Evermore

CFWan Portfolio Design Process

Posted by Billy on June 28th, 2009 | Filed under Design

After a long time of designing and experimenting, I finally settled on a design for my portfolio. I wanted to present my skills not only in web design but in animation, sequential art, and illustrations as well so the web design must reflect that. Because of this, it was very challenging for me (which was a great experience) and I’m still pretty amazed when I look at this process from the beginning to the end to see how it has evolved. Please bear with me as I show you my messy design sketches! Without further ado, onto my design process!

Portfolio completed

Posted by Billy on June 25th, 2009 | Filed under Life

After a long while of designing and coding until it looks just right, my design portfolio is finally completed! Please go take a look. I’m not taking the full plunge into freelance yet but I am thinking of doing freelance at least on the side. All the contracts and paperwork, plus dealing with clients, finances, and taxes has me really nervous already. I hope I’ll be okay.

As a side note, I mentioned that I have planned some good posts and I’ll be getting to that soon. First things first though, I will be posting my design process for my portfolio layout so be on the lookout for that. As for today it was pretty shocking and grim, I hope Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson rests in peace.

Declining interest in anime

Posted by Billy on June 20th, 2009 | Filed under Anime, Life, TV & Movies

I would never have expected this but my interest in anime is slowly fading. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing. All of the anime I started watching from last season, I lost interest and dropped all of them. There were some good ones like K-ON but after seven or so episodes, it became packed with “moe” and “lolis” which annoyed me.

For this summer season, I’m looking forward to Umineko no Naku Koro ni and CANAAN. For dramas, I’m planning to watch Orthros no Inu. The two upcoming TVB dramas don’t interest me and any other upcoming dramas have not been confirmed yet. I’m anticipating the grand production, “Beyond the Realm of Conscience”, that recently finished filming. They’re marketing it in Korea right now. Maybe they will broadcast it in both countries at the same time? I’m hoping for a release date this winter. I’m so psyched!

Hard at work

Posted by Billy on June 14th, 2009 | Filed under Life

So how is everyone’s summer so far? There have been lots of new stuff since my last post such as new movies (Angels & Demons and Up!) and new dramas (finished Rosy Business, now starting on Sweetness in the Salt, also watching Majo Saiban and God Hand Teru). I’ve also just watched “Connected” recently which is a Hong Kong remake of the Hollywood film “Cellular”. It was really an awesome movie and I haven’t seen much awesome movies from Hong Kong in a long time.

As for my animation “Sqawk”, I am not allowed to post the whole film online due to copyright and can only post snippets so I’ll be getting to that some time. I just finished the mock-ups for the 10th anniversary T-shirt designs for my local Alliance Bible Church. Still awaiting their decision on which design they picked so I can start the vector work. Right now, I’m hard at work on my online portfolio. I finally settled on a layout design and am currently coding it. It’s everything I hoped it would be and the CSS is actually all working correctly. I’m slowly getting used to the new trends of web design and am slowly learning to put down the old trends (using tables, inline stylesheets, etc). Well anyway, tomorrow is a work day so got to sleep. Good night and until next time!

Galileo: Yougisha X no Kenshin

Posted by Billy on May 25th, 2009 | Filed under TV & Movies

I’ve recently purchased my DVD copy of the movie, “Yougisha X no Kenshin.” This is an adaptation of Higashino Keigo’s novel of the same name (incredibly popular right now in Japan) which is set in the same universe as his other novel, “Galileo”. I really enjoyed the TV drama that mixed mystery and suspense with witty comedy. I’ve heard that even though the TV drama was based on his novels, they’ve given it a comedic spin to it. I have not read the novels since they aren’t translated into English so I cannot confirm that. But I’ve also heard that this movie will be a more accurate adaptation of the book so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. Waiting for the DVD release after it aired in theaters was painstaking. So here are my thoughts on this movie. Don’t worry, no spoilers.

Spring 2009 semester finished

Posted by Billy on May 13th, 2009 | Filed under Life

So my spring semester of college had just wrapped up. It’s actually been a short ride, it went by so fast, it’s crazy! There really is some truth to what people say about college, that college life will go by just like that compared to high school. Personally, I think it’s due to the varied schedules for each semester and how you don’t attend the same classes everyday. In high school, middle school, and elementary school, it was usually the same six classes every single day and often times, I felt like I was repeating the same routine over and over again and it just dragged on and on for the whole year. No, I haven’t graduated yet. If it goes according to plan, I will graduate after the Fall 2010 semester. This semester was pretty relaxed compared to last semester. I took Japanese, Video Editing, Animation, and Creative Writing (Short Stories). I actually feel like I’ve accomplished a lot in this semester.

Movie posters

Posted by Billy on April 30th, 2009 | Filed under Art, Design

It’s official, the animated short is now titled “Sqawk” instead of “Rawk”. We had to turn in the animation we have done so far as well as a film poster today to show Max Howard when he comes to class next Tuesday. He’s in Hawaii for an animation festival. And here are the posters. I created two because I was experimenting in Illustrator but I ended up printing the first one at Kinko’s. I used their glossy cardstock and it looked so cool!

The deadline for this film is May 17th. That includes the submission packet for the Hawaii International Film Festival as well. Sigh, I hope I’ll make it… But this is so fun, making films! We had a bonding session with the class today at Yogurtland. Pretty fun, I cannot imagine going our separate ways after next semester. We only have one more class together.

Happy early Easter

Posted by Billy on April 8th, 2009 | Filed under Life

I’m sorry for not writing a blog entry for such a long time. It seems April Fool’s had passed already and Easter is coming up. It just hit me that my animated short film is due in around a month! While I’m pretty sure I can finish it by then, the idea of having to finish something big in a month is pretty mind-boggling. The deadline is officially May 18th and I will be submitting it to the Hawaii International Film Festival. Because of that, I must do my best!

Meanwhile, I’m still hesitating on a design for my online portfolio. I’ve finished the mock-up in Photoshop already but something is still off. Not to mention, I must create a logo for myself if I am to enter this freelance business. And at last, the tax season is dwindling down but that also means these next few weeks will be super busy at work as well! So anyway, I’ll be pretty busy this month. Wish me luck and catch me on Twitter! Oh, and have a happy Easter.

VOTE EARTH

Posted by Billy on March 25th, 2009 | Filed under Life

Participate in the world’s first global election and support Earth over global warming. On March 28th, 2009 from 8:30 to 9:30 pm, vote Earth by simply turning off your lights during that time frame (in your local time). The goal is to get one billion votes for Earth to influence world leaders to take action against global warming. Please help spread the word to raise awareness and to save future generations. For more information, click on the picture on the left.

Emergency Unit down to last 6 episodes

Posted by Billy on March 21st, 2009 | Filed under TV & Movies

I’ve recently been watching a big-budgeted Hong Kong TVB drama called “E.U.” short for “Emergency Unit”. It’s actually the third season of an ongoing story about two guys in the Hong Kong police force. The first season “The Academy” and the second season “On The First Beat” were hits but unfortunately I never got to see them. So I jumped on the chance of seeing this third season. Fortunately, it required no knowledge of past events, not much anyway. You can get by just jumping into the third season. But honestly, this has been such a thrilling ride with tons of twists and conflicts. Over the many years, TVB dramas have degraded (no offense) and there are always certain things about the plot in these dramas that irritates me. But not this one! There are a total of 30 episodes and am currently waiting for 25. And so far, there have not been one single thing that was bad. It was pretty much perfect to me. They will be entering the home stretch next week with the final six episodes. What’s more, they aired a teaser for the finale this past Friday. Man, what a way to keep us watching! I’m so glad Hong Kong dramas air five times a week instead of once a week like other countries. Opening sequence below the cut!