Monday, April 26, 2010

Poser Artists

To be humble in victory, to be gallant in defeat. But what about cancellation?

Once upon a time, there was a competition, which was targeted to run for a month. The competition was a Shirt design contest with the winning entry being an official shirt design for a group. The contest ran for nearly a month. A week before the final judging, previews were shown basically consisting of two submissions which were submitted early in the timeframe... and with still ample time left before the deadline, the designs were attacked thoroughly. The reactions were so unethical and unprofessional that the organizers were forced to pull the plug and have another person do it.

The worst part, having wannabee critics making suggestions and bitching around that "It would be better like this, With this and that". With suggestions like that majorly coming from "inactive members" of the said group implying that they want their so called revisions and suggestions be applied but it was provided that there is nearly a month's leeway to make an entry themselves. One has to ask, Since they are so almighty and all knowing, Why didn't they create an entry themselves? FYI, the contestants who joined sacrificed time and effort to do their entries despite their busy schedules and responsibilities.

I was not a part of the contestants but as a part of the selection committee and an artist myself, I am terribly disgusted with this. It is disrespectful for those who placed time and effort to create an entry for their works to just be nullified like that because of mumbling whiners excessively complaining. It is much better to lose than to have it canceled. In losing, at least you learn something. In cancellation you get nil, nada, zero... In this situation, they're implying that the winners be the ones who are stubborn, the ones who are lazy, the ones who think in their tiny fantasy worlds that they are worthy of being critique royalty and the ones who think respect is earned by acting like a bitch on the web.

Such a cowardly aim should prevent people for even considering themselves as artists.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

SC Photoshoot: Raphael Soreil

Hooded frenchman


Model/ Cosplayer: Rayblack
Shot at: E.K. (During otakonek Event)



caged seraph

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Review: Blackbird, Fly Kamen Rider Decade Edition

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Blackbird, Fly is a toycam just like Lomo. But the blackbird is a twin lens reflex or TLR Camera similar to the ones Yashieca and Rollerflex made in the days. It was made by a Japanese company known as superheadz.


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In the series, tsukasa kadoya, aka. Masked Rider Decade uses this to capture the different worlds he is in to. He usually messes up the shots unless he either touches a rider's heart/ Solves the problem in that world or, he finds his own world himself.

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Look

The Blackbird, Fly sports your typical TLR camera given the toycam treatment. It sport's Masked Rider Decade's Magenta Color scheme as opposed to the regular blackbird,fly colors or Red, Blue, Orange, White and Black

Controls

There are minimal ways to control pics for this camera. One of which is controlling the focusing distance through the focus ring. The distance can be from .8 of a meter to infinity.

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For Shutter speed controls, there are 2 ways to control this. First is through a normal mode where it has a fixed shutter and a bulb mode which allows you to hold the shutter manually for as long as you like.

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There is also a control for aperture which was labeled as a cloudy and sunny icon. The Cloudy mode is f/7 while the sunny mode is f/11

Accessories:

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The Blackbird comes with a box with KR decade designs, A Manual, And a "Bird Cage" Case and a strap (Made of Nylon, not the leather one that Tsukasa wears) But I heard there is a release with Tsukasa's Leather Strap.

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It also comes with 2 extra masks which allows the user to shoot 24mm x 24mm and 35mm x 24mm aside from the usual 35mm x 35mm

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Flash Compatibility

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Blackbird,Fly can attach with almost all kinds of flashes. But some are too heavy that it cant stand quite well.

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A Tripod/ Gorillapod usually fixes the problem.

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The Blackbird is also capable of shooting strobes because it fires even with a wirless RF trigger.

Developing

Developing can be a bit of a hassle since not all of the 1 hour developing shops has a negative scanner which can go all the way to the sprocket holes. There are some developing shops like digiprint which does the scan to CD process and includes the sprocket holes at the sides.

Multiple Exposure

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The Double image (Multiple Exposure) effect is a style usually seen on tsukasa's shots on the kamen rider decade series. This is done by not advancing the film after shooting.

Some of the sample Pictures

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Overall

Pros
Helps you discipline your shot selection.
Great alternative from the western toycam brands
A good accessory even if you're cosplaying or not

Cons
Kinda Hassle to develop
What you see in the viewfinder doesnt necessarily appear in the pic (Because its a TLR)
Lock release is kind of hard to push especially in preparation for rewinding

Overall score: 8/10

Review: Figma Drossel

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People buy/ collect figures and memorabillia because they like a certain character and would like to have a representation of it. But once in a while, there are some figures that even when you have no idea about it, its so cool that you'd want to get it and just backread about the character later. That's the case for me with Figma Drossel.

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The 19th Lord of Uranos' Kingdom's Tempest Domain, Drossel Juno Vierzehntes Heizregister Fürstin von Flügel is the main character from Disney channel and Toei's collaboration series: Fireball. The series ran for 13 one and a half minute episodes.




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The box is your typical figma box design, with a Disney channel logo on the front and has Drossel's patterns over certain parts. It is also a tad wider than normal figma boxes because of its big extra accessories.


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Articulation is great, Drossel can be posed in any physical possible way. At first hough, you need to be careful since joints would have the tendency of being stiff and have a high rist of breaking. But if you got over that and had it a little bit loosened up, it would be ok.

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To add, there seems to be a need of care though when it comes to the wrists as this area is fragile and some acquaintances had already broken theirs. I'd also warn you with the shoulder joints. these arent directly noticeable, but they are very stiff.

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Paintjob wise, drossel stands out with a glossy white look similar to the CGI anime. details from panel lines to rivets are shown well and is accented by the clear/metallic blue eyes.



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Accessories wise, Drossel comes with 3 extra accessories and a stand. the first is a jet pack which drossel originally thought to be a fashion accessory. Characterized as a pair of big buns with hidden jetpacks.


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The next one is similar to what kung fu girls or even princess leia would wear. Drossel uses this when performing capoiera (which she refers to as karate).

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The last one is an encyclopedia/ Anthropology book about humans.

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Aside from the 3 main acessories, miku comes with 4 extra set of hands. A visible problem is that the hands do not fit within the Extra hand holder alloted to figma figures. Some of them quickly falls off.

Drossel also looks like another familiar character, Sari from the transformers animated series. Here is drossel digibashed by yours truly to be sari.

Starscream vs Sari

And also, as the obvious, big similarities with miku hatsune (or in the pic, miku kagami).

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Overall, it is one of the best figmas out there. Despite its minimal set of flaws, you should really get one.

10/10


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