Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Something Different

Well, not much has been going on due to having constant classes and homework. For once, and probably the only time, I am taking more credits than Miss Melody Brown! *gasp*! I'll chat a bit about my classes.

In my "body comm" class, we have been learning about behavioral gestures that help determine whether the body is under stress or not. This includes studying the normal patterns of a person, and then using them against the person under interrogation. It's very interesting. Tomorrow, we're going to watch as some students are interrogated about whether or not they are guilty or innocent of a crime, and one of them is supposed to lie about being guilty. The audience has to try and observe the entire scene and look for those certain body gestures that give away the lie.

In Film class, we're going over the term "Japonisme" and how artists of the west, such as Van Gogh were inspired by eastern art techniques, specifically from Japan, and how they applied these ideas. We're also going to watch scenes from Mikado, the comic opera. It's interesting how they specifically just used the images of Japan and incorporated nothing of the culture. It's kind of insulting, if you ask me, but I guess that adds the humor to it. (Maybe).

On a side note, I have no homework today. ^_^ Very nice! Tomorrow I'm going to wake up super early so that Melody and I can catch the train at Makino Station and meet up with Nikki. We're going to Kamishichiken to see the Geisha perform a tea ceremony for the Plum Festival. I'm very excited. Hopefully we're back in time for class by noon. If not, oh well. I'll catch up. I'm sure we'll be back in time for the interrogation. (If I missed that, that would be terrible). Also, the weather here has been amazing. It's actually gotten quite warm out. I've eaten lunch outside two or three times! (And I'm always cold. . .) Commence the jealousy now.

I've noticed that I've gone back to my old ways of entertaining myself. I have an old (and rare, i.m.o) hobby. I spent countless hours on it. While I was continuing this hobby of mine, I thought about some of things I had learned in a class at Mount. First of all, this hobby of mine I call "pixel art." It is exactly what it sounds like. A person creates an image by placing certain colors of pixels in an arrangement until there is a larger creation. (Of course, you zoom in a lot. Not zooming in would be quite tedious)! Here are some examples of my own works:
Here is a work in progress that I started last semester. I kind have been putting it off. ;x
I just finished this last weekend. It took a couple hours.
Generally, it's nice to work with a pallet, this way you're not overwhelmed by the many choices of colors available to you. I don't always stick to a pallet though. This one is my most common used pallet. Usually, I make things in MSpaint. ALWAYS save them as a .png. This preserves every single pixel you created, instead of blurring the overall picture.
Sailor Moon's "Moon Twilight Flash!" I actually made this for a game a friend is supposedly working on. But that's a secret. :) Shh. I'm probably not supposed to show this, but they also aren't showing any progress on the game. So Bleeh. ;p
You might be thinking: "What is the point of this?"
Well, art like this, so far as I know is popularly used in video games. For example: Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest, Super Mario Bros., etc. With new games coming out on the DS system, sprites are popular again! Yey!

The reason I brought this up was because while I was continuing "spriting," I thought about what people have been talking about on the topic of Zen. I thought of my East Asian Art History class and how there was sudden enlightenment through simple focused tasks. (Za zen?) Maybe pixel art counts too? :)

That's all for now. Just thought I'd share my hobby.

2 comments:

  1. I'm glad you're not too busy over there that you still have time for your hobbies. You've been doing pixel art for as long as I've known you. I still have a lot of your older stuff saved on my other computer too. Always Impressive. The one in the pink dress is great!

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  2. I have heard about the body motions being weaker if someone is lying. I forget what it's called here, but it was a topic just a few weeks ago.

    Yeah, you have always had talent in pixels. LOL I like to work with graphics zoomed in too. It's how one can get it done precisely.

    Love you and miss you bunches...
    Mom

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