What I Did Today

Read the funnies with somebody you love in this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 3.

Spent today looking over tutorials for OBS Multiplatform. Still need to run tests to figure out how to make it run smooth. I may just use Hangouts or a lower screen resolution or something if it comes down to it. I might be trying to capture too high for my system or doing too much with overlays. I think my animation software is the most intensive thing I’ll be running while I stream but I don’t want it to be on the edge of crapping out while I work. Frank and Ian wanted to record this week’s podcast tonight so I’ve been doing that this evening.

Read the funnies with somebody you love in this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 3.

Recorded another M&C then ended up talking with Ian until 1:30 in the morning. Slept in until around 9, spent time looking into livestreaming options. I’m thinking I’d like to try streaming while I work in the studio since my last WIP video seemed to do well. I’d archive the long vids on my channel and do a time lapse version. The problem is it’s not all a perfect system.

Streaming Service

The obvious answer is YouTube since they support both events and stream now as well as automatically archive to your channel. I’m not a fan of needing to download the whole stream once it done to make a sped up version. A key reason to stream, aside from inviting people to watch, is not having to store the files on my machine. They’re also the most militant on copyright, which I’ll mention later.

Twitch Creative is an alternative, though it’s archives aren’t permanent and putting them on my YouTube channel later means fiddling. I’ve heard it’s currently more profitable to stream the creation of an animation on Twitch than it is to post the final cartoon on YouTube, but when you look at the requirements for being a partner that’s kind of a moot point at this juncture.

There’s also Picarto, which is geared towards streaming for artists. It features things like paid subscription services for viewers, posting commission info, and flagging adult content. Recording requires a paid account, however.

Encoder

Hangouts doesn’t require an encoder but YouTube streaming and the other sites do. Today I looked over the free version of Wirecast Play and OBS Multiplatform. WP had a lot of things greyed out unless you buy a fuller version. My software started to chug a bit so I need to optimize whichever one I use. (I should also probably upgrade my RAM to replace the original bits that went bad this year) It could have been from having too many things running or from trying to isolate my art app window.

Audio

This is something I’m still trying to figure out. I listen to music while I work. Twitch and Picarto have a similar “as long as it’s not the main focus of your stream” policy while YouTube is notorious for their copyright flagging system. Personally I think it’s safer to just not input what I’m listening to. I’m not crazy about the idea of leaving the streams mute but piping in royalty free audio sounds like a resource hit if I’m not listening to it and I work better when I’m free to listen to what I want.

Video

As I mentioned I’ve been trying to isolate my art app window and maybe overlay it on top of a proper HD graphic. That way I can look at my other screen and windows while only showing my work space. I also need to sort out what to display when I take a break. Maybe a looping gif with a timer? I don’t know yet.

Final Thoughts

Typing this out has helped me decide a few things. I’ll run some tests and see what’s the least intensive setup. I haven’t had much success with streaming in the past, feeling like I need to be “on” while broadcasting. I’d like to treat this differently. I might not even make them public while I’m recording, just to keep the pressure off.

Read the funnies with somebody you love in this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 2.

Went to bed at 7:30 last night, woke up about 3 hours later with stuff on my mind. Came downstairs to do some research and look for browser plugins that will make organizing things better. Went back to bed around 5, got up at noon when dad called. Did some running with him, came home and played Minecraft with Frank for a bit. Went for groceries. Think tonight we’re going to record another Minecraft and Chill which is apparently becoming a thing.

Read the funnies with somebody you love in this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 2.

Got up this morning, showered, had breakfast, came downstairs, and still felt tired. Saw last night’s WIDT was still waiting to be published even after I pressed the button when I went to bed. Apparently that only highlighted the button instead of activating it. Why it would ever do that, your guess is as good as mine.

Decided to nap for awhile and then dad wanted me to come visit. I’m trying to get more rest lately but it’s been something of a challenge. I really need to give myself downtime where I can relax. I tend to feel guilty if I’m not working but working when I’m worn out isn’t any good, either. When I do allow myself downtime I’ll fill it with busywork that’s not actually relaxing and be in the same hole. It’s been frustrating trying to sort things out.

Ultimately I think I need to get better at saying no when I’d rather be alone in my studio. It’s just hard to do when you’re trying to be more sociable.

Read the funnies with somebody you love in this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 2.

Spent the morning coloring and shading comics. Scheduled page 19 and finished the preview images for 20 and 21. Spent the evening setting up a vanilla Minecraft server since Frank’s machine chugs on the modded one and mine started giving me graphics glitches. We started a base on my single player world but when I loaded it onto the server it wasn’t there. Started a new one that looks pretty promising. Now that it’s a proper server I’ll be inviting more people on.

Hocus pocus alimagocus! Remember Today’s Special? Check out this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 2.

Didn’t want to go to bed so I made a late night doodle of Rebecca Parham from Let Me Explain Studios, trying to remember what brushes I liked for shading. I worry sometimes I focus too much on line so I like to practice with tone now and then.

In the morning I finished coloring page 19 and got most of the first pass of shading done (I’ve been doing the gradients on a different layer lately so they’re easier to tweak) before my dad called and we went for lunch. Took a nap when I got home, ended up doing the podcast instead of waiting for Saturday, then Frank wanted to craft some mines until around 2:30 when his internet acted up. And that is why this blog post is up late.

Weekends have a habit of getting away from me. I need to finish up Monday’s comic, schedule the podcast, and somehow not screw my sleep schedule up any further. Now’s the time to hedge your bets on my success.

Hocus pocus alimagocus! Remember Today’s Special? Check out this week’s Billy Badass!

Minecraft and Chill 2.

Woke up tired this morning. Not usually a good sign when I hear my backup alarm go off. After playing with the cat in bed for awhile I decided I’d just be tired in the studio so I tried sleeping it off. Started getting a sinus headache second time I got up. It’s this cold rainy weather. Dad called for lunch, hung out at his place for awhile and came home. Phone reminded me I had a haircut this afternoon and then we picked up some produce.

Spent most of this evening looking for a more customizable slider for the home page. Realized at some point the current slider disappeared so I had to re-add it. I want something I can pin promotional stuff to the first few slides and then let the rest get filled in by recent posts. The problem with fixing site stuff is the research time involved tracking down a solution. It always starts with, “Let me just tweak this thing here…” Then I find I need a new plugin or I have to edit code or some feature’s missing or plugins are conflicting. Sometimes I’ll find a solution and it’ll just not work because some cache won’t refresh or I don’t have everything else configured right. If something breaks it never speaks up and tells you. It just stops showing up and you have to look like, “Hey didn’t I have a thing here?”

I should really pull everything on the site back to the basics. Or hire a web person. There’s a lot of people I’d hire if I had the scratch.

Hocus pocus alimagocus! Remember Today’s Special? Check out this week’s Billy Badass!

Hangout, watch us play Minecraft, and chill.

Spent the morning doing office stuff. Started a new planning journal for 2016, put together a Pinterest board for potential comic topics because links were getting hard to manage, (picked subjects for the next month of strips, just need to write them now) and split my task manager boards up between art and office stuff. Helped my dad dump more apples by his trail cams and had lunch. Finished word/thought balloons and started flat fill coloring pages. Mom came home and reminded me it was grocery night.

Feel like powering down this evening and diving back into those pages tomorrow. Didn’t have time to fiddle with that tutorial I was working on yet. I’d like to retool my YouTube channel a bit, customizing the art and getting some videos done before posting more. Right now I’m going to say job one is getting as far ahead on the webcomic as I can.

Hocus pocus alimagocus! Remember Today’s Special? Check out this week’s Billy Badass!

Hangout, watch us play Minecraft, and chill.

Went to bed early last night but listened to a podcast against my better judgement. It was a good episode but then I couldn’t fall asleep afterwards. Was slow to get up this morning. The cold, rainy day didn’t help. Managed to record for that tutorial but haven’t edited it yet. Felt like I rambled. I’ll look over the footage tomorrow and see if it’s better to chop it up or re-record. I had bullet points but I should probably script better defined sections. I can see doing that in the morning and recording/editing in the afternoon once I get some art done.

Saw the Peanuts Movie tonight. Found it very charming and adorable. I avoided reviews before going even though I’d heard decent things from people. It’s put me in a pleasant mood for the evening. 🙂

Hocus pocus alimagocus! Remember Today’s Special? Check out this week’s Billy Badass!

Hangout, watch us play Minecraft, and chill.

Went to bed about 7:30 last night, got up at 5 this morning. Spent the first hour or so in the studio sorting things out. Added tasks to my KanbanFlow board, went through previous WIDTs so I could cross the days off on my calendar with proper job-related colors, and put together some sizing template images for the next webcomic I’m starting.

I’ve toyed with the idea of doing an animated webcomic. Something I can cut my teeth on before doing longer videos. Something I can experiment and play with. I’d made a template file and scribbled some ideas before but today I started working on one in earnest. I’m not sure when it’ll launch but I do know it’ll be awhile as I build up a significant buffer first.

Tomorrow’s Tuesday and I usually post a YouTube vid on Tuesdays. I’m thinking I might record and upload a tutorial on Toon Boom Harmony. More folks are picking it up these days and I’d like to show people why. We’ll see how the day actually goes.