Dio

The levels seem a bit out of proportion between the BGM, the voices, and the sound effects. Relative to one another, the voices could stand to turn up a notch, the BGM is fine, but the SFX are way too loud in some instances and it's a bit jarring (example: when the VF-171's fire the missile barrage). For a fandub, the VA work is excellent, and you can tell everyone performed with enthusiasm, but some of the choices seem off: Sheryl's speaking voice fits well, but her pitch goes too high during the singing parts, and some of the lyrics seem shoe-horned in (though overall it's a very good adaptation!). Ranka is as perfect a fit as you could get, but her pacing is slightly off. Alto's voice seems too low-pitched, and even a bit muffled at times (a problem present throughout the entire clip). Michel fits well, but also suffers from the muffling issue. You might play around with your mic (and encourage VA's to do the same) to see what input volumes vs. your speaking volume work best. I've actually found that it can make a huge difference in the quality of the recording. Another tweak you might make is to tone down the presence of the additive material you're giving the footage. Set a good BGM, add the dialogue, and minimal sound effects work as necessary. One example is Ranka's sprinkler accident - the sound effect (something out of a video game?) when she shakes her hair out is meant to be goofy and cute, but instead jumps out hard at the viewer and makes it seem like an overexagerrated cartoon show. A simple swishing noise would have sufficed - hammering the point home that subtlety should be the name of the game, not dramatization, until something makes a jarring sound effect necessary (the VF-171 missile launch was freaking awesome). PM me when you need a good Brera, I'll volunteer for that one

I'm actually enjoying the new figures, both Animated and Classics, for the chance to get them and then add little paint details to make them 100% right. My own "Premium Series." A little silver on Voyager Prime's cheeks and ears is enough to really complete the picture. I'm also fixing the over/under-spray issues on Classics Prowl at the moment. Added some silver and yellow highlights to Cybertron-Mode Prime, too. Once they're all dry I'll snap up some pics. Also saw Animated Leader Megatron yesterday, and have been kicking myself since for not buying him on the spot. If I see him again I won't make that same mistake, but I told myself "just one TF today" and that was Classics Prowl. Still no luck finding any of the Wave 3 Deluxes, you guys are either very lucky or going much farther out of your way to get them than I am

*Disclaimer* At this point, I can truthfully say I have absolutely zero knowledge as to whether the aforementioned Pineapple Salad will be featured in this series. For all we know, there could be a Pink Pecker repaint coming our way as another unexpected homage (with full armor).

Who's waiting for the inevitable Alto-Red VF-25S type? Y'all know it's coming. Don't deny it.

Hmm... cautiously optimistic here. Right side pic, 2nd row - that left hand holding the shield doesn't look the least bit articulated. This worries me.

Hands which don't retract are actually a good thing, because it means their size won't be compromised for the sake of hiding them in a mode. If they're on roughly the same scale as MG Gundam hands (with articulated fingers), I'll be in hog heaven. Consider how much space is wasted in the forearms as well, when you basically have to create a cavity inside the lower 2/3 of the forearm to accommodate the retracted hands. Hands that remain out in all modes really solve two problems at the same time for toys. It's not hard to assume the hands grip (or otherwise attach to) something in the base of the shield while in Fighter mode, and might even help explain how the shield is secured in place on the back of the jet. Though I do recall seeing a pretty large hinge on the shield in one of the prototype photos (think like Cybertron-mode Optimus Prime from the new Animated Transformers toys), I distinctly remember thinking "man, that shield looks a little far off the VF's arm on that hinge thing."

Yeah, it looks like the "collar bones" rotate out like the VF-11, but stay tucked underneath the fuselage the entire time. Think like the 1/48 VF-1 or VF-0, but they take a chunk of the airplane body out and around with them, with the shoulder joint folding out once the rotation is complete. I just don't see the clearance to achieve it. Re: Optimus Prime - Magic. Seriously, they fudged on a lot of the transformations just for the sake of having a ton of small moving parts everywhere to make it seem super-high-tech. For example, they based the size of Optimus Prime's CG on what's basically a humanoid in a kneeling position occupying the space entirely in the truck's forward cab + engine. You can see it in the DVD extras. Making me wanna re-watch the movie now

I'd add some white trails to the wings, off into the distance, to give it a sense of motion. Also, the blurred edges are a bit too stark and make it look like a static piece being dragged across a photograph of clouds, or even a drop shadow being cast upward. If you thin the blur out and possibly apply it directly to the layer your plane is on (think a very slight Gaussian blur) you can fix that. The real key is subtlety. If you combine the airstreams with the direction you apply the light motion blur to, you'll really complete the picture.

You are so like me, it's not even funny. I actually buy Transformer toys in order based on which ones I can't figure out just by looking at the figure in the box first. Makes us good engineers! My only sticking point on the VF-25 is how those shoulders flip out. It seems similar to the VF-11, but not quite the same, and with things in that area being heavily contoured it's not as easy to tell just by looking which way things end up. Even the paint scheme (analyzing how the stripes would line up) does me no good. Hence, I must own all of them to solve this mystery.

Found an Animated Voyager Prime to display in my cubicle at work... suddenly my weekdays are brighter. And since it's the 4th of July, I stuck a U.S. flag in his hands and he looks positively legendary. Pity I can't take a photo at work, maybe I'll get another little flag and set up a pose at home I still have had absolutely zero luck finding any of the Classics 2.0 / Universe figures. Are they exclusive to (or excluded from) any particular stores? I'm a sucker for public service vehicles (police, fire, etc) like Prowl.

His work in Vandread was awesome, easily one of the best dubs I've seen

Back from Episode 12, refined thinking: I'm seeing some signs of covert racism against the Zentraedi in this episode... it could just have been situational regarding the 33rd Marine group (or whatever the Zentraedi separatists were called), but could it also hint at something deeper? Leon seemed to chide the President for his remark, but in that sort of way that says "I agree with you, you just shouldn't say things like that out loud." Knowing Leon is up to no good behind the scenes, I wonder if the Zentraedi might be a bigger chess piece in this show than first imagined. The writers have gone out of their way to show contemporary Zentraedi culture in several episodes, moreso than any other Macross series, so I wonder if maybe there's a reason for the focus? Regarding the purple crystals, I'm still not sure how special they may be as a device, but as evidence of something else I think they're pretty important. Looking at the monitor readouts of Fold Dislocations, they seem to look a lot like the little crystals, and they also seem to show up in the same scenes, suspiciously. Maybe they're some sort of compressed deposit that results from travel through a dislocation? They mention that spacefolding compresses space, so what if the dislocation (purple cloud) gets compressed into a smaller size and crystallizes? A crystal as evidence of something compressing a dislocation could mean something, especially if it means a ship accidentally hit one and disappeared through it (in a previous series...). From a macro-standpoint, we've never seen a Fold Dislocation referenced in any series before now, so they obviously have to play some part in the story.

This was one of those episodes that takes the series from "cruising on the straight highway" to "off-roading at a hundred miles an hour." They've either got something massive up their sleeve as far as the plot is concerned, or we're in for some Tarantino-style craziness for the next half of the season. I'm a bit lost as to what the Zentraedi were talking about at the very beginning, though - what was the line about the Protoculture hearing the song supposed to imply? We see in the next episode preview the big ugly green crab thing, and in this one we see the underwater eyeball that shorted out Alto's VF-25, was that possibly what they were talking about?

Ditto on what's already been said - at that nice of a price, this may be the first line I manage to complete, instead of sticking to my "no repaints" philosophy!

Cool, this is only validating my theory that I had several pages back about Sheryl being the "manufactured" idol to control Vajra, while Ranka is the "wild card" they didn't predict (descendant of Mao Nome). Grace is obviously manipulating Sheryl at this point, but to what end? And why send Brera snooping after her? On top of that, what's her reason for working with Leon behind the scenes? They have to be after some sort of control, that much is clear. Control over the Vajra, perhaps, or maybe control over the Zentraedi (hence the Gallia IV experiment)? I'll have to watch Ep 12 and refine my thoughts, back in 30

I've seen some other jobs done by routers... one of the Transformer fans a while back made a scratch-designed Optimus Prime train version from the Hearts of Steel miniseries, looked pretty sweet. Is that a Colonial Viper you're making there? We might talk further if I get around to modeling this bad boy - mind sending me a PM regarding your base material costs, what sort of files you work with, quality level, etc? I've digressed from the topic at hand enough already. I've looked into some rapid-prototyping places already, but they all seem geared more toward businesses and less toward one-off personal projects. I'll fish around for quotes just to cover all my bases, but have so far been pretty disappointed with my options.

Weaving's Megatron, I think, served as something of a template for the current voice of Animated Megatron - and I think both are fantastic. The new voice is less "maniacal" (sorry, G1 fans!), and seems much more calculating and vindictive, but also capable of extreme violence. I wonder if Megatron will be present for the new movie or if the rumors of the Fallen making an appearance pretty much sum up the antagonists we'll be seeing. Obviously from the ending of the first movie, Megatron will undoubtedly be back somehow, but do we think they'll get right to it or leave him backstage for the second film?

Off-topic, but just out of curiosity - If I were to model a Valkyrie in 3-D, would anyone around here have the capability to create a solid model using the STL files? I work with 3-D CAD professionally and have done some pretty advanced stuff with it, and would love a chance to realize a design of my own invention. I know we've got some good recasters around these parts, and it'd be kinda cool to have a MWF-generated Valkyrie design, but I can't use my company's 3-D printers or SLA facilities for personal projects, and getting it done out-of-house would be prohibitively expensive.

Yamato or Bandai, either way count me in!

I had some cool hopes and expectations leading up to the movie, but seeing how the majority of the fanbase started behaving like petulant, spoiled children left a very bitter taste in my mouth and I decided to just go and enjoy whatever they put in it. Asking for input from fans was probably the single dumbest thing they could have done, and then throwing Peter Cullen's voice in there gave the whiners an extra feeling of legitimacy to embolden their already overinflated sense of entitlement (because really, Gary Chalk or Neil Kaplan would have done just as good - heck, David "Megatron" Kaye is doing a heck of a job as the current Animated Prime!). Yet another reason I shifted my interests over to Macross. Here, voices of reason seem to be the norm, rather than the downtrodden exception. TF2 sounds like it will rock, from everything I'm seeing, and with Animated out there showing how to successfully reach both new and old fans alike, I can't help but hope those in charge will try to emulate some of what is helping the franchise do so well.

On a slightly divergent note from all the legal debate... People keep mentioning the F-22 as the likely new Veritech fighter. Would it not be more likely for them to use the F-35 JSF? The 22 has already seen its share of screen time, Starscream being an obvious example, and it's also pretty much a US Air Force symbol. For a movie where it's "United Earth" Government vs. Alien Invaders, I would think they'd try to base their fighter jets on a design in more widespread use. Then again, it's just as likely they'd make up something entirely new and space-age-y to be the new Veritech and forego any attempts at similarity to real-world fighters, sort of like the Alpha and Beta VFs (though in that case, I sincerely hope they come up with something that looks less blocky). And again I'll reiterate... if Robotech can finally diverge off into its own direction as a franchise, and sever its links to Macross, it would be a win-win for both sides of the discussion. I for one would love to be in a situation where I love both the current Macross stuff coming out and the "new" Robotech. Instead of knee-jerk reactions to the possibility of a live-action RT movie being a repeat/dead-horse-beating of past legal and intellectual property issues, I would say take the high road and encourage those in charge of the upcoming movie to branch out and come up with their own entirely different (but equally awesome) product, and put all this stuff behind us.

Technically, it was "Mission City," not downtown L.A. Fictional city meant to be close to the Hoover Dam so they could keep the pacing up in the film. No geography disputes to resolve Now, if you want real debate, explain how in the context of a 5-minute car chase the world mysteriously rotated so fast it went from mid-afternoon to starry night... Back on topic: Has anyone considered the possibility that a Robotech movie might actually be a blessing for Macross because it could sever the ties that bind them for future creative work? If a good, independently-focused Robotech movie gets made, which revises the source material in such a way as to make it completely distinct from Macross (e.g. the aforementioned F-22 Raptor Veritechs), we could end up with TWO series to love from here on out, instead of a bitter rivalry. Idealistic thinking, perhaps, but I'm gonna hope for the best because the alternative is to get cranky, and nobody likes a cranky poster.

There's a pretty good depiction of how it happens in Macross Zero - most of the projection screens are housed behind the pilot, so when the seat tips back they can slide downward (toward the tip of the aircraft nose) and end up in a frontal view. I would imagine the VF-1 follows a similar mechanic.

Ozma hasn't really become important enough yet to where his death would have any appreciable effect on anyone. Sure, Ranka would be devastated, but I can't see that taking the story in any particular directions since she's already semi-autonomous from him at this point - his appearances in the last couple episodes have been basically "generic commanding officer" or "older brother on the telephone." If he dies, what changes would that evoke in Ranka? Roy's attachment to Hikaru was much more powerful, and his death was what really propelled Hikaru into a mature character role. Alto has no real attachment or admiration for Ozma, he just follows his orders (loosely). The only way I could see Ozma dying right now, would be if Leon initiated some sort of backstabbery... but again, Cathy doesn't have much character presence at this point so I don't think there would be any major story-driving impact other than a named character getting killed for the sake of demonstrating another character's evil motives.

Looks like there's also a "Former Riot" listed in the early part of the section... perhaps they mean Formo? That'd be one heck of a riot!