A Nostalgic Room

Just handed up my 3D project last Tuesday, the one I told you in my previous post. Turned out to be quite an expensive project, since there are a lot of poster-size images to be printed. Spent around RM30 just for printing, but that's considered moderate. I heard one of my classmates burnt RM70 for this project. Wuhhuh~ That's quite a lot just to get 5% out of the entire subject.




Anyway, check out the final animation I uploaded onto Google Video.


Yesterday was the last of my exam periods. Had a bowl of laksa in the morning, which I'm not sure whether Julio and Aaron had reviewed on their blog.

Laksa and Milo aren't my usual combo of breakfast :-)

Anyway, I'm liberated now!

The 08th MS Team

A very cool poster of the OVA from The 08th MS Team Informational Archive

The official website for The 08th MS Team is on since yesterday. Seeing some of the images in the website really reminds me moments of watching that OVA series a few years back. Back then, I actually bought a few models, including Gundam Ez8, Gouf Custom, Gouf Flight Type, GM Sniper and Zaku Ground Type (all in HG 1/144 scale) before I actually got the chance to watch the anime series.

Although the whole series is quite short (just 12 episodes), each episode is brilliant. Each character has their own story to tell, and by each episode, you get more insights about their backgrounds, which help to push the flow of the entire story forward at the same time as well. The story revolves around Shiro Armada, an EFSF pilot from space sent to Earth to lead a ground assault team. H meets a female Zeon pilot in the first episode through combat (Shiro's Ball versus Aina's Modified Zaku, pretty cool), and one can say that it's love at first sight. Since then, their love story has been quite a tragic one, as the harsh reality of EFSF fighting Zeon puts their faith in each other to great challenges. Another trivia about Shiro is that the Japanese voice actor is the same person who played Director Azrael in Gundam SEED, a super villain with a really evil voice, which sounded completely different from Shiro in this series.

We also get to see Karen, a tough female member of the team. She's not really a likable character for me at first glance, because she gave me the impression that she's just waiting for Shiro to get killed, since she's not confident that someone from space can adapt to the Earth's combat environment in such a short time, and to lead the team which has more experiences than him. Later we get see that she is quite helpful in assisting Shiro and that she is actually a widow of an EFSF medical officer who died in the war, and her superb piloting skill is commendable as well. Her strong will is quite rare among the female characters featured in all Gundam anime. The voice actor is related to Gundam SEED again, this time SEED Destiny, where she is Captian Talia Glynis in that series!

It would be quite a missive if I try to explain each and everyone involved in the OVA, although it's quite a shame since everyone is noteworthy. I particularly like Norris Packard, whom I'm sure is every fan's favorite as well, since he's the pilot for Gouf Custom. Apart from his piloting skills, he is also a very noble soldier, where he would sacrifice his own life without hesitation to save his own comrades. Aina is quite a sad character, because his brother treats her as a guinea pig for the MA Apsaras's project, and of course the forbidden love between her and Shiro.

That brings us to politics - the ugly thing in most Gundam anime. Aina's brother, Ginias is like a mad scientist, thinking that his plan of the MA Apsaras can be the ultimate trump card to destroy EFSF's headquarter in Jaburo. The cost is extremely high, as all resources are being diverted to the project, the Zeon has basically nothing to stop the advancing Feddie trying to foil the plan. That's when good soldier like Norris, and even his own sister Aina become an expendable asset for Ginias. The Feddie isn't noble in anyway as well, the base commander Ryer orders GM Sniper to destroy a defend-less medical fleet just for the sake of war, and even orders the use of nuclear armament to destroy the enemy base, even though it's a clear violation of the treaty before the war. He even orders GM Sniper for the execution for Shiro when he is the only one close enough to destroy the completed Apsaras. Sad to have these people around, and tragic happening upon people stuck in the middle like the 08th MS Team.

As for the MS design, there're a lot of variations for the usual One Year War MSs, which are quite primitive. The Ground Type Gundam is just OK for me, though the backpack is quite cool. I was wondering what kind of weapons can be fitted inside. My favorite is of course Gouf Custom. The powder-blue paint scheme seems a bit weird at first, but seeing him in action is like watching a magic show. The design of the heat blade and the Gatling Shield are plain awesome, and I never thought that one can maneuver a MS like how Norris Packard did. He managed to destroy all the Guntanks which are potential threat to the retreating injured Zeon troops with the cost of his own life.

Now I'm thinking of doing a series of screen shots from the anime series just on Gouf Custom!

The ending is quite romantic, although it's really really tragic. Shiro is finally reunited with Aina, and they are considered MIA in the final combat versus Apsaras, but Shiro is handicapped. His team mates try to look for him but found a grave instead, even though the setup of him being able to be together with an enemy pilot and away from martial prosecution is quite a nice thing.

Regarding the models released, there are just HG 1-144 kits when the OVA was first aired in 1996. Apart from the few mentioned above, there is one deluxe set featuring Ground Type Gundam and Zaku J. Since I got the Zaku J, I didn't think about getting that when there are abundant of it on sales at that time, now I'm desperately looking for it since it's considered quite an unique product now. The MG version of Ground Type Gundam came four years later in 2000, and then Gundam Ez8, and the must-have Gouf Custom. Apart from those, there are also Ground Type GM, and the latest Ball (as used by Shiro in the opening episode) and GM Sniper. Personally, Gouf Custom is the best~

Not sure when the DVD set is going to be available, but it's a must-watch for all!

Sorry for the lack of pictures in this rumbling, the screen shots will be up around tomorrow ^o^

GFF Gundam X

I watched Gundam X after returning from KL mid this year. I wasn't surprise that it's only consist of 39 episodes, because I myself almost fall asleep watching some of it. The story is lame, the mecha wasn't impressive enough and the battle sequences are poorly done. Just my opinion anyway, there are some impressive stuff from the series, like the design of G Falcon, a fighter jet that can dock with Gundam Double X, Leopard Destroy and Airmaster Bust. That's a much creative than Dendrobium and Meteor.

Anyway, the next GFF to be released is Gundam X. It's on exhibition at the World Character Convention in Japan yesterday (based on Malaysian date). Seriously, I think this is one design Hajime Katoki didn't manage to do well. The head and the body are disproportional to the whole figure and the design is just too 'rectangular'. And the head is just like any other typical Gundam face mounted with Gundam X's helmet. There's no special feature to it at all. I though the 1/100 scale model was bad enough with too many panel lines, but the GFF version is pretty bad as well.

Well, at least Zeonagraphy Kampfer on display during the event is pretty cool. That's one GFF not to be missed.

All images are from GFF Maniax.

P/S: Nice to hear from Jon Michael, who commented on my previous post on High Mobility Zaku II. Hope to hear more about the modified HGUC Zaku II from you soon!

Japanese Spiderman "Toei no Supaidâ-Man"

Being thinking of writing about this for quite some while, but never really got to write about it until I'm quite convinced that none of the Spiderman fans would really mind about this.

To start off with, I must say that Japan is a very sci-fi oriented society. Give them anything, and they can turn it into a good story of superheroes with amazing power fighting against monsters which when killed, will turn humongous to destroy buildings and roads, which seem to be rebuilt almost instantaneously after every chaotic fight. The good guys will call their own vehicles / animals / dinosaurs / aircrafts etc and transform them into a giant robot which will ultimately destroy the villain, almost all the time with a sword. Trust me, I've been watching the Super Sentai/Power Rangers series for around 8 years now, the sci-fi tradition never really change much.

Fans of Spiderman should be honored that their hero has a 'Japanese version' as well, called "Toei no Supaidâ-Man". Produced by Toei in 1978, Spiderman is a 41-Epidose TV series featuring Spiderman fighting an evil alien army lead by Professor Monster (so that you'll know he's evil just by looking at his name). So, instead of Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Venom, and Carnage, Spiderman has a more constant villain to focus on every week. The cool thing is, Spidey can get his red and blue suit from a magical bracelet, so he doesn't have to visit the loo when evil is near. As usual, Professor Monster will produce a super monster weekly to try to defeat Spiderman, and when killed, turn huge, and Spiderman will have to call upon his mighty leopard-headed aircraft Leopardon (duh~) for help. Apparently the Japanese think that spiders and leopards work well together. Leopardon can transform into a giant robot, and would use his sword to destroy the bad guy five minutes before the show ends. Read more about the series on IMDB.

Spiderman in action! Image from Sentain Base, a Russian site which quite some images of the Japanese Spiderman

The Japanese Spiderman series must be quite famous that Bandai actually include it into the Chogokin franchise. Chogokin toys are very exclusive, usually made from die-cast metal and hard plastic with metal coating. So, don't ever think that the Japanese Spiderman series is a fraud. Although it's laughable for people who watch Peter Parker all the time, different producers may work creativity in alternate ways, most suited to the favor and acceptance of the viewers. Take Power Rangers for example, the Western version has more action, and the Japanese version has more humor and teamwork (and cuter girls too ^o^), even though all their costumes and mecha are the same.

Chogokin Leopardon from HLJ. Why is he not red and blue as well?

Anyway, the Japanese Spiderman is considered something in the past (made before I was even born). Right now, the Japanese entertainment industry is exporting more anime design, particularly the sci-fi genre; I don't think they will ever need an American hero to be 'localized' anymore. But it's always fun to watch some creative work of the past!

Favorite Non-Gundam Poll: Result

Thanks for all the 75 votes by all of you. I was thinking of extending it till 200 votes, but my Poll account was expired a few days ago, so I was forced to put an early count to the whole result. ToT

So, who's the mono-eye/no-eye favorite MS of all? Here's the result (those with the same percentage of votes are listed in alphabetical order):

Sazabi was leading the votes from the start till the very end, pretty comfortable win huh?

(1) Sazabi (Neo-Zeon, Char's Counter Attack) - 32%
(2) Kampfer (Zeon, War in the Pocket) - 20%
(3) Zaku II (Zeon, MS-Gundam) - 12%
(4) Qubeley (Axis, Z Gundam) - 9%
(5) Zaku Warrior (ZAFT, SEED Destiny)- 5%
(6) Gouf Ignited (ZAFT, SEED Destiny), Tallgeese III (Preventers, Endless Waltz) - 4%
(7) Dom/Rick Dom (Zeon, MS-Gundam), The O (Titans, Z Gundam), Zeong (Zeon, MS-Gundam) - 3%
(8) GINN (ZAFT, SEED), Guncannon (EFSF, MS-Gundam), Neul Ziel (Zeon, Stardust Memory, Quin-Mantha (Neo-Zeon, ZZ Gundam)- 1%

Image from Wikipedia.

High Mobility Zaku II from Spirits of Zeon

I saw MS-06R-2 High Mobility Zaku II a couple of years back, and like the design of the yellow spikes on red armor and a huge bazooka. That particular unit turns out to be Johnny Raiden's Zaku II, which eventually being released as one of the many MG Zaku II variations. I guess I started to like Zaku since then, as the ordinary MS-06 Zaku IIs seem too weak for GMs and Gundam. High Mobility Zaku, though lack the power generator to carry any beam weapon, has advantage in terms of pace and agility.

I saw another two MS-06R-2 variations on Spirits of Zeon's official site, and becomes extremely hopeful that those two will come out as HGUC, or even MG kits. To start off with, Spirits of Zeon is a new game under development by Bandai. The Zeon will be the main character now, as players get to play Zakus shooting down EFSF. The two MS-06R-2s belong to the leading characters, Kurt Roswell and Robin Bradshaw. The unique thing about the two Zakus are the spikes on the right shoulder armor are replaced by horns from their squadron crest. Pretty cool!

For HGUC, High Mobility Zakus are yet to come out, so I guess there are some possibility that it will be released, just like Zaku I Sniper, and original design from the game 'Target In Sight'. For the MG version, the previous two releases, Johnny Raiden's Zaku II and Shin Matsunaga's Zaku II are pretty much out of date. Johnny's unit for example, has the yellow spikes in red (too bad for those who are painting their models) and both these MGs has poor playability. I hope that Bandai will consider a Version 2.0 for Zakus - not just the High Mobility versions, but the others as well. It's not fair only the Gundam has version upgrade, leaving out the Zeons.

Hope that they start with High Mobility Zaku IIs!

The red one, Kurt's Roswell's unit is almost identical to Johnny Raiden's except the head and the shoulder armor of course


The blue version, belonging to Robin Bradshaw - two spikes

3D-izzy

Being really busy with my 3D assignment lately, even though the final exam for my MA in Multimedia draws near (actually I'll be sitting for two papers tomorrow. Wuhhhuh~). I'm in front of the PC monitor for about 6 hours now fixing the A3 sized 'posters' for a giant booklet, which is part of the final hand-up.

This subject, formally called 3D Animation & Special Effects has no paper-based exams, but the assignment loads are pretty scary: four phases altogether, so if you slacked off a bit during one of the phases, then there's a hell lot to make up for. So, even though there’s no final exam, there’s still quite a bit of pressure of the coming presentation and the hand-up of one-semester project.

Plus, a 30-second animation is required, which is a pain in the a** to produce. 30 seconds is very short when viewed, but the production can take a few days. Here's the Math: if you have a lot of textures and image mapping for you models, one frame (one still image) will probably takes 11 minutes to render (that's my scenario). For PAL-video standard, there are 25 frames in one second, that's 25 X 11 minutes of crunch time to produce one second of animation (which is like nothing to our eyes). So, 30 seconds? You need 8,250 minutes = 137.5 hours = 5 days and 17 hours of heart-pumping prayer session to do (pray that the entire stuff goes well).

Of course, there's safer way to do things: break up the animation sequence into pieces, so that you only render a few seconds now, and another few parts of the work on another day. This will help your computer to rest a bit in between those rendering processes as well.

When this is over, my computer would probably send me nightmares for what I’ve made it suffered all these days!

Some of the modeling work done by me ^o^


The CD Box cover design for the final hand-up. No no, my project is not a horror story anymore, and yes yes, the kid sitting is me when I was 4