Exams are done! (And now the crunch begins?)

I've finished all my exams! Yes!

But now it is crunch time for my animation project...D:

As well as going back home for cosplay shopping spree...D: x2

And also socializing...D:x4

...Why are my breaks always soooooooo busy?

Happy, Sad, Happy, Mad, Sad....

The title pretty much describes my mood since this morning...

Let's see...

Happy: Sees snow outside the window.

Sad: Heard my camera's broken...

Happy: Found out it wasn't killed just yet...

Mad: Found out it is broken...

Sad: Found out that it is not a problem that I can fix easily...

It's the crazy lens error of doom, if you know what that is...

I'm just hoping now that I'll still be able to switch it with my dad, as I originally intended to...

With that being said, friends, if you ever borrow things from me...don't break it. It makes Kitty very sad, and makes them cry too...especially when she has to pay to fix it...

A bit of happy news...

Great! I'm done with my physics exam! (Which had to be on a Saturday...I should email my counselors and tell them to put this in the manual for this year's graduates...)

Three more to crush! *cries* Why can't you exams just be gone!!!???

For some people...I'm gonna be heading back to Shanghai on the 19th...by the time I arrive, it would be the 20th, of course...

It's been a while...

Oh my...Haven't written in here for almost a month!

November's a pretty busy time here at UBC... So be warned, those who wanna come... Don't do too much at once in this month!

Sadly, I was trying my Nanowrimo with this...and thus epic failed...T_T

I will continue the story though, I hope... but maybe it needs a lot of editing and rewriting since sections of it is severely rushed and horrible to read...

I'm gonna try and start some projects in December, while studying for exams too...

Luckily, school so far has been easy on me (so far *cross fingers*, hope for the same next term!)

Halloween 2008: Some lessons and some fun...That's life, I guess...

I've hardly celebrated Halloween before, but this year I did.

It was also the best excuse to start cosplaying!

Now, given the fact that not everyone would know of what the term means, I shall repeat what many a cosplayers have said over the years...

Cosplaying is dressing up as a character, especially those that originate from the Japanese entertainment industry of animations, comics, and video games. As of late, they have expanded to almost every other genre of entertainment. And it is not limited to Halloween.

I went as an antagonist of the comic(manga) call Hellsing. Basically vampires running about lose in England in 2000 fighting against fellow vampires, and somewhere in there, Nazi's got involved...well, it was all planned out before hand, and badly mutilated from history and fiction.

Note to everyone new to Cosplaying, or lacking common sense (like me): People are still sensitive above the Nazis...so unless you have a really good reason to have the symbol, don't even think about having it! (Cosplaying, even for Halloween, is not good enough!)

I'm not really gonna concentrate on that topic, but I have to say this. The reason that I can tolerate the symbol is

1. I dislike the Nazis, but I can forgive them. I was hoping that 60 years have taught people to learn how to forgive and learn from the mistake, instead of hate and continue hating for the next century to come. If you don't forgive, there will ultimately be a day, whether this life or next or past, where your enemy have asked for help when they need it, and you have denied them of the help from you because you hate them...No wonder there is so much apathy in the world.

2. The Nazi symbol closely resemble a Taoist symbol, which is basically the same shape, inverted/reflected/mutilated. And (ironically enough) I was born under such "accursed" symbol...I swear this to be true. Before I learned about Nazis at all, I always wondered why people reacted with such a repulsive manner when ever I draw the symbol... That symbol was my original religion (of which has faded with my family converting to a more Buddhist approach...and is now changed to a point that our spiritual practice is on the verge of being unable to be described in words.) ANYHOW, I don't see the symbol itself as being the representation of evil, but rather, of misusage. Misusage of power, of knowledge, or opportunity.

3. Hellsing, the manga, has mutilated the Nazi party as so much to basically forget all about world conquest (Historians, please correct my horrible history knowledge at your will), discrimination and prejudice, and being a super power. Their whole scheme in the whole manga was actually to kill the protagonists, that's all. I'll confess though, there is quite a bit of violence and gore involved... given that there are vampires and zombies involved...that was expected.

Points being said though, it was a bad idea to even have the symbol...because there are those who cannot tolerate this, or never knew the anime/manga, and hence I'm never doing it again...Those who hate Nazis, and consequently hate me, feel welcome to throw your socks at me. I'm used to it anyway, being a minority in various aspects, almost to a point where my friends considered getting me a T-shirt saying endangered species. Either way, I hope I'll see the day when the symbol will be seen as a representation of mistakes of humanity, and not a symbol of eternal hatred. And there is so much more on my mind right now, I just want to rant a little more before I say some happy stuff...but it won't help anyway, since hardly anyone but myself can understand the complete duality nature of life, it's oxymorons and ironies, miracles and curses. And considering that I fail epically (even more beautifully than a professional ballet dancer can dance across the stage) every time I try explaining my philosophy, I'll just stop right here and stop the whole deal...

...I want to cry now...humans' and their narrow-scope make me cry...

*Goes off to corner to head bang the wall* but then again, some might argue that NORMAL HUMANS don't have a scope even 1% of mine...I'm too nice...

URG......and now I'm too depressed to type happy stuff...!

Black and White Films: Purposefully Lazy, or Purposefully aesthetic?

After watching the following film on DeviantArt (Yes, it has a beautiful film section), it reminds me of the best film entry for the first Shanghai Student Film Festival. They are very similar in style, especially in terms of the cinematography and composition (Metafor, the linked film above, uses narration, where as Reverie was almost silent). What brings me to write the blog, however, is the impact of making the film black and white in both narratives.

I remember the lesson after "Reverie" recieved best film at S2F2. We students had an almost full blown argument as to whether the black and white effects made it look aesthetically pleasing, or was simply a short cut of making everything philosophical. I kind of just stepped out totally of the argument, because some rather unreasonable and stubborn stance was being made, and hence, voicing my argument would have had no effect whatsoever. Personally, I thought "Reverie" would have never quite had the great impact it had if it had not been black and white.

Black and white films can be tricky; it is like trying to draw a life drawing using only charcoal (Fine arts students should know this well). You have to see the light and shade of the picture, and that takes practice. And because a film is in black and white, the film maker will have to ensure that the lighting is in the right position to bring out the neccessary contrast. If color was present, lighting (whether natural or not) would not such a hassle. Taking footages that are in color, and then DETERMINING whether they are suitable in black and white is also an issue. It will be an aesthetically critical decision.

Another thing about black and white films is that they simplify things down, to a point where the composition of the scene is what creates the beauty of the film, not color. Sure, you can have a sudden blast of bright colors in films and wow the audience, but that is colored films. In black and white films, the colors are no longer there. Hence the audience is forced to look at the composition of the scenes to determine whether they are pleasing aesthetically or not. This especially struck out at me in "Metafor". The composition predominated my analysis of the film, whereas I believe, if it was in color, would not be so apparent. One of the things that stuck out to me was that because of the dimensions of the film, the theoretical points of focus and actual points of focus were often a little off. I would definately not even noticed this, had the film not be in black and white. And it is also the reason why "Reverie" stuck out so as a "peice of art" to the judges of S2F2. It's composition and contrast by lighting were almost (note I say almost) perfect.

With that being said, black and white films could be used as a result to train film students the importance of composition of a scene, as well as the importance of lighting to create the necessary contrast. So next time, if you see a black and white film, do not just call it lazy immediately...analysis and decide!

Recent art

I must say, I must have been crazy to do this...

This picture took me altogether over two weeks to slowly work over...

Urg...never, ever doing it again!

What I did learn though is that line art on line paper is the worse thing possible...

This art is inspired by the video game, Kingdom Hearts, which I (un)fotunately do not own. The characters are mine, however...as I said...inspired.

Clicky here!

Oracle Gene: The Story, Background, and First three chapters

For those of you who did not know about this, "The Oracle Gene" started off as an idea for my independent project for the Shanghai Student Film Festival. It was originally only restricted to the trailer version. As of now, it is almost turning into a novel, with a much more complicated plot.

The trailer itself went through several versions and generations with the passing of time and series of unfortunate events (mostly in the form of procrastination). It was originally going to be used with real actors with three dimensional and two dimensional animations. Time passed, and all my actors disappeared... So I replaced what I can of the actors with drawings...over 50 separate pictures, to be precise.

Filming portion consisted only about 15%, and one person (me).

Drawing took up around 40%, from sketching, to coloring, to fine tuning.

Sound related details took around 45%, including voice acting and music composition.

Putting together the trailer took around 10 hours only...

The story itself started off as a dedication to the first ever film class of Shanghai American School. Some of the characters are blatant reflections of the inspiration themselves, while others had their name severely mutilated into an unrecognizable form. I will not reveal who they are (character and inspiration alike), but for those who are curious, you may head over to my Deviantart (creatorsoul) and decipher the names as you like.

When I first suggested the idea to Brian, my close friend and imagination outbreak partner-in-crime, the concept was simple beyond imaginable. It was exactly as the title said, a story about a gene which gave those with it the power of foresight. There were clear protagonists and antagonists, good and evil. As Brian would like to have described it, "She [meaning me] simply took Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children, Kingdom Hearts, people from our class and mashed them together in a egg scrambler." (Just to add, he got me addicted to the first three named in that list.) That was what the story was, nothing more.

After winning the Best Computer Animation award, however, I did not want to stop. I begin to question what is it that attracted me to this story line, and is it really as simple as the title implies it to be. If so, Brian can continue calling me a grand rip off (he has the right to, but then again, so do I sometimes, but let us leave that for another day...).

I wanted the story to be realistic; a reflection of our world in a different system. The same problems that arise from the conflict and troubles that I analyzed through out my high school career. Two of the most important questions that pushed the story onward was "Who did what, and what consequences followed?" and "Did that have to occur this way? What other possibilities could have taken place?"

The story has now evolved into what I would call a reflection of my own struggles regarding ethics, morality, humanity, fate, karma, love, and life... and I wish to share it.

Here are the three sections that are currently posted:

Prelude

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Have fun reading! Leave comments if you can!

S cubed: Supreme Summary Session!

Happy news, I'm back from the haitus! Yeah~~~~~!

University is about to start here, so I'll take this tiny little spare time to share with you how my life has been this summer.

First off, Taiwan is awesome to the extreme. There's no words to describe how my trip back was. I have to say, for those of you who have never visited Taiwan in terms of the central region, you have never, ever been to Taiwan. Forget about the metropolis of the North and the South, that's old school. VISIT THE CENTRAL REGIONS! The national parks are there for a reason!

For those of you with a love of cameras and photography, I challenge you to go to the Taroko Gorge, and go through the national park from the coast, and travel along the high way that transverse the park. The view is more than just gorgeous, and it will take your breathe away, and knock you flat out.

Also, for the cultural freaks, though I personal only found it amusing and good for tourists, there is a cultural park in I-Lan. Though it does not truly represent Taiwan to the full (the night markets might do better), it is still fun to go (especially for some hand made handicrafts as gifts or souvenirs!). If you want to see the true Taiwan...well, go backpacking for an extensive period of time. Even better, move there... believe me, you will never run out of things to discover. Taiwan is diverse in every aspect, from food to clothing, from scenery to relics, from history to development. Sometimes even I wonder how everything can fit on such a small island...

Next off, Vancouver!

When I first stepped out of the airport, my response? There's breathable air!

Okay, I think after living in Shanghai for more than five years, I have the right to declare the air quality like it is amusing...

Next was this...COLD!!!!!!

Know this. When a Vancouverite says it is hot, they mean really mean cold-like-the-winter-minus-the-snow-cold for those coming from between the tropics of Capricorn and Cancer. In short, cold! You will need a jacket, you will need long sleeves, and you will need something windproof.

My orientations have pretty much all ended now, and really, I am getting quite used to the culture here. I still have a little bit of a trouble with crossing the street (those of you in Shanghai, laugh all you like...), and the pricing (those in Shanghai, laugh again...). Well of course, what can you expect? Thank goodnessly, people in Vancouver CARE about each other! You ask a question nicely, they answer your question. They will ask you whether you had a good time or not. They will ask you whether the food was good or not. They will let you cross the street, unlike in China, where they would brake, hit you, or brake, then swear at you, and if you fight back, a street brawl of the verbal kind ensures.

Okay, I'm digressing (after listening to my cohort leader use that word every session, it is now my favorite). Anyhow, UBC is a great environment for those wanting to challenge themselves. There will be a lot of running and learning and growing white hair as you run about, trying to sort out the problems all by yourself, unless you ask. I had this type of a situation dawn on me when my IB scores decide not to show up. I have already walked over 3 hours that morning, and I forced myself to walk from the dorm, to the English building, to the service center, to the English building, and then found out my scores have miraculously appeared from nowhere! That was bittersweet indeed, I didn't know whether to cry, to laugh, or do something half way in between.

I am glad, however, that I at least have some friends. Though to say, my dorm-mates are not exactly of my type of people. I still prefer that international type of setting, rather than an all-Canadian-based type... with that being said, I miss my friends!

Some creative stuff should be coming up soon hopefully. I am intending to do some animations or films this year on my own or with friends. Hopefully that will not be long after...

...three posts and already a haitus?!

As the title refers, I'm gonna be off on long term break for the next few days/weeks...

Problem? Moving house...

With another problem? Packing for school...

With even a greater problem? I'm lazy...no really...

...I hope that explains the problem as a whole...==|||

Permanent sign off....

Aaaaaaaaaaand I'm back! =^^=

After a month of traveling (mostly on a single car), staying at variously places, being blown around by a false alarm of a typhoon, I'm back in Shanghai and typing...with limitless internet XD (you have no idea how happy that makes me)...

But now I've got to move to an apartment with my parents (again) before I head over to Vancouver...it happens all the time when you're not living in you home country, but I still like to complain about til no end...

Anyhow, enough of my seemingly pointless and endless rant about myself and my life. It's not the main point of this blog...

I'll be posting soon a journal about my journey back in Taiwan.

Until then!

=^^= Nye out!

Just to start off...

Hi, Kitty Maverick here with a little bit about herself...

1. I am a high school graduate going off to university soon...I'm enjoying my summer right now ^^.

2. I draw, write, create randomosities all the time (even in class...).

3. I can write in English (well duh) and in Chinese... some of this blog will be in Chinese ^^.

證明底家~~~~ 啊，台灣國語都跑出來了。。。－＿－｜｜｜

Silimasen!

4. I have several IDs... depending on what I do, I use them at different situations...

5. I have a major addiction to FFVII: Advent Children... and almost any male character with silver hair will distract me from work (not restricted to the above movie). 

Kitty Maverick, signing out.