the majority of my collection ive seen twice in person! i just get it, look at it for a sec then put it in my binder and into my drawer). man thats sad, i have so many nice pieces too!

sensei wrote: Belldandy16: First get your gifs. (Oh, so easy to say! Vamppy )

Then the trick is to house the reanimations in a separate image site like Photobucket. Then, when you add the page in RS, under "Large image," I upload a single blue pixel (otherwise, if you don't upload anything, a "missing image" symbol will appear). Then I paste the "<img src=" link to the other image site as the first line in the "Comments."

The only fussy thing is that you then have to create and upload a custom thumbnail for the item, because RS won't automatically make one from something that's coming from off-site (or from the blue pixel!) That's another reason for the oddball thumbs.

A little dithering with format (I like to choose "Bottom" rather than the default "Side" for comments placement) and it will work for you. Thanks for your comment. I love to watch and rewatch that practiced way in which IY does the squish. And Vamppy and I have always noticed something new when the gif runs that only an animator would have taken care to get right, like that little red "swooshy" that appears right when he moves his hand to catch Myoga.

oh how do you get the gif's in the first place?
do you scan all of your sketches and then do ..... um, something with them? sorry im not to familiar with gif animations.

and yeah that is really cool how his hand has that red thing.
thnaks!

Post by **sensei** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 8:56 am

Belldandy16 wrote: oh how do you get the gif's in the first place?
do you scan all of your sketches and then do ..... um, something with them? sorry im not to familiar with gif animations.

Sensei tries very hard not to look dumb by putting on his college professor face.

Ummmmm . . . Vaaaaaaaampy?!?

You just have to stand around cluelessly until someone really nice and talented comes along and says, "Hey, I know how to do that!"

Then it's a matter of scanning the individual sketches as consistently as possible, so the images aren't hard to put in registration. I try to get one corner of the sketch into an angle of the scanner bed so that they all come out exactly alike. Otherwise the image flutters (as in the Yue capture, which was one of the first I attempted). Then you send all the scans to your friend and be patient while magic happens.

Vampyreshoujo can be more specific about the details of the program. I know there are resizing and darkening issues, and sometimes erasing the annotations on the side of the sheet. And the speed with which the images succeed others can be sped up and slowed down: sometimes I've gotten timing sheets that explain how part of the animation runs a little faster or slows down for an effect.

Other times we just have to look at the images and try to figure out what would look good. The "Ballad of Inuyasha" reanimation (where IY sticks his sword into the ground and strikes crude oil) really puzzled us until I noticed that the sketches showing the stuff streaming from the ground looped, with the last one in the series leading back into the first one. Then -- suddenly -- Flatt and Scruggs tuned up in the background and we had a gif that made sense.

Maybe someone could suggest some gif-making software that all of us could practice with on our own and save poor Vamppy some of the labor of love that she obviously puts into these?

Belldandy16 · Post by **Belldandy16** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:43 pm

sensei wrote:
Belldandy16 wrote: oh how do you get the gif's in the first place?
do you scan all of your sketches and then do ..... um, something with them? sorry im not to familiar with gif animations.
Sensei tries very hard not to look dumb by putting on his college professor face.

Ummmmm . . . Vaaaaaaaampy?!?

You just have to stand around cluelessly until someone really nice and talented comes along and says, "Hey, I know how to do that!"

HAHA~ you know i do the same thing with a friend of mine all the time! he's got alot of more sophisicated equipment than i do… and plus im lazy as hades and id rather have him do it for me! ;-p (im so bad).
thank God for good friends, eh?

thanks again sensei!

majinuub · Post by **majinuub** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 2:12 pm

I just wanted to pop in and say I loved your quirky gallery tour idea. I also like how the images are cropped to give the viewer a hint as to what the said production art is about.

sensei wrote:toonybabe: I appreciate your coming to poke around, and in a way that's one of the things I'm trying to encourage with galleries like this. I'm getting to a point in my collecting life where I want to appreciate the things I have rather than burning myself out browsing auctions for the things I don't have. It's very tempting to get into the habit of valuing the "coming soon" part of one's gallery more than the "still loved after 5 years" part.

I fully agree with this statement and will admit that I sometimes fall into "wanting more than appreciating what I own" category.

Belldandy16, Redwolf provided a great photoshop guide for animated sequences:

http://www.anime-beta.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=22640

Post by **sensei** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 7:35 pm

Thanks for your comments, majinuub. After eight years of collecting, what really stands out are the happy moments, which sometimes have to do with famous auction victories but, more and more, have to do with the moments you share with friends.

Vamppy, come take a bow!!!!

Belldandy16 · Post by **Belldandy16** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 8:16 pm

majinuub wrote: Belldandy16, Redwolf provided a great photoshop guide for animated sequences:

http://www.anime-beta.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=22640

oh thank you!