Customer Reviews

Anime - Concept to Reality

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Terrence Walker, creator of the Tokyo Pop comic World Of Hartz, originally started out doing his own independent anime-styled animation. This collects his short feature, Understanding Chaos, which is like Armitage III meets Total Recal, and the first episode of his series, Shadowskin, about a fugitive in a cybersuit who is on the run from an evil orginization. The DVD also tells a little about how he creates each feature. The animation is a little basic compared to even some other indpendent CGI animation, but still available at an affordable price.

This is quite an amazing DVD overviewing the process of how one man managed to create animated films through technology that is now avaliable today. It's quite an inspiration

As the owner, operator of a one-woman studio, I had the pleasure of seeing Terrence's work last year when I ordered both shorts from his website. I am deeply interested in what other small studios are doing and capable of doing. No, Terrence's work doesn't look or sound like Disney, Pixar, or Miyazaki, but was it supposed to? His work is outstanding, inspiring, and a real technical breakthrough BECAUSE HE IS ONE PERSON DOING WHAT THE CORPORATE STUDIO'S TAKE 500 TO 1,000 PEOPLE TO DO. Jeffrey Lew's "Killer Bean" didn't look or sound like 'Shrek' or 'Monsters Inc.' either. But the work of both these men breaks new ground and I, for one, am thankful. I salute Mr. Walker and StudioArtFX on bringing originality, courage, and persistence to the task of one-person/one computer animation production. I am pleased and proud to be amoung such talented people.
C.M. Ralph
Owner, Digital Backlot Studio

I love this DVD. I was inspired to buy this product by first buying Terrence Walker's "Anigen Bundle" from his website [...]. I also read other reviews of this product and those reviews talk about how rudimentary Terrence Walker's films are. I'm sure he'll say that this was his first film so of course it is not perfect. But the point Mr. Walker is making is that one can make their film on their own. One doesn't have to wait for their idea to be accepted by the major animation studios. With off-the-shelf software and your desktop or laptop computer at home, you too can make aniation films. And, with each successive animation film you make, the better your film making will be. That is why I think this DVD is really Educational. In a nutshell, for all those who wish to get into the animation game, you can start by buying this DVD!!

Its good to watch a Professional talk about how he/she goes about producing their animation from the concept to the final end product and also tools and methods that were valuable during this process. Brilliant!

Charles Solomon's editorial criticism is more misleading than his recommendations. I bought Concept to Reality, in addition to those suggested by Solomon, to ensure that if Walker had been lax in his explanations I'd have other pieces of "Edu-tainment" to keep me satisfied. However, now I know it was unnecessary to buy the other pieces that do nothing more than detract from the central issues of learning digital manga techniques. Walker's DVD goes into more depth on the use of Lightwave and Aura software to achieve a 2D art look with 3D objects than any other DVD I've seen.

Walker also appears to be the only english speaking artist, since the others use subtitles, and delayed voice overs.
But, in sum, Terrence Walker should be given more credit for having built an independent film catalogue without all the resources that abound for artists, only in Japan.

So, if you're new to the processes of digital manga, and living in the U.S. I would strongly recommend that you take a look at Walker's techniques, they're the most practical.

Man, this dude shows you everything. I thought he was going to have the hook up, but he's doing it on normal computers with Lightwave 3D and other programs anyone can get. He gets into some detail too.

If you're into that kind of stuff, he goes off on his bone setup, his IK rig for his characters. He shows off how to do those cool Robotech type smoke trails in 3D. He shows how to do explosions and even hot melting metal. Awesome!

I can't wait until there's another one. I hope TOKYOPOP does it, cause I can't get enough! If you like stuff like Jin Roh and Blood: The Last Vampire and especially if you want to know how to MAKE it, you HAVE to get this thing. You can't lose!

Sign me up for the next one!

I think a lot of people have little idea what anime really is. On the net it seems you get the ludest otaku who think that if it isn't fresh from Japan it must be bad. I am GLAD I didn't listen to the naysayers!

I wavered a long time on this one, but I finally had to get it and I can only say ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE! I wish there was something like this out a long time ago! I am still having trouble believing one artist did all this. What's even better is that he doesn't make a secret about it. He shows exactly how you can do it too! HE shows what software he uses for each step from storyboarding down to music and final editing. I never even considered that one guy could do it, let alone on one computer! It's like Robert Rodriguez on the "Mexico" DVD but for anime!

I've been drawing since I was a child and dreamed of doing something like this, but I always saw hundreds of names in the credits for most shows. "Voices of a Distant Star" looked good, but it was heavy on the 3D stuff and the 2D character stuff was somewhat lacking. Anime: Concept to Reality uses 3D also, but he makes it really look hand drawn. I couldn't even tell what was what, until I watched how it was put together.

I know now that even I could put a show together and make it look good without becoming homeless trying to do it.

This is a waste of money.The expressions in the anime episodes are horrible,it has the worst story lines ever.I am ashamed to say I bought it.Doesn't tell you anything you want to know on the "concept to reality",it's just some guy blabbing on, and on, and on. It is worse than Robotech.

This is the worst thing I've ever seen.Even worse than Robotech!
The "anime episodes" are poorly voice acted and have an even worse storyline!I am ashamed to say I even bought this piece of junk.Then the "concept" was just some guy blabbing on,and on, and on.No helpful information just a waste of time and money.