October Watch Summary

It’s been a busy month - all of the cool films (and not so cool films) I’ve been anticipating are all releasing now! Arcane S2 act 1 is coming in less than a week! And soon to come are films like Paddington 3, Piece by Piece, Dogman and some other films I’m forgetting lol

Went to my first ever comic con! Check out my thoughts here!

It’s also been getting busier with university work since it’s been a pretty vital time to lock in!

So glad I’ve caught up to Witch Hat Atelier, undoubtably going to reread that soon since it’s so fun.

Wild Robot is soooo good. i’m probably going to miss the window of seeing it in cinemas again, but it’s worth the hype, the writing, art and direction turns what could have been a by the books kids movie into something for all ages with a really strong core in the growth of Roz as Bright Bill’s mother and the general development of the world and community of animals.

Look Back was fantastic, a damn near perfect adapation I think. Saw it twice and am SO glad it was on in a local cinema!

Lighthouse, Perfect Blue, Paddington, Wild Robot, One Piece Fan Letter, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Dragons Rising, Ranma 1/2, Tonbo - it was back to back PEAK!

Also the My Hero Movie…which was uh…underwhelming.

But enough yapping, time for more yapping (about Youtube videos!)

DONUT HOLE (Kenshi Yonezu)

Really cool animation. Has some lovely sunset colours - godly use of its colour and charming character designs.

Production HELL: Chainsaw Man (MankoMan)

SUCH a cool series to engage with anime on a more interesting level, metatextual level. Actually getting a feel for why a production works or fails is so informative.

Great discussion of how people need to think critically and not jump to either doom-posting or ignorantly praising a poor production schedule and unethical practices.

The stuff about Shota Goshozono taking responsibility as a director and using resources in a creative way to execute on the ideas in a budget-healthy way is really cool. 

Hoping and praying anime production gets healthier with time.

How to Draw Like Oda: One Piece Art Style Explained (Yumesuke XD)

Really cool short videos talking about the general use of proportion, line weight and gesture within Oda’s artwork. Neat stuff. I want to do analysis like this at some point.

10 videos to level up in Blender (Robin Squares)

Not much of a Blender Guy myself, but this is some cool recommendations.

Great Artists Steal (Andrew Cunningham)

Andrew has such a way with words, man. I love how he talks about his process of game development in this way - There are TONS of aspects you can take from pre-existing works before then re-flavouring them to suit your own needs rather than being a mindless copy.

You don’t always need to reinvent the wheel, but original ideas can be the core of your work, but the things you steal or get inspired by can shape your work into something even greater.

Didn’t know Toby Fox was SO open about taking influence from what he liked lol.

Very excited to try out RAM.

Spider-Man vs Paul - Why Are Fans So Mad? (alex lennon)

Great deep dive, I’ve never got super into the spider-man comics but its fascinating to see this sheer vitriol for PAUL to basically conclude by stating that Paul is a physical manifestation of Marvel’s interference and constant need to make Peter miserable - and how there are still alternative stories which can make the most of Peter’s character.

Why My Design Failed (And How I Fixed It) (NAKA)

Holy hell what a first impression to this artist. Absolutely killer video talking about the process of redesigning this old character of theirs.  I love how they approached the philosophy of what a piece of concept art is trying to do (convey information visually and sell a character idea in pre-production)

That and I found it interesting how NAKA and Sinux had completely different focuses on the main things they were interested in.

Engie is such a charming character concept.

Mr. Iwata [Grab Bag] (Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games)

this was such a sweet video. Sakurai clearly had so much respect for Iwata as this man who understood him best and changed the course of his life

Week 58: Basics and Repetition (Journey of the Arbiter Wolf)

Cool to break down art like a maths problem and try to see where you go wrong and how to improve.

Alpharad Mario Party Jamboree VOD

Man its both incredibly entertaining to see these guys be forced into playing mario party for 10+ hours but at the same time the sheer anger Alpharad felt after the Bowser board full of non stop bad luck and chat goading on and being mean spirited would tire me out too.

A Shovel Knight Franchise Retrospective (Gazpacho1)

Fun video!

Your Concord redesigns need redesigning (Chroma Moma)

Not really been in tune with the whole Concord stuff but this video highlights JUST how easily design principles can be misconstrued. It’s easy to say “soft edges = comforting character” and stuff, but these principles aren’t ironclad rules, and trying to redesign something with no real care for what the initial inspiration and brief was does feel like you’re not really trying to critique what designs are there - but make something entirely different.

I typed a dog (Japhy Riddle)

Man what a creative use of a typewriter for some absolutely beautiful stop motion.

Animation And The Death Of The American Dream (Sky-Chau)

This hits a lot of familiar feelings I’ve had about creative industry jobs. "I can't count on luck to pay my bills" is like a knife to the heart but feels so true.

Being an artist has more than a fair share of drawbacks, and it can be really hard to feel like you can persist within the industry’s current “gig economy” systems, especially if going indie doesn’t appeal to you.