Roboculture

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.

Oh what a Happy Valentines it is! It seems that one kind soul has uploaded a very pixelated copy of Robotech: Shadow Chronicles! Joy of joys! Love is in the air!

Nah. It kinda sucks (the quality at least). But at least someone thought of putting it in Youtube for folks like me (for the last time, I haven't seen the film)! Now, gaze upon this screenshot, for it will be the last time you will ever see Robotech on Youtube! Bwahaha! It looks cool though.

ROBOTECH ON YOUTUBE! YEAH! YOU HEARD ME!

OH COME ON! Don't get angry at me! Harmony Gold would've found out eventually. And if you were loyal to Harmony Gold, you'd support the deletion of this film on everybody's favorite video site (at the moment). Seeing as Harmony Gold has no love for me though, I couldn't give a Cha-cha's arse what they do. (Again, it's good Tommy and Kevin don't read this, since they're all so busy planning for the sequel)

R-D-F UNDERGROUND

Now here's something really interesting. Justy Ueki's latest experiment on making a video podcast is now available on Youtube. Now, for those unfamiliar with Justy Ueki, he's the guy who originally started the whole Robotech Internet Radio Show before Robotech Master a.k.a Chris Meadows took over with his Prerecorded Radio Shows.

Now to be honest, I've always been a fan of Justy's work, and cheesy though it may be, there was a certain charm to his radio shows. Even with all the annoying mixed Minmei tracks and ... beauty contests (which I actually found neat). It also provided me with something to listen to as I draw stuff using my tablet.

Now the new experimental incarnation seems interesting. Not only is the new video format unique, but it would offer the show's creator some much needed flexibility. Lets say Justy wants to point out a visual continuity in Robotech: Shadow Chronicles, well, rather than talking about it, he can show it!

(Screen to the left is Justy's first attempt at a video podcast before settling with audio-only)

LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVrVVITHFbY 

But wow! I just can't get over the fact that the new show reminds me of this cult television figure back in the 80's by the name of Max Headroom.

Who's Max Headroom? According to Wikipedia:

The Max Headroom character originated in 1985 as an announcer for a music video programme on the British television channel, Channel 4, called The Max Talking Headroom Show.

The intent was to portray a futuristic computer-generated character. Max Headroom appeared as a stylized head on TV against harsh primary color rotating-line backgrounds, and he became well known for his jerky techno-stuttering speech, wisecracks, and malapropisms ("Like they say when you're buying suppositories, 'With friends like that, who needs enemas?'").

Funny. I don't know if the reference is intentional, but it's still really funny (in a good way). BTW, I think Max Headroom appeared in "Back to the Future 2", as a talking monitor in a futuristic diner.

Live, Protoculture, Everything

Today's feature is the fairly impressive trailer by one-man fanfilm juggernaut, Nanashi. It features decent Computer Generated Graphics of VF-1 Valkyries doing what they do best - transforming into humanoid robots and shooting stuff.

First of all, who is Nanashi? Well, as you might not know, was once known as ARMY_Ranger in a fairly popular site called Newgrounds. Newgrounds is a repository of all things Flash. Flash is basically a web movie of sorts.

Army Ranger basically began the whole Robotech series on Newgrounds back early 2001. He has since produced such classics as "Birth of Robotech" and "Macross: Unsung Heroes", and many more.

Here's a short list of the current Robotech flashfilms available on Newgrounds:
http://www.newgrounds.com/collection/robotech.html

ARMY_Ranger/Nanashi's more notable contributions:

Macross Classic Revisited - A fairly entertaining dogfight sequence between a VF-1 Valkyrie fighter and several battlepods. Heavily influenced by Macross Zero.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/344395

Birth of Robotech - An interesting reimagination of the first two or three episodes of the Macross Saga. Fairly entertaining with great dogfights.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/search.php?terms=birth+of+robotech&kind=j&x=0&y=0

Nanashi is also one of the key founders of the United Earth Group:

The group is best known for the Robotech: Genesis project. A project which last I heard, was cancelled due to internal conflict among its members. I have heard it said though that a new project is being developed, and it is only a matter of time when it would be released.

What is Gamma Crisis then?

Macross Gamma Crisis is a short (15 min +) video OVA based off of the anime SDF Macross, Macross Plus, Macross Zero and Macross DYRL. Knowledge of these anime is not necessary to apply for this part! The story is set around 2015, and covers the growing friction and dysfunction in a society of humans who are trying to adapt to living with and integrating with a species of alien.

Youtube Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk7mrVE56zc

Based on what I saw in the trailer, the project is light years ahead of whatever I can achieve at this point. I don't know anything about making CG, so this stuff is pretty impressive - for a fanfilm. A lot of Pearl Harbor influences can be seen in the trailer, with some interesting action sequences involving one VF-1 Valkyrie Battroid.

Currently, the film is wrapping up casting voices for certain roles, if you are interested in how that went, check it out at:

Voice Acting Club
http://voiceacting.proboards62.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1164671128&page=1

For more details on the project, as well as Nanashi, check out his website (It's a flash-based website, so you'll need a Flash player)

Robotech Flash
http://www.robotechflash.com/

Hello! After the relative success of my latest flashfilm, Super Dimension Fortress: Macross, I thought it would be nice to go and discuss what's up with the fandom these days. As you know, the Robotech fandom is in a relatively bad rut now, what with the imminent release of this "Shadow Chronicles" thing. (More on the fandom in a couple'a days.

First we have the Fandom & Events forum, which suffocates art-related threads. If they don't appear in the main forum, they're considered as good as gone forever. I doubt any fan would actually search for the bloody things. There doesn't seem to be any end to the stream of 'sticky threads' posted by HG's rep since they're already posting events that would a happen as late as August.