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Macross Frontier News Thread V


azrael

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Since I (FINALLY!) have access to a scanner, I may pick up two copies of at least the first issue, so I can rip one apart for my, um, digital Macross collection.

Especially if "Macross the First" is anything like "Gundam the Origin," and has more color pages in the magazine than in the collected volumes.

Do say you'll share??????? :o

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seems like everyone's stuck on the notion of an OAD instead of a theatrical release.

i wonder, is there a chance that there will be an OAD and a theatrical release? the japanese in that article is rather vague..

That is actually what the magazine is saying, that there will be a movie, an event, and an "OAD". It does not say anything at all about the theatrical release being cancelled. Odd that the very same image used to confirm the movie a month ago would be used again on these boards to spread rumours that it's been cancelled. :wacko:

EDIT -- Happy new year!!

Edited by Renato
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Do say you'll share??????? :o

Probably not...for the same reason I don't share the Chronicle. If nobody's buying it and it gets cancelled, I don't want it to be on my head.

I'm going to practice my scanlation skills on some of the comics, though...and I'll most likely share those if I'm happy with the results.

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I tried scanning some Macross Chronicle stuff for the members here, but it's just so much damn work. I don't like scanning magazines and colored artwork because it's takes so much damn digital manipulation, during and after the scan, to make the images look any good on a computer screen. Descreen, blur, sharpen, color balance, color replace, shadow and midtones; it's an absolute nightmare. The stupid way books and magazines are printed (with thousands of tiny dots of ink) creates this terrible effect when displayed on a computer monitor. It's actually easier to just get black and white line art and color it yourself (okay, maybe not the highly detailed Macross Frontier stuff, but you know what I mean). And if I just do quick and easy scans without any clean up, the result is the same as the magazine scans we've all been looking at for months, so what's the point?

I tried making a wallpaper from one of the two-page fold-out pictures in the Macross Chronicle and it was a disaster. Both pages came out scanned at slightly different color tones and brightness levels. Not only that, but after I tried to get both halves looking like each other, I had to painstakingly clone stamp the two halves of the picture together to make it one image and remove the fold creases. The result looked awful. :(

I guess I'm just not good enough with Photoshop to make it worth my while. It takes too damned long. My plan with the Chronicle is to scan some Frontier mecha images to replace the low resolution magazine pictures or official website jpgs I'm currently using on the M3. But for the most part, that will be it. There's no way I'm scanning the rest of the series. Scanning and cleaning up just one set of colored mecha images from the Chronicle is a lot of work (I just finished the VF-25S and it took forever to get it all correct). Doing the whole Chronicle for proper presentation on a computer screen would be a two year job in and of itself and I've already got a ball and chain called the M3 :)

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I tried scanning some Macross Chronicle stuff for the members here, but it's just so much damn work. I don't like scanning magazines and colored artwork because it's takes so much damn digital manipulation, during and after the scan, to make the images look any good on a computer screen. Descreen, blur, sharpen, color balance, color replace, shadow and midtones; it's an absolute nightmare. The stupid way books and magazines are printed (with thousands of tiny dots of ink) creates this terrible effect when displayed on a computer monitor. It's actually easier to just get black and white line art and color it yourself (okay, maybe not the highly detailed Macross Frontier stuff, but you know what I mean). And if I just do quick and easy scans without any clean up, the result is the same as the magazine scans we've all been looking at for months, so what's the point?

I tried making a wallpaper from one of the two-page fold-out pictures in the Macross Chronicle and it was a disaster. Both pages came out scanned at slightly different color tones and brightness levels. Not only that, but after I tried to get both halves looking like each other, I had to painstakingly clone stamp the two halves of the picture together to make it one image and remove the fold creases. The result looked awful. :(

I guess I'm just not good enough with Photoshop to make it worth my while. It takes too damned long. My plan with the Chronicle is to scan some Frontier mecha images to replace the low resolution magazine pictures or official website jpgs I'm currently using on the M3. But for the most part, that will be it. There's no way I'm scanning the rest of the series. Scanning and cleaning up just one set of colored mecha images from the Chronicle is a lot of work (I just finished the VF-25S and it took forever to get it all correct). Doing the whole Chronicle for proper presentation on a computer screen would be a two year job in and of itself and I've already got a ball and chain called the M3 :)

Hmmm...having never used a scanner before, I guess I don't know what I'm getting myself in for... :unsure:

Not only that, but I don't have Photoshop; I'm currently figuring out GIMP.

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No. It's box artwork from the 1/72 scale PLAMO set.

Thx for the info...

Btw, the Official Site has this interesting note in the "Others" part of its "Information" section...

2009年2月「超時空進宙式典」が開催決定!!

秋葉原からSDF-1マクロスが飛び立つ(!?)デカルチャーなイベントを実施!

2009年2月といえば、「超時空要塞マクロス」の劇中内でSDF-1マクロスの進宙式が行われた月。

それを記念し、劇中と同じ同年2月に

秋葉原にて大規模なマクロスイベントを実施いたします!

題して…

『マクロス超時空進宙式典

~ほんとに2009年になっちゃった…2.22(にゃんにゃんにゃん)だよデカルチャー!~』

マクロス・シリーズゆかりのゲストをお呼びし、デカルチャーと叫びたくなるようなイベントを開催予定!

詳細はHPにて随時発表!お見逃し無く!!

Babel Fish translation:

2009 February “super spatial-temporal Shin space ceremony” opening decision!! SDF-1 [makurosu] flies away from Akihabara, (!?)[dekaruchiya] executing the event! If you mention 2009 February, the month when Shin space ceremony of SDF-1 [makurosu] was done with play Nakauchi of “super spatial-temporal fortress [makurosu]”. It commemorates that, same as in the play at Akihabara executes large-scale [makurosuibento] in February of the same year! Entitling,… 'The [makurosu] super spatial-temporal Shin space ceremony ~ [ho] it is with the [tsu] [chi] [ya] [tsu] it is in 2009…2.22 (The [ya] it is the [ya] it is the [ya] it is) is, [dekaruchiya]! ~' Wanting to shout the kind of event which does to call the [makurosu] series [yu] temporary guest, [dekaruchiya] stops opening schedule! Details at HP on occasion announcement! Not to overlook!!

Seems like some sort of event to celebrate the begining of Space War I, hehe...

Edited by Kronnang Dunn
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That is actually what the magazine is saying, that there will be a movie, an event, and an "OAD". It does not say anything at all about the theatrical release being cancelled. Odd that the very same image used to confirm the movie a month ago would be used again on these boards to spread rumours that it's been cancelled. :wacko:

Maybe I've understood what it is. It's a short that will be shown before the movie, like the movie of Macross 7 and Ippatsu Gyakuten-Hen of Aquarion.

Probably it's a new episode of the TV series focused on Klan (expecting something light with fanservice), while the movie is a retelling.

FV

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Hmmm...having never used a scanner before, I guess I don't know what I'm getting myself in for... :unsure:

Not only that, but I don't have Photoshop; I'm currently figuring out GIMP.

Don't be too concerned; I'm not exactly a digital image/photoshop expert, so you may figure stuff out that I haven't. I've seen plenty of digital photo editors slap together stuff in Photoshop that I have no clue how to do, so they must be working much faster and smarter than me :)

But to add a visual companion to my point detailed above, here are some before-and-after pictures of my recent VF-25S scans that I did:

post-114-1230917189_thumb.jpg

post-114-1230917196_thumb.jpg

Edited by Mr March
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Probably not...for the same reason I don't share the Chronicle. If nobody's buying it and it gets cancelled, I don't want it to be on my head.

I'm going to practice my scanlation skills on some of the comics, though...and I'll most likely share those if I'm happy with the results.

Gubaka :p:D

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SCOOP - NEW MACROSS FRONTIER LINEART BOOKS!!!!!!

2 new Macross Frontier lineart books by Movic have been released. These were completely under the radar, as I at least had never heard anything about them before.

There is a Red book and a Blue book. Publisher's links below: -

Macross Frontier Blue Book.

Macross Frontier Red Book.

Both books are A4 size and about 160 pages each. They are full of lineart and only lineart, nothing else.

The Blue book apparently features lineart of the male characters and mecha.

The Red book, which I was able to buy features lineart of the female characters (50% of the book) and locations (50% of the book).

As with prevous lineart books by Movic, the art is only printed on 1 side of every page. So that means even though the book is about 160 pages long, you are only getting about 80 pages of lineart. Still, it's a damn sight more lineart than has been published previously.

Cover pics attached below, as well as scans of 3 sample pages from the Red book.

Haven't been able to find these listed on Amazon Japan or HMV Japan yet.

I came across these during a hunt around Mong Kok district today. Unfortuantely only two shops had them. One shop had both Red and Blue books, but was closed, so I could only stare at them through the window. Another shop only had the Red book which I bought.

Graham

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post-11-1231065363_thumb.jpg

post-11-1231067154_thumb.jpg

post-11-1231067183_thumb.jpg

post-11-1231067208_thumb.jpg

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I have them both. Got them about a month ago... :p

I suspect their low profile is mainly due to the fact that Amazon Japan isn't carrying them and that's where the majority of Japanese book sellers in North America get their books from. It appears they are carried, mainly, by Japanese local bookstores and domestic mail order.

Unfortunately the mecha lineart is rather sparse.

Mainly character and background art. However there is one very sexy bit of full page art of the Dulfim cap ship!

I swear Satelite is hoarding their line art like they did with Zero.

I am hopeful that we get some sort of TIA book of mecha lineart before the popularity of this series dies off... :angry:

CG is pretty, but not much detail comes through for us gearheads...

Edited by Zinjo
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SCOOP - NEW MACROSS FRONTIER LINEART BOOKS!!!!!!

2 new Macross Frontier lineart books by Movic have been released. These were completely under the radar, as I at least had never heard anything about them before.

There is a Red book and a Blue book. Publisher's links below: -

Macross Frontier Blue Book.

Macross Frontier Red Book.

Both books are A4 size and about 160 pages each. They are full of lineart and only lineart, nothing else.

The Blue book apparently features lineart of the male characters and mecha.

The Red book, which I was able to buy features lineart of the female characters (50% of the book) and locations (50% of the book).

As with prevous lineart books by Movic, the art is only printed on 1 side of every page. So that means even though the book is about 160 pages long, you are only getting about 80 pages of lineart. Still, it's a damn sight more lineart than has been published previously.

Cover pics attached below, as well as scans of 3 sample pages from the Red book.

Haven't been able to find these listed on Amazon Japan or HMV Japan yet.

I came across these during a hunt around Mong Kok district today. Unfortuantely only two shops had them. One shop had both Red and Blue books, but was closed, so I could only stare at them through the window. Another shop only had the Red book which I bought.

Graham

Oh wow. I need to find a way to get these! Looks like I need to add the search for these to my contact overseas.

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I have them both. Got them about a month ago... :p

I suspect their low profile is mainly due to the fact that Amazon Japan isn't carrying them and that's where the majority of Japanese book sellers in North America get their books from. It appears they are carried, mainly, by Japanese local bookstores and domestic mail order.

Unfortunately the mecha lineart is rather sparse.

Mainly character and background art. However there is one very sexy bit of full page art of the Dulfim cap ship!

I swear Satelite is hoarding their line art like they did with Zero.

I am hopeful that we get some sort of TIA book of mecha lineart before the popularity of this series dies off... :angry:

CG is pretty, but not much detail comes through for us gearheads...

Does it have any black and white drawn line art of any of the mecha? What specifically does the book cover?

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Descreen, blur, sharpen, color balance, color replace, shadow and midtones; it's an absolute nightmare. The stupid way books and magazines are printed (with thousands of tiny dots of ink) creates this terrible effect when displayed on a computer monitor.

Have you checked your scanners manual for moire pattern reduction? I don't know about your scanner, but on mine I can enable a Magazine setting which essentially reduces/eliminates moire patterns during the actual scan process. Below is a sample scan I took from Chronicles. There's still some visible patterns, but it doesn't look as severe as in the sample that you posted.

I tried making a wallpaper from one of the two-page fold-out pictures in the Macross Chronicle and it was a disaster. Both pages came out scanned at slightly different color tones and brightness levels. Not only that, but after I tried to get both halves looking like each other, I had to painstakingly clone stamp the two halves of the picture together to make it one image and remove the fold creases. The result looked awful. :(

I feel your pain. I recently tried scanning a laserdisc jacket I got signed by Mari Iijima. I had to scan the cover in different portions because it's way too big to fit on my scanner, what a nightmare! Each scan resulted in different color tones which I'm still working on matching. My guess is that the scanners' light will reflect differently depending on the position that I place the artwork, resulting in different color tones. <_< And since LD jackets are ever so slightly curved, you can imagine the frustration I'm facing in trying to get the scans to align perfectly.

post-221-1231089776_thumb.jpg

post-221-1231089789_thumb.jpg

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Have you checked your scanners manual for moire pattern reduction? I don't know about your scanner, but on mine I can enable a Magazine setting which essentially reduces/eliminates moire patterns during the actual scan process. Below is a sample scan I took from Chronicles. There's still some visible patterns, but it doesn't look as severe as in the sample that you posted.

I've set my scanner to the most favorable settings possible for magazine scans, but it only reduces moire, it doesn't eliminate it. It's not just the moire problem (though that is the most significant problem), it's everything from shadows and mid tones to color and contrast. The problem is my scanner is too good for the source material; it picks up all the flaws of the printed page so that when an image is scanned into a computer, it is not optimized for display on a monitor like a digital image would be. The colors take the biggest hit (like the orange-ish, cheddar looking yellows on the VF-25S scan compared to the bright, crisp yellows post-photo manipulation). If I scan at high resolutions, all the flaws show up. If I scan at low resolutions to remove moire, it sabotages any digital correction efforts.

I've become much better at it than I was, as the images I posted show (thanks Beltane70), but it's a labor intensive process. I'd much rather spend my time building my website than scanning crap.

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SCOOP - NEW MACROSS FRONTIER LINEART BOOKS!!!!!!

2 new Macross Frontier lineart books by Movic have been released. These were completely under the radar, as I at least had never heard anything about them before.

There is a Red book and a Blue book. Publisher's links below: -

Macross Frontier Blue Book.

Macross Frontier Red Book.

Both books are A4 size and about 160 pages each. They are full of lineart and only lineart, nothing else.

The Blue book apparently features lineart of the male characters and mecha.

The Red book, which I was able to buy features lineart of the female characters (50% of the book) and locations (50% of the book).

As with prevous lineart books by Movic, the art is only printed on 1 side of every page. So that means even though the book is about 160 pages long, you are only getting about 80 pages of lineart. Still, it's a damn sight more lineart than has been published previously.

Cover pics attached below, as well as scans of 3 sample pages from the Red book.

Haven't been able to find these listed on Amazon Japan or HMV Japan yet.

I came across these during a hunt around Mong Kok district today. Unfortuantely only two shops had them. One shop had both Red and Blue books, but was closed, so I could only stare at them through the window. Another shop only had the Red book which I bought.

Graham

Those books certainly aren't new-- I've had them for about a month now, ordered off otaku.com. I figured that there wasn't much buzz about them because all they have were linearts-- guess I should have posted about them earlier!

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Does it have any black and white drawn line art of any of the mecha? What specifically does the book cover?

Macross Frontier Materials - Red Book (Published by Movic Press)

Content:

Ranka = 10 pgs of character and costume designs

Sheryl = 12 pgs of character and costume designs

Nanase = 3 pgs of character and costume designs

Klan = 8 pgs of character and costume designs

Pixies = 3 pgs of character and costume designs

Carmella = 2 pgs of character and costume designs

Kathy = 2 pgs of character and costume designs

Bridge Bunnies = 3 pgs of character and costume designs

Grace = 1 pg of character and costume designs

Background Characters = 2 pgs

Highschool Settings = 7 pgs

Various Locations around Frontier = 30 pgs

Macross Quarter docking berth (external) 1 pg

Trashbot = 1 pg

Character Height comparisons = 2 pgs

Macross Frontier Materials - Blue Book (Published by Movic Press)

Content:

Alto = 11 pgs of character and costume designs

Michael = 4 pgs of character and costume designs

Luca = 3 pgs of character and costume designs

Ozma = 6 pgs of character and costume designs

Bobby = 2 pgs of character and costume designs

SMS Captain = 1 pg of character and costume designs

Brera = 4 pgs of character and costume designs

Howard Glass = 1 pg of character and costume designs

Leon = 1 pg of character and costume designs

NUNS staff = 2 pgs of character and costume designs

NUNS Combat uniform & weapon = 2 pgs

NUNS Flight and EVA suits = 2 pgs

Various Supporting Characters = 6 pgs

Logo Sketches for the SMS, NUNS, Skull, Frontier & Galaxy = 6 pgs

Flight School Patch sketches = 1 pg

Background Characters from the School & Public = 4 pgs

Cockpit and Controls sketches = 4 pgs

Dulfim Sketch = 2 pgs (angled and side views)

Vajra Carrier sketches = 3 pgs (1 internal view - where Luca was held)

Aikun Sketches = 3 pgs

Vajra homeworld Sketches = 2 pgs

Vajra Lobsters = 4 pgs

Vajra Hammerheads = 1 pg

Vajra Swarmers = 1 pg

Frontier Government Building = 2 pgs

Hospital = 2 pgs

Research Lab = 1 pg

Hippocows = 1 pg

Hydra = 2 pgs

Vending Machine = 1 pg

Character Height comparisons = 2 pgs

** These books are very much like the old Movic Press art books released for Megazone 23. The printing is only on one side of the 8.5 x 17 newsprint pages.

In my opinion these books could have been bound into one volume with double sided printing, but Movic doesn't do that.

There are some things we've never really seen before, but IMHO it is not the type of content I was hoping for for the 1890 Yen price tag per book.

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Does the blue book count as a new Kawamori Designworks?

Considering there doesn't appear to by any Kawamori artwork in them, I seriously doubt it.

I will ask the question everyone expects me to ask:

Does the red book have flightsuit Grace?

No. Only one page is devoted to grace and it doesn't show her in a flight suit.

For Zinjo and edwin3060 - you both had the books for a month already and didn't think to post about them!!!!!!

Graham

With all the craziness over the past month, creating the content breakdown post of the books is the second time I've had a chance to look at them... :rolleyes:

Edited by Zinjo
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OK, thanks for the breakdown. Disappointing there is no VF-25, VF-171 or VF-27 lineart.

I'll still have to track down the blue book just to be a completest though.

FYI, for those that don't know, Movic also previosly released similar books for M7 and MD7, although those books did have lots of mecha pics in.

GRaham

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Is there a height figure given for Klan, as a full sized Meltrandi? Or can you extrapolate it based on her size comparison line art of her and the other characters?

No size comparison of Klan at full Meltradi size, however the heights of the characters are as follows:

Grace = 173cm

Sheryl = 169cm

Luca = 160cm

Nanase = 165cm

Klan = 146cm (micronized)

Michael = 180cm

Alto = 175cm

Ranka = 158cm

Ozma = 185cm

Bobby = 190cm

Kathy = 173cm

Camilla = 180cm

Gilliam = 187cm

Quarter Captain = 178cm

Bridge Bunnies = 162/165/172cm

I hope this helps...

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For Zinjo and edwin3060 - you both had the books for a month already and didn't think to post about them!!!!!!

Graham

:( seconded.

Just picked them up. The large-scale size of the images beats any other reproduction (DVD/BD booklet, Charaberries, etc.). It is a shame that there isn't more mecha, nor notes on/about the mecha like Kawamori-san has done with the VF lineart. A shame, as there's little other info on the ships. For example, the Galaxy fleet ship is simple "Galaxy Ship: Carrier" and the Vajra one is "Vajra Carrier Modeling".

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Really, I never thought that so few people would have heard about these books! I saw them featured in the threads about the Macross Frontier concerts and figured that was that, since there was a pretty good description and even some scans of the books in those threads.

izzyfcuk: I'm not sure where they are based, but both otaku.com and otaku.co.uk work-- and they seem to be the same, just with prices in USD or pounds.

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