August 2012
Singidava
![Image](http://i909.photobucket.com/albums/ac300/singidava/lainava3b.png)
I personally select each month's Member of the Month. People are picked based on their contributions to the community, whether they are: making excellent trials, providing comic relief or just being a brilliant person. The next Member of the Month could be you!
If you have any questions about the Member of the Month system, please PM me.
Aaaaaanyway, Singi is known for her talent in drawing sprites in the Your Art forum. She can be very creative, but she mostly spends her time in the forums. But I'll shut up. You probably just want to read the actual interview anyway!
Singidava: Hi~
Meph: Can you tell us about how you joined AAO?
Singidava: Boredom. Somehow it seems like everything I do is somehow related to boredom~
It was my summer holidays aaand I was bored to death (which is not very uncommon for me). I searched for anything to do and remembered those AA games I had played a while ago. I had been helping my brother making some Pokemon fangame stubs so I thought: what if I could make a fangame of AA? Seemed easy enough. So I just Googled different engines and settled with AAO mainly because it had a community and in my boredom I needed someone to talk to. Because you know, otherwise it'd be even more boring! DD:
So I tried out the Trial Editor and played some of the cases on AAO. However, I was extremely dissapointed at the lack of custom sprites! Aaaand that's how I made my first post that was my art thread. Simply because I wanted to see more custom sprites in AAO.
Meph: For those that don't know, could you tell us about your first sprites?
Singidava: Well, my first sprite was Andrew Webster; requested by King Treuth. As you can see from the sheer amount of emotes, back then I didn't have any limit how many emotes I'd do for one request. Even now I think that Andrew has one of the best character designs out of my sprites. Unfortunately, I don't usually get to influence the designs much as the requesters tend to be very specific about how their characters should look like. That is even though I intentionally left out the description of how the character looks out of the instructions how to request.
My second sprite... I think that was Lucas Jay, requested by LucasJay himself, obviously. That was before I set a minimum post amount for my requesters to make sure they were active on AAO and I wouldn't make sprites that would never get used in a trial. I'm planning to do an edit of all my older sprites so the animation will be smoother and I'll fix those silly mistakes I made. Lucas is the prime example of that as I'm planning to edit his eyes quite a bit. I don't know when I have time to do that though, as I'm extremely slow at my requests nowadays. Usually it's just pure laziness.
Oh, and while we're at the topic of sprites! People seem to have a misconception that they're obligated to ask the permission also from their original requester if they want to use them for their trial. However, at my conditions I state that as a condition for requesting you must allow the sprites you requested be used in other people's trials without your approval. I cannot emphasise enough that all my spites are free to use regardless if you're the requester or not. You should still get *my* approval first, however.
Meph: How did your talent with spriting start?
Sigidava: Scratch spriting isn't really any different from other forms of digital drawing. The colouring may be a little simpler than usual but that's about it. To be a good scratch sprite artist you simply have to know how to draw. Though aside from that... I really have no idea how I've developed such skills. I tend to draw anything extremely rarely, usually having months between the times I even open GIMP... usually simply because I'm lazy. Yes, I used to draw a lot in elementary school but from that onwards I don't know why my skills kept evolving, even though that sounds a bit weird. ^^'''''''
Meph: Are there any other sprite artists in AAO that you like or inspire you?
Sigidava: Usually my inspiration for making sprites has nothing to do with sprites itself, but rather a topic that interests me or other kinds of art. Besides most sprite artists on AAO don't even do scratch sprites and it's a bit difficult for me to get inspiration from frankenspriting. Another thing is that I actually visit art section only rarely. The question about my favourite artist on AAO is easier, however... hands down Lind. I can never distinguish the characters he uses for his frankensprites! Besides he seems to be able to keep his quality high despite the huge amount of sprites he has done.
Meph: And while we're on the subject, let's not forget you still taunt us with that abomination of a sprite that you keep in your signature!
Sigidava: Hahaha~! I actually love making what people like to call troll sprites, because they draw the strongest emotions out of the viewers. To an artist indifference is the worst reaction there can be.
Meph: The only game you've released is Turnabout Chatroom, which was very... original. Do you plan on making any other trials?
Singidava: Before anyone even asks: no, I won't be writing TC2, but I just might collaborate. That's about the most common trial question people ask me, period. Well, like most people on AAO I do have my own little trial plan. The plot and all the contradictions are already planned out but I just can't bring myself to write the dialog. Currently I have enough dialog for a prologue and an investigation, however, I don't intend to announce anything before I find the determination to actually write the rest. My policy is that if I announce something I WILL finish it. Another problem is that currently my trial is waaaaaay too angsty. I have to see if I can fix that or just leave it the way it is. Besides that angstfest I also have another trial idea about basically your generic gossip girl solving cases using social media. That's only at the idea stage, however.
Meph: What do you mean by angsty? You mean too much emotional turmoil?
Singidava: It means that basically every character is half crying every time they appear. Even worse is that I'm actually using canon characters.... Well, you could say that everyone sounds just really depressed xDD
Meph: Lol. What kind of story are you planning if everyone's depressed all the time?
![Razz :P](./images/smilies/icon_razz.gif)
Sigidiva: Basically what really annoyed me in AJ was that the characters didn't get enough character developement. I thought that I'd fix that. Unfortunately, it seems that if I try to develop as many characters as much as possible the result will be an angstfest. I predicted that, yeah, but not to the extent it turned out...
Meph: What's your favourite fan trial on AAO?
Singidava: The problem is that I've completed only a few trials on AAO. Well, maybe that's why I also remember all of them quite well. The first trial I played on AAO was Bitter Turnabout. Besides that I've managed to finish playing TDG (because it uses Andrew sprites~!) and ToC by Blackrune and NYT as I was practically forced to do it by BP. Hm... I wonder if there were anything else? Well, let's choose the favourite by the process of elimination~!
First up, I. Hate. Godot. Therefore Bitter Turnabout is out of the question~ Then up next was BP shamelessly copying a case solution from Detective Conan for NYT. Unfortunately I have currently 62 volumes of Detective Conan and they keep increasing so I knew the solution beforehand. Copy and paste ? good impression. Therefore NYT is out too. Now all that's left are the two trials by Rune... Honestly, I can't really choose which one is better. I'd say that ToC was more entertaining but I the case solution was better in TDG.
Meph: Now let's talk about your life outside of AAO. What kind of things did you like to do when you were growing up?
Singidava: When growing up...? Well, I guess that's the time back then when I actually *drew* things more often. At the start of the second grade I also began horse riding which is still my hobby now *counts* ....11 years later. Though back then I did think that horses were really scary!
Hm, I really didn't have that many clear interests when I was little... what I do remember is my dad lecturing me physics instead of bedtime stories because well... I never really liked princesses anyways. So I guess you could say I liked science..? I was also pretty much a tomboy as I didn't like dolls that much and absolutely hated playing home (the most boring thing ever IMO).
One thing that's funny now that I look back is that for some reason I never liked western cartoons that much but instead all my favourites were what I'd now call "anime". And that was before I even knew what anime was.
Oh, and I'm sorry to inform you, Meph, but that "western cartoons" includes Disney as well. The only Disney movies I liked were Hunchback of Notre Dame and maybe Mulan.
Meph: I will forgive you if you liked The Hunchback. But whether or not you've been to a Disney Park is more important.
![Razz :P](./images/smilies/icon_razz.gif)
Singidava: Nope, I've never been in Disney Park, nor have I ever been interested in going there as I'd probably get bored to death. I did have a chance to go there last summer but I didn't bother.
Why I started horse rising? Hm, I suppose there are two major things that influenced it. First... pretty much any girl wants to start horse riding at some point around here. I mean, come on, horses look cool yet cute with all that fur. And go fast too! No way I could resist. The second is my family. My dad comes from countryside and when he was a kid his family had horses.
The biggest influence, however, was my cousin that also had been taking horse riding lessons and wanted me to try too. Later on that cousin also moved to countryside. However, the move was late because of the family's other children and that cousin had already moved out thus not getting the horse her family had promised. My grandma was pretty dissapointed too. They all would've wanted horses but my cousin was the only one with enough experience to take care of them so they never got one.
Of that family also the son has been involved with horse theraphy. And that's only my cousins on my dad's side, because later on one of my other cousins actually did get a horse. Currently she has her second one as she sold the previous one because it "didn't go fast enough" according to her. Aaaand my youngest cousin who's now in middle school visits stables six times a week. He doesn't ride that much though - instead he drives carriages and the like.
All in all, almost all my relatives are involved with horses somehow.
![Razz :P](./images/smilies/icon_razz.gif)
Meph: And do you have an interest in the My Little Pony cartoon?
![Razz :P](./images/smilies/icon_razz.gif)
Singidava: I always keep telling people that real horses are better than some fictional ponies. So answer is no. I've tried it and it's boooooring.
![Razz :P](./images/smilies/icon_razz.gif)
Meph: What are your favourite animes? Oh, and do you usually watch dubbed or subbed ones?
Singidava: I usually like animes that make you think such as serial experiments lain (probably my favourite as you can see from my ava), ghost hound and other "deep" animes like that. Personal favourirtes don't mean that I think those are the *best* anime there is though, they're just the ones that I myself like the most. Other than maybe ranking lain at the top of my personal list I don't think I can decide the order. There are a lot of animes I really like but the order really depends on my mood. And no, I wouldn't rank Durarara!! that high even though people seem to think so. Yes, I think it's a good anime but not *that* great. I just like Izaya as a character.
When it comes to sub vs. dub argument... I don't really have a preference. It really depends on the anime and the quality of the dubs in both Japanese and English. For example I could never watch Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuiokuhen in English because that just wouldn't fit the anime. But then again I wouldn't watch Black Lagoon in Japanese either because it makes sense for the characters to speak English. Besides, Japanese lacks the power that excessive swearing gives to that show in English.
Meph: What is your average day like?
Singidava: I wish I knew that myself... I'm starting at university next week so I have no idea what it's going to be like yet. Currently my average day just contains a lot of plain "being bored" as my final day at school was in February. Since then I've just been at home cramming for the entrance exams and such.
Meph: What are you going to study at university?
Singidava: Computer science & engineering. I haven't chosen my exact major yet so all I can tell you is just the department's name. I'm not an expert with computers (at least yet) but considering how much time I spent with them I thought why not to make it into a job? Besides I've done some Java programming and it was fun~
Meph: What are your plans for the future?
Singidava: Ehhhh? Don't ask such difficult questions~! I have hands full with the present already~~ Well, I guess I wish I could get into a student exchange abroad to get some experiences out of the country and get a language that could be useful later on but... I don't really have any concrete plans yet.
Meph: Which is your favourite Ace Attorney game?
Singidava: Despite my hatred of that certain Gary/Marty Stu character called Godot, I have to be boring and say T&T. The second is maybe a bit surprisingly AJ. Other than that... I'm not sure about the order. I didn't like AAI that much though and I barely even remember its plot but GK2 seems to be much better. When I'll finally finish it it does have a chance of even topping the list. Unfortunately, I'm not far enough to judge it yet.
Meph: What other games do you really like?
Singidava: Most of the games I usually play are... well, anything that involves fighting, from Tekken to Ninja Gaiden. For some reason I enjoy maxing the difficulty for them, even if that means that I won't be able to finish that run. It just feels that much better to actually face a good challenge. I only do that in games that almost purely consist of just fighting. The other games I play... well,
I've been playing some Assassin's Creeds aaaand rather surprisingly my favourite game is Mirror's Edge. I just love the simple controls it has~ I also have that Heavy Rain still somewhere in my closet... it's been over a year since I got it but I've never just managed to bring myself to play it any further than the prolog. Yeah, you could say I'm not much of a gamer.
Meph: Last question, now. Do you have any other interests?
Singidava: Well, I already told you about anime, horses and drawing so I guess that probably covers the most of it. I guess I'm interested in science more than average person. Other than that there is my interest in mystery genre and brain teasers. This of course means I enjoy any kind of puzzle from jigsaw puzzles to logic teasers. I can't understand how I failed to mention Laytons when you asked about games... but I guess that's because I think them rather as puzzle books than actual games. Despite my liking of puzzles I'm not a fan of chess, however. I prefer go.
In the case you're interested in similar things I'd recommend you check out a site called braingle.org. It has some great brain teasers~
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
Meph: Before we finish, do you have anything else you'd like to say?
Singidava: Nothing really, you can add the usual random pleasantries here. It was honour to be here and yadda, yadda, yadda, that stuff.
![Razz :P](./images/smilies/icon_razz.gif)
Meph: Thanks for the interview!
Singidava: Bye~~