I just finished up three new Final Fantasy IV projects, namely three of the most powerful dragon creatures in the game. Whether it was the Dragon Warrior series or the Final Fantasy series, you knew you were getting deep into the game, and had grown sufficiently powerful, when you were not only encountering dragons on a regular basis, but could stand toe-to-toe with them and not get roasted alive. Due to the way the monster names were often heavily truncated for space, they were known in the game only as Red D., Blue D., and D.Machin, but you can call them the Red Dragon, Blue Dragon, and Dragon Machine if you want to. Sometimes I enjoy completely rebuilding an action figure or other toy from the ground up, creating something that simply didn't exist before. After last month's exhausting projects, however, I was ready for something more comparatively simple. I often enjoy working on a project where simply painting it represents the majority of my creative efforts. I really went all out on the details, this time, and I'm really happy with the end results.
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This month's update showcases a particularly difficult pair of projects. I had actually started them last year, but I put them on the back burner for a bit because I really wasn't sure exactly how to build them. I always say that it's better to put a project aside and let my subconscious ruminate on it for a bit, rather than trying to push through it, forcing something into existence before it's good and ready. (And, no, I'm not just saying that because it ties nicely into the quote from Charlotte's Web I used above.) So, there are a couple of bizarre half-woman, half-spider creatures crawling about within the realm of Final Fantasy IV. One is the Arachne, with which you're likely already familiar, and the other is the considerably more obscure Talantla [sic], who is very well-hidden and is almost impossible to discover on your own during the course of a normal game. (I will freely admit that I didn't know about her until I read about her online. I don't know what I'd do without the Internet. Besides go outside and get fresh air and exercise, I mean.) Not sure what next month will bring. I have a great, big box of toys that I've bought with the express purpose of turning them into Final Fantasy IV monsters. If a particular game sprite is used, say, four times, I really need to have four copies of the same action figure lined up and ready to go before I start working on them. Obviously, that isn't the case with the monsters who have unique sprites that aren't reused during the course of the game. My point is that I still have a lot of incomplete sets. I guess time will tell! I was working on a pair of much bigger and more elaborate projects, but while I was waiting for some paint to show up in the mail, I spent a couple of days working on these guys instead! The bad guys in Final Fantasy IV seem to be divided roughly into two groups. There are the absolutely bizarre, otherworldly creatures whose origins are open to debate... maybe they were trapped inside the Earth until Golbez released them, or maybe they were all living on the Moon, or maybe Zemus created them himself. It's hard to say. Then there are the normal, run-of-the-mill animals who have seemingly turned psychotic. Eagles, alligators, turtles, etc. who were once mild-mannered beasts until somebody decided to crank their aggression-o-meter up to 11. I think the EvilShel and FangShel probably fit into this category. They're clams, for crying out loud. How do they fight? How do they attack you? Do they wait until you're not paying attention and then grab you with their tongues? I'm not sure I understand it. And I'm not sure I want to. The August update is coming very shortly, and it features a couple of very elaborate projects... perhaps the most ambitious Final Fantasy IV monsters I've attempted thus far! I've maintained a personal web site, on and off, since 1998. The World Wide Web has become a very different beast since that time. Used to be that web pages that were too image-heavy would crash some people's browsers, so my web design philosophy has always been "substance over style." A comprehensive fan site stuffed full of useful information (and the occasional photo for spice) was the ideal to which I aspired. Zobovor's Multi-Faceted Transformers Site! was born, which was eventually abbreviated to ZMFTS! because Hasbro didn't like that I was using their trademark without permission.
As newer computers became more sophisticated and people stopped complaining about too many images all trying to load at once, I grew bolder and started experimenting with bigger images, embedded sound files, and videos, all in the interest of showing off my creative endeavors. The site ballooned so much that it became unmanageable, so I streamlined and dispensed with the information guides (which were, by this point, being covered rather nicely by the wiki sites that had sprung up in the interim) and focused chiefly on the stuff I created. In recent years I've realized that the site needed a complete overhaul. Something like 60% of Internet users are on mobile devices now, according to some sources, so a web site designed for viewing on a desktop computer was no longer relevant. I wanted the site to be mobile friendly so I could reach more people. As I write this, I'm in the very early stages of rebuilding the ZMFTS! and it's been a challenge. Not because of the HTML coding (Weebly is pretty much all click-and-drag design) but because I'm having to pare down the descriptions of my projects to the absolute bare minimum. People don't want to slog through a wall of text. (You probably gave up on this blog entry two paragraphs in.) I really like to go into detail about how I rebuilt toys, what that piece is made of, how I resculpted that piece, why I chose that color of paint, etc. but it's just too much. It needs to be mobile-friendly. A bunch of pictures that you can swipe. (I mean slide your finger across the screen, not steal for use on your own web site. Because goodness knows I've dealt with that enough over the years.) Now I just need to begin the slow task of uploading my 560+ projects to the new server. I did three of them tonight. At this rate, it will only take me 26 more weeks... —Zob |
DAVID GRAHAM EDWARDS
Illustrator, writer, painter, sculptor, collector of toys and cats, observer of things. Categories
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