FFXII Graphics: Doctor of Philosophy in Final Fantasy XII

[aorin]

Long story short, I've attended my university convocation yesterday, and to commemorate this event, I made a series of icons, animation banners, friends only banners and oversize-bandwidth-consuming group banners XD With the theme, "Doctor of Philosophy in Final Fantasy XII" ;D

Honestly, I wasn't too keen on my own graduation ceremony. While the pomp and circumstance was a treat, it was dreadfully boring in the robbing room earlier that afternoon. I mean, I seriously felt like a canned sardin, and it's not because I was crammed into a room where I have to bump shoulders to move, or the fact that I'm wearing four layers of thick clothing inside the sauna-like room (not to mention, I kept on tripping over the hem of my gown, arms flailing and all, and I probably took out someone's eye with the mortar board X3), or even the fact that the graduands, boys and girls alike, despite being well-educated and smartly dressed, were gabbling like fish-mongers in a fish market :3

Now, what ultimately drove me nuts in the end was not all that (though, a large part of it), but rather it was the silly rule: No drinks allowed until the end of the ceremony 8O In the situation where I'm in a blazing warm room, filled with hundreds of noisy students from my faculty, with a Harry Potter gown sitting on my shoulders, and the last morsel of food that I had was three hours ago; the committee saw fit to impose this rule then =.=|||

I nearly dehydrated along the way TT^TT

Anyhow, while I'm not all cheers and celebration for my graduation, I'd probably go mad with joy if I receive a Ph.D in Final Fantasy XII XD

And btw, strangely, for the last two weeks, half of the post by my f-list were either graduation-related or hospital-related :P Well, congrats to the earlier and well-wishes to the latter :)

[20] Icons
[12] Characters Banners
[04] Friends Only Banners
[04] Group Banners {Small, 810 x 135}
[04] Group Banners {Medium, 1200 x 200}
[02] Group Banners {Large, 1800 x 300}

[+] Comments are nice :)
[+] Credit is even better :D
[+] No Hotlinking :3
[+] Do not modify without permission X3

ICONS

Group	Group

Ashe	Basch	Vaan	Penelo	Fran	Balthier
Ashe	Basch	Vaan	Penelo	Fran	Balthier
Ashe	Basch	Vaan	Penelo	Fran	Balthier

CHARACTERS BANNER

Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca
Quote: A New Day Has Dawned. Spoken in the ending on the Strahl, announcing Dalmasca's liberation.
Flower: Lily of the Valley. Well, originally, I wanted to let Ashe hold a single rose, but since two other guys were already posing with a huge bouquet of roses, I had to consider other choices :3 Ok, I know no one receives LofV during their graduation ceremony, but, I really liked this little bell-shaped flower XD Besides, this is one of the flowers that doesn't look dangerous in Ashe's hands XP





Basch Fon Ronsenburg
Quote: We Are The Arbiters of our Destiny. Spoken in Giruvegan, after Ashe receives the Treaty Blade.
Flower: White Roses. Ehehehe... XD This flower choice is rather personal. I admit, I love white roses and insist on receiving it on any occassions (Iris and Lotus is a close second, but...), so, of course, I'll chuck a bouquet of roses into Basch's hands. Though, I honestly think Basch had more of the "approach-me-and-I'll-smack-you-across-the-face-with-the-most-convenient-thing-in-my-hand" look XD Well, who can blame him, since I've replaced his favourite sword ;D





Vaan
Quote: I'm Ready to Find a Purpose... To Find Real Answers. Spoken in the Garif Village to Ashe.
Flower: Sunflower. Brighy, sunny, cheery, attention-seeking and always staring at sun, sounds like a flower that would fit Vaan very well ;) Though, my question is that, I just wonder how did Vaan manage to graduate in the first place and what university would actually confer him a doctorate... He looks suprising adorable, and a bit cocky, even though it was hard to fit the square academic cap on him XD





Penelo
Quote: Keep Our Eyes on the Road Ahead. Spoken in the Epilogue.
Flower: Tulips. I'm not a big fan of Tulips generally, compared to other types of flowers, but I do think it looks really lovely. And Penelo looks so cuddly and cute holding two stalks of violet tulips XD It was easy to let her hold flowers and still look comfortable in it. I don't know, but I find Penelo to be quite endearing here, and even her line sounds very inspiring ;) She just looks so... GENKI here XD





Balthier
Quote: Quite A Performance. Spoken in the Rabanastre Treasure Room, when he first appeared.
Flower: Red Roses. Of all the characters, I worked on Balthier's first, as I actually intended to make a congratulatory banner for a friend. And, it wasn't easy to get rid of his gun, and replace it with a bunch of roses. Honestly, I couldn't find a nice picture of a bunch of roses, so I ended up cropping a picture of a "vase" of roses instead. Oh well, as long as Balthier looks comfortable holding... XP Also, it was hard to settle the mortar board on his head, as the back of his hair was porcupine-ish... X3





Fran
Quote: I Won My Freedom. Spoken in Eruyt Village to Jote and Mjrn.
Flower: White Lilies. She was the hardest to work with. First, I couldn't find a nice, inspiring, uplifting quote from her. Then, her original pose made it quite hard to add a flower to it, and somehow, I got a bit ambitious and wanted to remove her weapon as well. With a picture of only three stalks of White Lilies, I had to duplicate them and resize them until it covers all the spaces of where her bow used to be X3 Surprisingly, I had so much fun working on her cap though, with her long ears, it has to be custom-made XD

FRIENDS ONLY BANNER

GROUP BANNER (SMALL)

GROUP BANNER (MEDIUM)











GROUP BANNER (LARGE)

Comments

[bjeezus.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodnesss... THIS IS JUST ADORABLE. I think I fangirled!! What a great job, I deffinantly took some. This made me smile!!

[aorin107.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked ;D

I admit I have some kind of childish fondness over the FFXII cast in their Itadaki Special incarnation. Though, I honestly, didn't enjoy Itadaki at all, even if the characters are adorable XP

[mithrigil.livejournal.com]

These are adorable. And hysterical.

[donesschen.livejournal.com]

LOL AT YOUR ICON!!! XD

[aorin107.livejournal.com]

Thanks ;)

When academentia meets fangirlism, nothing normal comes out of it XP

[ellnyx.livejournal.com]

Awesome! I'm impressed. Especially with Fran's ears. :)

[aorin107.livejournal.com]

You have no idea how much enjoyed creating this instead of attending that scorching hot graduation ceremony XD Fran was such an easy (and hysterical) material to work with ;)

[astrangerenters.livejournal.com]

These are so so cute! I've got one more month to go before graduation!!!! If only Balthier could be there ;)

[aorin107.livejournal.com]

If Basch was my chancellor, I would have never left the stage. Or perhaps, all the dehydration that I went through would be so worth it XP But no, I got some middle-aged, funny-looking dude to confer me my degree O___O

I'll make you a special banner with Balthier if you want ;) Any particular preference for flowers? XD

[dalagang-bukid.livejournal.com]

Wahaha. This is so cute. I love the characters banner. I bet Basch would miss the cafeteria, look how sad he is! hahaha...

Okay ... that was very random. Sorry! Hhahaa

-Greta

[aorin107.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not sure, I normally drive out elsewhere to get my lunch, my cafeteria... is hardly a cafeteria at all XD Ehehe, I thought the reason Basch looks so upset was because he was force to pose with a "tree" of roses, and better not upset him any further... he can be dangerous XP

Off topic: I accidently typed Baschellor of Communications in one of my forms the other day... ::headdesks:: ;P

[crazy18gurl.livejournal.com]

Oh my God, those are all so adorably hott! I seriously love your creativity x3 Dont mind if i take them all xD

Yeah it looks like graduation is comin up for everyone xD Sounds like yours was...pretty crazy. Makes me all the more excited for mine, lol.

Thanks for sharing these with us hun! <3

[aorin107.livejournal.com]

Hehe... getting a compliment from a graphic genius like you makes me all giddy XD Well, as said, the worst result of acadamentia meets fangirlism ;)

Say, you want a second banner of your own? Your choices of flowers this time :) But if you say Sakura, I... I don't know how Balthier is going to hug the entire tree... XD

[vieralynn.livejournal.com]

These are so cute! Great choice of flowers. Balthier's bouquet looks great and all of them are fantastic. Your graphics talent shines as always. :D

I'm not sure my advisers will let me change my degree to "Ph.D. in FFXII" but I'll be using some of these icons very soon.

Congrats to you on your graduation. XD

[aorin107.livejournal.com]

Photo manip again!! XD That's about the only thing that I can actually do... XD But, glad to hear that you like these little academics ;)

Have you try submitting your fics, and psychological studies of the FFXII cast to your advisers. If you do, I think they might just see the light ;) And, of course, feel free to use. I was particularly aiming the icon-arrow at some of you here, who I know, happens to be intelligent, over-achieving graduate students XD

Thank you again for the well-wishes. Actually, I'm really looking forward to sending in my application for Masters and I pray that they'll take me. I'm not so confident as it's a different university and I barely know anyone there, if they give me a lousy suprvisor, I might just hang myself... X3 Be optimistic, be optimistic, you want this!!!

And, I'm still waiting for my Noah/Penelo icon, btw, because for the love of god, I just couldn't make one that looks half decent

[chickosaurusrex.livejournal.com]

Aw, these are very cute.

[aorin107.livejournal.com]

Thank you and glad you like ;) Chibi-fied characters are always cuddly :D

[taurie-2020.livejournal.com]

beautiful*_*

[aorin107.livejournal.com]

Heeee...! XD Glad to hear that you liked it and using it ;) Spread the love and the possibility of this doctorate ;D

[churched.livejournal.com]

These are amazing.

Gacking the last Friends Only banner!

[aorin107.livejournal.com]

Thank you ;D And please do, gack anything that tickle your fancy :)

[stormbornxxii.livejournal.com]

Took forever to load on crappy uni connection, but XDXDXDXD!!!! Possibly the cutestbestmostawesome thing ever!

Vaan looks so cute with his lil' sunflower and apple, it's the first time I've ever been able to be completely positive about him ^^ But I don't know how he was able to graduate either. Perhaps Penelo helped him cheat ^_^

They all look adorable in their graduation caps. And the personal quotes are a really nice touch. Really great <3

Congrats on graduating!

[aorin107.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm really sorry for that :( I didn't exactly take into account of the people that have poor connection, and the last few banners were crazily huge in size X3 (actually, there were two more, but I decide that 1.5MB for a image is too much for most people, and myself to handle) :3

And thank you so much for the compliment and well-wishes ;D Makes my day brighter on a work-laden, rainy day like this.

You know, Penelo helping him cheat his way through might just be the perfect answer!! XD I don't quite think there are other possible ways for him to secure the cap on his head XP

A lot of people on my f-list is graduating recently, so I thought of adding the inspirational personal quotes :) As for the cap, well, it looked kind of empty with just flowers, so there goes the cap as well :D I even took the effort to find out which side should the tassle be on XDDD

I'm probably going to try my hand on bonnets and pacifiers the next time

[basched.livejournal.com]

Aorin! These banners are brilliant!

I'm goingto have to sort through my LJ. :)

[aorin107.livejournal.com]

Thanks ;) I had so much fun doing this, just for the sake of making fun of my favourite sexy six XD Feel free to gank any if you like ;D

Oh!! You must!! It took me gazillion of hours to update these few banners and to fix my LJ into something more presentable :P But I'd be glad to help if you ever need any :)

Also, you sent me a message a while back, right? I've accidently deleted, which is why I didn't reply. I'm sorry about it though, is it something important? :(

[mariagoner.livejournal.com]

Okay, see, this is just ridiculously cute and I'm about to thieve freely from you now! I really wish I could just go get a degree in my hobby rather than faff about with school. It'd be a lot more fun! ;)

[aorin107.livejournal.com]

Following our discussion, like I said, we might be confered an honorary degree instead of achieving one. For someone who was dedicated to FFXII for two years, we sure have lots of writing issues and problems with characterization :3

But yes, I'd be happy if I could just get a degree for this hobby 8D WE DESERVE IT!! FANGIRLS DESERVE IT!! XD

[stormbornxxii.livejournal.com]

I absolutely love Gabranth, after Pharos, Gabranth just became incredibly appealing to me. I love the rest of the Judges too, I think it's a power thing, or the way they carry themselves, pretty hot.

I seem to produce well enough under pressure, last minute, but I don't need the extra anxiety. It's something I'm trying to work on, so late in my college career XD And laziness has definitely taken hold of me now.

I just switched to an English Lit major, and I love it. It makes me love school. *nerd*

Yes Penelo is devious, under all that show of innocence XP Now that I think about it more, I really like Penelo. I think her character was handled quite nicely; It could have been easy to make her really weak like you said. I love writing Penelo because I think there is potentially a lot going on with her.

[aorin107.livejournal.com]

Oh...! 8D Wonderful, I adore the Ronsentwins XD I think they are hot to put it.. mildly ;) I love the six main characters, and my long time OTP is Basch/Ashe :3 But otherwise I was more interested in the political and war intrigue than the overall adventure and sky-pirating affair :P

Oh yeah, pressure might be the death of me one day. The problem with me is that I would proscrastinate all my works and wait till the last minute before doing anything... I suck at deadlines to be honest XD Oh, it worked fine during college, but when I'm working and meeting deadlines on a daily basis... Help... TT^TT

Awww... I wanted so badly to do English Literature when I first enrol into university, but... I couldn't get into the one that offers it. So, I took the next closest thing to it and got a degree in Journalism :P I'm taking my chances with Masters, but I might be doing English Language if it correspond well my research XD I ENVY YOU!! XD

I admit I didn't quite enjoy Penelo in the beginning, but she grew on me. And now, she's topping my list as well, in fact, one of my top five XD

You write about her as well? 8D COOL!! I used to write exclusively about Basch/Ashe, I still do, but these days, I'm shedding a lot of love to Penelo as well. Commonly, I enjoy pieces about her and Larsa, but I'm also a silent shipper of Noah/Penelo ;P What about you, any preference? Or you prefer character-centric? ;D

Also, wanna friend? :)

CUTE!!!!!

[ladyearisu.livejournal.com]

They are sooooo cute XDDDDDDDD
Really, really cute :)

You are very very skilled ;)

Re: CUTE!!!!!

[aorin107.livejournal.com]

Ah~~ how can they not be cute? ;) With that oversize academic cap and flowers, they are begging to be cuddled and swung around like a baby. And Basch, oh, he looks like he could do with a pacifier ;D

I'm not skilled, I just keep reusing the same tricks, and pin humour everywhere I can :P

oh, and sorry for not showing up yesterday. I was back at home and my younger sister locked the pc, so I really couldn't access to it :( I don't know what's wrong with that silly kid, sometimes TT^TT

OHMYBEANSTHESEAREAWESOME!!!

[nekonarutard666.livejournal.com]

Using the first group icon, and Fran and Penelo sparkly banners are on my profile page (credit included)

Cute!!!

Re: OHMYBEANSTHESEAREAWESOME!!!

[aorin107.livejournal.com]

Hehe... Glad you liked ;)

Enjoy and thanks for creditting :D

Kawaii

[gemsy-chan.livejournal.com]

Love the Basch ones. Shall credit the icon i pawned ^_~

Re: Kawaii

[aorin107.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear that you liked it :D

Enjoy and thank you for the credit!