From The Lord of the Rings movies → extended editions → behind-the-scenes → books (Chinese) → books (English)/audiobooks (narrated by Andy Serkis! Haven’t listened to them yet…) → The Hobbit movies → *repeat* → and maybe even another round of The Lord of the Rings (it’s a loop…), then The Silmarillion → other related books → Chinese/English versions and audiobooks…
I might not make it out this year >A<
If there’s any delay, it’s all because of Tolkien…Wait, Another Code is releasing soon, Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side is on February 14th, and FF7 Rebirth is on February 29th,
I… need to pull myself together…
My Kindle had some issues yesterday, which took me quite some time. Fortunately it wasn’t anything serious. I was kinda shocked to find out that Kindle Oasis seems to be discontinued.
Nooooo—the only device left with physical page-turn buttons…What does Amazon have against physical buttons?! Are they really not going to make these wonderful things anymore?
(It’s typical for me; anything I start liking ends up being discontinued *crying*
Anyway, Paperwhite has two new versions, with a 6.8-inch screen and warm light, reaching the standards of the Oasis (except it doesn’t have page-turn buttons!…
In the end, while I was figuring this out, I started browsing Audible…I wanted to re-read “Bullet Train” and “Three Assassins” (by Isaka Kotaro), and “The Mantis” is out too (tho I’m waiting for the paperback)…
It’s a pity that Audible are just audiobooks and Kindle books (text) still need to be purchased separately (wish they are on the same app…) (:з」∠)
I bought tLotR trilogy anyway. After all, it’s narrated by Andy Serkis, and I’ve wanted to listen to it for a long time. I also discovered Stephen Fry has narrated the complete Sherlock Holmes stories…It’s over 70 hours… (I probably need to grab the book to enjoy it. Will I ever listen? Just add it to the collection first haha
(Off-topic)
Also, because of these Kindle and audible shopping thing, I ended up unable to sleep whithout the sleep balm’s help…My bedtime has been pushed back hour by hour after I got back from the holiday.
(The phone screen is too much for me; reading physical books doesn’t help much since I need the light on, so I really rely on Kindle as a sleep aid…*sob*
Really need to get ready for work now qvq (Oh, you remember your work!
I probably had mentioned it before…I particularly love the robes made for Saruman, especially the fabric. His white robe has this subtle colour of “looking white” but shimmering in various colors with different lighting (easy to write but difficult to make!). The costume used a lot of embroidered fabrics, looking luxurious yet with many worn details. The details and textures are almost impossible to capture by the camera, but still, they are an essential part of the character, of creating a realistic Middle Earth.
That’s one thing that I really love about the movies…They even had potters and glassblowers to make all the jars, cups, and bottles, just for the authenticity and uniqueness of Middle Earth. I still deeply admire (and fascinated by) the passion of tLotR crew (*wipes tear*).
Talking about the “reality”…Suddenly I (kinda) got why I can’t draw very fantastical or exaggerated designs, like crazy hairstyles and fatasy clothes and stuff…
I like to think about how the clothes are made and worn when drawing them for the characters…If the character needs to travel or fight, I just can’t help wondering if the outfits are convenient or reasonable… then very unlikely to make them a Final Fantasy style (tho I love FF!
I know games (especially the fantasy ones) don’t need such realism—sounds more like an excuse of unable to draw complicated designs haha.
I also enjoy making a lot of backstories that will never appear in front of the players (yes i enjoyed doing this…). They are my embroidered fabric q_q
Weta was a new studio at the time they started to make tlotr, and Weta Digital was founded specifically for the movies (PJ: It would be too costly to go to the US for digital effects, better to do it locally). PJ even joked that tLotR was the biggest low-budget film shot in Wellington haha…but I love the charm of low-budget films! It’s really fascinating to see the creators making the most out of the limited conditions (same for indie games).
I almost forgot that the extremely terrifying scream of the Ringwraiths is Fran’s scream, and the sniffing sound is performed by PJ himself lol
How can one look at the Ringwraiths the same way after knowing this wwww
Another thing I noticed when rewatching…I knew the opening battle in the Fellowship was done by CG but I didn’t quite understand the tech (I was young…). Each little figure (agent) is an AI with its own thoughts and actions. The battle wasn’t “set up” (not drawn by CG) but generated. That’s indeed something in 2001 (and the tech was mature enough to be used in the industry back then).
I couldn’t help but laugh out when hearing about the agent: don’t you guys have Agent Smith in your program haha…Hugo Weaving is just outside!
Watching the movies is like riding a time machine. I spent lots of weekends watching the DVDs when I was in high school. I haven’t watched them for many years but very line is just vivid in my memory. Watching them still feels like a “Sunday afternoon”.
And I often say that if I want to create a nice place, like Sango Village, the idea is “a place I want to live”. It seems to come from what Alan Lee said when he designing Hobbiton ; v;
Though I’m not in the level of Alan Lee I hope I made some nice little places that you can relax in there. *covers face*
I had a post of the Middle Earth map from a magazine back in 2003…It was in my room for many years and I always keep it with me…kinda want to hang it up again.
(In the end I didn’t. It was too precious for me to be taken out again lol)
By the way, after exercising (with NS) for over four months (plus a week of travel), finally my stamina seems to have increased. I also can sleep well and wake up early recently, so…can I finally get back to work (?!
There’s a lot on my mind but I’m unable to actually make them.
I’ve finished another junk journal, and one of this year’s goals is to stop buying stationery >A<
Sometimes I wonder if it’s the journals make me update less on SNS…
Anyway, I won’t give up any of my projects. That’s for sure.
I originally wanted to write about plans and new year resolutions (though it’s already past mid-January…)
I usually hate new year resolutions because I feel like such things are just for talking, so I prefer summaries over plans. Even so, this year I seem to have some resolutions at the beginning of the year, maybe for the first time in my life!
Maybe I really have a little hope for the new year (aka the future) (!
I plan to read more books, update more frequently, write down my ideas without hoarding them, continue exercising (as the doctor told me), and it would be great to use my camera more…and even better if I could draw more (if my back pain gets better); v;
P.S. January 3rd is Tolkien’s birthday (T’mas), so the New Year is really suitable for reading tLotR! (
P.P.S. Speaking of not hoarding…I didn’t write about the movies I watched in December, or have I looked at my travel photos yet (I took photos without looking at them…I’m not the one I use to be…)
Before resume my project, I will probably release a localization first.
A small announcement to motivate me to start working. >A<
闲聊 | 中土世界
魔戒电影→加长版电影→花絮→小说→英文小说/有声书（是安迪瑟金斯读的！至今还没听过……）→霍比特→三部曲重复以上过程→甚至可以再来一遍魔戒（循环……），
然后精灵宝钻→其他束书→中文版/英文版/有声书……
我今年可能真的是出不来了>A<
如果进度被耽误了那都是托老……等一下，异色代码马上就发售了，心跳回忆GS是2月14号，FF7RB是2月29号，（
我……振作（拍脸
Kindle昨天出了点问题，耗了我很久时间，好在没有什么大问题，
意外发现oasis好像停产了，已经不太好买到，我感到一阵惶恐（），现在唯一一款有物理翻页键的设备……Amazon到底和物理按键有什么仇！物理按键这么好的东西真的不做了吗！听一下群众的心声行不行555
冷门人是这样的，真是喜欢什么什么就会完蛋（x
不过pw又出了两版，变成了6.8寸屏，也有冷暖背光，出了翻页键以外倒是也达到了oasis的水准（但它没有翻页键！……
结果搞着搞着我就，终于被audible（有声书）的试用拉下了水，想再看一遍bullet train和three assassins（杀手界和疾风号，恐妻家也已经出了，但我在等平装版……），终于搞清楚了有声书是怎么运作的(:з」∠)
→有声书是有声书，kindle书（文字）还是要另买的(:з」∠)
不过打算买一下tLotR三部曲，毕竟是安迪念的，想听好久了（资源应该也很好找！
另外发现Stephan Fry念了全本的福尔摩斯，70多个小时……（但是没有配套文本，想同时看文字还得拿着书听（。）会听吗，先入库再说吧hhh
（跑题）
另外昨天因为捯饬kindle又看有声书商店……在手机上下了app一边看一边听（试听），的结果就是疲劳+睡不着，最后还要靠助眠膏救命，
回家之后的睡觉时间终于一小时一小时地后退了……
（手机屏对我的杀伤力太大了，看纸书要开灯也不催眠，所以真的很依赖kindle呜呜呜（（
收拾收拾上工了qvq（你还知道上工啊！
之前好像说到过，特别喜欢服装给萨鲁曼做的袍子（的布料，袍子本身也是“看起来是白色但一走动在各种光线下是五颜六色”这种微妙的设定，实属原设动动嘴cos跑断腿的级别hhh），服装用了很多精细的提花刺绣面料，看起来华贵但也有很多磨损的小细节，
一些几乎不可能被拍到的细节、纹理和质感，但拍不到也要存在，拍不到也是塑造真实中土世界的不可缺的一部分，
同理武器盔甲就不说了，他们还有专门的陶艺家和玻璃匠，做了所有的罐子杯子瓶子，就为了中土的真实和独一无二，至今还是很爱魔戒剧组的这份细腻与热忱（抹泪
他们对“真实”的那种追求……突然好像get了我为啥画不出很奇幻很夸张的设计（？）了，比如角色的发型和衣服什么的……如果画角色的衣服我总是忍不住想这衣服是怎么裁怎么穿的，如果角色要旅行或者战斗那是不是方便合理……就画不出很FF的那种服装（！虽然FF风格我也很喜欢啊！
其实游戏（尤其是魔法/幻想系的）不需要那么追求真实感的——
没办法好像被定型了（。
以及会做很多根本不会出现的背景设定（也很喜欢做），是我的提花面料q_q
weta当时还是个新工作室呢，甚至weta digital是为了魔戒专门成立的（PJ：要是专门飞到美国去做数字特效就太花钱花世界了，还是在本地搞一个吧），PJ还笑称魔戒是在惠灵顿拍的最大的低成本电影，笑死，
但是真的很喜欢低成本电影的魅力！在有限的条件下去最大程度地发挥，去最大程度地施展创造者的力量，真的很有趣，很迷人。
比如这个我忘了——戒灵那种极度恐怖的尖叫是Fran（PJ的伴侣+剧本作者）叫的，嗅闻的声音是PJ表演的w 这还让人怎么直视戒灵wwwwww
还有一个重看注意到的地方，魔戒电影里比如开场的大战，以前知道是电脑做的嘛但不懂具体的（），再一听，他们就是有程序员给写了AI，每个小人（agent）都是AI，有自己的想法和动作，大战的战斗不是“设定”（不是画出来的）是生成出来的，两堆agents见面打架，有各自的想法和动作这样，
听到agent的时候我忍不住笑了出来，你们这程序里没有agent叛变吗哈哈，雨果维文就在外头呢wwwwww
2001年就投入工业使用的技术诶……拿大奖拿到手软真的实至名归。
看电影就很时光机，花絮碟还是以前买的DVD，也很多年没有看过了，只能说每个镜头每句话都历历在目，再看还是一种强烈的“星期天的下午”的感觉……
还有我经常说的那句，如果我想捏一个好地方，比如珊瑚村，捏的准则就是“一个我想去住的地方”，好像是来自艾伦李做设计的时候说的；v；
写出来就很苍白，希望传达到了吧（掩面
最近因为太中土了，又有点想把我珍藏多年随身携带的中土海报（2003年《电影世界》赠😂）贴墙上了……
需要复建但是感觉复不来……
顺便说跑步跑了4个多月（加上旅游一星期）终于好像，体力增加了，
最近也能早睡早起，
所以呢，所以到底可以上工了吗（！
脑子里想的东西很多但是传达不到手上，
又写完一个本子，今年的目标之一是不要再乱买文具了>A<
哦对说起本子，出门之前贴完了读书帐vol.1，巨厚的一大本结果不知道怎么触发了什么推荐，就……播放还蛮多的（虽然录得也不怎么样），后来补上了字幕和书单（但其实补了也没人看w），→https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1zN4y1h7Ra
我还挺期待继续贴的（！（到底上不上工
顺便新的购分也发了（上半段）：
【Haul｜旅游购物分享（上）｜游戏宅买文具orz-哔哩哔哩】 https://b23.tv/pEZW2co
（涉谷真的太好逛了，我需要三个星期😫
有时候觉得会不会用纸笔导致SNS的更新少了……或者贴贴手账和垃圾影响了画图和填坑q-q 但是也舍不得，只能说继续磨合一下填坑节奏吧，（不买了不要再买了！
至少健康状况好转了，吃饱了才有力气干活不是嘛(:з」∠)
本来还想写一下计划和new year resolution的（1月都过一半多了哪还new year…），
虽然我最讨厌new year resolution，因为觉得这种东西都是嘴上说说过三个月就没然后了，厌恶所谓的仪式感和只说不做，所以比起展望更喜欢总结，比起计划更喜欢写已经发生的记录，
不过即使这样的我今年好像也有一些年初的resolution，可能我长这么大头一回！也许真的对新的一年（aka未来）有那么一点希望吧（！
会想多看书多更新，有想法就写不要攒，运动继续遵医嘱保持体力，争取再用用相机，如果能再多画一点（如果腰疼可以好）就更好了；v；
P.S. 1月3日的托老诞辰（所谓的T’mas），所以新年真的很适合读tLotR捏！（
P.P.S. 说着不要攒……小作文还写得出来吗，到现在我旅游照片还一眼没看（拍了照都不带看的，我是不是真的已经不是从前的我了……），要不干脆把实体的本子内容再数字化了算了😂😂
预告：在重新开坑之前应该会先发一个汉化（
预告一下让我上工有点动力>A<