Komikero Comics Journal

Well, I'm back, sorta. I'm using my bro's computer now for the meantime. I had my computer fixed and yep, it was a CPU problem. My processor got busted for some reason. Now I just bought the damned thing but for the life of me I couldn't find the damned receipt so I can get a replacement on warranty. I spent an entire day turning my room inside out and I couldn't find it. Damn, I'm gonna have to pay for it now. And I just got the thing last March.

Anyway, my bro helped me out by driving me to Greenhills yesterday. I lugged the thing up to Virra Mall and when I got there....the store was GONE. Shit! Well, I didn't have a receipt anyway so it's no big deal. I just went to another store. I wasn't content to just get the processor replaced. I wanted to upgrade so I got a whole new motherboard and processor, the next to fastest one they have (the fastest is always ridiculously expensive the price of which will go down anyway in a couple of months). I got a new sound card because the last one gave me nothing but headaches. I wanted to get a new modem too but I didn't bring enough money. My old trusty HAYES modem has been with me since 97 and it's never been busted. I don't want to let it go but it's only 33K and I really want to upgrade to 56K. PLDT VIBE can reach connections up to 49.5k so I really got to get one. Sorry, but I'm still on dial up. No cable internet service here. There is DSL, but it's so expensive it's a crime. A couple of local companies are offering DSL connections for more than 5,000 pesos a month! I need to go DSL sometime in the future though, because it's severely affecting my capability to accept color jobs from abroad.

Anyway, I still don't have my computer now. I took the bus back home to San Pablo yesterday and the computer was just too heavy for me to carry that far and that long. My bro will be bringing it with him when he comes back home on Saturday and at last I'll be able to play DIAB...I mean, scan and process inked pages I mean. eh.eh.

Finally got to watch my Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition DVD. Watching the movie was of course, quite an experience. Spoiled perhaps by George Lucas and Star Wars, I had thought enormous amounts of money and time was spent on CGI to make Fellowship of the Ring look good.
But what truly amazed me looking at the DVD features is that there is far FAR less CGI in this movie than I imagined. Most of the effects to make the actors look like small hobbits were done mostly by forced perspective, midget doubles and clever camera edits and movements. The amazing vistas, architecture and scenery were mostly big miniatures (called big-atures in the docus) in combination with matte paintings. They even had a big-ature the size of a football field.

There were CGI of course, like the monsters and stuff, but like I said, far less than I thought.

Star Wars I had felt, was pointing to the way how things are going to be done from now on, but seeing how Lord of The Rings was made, it certainly convinced me that using some old fashioned techniques can still look very good and very convincing, and that CGI will not become the end-all and be-all of of special effects in movies. And more and more I feel the same way about comics.