Manga is an emotive and expressive form of storytelling that has become popular worldwide; vivid and fascinating characters make a large contribution to its appeal. Characters are an essential component of a good story; crucial to the plot and vital for engaging the readers interest and emotions. They are also enormous fun to imagine and to draw; but it is not always easy to fit your characters; your world and your plot together to create a seamless; convincing whole. Written and illustrated by five artists from Sweatdrop Studios; this book starts with drawing in the manga style before going on to describe the process of character creation and how your character could express their personality and emotions. Five original characters help to explain every topic; including character traits; from personalities and typical roles all the way down to the individual details important to make your character unique. The book also looks at the creation of side characters to complement your main character; and world-building. Packed with tips; it describes how to make your world realistic and intriguing; no matter how fantastical or everyday its basis.
#3551742 in eBooks 2012-08-01 2012-08-01File Name: B00A0WEDI8
Review
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful. An excellent start; but not really a handbookBy John C. MelcherIm designing my own music studio. I started with the F. Alton Everest classic; "Sound Studio Construction on a Budget" (TAB-McGraw Hill 1997); which is a wonderfully-informed introduction to acoustics and music studio design. I used the chapter on personal project studios to successfully treat a really horrible room (concrete walls; width= length) for almost no money. Unfortunately; its not a complete design guide; and much of the information about materials is obsolete.So I went searching for a more complete and up-to-date source of information; and found two: "How to Build a Small Budget Recording Studio From Scratch (Mike Shea; F. Alton Everest; McGraw Hill 4th Ed. 2012) and "Handbook of Sound Studio Construction (F.Alton Everest and Ken C. Pohlmann; McGraw Hill 2013). The first is discussed in a separate review.Both books are basicaly a reorganization and updating of Everests work. Most of the studio drawings are identical to those in Everests earlier book. Lingering technical questions remain unanswered: After advising that "... splaying walls does not solve (room) mode problems; it only makes them harder to predict"; plans for rooms with splayed walls are presented; without further explanation. One would hope that there would be newer research available; including some real-world examples that work well; and why. Dimensions for six "golden ratio" rooms are provided; based on the work of L. Louden and L.W. Sepmeyer. This needs some updating; using a freeware room mode calculator; I discovered that their Room A; with dimension ratios of 1.00:1.14:1.39; can be improved significantly by lowering the ceiling slightly (for example; for a room of 500x610cm; lowering the ceiling from 439 to 410 cm); which makes a truly "golden ratio room; L/W = W/H ~=1.22.Also; Chapter 15; "Control Room" reads: "By making the faces of the loudspeaker flush with the wall... early reflections from this source can be eliminated." This is complicated construction; especially with a double wall; yet no construction details are provided.For many musicians; Chapter 19; "Home Studio" is the most relevant. But again; other than a couple of pages for a basic "garage studio"; its almost exactly the same material presented n the 1997 book. Particularly absent is any discussion of surround-sound mixing environments.One Appendix helpfully lists absorption coefficients of several products. Other charts are scattered throughout the book; making them hard to locate without numerous Post-It bookmarks. Better would have been to include a CD with Excel spreadsheets and a few apps to calculate room modes; Helmholz resonator frequencies; etc.; or a link to a special web page to download this.Very little is mentioned; and in bits and pieces; about building with concrete; especially AAC blocks. Also; everything is in imperial measurements (feet inches); with no metric equivalents. How many cubic feet are there in a cubic meter? A simple conversion table would be helpful.I think Mr. Pohlman has done an excellent job of organizing Everests work into a general introduction to the subject of studio design. It provides the information needed to ask the right questions of a professional; who will ultimately be needed to get these projects done (except for the "Home Studio" chapter; which deals primarily with sound treatment; not construction). But its definitely not a complete DIY guide.If you buy one of the McGraw Hill books based on Alton Everest work (and you should); get this one. I originaly gave it 3 stars; but a second reading turned up several bits of new information scatteered throughout the book.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Not Great For Vocal Booth Construction; Perfect For Large StudiosBy Daniel DelgadoHome studios are a modern day necessity for voiceover work. I bought this rather expensive book to get the skinny on how to build one for myself. Certainly; there are some valuable nuggets I managed to pull from the text; such as decoupling the walls by staggering the studs; but overall this book is intended more for a full size studio. Yes; there are sections dedicated to building a voice booth; but for my purposes (building a free standing vocal booth) this book did not provide me with what I really need. I was looking for instructions for building something like a Whisper Room; but nothing like that is present in the book.If you want in-depth math and science regarding sound movement and to fully understand how to build a complete studio; this is absolutely the right book. Ken Pohlmanns writing explains everything about sound movement; frequencies; and pros and cons of a few specific materials. For me; building a 4x6 isolation room; this book is only moderately helpful. That said; the tips I found are absolutely helpful. These included: the staggered studs; using soundproofing compound and sealant (Green Glue); the idea of soundproofing behind the speaker being more important than behind the microphone; and stone wool soundproofing insulation (Roxul).0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Highly recommend.By CustomerThis guy has cut to the chase common sense takes on complex subjects that dont overwhelm. Highly recommend.