GIVE ME YOUR WEBCOMIC LINKS

  • On February 1, 2011 ·
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I’ve really fallen behind on following content. When it comes to webcomics it became a chore to even load my bookmarks to read them. My browser would warn me and then it would strain pulling all those sites in at once. Well last night I moved them to an RSS reader in the hopes of reading stuff regularly again. Then I realized a lot of them stopped updating years ago. 

So I’m putting the call out here. Post some links in the comments of this blog of webcomics you like to read, maybe tell us something about them. If you make one feel free to link it but I’m sure you got into webcomics by reading others so share those while you’re here. You can log in via twitter if you want so GIVE ME YOUR WEBCOMIC LINKS. GIVE THEM TO ME!

Relieving friction

  • On January 20, 2011 ·
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Merlin Mann‘s mentioned this concept before, usually when talking about typing. There’s all sorts of keyboard shortcuts you can do to keep from bothering with the mouse. All types of apps and scripts to do things in one step to save time.

Distractions can be big and they can be tiny. Sometimes you’ll hit a snag and something will take your entire day to clear up. Other times it’s your attention that gets stolen. As I’ve gotten older I’ve become more aware of the gear shifting that goes on mentally to get stuff done. Though I make art I don’t really think visually so much. I tend to think conceptually and when it comes to making images I have to move into a different space in my head. And whenever there’s a transition there’s always a chance of getting hung up on something.
I bought a notebook app the other day to get myself organized. A key reason I chose this product over the many others out there is it supported digital drawing tablets for sketching. There are awesome drawing programs I plan on using to more seriously develop my art, but those don’t also let you store notes and reference files in one convenient place. Now I can jump from typing up a script to thumbnailing it on the same virtual page if I want. The advantage to this is twofold. I plan on working more digitally in the future so the directness is appreciated. Also I don’t have the mental hangup of dealing with paper.
I love drawing on paper but I have issues dealing with it’s inflexibility sometimes. If it’s bristol I tend to treat it like it’s precious and I’m always afraid of slicing into it while drawing, scarring it or some other problem I can’t work around. And if I’m working in a sketchbook I always want to keep related stuff together. Of course it’s better to just dump ideas as they come to you but how do you organize that for later? You have to work in loose sheets and sort it after the fact. Digitally I can resort entire sections as I need them after I do the necessary brain dumping.
That’s what it’s about, really. Moving things out of the way to just let the work happen. I converted this blog into a tumblog to make it less mentally intimidating in the hopes of posting more. I switched web browsers yesterday to cut back on an error that kept wasting my time and aggravating me. I bought a notebook app to organize my ideas and turn them into todo lists and actionable plans. I’m making it easier for myself to do things. Here’s hoping I can keep that up and stay out of my own way long enough to do something awesome.

You deserve to be happy

  • On January 15, 2011 ·
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Something that’s easily lost in all the cynicism, sarcasm, and snark online these days is that everybody deserves to be happy. Wether we have trouble finding it, have people or obstacles preventing us from obtaining it, or just simply forget to make time and allow it for ourselves, we all deserve to be happy. It’s an important thing to remember. We all have bad days but we should really be aiming to make every day the most awesome one ever, both for ourselves and those around us. I know it sounds like pseudo-hippy new age BS but really, having a crappy day makes you miserable and it doesn’t improve things for anybody when you spread it around. I know I’d like to have more good days and I bet you do, too.

Tumblogging

  • On January 4, 2011 ·
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In an effort to make blogs less news-posty and thereby less intimidating and hopefully more frequent I’ve converted the main blog here into more of a tumblog. I like tumblr but I can’t really justify putting my content on a 3rd party system when I have such a robust one here. Plus the recent blowup of tumblr (both in it’s popularity and the simple fact that their system is so strained it keeps going down) is a perfect excuse to start using my own blog more casually. Formatting’s going to be a little bit of an issue here and there but I’ll deal with that as it comes.

Join me for New Year’s Eve Stream-o-rama!

  • On December 28, 2010 ·
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Happy New Year, everybody! Do you have plans for New Year’s Eve? I’m going to be doing a 24 hour video stream/chat to ring in the new year. The whole shebang kicks off the morning of New Year’s Eve. It’ll go a little something like this:

12:00 AM December 31st, 2010

Tune in for Christmas and New Year’s movies/cartoons including Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and Santa Claus where in Kris Kringle and Merlin the magician fight satan!

Come and sit by the yule log while festive music plays – the perfect setting for all you fellow artists looking for something to work to!

If you have a mic and/or webcam join the stream and chat with us or keep me company in the text chat while I work in the studio!

12:00 AM January 1st, 2011

Watch the ball drop with us as we celebrate the end of the old and the beginning of the new!

The stream will be going all day with plenty of seasonal and not-so-seasonal programs being shown so feel free to stop in when you get a break from any other partying you may have going on.

Come join us for the New Year’s Eve Stream-o-rama 2010 at tinychat.com/norights

Status of the Blog 12-10-2010: End of the Year Wrap-up

  • On December 10, 2010 ·
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It’s been a relatively busy couple of months though it’s also been a little quiet on this home page. I think it’s time to post about all that’s been going on and where we’re headed in 2011.

October

I spent this month researching camera stuff intending to shoot a short film. The film didn’t pan out though I’m in a better situation for video production in the future. I’ll probably return to the project next year when the Halloween bug bites me again. I know where I stand as far as video quality, lighting, and things I need to improve next time around like getting a bigger location to shoot and some better compositing software.

November

My brother got married in Jamaica. (A reason I decided to update my camera setup in the first place.) Having to straighten out passports/flights/reservations for my dad and myself has really restored my confidence in my own ability to travel as well as to plan things. When you sit at home working on stuff by yourself you start to wonder how all together you really are. When I decide to attend conventions again I know I can manage myself fine. This is also when I started to delve into learning more about 3D software, something I’ll return to more as the projects I work on make use of it.

December

This month has all been behind the computer for me. I intend to run a real network of sites and that’s meant cleaning things up. I’ve moved everything over to WordPress Multisite and I’ve been working on easily setting up new sub sites down the road. There’s still things to do of course but for now I’m comfortable with where things are. I’ve got placeholders and templates in place for when I roll stuff out. Now I can begin to focus on the content again and making things to plug into that system. I also made a site for my buddy Gerry’s bad movie night, Bad Movies About Raptors. 🙂

2011

Here’s where we stand as we look towards the coming year. I’m cautiously optimistic and trying to be realistic. Last New Year’s I was angry and seeking drastic change. This time around I want to do a lot of little things. I want to set goals I can actually accomplish. I’m still the same anxious person dealing with the day to day but I’m feeling better about managing it.

Podcasts

I’ve been returning to podcasts lately with an intent to do more. The No-Rights Podcast will probably be in two formats – more “live” shows where I bring in friends to chat and more “solo” shows where it’ll just be me going over the latest goings-on. I’d also like to do some more Crafting Mines: A Minecraft Adventure here and there. I don’t want those to get old as I had a lot of fun with the first one even though it was a bit of a strain to produce.

No-Rights TV

At the moment NRTV is going to be a blogging tool like podcasting. I’ll do the occasional chat in front of the camera and film any cons I go to or chat with friends who come by. I’d really like to do some animations for it at some point but first I need to get a regular production schedule for my cartooning in general before I devote the time to a bigger project even if it’s only a few seconds or minutes long.

Weird Cellphone Pics

Earlier this year I started a photoblog on my tumblr of weird things I took pics of with my cellphone. I was taking these pics anyway for my own amusement so I decided to share them. (I had a tumblr account that was going to waste anyway, might as well put it to use.) Turns out tumblr’s been going through some growing pains and experiencing lots of downtime. The last straw for me was losing posts randomly. I’ve since moved the archives that were there to the sidebar on this site. My cellphone’s camera also started giving me trouble after my recent trip to Jamaica so I’ve got a new phone and I’m looking to take some new shots with it. I tend to update it on Tuesdays if I have anything interesting so keep watching that. Of course any posts on the site get added to my twitter feed.

Comics

2071 will return in the new year though I can’t give the specific date yet. I’d like to launch some new comics, serials and one-shots, as well as maybe re-visit my older stuff. Basically I just want to work on a crapload of comics in the new year. I’m thinking I’ll devote a week to working on something at a time so I can decide if something’s working or not. That should keep me from feeling stuck in a rut while at the same time feeling like I’m making progress. Updates, when they’re announced, should be regular, though I’m considering things like seasons as opposed to more rigid scheduling.

Audiobooks/Digital Downloads/Ebooks

This is something new I want to get into. I like conventions but I so rarely make it out to any. Physical books are great but they’re also pricey to make and require storage space. Since this is the web and all I’m going to try focusing more on digital products. I’ve had the store site for awhile and it’s been empty some time now. As I make content for the site I’ll try my hand at making content specifically for there as well.

Miscellaneous

And now I’d like to talk about some stuff which has probably nothing to do with the site but it’s my blog and I’ll talk about what I want :-p

Games

I’m a super casual gamer but I’ve been playing plenty of Minecraft these days. It’s such a versatile game. You can just build, fight monsters in survival mode, or join some of the various multiplayer servers springing up. I like how flexible it is.

I bought Epic Mickey last night. It looks like a cute game with an interesting world though right now I’m lost. Basically I’ve completed the stage and I’m staring at a wall trying to figure out how you finish the level. I’m sure I’ll come back to it.

I also got in on the pre-order for the new Back to the Future game that’s coming out. So far there’s the behind the scenes stuff and the trailer up. I think as long as we can distance ourselves from the original trilogy and just experience it this game is going to be fun.

Good free 3D apps

  • On November 6, 2010 ·
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Lately I’ve been researching/trying out some 3D software. I’m primarily a 2D kinda guy since I like drawing and it’s a little more instant than modeling. Of course I like to keep informed about creative stuff and sometimes something you learn in one discipline can be used for another. So today I’m going to share some links for a couple programs I like and a couple cool things in conjunction with them.

Google Sketchup

Sketchup is Google’s modeling app. There’s a pro version with some added features but the free version (Sketchup 8 as of this writing) is very accessible and usable for folks starting out with 3D. It’s very easy to draw some lines and get pushing/pulling shapes into dimension.

Video Tutorials

Google has some good guides both here and on their youtube channel. There’s also the videos from Sketchup for Dummies and Go-2-School which has the Sketchup Show. A growing resource is also this thread at SketchUcation.

Downloads – Models

The great thing about Sketchup is that Google has a 3D Warehouse for users to upload models for others to download and work from. There’s also support for importing various other types of models.

Downloads – Plugins/Styles/Renderers

Sketchup is expandable through scripting and other plugins. Probably some of the most useful plugins lists can be found at CAD Addict and Sketchup Plugin Reviews. You can download different styles for your models, some free and some not so free.  Renderers can go a step further and make your scenes look photorealistic. Some cost and some like Kerkythea are free.

Sculptris

Sculptris is a fun digital sculpting program. Unlike Sketchup, which is more of a drawing/design/architectural app, (though some folks do model characters with it) Sculptris is more organic and designed to make you feel like you’re modeling clay. If you’ve ever used Mudbox or Zbrush you’ll know what I’m talking about. In fact, the folks behind Zbrush bought Sculptris so you know it’s going to have a good development. There are two really good points to keep in mind here. Sculptris is lighter, trimmer, and loads from the application file so there’s no heavy install. Also, at least in it’s alpha form, Sculprtis is free.

Yes, it’s supposedly Windows-only for now but I’m on a Mac and I got it to load in my old copy of Crossover very quickly. It runs surprisingly well and I imagine a copy of Darwine could have it running just as easily.

Blender

Blender is probably the most traditional 3D app on this list and honestly the one  have the least experience with. It’s also probably the oldest with the most resources available online. I’m interested in it for it’s full feature set after looking at these other apps that are more towards the modeling side. Particularly it’s rigging abilities. (The part where you give your model bones so you can pose/animate them like a puppet) Here’s a video showing some excellent facial rigging, for example.

The fellow who made that video even has another example available on his site for download and study. I think that’s pretty neat. It’s not hard for me to imagine a workflow of modeling sets in Sketchup, characters with Sculptris, and then putting things together with rigging and texturing in Blender.

Closing my tumblr

  • On October 27, 2010 ·
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Tumblr is a swell idea. I was really enjoying using it. Unfortunately it’s been pretty busted lately – I’m guessing growing pains for more people getting into using it. I’ve had entire posts just disappear and others that were queued up randomly decide to post themselves early or fail to post. I can’t work like that. I don’t need a 3rd party system to screw up on me when I have a very reliable posting platform on my own site I can use.

So I’d like to welcome a new feature to the site – weird cellphone pics! I’ve moved the archives that were still on Tumblr over. I’ll try to recreate the missing ones I already posted as well as load new stuff for later. I have plenty to work with.

Knowing When To Put Things Away

  • On October 20, 2010 ·
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I think a healthy part of being a creative person is being able to indulge your urges for awhile when they come up. For me I recently dedicated October to working on a short film. I dove into researching camera types, lenses, lighting, effects packages, royalty free solutions for things, and I have to say I learned a decent amount and earmarked things for later. However, I gave myself a deadline to have it completed by Halloween. I’ve come to realize my limitations: I’m a one man crew, I don’t have much of a budget right now to sink into things, and I don’t have a location to film in of an adequate size. Are these things going to stop me from eventually finishing this project? In the long run no but for now it’s probably best to put things away until I’m able to make better use of them.

Was all this time a waste? I don’t think so. I figured out the scope of the project, what I need to accomplish in order to finish it to my standards, and the stuff I looked up can help me in other projects. Right now I’ve just decided it’s best to put it aside and focus on other things for awhile. Much like I put 2071 down for the month to dive into something else. I indulged myself for a period of time. I’m coming up from it now because it feels like it’s run it’s course for the time being. It’s important to be able to recognize that.

Status of the Blog 9-28-10

  • On September 28, 2010 ·
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Lately I’ve been looking into things like video production for a short film I’m going to be working on. Also getting things ready to attend my brother’s wedding in Jamaica. Also also – Minecraft. Lots and lots of minecraft. To make up for some of my absence, enjoy a new episode of NoRightsTV.