06.28.2005, 1:10 P.M.
  I finally saw Howl's Moving Castle last Saturday and, honestly, I don't see what everyone is suddenly complaining about. Put simply, it's a wonderful film with excellent pacing, incredible visuals and a compelling moral.

  Miyazaki's reworking of the Diane Wynne Jones novel is one of the most original adaptations I have literally seen in years, animated or otherwise. Retain the italicized word above in the back of your mind as you see the film for the first time as, for what it's worth, adaptations usually take numerous instances of poetic license to make a novel flow in its adapted film form rather than dragging on with too many nit-picking details.

  That said, the young haberdasher Sophie's story of being blessed/cursed with old-age, slowly falling for a nihilistic sorcerer and, finally, coming to terms with what it ultimately means to be human is a relevant discourse to the conceited world that we live in today, where power struggles and vain beauty are the only motivation for a confused, complacent generation. The sheer insurmountability of a determined, experienced woman who not only takes charge of her challenging new situations and surroundings, but makes them the better for wear in the process is quite admirable.

  Hayao Miyazaki has come under heavy scrutiny for numerous similarities to his previous works. They see an aging director that has turned out what basically amounts to a miscellany of themes and tones from Nausica¥ to Spirited Away. I see a timeless tale of inner beauty and determination over impossible circumstances dished out by a collective of troubled characters that could never truly appreciate Sophie's newly-gained resolve until they are ultimately changed forever by it.

  Miyazaki's mentality seems to be that folks should take each of his films as they should take life itself. That being, for the wonderful events that constitute it, not for the conclusion that ultimately cuts you off from the people that you've hopefully come to admire along the way. In other words, just be intelligent enough to enjoy the ride while it lasts, because the ride, like life, should be cherished for what it is, not for how it comes to its inevitable conclusion.

  06.19.2005, 10:25 P.M.
  Not really much to say about this particular desktop design other than I just couldn't cut the umbilical cord. It was literally my baby off and on for months. A slight adjustment here, a tweak in lighting there, a complete change in tone and mood; you name it. I was blessed enough to have saved this illustration by Robert Pelletier for years after the GIA's untimely shutdown, and finally stopped sitting on my laurels and made it into the subtle, charming wallpaper it deserved to be. The background color was chosen to give the viewer a relaxing, tonal backdrop that would accent the center, while the "circle focus" in the center was made from Robert Pelletier's illustration and a stock photo of brilliant moonlight as it's seen through a willow tree's branches. The portrait of Link and Zelda's embrace was heavily accented and enhanced to make it look closer and more vivid than it originally appeared. This, of course, should keep the wallpaper simple, while drawing the viewer's eyes to the center. The font, by the way, is Scriptina and the Triforce in the background was hand-drawn then rendered to resemble the Triforce from A Link to the Past, the best Zelda game ever made... and now I'm done with it. I sincerely ask that all of my fellow Legend of Zelda fan enjoy this desktop design as much as possible, as it's taken up far too much of my time as it is.

Legend of Zelda, Destiny's Embrace
1600 x 1200, JPEG, 232k

  12.08.2003, 12:40 A.M.
  As I learn the finer points of scanning and redraw, my desktop designs have gotten a lot more attention. Normally, I acquire the scans I use from reliable sources (i.e. people who know how to scan things much better than I), but this time, I was involved in nearly every part of the creative process, with the exception of the illustration itself. Quite like my Last Exile wallpaper back in September, I discovered this particular scan in one of my many magazines, specifically December 2003's issue of Newtype USA. The final, cleaned scan was originally seven 1200 dpi scans that I had to adjust, match and stitch back together. There were also creases and staple holes to edit out, as this scan started out as a rather intimidating 11.5" x 35" centerfold poster. Erasing the poster's pesky background and redrawing the tips of her hair, which were cropped out of the poster's boundaries, I then recolored Mune Mune's red hair, pale skin and the highlights thereof. The grass was next, and because it was blurred in the scan, it was quite a pain in my hindquarters to extract. To me, the fixed scan begged to be made into a moonlit wallpaper, so I set out to find stock photography of the night sky in Japan. The only problem I ran into is having to redraw and expand the starry sky with the Clone Stamp brush, as well as enhance its colors, as the original photo I had to work with was quite small and wouldn't stretch to 1600 x 1200 without some noticable artifacting. I also added a black-to-blue gradient from top to bottom over the starry sky layer, to get that subtle blue-filled horizon effect that's visible when the stars have just reaching the pinnacle of their brilliance. And since I like to try new features and always attempt to give the illustrator a proper credit when I can, I took the opportunity to use Photoshop CS's Text-on-Paths feature to place an illustration credit right above Mune Mune's exposed torso. I then used the new Photographic Filters to apply a cooler, ever so slightly blue tempurature to the existing palette, making it look less sunny and more moonlit, as it should. As my first experience working with Adobe Photoshop CS, I can honestly say that it did make many things I had envisioned that much easier to accomplish.

Abenobashi, Blue Moon
1600 x 1200, JPEG, 595k