A Picture

While I was staying with my Grandma up in Canada this last Christmas vacation, she asked to see some things I had been working on (I believe she was hoping I had made some movies and/or drawn some drawings). I did have one new movie to show, but no drawings (I know, I'm kinda ashamed of myself). However, I showed her some of the pictures I had created digitally. She was rather impressed with them. Actually, I don't think impressed is quite the word. She couldn't quite wrap her head around the idea of making pictures like that. She kept asking me questions of how I did this and that, and how I got it to look like that, and STILL she couldn't fathom it. I wonder what she thought all the movie covers and stuff came from. Someone had to make them.
Anyway, it got me thinking, since I had some time up there, I made another picture and took screen-shots of it after I completed each step. I've decided to post them here with a brief explanation of what's happening, just because.
Now I don't have a fancy photoshop program or anything. I do all this on Pages on a Mac computer.

First I need to pick a subject. I was on a BBC Merlin spree at the time, so that's what I chose.

Then I have to picture about what I want in my head before I start. (Some artists sketch it out. If this were a serious project, I might, but this is just for my own amusement.)

Now to the actual project...

First I start out with a blank background. (My default color is black. Sometimes I change it.)

Then I pick out the picture(s) I want and put them in place.

Then I blend the edges. (There's a setting on Pages to do this. It's a picture frame)

I decided one of the pictures didn't quite fit what I had pictured in my head, so I changed it. Also I added some other pictures to fill in the space. (Both pictures of both characters are similar)

I blend the edges on the new pictures as well.

I want a quote on it so I add a text box and type it in there. Then I reposition the text box to where I want it on the picture.

I decided that I wanted the golden eyes to stand out more. So I changed the opacity (transparency) of the original pictures to much less, then I took a copy of the same photo and cropped it just around the eyes and blended the edges. Then I put those eyes over the original photo so it looked like the eyes were brighter than the rest of the photo.

I make a few last minute tweaks such as changing the shade of the text, adding shadows here and there, revealing or cropping more of a certain photo, changing the opacity of a photo or text, etc. And voila! The final product:

This was a fairly simple and quick project. Some of the pictures I've done were much harder and much more time consuming. One in particular is one I've titled "I Don't Want to Go- Ten". It literally took probably around two or three hours to complete. Finding the pictures, putting them in place, cropping them properly. I can't really describe the true extent of it. But it turned out to be one of my all-time favorites that I've created.
You can see most of my creations on my Facebook page (My Creations album), but I'll put just a couple of my favorites here.

In a Land of Myth

Merlin and Morgana

Rapunzel

Allons-y!

Doctor's Companions

Eleven

Ten

The Amazing Spider-Man

Rumplestiltskin

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

When You Walk With Sherlock Holmes...

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

This is the one I was talking about earlier:

I Don't Want to Go- Ten

Long Live! You Will Be Remembered

Long live the walls we crashed through

All the kingdom lights shined just for me and you

I was screaming long live all the magic we made

And bring on all the pretenders

I'm not afraid.

Long live all the mountains we moved

I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you

I was screaming long live that look on your face

And bring on all the pretenders

One day, we will be remembered.

                                                                                         --Long Live, Taylor Swift

It's finally happened. One of my many, many TV shows has come to an end. That finale though! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! (Interpret that in any way you like. Good or bad.) I feel like I'm mourning the death of one of my best friends. (There's actually a YouTube video talking about hardcore fans. It says that when your show ends, "you feel like all your closest friends have all just suddenly died and you'll never see them again". It was completely right.) This has never happened to me before, this is the first time I've experienced a TV show ending. The show I've lost is one I've actually only blogged about once... Merlin (see post here).

I just... can't believe it's over. I've been watching since the second season had just finished airing (out of five seasons). It's been a great run though. Of course there were faults and things I wasn't happy with, but overall, I loved it. This post is just my goodbye/tribute to one of my favorite shows through high school and college.

I'm going to miss everything about this show.

Merlin and Arthur's hilarious, but sweet friendship (I loved their endless banter)

The epic battles 

The awesome costumes 

...Especially the swooping red capes

The sometimes amazing and sometimes horrid CGI

Amazing (wook at dat wittle baby dragon!)

Horrid (I cringe every time I see those vines wrap around him)

Arwen (Arthur+Gwen)

The way people's eyes would turn gold when they did magic (I thought that was a really cool and imaginative little touch)

Arthur always conveniently getting knocked unconscious 

Merlin's many neckerchiefs

"Shut up, Merlin." and "MERRRRLLLIIIIIIIIN!!!"

The smexy knights ;P

(Left to right) Percival, Gwaine, Lancelot, Arthur, Elyan, Leon

Deep/touching/motivating conversations (often) around the campfire 

Arthur's Burger King crown XD

[Sir] Gwaine (my favorite character)

Never understanding what the heck the Great Dragon was talking about (or panicking over it when I did)

Epic magic battles (though there weren't that many) 

Sassy old Merlin (yes that is the same actor. It was seriously the best thing! No. Old lady!Merlin was the best thing [see here], but that was a one time thing so...)

Excalibur!!!

Morgana being absolutely terrified of Emrys, but thinking she's more powerful than Merlin (I just found it finger-tapping exciting whenever she confronted either one, like "if only she knew")

...I could go on, but I'll stop now.

I have a thousand fan videos for the show, but I had to pick just one to put on here. It was tough, but I finally decided on this one because I absolutely cried like a baby when I first watched it. It was made after the finale and it's sort of a farewell to the show, so it's perfect.

Now, to finish off, let me just say that I am sincerely going to miss watching this show every Saturday. Though it might've been a little repetitive in its story lines, not so historically accurate, and emotionally-wrecking, it was still in my top 5 favorite TV shows of all time. It was actually the first BBC show I ever watched (faithfully). So thank you, Merlin. You will be remembered. 

So as a final goodbye, I'm going to leave you with this classic that every Merliknight should watch at least once in their lives (it's like the 500 Miles video to the Whovians): The anthem to our fandom, Colin Morgan and Bradley James's performance of You're the Voice.

Paperman Review

(I know I talked about this in my last post, but I just cannot stop thinking about this, it is THAT amazing).
“Paperman,” the Disney short before “Wreck-It Ralph” was by far the cutest animated short I have ever seen in my life. Nothing compares. All my feels, guys! ALL. MY. FEEEEELLLLLSSSSSSS!!! The music on it was just out of this world. Seriously. I can’t! In a short few minutes, it portrayed a better love story than any other movie I can even think of (especially Twilight). My gracious. I don’t have words for how much I loved it!  You cannot begin to comprehend! I was tearing up by the end at the sheer beauty of it and my cheeks hurt from smiling so much. Go see "Wreck-It Ralph". And if you miss the short at the beginning, prepare to hate yourself unwillingly for the next eight years at least.

Wreck-It Ralph Review

WATCH TRAILER 

Oh my gosh, it was such a fun movie! With details EVERYWHERE regarding retro arcade games. I'm sure it was every gamer’s dream (I'm not much of a gamer myself, but I picked up on a lot of the jokes. However, you don't have to be a gamer to enjoy it. You'll just have an extra layer of humor to appreciate.) Not to mention the characters themselves were absolutely amazing! Ralph and Vanellope were a truly fantastic duo, but Fix-It Felix and Sergeant Calhoun weren’t far behind. (Also can I just say how flippin' ADORABLE Felix was? Like what a little sweetheart! He might've been my favorite character. "*hits prison bars with hammer* *they get stronger* Ahh! Why do I fix EVERYTHING I touch!?")

Now regarding the movie itself: Even though most of the plot was pretty predictable, there was a mother of all plot twists at the end that I was not expecting at all that completely blew my mind (so brava for that one Disney writers)! There were also hilarious jokes (the one joke I absolutely DIED at were the Oreo guards chanting like the guards from the Wizard of Oz, but instead it was: "OreEEEo OreEEEEEEEo OreEEEo OreEEEEEEEEo". I seriously could not stop laughing), a number of heartwarming scenes, as well as heart wrenching scenes, and the animation was fantastically stunning! The colors, the textures, the way each character from different games moved. I say, GO WATCH IT! You’ll enjoy it for sure!

And don’t even get me started on the short before the movie, Paperman. It was beautiful. The simplicity, the cute story, the 3D overlapping 2D, the music, and the characters... It deserved the price of admission on its own! I was grinning so big at the end and had tears in my eyes. The animation, the ANIMATION. Ugh! I hope this starts a new wave of animation, something to show that 2D should not be overlooked or ignored.

All in all, I'd give Wreck-It Ralph an 9/10 and Paperman a 10/10. So go watch the movie. Really. Just do it.

Doctor Who- A Brief Explanation

So I know most of you people know that I watch a TV show called Doctor Who. I also know that most of you have no idea what on earth it is about. You might have picked up on a little bit of the idea based on my Facebook posts or just things you've seen around, but you're probably still confused as to what it's really about. That is what this blog post is for. To quote David Tennant (who plays the 10th Doctor) "it's very difficult to explain Doctor Who and not sound like a lunatic", but I'm going to do my best.

The primary basis of the show is about a humanoid alien who travels through time and space in his time machine-spaceship that looks like a police telephone box that's bigger on the inside, and he fights monsters/aliens and saves planets. Did you get all that? Maybe you should go back and read that first sentence again. There's a lot of info there.

Did you do it? OK, good. Now we can move on.

The alien I mentioned above is called "The Doctor". Like, that's his name. Just "The Doctor". The man who makes people better. People in the show always ask, "Doctor who?" "Just the Doctor". That's why the show is called Doctor Who. The Doctor isn't his real name though (but no one knows what it is. There's some horrible, dark secret surrounding it). Since he's an alien, the Doctor can change his face, his whole body, in a process called regeneration. He has regenerated 10 times now, so he's had 11 faces so far. Regeneration only happens when he's dying though. So if you were once confused why several different men would be referred to as the Doctor, now you know why.

Like I said above, the Doctor travels through time and space fighting monsters/aliens and saving planets. Sure, that might not sound very appealing to a lot of people. I mean, typically I'm not into that kind of genre; all sci-fi and what not. However, Doctor Who's sci-fi is different from the typical stuff. You kind of have to watch it to understand, but the intricacy of the plots and the way you're always kept on the edge of your seat in wonder is awesome!

However, the reason most people really love Doctor Who is not because of the primary basis I listed above. Ask any true Whovian. It's because of the pure emotion put into it. Seriously, never have I seen a fictional show that can make you feel so good about life and how important you/everyone is, but also make you sob your eyes out over... whatever it may be. (Of course there's lots of funny stuff too. I laugh my head off a lot of the time).

I found a children's book that somebody made that explains Doctor Who. I'm going to post it here:

So there you have it. A Doctor Who summary. If you want a more in-depth explanation, you can read my posts from a year ago here (also here and here), where I go into detail about time-travel, regeneration, his enemies, his companions, the series background, the intricate plots, the Doctor himself, and well pretty much everything.

If you would like a little brief explanation VIDEO, you can go here. I'd recommend watching it. It explains this sooooo much better than me.