Roboculture

Okay, where the hell are the fan made content for this supposedly "reviving" property? Harmony Gold's Marketing spinmeister, whom I shall refer to as The K, has shown time and again that Robotech is in the toplist of one topten list or another, but goshdarnit, where the hell is the activity K?

The official message boards in the "Land of Eternal Sunshine and Happiness" is filled with the same ol' Shadows talkbacks and rantings and boy is that getting old fast. Lets face it, Shadows was far too mediocre (gotta find a new word to describe that film -ed) to incite any real interest in the franchise. This is the truth, sure Funimation granted a bigger budget for the sequel, and we can hope that the Koreans running this gig can make a better film. Please. LETS GO KOREA! I'M COUNTING ON YOU! 

Gah! Enough about Shadows. Boring. Next please. I hate corporations that are so full of themselves. (and I hate fans who are so full of themselves - The K)

Wow. What a difference a week makes in the Robotech world. Or rather, what little a difference makes. It's finally great to start blogging again so far away from home. Too bad I won't have a tablet to keep my teeny tiny audience (it has declined as usual to a trickle) interested.

Oh well! China's great. It's colder, and dare I say more boring than were I live. Although I have to say its a gazillion times cleaner. But enough about real life! Who wants to listen to somebody's real life? It's not like everyone's out to listen to Harmony Gold's Creative Director's or Marketing guy's life story, right?

Handsome devil, isn't he? He's probably
got a charmed life too, going to all those
conventions hearing praises from all those
fans.

Bleah! The only big news so far from good ol' Masters news site have been some of Fernando's AMVs and the now infamous Carl Macek interview by Robotech Master (note the lack of an 's' there). Oh yeah, and the good ol' Cap'n JLS' vid and RDF Underground shows too. Now here's the stupid thing. There's no sound card in these computers (I'm in the university' library typing this). That just means that I can't hear any sort of sound whatsoever. Even if I plug my Ipod headphones in the PCs. Barbaric isn't it?! Yes, all the news that happened this week is apparently inaccessible because I don't have sound. Just idiotic. To add insult to injury, no downloading at all either.

But hey, at least I can forward my agenda to finish that Robotech Art book thing that few actually cared about! Let me answer some of the messages left over the course of the week:

"If you're ever interested in a job relating to art, MedMapGuy, send me a message and we'll talk. I personally deal in a world frought with artists; goodness knows I'd love to meet more with the passion you have."

- From Khyron Prime

My Response: Hmm... Without a tablet for the next five weeks, I am practically helpless to help you. Sorry Khyron, but I hope to get in touch with you when I get back. Drat!

"uh, I wasn't IN the Robotech online fandom until 2003/2004"

- From Darkwater

My Response: We all make mistakes?

"Hi. I was browsing around a robotech blog and noticed your art. Cool drawings... I'll submit some Robotech stuff hopefully by the end of this month... I haven't sketched in years."

- From Fernando, Regular at RDF Underground

My Response: I'd really like to see that Fernando. My email is at tephandchar@yahoo.com. The only problem now is how to actually see the image you made. Yes, this is kinda insane but... In Chinese University, you cannot download anything. Not even in your email. So if possible, could you post your image in say... ImageShack, or DeviantArt? I would kill to see new Robotech art from long-time fans. Please, please make the best art you've ever made in your whole damn life and show me. Please.

"count us in..."

- From ADC,

My Response: I'll start bugging you guys as soon as I get my bearings in this foreign land.

Hey, regarding the popularity of audio recordings and stuff, would it be possible to have someone tell me or send me a transcript of these great interviews and video podcasts and stuff? Or would someone be kind enough to post a summary of what was said during these interviews and shows? Just comment on this blog and you will have my eternal gratitude.

Or maybe I should just sign up for Emmisaries, as Tolarin always wanted me to... Bah! I am so confused now... Perhaps this confused trail of thought shall continue tommorow?

Addendum:
Oooh! My monthly transfer has exceeded! What... What does that mean..?

Oh yeah! Thanks to Invid Future for sending me Shadow Chronicles for free! Now this guy, I'm eternally grateful too. Can you imagine the audacity or insanity if I left my country without seeing that over-hyped piece of... masterpiece!? No, I guess you wouldn't.

Miriya Sterling "Lisa, are you done changing?"

This might actually be a life changing experience.
No, not Lisa Changing experience. Life Changing. Yes, I am corny. Bye.

Don't forget the two posts below, folks.

(Drat, nobody cared!)

This is going to be one of my final posts before I leave the country. Damn. It's really happening. I still wonder if my nearly four month love affair with Robotech was worth it. I feel like I'm nowhere near as influential as "Robonalities" like Darkwater, or that Creative Director Guy, or maybe even... um... the guy who cleans up the Harmony Gold toilets.

Damn you Lady Luck! And I don't mean Melanie McQueen! Why was I not IN to Robotech during the 90's? If I were weaned into Robotech during these dark years, such as Pieter Thomp, or Darkwater, or JLS, Justy, Cyc, or whoever, and contributed to the community back then, my opinion today would have more clout! I could've been best buddies with the Harmony Gold staffers, I would've been... bah!

It doesn't matter now. I would be leaving the community with barely a dent - nobody really cares about fan projects nowadays. Everyone is so hung up with this Shadow Chronicles junk that they have forgotten the simple joys of the show. The pure unadulterated fun of Robotech was barely felt in the Shadows movie, yet people flock to it and don't care at all about anything else. Fan projects are refused, rejected and ignored.

Anyway, I hope to do my part while I'm gone - albeit, without my trusty WACOM tablet graphics pen and scanner. Here's what I will try to push...

Remember the art book thing I was yapping about? This poster sez' it all. I will be scouting art sites for Robotech artists willing to contribute to that Art Book Project. I know, its an incredibly long shot at this point to get people out of their dependence on Harmony Gold for anything Robotech-related, but despite my skepticism, I still.. believe!

NO MORE "FAN SERVICE"?

*Sigh* You may wonder now who would provide you with such classica fan art as the one below... I mean, who else would actually draw the Zand and Dana love story by Jack McKinney? Who else would provide the fandom with those creepy and cool drawings?

Well, if you've been reading this blog long enough, there are still plenty of artists out there! Take Happy Penguins, or even BlueGazer (To find out more about them, find the tag Featured Artists in this blog -ed) Maybe they can fill the void of Robofanservice. Who knows at this point? April or May could be Robotech's golden months. Haydon willing, People would finally get off their asses and do something.

Despite the tremendous failure of the release of my fanfilm due to it bombing in terms of viewcount the previous day (a measly 187 views), I decided to push on with the announcement of my other pet project - The Robotech Art Book. I realized that is is impossible to make Harmony Gold-dependant fans care about fan projects unless I get an endorsement from HG's Creative Director or Web Guy or Marketing Guru (I'll still bitch about that, don't worry) but I will press on! If this won't interest the fandom, I don't know what would.

This art book will feature all new, never before seen art by Studio MMG and its sole talentle... I mean adequate artist, namely, me, MedMapGuy. The focus on this fantastic collection of art will be all generation of Robotech (Note that fantastic is used, I like to think I am Harmony Gold's Marketing Guy once in a while) with the possible exception of that Shadow Chronicles thing. I am hoping to release this completely-free PDF-file sometime on June, if time permits. I currently have a few pages available for your perusal.

I was inspired by digital art books such as "Expose" and some of these amazing Korean digital painting books. I was also inspired by several amazing artists I encountered on DeviantArt. Their work has inspired me to create art for my favorite generation, Southern Cross, a property only one person in Harmony Gold actually appreciates. Everyone else grew up lusting for Macross or New Generation.

Since the release would probably be sometime during June 2007, I have been toying around with the idea of folks handing me some of their own art to go with this art book - sort of like the grand collaboration that was done for Robotech Art 2. I'd really like that and perhaps when I get back, folks around the community would produce art that I could add in this "book". Remember, it'll be in PDF format so it could be printable, if you've got a printer that could print like the professionals!

I am aware that the new Harmony Gold run by "The Creative Director" are incredibly jealous and protective of their property and despise fan projects, but I will ignore these folks who couldn't care less about the fandom. Conventions are only there to pimp the company, not the fandom and to get their hard earned dollars (I will never forget the 20 dollar mediocre poster, a grave and unforgivable sin).

REBIRTH OF AN INTRO

The preview film that nobody wanted is finally here, in all its brevity. Behold, the revised intro to my future fanfilms!

What was my inspiration for the intro? Quite a number of things actually. The number one reason being that I wanted an intro that would be more faithful to the original 80's show than anything else available so far on the net.

Watch and tell me what you think.
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/52296267/

I took the basic idea I had with the intro from the Robotech: Sentinels Part II fanfilm, because I saw its potential. I refined this intro by increasing the dimensions of the film to almost twice its original, which led to an increase in the quality of the images. I also took the new "techniques" I learned in the past months (drawing all those naked women helped after all! -ed) and drew myself a few fairly impressive city backgrounds and simple lineart to test out the animation.

I have to admit, when I saw the moving VF-4 Lightning in the first few seconds of the intro, it sort of scared me into realizing how daunting this project actually is. Until that point I was just blabbering in this blog about how I dreamed of making great fanfilms and stuff, and there I was making actually animating - and boy was it frightening (the same feeling Med felt when he first started Macross -ed). I know I have three other films in my belt, but sometimes when you're back to square one with these projects, you feel this... hopelessness, like it will never be finished.

Things proceeded more or less on schedule after that, and if you've already seen my intro film, you'd notice the little changes I made such as removing certain stiff aspects of the original Sentinels intro and replacing them with more 'anime magic' action segments. I just wish I had a better background in animation, but perhaps... watching a lot of anime would be enough..?

In the end, I'm pretty happy with the results and I'm excited on the possibilities for the film... Now if only I could get a decent script to work on and fulfill this insane vision of mine.

To relive the awkwardness of my original animation:
Check out Robotech: Sentinels Part II yet again at http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/347613

ANIME SOUND PACK
I've heard some clamor from fans of an anime sound pack. Fear not for I have made one, gathered from various sources I actually forgot. As far as I remember, the Gundam sounds were taken from a website, whose link I found in a person named CavScout and his forum.

The rest of the sounds were taken from Macross: Do You Remember Love, and the Playstation game of the same name. These sounds were mostly used for my Super Dimension Fortress: Macross fanfilm and they sound pretty neat. I have to say a special thank you to Digital Cole, the man who provided me with some Robotech Battlecry sounds, which helped a lot with my work.

I don't know what you, my dear readers, would use these sound effects for, but maybe, one you would be inspired to create your own fanfilm. That would be a great day indeed and you'll do me proud.

NEW BLOG HEADER

It's harder to edit this blog than I previously though... I keep getting these error messages when I try to modify some aspect of the blog. Oh well, such is life and all that. At least I have a new banner up!

A few words, my dear audience, if you please. I have found a little show deep in the dark corners of the interweb that discusses the state of the Robotech franchise. No, my friends, not the inimitable RDF Underground, I speak of another program. A show that goes by the name "The Roboblog Chronicles" and it stars the mysterious Captain JLS. A man who until now, has not shown himself to the fandom due to unforseen circumstances...

Now... Now he has come out of his hiding to tell us and those creatures that live in Robotech.com the truth. He is the RoboProphet. He is Captain JLS!

http://sdf5x.blogspot.com/search/label/Roboblog%20Chronicles
If you want to be saved from the firey hell of Harmony Gold, go visit this link.

PRE-PRODUCTION BLUES

Since I'll be leaving in less than a week to a land that doesn't allow me to use a tablet, I might as well draw this and that and get my business over with. The time is coming and I thought I'd draw that "AGAC Transport" chopper I've been blabbering about. It's a design not a lot of people would be happy about, but that doesn't really matter. I wonder if I was inspired by the Mi-8 Hip...

 

 

TOMORROW

Big announcements and the worldwide release of my 30 second intro video! If you've got nowhere else better to go to, check out Studio MMG. And try to show some support! Thanks to those who do support me! I salute you!

... Even though nobody seemed to care about what I did (again, except for some good folks who go out of their way to comment). I'm really gonna miss drawing and puttin' it up for the ol' blog and showing the world how sick a puppy I am. But then, that's the beauty of fan art right? I mean, you can turn something so angelic... so pure... such as little Lisa Hayes here...

 

And turn her into a Robotech loving whore that we all know and love.

 

Yes, loving Robotech can be an almost... er... uh... orgasmic thing (?) as Lisa Hayes proves. It's just a shame that the fandom isn't more active after the release of that ho-hum movie... what was it called? Oh yeah, Shadow Chronicles. Everyone is so concerned with discussing the idea of a "Live Action Robotech Film" that it has blinded them. Blinded them to days spent going round and round about how such a production would be possible. Five years from now, these ideas will be rediscussed, and no live action project in sight. Why? Why waste your time there? Why not do something else like make fan art, fan fics or something?! Anything?! What sort of apathetic fandom is this? Has Harmony Gold, and its Creative Director destroyed any sort of initiative from the fandom? No matter how "nice" that guy is, this small fact is what is making me despise the guy. I know, we can't blame everything on the poor guy, but still, Robotech.com should promote fan projects more. I think this is the key to reviving interest. We don't see that anywhere in the site, and that's just pissing me off.

Repeat after me.

I love Robotech!

I love Robotech!

I LOVE ROBOTECH!

NEWS FROM THE FANDOM: Robotech Live Action Novel

You thought it died, huh? The boys are still at it, working day and night to finish this baby. The dream of seeing that live action Robotech is coming. So, folks there at the Robotech Production forum. Shut up and quit bitching. I'm sick and tired of the umpteenth thread on that boring shit.