merci la vie!

PROJECT LOG #2 (ok for real this time..)

2023-06-23 10:31

BACK ALREADY long time no project log

so I've taken a slight detour and downloaded RPGMaker MV in order to take advantage of its ability to HTML5 browser export!! I have decided to use this as my dress-up game client for better longevity, responsiveness and accessibility ^o^

tumblr_2080f2ec2a2e5f4ee330fc32250af841_caf1288c_75.gif

in other words: didn't wanna wrestle with mobile vs desktop responsiveness webcode LMFAO work smarter not harder right..... O_O RIGHT

tumblr_39bda396450e7a18c9f6efee88e2e306_b1563932_75.gif

so ya that being said I've been trying to refamiliarize myself through working away at a remaster of my old game Crystal Confines!! it was a 2017 self-challenge to complete a full rpgmaker narrative game and its assets in the span of about 2 weeks..

stole these screenshots from the russian translation page bc I'm lazy < / 3 tbh I'm kinda embarrassed it's translated into so many languages but thankful to translators who bothered to do that themselves ^_T

there's much more I wanted to do and say since the beginning, and my desire to rewrite it has grown especially due to irl events I've been going through; I want to enhance the themes with my own personal experiences..

tumblr_8987ca17758525479a11c060d78adfa7_99db68f7_250.gif

the idea of logging progress in a zero-expectation unviewed place like this is relaxing~ the focus of this entry will be sharing characters redesigns-- feel like rambling away my inspirations

orphrey's design has always heavily drawn from SANAE♥chan KSDJKFSDJ ^Q^ but who can blame me.. she's the best (top 10 fave popn characters.. others r: milk, polepole, minit, smile, mary, gijiri, roki, boy & akemi-- bet there's someone missing.. )

satara's heavily inspired by klonoa2's king of sorrow and night on the galactic railroad's campanella .. he's wise and stoic, so I tried to mature his appearance a bit

I'm excited to explore albedo's childlike excitement via more expressive posing ~ 3 ~ I luv snot bubble characters idk, no doubt thanks to the windwaker child (remembers my old son shen too--)..

nimbus has a bit more plot involvement than being a tiny salute to my love for rpgmaker horror .. he's not really inspired by anything specific, just my longstanding intrigue at the contrast of carnivore vampire bats V/S herbivore fruit bats

lastly, a new edition to the cast; this is jenka, albedo's mother ^_^ loving, blunt & outspoken.. inspired by my grandma

Crystal Confines itself was a storyboarding assignment I made for my visual development class back in college! two medias fueled me:

Gabriel Garzón-Montano "Naeja"'s

lyrics..

As far as I can see
Air like water rippling heat
Praying for a breeze
For some water to rain on me
Reaching for a hand
Searching for my caravan
Thought I saw the man
Just my own footsteps in the sand
She rode a hummingbird
Blew a kiss of colored leaves
An unbelievable queen
From the depths of my fantasy
And beckoning to me
Scootched up and she made a seat
Take me to your stream
Show me the meaning of my dream

it alone inspired the sandy hourglass Galimatias lives in LOL.. Gabriel's lyrics have a biotic feeling to it and I've loved it since 2015 :-) "Moonless" and "Long Ears" are two other favorites from his discography

secondly is Mio Isayama's "Tsuki no Waltz"

being one of my favorite music videos and songs, the love story has such a transient nature to it.. p.s. pls nhk don't copyright strike this video like u did the others orz o(-<

FINALLY speaking of music, one of my close rl friends is kindly allowing me to use their old compositions for a revamped ost (luv u janglez) so nobody will have to experience the cursed fruits bore from my midimaker days LMAO

manifesting my deeprooted friendships into personal projects one gal at a time..

this janglez song will be amongst the tracklist..

tbh friends aside, there's so much music I want to pay homage to in projects of mine, especially after experiencing the greatness that is moon RPG's diverse OST-- the bar I want to set for myself when it comes to integrating old obscure musicians I enjoy into projects

I guess to end things for this log, I FINALLY played a game I've been meaning to for myself.. so I'd like to talk about it!

Idiot Maiden ... (which I implore the 2 ppl who check my blog to play).. it's so charming and the ending made me weirdly nostalgic of my teenage otome phase with jen KSDKJSDkjfdsjks

the portrait art and dialogue are simply gold..

"..First of all, it's vampire prince."

while I love the exploration of psyche/shock that's so common to see in games of this format, I think introspective dramas and playful, honest stories with something to say albeit how small remain inspirations for my own projects..

imo rana probably ranted her fake friend drama to her new Vampire Boyfriend while waiting for the bus..

the main character struck a chord with me because it reminded me of an even more naive and yes-man past version of myself Rofl X^D stuff I still struggle with but have come a long way from Thank Da Lord..

also: this chinese indie track is their theme song imo...... still luv this & "di da di"

I have my hands full with work but gonna try to my best to continue squeezing this and my dress-up prospects in some free time.. next project log will focus on that ^_^ UNTIL THEN

had a rare dream LOL so I will recall it here

I was on an elevator with a friend.. we reached our floor and she stepped off, but the elevator dropped as I was stepping off LMAO? and it cartoonishly dropped to the bottom and then went to the top and then went down again..

I got off and looked up to see a bunch of busy construction workers working on the elevator's infrastructure, so I had to find my way to the top via hard to find staircases (kinda reminded me of finding staircases in Gauntlet games). I had to stop and ask for help a lot and every stranger was friendly ^p^

I passed a flashy but abandoned arcade, a huge library divided into religious material and children's adventure books, a young man's runway show where the girls dressed like clouds and the boys dressed like stars.. I asked two teacher's where to go next and they were as clueless as I was and my dream ended shortly after--

it reminded me of the time me and my friend zach got lost in the huge new york macy's shopping center trying to buy towels.. 1932490 floors !!!

hmm.. I want go swimming..

daiso whiteboard coming in handy.. also look at my sweet gurl, imma photodump her next entry

summer dayz, pocket mirror release & opening new doors... 🎵Days Of May - naomi & goro

2023-06-15 00:11

uh o I'm already updating my blog so poorly again LMAOOOO but been itching to diary my summer so far.....

between the release of Pocket Mirror's remaster and finishing up loose ends for Little Goody Two Shoes, my time with Astral Shift projects has wrapped up for the time being!! I can't wait to see how we move forward as a team after these titles drop. ^o^ don't tell, but it's always been a secret bucketlist goal of mine to have a game I played a larger art role in acknowledged by ManlyBadassHero.. pls happen..

I want to make something nice for celebrating the release! I've started something new, but this sketch was kinda cute too..

tumblr_9f64623492c6caaeb4e6bf821c2ce2b1_6a1355b1_75.gif

these are very old (2016), but I still like them ^ 3 ^

I've joined a new team (NDA for now) as well as contributing to a few smaller projects.. please look forward to them!! it feels good to work on stuff stylistically different from my own again.. helps me grow >:-)

after such an onslaught of work I digitally unplugged just to travel a lil-- firstly, to FL with my mama in May!

I lov abusing photos AND my blog with little stickers...

in our short trip we went to the beach, the Pérez Art Museum, and the Frost Planetarium (amazing lil aquarium) this time around.. I also got my nails done by the very talented nail tech Annie!! I only get my nails done when I'm traveling and I am so enamored by nail art LOL

this was my first time getting my nails done with someone who specializes in nail art, so I wanted a theme close to my heart ^o^ rhythm games with my favorite art directions of MUKAI and Ippei Gyoubu..

definitely want to give her my business again next time I'm Miami bound! her office was so beautiful and chatting art/anime culture was very fun.. I'm already wondering if I should request Ib or Klonoa nails next HMMM

the process took several hours and throughout it, we marathonned anime and chatted the time away.. felt like I was just hanging with an old friend *_* good thing I don't live closer.. she's so talented I'd be a regular LMAO

Leando Erlich's stuff made me weirdly nostalgic of my childhood.. the dimly lit nature of public laundromats and low income apartment building living in the 2000s LOL.. also aquarium pix placeholder

I saw Yayoi Kusama's "Love is Calling"!! I'm not great at articulating my thoughts for that kind of experience but I was happy.. :-) I've always enjoyed her work after being introduced to it via one of my favorite musicians Towa Tei

gawd this was sooo embarrassing LMAOOOO I was so dazzled by the exhibit, I wasn't paying attention when exiting and ran into a plexiglass wall < / 3 clumsy ppl do not mix well with art galleries, Yes yes *Notes*..

my second favorite exhibition there was Leandro Erlich's "Liminal".. his changing room reminded me a lot of the M.C.Escher esque optical illusions of continuation I love in Klonoa 2's Maze of Memories!

that eggs benedict had me in a headlock.. SOOOO GOOD Wth

all in all very fun vacation with my mama ^_^ I'm happy she can catch a break from life too! in general I think we are turning Miami into a routine LOL.. FL every couple of years (we have family in a different part too so it kinda works out)

gurls-only sea getaway..

tumblr_inline_p7i55rsv0A1rhwzwl_75sq (1)

tumblr_inline_p7i55rnpzp1rhwzwl_75sq (2)

so much moar to say but I'll have to resume in a later blog cos I wrote enough for now KSDFKJSFD.. next on my blog to do list: talk abt my blythes > update on personal projects > CA/PA adventures w/ myn > ... let's see if I can remember to tho < / 3

unrelated but IMPORTANT.. jen and her partner have plans to move to the DMV area for job prospects and we've been geeking to each other about how exciting it is.. the idea of hanging out with my best friend more than once every several years is AMAZING.. O_O i h8 her tho don't tell her I'm very happy--

I liked the dichotomy in my airport restroom selfie: my shirt print vs pre-boarding a flight xDDDDDD Lolz.. unrelated current favorite thing lately are my panshel ceramic mugs.. they came with cute lil stirring spoons

NOW THAT I'M HOME; I have so much to catch up on LMAOO here's some personal WIPs I left on.. I'm trying to finish by the end of the month so I can resume personal projects >_> wish me LUCK

will leave u folks on this.. not allowing myself to start anything new until my PM + reaper babie themed arts are done

what makes a webdoll appealing? ..to me LOL

2023-02-21 18:51

soooo I've been toying around..

..with my dollmaker ideas!! I don't think there are quite enough pixel webdoll makers that are animesque

gaiaonline and otaku avatar maker are the two that come to mind.. many modern-day makers like everskies are amazing, but with a majority realistic-leaning faces (which are beautiful, but lesser my taste and I'm always digging for user-made anime ones instead xP).

candybar and neowiz are great examples of what I envision (that're unfortunately getting more lost to time).. >_< that being said, I've made a guideline of what I find valuable in them from example!

most importantly: it's cute

now that I have a pretty confident idea of the approach I'd like for the base, I'm still studying the type of site format I'd like to do ^ 3 ^

I think these kinds of layouts follows design principals nicely, making both the categories easily accessible at the top and displaying enough items per page so it doesn't feel like a slog to go through them all.

as an aside this gal's channel is so cool LOL luv that they play stuff like houchou shoujo gensoukyoku randomly

just for fun and because it's relevant, I thought it'd be neat to share a very casual pitch I made for my friend a few years ago *_* she develops ai filters on instagram; it's something purely for fun but if you ever see it float around somewhere someday, here's some initial concepts LOL

something very important to me is to make things as customizable as possible within reason.. I think palette swapping is such a convenient and fast way to mix things up considering how quickly programs allow you to do it nowadays!! in the above example, skintone has no excuse to be limited by anything but space or effort restrictions

basically u make a pixel doll based on yourself via the filter.. it's amazing how interactive they are these days o.O

websites with HTML-customizable areas to display various widgets like pixels are few and far between nowadays, but I still think there is something I like about people creating what they want and saving it into their image rolls forever! I still have my old ones from 2007 in my photobucket..

these are all old AWOLnow friends LOL I made dolls based on them.. yes even Ichigo (only 4 ppl will.. understand.. >_> u know who u are)

and who knows.. maybe someday websites will let its users have some visual fun again and let them customize more freely (ie. myspace, tumblr profiles, forum signatures). :-D that's something I sure can look forward to!!