Hoboken Castle Point Anime Con

This past Sunday Stevens Anime Club held an one-day anime con on their campus in Hoboken. While the convention has been going on since 2008, it was my first attending this particular convention. L and G also came along to the convention which made our PATH trip and the short walk to campus more fun. They also kept me sane by suggesting a lunch break (I would have forgotten to eat since my schedule was overbooked with panels).

Stevens students are lucky to have this view!

The sunny and cool weather ensured good natural light and crisp photos for cosplayers. I also enjoyed the outdoor concerts (come on, you want to hear your college campus play anime rock!) and walking around in general to see cosplayers and take breaks between panels. The convention also reminded me of my first convention (fun panels, nice video rooms, and in general a friendly atmosphere all around). and it wasn't overly crowded. Having attended Katsucon in its various locations, Anime Boston in the convention center, and NY animefest (no longer exists) in Javits convention center, it was a nice change of pace to go to a smaller con with so many creative workshops and panels. and I found the artist alley / dealer room less intimating than some of the larger cons. 

Attack on Titans

Popular anime series featured were Tokyo Ghoul (haven't seen/read it yet) and Attack on Titan. I am usually behind on such popular series at conventions, especially when One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, and Deathnote were all the rage. I recognized the characters but could never related to the fandom in music videos or cosplay shows. At this convention, I actually had knowledge of Attack on Titan and call myself a fan so that made the experience all the more fun. (need to go back and see Attack on Titan photos from Katsucon... since I didn't know it back in Feb).

Eren from Attack on Titan (or SNK) in front of the wall (AKA castle in Stevens campus)

I am a fairly recent fan of the series. It all started when Crunchroll added streaming manga access to my account (used to only have anime) so I took the opportunity to check out Attack on Titan. I quickly became absorbed by the storyline and characters and just kept reading chapter after chapter. After finishing all available chapters, I am starting to watch the anime. I have to say they did a nice job adopting the story and also used the animated action scenes to their advantage. The colors were so vibrant which took a bit getting used to. Somehow I never even thought of colors when I reading the manga since it was so gritty most of the time. 

Based on my interest in the show, I thought it would be fun to see the Attack on Titan panel at the convention, called SNK (japanese Shingeki no Kyojin, Attack on Titan) Over the Wall Panel. The show's description on the con site:
The SnK Over The Wall panel will show the SnK characters as they are outside the walls in an area with no titans. While trying to keep away from the titans as well as find a way back, the cast can get asked question as well as answer them the best they can.
This was hands down my favorite panel ever (of this con and all conventions I've attended so far). The room featured several cosplayers who role-played as the characters from the show. The audience got to ask questions and the cast answered them while staying true to their cosplay character. A lot of laughing and singing involved. My favorite was the cosplayer for Jean (one sitting on the chair backwards). The Marco and Petra/tree jokes got a bit much. But I did enjoy Mikasa and Jean's antics and energy. and Armin had a great voice and knew the opening song by heart (in Japanese). Somehow I didn't get Hanji in the photo but she was really great too. I heard the video will be up soon. [placeholder]. No Levi though, many complaints heard around the room...

More Cosplay Photos

Korra from Legend of Korra

Blake from RWBY

Ruby from RWBY

Fire Emblem (never played this game but those two looked great!) 

Panels / Con Memories

• Panels on cosplay photography (communicate with cosplayer/photographer!), 70s anime (need to watch Rose of Versailles), magic (fire / wand tricks in cosplay)
• Outdoor concert guitar jam to Pokemon theme song (English one)
• Standing in line waiting for SNK panel and meeting various fan (one of them was attending her first convention! so awesome)
• Reading Tsubasa in the manga library
• Stadium seating style lecture halls (don't have to worry about people blocking your view)
• Fantastic schedule iphone application. I'm overbooked for every hour though!

More Resources

Official site for Castle Point Anime (bookmark for next year!)

http://castlepointanime.com/

SNK Fandom

• Check your manga vs anime storyline here http://shingekinokyojin.wikia.com/wiki/Story_Arcs
• Watch Anime Link: http://www.crunchyroll.com/attack-on-titan
• Read Manga Link: http://www.crunchyroll.com/comics/manga/attack-on-titan/volumes
• You can also of course order the show on your streaming website of choice and also order the paper or electronic manga easily too. After you are caught up with both, you can also check out the spin-offs and guidebooks. 
• so many tumblrs which to pick? (great, now i have to re-activate my tumblr just to follow) http://snk-universe.tumblr.com/

RWBY

http://www.crunchyroll.com/rwby

Legend of Korra

http://www.nick.com/legend-of-korra/

Fire Emblem

http://fireemblem.nintendo.com/

2015 Katsucon Cosplay Notes

Recent Katsucon anime conventions have been taking place in the Gaylord hotel in National Harbor, a dream location for cosplayers and photographers alike. Beautiful lighting, garden setting, and plenty of indoor temperature controlled space all make cosplay photo shoots possible in middle of freezing February.

I was not mentally prepared to take photos. It took at least 30min of gawking before I remembered to take out my camera. Please contact me if you want a link to your site/cosplay profile!

Classic

I spent most of the time gawking at the Sailor Moon shoot. I should have taken more photos of the various sailor scouts but you can probably find them online. Sailor Mercury was one of the best and totally in character as a shy, bookish girl (someone even lent her a book to pose with). and the Sailor Moon / Tuxedo masks were just very sweet. I like the classic Sailor Moon pose with the crossed arms below. Link to new Sailor Moon series here: http://www.crunchyroll.com/sailor-moon-crystal

Game Fun

Vincent was a bit out of character but managed to organize some fun photoshoots for Final Fantasy series, including this can can dance number.

2014 Favorite Series

Two of my favorite recent anime series are RWBY and Yowapeda (crunchyroll stream). I was pleasantly surprised by the sheer number of people who showed up for the Yowapeda photo shoot (including someone with a full bike too). It felt like we were in the middle of Interhigh competition. Who knew that all the three top teams were so popular as cosplay characters too!

Love the detail on the scythe and the bad-ass attitude too.

Maki-chan smiled for his pose and handed me a business card. Follow them here: https://www.facebook.com/ShimapanCosplay

DC Universe

Not everything has to be Japanese anime related. Check out this group of batman universe! The lighting is a bit off because it was getting darker outside.

Go Go Gadget

Inspector Gadget outfit was genius. I remember liking the live action movie when it came out in theaters (long long time ago). I wish I didn’t cut his leg off by accident in the pic. It was a bit crowded in that space so I must have just aimed without checking for accidental cropping.

I did not get the name of this anime with incredible detail on the armor. The facial expressions and the pose look really fitting too (even though I’ve never seen the show). I have to find someone to ID this anime!

Misc Tips

I liked the idea of handing out business card with contact info to photographers. Hey, it helped me figure out where to send a photo. The other way is to post photos and ask on forum, which may take a while to ID.

I couldn’t find tips on how people get organized for those group shoots, but I marveled at the fact every group had a very good leader who made sure people got organized and also had fun. The Sailor Moon one was super coordinated, with people doing different outfits of some of the scouts. So when you called for “Sailor Mars” grouping, there were cosplayers dressed as Mars in different uniforms, casual wear, formal wear, and sailor outfits. I wish I took a pic of the Doom Tree duo (demon form with face paint and colorful hair).

The final fantasy group put together many situational photo shoots: Aeris sleeping among flowers with Cloud looking on, Emo looking Cloud/Zachs, dudes flexing muscles, can can group dance, etc. They definitely had a lot of fun being in character and out of character.

In Action

I searched for some katsucon videos and thought I’d share a few of my favorites. There is something more real about videos because it captures cosplayers in action. Hm maybe something to try next time.

http://youtu.be/MntXRLxMDxY

http://youtu.be/slUsQKLHcUE

Origami USA 2014 Convention Countdown

A bit late in uploading this list and pics for the June Origami OUSA Convention but wanted to organize them so they don’t just get lost in the sea of twitter origami pics. I enjoyed last year’s countdown so much (blog entry here) I had to repeat it. It was a good way to get motivated and fold! Unfortunately there were some skipped days there, but that’s ok too. Glad my friend @pprfldr joined me this year.
Link to photos here (also gallery is posted below the list): https://azuletblogphotos.shutterfly.com/pictures/150

OUSA origami 2014 countdown

57 butterflies / Michael LaFosse
55 tie fighter / Jeremy Shafer
52 sunflower / Kobayashi

48 shell decoration / traditional Spanish model from Harbin book
47 angel / Adolfo Cerceda
46 Japanese purse / traditional. Also learned from @pprfldr
45 Robert Neale hummingbird made out of equilateral triangle // Fujimoto hydrangea
44 Robert Harbin 'bird in flight’
43 Traditional lily made with equilateral triangle instead of square
42 Lover's Knot (traditional) learned from @animemiz 
41
Yoshizawa butterfly learned from @pprfldr
40 Flying pig created by Paul Frasco. this pig has his snout low on the ground. 
33 ornamental fish by Rodrigo Lopes de Lisboa
32 Ayako Kawate's color pattern 
31 PaWaritato by Michel Grand
30 more Sunflowers as part of ATC trade. Model designed by Kobayashi 
29 Michael LaFosse hummingbird  
28 Dragon by Emilson Nunes dos Santos
26 Traditional lily with Robert Neale hummingbird. 
24 stacking two 3-petal lilies. Also used wetfold which makes better looking petals.

23 more 3-petal lilies and a Fujimoto hydrangea. 
18 doodling with scrap foil. Flower? Bird? Staff? Unknown!
15 more 3-petal lilies made from stardream. 
5 Bianca star by Carmen Sprung
4 Large 3-petal lily. Stardream is so buttery when wet-folded. Amazing
4 Upside down starbox using equilateral triangle. Oh all the possibilities. 
3 Fun with windmill-like model from a triangle
1 XYZ, omega star and friends at the Thursday night Origami Meetup (good sized crowd, tons of fun!) 
0 Dimetrodon by Fumiaki Kawahata and taught by @creasygoodness after registration, inside the great hall.

Shutterfly Gallery

(warning, may not work on mobile devices, try permalink instead https://azuletblogphotos.shutterfly.com/pictures/150)

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More information

Hashtags used on twitter: #ousa14 #foldcountdown #origami
note that my friends @pprfldr and @animemiz and others used various hashtags so there is really no good way of keeping track of them. Maybe we will figure it out next year.
Same picture countdown app as previous year “Big Day Lite”: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/big-day-lite-event-countdown/id303102667?mt=8
Also see my post on lilies (the start of my 3-petal lilies) http://azuleteats.blogspot.com/2014/05/lily-origami.html
and my post on the OUSA ATC Trade. http://azuleteats.blogspot.com/2014/06/origami-usa-artist-trading-cards-2014.html

Origami USA Artist Trading Cards 2014

Liner notes for origami convention artist trading cards swap

I fell in love with this sunflower model at a weekly origami meeting. In subsequent meetings, I kept folding them with different types of paper. The possibilities were endless. The colorful index cards were left over from studying for an exam. The background piece of paper is a random shape cut from a square or hexagon. The card can also be used as a mini-note book, mini-guest book, or a simple display stand! Fill it with a witty quote or a favorite convention memory! 

The model

Kazuo Kobayashi sunflower from Origami Flowers. Or read my friend Linda's book review on OUSA)

Brainstorming 

Some of the features below show up in my "draft notes and pics" but are not actually used.

• Funky color combo (used)
• Spirograph as background (not used)
• Magazine centers (some used)
• Poems/quotes inside card (not used)
• Potential pop up card (not used)
• Maps as backgrounds (not used, pictured below)

The prototype 

White part is cut from hexagon memo paper. 

The paper

Memo cube, duo foil, single side and duo sided patterned kami, magazine pattern cutout, etc

The card

Colored index card folded in half. Can be used to take notes and also used as a stand. 

These are a few of my favorite cards

(Picked and photographed the night after finishing cards)

(Picked and photographed the night after finishing labels) strangely enough I had only two repeats: the orange/red foil and the cheetah print with arc.

Fun facts

• Patterns include strawberry and cheetah print!
• Not all sunflowers had center piece (duo foil looked better without). This model is a two piece model. 
• White cut out pieces were unplanned. Random cut and shape and twists. All cutting, gluing, and positioning on cards were done in one night. 

Links to shuttlefly gallery: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0CYsmLRw1bMWca

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Links to other ATCs: http://azuleteats.blogspot.com/search/label/ATC

Link to countdown pics (or separate blog) - placeholder

Lily origami

The original

My favorite origami model is the traditional lily (pictured below). It was one of the more complex and more beautiful flowers in my first origami book (which is a Japanese origami book for kids that was translated into Chinese).

It took me a while to fold it and I'm sure my mom had to help me figure out the steps before I got impatient and declared the particular model "impossible!" (which I did for several models in the book). Years later, I flip through that book again and I can proudly declare that I've probably folded 99% of the models and they are all possible (and actually good diagrams compared to some other books I've seen). Interesting enough, the first model in the bird is the traditional crane. (Note to self: need to scan in book and make into digital book before it falls apart completely)

The Exhibition Brainstorm

For the upcoming Origami USA Convention Exhibition in June, I wanted to do some variation of the traditional lily so was folding them with different shaped polygons (triangles, hexagons, etc). While they all "work", the proportion of the petal to stems are quite comical. 

My friend N. then consequently gave me an ideas to try. "Try cutting two eights pie slice out of an octogon and tape it together to make a cone shaped hexagon, and use that as the base for the Lily, Magic."

I'm not sure if this below is the intended result, but I gave it a shot. It's pretty enough but missing the flower stamen/pistil parts. This would be good for layering or candies though.

The Challenge

This 6 petal lily below was sent from N. with the subject: "Here is a taped version, I like this better than the pie cut, this is based on a square and has petal stem symmetry"

Needless to say, I noticed it's not the same as the versions I've done, and asked for some more instructions.

I could not understand the text instructions which followed and had to ask for more pics to show progression. I got this 8-petal lily with some steps pictured.

more after the jump

2013 June OUSA Artist Trading Cards

As part of the 2013 June Origami USA Origami convention, my friend Talo organized the Artist Trading Cards event, which involves 27 cards in the official set and 27 participants. 

In a nutshell, everyone has to create at least 27 cards with origami in them (no theme for this trade) and then everyone takes home an entire set. We also met up and I got a chance to see other people's bonus cards from previous years. Mini-art gallery in the making!

 

Liner notes for my ATC (also presented at the ATC exhibition):

“Perfect blue in 3”: A top secret project. Naturally, all my OMG friends were quite curious about the theme of my first ATC for my first origami convention. Most guessed hydrangea which isn’t too far off. I went through several drafts and revisions and really enjoyed every part of the design/production process. 3 materials (memo cube, regular computer paper, and cardstock) and 3 patterns were used in the final set while maintaining a monochromatic look. As for the labels, I wanted an opportunity to use the cat manga stencil I bought at a comics event.


Planning and inspiration photos below. I had originally wanted to write a dev blog post (similar to video game makers) but decided to at least post the pics here (and hopefully fill in the details in the future). I tried various drafts and color combos and ended up deciding on three variations. Hope you enjoyed my first ATC and look forward to future trades!

Mobile users, please try this link as the embedded gallery may not work. http://azuletblogphotos.shutterfly.com/pictures/96

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2013 Origami countdown

note that this photo album may not work on mobile. to read more about the Origami countdown, you can go to my page here: http://azuleteats.blogspot.com/p/origami-convention-2013-countdown.html

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IndieCadeEast 2013–Games and Creativity

While I’ve played my share of video games growing up, I didn’t know much about independent games or game development before I attended IndieCadeEast 2013. Thanks to Diana, we made our way to the Museum of Moving Image in Queens this past weekend to the first IndieCade on the east coast. After two and a half days of intense convention activities, I learned a thing or two about games, crowd energy, creative design, and play testing. Warning: this entry has a lot of media. Proceed with caution.

fancy logo. Link to Indiecade East site

just a shot of the museum entrance.

Five Memorable Convention Moments (more details after the jump)

1. Renga AI: "Your fourth harvester looks really useful now”
2. Game Design Workshop: Post-It Pirates playtest sessions
3. Hokra Play-by-Play Sports Commentary during Sports Friends Session
4. Super Shove Shove Ending Screen during CAPY keynote by Kris.
5. Three way tie for the three “Well-Played” sessions I attended. All the presenters gave engaging presentations and shed some light onto games that I had not otherwise known about.

---

1. Renga Rant

http://wallfour.co.uk/
When D. and I first lined up on Sat. night for this game in the main theater (bigger of the two theaters), we didn’t know what to expect. The volunteer who was handing out the laser pointers instructed every row to pass down the laser pointers (1 per 3 people only). Since we sat on the aisle, I decided to skip it and let my neighbor participate while we observed. Later on in the show, he was nice enough to let us try as well.

Game premise: Team space shooter
The Execution: 100-players (total strangers) + laser pointers (aka annoying red things) = crowd ecstasy and/or complete chaos.
The Twist: We are all dependent on each other to build a ship, fight off enemies, and survive!
Side effect: Continuous blabbering about how cool this game is and seeing “quads” and “radial” shapes every where.

The context for the AI comment "Your fourth harvester looks really useful now” came after we opted to built yet another harvester despite being blown to bits by enemies. The ship can build different parts after each round of attacks. A “launch” engine is said to be the primary goal because the ship needs to build four launch engines in order to go home. Then there are “silo” ship units to hold supplies and “harvesters” which are little ships that can grab supplies to bring back to the silos. Harvesters have no offense so they get destroyed easily during attack.