Chinese Characters Iceberg: Part One — Coming Very Soon

Monthly Update

The past month has been extremely productive. More productive than any other time that I have been working on this. Finally, I am starting to seriously see the finish line for this project.

The last major hurdle is the voiceover, but I have finally got a setup that works well. I am going on a trip for the next 10 days, so I will only be able to work on the video part of it (I really don't think I can take my mic with me). My hope is that when I am back from my trip, that all I will need to do is to finish the voiceover recordings and final edit and it will be good to go.

I am going to try to make it so that I don't have to do a monthly update next month, if you catch my drift 👀

— Kayōbi Club, 6 September 2023

Petite Update (Just Rambling)

I am striving to do the following with this video:

• Respect the viewer's intelligence

• Be as comprehensive as possible with explaining each topic

• Make it understandable to people without any knowledge of an East Asian writing system

• Include all of the topics that are included on the original Iceberg Chart image

• Include a few simple animations I have made for a few topics. For example:

  • Biáng

  • "The Ancients must have..."

  • Zetian Characters

  • Dunhuang

• Complete in one video (i.e. not released in parts)

I know I have been ambitious and no doubt cuts to my original plan have already been made, but the list above I am not going to compromise on. Even if it does drag this thing out. It will be worth it in the end.

I find myself hyper-focusing on little details much of the time that have very little impact on the end product, so this month, I'm going to try to eliminate some of the doubt that has made this a very slow process. Let's see if I can get a real update within a few days.

After level 3 is finished, I will reconsider a refresh of this website's overall look... I have a different direction that I'm going in that I have developed while making the video. 

Small Update

Progress has been slow, but everyday that I work on this, I'm closer than I have ever been before to it being finished.

I am still continuing with this project and my goal is to still release this Summer, but I have come to the realization that it will be done when it's done.

I have posted an upscaled version of the image here on my website so that people can follow along or just get a closer look of it. I reached out to the original creator and got permission to credit. He has been very supportive and even provided me with many of the files used to create it.

Also, here's a little promo of one of the images that I made using Midjourney and did a simple little animation on. There will be a few of these throughout the video.

While you're at it, take a look at the Midjourney Prompt Tool that I made and used to refine this image.

Well, back to work. There is much to be done.

Release Date: Summer?

Finally into the voiceover part of the production of this video and it's alright. I kinda wish I had invested in a better microphone but at this point it's acceptable.

Seeing as Spring is over in 4 days, I won't be able to release this in Spring of this year, but it won't be much longer. Thankfully, nobody is actually reading this and I'm just putting this here so that I can look back one day and reminisce about what it took to make this.

It's a little annoying to push out the release date, but it will be worth it when it's good enough to post it.

But, it's looking like I should be able to release next month. And if not, definitely this Summer. I really can't wait to be able to say, it's going to release on such-and-such date. I'm not that far off.

In the meantime, if you do actually make it to this website, take a look at my little Midjourney Prompt Tool. It allows you to change around the paramaters and stuff to make prompts easier. Right now, my focus is on my video but after this, but after that I'll add a few more things to it.

Teaser Images

Here is a sneak peak from the Upcoming Chinese Characters Iceberg video.

The goal is to upload in June. It makes me slightly anxious to give an upload date just yet, as anything could happen and I still have a fair amount to go.

Anyways, in the meantime, please check out my Midjourney Prompt Tool that I have made with the help of Chat GPT.

kayobi.club/mj

Check out the Midjourney Prompt Tool I made! It works and I actually use it. 

It's pretty simple, but I find it useful, so I hope you do to. I had been using a spreadsheet doing more or less the same thing and decided to make it into a web app.

I hope to add more capabilities in the future.

Kayōbi Club

Should have some content for you to enjoy soon.

Chinese Characters Iceberg Explained video coming to YouTube soon.

Seriously though, it's coming soon.