Tag Archives: commission

A monitor dilemma

With no actual updates to update on, and a little guilt that nothing was updated in the prior weeks, I do have one little event that almost set me back again once more. Or at least potentially so.

Some friends of mine had convinced me to Guild Wars 2, which is an MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online), if you’ve never heard of it. Originally, I’d borrowed the installation files and set everything up at home, eagerly awaiting a chance to get into a Virutal World once more like I once had many years ago.
My previous MMO had been Perfect World International, and the beautiful environments and interesting narratives and characters had always been inspiring, as well as a opportunity to escape for a bit and socialise with some international or outer state friends in a gaming environment. GW2, from what I’ve seen and been told, is even more so enhanced on those features, and aside from chances to catch up with old friends, the detail and dedication the artist put into the creation of the word is quite remarkable. So I’m hoping it’ll boost my ideas for my own projects.

But back to the point of the story; after installing, it turned out there was a 12gb Download it needed to do with patches and features. My internet is both slow, and almost capped, so I’d taken my computer back to my friends to receive the straight up files, and if the game didn’t run. She has Unlimited internet to use to download it.

I’ll skip the happy dance and other stuff; since it worked and get to the topic. Upon departing and carting my equipment back to my car, my monitor slipped from my grip and hit the ground. Fortuantly, I’ve always transported it with a piece of the orignal foam casing over the top of the screen, and this saved it from being broken completely. But the bottom of the rame has either moved out of the place, or, the screen has shifted and is now titled backwards a bit from the bottom.

So here’s my dilema. Even though it still functions fine, it’s not in its proper place. There’s a good chance the dust floating in from the dirt road I live on will eventually get in the exposed opening and damage the circuitry.
I’m thinking since the monitor came free with my computer since it was during a sale, that I can take it apart without fear of voiding any warranty. Or I could take it to a technician to do it, which I’d think would only set me back $50 at most. Still a lot less than a new monitor.

I haven’t asked a question for any reasons in a while, but what exactly are the estimates on getting a monitor fixed? So I don’t go get myself ripped off. ๐Ÿ˜›
Otherwise, I may crumble to my urge to pull the screen apart myself ‘examine’ the interior like I did my laptop when it ceased working.

On another note, I’ve been doing a bit of a commission for a friend lately, who I’d hoped after composing the final mock-up, I’d be able to contact and get his opinion before I started matte painting over it. But seeing as I have to be able to contact him, I’ll just have to go ahead with it.
I aim to finish before the end of the week, and will link the finished product up here. I’m still a bit rusty with my Wacom tablet, but after some playing around every now and then, I’ve slowly started to regain my knack for it.

Till next time, don’t let the Morning Monday’s get ya down. ๐Ÿ˜‰


Out of commission

After a fun week of computer based dilemas, my Laptop has finally buggered itself to the point it blue-screens during start up.

So everything I’d been working on, such as Legends of Thyilos, and all the things I did have planned are on hiatus until I can get a new computer, or depending on the cost, I may resort to getting the laptop marginally fixed so it can start up at least. But the main priority for that machine is to get the Drives recovered, mainly Drive D which has Legends of Thyilos on it!

technical difficulties

So I’m going to keep hoping that when I get a quote on what can be done about my defunct laptop, that its within a reasonable range, because my car registration is up and it takes priority! So that now combined with my laptop means I’ll be broke for a month or so too. ๐Ÿ˜› Fun times! but what can you do? I’ve heard a lot that life is never meant to be easy, so I’ll just have to keep my chin up and focus harder on what I can still do for now. Who knows, with my laptop out of commission, maybe I’ll get into hand drawing and do more painting?

So sorry about the this, hopefully things will resume as normal soon.

Till next time.

~Shea


Redstone Magic, animatic

While browsing videos on youtube recently, one of the youtubers I was watching at the time made a request if someone with vfx know-how could make a quick intro piece for them. So I figured while I’m still on the look out for paid work, why not take a break from ToT related material and give it a go!

Suffice to say, despite some rage moments with getting the camera inside After Effects to function on tight bends and angles like I wanted to, within 2.5D space, it turned out pretty alright. But I still look forward to when I can replace my current machine for one that works so I can get back to doing some real 3d! I might even redo this within Lightwave! It’d certainly be a lot smoother. Though I’d have to work out another method for transitioning the red stuff (known as Redstone dust in Minecraft) to fade on so it looks like there’s powerย flowingย through it. So in that way, After Effects has a good advantage!

But enough of my rambling on, here’s the video. ^_^

Complete with some nice SFX obtained through Freesound.org , still the best source for SFX under a creative commons licence I’ve seen.

If you’re in to Minecraft, and perhaps want to learn some interesting circuit systems, feel free to dro by Redstone Magic’s youtube and show your support with a thumbs up if you like it. The owners also starting to do some Lets Play videos too.

Finally, I am making sure I keep to my word! The next chapter of UNTITLED is up, and the next shall follow next week! If I forget, you all have permission to spam this post telling me to hurry up! And I shall give you all a totally legitimate excuse about how I forgot because I was busy battling cyber-ninja-pirates in a galaxy far, far away… and then post the next chapter up immediately.

Until next time.
~Shea


That busy time of the year

Much has been going on recently. Tales of Thyilos has been getting a bunch of new concept art popping up, along with some new features to make the game run more smoothly and more enjoyable. It’s going along just as I’d hoped, which means being able to stick to the deadline of releasing a demo sometime in January! ๐Ÿ˜€
ToT isn’t the only game popping up with new art though. The other members over at Lucid Flame are flipping the switch and are on the go. Seeds of Time has also reached the point of construction and the first screen shots are up. ๐Ÿ™‚

Along with the game projects, some more commissions are slipping in through the cracks. There’s a SFX Project going for a web-game client. In honesty, the SFX part is going well, but making jingles are proving to be out of my range (as I tried to explain early when I was recruited), but, it’s something I’ll have to somewhat manage for now! It’s probably the toughest challenge yet that I’ve undertaken design wise.

Speaking of which, there’s been an awkward delay in finishing and posting up the major production from this year. It hasn’t been forgotten, just nudged aside to allow for current work to be taken care of. I’d hope it too would go up some time in January. I guess only time can tell how successful it is!

Lastly, It seems I’ve fallen behind on posting narrative updates again. So here’s my pitch instead of apologising for terribly delays.
By February, I will publicly release a BETA version of the Thyilosian Lore book, which will for now, be an e-book (free unless you want to donate to the respective designers who did the art and concepts that’ll appear in it), but in time I hope there’ll be enough work compiled to release it as a complete E-Book (which will probably be free as well), and if possible, a Book book. Like physical pages and stuff! ๐Ÿ˜€
But if only one print can be released, we’ll probably auction it, signed and stuff, and then the money can go to a worthy charity. ๐Ÿ™‚

… yes I think that’d make up for my tardiness on novel updates. ๐Ÿ˜›

Alright, all that aside. Here’s a some quick links to weapon art I’d finished since the last time I posted some up. I’ve one more of these commissions to go, then I can try and move onto another commission! Hopefully done before Christmas like that SFX one ย :S

Hopes Stave

Kindness

Bloody Delight

Dragon Sabre

Pain Hammer

 

Bye-bye for now ^_^;;
And have a safe holidays! (or for that matter, be safe anyway. ๐Ÿ˜‰ )

~Shea


Digital Weapon Art

I’ve been working on a small series of weapon art for a little group role-play we had going. At first it started off as me wanting to design the weapon I’d in mind for a character I’d designed, then a friend asked me to make theirs, then another.

So the last two days I’ve been doing some weapon art. It’s a bit dodgy and more just experimenting and exploring more features of Photoshop while I get more in touch with my Tablet (which I regret having neglect it a fair bit this year).

I’m thinking I may do some more, for fun and practice.

Here’s the links to them over on DA.

Demon Lord’s War Scythe

Stave of Fiore

Loveless

I might just throw it out there, that even though I’m staging myself for paid work from now on, I may accept commissions and do them for free-minimal price, depending on the image, just because I enjoy the practice and doing this kind of work takes my mind of stress. Which is always good. ^_^

~Shea