What is Magic?

Magic is the difference between result and effort--or to put it more simply, the difference between what you see and what's been put in. Consider the hours of practice it takes for a magician to master his trick, ensuring that the audience sees it at just the right angle every single time he performs.

Any activity that can be mastered, displayed at its highest form, is liable to produce moments of magic. You can even call them "miracles." We see it all the time in sports. They're the buzzer beaters, the hole-in-ones, the comebacks, the perfect confluence of events that result in an outcome that rests squarely in the zone of statistical improbability--and yet, it still happens.

Magic isn't something extraordinary; rather, it's a function of the ordinary. Every activity, at its core, is a system of reproducible actions. It's a matter of stretching that system to its limits. To reach the highest peaks, it requires infinite amounts of practice, patience, and persistence.

If you want to create magic, imagine an accomplishment unseen, within the limits of capability, but beyond the average of effort. Sometimes, it's the small things taken to the extreme, that creates that wonderful thing we call "magic."

It Ain't Over Til It's Over

This blog is on hold.

Long-form writing doesn't agree with me anymore. I'm transferring all activity to tumblr and twitter.

I'll probably revisit this at some point, but until then, this will be an archive.

Fifth Meeting

Not much happened this week. I consider it a mini break, but such periods of calm are common before storms. With all the research done, the only thing left is to go into full production on the storyline. Everything rests on my shoulders now. It'll be hard, but a complete intro should be done by next Friday. In three weeks, the entire project should be done in rough draft form. After that, we'll do revisions.

Time to hunker down and focus.

Artwork: Sora and Naminé

Sora and Naminé chilling together.

This picture was a right pain in the ass. Anything that has to do with color always is. I couldn't get my shading with the black brush to look right, so I decided to use color for depth. I forgot how much work it is to actually use color. The thing that annoys me most is when I finish everything, it's too late to make dramatic changes. There's something off about the picture that I can't put my finger on. Naminé's face is weird, and Sora's arms are out of whack. I definitely gotta practice more. Maybe I should start using the pen tool for later pictures.

Fourth Meeting

It's hard to believe that it's been a month since I first started this project. Back then, all I had was an idea, but now, we have a fully working prototype. It's lacking in content, but it has all the basic functionality I need to make a good visual novel.

It took me way too long just to make a placeholder character.

Uncharted 3

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception is a stellar experience. It's a culmination of Naughty Dog's work in marrying game design and Hollywood spectacle in one package. It’s the perfect blockbuster, packed to the brim with thrills, death-defying stunts, and amazing set pieces. Unfortunately, the substance that made Uncharted 2 such a fantastic game has been replaced with empty flash.

JomattoStyle: Descriptions

Most stories I read are driven primarily by dialogue -- but that's probably the case for most modern works. My memories are colored by school-assigned literature that's seemingly dominated by pages upon pages of description.

For fanfiction though, most writers have settled on a dialogue-heavy formula. I consider it a byproduct of the more popular forms of media: TV, movies, etc. We grew up watching this stuff, so it only makes sense that we borrow from it when we imagine our own stories. This has led many fanfic authors to write something akin to scripts rather than novels. Remove all the keyframe action and all you have is talk. It's not necessarily a bad thing. We all watch TV, so it's a familiar format for us. The problem is that it doesn't take advantage of the writing medium.