AimoStudio

The Clone Wars Trading Card Set

2008-07-02T02:33:00.001-07:00

I checked Topps' Clone Wars website earlier today and noticed this listing.

Click to view larger image

I guess it's safe to say now that I'm one of the artists who worked on sketch cards in this set :D Can't post any of my cards yet though, until the trading cards go on sale on July 26th. Until then.

And man, I suck at updating! May 9th?! T_T

Are you GARR for GURREN LAGANN?!!

2008-05-09T10:13:00.001-07:00

I didn't post a notice about this earlier; In April, I went to Tokyo for a week-long family vacation. It was a lovely time in a foreign land for me...a good thing too, since I'm pretty bummed that I have to pass on San Diego this summer because of unexpected circumstances (eg. $5000+ for return tickets to/from LAX...wtfomgbbq).

I won't be writing about the vacation though, because I am too lazy (it's 1 a.m. and the weekend's just started...jelly limb time). I'll try to post the photos I took now and then.

I did however plonk obscene amounts of cash on shopping, buying stuff like the ones below:

Akihabara is a DANGEROUS place for a Gurren Lagann fan. This photo doesn't even include the other GL books I bought like the Groundworks and numerous doujinshi.

And thus, this post is a segway to a GL fan art I whipped up after work at the office, featuring Yoko from the back.

All drawn and coloured in Photoshop+Painter. Yoko may seem like a fan-service for the GL novice, but I grew to really like her character!

Happy Birthday Leah

2008-05-08T02:13:00.001-07:00

My sis-in-law's birthday was yesterday, and this is the gift art I made for her.

GACC'08

2008-03-03T08:13:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, my doujinshi group 'YonGumi' and friends went down to Malacca to participate in GACC'08, a games/anime/comic convention. It was held in Multimedia University Malacca campus (where I spent my Pre-U days...SO MUCH HAS CHANGED!), and the event was organized by its resident anime club EMINA. I was looking forward to sell our stuff which includes a Time Machine CD (archiving older YonGumi books) and the A2-sized Gurren Lagann GATTAI Poster, not to mention to catch the event's Guest of Honour ;) More on that later.

DAY 1
This was my first GACC, and truth be told I wasn't expecting much considering the event was held outside of Kuala Lumpur...and isn't the venue just a uni hall?

Boy, was I ever so WRONG.

I arrived ready to register my gang's booth at 10:30 a.m. and the hall was already PACKED. I was already panicking at that point, seeing there was still a lot more finishing touches I had to do before we opened for business. My gang rushed through the setting up even as the opening ceremony commenced, Gurren Lagann's anthem 'Sora Iro Days' blaring in the background. When we wre done, we settled in and started selling.

Besides us, there were a number of other doujin booths as well, selling books and merchandise such as posters, trinkets, stationery, etc...

There were also other activities running concurrently throughout the day, such as board games...

Model kit contests...

And cosplay madness. Yes, readers, someone did cosplay as Hard Gay, that flamboyantly eccentric Japanese groin gyrater. He was strutting around the hall gyrating at visitors and cosplayers alike, complete with his signature "FUUUUUUUUUUU~!!!"

I have to admit, I was a little freaked out by all the groin-gyrating action in Day 1. But heck, you've gotta respect a dude who prances around in S&M gear with short shorts, staying in character until his legs ache. By Day 2, it was hard not to find Hard Gay funny as hell (turns out he's a committee member, ha ha!).

And here's a shot of the YonGumi booth. See that Gurren Lagann poster; It's full of GATTAI spirit!!

Hanie and I, caught working on commissions.

Sales were okay. There was a steady flow of patrons at our booth.

But it's not everyday we get Kaonashi from Spirited Away to browse our stuff!

I did a couple of commissions during both days.
This one is of a character from AIR.

Sailor Saturn, looking not the bit waif-ish at all @_@

Gurren Lagann's Yoko, done for Faizal, one of GACC's committee members. Thanks for helping and checking up on us now and then. Very kind of you!

I also did an FFXII commission of Ashe/Basch, but I forgot to snap a photo of it. It's kinda sad for me, because it turned out not half bad at all ;_;

DAY 2
The hall is significantly more crowded that day, due to the exodus of KL folk on a Sunday. And I bet it was because of another special reason too ;)

Oh, I wonder who will be sitting there on stage?

Masakazu Morita, THAT'S WHO! The seiyuu of Tidus (FFX), Ichigo Kurosaki (BLEACH), and Teru Saeki from Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 2nd Kiss! Let the KYAA-fest begin!!

You'd think he looked good on print, but he was absolutely ADORABLE in real life! He brought so much energy to the hall after his arrival, communicating to the fans in both English and Japanese (considering he only had 2 hours of sleep at the time).

I remember that my friend Phui Mun (fellow TMGS2 fan) and I kept remarking at how his speaking voice sounded so much like Saeki...and we kept kyaa-ing like the baka fangirls we are :P I swear, I think we were the ONLY Tokimemo GS2 fangirls there (we were crazy enough to hunt down the game when it first came out on the PS2, because local vendors did not stock the game. OTAKU.)

Morita-san sat down to answer questions prepared by the committee, and 4 lucky fans got to ask him a question each on stage personally. 1 didn't turn up when called...what a wasted opportunity!

EDIT: Now that I am a bit rested, I'll try to summarize how the Q&A went.

Questions were asked as soon as Morita-san sat down; They range from (do note I'm basing this off my memory, so the gist is there) :

"How did you get into voice-acting?"
(I couldn't catch much of this one) He had been involved in general acting before Final Fantasy X came along, and Tidus was his first seiyuu role.

"Who's your favourite character?"
Tidus.

"What kind of character do you like to portray?"
Heroic ones, with a sense of justice. He did mention he'd like to try an 'okama' role one day XD;;

"What the most difficult thing about your line of work?"
Needing to completely focus when projecting his voice. He said that different roles had varying levels of vocal control, and demonstrated by dropping his voice a bit to be Ichigo Kurosaki...imagine having to talk like that and also scream whenever his character is in action scenes (which in BLEACH, is A LOT). He projects his voice from his stomach, and sometimes he he can feel the voice pressure on his neck! So he needs to be careful as well.

"Who's your role-model as a seiyuu?"
Touru Furuya, who incidentally was the previous seiyuu for Saint Pegasus in Saint Seiya; Morita-san has taken over the helm in the newly-done sequel OVA.

Morita-san said that he had done a lot of different kinds of work in his life so far (waiter, rollercoaster attendant, etc) and tells the fans that if they have the chance to gain experiences in life then don't hesitate...saying "I can do it when I'm older" might mean golden chances might just pass you by.

OMG HE'S IN THE SAME SPACE AS I AM (I'll shut up now.)

After the Q&A was over, it was the autograph session. I was so nervously happy to get my turn that I apparently skipped (according to Eisu) and/or sashayed (according to Hanie) towards the table...I really didn't notice @_@ Anyway, I presented Morita-san a renai game issue of Dengeki Playstation with Teru Saeki on the cover; In the sea of BLEACH and FFX fans, it was easy to see he was genuinely surprised to see a TMGS2 fan in the mix. With an amused grin, he autographed my magazine with his signature...and Teru Saeki's. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!! XD

Before I went off the stage, I gave Morita-san a gift bag containing a set of the available Yongumi swag, and a hastily-done 4-page gag comic I started on the day before (Originally I wanted to do a montage of him and his characters, but static art could be boring and colouring it properly with whatever time that was left was unrealistic). Sadly, like the Ashe/Basch commission, I TOTALLY forgot to take photos of the pages ;_; I hope he finds the rushed scribblings of this fangirl amusing at least. As I shook his hand in goodbye, Morita-san smiled and said "Choppu da!".

If I were to combust there, that should be the moment. He uttered one of his character's most memorable (and my favourite) quote from the game!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

It's also cool that Phui Mun pointed out to me that Morita-san used the gift bag to carry the gifts he received from other fans. Good to know that it's useful at least :)

Thos mag is now officially sealed in plastic and will never be opened again XD

As the day neared its end, everyone was still in the mood for fun. As I sign off, I leave you with a video of one of the impromptu Cosplay Contest challenges; The Lucky Star dance featuring Commander Chaos vs Hard Gay! I caught it on footage halfway through, but it's still great to see anyway XD

Thanks for GACC'08, EMINA! It was the best :)

Until my next update, toodles!

The LOTR Masterpieces II Trading Card Set...

2008-02-21T06:46:00.000-08:00

...was officially released yesterday. And I'm one of the sketchcard artist contributors, with 200+ cards :D

To sketchcard collectors, Happy Hunting!

First post of the new year

2008-01-08T06:27:00.002-08:00

Hmm, been a while since my last update, yes?

Worst blogger ever :P Happy New Year, anyway!

A few original artworks...

And Mass Effect fan art, of course :)

Vroom vroom

2007-09-05T15:56:00.000-07:00

Flying off to Dubai in 5 hours' time. Definitely no updates until after Sept 13.

Toodles!

The Effect is Massive!!

2007-09-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

Well, whaddya know, I just made a Mass Effect fan comic! First mission SPOILER though (from the demo footage at PAX'07), so don't view it if you wanna stay spoiler-free.

Yikes!

2007-08-31T23:41:00.000-07:00

August came and went, and I didn't post anything; Looks like even Blogger can't remedy my laziness T_T (and my roomie posts new art every day XO). Oh well, at least there's a post today, featuring some real media stuff I did. Hopefully, no, DEFINITELY I will post more stuff before I go to Dubai from Sept 6 to 13 for work matters.

Light Side and Dark Side Female Exile - Watercolours and ink

Zutara On-the-spot commission piece at ComiWorld'07 - Markers

Azula On-the-spot commission piece at ComiWorld'07 - Markers

Avatar Season 2 Finale montage - Markers

CRPG Player Avatar bust portraits

2007-07-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was Wii Friday at the office, and a colleague and I dominated the last hour of lunchtime playing Rayman Raving Rabbids. We tried the Cow Tossing mode a gazillion times, on account of us being crap at throwing in the right direction, and the aftermath really shows: MY ARMS HURT A CRAPLOAD. Managed to massage them last night to prevent lactic acid from settling in the muscles, but the arms still ache a bit this morning.

And the point of that whole paragraph: WARM UP BEFORE YOU WII T_T

Been meaning to post these artworks earlier in the week, but I got pretty tired/lazy when I come back from work (pretty much the same reason why this blogspot ain't updated more than once a month...must...change). Basically, I made a meme of sorts in DeviantArt, in which I sketched out people's CRPG player character avatars in my style. Pretty fun, and for once I drew different Revan faces and World of Warcraft stuff.

Damn it, garbage truck's in front of my house, and I haven't taken out the trash yet @_@

Life Drawing Sessions

2007-06-09T01:23:00.000-07:00

These are the sketches from life-drawing sessions at work from April to early June, done in 5 minutes per figure.

What do you mean it's already JUNE?

2007-06-01T10:53:00.000-07:00

Paintings are a rarity for me these days, so it's nice to actually finish this in one go. MUST MAXIMIZE WEEKEND UTILIZATION!

The ice queen of KOTOR II, Atris. I've always found it odd that those who oppose the idea of Female Exile cite the absence of the implied 'love affair' between Atris and Male Exile as the clincher in their view; Apparently, a soured romance is the only motivation for a woman to hate anyone's guts *rolls eyes* I'd rather go with the idea of her as a patronizing mother/sister figure, twisted by disappointment and anger as a result of her protege's 'betrayal' of her values. From that viewpoint, I find it hard to really hate this woman (broken game aside :P), because at one point or another, we may have experienced something in that vein...and giving in to anger is always the easier choice.

Haha, enough faux-pseudo-philosophy. I'm hungry T_T

BRING ME MY AXE...

2007-05-21T07:42:00.000-07:00

Played Guitar Hero II PROPERLY (i.e. with colleagues' guitar controllers) at the office today during lunchtime and after work. It's true; Once you've tasted the axe, you can never go back. Problem is, the axe is RM$340 ( approx. USD$90++) Le sigh T_T

While I lament, here be sketches:

Neeshka, the tiefling rogue from Neverwinter Nights 2

Ippongi Ryuta, the main hero of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! and Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii (Ouendan 2), and my take on Young Femme Revan (again)...both were scribbled on my storyboard thumbnails :P

I shall dream of guitars tonight T_T

AHH FREE TIME FINALLY

2007-05-11T10:15:00.000-07:00

Finally had time to sit down and do preliminary sketches for a painting idea I've had for the last two weeks.

I wish there were more hours in a day T_T

ULTRAMAN

2007-05-02T21:17:00.000-07:00

Somehow, I think Zid would find this amusing...

Ultraman birthday card, commissioned by my mom for her colleague's son. I'm waiting for that Tom Yam Kuung treat as payment now :9

I will never make fun of a panicking Sim after this...

2007-04-22T06:45:00.000-07:00

What an eventful week this one was!

On Wednesday night, while my friends and I carpooled on the way home from work/gym to watch 'Sunshine' at the cinema, this sequence of events unfolded...

1) Hit a slight bump on the road towards the highway.
2) Lights of dashboard/speedometer went dead.
3) Eisu asked "Do you smell that?", and lo, smoke started emanating from the steering wheel box.
4) Emergency parking on the roadside, got out of the car to escape the smoke.
5) Opened the front to let the engine cool down.
6) Eisu went over to turn off the headlights, and was welcomed with the sight of fire coming out from under the steering wheel.
7) EISU, HANIE, AND I DASHED MADLY TO DOUSE FIRE WITH BOTTLES OF WATER!!!

Thankfully, we managed to douse the fire, but the damage to the wiring looked quite extensive and pretty much cringe-inducing (and indeed, the cost of the spare parts was just that T_T) . Nevertheless, what was important was that Eisu, Hanie and myself got out of this incident safely as we were driving at night (when we can see the malfunctioning lights and react to the emergency swiftly), in an area with low traffic, and with fire-dousing implements at hand. All in all, I'm just pretty relieved none of us got hurt and we managed to get home safely courtesy of Hilmy and Phui Mun (THANKS GUYS TwT).

But a true life account wouldn't be complete without PICTURES!

After we doused the fire that night

Morning after horrifics (after my uncle opened the cover to check the damage)

Oh well, on a cheerful note...my workstation is finally up and running (and yes, the CPU is arranged sideways for (lack-of) space reasons.)

Big sweet monitor of love :3

New PC Hullabaloo

2007-04-17T11:14:00.000-07:00

So I got myself the new system over the weekend, which included these specs:

Core 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz E6600
Nvidia GeForce 7600GT
2 Gigs of RAM
Samsung 19" Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor

Managed to keep the overall spending slightly under my budget of RM$3500, which is a relief. Initially before my purchase, I was a little bit depressed at the idea of shelling out so much cash at a time, but after I tried out Jade Empire with absolutely no lag whatsoever in its beautiful graphics, my apprehension melted away :D Drawing and painting is also an absolute treat with the widescreen monitor...so BIG and SPACIOUS!

Speaking of painting, did something in Painter (now with 50% less lag!):

Hurrah for brand new workstations :D

High-res, smooth gaming anticipation ahoy

2007-04-12T09:52:00.000-07:00

In two more days I shall finally get a brand new system after sticking with my current one for 5 long years; A new machine with enough power for heavy duty CG-ing and max juice for current CRPGs like Jade Empire TwT So in my anticipation of the joy to come, here's an older scribble of the two lovely ladies from the game, Wu and Dawn Star.

Something you'll never ever see in Avatar the Last Airbender: A remorseful Azula!

TINKERBELL!

KOTOR 1 character profiles, done on a whim; Female Revan, Carth Onasi, and Bastila Shan. Carth looks a slight bit haggard and weary, and Bastila seems to exude that snooty air she has initially.

On a somewhat expenditure-related note, I have to ask: Is it crazy to plonk down wads of cash for an Xbox 360 just for Mass Effect? Because recent previews have shot almost all of my resistance to buying a console catering mostly to the FPS crowd. Bioware had me at the conversation system T_T

Kotorfanmedia.com April'07 Calendar

2007-04-06T07:48:00.000-07:00

Okay, so April 1st may have come and gone, but heck, I gotta plug this; My art is on this month's Kotorfanmedia calendar, featuring lovey-dovey Carth Onasi and Female Revan in a Bollywood-like setting :D

Go to Kotorfanmedia.com April 2007 Calendar Page

Yee-ha!

Contest Fever!!

2007-04-01T00:17:00.000-07:00

It's been competition fever in some areas of the art world, and I caught a bug or two @o@

My entry for ImagineFX's Manga Art Competition - The grand prize is a Wii, one my housemate and I want oh-so badly XD

My submission for Katie Shanahan's Shrub Monkeys Contest. I can imagine Magical Shagster here saying "DADA, here I come!"

Pretty in Pink

2007-02-27T17:50:00.000-08:00

Haven't had much time to do any completed artworks. Did this last month for a pitch, so I thought I'd at least post this up.

Happy Lunar New Year!

2007-02-16T07:01:00.000-08:00

As usual, I couldn't get to properly finish my greeting art in time, so here it is in its inked-but-dunno-if-it'll ever be coloured mode...

Also, I wanted to post these yesterday, but internet wasn't being kind. Did this in between work...I was so annoyed with the artist block I was having that I think I scared my co-workers :B

Happy holidays!