Quick Video Blog

We're working on the next update,
David

NEW FAN ART!

Hello!

Well i have been getting a lot more artwork for the fan art contest! here are a few more. I took a poll and a majority decision has decided that we extend the contest until the END OF 2009. It sounds good to me since I was planning on giving the winners a printout of chapter one. But chapter one is looking a lot longer than previously expected soooooo it will be taking us a little longer to get it all together. Which in turn, gives you folks more time to make some entries for the contest! This just makes things more complicated for us, because now we are gonna have to judge from a larger batch of entries- DIFFICULT! *its actually realllly hard to just choose 3 right now! lol


anyways- i am swamped with actual job artwork today soooo my MMoe update on the manga will be posted much later today (and perhaps creeping into tomo) SOOOO i will be keeping ya posted. i have a few pages finished up but still have to tone a few more too.

i am sorry about the inconvenience for you guys who are watching us......


by quixsketch *thanks for another submission!


by chaosdj I like how you did this in your own style!


by nogooddamnamesleft the painty realistic approach is excellent!

thank you everyone! i will be keeping you posted as things change and update!
*BTW- we WILL be choosing the winning story for the cameo next week! that has not changed soooo see you guys around the bend!

davidliu

New Fan ART!

Well, for those who do not know, megane moe has finally made its manga debut at smackjeeves. We are currently working on the next batch of pages - especially the ones for the rest of the first chapter. They are coming along very nicely and I cannot wait to share them with you all!

megane moe!

Thanks to everyone who went to it and left us comments! I am honored and amazed by the reception that megane moe has received. It makes me want to have everyday to work on this manga. lol that would be quite the perfect scenario right?

here are the recent updates for fan art! i just got in a couple more!

by zhevickmeister she loved the idea of onigirichan on the last illustration i did for megane moe, that she made her own over thanks giving break! awesome sauce! i wish i had one...


by quixsketch i am sooo excited that she gave another fan art! this one is really cute lol *but she left the OTHER david out...


by jinosan i JUST got this in a few minutes ago! lol she drew my favorite autobots (er autocats) of all time! they are soooo cute! kawaiii!


by daniel lee
this was done by a friend of David Liao's. this piece is AWESOME!!!!!
i will have more fan art and manga pages up soon!
thanks a million bajillion!
davidliu

just one more day...

just one more fateful day until the final release of megane moe to the public! I just have a few more small aesthetic things to touch up and then it will all be ready for online publishing.

like i had said before, i will be posting the rest of chapter one as they are completed. these pages are previously drawn out already, but just need the last bits and pieces added to complete the puzzle. i think my updates will either be scattered single page releases or in clusters of 5 or so. I would LOVE to be able to complete thoughts and ideas instead of just randomly posting new single pages. we will see how things will work out.

i hope you guys got some more of that awesome fan art bcz it will be only a little over 2 weeks until we decide on the winning 3 fan works!!! here is a new one i just received:

by quixsketch

thank you all for following us until now, i hope we live up to all your expectations.

much love,

davidliu

Contest Entry Update

Hello world!

Welllll i just got in a few more entries for the manga fan art contest!
This contest will still be going on until the 15th of December so for those who are interested, please check out the previous blogspot entry for more details.

by nogooddamnamesleft

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these 2 are by zutaraxmylove

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It is getting pretty close to the release of the manga. I am trying my best to crank these out as fast as I can. We are currently under construction for the website soooo its actually taking a little bit longer than I would like. I know this will all workout in the end, and I know that everyone here is excited about it (or at least curious about what the heck this is all about).

The first complete chapter will most likely end up being at least 20pgs in length. I obviously have not drawn out the story that far, yet but for the release, I will atleast be posting around 5 pgs. of the start. I am putting the finishing touches on the 5 pages ahead of it but those wont be out at least for another week. I will only be making updates for the manga in increments of at least 5 pages at a time. I find it kind of a tease when onl 1 page is posted at a time.

I am realllllly excited about making this! i hate to say i, but i am in love with drawing megan- and i haven't even starting drawing eleanor in it yet! i am sure i will fall in love with her too.

ok well that's my personal update for now. david and I are hard at work! we just learned the hard way that the holidays don't make this any easier either. lol

keep you guys posted and don't forget the contest details in the post previous to this one!

davidliu

OFFICIAL FANART CONTEST!

HELLO WORLD!
this is david liu! i am hard at work this week trying to finish up more of the first volume of megane moe! BUT in lieu of the near release, i am holding a contest. what kind of contest? well a

FAN ART CONTEST!!!


David and I will be choosing our 3 favorite fanarts on December 17th and the winners will receive:
-Mini Prints of ALL the Megane Moe banners from the previous blog updates
-a very LIMITED edition print of the first volume of megane moe
- include the first released pages of the manga
- character bio pages, sketches roughs etc.
-a signed 8x10 color print from a megane moe illustration
-mini prints of the winning selection

RULES:
-no hentai
-you MAY submit more than 1 entry if you like
-if you live outside of the united states.....well we will have to figure something out bcz iono how expensive shipping is overseas XP
-has to be in a "printable resolution" so we can give you a print!

all entries must be noted or emailed to me by december 15th either on deviantart or personal email. We are judging NOT on skill or technical abilities but by CONTENT. We want to see what think megane moe is all about! Show me Megan and Elle eating bubble teas together, or Jon Kazama studying in the library etc. etc. Draw yourself into the art if you like! It's up to you and we want to see some creativity! If you have no idea about these characters, then read the past blog about eleanor and megan and their survey questions.

i am very excited to see what you guys come up with! i will be updating the entries into this blog as they come in! and i already have 2 entries:
by morosaki

by bloodychaser


i hope you guys have fun and message me with any questions! In the beginning of december, we will be announcing the story we chose for the cameo (well not the STORY but the story winner lol)

talk to you soon and happy drawing!
davidliu

livestream action!

WELL! it seems i have taken the plunge! And a few out there have as well. I finally created a studio moshin livestream account. I recently drew this banner (yesterday actually) during a live stream event and it turned out well! I only had a few guest accompany me (moocat, m. phan, acfar***can't spell the rest, happystabby, and a few others). But all in all, it was a very solid time! i got some good work done and did not choke under the pressure! lol

studiomoshin livestream click the "ondemand" button for previous sessions

BUT now, the time has arrived. I HAVE to finish a bulk of my commissions before thanksgiving. I HAVE to finish Megane Moe this month! Dave and I have a LOT of work still ahead of us and I can promise you that we will be doing our best to complete our task at hand.

thanks a million for you supporters of meganemoe! i will have more for you this week!

**and i might livestream some of my manga work perhaps? let me know what you think!

**and thanks moocat for the color suggestion for megan's hat in the banner. green is a good choice lol

davidliu

FIRST OFFICIAL FAN ART!

This was just created as a super seeeeecret birthday present for ME! A new friend of mine on deviantart surprised me with this drawing. What better timing than at the end of an extremely LOOONG and painful weekend! This was such a wonderful surprise, and I cannot honestly remember the last time someone drew me a picture for my birthday! it has seriously been ages! (like 15 years atleast!)

thank you Morosaki! you (and jino and bloodychaser) are the BEST!! this is the first official fan art of Megane Moe!


thats me in the middle with Eleanor on the left and Megan on the right. *sigh*

and please take a peak at their deviantart page! if you are a fan of uber cute transformer drawings- this is the place for you!

http://morosaki.deviantart.com/ ---Morosaki
http://jinosan.deviantart.com/ --- Jinosan
http://bloodychaser.deviantart.com/ ---bloodychaser

these are 3 talented sisters!
thanks a lot! i will be back in drawing action reallly soon!
davidliu

WEEKLY UPDATE 11.05.2009

HELLO WORLD! Well i apologize about the lack of an adequate update last Thursday. It was a crrrrazy weekend to say the least! We met a lot of wonderful people at ONI-CON and i just want to personally extend a HUGE thank you to everyone that gave us your love and support! David and I are working reallly hard this month to crank out the long awaited first chapter of Megane Moe! You have no idea how hard it is trying not to reveal any of our work so far! Our first post will most likely fall around 15 pages or so for the first release. We will have to come up with another reasonable goal for the updates to the story.

I thought that October was a busy month, but DANG! November is even worse! Thank you to everyone that has remained patient with the commission process (with my other persona- angryangryasian). On top of the artwork commissions and loose ends that need to be tied up, we continue to battle getting Megane Moe complete for the month! We will be releasing more exact release dates soon. We will also be deciding soon on the winner of our silly HS story contest. So if you have not submitted anything yet, DO IT SOON! We will be implementing the winning story into the manga as well as a cameo of your character.

And in celebration of the nearing release, expect some kind of awesome contest. Now, we don't have any money to give cash prizes but we will definitely make this very interesting! We have to reward the people who have been following us since the beginning right?

If you guys haven't yet, check out the facebook page for the anime caricatures from ONICON. David will be posting something up later as well.

Ok! So for now, i hope you all enjoy the artwork on the new banner! *Notice the unknown character on the top of the banner. hahahhaha ya gotta love teasers lol.


this is a teaser(concept) cover for megane moe. only a few people have seen this. We gave this away as a small promo card at NYAF a few months ago.

love, peace, and adobo grease-
davidliu

and.... hmmm i am not sure if i should show this BUT i guess we could here goes nothing.
****Here is a glimpse of our first incarnation of Megane Moe. Our story concept was originally going to be a 4 panel project kind of in the same vein as Azumanga Daioh. We were inspired by the simple and entertaining humor as well as the completion of jokes and plot points in just 4 simple panels.

But our vision started to grow, and to say the least, it grew past the four walls of the 4 panels. we decided to create a full fledged manga. We wanted to keep the fun and humor that we were inspired by, but now we can bring it to life as we see fit- it just takes a LOT more work lol.

So here is a failed look at what we were playing around with. *Keep in mind this is a draft and also, its meant to be read RIGHT to LEFT- but i think i broke the rules on accident in one of the panels. take a rare look here: *and click it to see the larger view**

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SO! What do you think? hahah its still cute to me actually. But yes, the art style is very limited, but I can't help but feel warm towards the charm of a 4panel comic.
***********And with that said- here is a SUPER SUPER rare look at the FIRST PAGE of the manga! This is a final DRAFT without any text added to it. *HAHAH so you won't have an idea of what is going on- YET!

*Can you see the HUGE difference in the aesthetic of the art direction? and to be honest, we are still tightening up what kind of "look" we are going for.

ALMOST NO ONE has laid eyes on this! THIS IS A SUPER SECRET! *err was atleast
I hope you like it and thank you so much for watching the progress! Only a few more short weeks!

*stay thirsty my friends.

THANK YOU from onicon and more to come soon!!!!

ONI CON was a blast! Thank you for making my birthday weekend one to remember! David and I will be posting up photos from the con very soon! Thank you so much for the support and I promise this weeks update for Megane Moe will be super fantastic!

but for now.... here is the link to see some of what we have uploaded from the convention. It is on our studiomoshin facebook page. *and yes, its a WIP still. in fact everything is still a WIP. lol if you have a facebook account- tag yourself in the pics! We took photos of about 99.4% of all the anime caricatures so take a gander!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=118583&id=142147243847&ref=mf

much love!

davidliu

WEEKLY UPDATE 10.22.2009

HELLO WORLD!!! well it seems that I am on time! ....for the most part! Sorry about being late last week but I am soooooooooooo happy that a lot of our friends are paying a visit and stopping by! It really warms our hearts *sniff

but seriously, we love you guys *sniff




****SO i am sure you folks believe that 'studio moshin' is like some kind of STUDIO with secretaries, elevators, water coolers, vending machines, refrigerators, ramen noodles, and 3 different coffee makers with office cubicles kinda like this one here:

But contrary to popular belief *cough*, it really isn't! lol David and I usually work from our own houses, on our own computers, and sometimes the occasional coffee shop (for pizza pretzels and coffee mmmmm coffeeeee.....) We are really working OUTSIDE of real life to try our best to bring this concept all to life!




Check out these random "at the studio" shots of us working hard at the "office"-
This is I:

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And this is David Liao!


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Upon taking these photos randomly one day, we realized that our outfits are for some reason....very "coordinated". I have red chopsticks and eating strawberries with a red shirt on, while dave is wearing the green with green chopsticks and eating green apples *hahaha just kiddin, there were no apples
....but there was rice.....and it was delicious XD

so HA- i hope you enjoyed our color coordinated introductions to the blog! this is as real as it gets folks! lol

*So i bet you folks are wondering WHO the heck are those NEW faces on the banner????? Well I would like to introduce to you 2 more characters to Megane Moe. I can't disclose tooo much information other than they both are classmates of Megs and Elle.

the girl is Caroline Orane- same grade level as Megs and Elle.


the boy is *are you guys ready for this????-----------
JON KAZAMA- upper classman


yup that's right. and you guessed it, he bears a very similar resemblance to *** ******.

Their personalities and character traits etc etc will be revealed soon! I just thought to tease you with a few new faces here to appease your appetite for more! bwahahahahahah!* Don't worry, we got a few more characters to reveal as well as elaborating more on these 2. SOOOO stay tuned for more updates!

Here is a small tutorial about the "coloring process" in some of my renderings for the manga. There are many different looks and ways to go about coloring a piece, but here is a basic/simple way i learned when I started getting into digital coloring. It's nothing groundbreaking, and I know many different artists have different techniques BUT here is probably one of the easiest ways to get the wheels turning.

First off, the process is going to be the same, with a draft sketch much like this one. Use a lot of shapes and figures to create the overall layout of the subject.

**************
Then I create a new layer to draw my fine line work. I put the previous layer on a lower opacity so that I can distinguish the difference between the sketch and the inks.

**************
Next i create a NEW layer UNDERNEATH the ink layer so that I can add my base painting. this is prolly the biggest and most important aspect of the coloring bcz if you choose awkward colors or colors that are either too BRIGHT or too DULL, the finished product will not look correct. one must decide what colors to choose well especially when there is a background involved. I am definitely guilty of spending soooo much time on an animation cell only to realize that the bg and the cell DO NOT MATCH!

in other words, catch the problem before it becomes a disaster.

*************
Next is simple! just like the last tutorial i gave about different shades of black and opacities, you are going to follow the same premise. create a new layer on top of the base color layer with an opacity ranging between 30-40%. Choose a dark color for shading (preferably black or a tone very similar to it) and whites for those hilighted sections.

You can always create more layers for shading if you want more depth. I implemented this technique with the banner for this week. You can see that there are more than one "depth" layers on the image.

I hope this helps for those who are interested, and I hope it's interesting for those who already do it. Thanks for visiting our update for the week, and I hope to have another here soon!

thanks a MILLION!
davidliu

Hello, Greetings from the Other David

Hello Everybody,

How are you doing on this fine Thursday. This is my first post so I'll just say hello and introduce myself real quick. This is the other David. I work with David Liu to bounce ideas around towards making Megane Moe. We've both been really excited about working on a comic for a while.

Thanks very much for those of you who have checked out the blog. There's still a lot of work to get done before next month so look for things to really take shape in the upcoming week.

David will probably making a new update today, so definitely look for that.

Talk to you soon,
David

Weekly Update 10.15.09

Hello world! Sorry about the tardiness of this update. I was a little backed up at the moment. Today will be a small update BUT I will be posting more content in a few days as well! Sorry if the banner i drew looks kinda pervy....it's not supposed to be... *shakes head in defeat

Right now, I still want to retain a small sense of secrecy with the characters we are unveiling, SOOOO i will not be revealing any new faces as of just yet. *im sorri but it will be better in the end-that is, if you are following all of this.

I will be going a little bit more in depth with 2 of our main cast members- Megan Lee & Eleanor Li. Soooo I had them fill out a few questionnaire surveys to tell you a little about them. *lol


Name: Megan Lee
Nicknames: Megs or "Megan-Lee" *don't call me "Meg" bleh. reminds me of family guy
Favorite Food- Japanese, Chinese (Cantonese style), pizza
-LOOOVES noodle soups like pho and ramen mmmhmmm
Favorite Hobby- Reading manga, watching anime, online gaming**the free mangas/animes on the internet are the best! gotta love fansubs!
Favorite Dessert- Red bean ice cream and frozen mochi ice cream balls
Music- AKB048, Shiina Ringo, *gotta have Utada Hikaru&Ayumi XD* + more!
Favorite things to wear- tshirts and jeans kinda girl. keep it simple and cute. Give me those uber cute "anime" print shirts! - i wear one underneath my school uniform sometimes lol
Addicted to- surfing random internet videos, Angry Video Game Nerd, deviantart.com
Dislikes: Jerks, a-holes, message board spammers, gamers online who make it a point to ruin your game. grrrrrrrrrrrrrr i hate'm!!!
Cats or dogs??- hmmmm....that's a tough one bcz i love BOTH! *and foxes
When you grow up you want to be...- hmm either a videogame journalist, game developer, or something in and around anime (i can't really...draw......TToTT)
Guilty Pleasures- singing to all my songs on my mp3 player, air guitar, blogging


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Name: Eleanor Li
Nicknames: Elle, Elley, Elley-Li *lol
Favorite Food- Mexican/Tex-mex, Chicken Parmigiana, whatever asian food my mom makes *don't know what it is, but it's goooooood! & KimChi!
Favorite Hobby- watching True Blood, Saturday Night Live, drawing/art, photography & ANIME!
Favorite Dessert- warm chocolate cake, oatmeal raisin cookies, tres leches mmhmm!
Music- hmm that's tough...here are a few- the Roots, incubus, daft punk, postal service, brand new, saves the day etc etc. too much music!
Favorite things to wear-skinny jeans, hoodie, nice scarf, simply fashiony style clothes?? don't know how to word it out.
Addicted to- getting music from bittorrents *tsk tsk lol, drawing cute chibis! awwww so kawaiiiiiii!
Dislikes: certain pop culture songs (lame), having to study for math and science blehhh,
Cats or dogs??- CATS FTW! i can haz cheezburger niao? lol!
When you grow up you want to be...- manga artist, greeting card artist, graphic designer, or something in advertising..advertiser-artist-person??? iono
Guilty Pleasures- status updates on facebook, bootleggin movies i prolly won't watch, pokemon....i know...


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OKAY! so there you go! David Liao and I are working on the page so please be patient! We will also be posting up some more behind the scenes type things. That update will be out in a few days hopefully! Here is a step by step look at some of the process that we are implementing for the manga. Our style will not be as clean cut as most mangas are. Since the artwork consists of one artist, ME, I will have to rely on the quickness of hand the the telling of the story (David Liao). Together, we should be able to make it all happen pretty smoothly! *plus we both have other full-time jobs/lives too. But that's not keeping us from pursuing MEGANE MOE!

Sooo "How is this manga different than regular manga?" Well for those who don't dabble in that sort of artwork, traditional manga *even digital* makes expert use of "tones" for shading and detail. (That's the dotty looking-ness you see on printed manga). It's like coloring and detailing with only ONE color in your pallette- BLACK or lack thereof. - newspaper style.

The only drawback to this technique is that it is extreeeeemely time consuming because what you lack in color, you make up for in detail. That means lines, shading/toning, and inkwork have to be perfect! Now since we are primarily updating this story for the internet, we can play with a few different techniques as well- time saving techniques if you will. Instead of shading with tones, I will just simply be using different shades of black (i.e.- 40% black, 80% black, 10 % black etc.). Instead of working with making perfectly handdrawn lines, I will use the "thinline" approach. If done tastefully, it makes the artwork look more relaxed with no sacrifice to a lot of the details in the image.

Posting "toned" artwork online sometimes comes out.....awkward. That look and feel of the "dots" will not be seen most the time since it just appears to be grey- that is unless you zooooom in reaaaaaallly close to a HI-RES image. But that takes a lot of space and memory SOOO we will reduce it to our technique. Hopefully so, we can achieve a solid comprimise between story telling, detail, and quality.

This is an idea of what I am talking about:

*this is the first step, just sketching out the simple line work for reference on the 1st layer

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***here is the cleaned up linework that i redrew on a NEW layer. 100% blk btw with 1pt. pixel pen tool

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***then i create a new layer underneath my redrawn linework to create the first round of shading. i set this to 39% opacity and painted in the areas i wanted to be shaded. I set my color to BLACK but as you can see, with a lower opacity, it appears grey.

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***I repeat the last step but place it onto a NEW layer with a different opacity. this one was set at 70%. It may seem a little much bcz 39%+70% = 109% black. well i used a blending tool to soften that look up. in other words, the "water" tool simulates water being part of the brush so it would come out at a lighter opacity. so atleast if i wanted to paint a reallllly dark area, then i could ;D.

****All these images were drawn and crafted in PaintoolSAI. i love that program.

SOOOOOOOOOOO I hoped you enjoyed my long art rant and the behind the scenes look at the process of the manga. You can see that with these simplified techniques we can still achieve a nice product soooo i hope you guys understand! I wish i had the time and money to make this OFFICIALLY manga style but we will start out small and then see how this rolls out.

See you at the next update in a few days!
mr. david liu & david liao
ps-********************
and for your viewing pleasure- here is a teaser animation I put together to showcase the upcoming release of MEGANE MOE!

Weekly Update 10.08.09-

Hello world!
We have a brand spanking new header up top showcasing a very special girl- Eleanor Li. She is one of the main characters in Megane Moe and Megan's "BFFE" if you will. Production is moving but I am sad to say, at a slower pace than I would like. Making a manga is time consuming with work, life, significant others, and other art projects! But David and I are doing our best to unveil this special manga to the rest of the world!

By now, I am sure you guys are wondering "Geez, Dave, what the heck is this comic about? It looks like a bunch of school girls." I would have to say to you, "Yesh, yesh it is." Most mangas (especially in Japan) focus a lot of their material surrounding Japanese HS life and the drama and romances which surround it. We are taking the story COMPLETELY away from that premise. The reason those mangas do so well is because people who read them relate to them because that's what they grew up around.

For an American audience, people don't necessarily relate to Japanese HS life, so we are bringing you a story about an American highschool student. We are taking moments from our life growing up in an American highschool- the fun moments, the FUNNY moments, the awkwards moments, and everything inbetween.

SOOOOOOOOOOOO Here is my point- as of this moment, we are starting a small contest: send us your "highschool" moment or story that holds that special part in your heart to us for a chance to have your "moment" cameo in our manga. You will also have a character cameo designed after you to showcase your story. Well what KIND of moments???? Send us the funny, the awkward, the time you farted during a test (lol). We would love to hear it! And you don't have to say who you are so don't worry about your privacy etc etc.

Send all your entries to us on facebook (studio moshin) or a note on deviantart (angryangryasian).
We would looooove to hear what fun stuff you have to share! We will have more details as to when this will be implemented into the story soon.

And as promised, here is a production update showcasing Eleanor:



And here is a random drawing of her again. It's kinda...eh.



Ok thank you for stopping by and visiting us! I will have more artwork next week. I should have MORE of it up too and I will also be featuring another new character. Sorry about the secrecy- you will learn more as we get closer! *hehehehehehehehe

davidliu

New York Anime Festival 2009

Hello everyone welcome to my first official post! Well NYAF was Moshin's first ever breakthrough event. I flew all the way from Austin, TX to meet with the rest of my "crew" . It was truly an amazing experience meeting all of you! Thank you again for stopping by and saying hi to us!

Here are some photos from the Artist Alley: *and i apologize if i missed a few pics with you guys, if you have any then PLEASE email them to me! You all should have my email!....i think XD.






More photos on Mambu's Facebook link is: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005946&id=74100112&l=96e32b106f

As I have stated on studiomoshin.com, there will be a production update this Thursday. So please stay tuned and I look forward to sharing our progress with Megane Moe with you all!
****but for now, here is a small/older character sheet for you all to enjoi!

and here is a THANK YOU card for everyone who supported us in NYAF! THANK YOU!


one love,
davidliu


****o yeah! the comments for this blog are completely OPEN so please leave me some feedback or just say hi! *but don't tell me i suck tho, that hurts feelings *0*