As the title says, this is a test page for now.

We’re not quite dead yet. We return for the second round to give you cutting-edge insight our typical wackjob Saimoe predictions. Let the fun begin…again. Personal favourites in italics, group winner predictions in bold.

Seishi, chaosprophet, KholdStare, uis, Teiran, Alice, overfunk

Block A

Seishi: Nagi. We have no real surprises over here so far, but the middle match could throw the first few wrenches into my works; I had a tough time deciding between Nadeko and Yui. Having recently finished Bakemonogatari, Nadeko has won over my heart just slightly over Yui, but I still don’t see her overcoming the 2009 runner-up. I like Nymph a great deal too, as she made Sora no Otoshimono‘s plot accelerate in a good way. Ikaros might give Nagi a small run, but I see this match and Yuno’s match as easy victories. For the final, I like Nagi to take it, though I admit it’s mostly wishful thinking.

chaosprophet: Yui. Although Yui will have a tough fight against both Nadeko and Nagi, I don’t think they can defeat her at such a time, with K-ON!! ongoing and on it’s climax. I agree there is the possibility, but believe it to be unlikely enough to make a cardboard bet. Hopefully I won’t have to thin Lunatic Antics’ already scarce stock of cardboard boxes.

Alice: Yuno. If Yuno doesn’t win, it’ll be Yui. Sorry, Nagi.

kevo: Nagi, Yui. Bakemonogatari is starting to lose some steam, so I’m picking Yui to advance into the next round. Nagi’s my favorite character, but Hayate no Gotoku’s already had its chances and has not succeeded.

overfunk: Nagi.

Block B

Seishi: Nanoha. The plot thickens a bit here. I think Shana still has some real power left, at least too much for Nazuna and has-been Ryou to handle in the second round. The bottom match is a real interesting one for me; my second waifu Himari against possible future waifu Shinobu with Isumi exorcising them both. At the very least, it’ll be fun to see how many votes Shinobu can bite from Isumi since she seems to be fairly well-liked. In the middle of course we have the Queen of Saimoe herself, Nanoha, looking to extend her Saimoe record match total. Too bad for Mayoi, as I really grew attached to her while watching Bakemonogatari (like pretty much EVERY character in the show). In the final, Nanoha winning will erase three long years of futility against Shana in every major moe contest.

chaosprophet: Shana, Nanoha. Shana vs Nanoha will be the highlight for this group. Nanoha will have a really hard time against Shana, but I will go against the flow and bet on an Nanoha victory. Nanoha fans can’t waste any votes in that match, though!

Alice: Nanoha. NANOHA BANZAI!

kevo: Nanoha. Nanoha has a stiff draw in group B, but managed Tohsaka Rin well in the first round. Mayoi and Kana make her round 2 matchup Tuesday particularly scary. A sharp Hidamari Sketch surge propelled Nazuna into the next round, but it’s not going to get her past Ryou and Shana. Shana is in great form, taking out Yuri, and I think she will make light work of Ryou on the 16th. The rematch from 2008 is absolutely tantalating. Shana vs. Nanoha again? Oh be still my heart.

overfunk: Shana.

Block C

Seishi: Yuuki, Maria. Over-saturation, much? Not much to say here except I think Maria can navigate her way through the fire and the flames to carry on to the quarterfinals.

chaosprophet: Hisa, Nodoka. Don’t care that much for this group. I think Saki’s Nodoka should win that block, regardless of how much I don’t care about her.

Alice: The image says it all. this group doesn’t even matter.

kevo: Hisa, Yuuki. Yuuki is a risky pick for group C considering her round 2 match against a very good Mizuki Himeji. The Saki faction looks like it’s going to burn out ealy this year but Hisa Takei should still have time to sink Maria. Not enough time for the group finals, though.

overfunk: Maria.

Block D

Seishi: Kuroko. Once again, this block causes my mind to melt in many ways. Maybe if I really believe Koromo won’t win…then she won’t win. Right? Okay in all seriousness I think Kuroko is a legit contender from a very legit franchise. The block will come down to that second round match, and I’m banking on Kuroko.

chaosprophet: Kurimu, Kuroko. Kuroko will probably teleport away to quarter-finals. Although I hope in my heart that Kurimu surprises me.

Alice: Kuroko. This could really go any way but I think Kuroko can hold out!

kevo: Kurimu, Kuroko. The sandwich match of Kuroko, Koromo, and Kyou will probably decide Group D. There isn’t much opposition elsewhere. I’ll go on a limb and guess Kuroko here, just because.

overfunk: Kurimu, Koromo.

Welcome to Lunatic Antics! We may be crazy, but at least we have each other.

We are officially on the clock for this year’s edition of Saimoe.  Our contributors this year will be colour-coded for your convenience once again. Staff predictions are in bold, with personal votes in italics.

Seishi, chaosprophet, KholdStare, uis, Teiran, Alice, overfunk

Let's get the party started

A-Block

A1-1: This probably the most underwhelming match I’ve seen to start Saimoe. Kureha will need quite a salvo to take down Miki’s aura.

A1-2: Here’s our first chance at a split, but I don’t think Working!! fans will let it happen this early. If it somehow does happen, look for Hiiragi to capitalize

A1-3: Hidamari Sketch has proven to be one of Saimoe’s most consistent performers, and this group should be no exception.

A1-4: All four are decently-placed qualifiers, I can see Hanyuu winning this with a slight scratch on her horns.

A1-5: Thus, To-Love-Ru‘s eternal screwjob continues. Why did it have to be snakes?

A1-6: Isn’t it sad, Secchan?

A1-7: Tsubasa and Ikaros placed 6th and 7th respectively in the same preliminary group. The kitty has more lives to use and should pull this one out again.

A1-8: Hard to say here…Karen was in a relatively weak preliminary group, but should win here on enough series mojo.

A1-9: Nazuna is gonna get worked.

A2-1: Not even a sword can repel sunglasses!Yuno from a block final.

A2-2: If there’s any place for this bracket to go wrong, it’d be right here. However, I believe Yui’s superior [s]string[/s] firepower should be enough to take down any chance Nadeko has.

A2-3: Nagi doesn’t even need a split to win this.

AF: Despite getting ganked in her block final last year, Nagi is still one of the strongest characters in this year’s competition; she should accumulate the least amount of hate in order to take down the defending tournament runner-up.

Extended Staff Analysis

Dark Horse picks: Nazuna Takanashi, Nazuna Takanashi, Nadeko Sengoku, Nazuna Takanashi, Nadeko Sengoku, Nadeko Sengoku

Personal favourites: Nagi Sanzenin, Setsuna Sakurazaki, Yui Hirasawa, Yui Hirasawa, Yui Hirasawa, Tsubasa Hanekawa

Finalists and Winners:  Yuno/Yui Hirasawa/Nagi Sanzenin, Yuno/Yui Hirasawa/Nagi Sanzenin, Yuno/Yui Hirasawa/Nagi Sanzenin, Yuno/Nadeko Sengoku/Nagi Sanzenin, Yuno/Yui Hirasawa/Nagi Sanzenin, Yuno/Yui Hirasawa/Nagi Sanzenin

Staff Notes

chaosprophet: Group A is very important to me, as it has Hirasawa Yui, my second priority for this year’s Saimoe and the one that actually has a decent chance. Unfortunately, I’m probably biased when I say Yui will win this group, although I truly believe she has the strength, even more with an airing series; although, sincerely I could see either Yui, Nagi or Nadeko getting this group. Anyone else and I guess some cardboard burgers would do well for dinner.

overfunk: The expected strong contenders are Yui, Nagi and Yuno, in this order. We have two runner-ups here, though the difference is Yui being recent material. Yuno is there but misses that special spark that would allow her to transcend. Among the newcomers, we have Nadeko, Hiiragi and you could even throw in Nymph and Icarus, which were well received in their groups too. Considering how Saimoe works, I see a strong chance of Nadeko overcoming Yui, despite what I outlined above. You can try to rationalize Saimoe, but Saimoe is a natural force, unpredictable and prone to screw people’s lives. I can see Nagi fans giving Nadeko a push, considering Hina was unable to overcome Yui last time…

Alice: Nutbladder to victory, yo. I believe it. I really do. Nazuna is going to throw us all by beating Nagi in the first round–probably after a split vote Working!! loss in A1-2–and then Yunocchi will win from there. Nagi had her chance at the top! She’s gotta move aside with how old Hayate no Gotoku is now. (Though by that logic we’ll be seeing Nadeko through to win Group A…ha ha ha.) Man I don’t care, all I want to see is some interesting people get through, not the people just about everyone is predicting.

B-Block

B1-1: Everybody remembers the stripper…just enough to send her through second prelims despite being in a top-tier show; meanwhile, Kaede finished 4th in a group that was won by the Railgun herself.

B1-2: No more nasty plots for Miki and Kaho. Fortune status – [x] told [ ] not told

B1-3: This is unquestionably the first heartbeater of the tournament. Yuri finished a few spots behind Shana in a prelim group clouded by massive fake votes. Both characters are legitimate threats to win this block.

B1-4: Has the Haruhi fanbase fully recovered from last year’s debacle? Not even the movie will give Mikuru enough umph to make it past Mayoi.

B1-5: Nanoha will have to go at full power right from the start in this battle of two expert magicians.

B1-6: Even if miracles don’t exist, Bern can at least take pride in dragging Beato down with her.

B1-7: Isumi got lost and ended up in the second round arena.

B1-8: Here’s yet another test for the Haruhi fanbase, though Ryouko will need a lot more than just a killer instinct to compete.

B1-9: Himari seems considerably more popular than Kuesu, but a slight split should allow Senoob to cruise through.

B2-1: Clannad has dimished just slightly due to only an OVA being eligible this year…not that Shana really needed another edge to her blade.

B2-2: Befriended at the mahjong table, befriended at the Saimoe table. The Legend of Ikeda grows ever stronger.

B2-3: Looks like Isumi will have to [s]exorcise a vampire[/s] fight her way through after all.

BF: In a one-on-one between Nanoha and Shana, the Flame Haze gets the advantage; however, in this situation I think faction voting will play a key factor. MSLN is experienced enough to pull this out.

Extended Staff Analysis

Dark Horse picks: Yuri Nakamura, Nazuna, Yuri Nakamura, Yuri Nakamura, Yuri Nakamura, Yuri Nakamura

Personal Favourites: Nanoha Takamachi, Beatrice, Tohsaka Rin, Kana Ikeda, Yuri Nakamura/Kana Ikeda/Nanoha Takamachi, Shana

Finalists and Winners: Nanoha Takamachi/Shana/Isumi Saginomiya, Nanoha Takamachi/Shana/Isumi Saginomiya, Nanoha Takamachi/Shana/Isumi Saginomiya, Nanoha Takamachi/Shana/Isumi Saginomiya, Nanoha Takamachi/Shana/Isumi Saginomiya, Nanoha Takamachi/Shana/Isumi Saginomiya

Staff Notes

overfunk: Oh boy. We have seasoned war veterans such as Shana and Nanoha heading the pack, with promising rookies such as Mayoi and Yuri are there to bust your bracket too. Add to the mix mildly successful characters from the 2009 highest tier series, such as Isumi and Ikeda, and we have ourselves a party. Poor beloved oldies such as Tama-nee and Rin won’t be able to stand the heat, as opposed of people new to Saimoe would think (which is every year). Normally, one should say Shana/Nanoha/Isumi and call it a day. But this is Saimoe. I won’t be surprised at all with a final consisting of Yuri/Ikeda/Isumi (2 of 3 repeating last year’s block final). We do have to remind ourselves that Shana and Nanoha have a mystical aura about them that makes them rather good at the game, dominating the arts of backstabbing and fake voting.

Alice: And by that logic I mentioned above (in Block A), Yuri is going to slam Shana. You’re old, Shana. Your newest series sucks. And Angel Beats has some damned good popularity. And then Hidamari Power will shine through with one of the new ultra-moe-moe Nutbladder girls (and seriously, Nazuna is almost worse than Yuno in this sense) and go on to the final. Of course, Nanoha is gonna befriend everyone well and good, so who cares? Her movie’s really popular; I reckon that’ll help. Oh yeah, and obligatory ISN’T IT SAD, UMINEKO ;_;

Teiran: It’s never simple with Shana.  Yurippe was always going to be a tough out on her own merits, and it’s all too easy for me to entertain visions of a tactical assassination.  After that–if there is an “after that” for the Flame Haze–Nanoha awaits, as she always seems to.  I have to believe, though; otherwise, what’s the point?

chaosprophet: My top for Block B is Tohsaka Rin although she was really unlucky to get Nanoha on the very first round. She should be immediately befriended. Nanoha should have her way open, at least until she meets Shana. I’m predicting Shana here but I think Nanoha has a chance of beating her. Shana should have an easy time against Yuri but that confidence may backfire. If Yuri gets through Shana she may even end up with the momentum to beat Nanoha. Isumi should also get to the block finals but I don’t think she has much if a chance against the opponents she will encounter there.

Happy Canada Day!

July 1st. This day has many layers of significance for myself and others I know, the most obvious of which is to pay tribute to my great nation’s 143 years of existence. Not to be outdone, the National Hockey League unleashes its free agent frenzy; my team already signed a few good players. Alas, most people who read this blog will be neither here nor there on these two events. So, what’s left?

Believe it.

More to come later

Yes, I am alive and well, though perhaps not so much the second part. I have decided to experiment with dump three brief visual novel reviews here. This post will most likely be edited and re-published at a later date, or at least the reviews expanded and placed in a much larger post where they will actually be reviews in a truer sense of the word. These tidbits are about as spoiler-free as one can make them. There are NO plot summaries to be found here as you can check out the Visual Novel Database if you wish to know more about each game.

Yukizakura (Snow Sakura)

She's your teacher

Critical Values

• Story: C+
• Art: C
• Audio: C+
• Enjoyment: B-
• Overall: C+

Routes

• Saki: B
• Misaki: C
• Kozue: C-
• Rei: B+
• Misato: B-

+Pros

• Appealing Female Lead – TITLESS, TWIN-TAILED TSUNDERE MONSTER
• Teacher Route – not the typical sultry, alluring teacher you’d find in a bishoujo game, either. She is, arguably, the cutest (and smallest) character in this game.
• Unique Setting – a snowy village in Hokkaido
• Smoking Girl – I’m not sure why this appeals to me, but it just does in these kinds of games

-Cons

• Lackluster artwork – the body proportions seem off
• Formulaic and forced drama – in almost every route
• Multiple unappealing characters – as with most games that have five choices, at least two of them were largely uninteresting in every way.

Yume Miru Kusuri (A Drug That Makes You Dream)

This pretty much sums up how I felt in the latter stages of each route.

Critical Values

• Story: A+
• Art: A
• Audio: A
• Enjoyment: A+
• Overall: A

Routes

• Aeka: A
• Mizuki: B+
• Nekoko: A+

+Pros

• Fantastic Artwork – with character designs by Kiyotaka Haimura (To Aru Majutsu no Index)
• Character Focus – the three-route system flourishes
• Excellent Writing – Romeo Tanaka (Cross Channel, Rewrite) manages to even nail the ero scenes well
• Ero Scenes – probably the best, permeated by the point above
• Satisfying Conclusions – oh yes…especially one particular route
• Supporting characters – mom and dad are ever-present in the MC’s life with his sister reminding us that an extra route would be nice

-Cons

• Crossing the Line (twice) – some people WILL be less-than-thrilled with the actions of at least two particular characters, one being a route girl.
• Atomic Rage – includes above, though this turns into a pro due to successful dramatic tension and satistfying conclusions

Wind: A Breath of Heart

Can you guess each character archetype?

Critical Values

• Story: B-
• Art: B-
• Audio: B
• Enjoyment: B-
• Overall: B-

Routes

• Hinata: B-
• Minamo: C+
• Nozomi: B
• Wakaba: C+
• Hikari: B

+Pros

• Nakige – as expected from minori (Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two), this game will evoke a lot of emotion
• “True” Ending – recommended to finish last, of course
• Surprising Cast – even with the standard five-girl character archetyping, each one manages to have her own charm
• Supernatural Aspects – plays a huge role in the the girls’ and overarching stories

-Cons

• Convoluted Story – provoked more than a few head-scratching moments
• Lack of Flow – weak transitioning from scene-to-scene
• Difficulty Spike – the game takes a long time to actually get anywhere, and when it does, you might wish it slowed down

The Myth

It is often thought as grammatically correct to not place prepositions at the end of sentences. For example, let’s look at this sentence, which is supposedly incorrectly:

-Look at this snail that I just stepped on.

And it should be rewritten like so:

-Look at this snail on what I just stepped.

Of course, this is silly in conversational English. Actually, the “don’t place prepositions are the end of sentences” rule does exist…but in Latin. And from there, somehow it has leaked into English as a myth. In short, prepositions can be placed anywhere if it is needed:

-Whom did you throw the pencil at? (correct, “at whom” is needed)
-So that’s where my pencil is at! (incorrect, “at” is not needed)
-So that’s where my pencil is! (correct)

Even though it is often easy to remove the preposition to check if the sentence still makes sense, sometimes it’s not so easy when dealing with inquisitorial adverbs: when and where. So see why, just read on below. Read the rest of this entry »

Note: This tutorial is for Adobe Photoshop CS3. It will work in Adobe Imageready CS and CS2 with a slightly different importing process.

This tutorial will create an animated GIF similar to:

Introduction

Before you attempt this tutorial, know that it is a midly difficult tutorial because specific instructions are lacking. Instead, it relies on your ingenuity and the ability to find problems and know how to fix them. Therefore, I would only recommend this tutorial for those somewhat familiar with Photoshop, and you will get lost if you don’t use Photoshop frequently. Second, because the result of this tutorial is a GIF in 256 colors, don’t be disappointed if the quality isn’t as good as you expected. Even though GIFs offer animation and transparency, it can only hold 256 colors, leading to inevitable loss in quality.

This tutorial assumes that you are trying to make a gif of a scene from a video clip. The video player I will use to export images is Media Player Classic. VirtualDub can be used to easily export images, but for the purposes of simplicity, only the MPC method will be shown. To use this method, CCCP needs to be activated and CoreAVC needs to be disabled.

Phase 1: Capturing Images

First, open up MPC then go to View -> Options. You should get the screen below:

Choose Output under Playback on the sidebar then select VMR7 (windowed) and click OK. This option only needs to be done once, so the next time you capture images you don’t have to do this again. Now close MPC and open it again with the video clip you want to use. Then go to the place in the video with the scene you want. Move to the scene just before that and press Pause.

Now go to Play -> Filters -> ffdshow Video Decoder. On the sidebar, scroll down until you see Grab then click on that word. When the options for Grab appears, click on the checkbox next to Grab. Your screen should look similar to the image below:

Make sure that the options match the screenshot. For Path, click on the button with ellipses (…) to select a blank folder. I just create a new folder on my Desktop for easy access. Once everything looks good, click OK. Now press Play. The video could play slowly because it’s saving images to that folder you selected. You should only let it play through the scene you want animated then stop the video. Go to ffdshow Video Decoder again and uncheck the box next to Grab. Now close MPC.

Phase 2: Pre-Editing Processing

Access the folder you’ve “grabbed” images to, and it should have a ton of images. Remember that most animation are 24-30 frames per second, so if your scene is 3 seconds, the you would have captured about 75 images. First, locate the images that are not part of the scene, because remember, I told you to move to the scene before the scene you want before pressing Play. In the screenshot below, the images encircled in red are not needed and should be deleted:

There should also be more images at the end of the folder that are part of the next scene, and you should delete those also. Now you’re left with probably still a lot of images. And here comes to tedious part. For anime, notice that many of the images captured are exactly the same. This is because you do not need 20+ different frames per second to create smooth animation. Therefore, the same frame can be repeated to get about 8-14 unique frames per second.

So now you have to go through all of these images and delete all duplicates. This is a time-consuming process, but it will save a lot of trouble when we import these pictures to Photoshop. In the screenshot below, the selected images are duplicates, and they are in the process of being deleted:

After you’re done, the best scenario would be that you have 5-12 images. If you have more than that, then the scene you want animated is too long, and that would likely result in a very big GIF file that is not friendly to anyone. The very maximum I would go is 15 images animation. If you have 22 images, then I would suggest that you delete every other frame to get 11 images. The animation will be choppy, but at least it is manageable.

Phase 3: Importing and Organizing Frames

Now, we open Photoshop CS3. Go to Files -> Scripts -> Load Files into Stack. You should get the screen below:

First, change the Use dropdown menu to Folder. Then click Browse and select the folder you stored your captured images in. A list of files should appear. Now click OK. Photoshop will attempt to open all of the files in that folder and put them all in a single file. If you’re trying to import 50 images this way, you will probably freeze Photoshop, so that’s one of the reasons why I advised you to get rid of duplicates.

Now, open the Animation palette by going to Window -> Animation. There are two modes in the Animation palette, frame animation and timeline animation. If you see blue bars, then you’re in timeline animation, so find the button on the lower-right corner (Convert to frame animation) and click it:

Now you should see a single frame. It would be helpful to have the Layers and History palettes open at this point also. Find the pop-out menu at the top-right corner of the Animation palette, open it, and choose Make Frames From Layers:

Open it again and choose Reverse Frames. Now all of the layers will be converted into frames, with each frame having only one layer visible. You can go through all of the frames to see the changes in visibility on the layers palette. But those weird layer names are not agreeing with me. go to the pop-out menu again and choose Flatten Frames Into Layers. That should create new layers having the name associated with each frame. Since you have these new layers, you can delete all of the original layers (not frames) with MPC-assigned names.

Note: Know the difference between a frame and a layer. Frames refer to frames in the Animation palette, and layers refer to layers in the Layers palette.

This is nice, but it is harder to work with hidden layers. Instead, working with opacity is better, so we should convert all of the hidden layers of each frame to visible, having 0% opacity. To do this easily, find the Convert to timeline animation button in the lower-right corner (same button to clicked on before), click on it to see the timeline then click on it again to see the frames. Amazingly, doing this will convert all non-visible frames to visible with 0% opacity.

Phase 4: Editing the Animation

Now, it’s time to deal with the animation itself. In the lower-left corner, you should see the word Once or Forever. If you see Once, then click on it and change to Forever:

Then, select all of the frames. To do this, click on the first frame, hold down shift, then click on the last frame. Go to the “sec” at the bottom of the picture on the frame and chose 0.1 seconds. This is a temporary setting. All of your frames should display 0.1 sec. Lastly, it’s time to crop your image. Let’s say I want to make a 120 x 300 forum signature. When you crop the image, all of the layers and frames will also crop to that dimension. I’ll assume you know how to use the Crop tool:

Now preview the animation by pressing the play button on the Animation palette. There are two main types of animations, looped and reset. Reset animation means that after the last frame, animation is reset to the first frame without transition. In the first image, the signature is an example of reset animation, because after the scene is animated, it stops, then goes back to the first frame. Looped animation means that after a sequence of frames are played, they are played again in reverse to transition back to the first frame. The second image, a member card, is an example of looped animation.

Looped animation is mostly used for a still camera shot with only a part of the focus moving, such as hair, mouth, or arms of a person being still. This type of animation may require a bit more planning, such as which images to delete to “loop back” to the first image smoothly. In certain cases, you will need to use existing layers to create new frames and reverse them. Since this type of animation is more advanced, this tutorial will focus on reset animation, so we will continue with our signature.

For reset animation, you will want the last frame to wait a bit before resetting to the first frame. A good time is 2-5 seconds, depending on the animation, so set that time for the last frame. Now, if we don’t want to do adjustments to the layers, then we’re basically done. If you don’t want to mess with more advanced stuff, then you can skip down to Phase 5.

Now, if you want to make adjustments to the layers, remember that you have to do it to all of the layers. If you’re trying to apply Auto Levels/Auto Contrast to each layer, then there is a chance that some layers will look out of place since each layer has different color information. Therefore, it’s best to manually adjust a setting, record it as an Action, then play that Action for all of the remaining frames. Lastly, when making a global adjustment, make sure you are on the first frame.

Let’s say you want to apply Levels all of the layers consistently. Select the first frame, then select the layer Frame 1. Then on the Actions palette, create a New Action, name it something, then click Record:

Without doing extraneous actions such as changing frames/layers/tools/etc…, do your Adjustments (I usually apply Levels and Surface Blur), then click Stop on the Actions palette. Without changing frames, click on the layer Frame 2, Play the Action you recorded, then do so for the rest of the layers (while still on the first frame). Because all layers are visible, you can do this while on the first frame. This is why we use opacity instead of visibility. If you’re confused, then just undo what you didn’t understand in the History palette and move on.

If you want to add text or borders, then you have to do it on top of all the current layers. Like usual, make sure you are on the first frame before you add new layers. For this signature, I just added a simple black stroke and no text. It’s time to save your animation.

Phase 5: Optimizing and Saving

To save GIFs, I recommend you going to File -> Save for Web & Devices. First, make sure that the file type is set to GIF (instead of JPEG, PNG, etc…). Here, if you are making an avatar or signature for a forum without a size limit, then you can go to the pop-out menu to the right of Preset then choose Optimize to File Size:

Doing this may give you a very crappy GIF, which means you had way too many frames. Under the GIF drop-down, you should select Perceptual, Selective, or Adaptive, whichever gives you the lowest file size. To the right, the more Colors you have (max 256), the higher your file size will be. The more Dither % you have (max 100), the higher your file size will be. The more Lossy you have (max 100), the lower your file size will be. It’s best to play with these three settings to get good quality while retaining a decently low file size.

The more complex your background is, the more Colors you will need for the image to look good. My signature really only has white, black, blue (the cat), red (the text), and yellow/brown (the background), so I can get a nice picture with low amount of Colors used. But if you’re animating a transformation scene or something vibrant, then even with 256 colors, the GIF will look bad. Keep this in mind when making GIFs, and the best ones have relatively little animation with a simple background.

In general, even if a forum does not have limits, the maximum size of a signature or member card should not exceed 350 kb. This courtesy is mostly for people with slow Internet connections. If you are hosting a GIF on Photobucket or a host with strict bandwidth limits, then big GIFs will let you reach that limit rather quickly. So it’s for your and others’ benefit to keep the size of GIFs as small as possible.

To maximize a quality of a GIF, you should change the color reduction algorithm (drop-down box below image type) to Pattern. This will give a very big file size, but if you’re only making a 100 x 100 avatar, then you might not worry much since it will still be relatively small. For my signature, I will optimize it down to 100 kb and take the suggested 150 colors.

Finished Product

If you’ve followed through this tutorial and made a GIF of your own, then congratulations! Do note that there are way more to GIF animation, and this is just the basics. Slices are a great way to reduce file sizes in signatures, because it allows you to only save the animated part as a GIF and the other parts as JPEG. Notice how the right side of the above signature has no animation at all. If we slice the signature into two and save the left as a GIF and the right as a JPEG, then that would further reduce the file size. For example, below is the same signature, sliced into 3 parts, totaling only 48.6 KB, optimized for AnimeSuki forums:

(The three slices are shown separately for demonstrative purposes.)

You can notice that the quality is worse, but all the same, it is a nice signature for 48.6 KB, which is less than half the size of the first version! The second version uses only 31 colors as opposed to 150 colors, but because the signature has a simple focus and background, 31 colors is good enough. Wasn’t that fun? Animated GIFs can result in lots of unique and dynamic creations, so it is very useful to know how to make them.

Oh well i take really long break. Anyway time to promote something huh. Okay i want introduce you all about new manga by Kazurou Inoue sensei. Mahou no Iroha. If you hardcore manga reader that reading Midori no Hibi/Midori Days and Ai Kora/Love&College you already know how awesome Kazurou Inoue manga right ?. This manga about Rikka Naoki, 14 years old boy that like normal boy in middle school. Suddenly someone from future named Iroha appear and claim that actually her Inoue daughter. She come to change Naoki dark future. This manga full with mahou shoujo and ecchi too. This manga is damn funny and worth read if you like past Kazurou Inoue works. Anyway check this picture:-

Interesting right. Even she can summon Ifrit lol. I can not stop laughing when i see that. So i hope you try reading it first because it so damn funny and anyway this manga only 2 chapters is out but it definitely worth reading. Give it shot and i sure you will like it if you like gag and comedy manga.

In more important news – Blue Jays tied for first place in the AL East. You are now aware.

Special Delivery

Mahou Sensei Negima! is an ongoing manga series authored by Ken Akamatsu. After finishing Love Hina, a very successful harem comedy manga, he wanted to try his hand at something different. While Negima starts as the same genre as Love Hina, it evolves into a shounen action kind of story without losing the characteristics of a harem comedy. The result is a story which is able to mix those two genres smoothly and create something innovative. It can please both fans of harem comedy and fans of shounen action, yet also please those who aren’t fans of either of those two genres.

Negima started publication on 02/26/2003. As of today, it has 267 chapters and 27 bound volumes released.  It’s released weekly, but with a break week (a week with no chapter being released) between each 4 weeks with releases.

• The Story

The story starts with Negi Springfield, a 10 year old Welsh boy, graduating from his magic school. To continue their training to become a Magister Magi (something like a Master of Mages) each student receives a task after graduation. Negi receives the unreasonable task of being a teacher in Japan. That’s how he ends up being an English teacher for a girls’ middle school, and the homeroom teacher for Mahora Academy’s class 2-A: a second year class with thirty-one 14-year old girls.

Negi and the 2-A girls

Mahou Sensei Negima! starts with lighthearted themes:  a little slice of life, a little harem comedy, a lot of fanservice.  All three are on display as soon as he arrives at Mahora Academy.  He has a really bad start with Asuna, who happens to be not only his student, but also one of the two girls he will have to share a room with. Asuna, who already isn’t fond of children, gets an even worse impression of Negi through a succession of unfortunate events usually triggered by Negi’s naïve personality.  Things only get worse when she discovers he is a mage, something he is supposed to keep as a secret from all his students.

There are a few other students who, for their own reasons, don’t take kindly to Negi. And while most of the class likes him, they can’t take him seriously because of his personality, not to mention the fact that he’s younger than them.  Yet another problem arises as he arrives in the last trimester of the school year; he immediately needs to improve his class’ scores, by far the worst of all the second-year classes, on the end-of-year test if he wants to continue to be a teacher there – and he has to, in order to become a Magister Magi.

With lots of effort Negi is able to slowly gain the trust and respect of his students and conquer his hardships. The story dynamic starts to change when we learn Negi’s reason for wanting to become a Magister Magi:  he wants to follow in the footsteps of his father, Nagi Springfield aka The Thousand Master, famously touted as the strongest mage ever.  Nagi Springfield was supposed to have died a few months before the birth of his son, but in an encounter six years before the story, Negi met someone he still believes to be his father.

It’s in Negi’s search for clues about what happened to his father and his quest to become as strong as him that the story starts to take a different path. While fanservice and harem comedy stay present in the series, they take a bit of a back seat as the story starts to darken a little and shift its focus more toward powerful magic battles. For Negi to mature and reach his objectives he will need to learn that things such as good and evil, or right and wrong, aren’t absolute.  Negi will also learn that most of his students are far from normal as he discovers the relationship amongst them, the world of magic, and what happened with his father.

• The Characters

The main cast is sizable to start, with Negi and the 2-A students. In the beginning they may look similar, but as we are introduced to them and slowly learn more about their backgrounds we can see how unique each character is. The cast grows a lot with time as more and more important characters are added to the mix, but the manga is still able to keep most, if not all, of them interesting and each contributes at least a little to the main plot.

While Negi and Asuna are the central characters, many others take the spotlight during the course of the series. Some seem minor at the beginning but end up suddenly shining later; most get a decent amount of development during the series, which shapes them into becoming even more unique. Romance is also developed nicely, not only in relationships with the girls and Negi, but also between other characters.

• The Setting
  

Most of the story happens in Mahora Academy, a learning institution about the size of a small city with its own residential and shopping district.  It contains, amongst other things, elementary, middle and high schools, each divided by gender, and a university fully equipped with research facilities. It also features many clubs which have members from all grades.

A view of Mahora Academy

Mahora has many mysteries, like the Library Island, a giant library in the middle of a lake with many underground levels, and the majestic World Tree, which stands in a small hill in the middle of the campus.

Library Island and the World Tree

• Art

As the characters mature and the story changes its direction, the art evolves too. A panel in Negima tends to have many details spread through it, and to obtain that level of detail Ken Akamatsu uses CG for drawing many of the manga’s background elements.  Those details can be important, as Mahou Sensei Negima! has a lot of foreshadowing hidden in plain sight.

Negi as in the first chapter and in a later chapter

• Negima’s other media

Many adaptations and spin-offs based upon the Negima! manga have been created. I will give a short summary of each, concentrating on their relation to the manga. I asked Seishi to give a summary for one of the series as he knows more about it.

Mahou Sensei Negima! (Anime)

The first Negima! adaptation with a total of 26 episodes.  It faithfully adapts the first few volumes of the manga, although the art quality isn’t the best and the fanservice is downplayed.  The pace picks up for the last few episodes, cutting some important scenes out of the story, and the final arc is completely original.

Negima!? (Anime)

Summary done by Seishi:

First of all, we must establish the two things Negima!? is not.
1) An adaptation of the manga’s story
2) An actual coherent story of its own

Having said that, Negima!? stands out for its quirky but stylistic take on Ken Akamatsu’s popular manga. The first thing manga fans will notice is the noticable toning down of fanservice, something Akamatsu used quite liberally. In the beginning, the focus of the series goes straight to Evangeline and the problems she causes for Mahora Academy. The first batch of Negima!? episodes features a greater focus on action and pactio forming, the latter of which is very different from its manga counterpart. All wrapped up in this is Studio SHAFT’s (Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Bakemonogatari, Hidamari Sketch) magic touch; director Akiyuki Shinbo manages to entertain his audience with his usual animation tricks.

As the series progresses, it manages to fully separate itself from the manga, which in turn alienates long-time Negima fans.  This is rather disappointing because Negima!? has elements that hardcore fans should be able to latch on to if they can look past the obvious adaptation decay.

Mahou Sensei Negima! Haru OVA and Natsu OVA

Two 1-episode OVAs loosely based on events from the manga. They don’t really fit in any of the timelines from the manga or either of the two animes, so they’re more fanservice for the fans. They were also animated by Shaft.

Negima!? Neo (manga)

A manga adaptation for the Shaft anime. The main plot of the anime is shortened; after it covers all of the anime, it becomes more of a slice of life. It’s like a middle term between the manga and the second anime.

Mahou Sensei Negima! Shiroki Tsubasa Ala Alba (OAD) / Mahou Sensei Negima! Mouhitotsu no Sekai (OAD)

These two Shaft-animated OAD series were supervised by Ken Akamatsu, so the art and story are fairly loyal to the original manga. The first series, Ala Alba, with 3 episodes and one drama CD, animates some of the later chapters of the manga and acts an introduction for the second OAD series. The second series is still ongoing with 1 of 4 episodes released. It follows the events from Ala Alba and will adapt the latest manga arc together with a movie.