Dance In the Vampire Bund Episode 2 - Howling

After watching this episode I can't help but think the first one was kind of a teaser. Whereas the second episode was more of the first episode that wasn't. It lays out the basic plot and introduces the two main protagonists, Akira (picture #2 on the 2nd row) and the Vampire queen, Mina while hinting about the history which the two share.

Read more here

Dance In the Vampire Bund

Well my little Kampfer review session was a bit of a flop, both forr time reasons and for the fact that the anime itself was a bit of a flop. I'm going to attempt to follow at least two series this season, one of which I'll comment on as I see the episodes.

I found out about this title earlier last month and saw the word "Vampire" in it and figured I'd give it a try and see what it's about. And the first episode was fansubbed a couple days ago.



Now where do I begin with this? The first thing that caught my attention in this episode was the first half. I don't know if it was just me, or if anybody else found it weird but it was centered around one of those jeopardy style game rooms where the contestants were debating whether or not vampires existed. The contestants comprise of a variety of personalities, from a manga publisher to an actor. I found myself wondering exactly how this was supposed to contribute to the story (I'm seeing this series for the first time without reading the manga), since the first looks at these with the 2-line summaries have a tendency to be very vague.

Read the rest HERE

Quick GIMPing

There's some content I missed when making the original tutorial which can be found here

ETA: I used external software to insert the remote iages so they may be cut off. In that event, right click and then select "view image. This will open it with a new window allowing for the full view of the image.

Finished Halloween Render and a new series picked up

KAMPFER Anime

Well I don't usually write that much so I'm sorry if my review, or rather summary is a bit fast paced. A commentary on the episode will be added to the summary later to share my impressions about the series so far. I've also gotta catch up since I'd like to summarize all the episodes and that means also doing it for the four that have already aired in Japan since the beginning of this month.

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EPISODE ONE -- Destiny The Chosen ones

Summary & Review

The episode opens with the two main protagonists engaged in a one-sided battle with a beautiful blue-haired girl trying to escape her foe as she is mercilessly hunted. The chase continues through the woods and into the city until they reach the roof top. The former falls as she is shot at, and the Opening song begins.

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So, following somewhat of a strange opening the episode begins with a figure explaining that the protagonist, whome from no on will be referred by her name Natsuru Senō, has been selected by the "moderators" to fight as a "Kampfer." It's almost immediately revealed that something's not quite right with her since she seems awfully surprised that she's a female, and with good reason of course; she's actually a guy. :|

After "she" tries to come to grips with what actually happened the voice from earlier interjects, explaining the reason for Seno's awkward predicament. Basically that all Kamfer's are female, and hence since Natsuru is a male he changes into a female whenever his powers are activated as a Kampfer. The voice further explains that since he's become a kampfer, he must fight with other Kampfers. While we hear this voice explaining the basics Natsuru's still trying to figure out where the voice is coming from, and it turns out that a doll he has is alive and serving as a messenger from the "moderators" that control the selection of Kampfer.

The doll explains that Natsuru has a bracelet that signifies an oath to the Kampfer, and informs him that it'll shine before he transforms. Meanwhile Natsuru starts to get angry with it, soon grabbing him and throwing him at the speakers!

Natsuru back down and lays on his bed hoping that everything he's experiencing is all a dream, and the doll jumps on the bed to help forcibly revert him back to a male by drop kicking him in the stomach....

 

Continue reading here to get the full summary (click)

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Also, for those interested. The Halloween render I was working on last week is finished! The final version is posted on my deviantart page.

HERE

My next project

Well, Halloween is coming and I wanted to make a little something for an e-zine issue. And It's still a work in progress. This is one of the rare weekends where I have a little spare time to work on my own little projects and this was a way for me to kind of vent off a bit of frustration with classes.

So, What I have here is a couple of demonstration videos, which may or may not clarify how the autoCAD rendering deal works. It doesn't contain any flashy explanations, it's just a screen capture showing my process as I did the render tracing.

I'm hoping to finish this tonight. and will be posting this later

AutoCAD anime render shift 2

This is a continuation of the first part. Basically the tracing is straight forward. I normally begin on a layer I make specifically for tracing the outline of the drawing on. Then I use the spline command to get a smooth line that I can conform to the shape of the image. At various points where the line ends you'll terminate the command by pressing three times and then press ENTER & ENTER once more to initiate the command that was last used. If you reach an area where two lines meet but do not totally intersect past one another you'll need to draw the line past the one you want it to meet at and use the TRIM command on the line you're cutting apart.

It's also advisable that you set the OSNAP feature in autoCAD on to make connecting some line segments together an easier task. As these are more oriented to settings than anything else please review my guide on these commands below:





Since the last image in the list is small and may be difficult to readyou can find the original version of it :

http://xanacondax.deviantart.com/art/AutoCAD-line-art-CH-2-part-2-89999395

There a guide on a sample image and other tools used in making the linework are available which apply the same way as it will for this render. I also covered in that original tutorial how to export the image to photoshop for further rendering. My finished product can be located here:

http://fc03.deviantart.com/fs50/f/2009/287/b/f/Soifon_strikes_by_xAnacondax.png

Manga rendering with AutoCAD (Part 1)

Well I think the title says it all. I started working on this last month but it's not finished, and I thought it would be as good a starter as any to work on an autoCAD based tutorial. I'm deciding ho to split this tutorial up but I think I'll divide it into parts and include a screen recording that summarizes everything. In this portion we're going to set up the file for working and then the next part will begin with the actual tracing of the image.

For those unfamiliar with autoCAD don't worry, we need only a limited range of commands to complete this trace, and what can't be accessed via the main menu we can use by typing it in the command line.

For this project I recommend that you have the following:
AutoCAD 2007 - 2010 (tutorial is based on the 2010 release)
Adobe Acrobat, or Bullzip PDF (so we can plot the trace using autoCAD to a more workable format)
Photoshop (for final touches to the finished render)


This is what I'll be finishing.

What I have so far:





























Now, before I continue where I left off on this you will obviously need to get a copy of AutoCAD, and be able to get this image into autoCAD once you're ready. For those who don't have it AutoDesk provides a free 30-day trial of their application, or if you're a student and have a valid school email address they offer student versions of their software for free with a 13 month license.

I'm assuming that if you're reading through this point you're either in the process of getting the trial or you already have a licensed copy and we can continue from there. Begin by opening autoCAD and creating a new file from the default selected template. Save this new file to a folder of your choice (I suggest a new folder on your desktop). Put the source image you'll be tracing in the same folder as your autoCAD file.

Once you've saved and have your image in the same folder we need to attach it to the CAD file as an external reference file. In the command line at the bottom portion of the screen type in the command XREF:


and press ENTER to activate the command. You should see the following tab show up on-screen:


You will see three buttons on the top left part of this window. Click on the one furthest to the left and select attach image.


Browse for the image file that you placed inside the folder with the autoCAD file, select it and click open.

The settings as indicated above should be fine for just about any configuration. So all you need to do is click Okay

Click anywhere on the screen and size the picture as you want. If you need to zoom out after inserteing the picture following this procedure in the command line:

Z then ENTER
A then ENTER

Basically the commands are ZOOM and ALL so that the view zooms out as far as it needs for viewing the content on the file.



Now, we're going to get a few things set up before we move any further. First off we'll be coloring the render using AutoCAD's hatch command and we'll want each of these shades on it's own layer. So in the command line type LAYER and press ENTER to activate the layer command. A panel should appear when you activate it:

Create a layer using the same names described above with the same line weights. Basically for every different color shade we want a corresponding layer for it. I also make a layer so that I can draw out all of the shade boundaries to make hatching the shades in the places I specifically want possible.


Here's a quick assembly of the above in video format to help clarify the procedures. Next part will be up soon!