ANIMANGACREATORS MEMBER SPOTLIGHT SEVEN: MICA
for this month’s amc member spotlight, we’re excited to feature mica @koushuwu!
from teaching herself how to make gifs in 2022 to bring more life to a quiet fandom, mica’s creative journey began with a love for daiya no ace...and it still all comes back to her baseball boys. working mainly with gifs and edits in photoshop, her process is fueled by curiosity, trial and error, and letting creativity flow without a rigid plan. read on to learn more about the challenges that reignited her inspiration, the animanga that shaped her as a creator, and why sometimes the most important step is simply starting.
along with mica's interview, we'll be reblogging some of her creations throughout the month. make sure to show them some love!
when did you start creating for animanga? what got you into it?
I first started making gifs in 2022, so i haven’t been doing it for that long. It started out when I got into Daiya no Ace, somewhat late. The fandom wasn’t very active and I missed seeing new content like I saw with many other animanga. So I decided that if I wanted new content, I might as well make it myself. And so I taught myself to make gifs through YouTube videos, just to have more Daiya content. Soon expanded to other animanga, but Daiya no Ace are my roots.
what type of creations do you make? what tools or programs do you use to create them?
A like to dabble a bit in different kinds of creations, but gifs are definitely my main visual media. I do like to play around with gfx and edits too, and for a short while I did try my hand at coloring too. I actually started out using Canva for my gifs, which honestly wasn’t ideal for me personally, since I couldn’t scale my gifs in there. So I migrated to Photoshop and haven’t looked back since. For the few colorings I’ve done, I used ibisPaint X on mobile, thanks to @hansooyung who showed me the app.
describe your creative process from inspiration to posting. what's your favorite part? what part's the most challenging?
Its funny, because my creative process is generally a lot of trial and error. I hear a lot of people talk about how they have a vision for what they want to create, but I don’t have that. For me it’s more often than not a question of watching a show and thinking “this scene would be fun to gif” or having a character I love and wanting to make SOMETHING of them. I go through a lot of episodes sometimes and just cut out whichever clips I think may work. I don’t even have a clear idea of how I want to edit them if I’m being honest, so I really just play around with it until I think it looks good. Which is a bit chaotic, but it’s fun and lets me let the creativity just flow free. The hardest part for me is often is actually piecing it all together in a post for tumblr.
what's your favorite animanga creation you've made so far? why?
I think I would have to point to something like this one. It might be simple, nothing too fancy. But I’m really proud of how the colors turned out on it. I’ve made plenty of edits and gifs since this one and some of them might be better too. But I like how this one turned out a lot.
what's your favorite amc challenge so far? why?
I actually really loved the Greek Pantheon Challenge. It was part of what drew me out of a slump in creating and I loved planning and getting to make all the creations for the prompts. I really liked that it was bigger than “just” one creation, and the prompts were challenging without being too hard. Also I do love me some mythology so that was a fun spin on that too! I do also really love the duo challenge, that I’m currently working on the last edit for with my challenge partner.
what's something that you've learned or improved since joining amc? are there any particular creators in amc that inspire you?
I like to think that we all improve as we go. It’s very inspiring to be part of amc and seeing how other people express themselves and their creativity. How others do the challenges. And I think that in itself inspires me a lot to keep growing and learning new things as a creator. There are a lot of people in amc that inspire me, absolutely. Some that really inspire me are @the-mother-of-lions and @taohs and I’m not just saying that because Isabella and Aki are my friends as well. They’re both insanely talented in each their own way and being able to spar and see the things they create just makes them even more inspiring to me.
what's your favorite animanga? why?
My favorite animanga is Daiya no Ace. It all comes back to my baseball boys. There’s just something about it that resonates with me more than any other animanga has done. The characters are fun, the show is making me feel both good and bad, and there’s just something about an animanga that teaches us things. Not just with lessons in the animanga, but for me personally how it was what taught me to create.
what's an animanga that you wish was more popular or you wish more people created for?
I already said it; it all comes back to my baseball boys. Daiya no Ace. But I can only hope that it will increase when we finally get another new season in April. Fingers crossed.
what advice would you give to other creators or people who want to create but have not tried it yet?
This is especially for people who might have a bit of a scatter brain like I: it is okay if you don’t have a vision. It’s okay if you don’t know where you’re going with your creations from the get go. The most important thing is to just do. Because if something doesn’t look right to you, you can change it. But you can’t edit or change something you didn’t start. Do it scared. Do it bad. You can always learn and grown and edit. Just take that first step. Let YouTube help you. Or ask another creator for tips. All of the ones I know are super sweet and love to help.
anything else you'd like to share?
Just watch or read Daiya no Ace. I know it’s a little long and overwhelming, but it’s worth it.
bonus question: why did you choose the character on your banner?
I chose him because he was the whole reason I got into my favorite show and thereby into creating. I had a mutual describe him as “your typical pretty boy with a bad personality” and I just knew I would love him.
