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Cel Shaded
Jason Yadao
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An Interview with Chris Won
I had a chance to ask "Utopia 13" manga artist Chris Won several questions about his art background and other issues related to Tokyopop's "Rising Stars of Manga" competition; here are his responses.
On his background in art:
"Ever since I could pick up a pencil, I have loved to draw. I grew up reading American comic books, especially 'X-Men' and 'Spider-Man," and I was influenced by the likes of Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, Jae Lee and Simon Bisley. However, towards the beginning of high school, I was exposed to manga for the first time with such titles as 'Urusei Yatsura,' 'Ranma,' 'Dragon Ball,' 'Mai the Psychic Girl' and 'Crying Freeman.'
"I began to love the manga style of both art and storytelling and my interests in art gravitated heavily toward that style, specifically Akira Toriyama and 'Dragon Ball.' By the end of high school, I had completely adapted to a manga style of art. I went to the mainland to study art for two semesters at Parkland College, a small community college in Illinois. However, the cold and lack of any ocean nearby helped my decision to return to Hawaii and attend Kapiolani Community College and eventually enroll in the New Media Arts program.
"I was originally looking to become a graphic artist and illustrator, but I enrolled in Art 112, a digital art class and became hooked. I started to learn Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver and Maya, and eventually this all led to getting hired by Konami, along with a handful of other (Kapiolani Community College) classmates. Currently, I use Photoshop for 2-D and Maya and Z-Brush for 3-D artwork. For manga I sketch on paper, scan them in and ink digitally in Photoshop."
On the work he did at Konami working on the "Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix" series on the Microsoft Xbox, as well as "DDR Universe" for the Xbox 360:
"I've worked on 4 DDR games for the Xbox, and the recently released 'DDR Universe' for Xbox 360. I did character design on the 360 version for the characters Rage, Honey, and B. I did everything from concept drawings to creating the 3D models and texturing them. I've also worked on menu design, background images, and background movies for all the previous versions of DDR Ultramix."
On the symbolism present in the "Utopia 13" preview, posted on the Tokyopop Web site:
"All the characters except the main character are meant to be metaphors, symbols that reflect the main character's life. The Colonel, for instance he is the obstacle in Lotus' path, something that puts him down and has betrayed him. Many of us have come across these obstacles in life, and his being named 'K' has even deeper meanings."
On the advice he'd give to artists who might want to enter next year's "Rising Stars of Manga" competition:
"Get started early and make sure to have a solid script down before you do any panel layouts and thumbnails. Panel layout is very important, it sets the pace of the story and can help create suspense, anticipation, and motion in your images. To help with this I study layout from actual manga. For 'U13' I was looking at the pages of 'Bleach' and 'Naruto' for reference, both of which I feel have excellent panels for action.
"Also, learn to use your tones correctly. 'U13' was the first time I tried to tone anything, and I'll admit I had trouble learning to use it. I couldn't get a consistent look with tones on my characters so I excluded it from a lot of the panels. I recommend digital tones, which in my opinion are faster and easier to work with and can be found in programs like Manga Studio, and I believe there are art sites which offer free digital tone downloads.
"Keep practicing your art, and also work on your story-writing skills. Take art classes and further your knowledge of art and design. Even if you don't think you're good enough for 'RSoM' or any competition right now, at least try the more you do it, the better you will get. And also when entering, make sure to follow the directions and technical specifications for your entry, I can't stress that enough. I think that's about it, so get to your drawing desks, bust out the pencil and paper and don't give up!
On what's next:
"I'm just finishing up a project here in Cali for Visual Concepts and after that I'll probably take some time off and visit Hawaii and Japan. I hope to move back to Hawaii one day and become a manga artist full-time but in the meantime I have a great job here in California and am currently planning my next "RSoM" entry.
"Also, for any interested, please visit my Web site, www.chriswon.com. If anyone has a question or just wants to talk story about games, manga, etc.,
then go to the contact page on my Web site and send an e-mail my way. Thanks for reading everyone!"
Cel Shaded, a look at the world of Japanese anime and manga, appears every Monday. Reach
Jason S. Yadao at
jyadao@starbulletin.com