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Soran

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Blog Entries posted by Soran

  1. Soran
    I changed my avatar for "Summer Showers" because I thought that was a thing. Apparently this isn't true and I got the actual expression, "April showers brings May flowers" wrong. This made me realize that I should've changed my avatar to my current one in April and changed my current one to flowers in May. My wit was too late.
     
    So I propose we make "Summer Showers" a thing. Spread the word, I don't want to be wrong because it should be a legitimate expression!
     
    ~Soran
  2. Soran
    Howdy,
     
    Recently I was having to write about my character, Soran, in various instances and I noticed just how tragic of a character he is. Just in his iteration in "Soran's Comics", he already is rather depressing.
     
    Tragedies of the character Soran:
    Died due to inactivity in making comics.
    Brought before the pearly gates, but because he's equally good and equally bad he's sent back to his body until he's either more good or more bad.
    He's brought back as a zombie and gifted his mortality again but it's completeness is taken away from him after his body decomposes.
    He must stay as a ghost for the rest of his time and change from being his usual morally good person, to being something he isn't; all to preserve the one thing he truly cares about in life, his mortality.
    Even in his mortal state he cannot do much. As a ghost he cannot be without a host for so long, otherwise he'll disappear. He can try to possess people, but those around him are too strong-willed for him to force. He can possess mechanisms but the only thing he can possess at the moment is a blender.
    He's given up everything that previously defined him as a person in an effort to preserve his own mortality or find a way around it.

    It's made me realize that a lot of characters in stories I write (whether it's stories I actually release or personal ones) end up being tragic characters.
     
    So I'm curious what your favorite tragic character is?
  3. Soran
    I just got promoted to Outstanding BZPower Citizen.
     
    Apparently my new benefits include:
     
    My name will now be orange (which is totally appropriate)
    I have to wait only 30 days to change my name (so if I'm ever on the run and I want to change my identity, it'll take less time)
    The pride that comes with the title
    and the respect of BZPower's members
     
    pls respect me now
     
    ~Soran
  4. Soran
    Howdy,
     
    World building.
     
    An interesting concept for anyone. I particularly find it to be entertaining and exciting. I've done lots of world building for my own personal stories I've written (Outside of BIONICLE), in fact it's probably one of my favorite parts about the story writing process. This is no different with my latest series, "The Road to Home".
     
    It's weird to me. I enjoy coming up with my own worlds and stories but I still feel deeply connected with the BIONICLE world that was laid out for us. A world that for the most part was hardly ever explored, which is a shame really. But it paved the way for people to create stories involving those elements that paved the way.
     
    I've got this interesting layout that I've been working on in regards to the TRUTH series. I'm basically making it a game inside of a comic. I want people to interact and I was to see just what people are interested in. This has come up with me focusing on world building. With the basic layout of what I had pre made for the series, I had roughly… 30-40 characters. However minor or major these characters are, they were featured on those 7 or so islands that the comic takes place in. Then I started thinking about a Non-BIONICLE story I'm writing, which deals with the concept of what makes something "human". What qualities of humans is most important?
     
    I've transitioned this to what makes a person or character seem alive. Sure, I can add a random character to a story and throw a sob story in there but it wouldn't do much for the audience. It is just a character that they won't care about. I started thinking about what makes something seem alive. So I decided to analyze a movie that displays this very well. A move probably most of you have seen. Wall-e.
     
    Through rewatching this movie I was able to garner just what it is that makes a character seem alive or almost human. They must be intelligent, they must show compassion, curiosity, and various different emotions. But something I had only realized through rewatching Wall-e was that another trait that made Wall-e appear human was the fact that he had a job. He did actual work. I always just forgot about that for whatever reason but it's truly one of the things that matters most. It's makes the character relatable because they have ambitions.
     
    This then had me thinking about the MNOG everyone loves. The world building in the game was fantastic. It worked out well. I realized then that it was also because even the smallest of characters seemed alive because of their work. Their work often defined them as well. This matoran is a part of the Ta-Koro guard. why? Because he cares about the protection of his home and his peers. This next person is a scholar. We can deduce that he's a curious person who questions everything relating to the life around him. He ponders the essence of the world. From taking pre-established character traits from elements (like Ko-Matoran being rather cold and calculated in personality) and combining it with a job that defines more of their personality, you can create a fully fleshed out character using nothing more. You've given the character ambitions, a personality, and work. These traits alone give you an interesting character that can only be expanded on further through dialogue, conversation and story.
     
    This has been my thought process as of late as I realized something the other day. Metru-Nui is small. I mean, in comparison to the many other islands in the matoran universe, it's like a small to medium sized landmass. It had hundreds or even thousands of matoran. The island that Soran is on currently, the Northern Continent, is considerably larger. I don't even have over 100 characters spanning 7 islands. I'd like to think that I was super duper planned but I really had little to go off of in the series. Probably more in contrast with other people who make up a story as they go, but much less for what I've got planned. So I resolved to fix that. I've decided to come up with different cultures, characters, protagonists, antagonists and so on on each of the islands. I've got so far a pretty decent spread for the northern continent so I'm rather excited. Being able to figure out the different points in time in the actual BIONICLE storyline that connect, that's been fun. Hopefully this project goes on well for me. I can't imagine that I'll get bored by it but I can tell that there's a chance I could get burned out. Creating some of the elements for the comic has been a lot more difficult then I originally anticipated. But I suppose that's a topic for another time.
     
    For now I will say that lately I've been world building. Actually now that I think about it, does anyone remember the World Builder game from LEGO? That game was neat, I really miss it.
     
    Anyway, that's about it for this entry. I thought it was interesting.
     
    ~Soran
  7. Soran

    What do I Blog

    By Soran,

    I remember thinking in the past, "Man it would be great if I had a blog on the site, I'd be able to write so many things in it!"
     
    Now that I have a blog, I've only written two things. I seriously don't know what to do with this. I need more exciting things to happen but too much of the things I do are on the down low or hush hush sort of nature. Either that or it's incomplete.
     
    I just don't do too much I can talk about or vent about. At least not in a public sort of manner. I need something to blog about, to curb my desires of blogging. Anyone got any ideas, that aren't me blogging about not having anything to blog about?
     
    ~Soran
  8. Soran
    Howdy,
     
    Soran here. This new bloggy thing I've got will be useful since my audience for my comics is primarily on this site. This revolves around a series I've been talking a bit about called, "The Road to Home" or simply the "TRUTH" series. For those unfamiliar with what this project of mine is I'll give a simple rundown of what it is supposed/going to be.
     
    The TRUTH series revolves around my character, Soran and his past. Specifically it revolves around him just wanting to go home. One of the major factors of this series is that it's an exploration comic which explores the different regions that were mentioned in Gen 1 of BIONICLE but never thoroughly expanded on.
     
    The structure of the series is a combination of a CYOA (Choose your own adventure) and an RPG (Role-playing game). I'll simply ask a question at the end of each comic which will dictate what I want the audience to answer. So this series revolves entirely on audience participation. Sometimes I'll just ask "What should Soran do?" and you guys can write something like "Do a silly dance." While other times I'll ask you guys to solve a puzzle or I will make a straw poll if there are simply options to go off of (I would go with the majority in this case).
     
    Now let me get back to what I wanted to discuss. This is in regards to the art style. Most of my previews for the series include this image.
     

    Link

     
    This style is very obvious. It's pixelated, sprites, revolves around bright colors and the backgrounds would appear similar to those of MNOG. This style is very simple to work with and I'm quite familiar with it. The only issue with it is the fact that for some people it's a hit or a miss. Some people simply love the pixelated/sprite look (like myself) while others are just immediately turned off by it. In most cases, I probably wouldn't care but since this comic revolves entirely on audience participation I have to think more mindfully of what the audience truly wants to see and not just simply what I have time for.
     
    This brings me to my next point and next image. This series unlike my normal Soran's Comics is not going to be a daily series. I simply would not have that amount of time. I can strive to make it weekly updated, but it definitely isn't going to be daily. I would burn out too easily on the amount of backgrounds and sprites and such I would have to make. Now since it's not going to be a daily series I can realistically take as much time as I need on it. Which is where I came up with this idea for an art style.
     


    Link

     
    This art style is obviously very different. One thing I want to point out very quickly before any assumptions are made is that this drawing is obviously incomplete. It isn't colored in and the line art isn't even finished. But it's still my character, just in a non-sprite format.
     
    In this particular instance, the comic would be made in a different manner. I would basically be drawing up a giant "sprite" kit and would use those pieces to make dynamic poses which would look similar to being drawings. Simple as that. Think of it like the widely popular MNOG kit. Speaking of which, the backgrounds would still be in a similar style to MNOG and the coloring would as well. In all honesty, the only reason I wouldn't just use the MNOG Kit is because things are scaled to set size in that kit which would make certain bodies look weird (specifically the matoran bodies). By using my own style I can create things however I like without having to worry too much about set accuracy.
     
    Now I would assume that this is most likely going to be the more popular choice. The only issue is that obviously 1) these will take longer to make and 2) the series wouldn't be able to be released on New Years like I had planned if I went with this option.
     
    So I want to know what you guys think. What is the better idea? Sticking with the quicker sprite style or going with the longer hand drawn style?
     
    ~Soran
  9. Soran
    Howdy,
     
    Soran here. Apparently I've became a premier member at some point or another. I've got absolutely no idea how that happened. It was just a case of me looking at my comic topic and seeing a symbol underneath my avatar and thinking, "Huh, did I always have that symbol? I wonder what it means…" Then I scrolled down to see what other symbols people had and saw that very few people did. The I remembered that the symbol thing underneath your avatar was something obtained for premiership. And then I scrolled up and saw that I was premier.
     
    Is there some other way of getting premier status besides just buying it or being gifted it? I know that recently I reached 1000 posts, would that at any point give me temporary perks? Recently I also received a boost in proto but I doubt that's it since it wasn't like that in the past.
     
    This is pretty confusing for me. I'm assuming I was gifted it but shouldn't there be a message that pops up that states that you were gifted proto or something similar? If not then there totally should be. Maybe I'll read up on the help topics or something and see what's up.
     
    Anyway, pretty silly first entry. I know though that I'll be taking full advantage of these perks for as long as I've got 'em.
     
    ~Soran
  10. Soran

    Future Plans

    By Soran,

    So I was thinking about the Comic Forum and how dead it is in comparison to how it was in the past and I thought I might do something to possibly help aid it. So here is my possible plan.
     
     
    Comic Studio
     
    Comic studio revolves around helping those interested in getting into comic making. It provides a resource for various different styles that one might wish to partake in.
     
    Sections:
     
    About Comics:
    Simply a comic explaining the concept of comics. Comiception.

    Genres/Types of Comics:
    Goes over different types of comics (Action, Adventure, Comedy, Mystery, CYOA, Ask types) and what's to be expected of each type.

    Characters:
    Goes over how to create a decent character in terms of personality and purpose.

    Comic Effects and Layouts:
    Goes over visual effects, types of writing and comic layouts that are normally not limited by style.

    Styles:
    Goes over the different art styles of comics (Sprite, Hand drawn, Photo Comics, 3d Comics) and what's to be expected of them.

    Tutorials:
    Would consist of tutorials that I would make based off of common things people wish to learn to make. This would be for example, Gimp effects, background tutorials, sprite character creation, setting up a photo scene, etc.

    Gaining Inspiration:
    Mainly is based around ideas and suggestions for those struggling to come up with inspiration.

    The Big No-No's:
    Pointing out the justifiably bad things one can do with each of the styles and how to avoid these.

    Showcase Your Work:
    This would allow others to be able to showcase what they may have learned through the tutorials/process. It's more reserved toward people who most likely don't have a topic to put their comics in.

    ------
     
    So that was more or less one of my my future plans that I might work on. I think it could hopefully be helpful. Tell me what you think about this specific project, anything I should add?
     
    ~Soran
  11. Soran
    Howdy,
     
    I got bored (several months ago) and drew Soran as a human. Here's a snippet of it.
     

     
    Link to the actual drawing
     
    Check out the actual non-creepy/non-chibi drawing in the topic. Leave any feedback you can.
     
    ~Soran
  17. Soran

    Buzz, Buzz

    By Soran,

    Howdy,
     
    To all of those that have enjoyed my work, I would like to give my appreciation. At the moment I'm unsure of how the future will work out but for right now, I'm still going on hiatus for the time being. As of late I've been getting caught up in the sweep of life and have had little time to work on my series that I have. Hopefully in due time I'll be able to come back and work on these but for right now I'm still as busy as a bee.
     

     
    ~Soran
  18. Soran

    Here's a joke

    By Soran,

    "Why couldn't the firemen get to the fire in time?"
     

     
    They were waiting for the polls poles.
     
    Completely unrelated to anything on the site.
  20. Soran
    Check out my latest digital painting I made in General Art.
     
    Give up the Ghost
     
    This painting is actually based off of two things.
    It is based off of a scene to appear in my comic, "The Road to Home"
    It is based off of an actual BIONICLE Story element.

    There's a clue in the painting as to what it's based off of.
     
    Anyway, I thought it was neat. So check it out!
     
    ~Soran
  21. Soran

    Predictions vs Reality

    By Soran,

    Howdy, Soran here.
     
    Today I feel like talking about something I thought was interesting. This is in regards to the TRUTH Series I put out recently and my expectations with the series and the reality of what happened.
     
    I'll go ahead and say that everything I was expecting happened so far. In a way I'm surprised but at the same time I'm really not. I feel like I know my audience rather well. I immediately knew as I was writing the scripts for the series that this series would be a combination of people trying to keep Soran alive and those who are trying to kill him. This was evident with the suggestion of avoiding the storm and sailing into it.
     
    I also could tell that checking the bag would be one of the more popular requests, although this one I planned for accordingly (by placing the icon for the bag in the bottom left corner, thus generating curiosity). And so far I've been pretty accurate on which cardinal direction would be the top voted (My guess was north would be the top voted and technically it is).
     
    I'd say that so far I've done a pretty okay job at getting the series going. I've already decided where to continue off and I'll probably work on getting up the next comic somewhere between Sunday-Wednesday.
     
    That's all. I thought it was interesting, at least for me it is.
     
    ~Soran
  23. Soran

    Muzak Making

    By Soran,

    Howdy,
     
    So I've had this one song stuck in my head for well over 3 years. It's a song that I made up myself and I think that it sounds pretty neat. It basically in my mind epitomizes "adventure". I always wanted to make it but the problem is, I'm not musically talented. Can't play an instrument, can't read music, etc.
     
    So I ended up finding one of those music sequencer things online and I decided to give it a go. The sequencer itself is awesome, easy to use and not useful for what I wanted to make. I can't figure out a way to have a note hold, which is troublesome since that's part of this song. So i pretty much submitted to my defeat on that song but I decided to make some other random tunes. These are them, all of them are unnamed except for one.

    Warning: They are all very repetitive.

     
    The Southern Continent
     
    Untitled 1
     
    Untitled 2
     
     
    The idea I had for the music was related to the TRUTH Series which comes out at 12:00am. I will be making some animations for the series but upon making them I realized that the only method of animation I could use was a gif. This lowers the quality of it. So I came up with the idea of, "What if I just made them videos (webm) instead of a gif?" Then I started thinking that if they were videos I could include things like sound, background music, etc. And then the lazy part of my mind took over and I thought, why would I do that?
     
    So yeah, that's about it. I experimented with making little tunes that sound okay. Enjoy!
     
    ~Soran
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