HAHAHAHAHAHA A WEEK OR TWO AGO I FINALLY FINISHED MY LINES FOR... ONE OF THE BIG PROJECTS I OWED LINES TO... Just... One... But it's okay! That means... I CAN WORK ON THE NEXT BIG PROJECT I STILL OWE LINES FOR! YEEEEAAAAaaaaahhhh...

At least I've been slowly getting better at managing my school work! I hate Comedic Writing less now! Now the only class I "hate" is Camera Acting! As a director in that class (since everyone has to be in front of and behind the camera to know what it's like), I have to draw storyboards, figure out shot sheets and set-stuffs, direct actors/non-actors... I can sorta direct voice work okay enough, but I never ever want to be a TV director.

Roughly 2 months left 'til graduation... I'm already working on final screenplays for 2 of my classes (Advanced Screenwriting + Comedic Writing). I think I'm one assignment away from finishing Web Page Design class. Improv class is... Improv class. Camera Acting class will make me sob when we work on final projects. World Geography is depressing 'cause oh god every region of the world is riddled with horrible histories filled with war, political problems, and environmental issues uugghh...

GRADUATIIOOOOONN!!

AND WHAT'RE THE FIRST THINGS I'LL DO AFTER I GRADUATE!? ["things"? oh no...]
- FINISH 100'S OF LINES I OWE!
- IT'S CALLED "MAKE THAT $@#%IN' DEMO ALREADY"! [kept saying winter = deadline, but... work, yeah]
- HIT THE PROFESSIONAL VOICE ACTING SCENE HARDER!
- CIRQUE DU GOTHIQUE! [direct/edit]
- STUPID SECRET ANIMATION PROJECT! THAT HAS TO DO WITH MY SERIES! [storyboard + animate if suicidal enough]
- CATCH UP ON YEARS OF VIDEO GAMING!

WHAT IS SLEEP!?

Voice Acting: Projects!

[copy/pasta from the edit]:
I did some voice matching for an Easter Egg in Gemini Rue!

;D Hint-hint, it's one of Melissa Fahn's most iconic roles and from what I've been hearing, it's one of the easier to find Easter Eggs. So, early enough in you should be able to hear me if you mess around enough~!

A couple of my buddies are in it too~ Awesome people make awesome things happen~

I'm also [read: slowly/secretly] working on a few other reeeaaallyy coooooll projects that I'll definitely talk about when I'm allowed to. Games games games games games~

Current Inspirations/Obsessions Keeping Me Sane

AKA: "Distractions Keeping Me from Working"

Hotel Haven OCT
Elysium Project - created by DragonKnightTara~
Skullgirls
Homestuck (slooowwwllyyyy reading)

And that's enough from me!

Wow, I'm a week late with my regular bloggy posts. Why? 'Cause school has been slaughtering me. 6 classes and voice acting workshops whooooaaaaa...! I've been doing okay so far though! The only class I've been doing a bad-ish in is Comedic Writing 'cause my sense of humor sucks. Yep!

Didja Know...?:
- In a standard sitcom, there's a joke for every 15 seconds. In the sitcom screenwriting format, it's approximately 2 pages = 1 minute.

I'm having a rough time in Comedic Writing class 'cause we're graded on how funny we are and I'm not THAT funny. At least, not on paper. I'm so-so in Improvisational Comedy, but in a physical, crazy kind of way that involves fewer words.

Voice Acting: Projects!

I voiced for all of the girls in Nerds Can Never Love~ It's fun, short, and cute and was a pleasant break from my whirlwind insanity of classes (hee, the fact that I have a Pokewalker IRL made this even more close-to-home for me~). Thanks for the great opportunity to work with you, Ockeroid! And it was great working with the neato RicePirate too!

A PC game I'm voicing in will be released on February 24th (like, this Thursday), so I'm also excited for that! I'll update this when I know I'm allowed to~

[EDIT]: I did some voice matching for an Easter Egg in Gemini Rue! Hint-hint, it's one of Melissa Fahn's most iconic roles~

Sanity Not Included on Machinima.com! Season 2 started! I voiced for quite a few parts and there's a new episode every Sunday, so excitement for when those shorts show up yay whoo!

...I. Still. Owe. Lines. For big projects. As in, you know how I usually just voice 10 lines or less for a bunch of projects/clips/shorts? That's how I'm in a lot of stuff--Just a lot of bit parts. So, whenever I have bigger roles, they kinda take up a lot of "agenda space" since I want to devote as much time to those as possible. Every once in a while I'd like an engaging role, y'know? I feel soooo bad that I'm taking so long with those lines...

I feel like I'm forgetting something. Please remind me if I'm voicing for you if you think I'm talking about your project.

xx; Really. I love being reminded. Much more preferred over things going bye-bye without me knowing or causing folks to be furious with me.

Animation!?

I draw a lot during class! So all these development sketches is me trying to stay sane in Camera Acting class and Advanced Screenwriting class.

Didja Know...?:
- As a general standard, screenwriters working for a studio have 12 weeks for a feature-length screenplay.

I'm 5 weeks into my 15 week semester and I'm currently working on a beat sheet to work out practically everything that happens in the story. EVERYTHING! All those plot holes that came up in the story's treatment (think: straight summary run of the entire story; before actually writing the script)? Gotta iron them out. Protagonist/Antagonists undermotivated? Gotta figure out what they want and how they're gonna clash while goin' after 'em. Since I decided to use this class for my personal project, it's fun and stressful at the same time. Fun as in I'm gonna think about what I wanna think about anyways. Stressful as in "Ho crap, preproduction".

As for actual production... I'm thinking of POSSIBLY majoring in animation when I'm done with my Bachelor's degree in screenwriting. So, once the script is done/CLEAN (may mean more drafts), have all the audio and recording done during my "break from scholarly, suicidal endeavors", then animate it leading up to/during my animation major?

I'll keep thinking about it.

Here. Character designs/doodles/flargleschnoot.

[insert stuff about me being on hiatus and still owing lines here + utmost gratitude to patient folks]

Lunar New Year = FREE MONEY FROM RELATIVES!

Which is a good thing 'cause I'm poor and it's almost the only way I can afford voice acting classes and books. Saving up Christmas money + birthday money + new years money = being able to afford taking 3 voice acting workshops this February!

This is my final semester before I get me bachelors' degree in screenwriting! Here are my current classes:
- Advanced Screenwriting
- Writing for Comedy
- Acting for Camera
- Improvisational Comedy
- Web Page Design (web)
- World Geography (web)

...Yes, I'm taking 6 classes and signed up for 3 voice acting workshops. That's how insane/suicidal I am. But! Once I graduate, I'll be home free! I wanna go to Comic-Con 2011 and if I'm mentally disturbed enough, I'll maybe try majoring in animation! HAHAHAHAhahahahaha... /wrists

Screenwriting: Ow

I love telling stories, I hate writing. I write a lot out of habit, not because I like doing it. I hate writing for other people and I hate reading other people's scripts, doubly so if they just want me to blow rainbow up their butt. It really, really stung this winter when it finally occurred to me that I "wasted" my college education on a field I actually didn't have a passion for--I want to write for cartoons, sure, but voice acting is clearly my dominant passion, with drawing being my second. When I say "wasted", I meant monetarily and time-wise; Like I said, I'm kinda poor and I wish those scholarships and awards became an investment. Ultimately though, I'm glad that I still learned a lot about developing characters and telling compelling stories. As is, I'm a solid writer, so strengthening my storytelling abilities will help me tell the stories I want to tell even better. Aaannddd not tell the stories that actually kinda suck!

Screenwriting: Stories and Stuff I Wrote Thus Far

Last year, I wrote a heavily TF2-inspired screenplay, thinking that I had a neat plot and a nifty set of characters to play with. "I might even animate it!" Turned out it was a PAIN to write and the plot wasn't dynamic enough--For sure, Cuanta Vida reigns supreme as the best TF2 fanstory ever written in my books. There's always something keeping the story going and it IS funny how the author eventually trained her audience to ALWAYS expect something horrible happening on the next page, haha~

Anyhow, in the end: That TF2 story got scrapped upon the script's completion! No plans on animating it. The characters might be recycled though. I have a funny habit of recycling characters...

Bioshock project might get shelved or scrapped since the story hardly developed for the longest while. Inspiration ran out of steam? Who knows... Kinda worried that it's going the same route as the TF2 story since I toed the waters with my first flash having to do with this project...

As for my true-blue more original scripts... The first screenplay I ever wrote is kinda like a sequel to the series I want to animate; If I trim the excessive details, the running time may even be 20 minutes or less. I'm scared of animating 20 minutes when I can't even animate a person walking yet, let alone supernatural beings fighting. It was kinda fun to write though! Maybe after several more revisions and learning how to animate, that story may eventually be seen by human eyes other than my own!

As for THIS SEMESTER'S SCREENPLAY... I had to decide which of 2 stories I want to write. The series I've been developing for half a year now or... The vague subplot that gave birth to itself because one of the characters from the main series became 10x's more interesting than the heroes themselves.

Screenwriting Class = Being forced to develop and tell a story, complete with finding and filling every single plot hole possible. It gets me off my butt, basically.

If I choose the SERIES, I might deal with pacing problems* 'cause it's a friggin' series crammed into 90-120 minutes... But I meant that series to be 6-7 minutes per episode, wha...? I'll check the math later to see if this is even plausible.

If I choose the SUBPLOT, which is what I'm leaning for, I'm gonna have to make up a looootttaa stuff. But on the other hand, I've been inspired lately (especially by OCT's on Deviantart--Hotel Haven is my current crack 'cause the premise is amazing enough to inspire tons of talented artists, including myself, even though I'm not participating), soooo... If this story turns out good, I might try animating this alongside the main series, kinda like the Tsubasa and xxxHolic side-by-side thingy. We'll see!

Here are some sketches from that subplot, featuring that goggle-wearing weirdo again (probably the best drawing so far), a crocodile pirate with a slight obsession towards clocks (damn, he's easy to draw--like every other animal I draw), 1 of 2 magic rabbits (scoot-dop-diddly-wop), and a snooty writer who conjures stuff with her writing abilities (which is less cool than it sounds).

I still owe lines. Fortunately, a LOT of my workload got cleared up this winter break because I've been working hard at bunch of projects on and off and D-Mac and Druox were keeping me on track via directing since I seem to get "voice acting ADD". If you finally got my lines lately, PLEASE THANK THEM FOR HELPING ME FINISH THEM!

Voice Acting: Live Direction & HOW I'M EVENTUALLY GETTING MY LINES TO YOU

Lemme explain: On my own, I tend to take forever to work on my lines since I want them to be EXTREMELY good. I don't like rushing through my lines and delivering crap; I go for quality. The problem with that, of course, is that my lines take forever to turn in because: (1) I'm never quite pleased with my performance and I second guess myself a lot, (2) I work on all the easy lines first and take forever to work on the hard lines and/or (3) I forget I have lines in the first place after taking so long to do them...

xx; I always, always warn people who scout me that I take a while to turn in my lines for these reasons + life. Didja know that though I go back to school on the 20th, my 2 younger siblings have been going back to school weeks ago? And that it cut into recording time since I can't scream like a banshee at night anymore?

Anyways, this is why I love, love, LOVE being live directed over Skype! And by folks who have good ears and will tell me when the takes shouldn't be kept and SHOULD be kept! Since I really want to do this professionally, it also helps me get experience in working on the fly instead of taking 3-5 minutes figuring out "What should I do with this line?" And if I take a long time per line, you can see how the ADD kicks in... 3-5 hour recording sessions per big project have been shortened down to 1-2 hours, which is AWESOME. If your lines are more amazing then usual too, that's also because they pushed me to be even better~ I'm happy that folks keep giving me challenging roles and that I'm getting help figuring them out instead of, say, delivering crud/lazy attempts!

Voice Acting: Your Voice Acting ADD is Showing Again

As for "easy" projects... Oh, those can always be done insanely fast 'cause I scream often enough to usually nail the take in one or two tries, depending on what's wanted. I wanna be able to do THAT with everything I do, so getting help in the more challenging departments will help me in the long run.

I still need to work on my demo. I can't believe my winter break is almost over! How many people know the extent of my range? How many people know I can do THIS!?

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I can explain this! This is actually me recording for an audition that wanted alien noises (it might still be on NG's front page). See, one of my wishlist roles is an animal/monster/alien/whatever that utilizes my "WTF IS THAT NOISE" ability.

For as long as I remember, one of my biggest heroes is Dee Bradley Baker for his "WTF IS THAT NOISE" ability; He voiced for Appa and Momo in "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and Perry the Platypus in "Phineas and Ferb". Yeah, he totally corners that market, but one of these days... ONE OF THESE DAYS... MY DREAM WILL COME TRUE!

Soooo, are ya still art'ing?

Yep. And still developing the series too. Below are sketches of two of my favorite characters to draw thus far (except for the imp; her head is a pain to keep consistent)... However, they're clearly not the heroes, but they're so much more interesting! I've had a long history of liking strong supporting characters and villains more than the main protagonist types. In fact, I RP'd for years before I got into voice acting and my characters always turned out to be the strong supporting character types; They always helped or got harmed by the main characters of the RP's, haha~

It's gonna be tough creating the heroes you'll be following for this series! And making them more interesting than the supporting cast and villains!

...And those nightmares are often along the vein of the lines I owe haunting me in some shape or form. Not cool, man. Freaky emails threatening to destroy all I hold dear because I'm late with my lines? PM's eating my face because I'm taking too long to record? My recordings saying creepy stuff when I replay them? MY WORK IN PROGRESS RECORDINGS COMMITTING SUICIDE?!

asdhgjsfkhkg I think I woke up screaming one time too, no joke, but it was okay 'cause I slept at 6 AM and woke up at 1 PM.

I got soooo many projects done, but I have soooo many more to do! It's like I spend one whole day screaming, the next day resting ('cause while it doesn't hurt my chords, I get dizzy and light-headed pulling all-nighters recording), and often the day after that, I gotta leave the house to remember what sunlight feels like (oh, and visiting relatives, both distant and falling ill--I sometimes think I have too many relatives).

This is one hell of a winter "break", yo.

But seriously, even though it sounds like I'm going through hell working on these lines, I love voice acting and trust me, I'm hauling tail to get 'em done and awesome-like!

Voice Acting: Released Projects

I voiced for Lucca in the Chrono Trigger of NiN10Doh: To The 64th Power! According to my calculations...

I forgot to post this last time! This got released a while ago, like late November. I voice for both of the boys in this. I only have "1 boy voice" and that's the age 12 and younger range, but the animator insisted that I voiced for the older boy too, so... Challenge! This made me want to practice more boy voices. Hey, if I have 3 old lady voices, why not have at least 2 boy voices?

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Art Quest: From Traditional Arting To...?

This needs its own section: My quest is to eventually make a flash series, as I've mentioned in previous journal entries. So, I've been developing my series for a while now~ Story-wise, I've been gradually ironing things out. "Straight to pages" never yields good stories (it also leads to more writers' blocks than it needs) and good thing I didn't run with the crud I initially came up with!

But most of all, I've been strengthening my drawing skills in general while fleshing out and working on character designs. Like, my "pen mileage" will be spent on scrappy rough drafts 'til the designs look good as a whole! I love how the more I learn about drawing proper-like, the easier it gets to achieve the results I want~ It's like the better I get at anatomy, my characters look less stupid whenever they pose!

Now, I think I'm decent in the traditional medium department (or with sketches at least). However, flash animations are a digital medium and usually, they... Don't look as pretty as my sketches. I want to cry every time I look at my digital pieces... Anyways, that means I oughta be doodling more in Photoshop to get better at drawing with a tablet. But Photoshop to Flash... I'm aware of the lag between strokes, so you can say I'm a bit intimidated about that!

And oy, I gotta learn how to draw backgrounds... Or find someone who'll do that for me, but how would that collaboration work? AND MUSICS! AAHH!! FINDING AMAZING WHILE AVOIDING COPYRIGHTED STUFF!!

And lastly...

Should I or shouldn't I have an opening or trailer/teaser for the series? All I know is that they can be epic-awesome, especially if they feature crazy amazing stuff, but...

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...Yeah!

Here, have a sketch.

My bestest best best bestest friend in the whole wide world finished a trailer for her animation project! It looks GREAT and yay, I'm gonna voice in it too! So excited~

[ugh, how come I can't embed vimeo movies?]

And the semester is over! And stuff got released, so you know what that means... PAGE STRETCH!!

But before that, hoooo boy, I've been busy like bee working through all the lines I owe. I already finished a few projects this week alone and am working on my lines for a project right this moment, with plans to work on another project after dinner! To think, counting the stuff I'm doing tonight, I didn't even cover the tip of the iceberg! Be patient, super-awesome producers!

Blah!: I need to work on my demo this winter!
Blah!: I turned 21! My birthday was on December 12th and I didn't know that Newgrounds sent birthday letters! That's awfully cute and awesome, Tom Fulp 'n' crew! I got lots of happy birthday wishes to keep me motivated while I was fighting finals, so thanks guys!

Voice Acting: Released Projects

I return as Chi-Chi once again for Team Four Star's DBZ Abridged: Christmas Special! Tomamoto's also in the cast and he did GREAT!

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Voice Acting: Hnil Being Loony

Wanna see how a bit of this recording looks? Brace yourself for a visual recording of an audio recording I did during midterms while sick to see how much I actually move while voice acting.

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Yes I look nasty, but hey, I practice voice acting every single day, even while sick, so boo to people who only practice/exercise once in a blue moon! There're plenty of ways to practice, even when you're not necessarily recording for something!

Read stuff out loud to practice diction/enunciation; at least maybe 5-10 minutes straight a day, the more the better. Lots of people think I'm stupid-crazy in Skype calls when I read tons of stuff aloud to kill awkward silences. Sorry!

Breath control is important! Think of this as stamina. I actually have a heart problem and living a live of shallow breaths didn't help. I've been taking deeper breaths for the past few years, so that heart problem doesn't act up as often nowadays! I used to NEVER be able to finish a paragraph in a single breath when I first started (couldn't even do a long sentence!), but now I can and maybe even do 2 paragraphs if I sacrifice acting (which I don't want to do, but is perfectly fine if you just want to work on breath control)!

I used to be THIS horrible (as Zelda).

And more, like practicing placement in the shower! Singing is extremely good practice for vocal placement. Pick a song where you can switch up and down between your head and chest, like so, and with enough practice, it will greatly improve your range (and breath control). Too many people assume that pitch is the only way you can improve range. While pitch can improve range, it's in the same category as vocal texture; little extra things that you add on. Vocal placement improves range more exponentially in a foundation kind of sense. If you're a crazy nut like me, try singing in character voices too!

As whole, if you practice a lot, especially around people where they can see and hear you, you'll be perceived as loopy, but if you don't care too hard about how others think of you and keep working at improving yourself, you'll get better! Want more tips and exercises with better explanations? Check out Hathor's guide for beginners! A professional practice the basics!

=D Practicing also applies to drawing! How about some before and after things you've done?

[EDIT]: Holy crap, I got sooooo many responses right now that they're more than enough for me to complete my paper! SOOOO many thanks to you guys and if possible, I'll see if I can post my paper somewhere when I'm done and if I'm crazy/suicidal enough, even continue my research since by golly, I got a LOT of interesting and different responses from 7 different places--Whenever the responses got similar, in spite of the anonymous submission factor, things got interesting!

==================================

Hello, my name is Kimlinh T. and I am a student at California State University Northridge. I am conducting a survey for a research project. Please answer these questions honestly and to the best of your ability.

You may send your answers to me via PM or submit your answers to the following email address with the subject "[SURVEY]":
kimlinh.tran.174(at)my.csun.edu

I prefer if people DON'T post their responses to keep other people's answers from being influenced.

Thanks for your help!

1 - Do you watch anime?

Yes
No

2 - Why do you or don't you watch anime?

3 - What do you like and/or dislike about anime?

4 - What are your favorite series?

5 - Are you currently watching a series?

Yes
No

6 - If yes, which series are you currently watching?

7 - In general, who do you think is the target audience of most anime today?

8 - How do you mainly get the anime you watch?

a) I purchase/rent DVD's
b) I borrow DVD's
c) I download them through torrents
d) I watch them online
e) I watch them on TV
f) Other: _________________

9 - Do you believe this statement is true or false:
"The anime industry as a whole, in both America and Japan, is dying."

True
False

10 - Explain why you say that.

11 - What do you think the future will be like for anime in the next 5 years?

12 - What do you think the future will be like for anime in the next 10 years?

Demographic Information

Gender

Male
Female

Age

15-18
19-21
22-24
25-27
28+

Are you a student?

Yes
No

Income

Financially Dependent
Financially Independent

So, I'm too wrapped up in university to do much voice work and the producers I'm currently working with are the absolute bestest-best people in the world for their patience and understanding (and they're very talented too). If everything goes according to plan, I'll get my bachelor's degree in Spring 2011~! But... Here's something that's been getting to me...

For the entire time I've been in college, I've been paying for my classes through financial aid scholarships. When I finally get my degree in screenwriting, I'm not sure if I'll have the money to pursue a master's (inb4 pursuing doctorate's = DR. TRAN). Before this comes off as "I NEEDZ MONEY", I'll have to clarify that this post'll be about...

Being resourceful!

A Little Bit of Background

I always like drawing as a hobby. Never have I ever considered drawing or animating as a job, mainly since I never considered myself competent enough to pull off exactly what I want to draw, much less what others want me to draw. I almost always turn down requests or commissions since it'd be unfair for them to receive/pay for something unsatisfactory.

However, I always consider drawing as a hobby I want to be good at. It's good stress relief and I'm always learning something new from the talented artists I work with or hang with. If I wasn't putting my dough into skills/hobbies I do want to make money from, I'd put them into art classes. Trickle-down spending leads to me almost never taking an art class in my life...

But I am a willing learner! I'm taking baby steps in the ghetto-low-budget method of learning how to draw, from tutorials up the whazzoo, stalking/lurking livestreams, to buying stacks of art books with book store gift cards + coupon alchemy! I value drawing from life and learning the difference between style and lots-of-excuses-covering-up-mistakes! And thus...!

Whirlwind of n00bie Animating Questions!

1. Do you NEED to know how to draw (like, "properly," knowing anatomy and proportions) before you animate? Especially for frame-by-frame animation?

2. What does it take to NOT make a n00bie tween/pivot animation? Know of any examples of GOOD tween/pivot animations?

3. What's your average "animating speed"? How long does it take for you to draw/animate something?

4. If you have a LOT of ideas for a LOT of series/animations, what helps you decide what to work on first/next?

5. Do you animate/create as you go or do you plan ahead, like storyboard?

6. For a series, how far ahead do you plan? One episode at a time or do you know how the whole series will pan out?

7. Do you get your audio-stuff together first and animate to it, or after? Why?

8. How much actionscripting do you know?

9. Know of any good tutorials?

10. What are your influences?

11. Can you see the naked mermaid?

12. What are your favorite flashes? (Narrow it down to top 4 if you have too many!)

13. What animators do you admire and why?

14. Know of good, non-flash, non-"commercial", student animations? (I LOVE animations from Gobelins!)

15. Other things I should know? Art improvement stories? (I started improving when I stopped comparing myself too hard to others + Began appreciating that we all have unique styles + Stepped away from anime and learned more from life)

WHAT THE--WHY ALL THE QUESTIONS!?

'Cause I mentioned a while back that I have LOTS of ideas in my head and want them to be conveyed in the best way possible, especially for more original concepts. Just getting ready for all the free time I may have upon graduation, before I get a real job~

Below are a few development doodles for something I want to flesh out and eventually/probably make once everything is planned out. I want to know how to draw "proper-like" before even DARING to animate them.

Dang, it's easy to make character, less easy to come up with a general concept/premise, tricky to make a world, and difficult to make a plot/story that holds water...

My cough is trolling me.

Whenever I think I'm healthy enough to record 4-5 simple lines, I pull up my mic to get to work, then... I cough like crazy and my chords tighten up, ruining lots of takes because I'm holding back further fits of coughing. A coughing fit PER TAKE. UGH. What'd usually take me 15 minutes to half an hour takes up to an hour and might not even be my best performance, so you bet this is lame.

Fortunately, my "sickness" is more stress influenced than sickness influenced (no more phlegm or snot; just dry coughs) at the moment. That's right--University. But I only have, what, 4 more weeks left of this semester until my 5-week Winter Break, so my voice acting hiatus should be up soon.

So What ARE You Doing Instead of Voice Acting?

My homework. Really. But my classes regarding research, diversity in the media, and media literacy, gave us the awesome opportunity to explore stuff we are interested in~!

The topics I chose were:

Anime - "Is the anime industry adapting fast enough to keep up with the demand of its consumers?"
The anime industry is suffering hardcore financially and yet, the number of fans just keep counting. There're TONS of reasons why beyond piracy, that range from shifting target demographics and more outsourcing for in-betweening. And yet... Let's face it, there's certainly some evidence that the anime industry will be fine too... That is, if it adapts fast enough.

Video Games - (initial research question) "How can video games be designed to appeal to both genders rather than alienate the other?"
Basically, there is statistical evidence that more and more girls are playing video games (40% of all gamers are female)... But where are they? Before you throw 'em at "pink games" and casual stuff, why not think, "Why aren't more of them playing the better, cooler games out there?" I initially thought character designs played the biggest factor in getting girls interested in video games... But... I was wrong! And I hope that others will be as surprised/"Yeah, that makes sense" when I share my findings~

The absolute coolest aspects of these projects beyond the research is that (1) my teachers understand that video games and anime and their effect on its audiences are worth checking out and (2) we're kinda forced to "get out there". That means directly interviewing industry professionals, like voice actors, producers, game developers, and so on. I've already interviewed a few, so it's pretty exciting~

My absolute favorite sources:

Video Game Project
Shaylyn Hamm's "The Aesthetics of Unique Video Game Characters"
The Game Overthinker's "I Heart Bayonetta"
Tilo Hartmann & Christoph Klimmt's "Gender and Computer Games: Exploring Female's Dislikes"

Anime Project
SBS Dateline's "Suspended Animation"
Anime Expo 2008's "The Death of Anime"
(You can watch the videos or read the transcript/breakdowns for these.)

Dudes, THIS is how you make your college education fun.

All Work and No Play!

I'm suicidal. Even my hobby-stuffs/"leisure time" is work. You know my "game project"? My "produce stuff when you can't voice act" project? I was shooting for a pre-Halloween release, but life happened to me and my cast, so have a proof of progress instead.

Cirque du Gothique Teaser

- Yes, this is Motly's sexy-beautiful voice.
- This'd probably be a MILLION times easier to do in Flash, but I want my odds of getting sued to be a bit smaller

- This is clearly made for the HD/widescreen of YouTube
- Still need to work on the audio some more
- Adjust the timing of the visuals to said audio when it's done being re-worked ('cause hell no am I only giving you 5 seconds to pick a route outta 8 characters; the video as a whole needs to be lengthened)
- Cursed jaggy background...

Other signs of progress:
- A lot of the folks I already cast got their lines squared away
- May ask for redos ONLY if issues come up in mixing/syncing

Casting Progress?
- STILL waiting on Ecarte redos
- Scouting/scared of relistening to Cordis auditions again/may re-open auditions with new info-instructions

...I wonder how much I page-stretched this time!

I'm totally writing BS and semi-irrelevant subject titles to get your attention.
Forgive me.

Updates

I'm still fighting a stubborn cough--I'm technically not sick anymore, but this cough is just being douchey... And midterms are coming up, so I'm assuming the related stress is likely why the cough is so persistent! That said... Am I available for voice acting work? Likely not. I am working on a few really great projects (paying ones too; woohoo!), but that's because I'm extremely careful about my workload.

Believe me, I feel terribly bad when I take on more work than I can remember, so it's for the best that I only work on a few projects at a time. Aiming for giving more quality performances over quantity now, since this is my senior year of university and I want my bachelor's in screenwriting!

Fun Fact: HAHAHAHAHAHAooowwwww... Voice acting and screenwriting are starving artist jobs, so me being more serious about LIFE beyond voice acting is a good idea. Media management and marketing is always in demand, so you know those internship ventures I kept talking about? That's training for my "3rd job" so I don't starve during my other day job while pursuing professional voice acting.

What About Those Neat Projects?

One of them is an animation by Mayshing! Here's a sample of her work (and many praises to her animation team)~

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I provided voices to several characters in her current project and just recently got a few more roles (now I have 5-ish different characters; yay for vocal and acting range)~ She's trying to get funding to complete her animation though, so if you're feeling benevolent, please help her out! I'm very sure that you'll get lots of good karma from she and the rest of her team!

One of them is another animation! I'm assisting in the casting process and may provide a voice! I can't say who, but this fella has one hell of a following because he's EXTREMELY good at animating and it's great that he's working again~ Oh, did I mention that I've been a fan of his animations since FOREVAR? Yeeaahh~ Wishlist get!

And... Yet another animation! Animated by Scott Falco! Really talented dude and he's been working on his Reflections project for years (I was on his first cast a year or so back and now his new cast for the latest revisions), so I'm glad that I'm helping him out! I even got a role update from series-regular-potential villain to leading lady! Who gets to take on the big baddie! Who is voiced by Mr. Tea-and-Crumpets (A VOICE CRUSH OF MINE WHO VOICED FOR FRIGGIN' KARL OOOOHHHHHH YEEEAAAAHHH)! SCORE.

And there're a few other things I'm working on, but I'm keeping hush-hush because I keep secrets when producers ask me to~

What About YOUR Project(s)?

The game-ish thing is still being worked on, don't worry~ I'm not the only one with midterms, so right now, delays are due to a bunch of other factors rather than ADD interest.

Who the crap are these people?

Motly-Fool and Apatheria made their flash debuts! QUICK, PUT THEM INTO YOUR PROJECTS SO THEY AREN'T STUCK DOING FANDUBS FOREVER--THEIR TALENTS NEED TO BE HEARD!!

Heheh, also...
Fun Fact: They're also in my game project~ Motly is my current voice crush~
Fun Fact: Past voice crushes include, but isn't limited to, Omahdon, Y. Chang, and Lioncourt. Give 'em stuff to voice for, seriously. Where the hell is Lioncourt, I wanna hear more of him--Does he even have an NG account?

WHERE'S THE TENTACLE SEX AND BOOBS?!

Only in Sanity Not Included.

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Fun Fact: My personal comfort zone is... I can't voice for stuff made for prurient interests. I'd feel too awkward. But I CAN voice for stuff making FUN of such, as you can see/hear! More details about "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST RECORD FOR?!" in the video descriptions~