MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.
Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1420529
shot and putting the work in to animate it. The results were fantastic. A lot of the charm of the hand-animated scenes is lost to time, as with post-processing, many things look computer generated and not hand drawn. Q: Apart from the animation having more details, the content of the stories was also more geared towards grownups. I remember watching the trailer for Ninja Scrolls over and over and thinking: I have to watch this movie! I got my mom and dad to rent it, and we made the terrible mistake of watching it together. (laughs) We were 15 minutes into the movie when I had to turn it off. And then my dad watched it later after we went to bed and said that it was definitely NOT for kids (but it was actually pretty good.) Q: How did you come up with the “Space Maria” concept and what is your favorite part of it? Why do you think people are so into it? It’s a mix of a bunch of things, I think. I remember the first time I felt warm and fuzzy for a character was probably Ariel from Disney’s Little Mermaid and then I really liked Ranma from Ranma ½ and A-ko from Project A-ko. I always liked how Rumiko Takahashi drew hair and I enjoyed the idea of the tomboy, rough and tough girl with red hair. I just wanted her hair to be really big. For a while her name was just floofy-hair-girl. (laughs) In most current anime series, the female characters’ designs are often stick thin with ridiculous proportions. They are supposed to be really tough, strong and powerful, but their design doesn’t reflect it. So I wanted to bring that back. I am glad that people are more and more open minded to embrace different body types for characters nowadays. My mother’s name is Maria and I also wanted something set in space, like Cowboy Bebop. There are actually things called “luna marias” in space science, which are large, dark, basaltic plains on Earth’s Moon, formed by ancient volcanic eruptions, named after the planes that were mistaken for seas by scientists. It was perfect and fit the space pirates theme I had in mind. As far as her design, I just followed my gut and it turned out to be an appealing design for people. Q: While we’re on the subject of your art, is there any aspect of your creative process that you would consider unique to you? A lot of artists have a lot of different processes and I think the process I personally use is very basic. I demoed it a few times and I’ve been told a few times that “I never thought to do it that way” or “I do it completely differently.” But we draw the same thing and you don’t do that? Q: You don’t seem to use construction lines. I don’t usually use construction lines. If I start doing circles and orbs I feel restricted as if I absolutely have to put the eyes and ears in a certain area. I like playing with how I feel it should look. So I am always half knowing what I want and half experimenting with it and I think that’s something that’s worked in my favor, especially when it comes to problem solving. Q: Are there any features in Clip Studio Paint that you appreciate especially when you illustrate? I tend to really only use two main features when I do any kind of sketch work or concept art, which would be the pencil tool that’s very broad and soft, to get the shapes down. Then I go in with a digital oil paint pen I downloaded to sketch in the details and textures. I keep things quite basic when it comes to features, but one of my favorite things is there is no lag, so I can draw to my heart’s content and can get things out quickly. I like that I can select multiple layers with the selection tool and transform things without having to work on a single layer. I also love the symmetry function, where you can make these really intricate snowflake designs. The fill function is also really good, and I like using the lasso tool to select different layers and fill them in at once. Being able to set up tools to only refer to a specific layer is very practical.