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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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.

WEBLOG:This is absolutely the most amazing modular synth I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure how practical it is in terms of efficient workflow (for example, saving presets, or recalling parameter settings, or errr….say your cat walks across it and knock a few pieces off when you’re in the bathroom), but it’s fun as hell to watch:

I can see it being a fun thing to use for live performances, educational purposes, or just collaborative fun, but I don’t see how it could be a practical music-making tool for serious musicians.

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I finally watched A History of Violence, and although it felt quite different from what I’d expect from a David Cronenberg film, I did enjoy it–just not to the extent I thought I would. In many ways, it is the most accesible film Cronenberg’s ever done (at least to me), and maybe that’s what left me wanting–that extra spice you go see a Cronenberg film for (it’s the same with David Lynch for me). I really dug William Hurt in the film–I thought his portrayal of the mob boss brother was the most exciting thing to watch in the film. Hurt had that accent down perfectly, and was the most dark and menacing I’ve ever seen him in any film–I totally bought it and wanted more. I wasn’t nearly as taken with Viggo Mortensen or Ed Harris, which is probably one of the reasons the film didn’t quite hit the spot, as you’d have to be totally sold on those two characters for the film to be as tense as it should be.

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Those of you who are fans of the Dead Or Alive series of games will probably enjoy this little comic from CTRL+ALT+DEL on the upcoming DOA Extreme 2 for the Xbox360 (looks like they dropped the “Beach Volleyball” from the title since it’s not really mainly about volleyball anymore):

Yeah, the physics for the the bouncing mammary action are just ridiculous in the upcoming sequel. There’s such a thing as overdoing it to the point where it’s no longer attractive and simply just comedic. Itagaki probably meant it as a tongue-in-cheek thing, but I think it was a bad call because it actually detracts from the appeal of the characters. Well, this is supposed to be a total cheesecake game afterall, so complaining about it would be like complaining about the lack of subtlety in a Michael Bay film.

I personally loved the first Extreme Beach Volleyball game, and I feel no guilt about it at all. DOAXBV is simply one of those games you either love or hate, and I really enjoyed it because it made you feel like you were actually on a vacation having fun, instead of stressing out over keeping score, finishing a level, killing enemies, or strategizing a victorious battle. Of course, the girls are cute and all that, but I’m married to very cute and sexy woman (as the Kitty Cat Diary of my site would attest to), so a game would have to be more than just T&A to get me to play. The combination of the mini-games, the presentation, the designs, and the music (I used all custom music for it)..etc all worked together well for me. I’m definitely looking forward to the sequel, even with the funny physics.

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My brother Dennis turned me onto The Venture Bros. (he lent me his season one DVD’s), and it definitely didn not disappoint. It’s probably the funniest and most intelligent animated show I’ve seen in years, and I can understand why Dennis and his friends all love it. The humor is just off the wall, and the dialogues are witty as hell. Even the Doctor Venture character–as horrible of human being as he is, is just so ridiculously funny to watch (kind of like George Costanza in Seinfeld). Watching it makes me want to take the stuff I’ve written for Akihabara@Deep, rip out the parts that are totally new (the parts I rewrote), and work them into a standalone series for pitching to the Adult Swim segment of Cartoon Networks. The most exciting thing about my take on Akihabara@Deep are the new characters and premise I created anyway, so might as well not let it all go to waste.

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One of the great things about being back in the States is that I’m slowly catching up on all the cool obscure pop culture phenomenons I’ve missed out on in the last five years. I recently watched all of Freaks and Geeks too, and although I wish it had more drama than comedy, I can’t really complain because the comedy was just pure gold. I laughed so hard in some of the episodes that I had to make sure I wouldn’t drink or eat anything while watching the show–for the danger of choking to death.

NEWS:
Started working on a couple of new tracks. Here’s a preview, still in rough sketch form–essentially undeveloped ideas that needs to be fleshed out and taken somewhere:

They’re Coming - Cue for an action/thriller story, during a scene when the antagonist are approaching and they came prepared to end it all. (That synth wailing sound isn’t a mistake–it’s there to create a dissonant feel for agitated tention.)

Just One Reason - This track I limited myself to using only Reason 3 for everything–my way of learning a new piece of software by doing a complete project in it.

WEBLOG:
I rarely have freetime to work on music, and it’s been my number one frustration for many years now. The problem is more complex than simply not having the time, it’s also that whatever little time I have to work on music, I use it to record new ideas that’s been swimming around in my head since that last time I’ve had time to do music. In the end, I accumulate a bunch of unfinished sketches that I never have time to finish (as you can tell if you browse the music section of my site). Maybe one day when my life becomes less hectic I’ll find the time to actually finish and polish some of the works in progress.

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I went to Borders to flip through Spectrum 13 the other day (my copy was sent to my brother’s house, and I haven’t had time to pick it up yet), and I was ecstatic over the print quality of my piece. It is one of the best printings of my work I’ve seen in the last fifteen years of my career as a professional artist, and part of the reason was because Spectrum asked all the artists to do their own RGB to CYMK conversions. I slaved over mine and made it look as absolutely pristine as possible, and it really paid off. I should strive to do my own conversions from now on, as I’ve had my work butchered in the past by publishers that had no idea what the hell they were doing (I’m not going to mention any names–they know who they are).

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Elena’s back in Fuzhou, China to take care of some business stuff, and this is the longest we’ll be apart in the last five years since we’ve met. Previously the longest was a week, but this time she’ll be gone for 10+ days. I used to have a hard time sleeping when she’s not home (same goes for her when I’m not home–she becomes an insomniac, staying up late watching DVD’s), but this time I managed just fine (partly because I’ve been dead tired from all the crazy all-nighter deadlines for Spiderman 3). Now that she’s been living in the States for five months, she’s gotten used to how clean, organized, spacious, modern, and quiet things are here, not to mention how curteous, professional, and compassionate Americans in general are in public places. These qualities are a sharp contrast compared to China–where all the values we treasure here simply doesn’t exist, or are extremely rare. I had lunch with the VP of the studio I’m freelancing for recently, and they have partners in China and need to travel there periodically. His impression of China was exactly the same as mine, and it was a shock for him to see the level of dishonesty, rudeness, apathy, and utter lack of scruple displayed by nearly everyone he came into contact with. Now that I’ve been back in the States for a while, I’m not nearly as frustrated and angry as I was about everything as when I was in China. That whole experience is now in the past, and it’s simply a different world I would never want to return to.

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If you haven’t seen On the Edge of Bladerunner yet, definitely watch it if you’re a fan of Bladerunner. It’s a 50 minute documentary about the film’s history in retrospect, and contains some really interesting interviews with the crew.

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I finally broke down and purchased Half-Life 2: Episode One over the Steam network. HL 1 & 2 are some of my ultimate favorite games ever, so there’s no way in hell I’ll skip anything in the franchise; however, I had my doubts about using Steam (although I support the idea) since I heard so many horror stories. Now that I’ve used it to purchase the Holiday Package (which includes a bunch of other HL-related games) I’m relieved that it was a delight to use. The videos you can download on Steam are also much better quality than you could find elsewhere–Valve’s video player for Steam is one of the best I’ve seen in terms of image quality. I can’t wait to get my ass back to City 17–I just know it’ll be an exciting ride.

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.

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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).

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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”

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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.

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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’ll be substituting for three classes at Art Institute of California (San Francisco) this week. It’ll be my first time teaching in a formal classroom situation at an accredited school, so it should be a lot of fun. Since I’m more like a guest speaker than a teacher, I’ll try to impart as much useful information as possible that’ll prepare the students for a career in CG animation or video games. I generally feel that some schools blow too much smoke up the students’ asses and many students leave school totally unprepared for a job in the industry. This is definitely one of the things I’ll address during class.

Weblog:
Any of you use storage containers? I’ve had my stuff in storage for the past five years (I use Door-To-Door), so I’ve bled thousands and thousands of dollars holding onto all my crap. I admit, I’m a pack rat by nature, and so is Elena to a degree, but I seriously didn’t know what to throw away. I mean, I have expensive stuff like my Clavia Ddrum4 system, my $5,000 (at the time) computer setup, some nice furnitures, airsoft guns (all upgraded) and gears, then cheaper stuff like my laserdiscs, DVD’s, CD’s, novels, magazines, art books (extremely heavy, and very expensive–some cost well over $100 per book), game consoles, video games..etc. I wouldn’t even know where to begin to throw things away, and it would be a nightmare to sell all that stuff on ebay (and I don’t much want to part with any of them anyway). So now, five years later, I’m about to be reunited with all of my crap (as soon as I settle down at a new job and a new place), and I hope they are worth the amount of money I’ve bled for them. I can’t wait to sit down at my Ddrum4 system again and bang out some funky breakbeats. I’ll cherish that moment when it comes.

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I’m roughly past the half-way mark of Dreamfall now, and although I hate to say it, I’m not nearly as into the game as I was almost convinced I’d be prior to playing. I loved the first game–it’s on my top 10 games of all time list, and I was so sure I’d love the sequel. So why am I not into Dreamfall, you ask? Well, it’s one of those times when I hate to agree with the negative critics out there, but the ones that don’t like Dreamfall really nailed it with their reviews. For me, the main reasons are:

1) The characters aren’t very interesting this time around, and their relationships aren’t all that interesting either.
2) The loading time is ridiculous, and way too frequent. Someone at Funcom needs to get fired for that.
3) The animation is substandard for today’s games.
4) Although the designs are good, and the environments are pretty nice, the character models/textures are substandard for today’s games.
5) The fighting system is terrible. It’s pretty much a useless distraction and totally unnecessary. If you thought the fighting in Omnikron: The Nomad Soul was bad, you aint seen nothing yet.
6) Some of the puzzles are more annoying than fun, and they felt totally irrelevant to the plot development–as if they were put in the game for the sake of having puzzles.
7) This time around, the game feels more like an interactive graphic novel, and it’s really not even that interactive. I’m starting to think that Ragnar Tornquist should just become a writer/director and leave game design to someone else, because he seems more suited to being a storyteller and not a game designer.
8) Playing as three characters didn’t do anything for me, because none of them compelled me to really care about them–at least not yet.
9) The character controls aren’t very good, and the camera is annoying. I can’t believe you’re not allowed to look up–what’s that all about?
10) What the hell happened to our beloved April? (I’m hoping by the end of the game the old April will resurface in some way. We miss that perky and witty cute girl.)

Ok, I know I sound pretty harsh, and I don’t mean to. I really wanted to love this game, and who knows, maybe I still might when I finish it, but I think that’s highly unlikely. Oh well, I guess you can’t expect to hit a home run everytime. I do think it’s great that there are still developers out there who are passionate about adventure games, and I hope to see more of them (especially innovative ones like Indigo Prophecy). I’ll definitely finish Dreamfall, and I hope I’ll like it more by then.