One of the things I hear about often from artists, especially visual artists, is their need to find a style for themselves. I can certainly understand that need. In an age where "artists" spring from every nook and cranny of the world, and spam their quite often mundane and mediocre affair on the world wide intarwebs, it's really hard to make yourself stand out and get noticed. The very few who do are either very unique, or have insane technical skills. Both of these traits are not something that can easily be obtained, but both are goals of any aspiring artist who wants to be recognized as the next celebrity of the art world.
It seems that finding an original "style" is something of a shortcut. Well, what is a style, really? Isn't it the method of how you execute your artwork in such a fashion that it conforms to a certain aesthetic value? That's a mouthful. In any case, a lot of what comes out in your "style" will undoubtedly be determined by your influences. Everything you've experienced is what goes into your artwork, in through that, your style.
Whether you think it or not, you have a style. It's roughly the average of your influences as an artist. And this is why I find the perceived persuit of a "style" kind of ridiculous. For example, I personally don't think my artwork is anything too unique from the thousands of other anime artists out there, but everytime someone looks at it, they tell me that they can spot it as my piece of work from a mile away. I honestly can't see it myself, but there you go.
But what I can see is the influences that I've put into my work. Over the years I've had a number of artists that I obssessed over, and being the wonderful commercial whore I was, I naturally tried to imitate them as much as I could. It probably all started with Bill Watterson. I loved Calvin and Hobbes, and I used to trace the comics all the time. I think that was the first time when I really began to divert my efforts into art. It was followed by Macross art, when I was introduced to anime art for the first time. After that, it's a blur, really. I remember I got infatuated with Slayers once, and Kunihiko Tanaka continues to be a big influence to this day. Perhaps my latest big inspiration was from Akihiko Yoshida, character designer for Matsuno masterpieces like Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII.
Newer artists lack a lot of exposure, though. I think because of their limited influences, their style isn't very developed. I see this in a lot of fan art, where you can really see how the artist really only had one major influence and so his art is almost a replica of said influence. But in time this artist will gradually shape his own style from the pieces of inspiration he picks up from other sources.
So when people say they're looking for a style... well, they're probably looking in the wrong places. You don't develop a style out of thin air. The style will come to you naturally as you grow as an artist.
Why am I talking about this in a White Currents blog? I... don't know. But I guess I can relate it to what I believe White Current's inspirations are and why I created White Currents in the first place.
Well, the inspirations are pretty straightforward, I think. My love of flight is probably the primary factor, and subsequently, I also have a love for the sky, and things that float in the endless blue field. I've always had an interest in floating islands, which was a big factor in creating White Currents. Last Exile and the Final Fantasy series, especially 12, were probably big contributors in the aerial atmosphere of the world. As for storytelling elements... there's so many influences, many of which I already mentioned in previous posts anyway.
With anything I do, I think White Currents is really just a way for me to tell stories that's already been told a million times, but with my own sensibilities thrown in. I can love a show, or a movie, or whatever, but invariably there will always be something that's amiss for me. Something I know I would've done better if I were to do it myself. I'm not really trying to be original. I'm just offering my interpretation of how things ought to be done.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Friday, July 06, 2007
Ether Wing Studios
I created a new studio blog for all works seperate from the White Currents project. It can be found here.
Just thought I'd share.
Just thought I'd share.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Ether
I think talking more about Ikons may be impossible before I divulge a little information about Ether.
In classic theory, Ether is the pure, clean air that the gods breath, as opposed to aer (or air) which normal beings breath. I don't remember this for sure, but I think if a normal person were to breath Ether, he would die. Of course, Ether was also popularized as a theoretical medium upon which particle-waves passed through, because scientists believed that electromagnetic radiation was a waveform, which meant it had to pass through a medium of some sort, as all waves do.
I think I explained before that I have a fondness for having mystical, primordial forces in my stories. I guess it's just how I grew up: with fantasy stories. Somehow crafting a world doesn't feel complete unless it has something that's totally unreal in reality existing, and "magical" forces are, to me, the center of that unreality. The idea for using Ether came up from the Xeno- series of games. The magic system was called ether, but they never really explained how it worked very well. I recall them saying that it involved nanobots, but I think that's as far as it went. But I thought it was pretty cool when Shion would yell out "Open Ether Circuits!" or "Ether Gate!" It gave me an idea for a magic system that had a lot of potential.
I used to be a fan of fantasy. And I still am, I guess, but one thing that's kind of irked me about the whole genre is magic. The typical way to represent magic is through an unexplainable mystical force, or somehow tying it to a supernatural force or entity. Well, I don't really have that much of a problem with it, but it just seems to be... a copout of sorts. With that, you can get away with anything. You don't really need to explain anything and the audience will just have to take your word that magic can do such and such. It makes magical battles pretty LPD (lame plot device) driven. Well, I suppose having any kind of magic system, be they supernatural or otherwise, can devolve into that, but I just like the idea of having some sort of concrete explanation for how things work. Maybe it's just the completionist in me, or all the time I spent in my youth playing RPGs, but I have a dying need to have all the pieces fit.
There is an anime called Scrapped Princess. I believe I mentioned it before. It's the story of a girl who's prophecized to destroy the world and so everyone's out to kill her... but as it turns out, she's the sweetest person in the world. The world is first introduced as a fantasy world, full of self proclaimed knights and mages weilding powerful magic, but we later learn that it's actually the future, and the magic being used is based in technology. I thought that was a great concept. The incantations the mages use are more like input commands rather than incantions, such as "Divine Punishment Execution Form... Manifest!" They really didn't explain how it works though, beyond saying that magic is based off of some form of mathematical formulae or something like that, which was a little disappointing to me, but at least the concept was there and my imagination could fill in the gaps.
To fill in the gaps, I turned back to Xenogears. I have the Xenogears Perfect Works book, which is a detailed guide on how the world works. I remember reading about how the Gears (mecha in Xenogears) works, and how they're powered by a mystical source of energy called the Zohar, which is manifested as a large, golden monolithic structure. The gears are fitted with slave drives, which are somehow linked to the Zohar. When the slave drives require energy, they send out a request to the Zohar, and the request is processed, releasing the required energy to the slave drive. That feels a bit more complete to me. A much more realized system of energy transfer, just like EPS systems.
I think a similar system of magic is used in an anime series I picked up recently. It's called Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, and it's, as the name suggest, of the "Magical Girl" genre that seems to be popular in Japan. But unlike the typical magical girl anime out there, they explain a lot of magic as technology based. At the heart of this is an item called, simply, a "device." It's the key to using magic, as it acts as an interface between the mage and the magic that a character an use. The character can will magic to happen, but more oftentimes, he must incant the particular magic he wants to use. The incantations are very much like input commands, and the device replies in kind. The character can yell "A. C. S. Standby!" and the device will respond "A. C. S. Open. Standing by for input." That is so cool!! XD
So this is where Ether, as it's realized in White Currents comes in. Ether is a medium that exists slightly out of phase with realspace. A small fraction of it manifests in the atmosphere of Sharidia, but the majority is hidden beyond normal reach, in what is termed Etherspace. This tiny fraction doesn't do much, but it is enough to act as a hook to get to the richer source inside Etherspace. The primary means of acquiring Ether is using humans as a conduit to draw it out. Many lifeforms have an innate connection to Ether (theories abound on how life came to be through Ether), but humans have the greatest affinity, possibly derived from their increased brainmass and thus increased neural energy. Humans can't extract Ether by themselves, though. They need a driver to extract it. Humans are merely conduits.
Many forms of drivers exist. The most important of these are the Ethergates. Seven of them exist, corresponding to the seven Empyrean Kingdoms that existed in ages long ago. These are the primary sources of Ether in the world. Though the Gates themselves were lost a long time ago, they still generate energy, and are the primary source of power through the use of a sister technology called Etherdrives. Etherdrives are the slave drives I spoke about earlier in Xenogears, whereas Ethergates are the Zohars. Etherdrives are fitted into plants and ships. By themselves they do nothing, but when paired up with an Ethergate (through a form of programming), the Etherdrive can begin requesting energy output from the Gate. The principle of how the drives fundamentally work was lost a long time ago, but through reverse engineering, the engineers were able to figure out how to at least build the components necessary for it to work.
Another form of drivers is manifested in the Ikon. They're sort of a mini Ethergate, and are able to draw Ether directly from Etherspace, instead of relying on the Ethergate. Ikons also function as a filter of sorts, since direct exposure to Ether isn't a good thing to a normal human. Should direct exposure to Ether occur, you'll end up with the final type of driver: an Ashir. I'll get into this with a later post.
Suffice it to say, Ether is a fundamental core of the functioning of the White Currents world. Ether is responsible for allowing the skyforms to float in the air. Ether also allows for the flying of skyships, and it powers many of the technology that humanity has produced in Sharidia. And of course, Ether is the driving force for the stories in White Currents. What would I do without it?
In classic theory, Ether is the pure, clean air that the gods breath, as opposed to aer (or air) which normal beings breath. I don't remember this for sure, but I think if a normal person were to breath Ether, he would die. Of course, Ether was also popularized as a theoretical medium upon which particle-waves passed through, because scientists believed that electromagnetic radiation was a waveform, which meant it had to pass through a medium of some sort, as all waves do.
I think I explained before that I have a fondness for having mystical, primordial forces in my stories. I guess it's just how I grew up: with fantasy stories. Somehow crafting a world doesn't feel complete unless it has something that's totally unreal in reality existing, and "magical" forces are, to me, the center of that unreality. The idea for using Ether came up from the Xeno- series of games. The magic system was called ether, but they never really explained how it worked very well. I recall them saying that it involved nanobots, but I think that's as far as it went. But I thought it was pretty cool when Shion would yell out "Open Ether Circuits!" or "Ether Gate!" It gave me an idea for a magic system that had a lot of potential.
I used to be a fan of fantasy. And I still am, I guess, but one thing that's kind of irked me about the whole genre is magic. The typical way to represent magic is through an unexplainable mystical force, or somehow tying it to a supernatural force or entity. Well, I don't really have that much of a problem with it, but it just seems to be... a copout of sorts. With that, you can get away with anything. You don't really need to explain anything and the audience will just have to take your word that magic can do such and such. It makes magical battles pretty LPD (lame plot device) driven. Well, I suppose having any kind of magic system, be they supernatural or otherwise, can devolve into that, but I just like the idea of having some sort of concrete explanation for how things work. Maybe it's just the completionist in me, or all the time I spent in my youth playing RPGs, but I have a dying need to have all the pieces fit.
There is an anime called Scrapped Princess. I believe I mentioned it before. It's the story of a girl who's prophecized to destroy the world and so everyone's out to kill her... but as it turns out, she's the sweetest person in the world. The world is first introduced as a fantasy world, full of self proclaimed knights and mages weilding powerful magic, but we later learn that it's actually the future, and the magic being used is based in technology. I thought that was a great concept. The incantations the mages use are more like input commands rather than incantions, such as "Divine Punishment Execution Form... Manifest!" They really didn't explain how it works though, beyond saying that magic is based off of some form of mathematical formulae or something like that, which was a little disappointing to me, but at least the concept was there and my imagination could fill in the gaps.
To fill in the gaps, I turned back to Xenogears. I have the Xenogears Perfect Works book, which is a detailed guide on how the world works. I remember reading about how the Gears (mecha in Xenogears) works, and how they're powered by a mystical source of energy called the Zohar, which is manifested as a large, golden monolithic structure. The gears are fitted with slave drives, which are somehow linked to the Zohar. When the slave drives require energy, they send out a request to the Zohar, and the request is processed, releasing the required energy to the slave drive. That feels a bit more complete to me. A much more realized system of energy transfer, just like EPS systems.
I think a similar system of magic is used in an anime series I picked up recently. It's called Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, and it's, as the name suggest, of the "Magical Girl" genre that seems to be popular in Japan. But unlike the typical magical girl anime out there, they explain a lot of magic as technology based. At the heart of this is an item called, simply, a "device." It's the key to using magic, as it acts as an interface between the mage and the magic that a character an use. The character can will magic to happen, but more oftentimes, he must incant the particular magic he wants to use. The incantations are very much like input commands, and the device replies in kind. The character can yell "A. C. S. Standby!" and the device will respond "A. C. S. Open. Standing by for input." That is so cool!! XD
So this is where Ether, as it's realized in White Currents comes in. Ether is a medium that exists slightly out of phase with realspace. A small fraction of it manifests in the atmosphere of Sharidia, but the majority is hidden beyond normal reach, in what is termed Etherspace. This tiny fraction doesn't do much, but it is enough to act as a hook to get to the richer source inside Etherspace. The primary means of acquiring Ether is using humans as a conduit to draw it out. Many lifeforms have an innate connection to Ether (theories abound on how life came to be through Ether), but humans have the greatest affinity, possibly derived from their increased brainmass and thus increased neural energy. Humans can't extract Ether by themselves, though. They need a driver to extract it. Humans are merely conduits.
Many forms of drivers exist. The most important of these are the Ethergates. Seven of them exist, corresponding to the seven Empyrean Kingdoms that existed in ages long ago. These are the primary sources of Ether in the world. Though the Gates themselves were lost a long time ago, they still generate energy, and are the primary source of power through the use of a sister technology called Etherdrives. Etherdrives are the slave drives I spoke about earlier in Xenogears, whereas Ethergates are the Zohars. Etherdrives are fitted into plants and ships. By themselves they do nothing, but when paired up with an Ethergate (through a form of programming), the Etherdrive can begin requesting energy output from the Gate. The principle of how the drives fundamentally work was lost a long time ago, but through reverse engineering, the engineers were able to figure out how to at least build the components necessary for it to work.
Another form of drivers is manifested in the Ikon. They're sort of a mini Ethergate, and are able to draw Ether directly from Etherspace, instead of relying on the Ethergate. Ikons also function as a filter of sorts, since direct exposure to Ether isn't a good thing to a normal human. Should direct exposure to Ether occur, you'll end up with the final type of driver: an Ashir. I'll get into this with a later post.
Suffice it to say, Ether is a fundamental core of the functioning of the White Currents world. Ether is responsible for allowing the skyforms to float in the air. Ether also allows for the flying of skyships, and it powers many of the technology that humanity has produced in Sharidia. And of course, Ether is the driving force for the stories in White Currents. What would I do without it?
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Ikons
Dammit, I was going to do some sketches today and post those up, but I got sidetracked by a bunch of tasks... like doing laundry, cooking, and watching Nanoha. So I guess I'll settle with a little rant about Ikons instead.
Ikons are what make White Currents fun. They're the mystical, magical items that govern the destinies of many of the principle characters in the stories. The idea for Ikons originated from the True Runes in the Suikoden RPG series. In Suikoden, the True Runes are said to be the elemental forces of the world, which were born when the universe itself was created. The True Runes are, for the most part, innert, but they exhibit a form of will. They weave fates so that others will be guided to them, and the Runes will impart their wills on the individuals they pick.
In Saphiel's story, I wanted the stories to be explorative of the world of the series, Sharidia. Meaning that I wanted each episode to focus on a region of the world, or the culture of a civilization, and have Saphiel explore them for the viewers. The influence came from Kino's Journey, an anime series I dearly love. The only thing was... it wouldn't have been as dynamic if Saphiel were to explore these locales by herself. In Kino's Journey, Kino travels with her motorrad, a talking motorcycle. No, the motorrad isn't some kind of goofy cartoon character. It was rendered as a solid piece of machinery... but it projected a voice and conversed with Kino, and other characters. It's kind of stranged, and it worked like a charm. What I needed for Saphiel was a travelling partner.
Originally I was going to give Saphiel a small wyvern like creature as a sort of pet and companion, for her travels through the skies. She still has that pet, although it's now something of a bird instead, named Eos. The only problem was... did I want this animal to talk? I mean, it could be intelligent and all, and I have no problems with that. I wanted it to be more of a friend to Saphiel than a pet, and I still do. But... a talking animal? I wasn't too comfortable with that idea for my story world. For the most part, I want it to be a believable world, not a storybook or fantasy world. I know, having a world composed entirely of floating islands, mystical artifacts, heavier than air skyships that can float indefinately isn't really doing anything for believability. But dammit, I can believe it! And that's what matters! But where I draw the lines is in talking animals. I absolutely cannot stand talking animals in stories that try to take itself seriously. One reason I refuse to watch Chronicles of Narnia. It was handled correctly in Lord of the Rings, where the animals are intelligent and friendly, and they may even understand spoken language, but they don't talk back. They can communicate in other ways, but talking wouldn't be one of them. Anyway, I digress...
So in comes the Ikon. The particular Ikon for Saphiel is named Solumn, or Sol for short. It's a small brooch that Saphiel uses to clip her cloak together, but it's no ordinary piece of ornament. It's actually an intelligent and magical jewelry, that grants Saphiel certain powers to keep her safe. And of course, it's a trusty (if oftentimes annoying) travelling companion for Saphiel.
That was the original motivation for creating an Ikon, but I realized what I could do with the concept and greatly expanded upon it immediately, with Suikoden being a major influence. Ikons can represent the primal forces at work in the world, which in my case would be Ether. Actually, what I originally wanted the Ikons to do aside from being a companion to Saphiel was to be a barrier against the Ashir, the malicious, vampiric race of beings in White Currents. Of course, how they were used as a barrier was something I had to tackle, which was further compounded by the fact that I didn't really know what made the Ashir a threat, really. All I knew was that eventually, Saphiel would run into an Ashir, and Solumn would be the one to save her. How to tie the pieces together, though? Hmmm.
Well, the Ether concept came to the rescue. I guess I'll talk more about Ether in another post, but essentially I made both Ikons and Ashir creatures of Ether. Ashir require Ether for sustenance, and about the only way to extract them is to use a human as a conduit. Ikons require a human host to draw Ether for their abilities. The Ikons were created specifically to fight the Ashir, since about the only way to counter Ether attacks is with Ether. So, with this in mind, I began to construct the methods for how Ikons function, and began developing an entire backstory for them.
Well, it's kind of late, and I think this qualifies for my daily contribution for White Currents for today, so I'm going to retire. I'll go more indepth with Ikons later.
Ikons are what make White Currents fun. They're the mystical, magical items that govern the destinies of many of the principle characters in the stories. The idea for Ikons originated from the True Runes in the Suikoden RPG series. In Suikoden, the True Runes are said to be the elemental forces of the world, which were born when the universe itself was created. The True Runes are, for the most part, innert, but they exhibit a form of will. They weave fates so that others will be guided to them, and the Runes will impart their wills on the individuals they pick.
In Saphiel's story, I wanted the stories to be explorative of the world of the series, Sharidia. Meaning that I wanted each episode to focus on a region of the world, or the culture of a civilization, and have Saphiel explore them for the viewers. The influence came from Kino's Journey, an anime series I dearly love. The only thing was... it wouldn't have been as dynamic if Saphiel were to explore these locales by herself. In Kino's Journey, Kino travels with her motorrad, a talking motorcycle. No, the motorrad isn't some kind of goofy cartoon character. It was rendered as a solid piece of machinery... but it projected a voice and conversed with Kino, and other characters. It's kind of stranged, and it worked like a charm. What I needed for Saphiel was a travelling partner.
Originally I was going to give Saphiel a small wyvern like creature as a sort of pet and companion, for her travels through the skies. She still has that pet, although it's now something of a bird instead, named Eos. The only problem was... did I want this animal to talk? I mean, it could be intelligent and all, and I have no problems with that. I wanted it to be more of a friend to Saphiel than a pet, and I still do. But... a talking animal? I wasn't too comfortable with that idea for my story world. For the most part, I want it to be a believable world, not a storybook or fantasy world. I know, having a world composed entirely of floating islands, mystical artifacts, heavier than air skyships that can float indefinately isn't really doing anything for believability. But dammit, I can believe it! And that's what matters! But where I draw the lines is in talking animals. I absolutely cannot stand talking animals in stories that try to take itself seriously. One reason I refuse to watch Chronicles of Narnia. It was handled correctly in Lord of the Rings, where the animals are intelligent and friendly, and they may even understand spoken language, but they don't talk back. They can communicate in other ways, but talking wouldn't be one of them. Anyway, I digress...
So in comes the Ikon. The particular Ikon for Saphiel is named Solumn, or Sol for short. It's a small brooch that Saphiel uses to clip her cloak together, but it's no ordinary piece of ornament. It's actually an intelligent and magical jewelry, that grants Saphiel certain powers to keep her safe. And of course, it's a trusty (if oftentimes annoying) travelling companion for Saphiel.
That was the original motivation for creating an Ikon, but I realized what I could do with the concept and greatly expanded upon it immediately, with Suikoden being a major influence. Ikons can represent the primal forces at work in the world, which in my case would be Ether. Actually, what I originally wanted the Ikons to do aside from being a companion to Saphiel was to be a barrier against the Ashir, the malicious, vampiric race of beings in White Currents. Of course, how they were used as a barrier was something I had to tackle, which was further compounded by the fact that I didn't really know what made the Ashir a threat, really. All I knew was that eventually, Saphiel would run into an Ashir, and Solumn would be the one to save her. How to tie the pieces together, though? Hmmm.
Well, the Ether concept came to the rescue. I guess I'll talk more about Ether in another post, but essentially I made both Ikons and Ashir creatures of Ether. Ashir require Ether for sustenance, and about the only way to extract them is to use a human as a conduit. Ikons require a human host to draw Ether for their abilities. The Ikons were created specifically to fight the Ashir, since about the only way to counter Ether attacks is with Ether. So, with this in mind, I began to construct the methods for how Ikons function, and began developing an entire backstory for them.
Well, it's kind of late, and I think this qualifies for my daily contribution for White Currents for today, so I'm going to retire. I'll go more indepth with Ikons later.
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