Ethereality News & Weblog

NEWS:
It looks like I’ll be doing some work on the card game The Spoils. Tenacious Games had contacted me a few months back about doing the cards, but I was tied up with Spiderman 3 and Surf’s Up for Sony Pictures during those months. Now that my schedule’s opened up, I’ll probably end up doing roughly a dozen cards for them. I’ve done pen & paper RPG illustrations many years ago for R. Talsorian’s Cyberpunk: Pacific Rim, so this is kind of similar territory. A lot of my peers don’t like doing work for game cards and RPG manuals because these markets tend to pay less than others, but you could always negotiate a better rate to make it worth your time and effort (assuming you are worth the higher rate in the eyes of your client).

WEBLOG:
As a reader and a writer, I’ve always treasured the universal emotional truths that we all share as human beings. I’m not talking about emotions that are easily categorized like joy, pain, anger, boredom..etc, I’m talking about more complex layers of emotions that only arise from some form of dynamic interaction, not merely passive responses to the world around us. For example, the absolution of someone after being vindicated of a crime he did not commit, or the weight that dissolves from one’s back when he learns to let go of a hate that’s been the dark and destructive driving force of his existence, or rediscovering a long lost dream and rekindling the passion for making it come true. These are universal emotional truths unique to humans–ones that are far more dynamic than the simple emotions that even dogs can feel. They are the ingredients for great stories, and I’m drawn to them when I write or when I’m enjoying the works of other writers. I’ve seen so many aspiring writers that don’t understand this simple dynamic, and that’s the difference between a writer that has something to say, or a writer that simply tells a good yarn. Not that there’s anything wrong with a good yarn, but for me personally, if the story can resonate deeper than the basic entertainment appeal, then I become emotionally invested and the payoff is far more powerful. Unfortunately, there’s another category of writers–one that goes through the motion of fabricating these universal emotional truths in a manner that’s almost contemptuous of the reader/viewer’s emotional intelligence (or it puts to question the writer’s own emotional intelligence, or level of talent). Usually, when I’m experiencing the works of this type of writer, I feel either A) manipulated B) lost of emotional immersion due to the writer’s transparent execution shortcomings, or C) lost of interest due to the writer’s lack of emotional common sense. Sometimes I wish I had never learned critical analysis of creative works–be it art, writing, music, photography, or film, because when you’re less picky, you get to enjoy so much more. Even mediocre works can keep you immersed and entertained. Does all this sound very pretentious? It probably does, but that’s just what I’m feeling at the moment. Mind you though, I do enjoy the occasional cheese now and then if it’s done brilliantly (the British TV comedy Spaced comes to mind), so I’m not really as stuffy as my rantings suggest.

…

I’ve been playing Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, and so far it’s pretty disappointing (I really should have read all the negative reviews online first). The people responsible for the writing of the game belongs to the third group I described above. If the gameplay itself was really fun,then I’d have been less critical, but it isn’t. I’m not even sure if I want to finish the game at this point. Maybe I should just hold out for Half-Life 2: Episode 2, as that’s the only franchise with a reliable pedigree out there these days.

…

Oh My God. I never knew… (For all you fans of Oingo Boingo)

On a related note, I found out a while ago that Danny Elfman was commissioned by the Carnegie Hall to compose an original work titled “Serenada Schizophrana,” and it premiered in February of 2005. What’s also interesting was that Andy Summers (from The Police) performed on the guitar for another original piece preceeding Serenada Schizophrana. For those of you that haven’t been following Andy Summers’ career since The police broke up, he’s pretty much been immersed in the contemporary jazz scene (something that Sting’s dabbled in as well).

Have you guys noticed that the rockers of that generation tend to veer into the classical or jazz territory as they get older? I wonder what this generation of rockers will get into as they age. It seems that no matter what genre of music you start in, you’ll always gravitate towards the more conventional music styles as you age–probably because more conventional music styles have a richer history and tend to have greater musical complexity (at least according to conventional music theory). I personally have felt this as well, since the older I get, the more I gravitate towards composing orchestral works. This isn’t to say I’ve lost interest in the more edgy styles of music though–it’s just that orchestral works tend to be more challenging to compose and arrange. I’ve always been into jazz an classical even as a teenager though, so this is hardly a new transition. My greatest joy will always be hybridizing different genres though, and it’s something I’ve done for as long as I’ve been making music.

I remember distinctly back in the late 80’s, I wanted to combine orchestral and electronic music, but back then I didn’t have the necessary equipment to pull something like that off (high-end orchestral libraries were not an option back then as their cost was astronomical). When Hans Zimmer started to rise to celebrity status in Hollywood, I observed the hybrid style I had in my head become more and more popular, to the point where it’s the standard style these days for film/game/TV scores. Now that I have the necessary equipment to make that kind of music, it’s no longer something unique. I’ve always felt that being innovative and original isn’t necessarily the most important thing a creative person should strive for though–more than anything, simply expressing what resonates within you is the most important objective, and if you happen to be unique, then your work will be perceived as so. So many people mistake innovation and originality for “better,” and it couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve seen and heard and read plenty of very unique but completely pointless and atrocious creative works that used “being different” as a crutch and a gimmick (a lot of modern art comes to mind). But who knows? Maybe those people were actually “unique” and they did express what resonated within. It could just be that I’m the one that’s too mundane.

…

I can’t believe it’s time to add more storage space to my rig already (I just ordered a 750GB hard drive from Fry’s, and a SATA 3GB/IDE133 controller card from newegg.com). Between my two machines, I will have almost two terabytes of storage space, plus 600GB of backup storage that’s off-line most of the time (I only hook them up when backing up files). The new hard drive will be taking over the sample libraries duties, but I’m a bit nervous about streaming all of my samples from one drive–it could lead to audio crackles and pops during recording and playback. At least I’ll be installing it internally though, so it’ll still be performing much better than an exterior option (which was what i considered at first).

…

I was at the Palo Alto branch of Fry’s a few days ago, and it was such an appalling experience. For example, their DVD sections were grossly mislabeled, and their foreign section didn’t even have the DVD’s in alphabetical order! How the hell can anyone find anything in that condition? I talked to one of their employees about it, and he said they’ve badgered the manager about doing something, but the manager kept blowing them off, and upper management won’t listen to the little guys, as they always take the managers’ word for everything. He also told me that many have quit because the managers refused to listen to employees’ suggestions on how to improve the store. I talked to one of the managers, and sure enough, his eyes were glazed over as he fed me some line about “we’re looking into it.” They need to fire a bunch of managers at that store, because it’s probably one of the worst managed stores I’ve ever seen.

NEWs:
Kitty Cat Diary updated (this update contains a quick tip on black & white conversion for digital photography):

WEBLOG:
Elena and I really need to get an exterior antenna for our GPS unit (Magellan Roadmate 860T), because whenever we drive to the city (that’s what we call San Francisco in the Bay Area–”the city”), the GPS gets totally confused since it can’t lock onto enough satellites with all the tall buildings in the way. Our nickname for the GPS unit is “Gou-gou” (”doggy” in Chinese) because it’s like our seeing-eye dog when we need directions, and when Gou-gou gets confused in the city, our positioning on the GPS map starts to “swim” all over the place, going through buildings and doing all kinds of impossible maneuvers. Holding it out the window helps, but that’s a terrible solution since you can’t really read the screen or hear the directions that way. Like all electronic gadgets, accessories for the GPS is expensive, but in this case, it’s probably worth it.

News:
New concept mood piece for a horror game. Hope you’re not squeamish:

Weblog:
How can you injure your foot to the point of being unable to walk and unable to sleep due to the pain, and not remember how you did it? Well, don’t ask me because I can’t remember how I did it. I’ve had to cancel a lecture at the Art Institute of California (San Francisco) because of this bad foot.

A family friend recommended a Chinese doctor, and I went in to get acupunctured, but it only made my foot worse–the damn thing swelled up and looked like a pig’s foot, but was fine before the acupuncture. The doctor’s attitude didn’t impress us either, with his diatribe about how western medical science is inferior and western doctors don’t know a damn thing about foot injuries (right. Sports stars that make millions a year are all wrong to have western doctors treat their sports injuries), and the fact he made light of the pain I was in, as if he knew better how much pain I was really in and that I was only putting on a show. For who?? What do I have to gain by putting on a show? If I’m in a lot of pain, then I’m in a lot pain–what right did he have to tell me my pain is no big deal?

This doctor also told us not to use ice, and to use Chinese Red Flower Oil on it and heat wrap it. Well, my western medical common sense tells me that you do NOT heat a swollen injury–you ice that sucker until it’s no longer swollen. So, Elena and I decided to go against everything this Chinese doctor said and followed our western medical common sense–we iced my foot for a good half hour, and guess what? The swelling went down, and I actually slept well that night instead of being kept awake by the pain like the previous nights. My foot doesn’t hurt nearly as much now as it did for the past few days after we iced it; so much for the hubris of that Chinese doctor. We promptly cancelled our next appointment with him.

A few days later, we were introduced to another Chinese doctor, who is supposed to be the teacher of the previous doctor. He stuck me with an acupuncture needled on my hip, and worked that sucker hard, trying to find the nerve that connected to my foot. Omigod it hurt like hell the way he twisted and twirled that needle around. Finally he got it and I felt an electric shock in my shin. According to him, what he did was to numb and relax my foot so I can move it more freely and let all the built-up fluids get flushed away and excreted. Well, my hip hurt for two days and my foot didn’t get any better at all. So what did Elena and I do? We decided to ice that sucker some more and ignore what the doctor said. And guess what? It worked. Simply icing my foot for 23~30 minutes every 4 hours or so really worked. A few days later I was able to walk again. Now I’m walking like a normal person again, instead of a wannabe gansta rapper.

Don’t get me wrong, I know that Chinese medicine can be effective for certain things, but it was wrong for that first Chinese doctor to outright belittle western medical science, and it didn’t help either that his teacher’s effort didn’t do a thing for my foot.

…

I came *this* close to bidding on an old Terratec soundcard that’s got the Waldorf Microwave XT PC extension, which is identical to the normal Microwave XT, except you can’t expand it beyond 10 voices like you could with the normal one, and you don’t get those sexy 40+ knobs to play with. I even have a working old PC I had put together in 1998 that’s still working and has ISA slots for the soundcard, but in the end, I decided I’d rather hold out for the normal hardware unit, as the Waldorf allure to me is not just the sound capabilities, it’s also that funky “oh-so-German” industrial design. Seriously, there’s just no comparison between this:

and this:

My dream is to have the lovely bright orange Microwave XT right next the the rare bright yellow Q–they’d make a lovely couple.

I’ve been researching the Dave Smith Poly Evolver recently, and it’s quite a beast. I’m a bit confused as to how few voices it has though–or am I not understanding the concept of that synth? Maybe they way it’s structured doesn’t require more voices for complex sounds? Although it isn’t exactly sexy (it looks a bit like sci-fi B-movie spaceship controls) , it’s still pretty easy on the eyes:

Rumors for Sonar 6 has been making the rounds–I can’t wait to see what the Cakewalk boys have cooked up this time. I long for the day when Sonar’s included arsenal can go head-to-head with Logic–it’ll be a beautiful day because I’d stop feeling that intense jealousy towards Logic users (as I’m too practical to ever buy a Mac. No don’t flame me on this–just agree to disagree).

…

Came across this quote recently, and I thought it was worth repeating here:

“The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanely sensitive.

To them… a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death.

Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create — so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, their very breath is cut off…

They must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency they are not really alive unless they are creating.

- Pearl Buck”

…

I finally finished Dreamfall, and unfortunately, my opinion about it didn’t change much from the last time I wrote about the game. It’s really too bad, since I was totally ready to fall in love with it, yet the long-awaited sequel to The Longest Journey just didn’t sweep me off my feet.

On the other hand, I’ve been having a blast with F.E.A.R. Combat, the free multiplayer Sierra just released. It’s a bit strange to start each respawn with only one firearm, since the concept of a sidearm in addition to the main weapon has been a time-honored tradition for FPS games. Hell, that’s how it is in real life too. I guess they figured the sidearm is next to useless for most situations. Since the other CQB type modes are faster-paced in comparison, the CTF mode in outdoor terrain feels like an interesting mix, as the long-range scope gives it a more realistic military feel, and the terrain itself hides players quite well–almost Ghost Recon-ish.

Dark Messiah of Might & Magic’s demo was interesting. I have a soft spot for fantasy FPS, since it’s so rarely done (and almost never done well), and I thought the demo’s FPS melee combat was fun enough to consider purchasing the full game; however, I really hated the first half of it–voice instructions from some invisible mentor is such a tiring cliche, and the dialogue/voice acting was irritating as well–it couldn’t have possibly been any more cliched.

…

Elena and I finally broke down and got a new cellphone. We were holding out until we’re sure where we’ll be moving to next, but life just became too inconvenient without one, and we’d rather face changing phone number later if we move to a different area code. We researched Cingular and T-Mobile and while I liked Cingular’s rollover minutes, Elena preferred the cheaper price and more minutes of T-Mobile (and they both boasted better coverage–hard to tell who’s the delusional one, so I just pretended they’re both lying). Of course, the wife always wins, so we left the store with a Nokia 6103 that’s got a T-Mobile logo on it.

It’s been years since I’ve needed a cellphone (although Elena always had one), and boy, they’ve gotten quite advanced. The last two cellphones I had were all from five years ago, so the technology definitely moved on. I tried making my own custom mp3 ringtone, but found out I’d have to pay $5.99 a month just to be able to upload custom multimedia stuff to the phone. It’s really not worth it IMO. A data cable for connecting to a computer is also ridiculously expensive, and what can you do with it? Just downloading cellphone photos, uploading to do lists, notes, images..etc. I think I’ll just let the phone be a phone and not cause it any identity crisis. Afterall, we got it for free, so it’s not like we paid for all those fancy features. Besides, the phone’s camera is next to useless in low-light situations, which is one of the most common situations you’d want to use a camera (funny how that works, isn’t it?).

News:
I’ve just returned from CGOverdrive 2006 in Singapore, and it was a blast! Although the jetlag and the south east Asian weather took its toll on my body, I managed to survive the whole affair with only a sore throat and recurring dizzy spells (no idea what that’s all about).

The conference itself was a huge success–I think it surprised all of us. Not that we expected it to suck, just that the vibe of the whole thing was so wonderful–all the attendees were very enthusiastic, and all the speakers (well, almost all) rocked the audience during their workshops. The kind folks behind the whole thing were very generous and professional, and have a genuine love for everything related to CG. The real shocker for me was the fact I got mobbed for autographs and photos everywhere I went for all three days of the conference. I had no idea people actually knew who I was, or even cared, but apparently despite the national diversity of the attendees (Philippines, India, Thailand, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, UK, Sweden, USA..etc), they know about me from online CG forums and websites. If any of you are reading this–hi! it was very nice to meet you all!

No trip is complete without photos, right? That’s why I took plenty–complete with commentary! Read up on my little trip to Singapore and look at the boring photos. I put all the photos and commentary on a seperate page because I don’t want to kill all the 56k modem guys who read the blog but aren’t interested in the CGOverdrive 2006 conference.

News:
I’ll be flying to Singapore in a few days, as I’ve been invited as a guest speaker to teach a digital painting workshop for CGOverdrive 2006–other guest speakers include hot shots from Pixar, ILM, Bluesky, Rhythm & Hues..etc. It’s amazing they invited me, since I’m just some dude on the internet, not a worshipped superstar from a world-famous studio like the others. I’m also not one of the top digital painters out there either, so I’m not sure why they didn’t pick someone else. Supposedly the people that will be attending have asked for me by name, so I guess CG kids in Singapore dig my stuff. I’ve worked hard on the preparation of the material, so I hope the attendees will find my workshop worthwhile. If any of you are attending, I’ll see you guys there. Make sure to say hi–we’ll go have a drink or something (I’m not much of a drinker though, so please don’t try to get me plastered).

The good folks putting together CGOverdrive 2006 will be putting me up for four nights at a pretty cool hotel that looks like a modern art piece. I’ll definitely be taking lots of photos of that place.

Weblog:
I’m dreading the upcoming long flight to Singapore, as I’ve gotten quite weary of long flights in the last few years. I almost wanted to buy an Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro to make the trip more appealing, but with a price tag of $200+, I really can’t justify a brand-new in-ear monitor just for one trip (they are nothing like ear-bud headphones, which are basically the cheapest pieces of crap for music listening). Maybe if one day I’m forced to do a lot of traveling, I’ll buy one. You can learn more about in-ear monitors and other types of headphones here.

I actually have two excellent headphones already–the Sennheiser HD 555, which is an amazing pair of open headphones for the price, with sound quality that rivals some of the much more expensive audiophile/pro headphones, and the discontinued Denon AH-D950, which is a sealed pair of cans that’s been with me for many years and home-repaired a few times. The AH-D950 has a more dynamic sound–noticeably boosted bass and slightly harsher treble, but still accurate enough to not be misleading when working on music. It isn’t nearly as comfortable to wear as the Sennheiser though, as the cartilage of my ears would start to hurt after a few hours of straight listening. The Sennheiser HD 555 is a full sized pair of cans, so the felt cushion sits very comfortably around your ears and can be worn all day and still be very comfortable. The only drawback of open design headphones (not fully sealed to provide superior acoustics) is that you can hear other people still and they can also hear your music–a tinny and faint version of what you hear. However, for superior sound quality, nothing beats unsealed open headphones, as they don’t have to deal with a resonant chamber’s feedback of sealed headphones. I’ll probably replace the Denon eventually, as the Sennheiser in comparison revealed its weakness and lack of comfort. I guess ideally, I should have one pair of open cans for music making (where accuracy is critical), one pair of sealed cans for typical listening (when I don’t want to disturb others), and one pair of in-ear monitors for traveling (seals out all outside noise).

…

While looking to extend the battery life of my Creative Nomad Jukebox 3 (20 GB hard disk mp3 player), I discovered to my dismay that it’s been discontinued and now completely unsupported by the company. Fortunately, Boxwave, a third-party manufacturer, has picked up the slack.

…

In one of the threads on KVR Audio, someone posted this pretty funny little observation:

Cabinfever wrote:

Maybe it’s all about the users, not the software. Let me be very mean for a moment and try to charactize (and exagerate of course) each hosts users:

SX3 / Sonar: Music industry equivalent of accountants

Protools: “Don’t you know I’m a pro?”

FL Studio: Teens and fanboys

Orion: Only two users - Bones & Kriminal

Logic: Supporters of corporate evil (PC betrayl not forgotten)

N-Track: People who should have known better

Reaper: Ex-musicians now more interested in beta testing

Traktion: Cheap-ass zealots

Ableton Live: Smug fashion victims

( It’s just a laugh OK )

I guess that makes me an accountant, as I’m a Sonar guy, and was a Cubase guy prior. I would’ve been a Logic guy had they not betrayed PC users. I was envious of all the cool extras that Logic users get for the longest time, but now that I’ve stocked up on some great VSTI’s over the years, and after the new additions in Sonar 5, I no longer feel the presence of the green-eyed monster.

…

I watched the French version of March of the Penguins today with Elena and I thought the first person point of view narrations of the dad, mom, and baby penguins were just horrible. I understand that the filmmakers wanted a different style of documentary, but the overly sentimental and pretentious narrations that grafted human emotions onto penguins just wore on my nerves. A film like Babe works because it’s supposed to be a story, not a documentary. The purpose of a documentary first and foremost is to educate, and when you turn it into a story that does not give sufficient information about the actual facts of the penguin’s biological makeup, their mating habits, the environemental facts, their hunting habits..etc, it becomes a lot less fulfilling intellectually than it could’ve been. We are not blind to the harship of the penguins–we have eyes and can see what they go through on the screen, so when the filmmakers decided to hammer what’s essentially redundant information narrated by voices that gives the penquins fabricated human qualities into our heads, it becomes tiresome and irrelevant. The electronic pop music itself is cute at times, but one particular track was completely inappropriate in style, tone, and pacing (when the young penquins had to endure harsh snowstorm for the first time), and this is coming from a musician who’s got a soft spot for electronic pop music. After finding out the American version changed both aspects I didn’t like about the film, I wished I had watched the American version with the straightforward documentary narration by Morgan Freeman, and the re-scored music instead–that would’ve changed how I felt about the film completely.

In the end, it’s a matter of difference in taste. I’m not a cold and unemotional person–that has nothing to do with it. It’s about preferences in execution and style. Steven Spielberg is a perfect example–he used to be harshly criticized for his excessive sentimentality in execution, but in the recent years, he’s gotten much better and learned to convey the same intensity of emotions without being overbearing and saccharin. I much prefer his recent films over his older films for that reason. To me, it’s about one very important rule in storytelling–”show, don’t tell.”