Learning Blender - with Essential Blender (Day 2)

Here is where I've reached this afternoon:

Unfortunately, I seem to have forgotten many of the keyboard shortcuts I've learned, so I will have to make this pillar all over again to try to program those shortcuts into my brain and body!

21st July 2012, 8.45pm -
There we go! Finished that section of the chapter. Here is the bridge it told me to make, with the render flowing into the wire-frame image.

We're making mead!

Home brewed mead, mmm mmm! A few days ago when Sam Irving was around, we put together some honey and water into must (he got some cool trickling images recorded on camera somewhere) and added some yeast nutrients and yeast to that honey-water must mix. Now it's bubbling away in the demijohn with a slight fizz in the main part and a gentle rhythm in the airlock.

White Tiger guards it.

Don't worry, we sanitised everything first! Some sanitised drops of liquid even accidentally dropped into the demijohn from the funnel because it was put on before I had rinsed it. Some people get too excited...

17th July 2012, 7.53pm -
The bubbles going fast! like four a second!

18th July 2012, 11.28am -
This morning it is fizzing just loudly enough to make me think the boiler was doing something until i got up and found out the boiler wasn't doing anything. Also there's a slightly sweet smell in the air down there! 

Hope it tastes good when it's done!

Learning Blender - with Essential Blender

I'm finally getting around to going through the Essential Blender pdf book that I bought. Today, I have manipulated vertices, edges and faces, moving them around and extruding them in Blender for the first time.

I'm so happy. I'm so excited.

I'm so close to getting back to the level of knowledge I had in a 3D modelling program, one that I had access to until I graduated last year, when suddenly I lost access to that legit student version of Maya I have installed on my laptop.

Not content with the idea of pirating a copy just to make masterpieces of 3D game art for a portfolio or for my own devilish purposes, I backed away from 3D art completely until coming across the Autodesk 123D beta a few months ago. When I found out how to put a shiny texture onto on object imported into Blender, I saw the joy again.

That's the romanticised version. In truth, I wanted to try starting up a business selling something artistic I had created - but I suck at business. It's all very well knowing it by a book but, with entrepreneurship, you've got to be good at doing it.

So, it is time to get a job, preferably in the game biz making 3D objects for a game that I can later hear other people talking about playing, or maybe even with a company that needs renders of buildings that aren't built yet. But before I get a job, I need to give them something to show them that I can model, unwrap UVs, texture realistically and fantastically, and maybe a spot of rigging and animating.

Follow this blog to check my progress! :)

3D printing jewellery with Shapeways: Halting my exploration.

Four months after first getting into 3D printing at Shapeways, I've come to the decision to stop.

It's all very interesting, and I love that I can order something that is a real life version of a piece of jewellery I created out of imagination digital bits. The only problem however, is that to get the item made real, you DO have to shell out a bit of money. And for a girl with currently no income but the interest on her savings, it's not an economically viable hobby to immerse myself in.

I mean, yes, there is a potential to make money from these things. But without the luck and the drive to get those items both seen and make them desirable enough for people to actually buy, instead of simply drooling over screenshots or photographs, it's not something I'm likely to earn enough money to live off.

Unless it's something they already want, I'm not very good at making people buy things from me via the internet. I'm finally going to admit to myself that marketing and business is not really my passion and it's not my forte - at least, not in the real world. Give me an in-game auction house filled with rich people who can't be bothered to slay little dragonwing things for eggs and I'll be loving it, but only until I realise I won't be able to pay the bills to play the game anymore.

Getting back to the subject at hand: I can keep the shop there on Shapeways open, as it currently does not cost anything to list something and it's all automatic so there is no need for the shop keeper to turn up everyday. Perhaps I will continue to upload new bits and pieces occasionally, and if anyone commissions me to design them a piece of jewellery or other object like that using Shapeways, or any 3D printing service, I'd happily put into practice what I've learned over the past few months.

But now... now is the time to acquire a proper job. One where I get to do something creative, but I get told what that creative thing is and when they need it done by and that they are paying me to do it. I'm currently thinking 3D Environment Artist for games. Some people find it boring, but those people want to be making the moving characters for the games, not the worlds in which those characters live.

Games biz. You are on my to do list.

3D printing jewellery with Shapeways: Three months in.

Well, I haven't done a lot of .stl file production over this past month. My recent interests seem to have moved away from the realm of sci-fi and technology and towards the realm of handcrafted, homemade materials and items. I blame my recent exposure to the second series of Game of Thrones, although I went to the cinema to watch Prometheus last night, so maybe the effects of that on me will emerge in the next few weeks. That said, I will probably be spending this month panicking about finding a new place to live.

Here's what I have been upto:

- did some calculations on the Shapeways ceramic material to find out potential prices for differently sized things. Ceramic is odd; they price it by surface area, not volume.

- did some calculations on the Shapeways sterling silver material and British hallmarking laws - and then removed the ability to buy in silver from everything that would be over 7.78g in weight from my shop before I get me into trouble...

- did some research on the Shapeways stainless steel material to figure out potential sizes and prices for awareness jewellery.

- did some research for suppliers of hemp cord and wooden beads. I bought some last year and wanted to make sure I could replace my supplies before I committed them to a piece.

- did some research on cord or yarns produced entirely in Britain. I emailed some people who sell items made from their alpacas' fur to ask if they also supply the yarn itself, but they have yet to reply... so I'm looking at others.

- experimented with the hemp and wooden beads I already had. The picture here shows 16 bracelets, made from combinations of two different ways of knotting, four different colours of 1mm hemp cord, and four different types of 8mm wooden bead.

- posted a question on Facebook and the Shapeways forums to ask which style of photo filter people preferred out of these four...

- started thinking about different things to adorn the hemp bracelets/anklets with... I'm now wearing four bracelets on my wrists with the following decoration:
1. a pretty pocket watch I bought from a car-boot sale in Saundersfoot. It wasn't working, so I've set the time to the time I was born - ten to noon.
2. a silvery ringpull/keyring combo.
3. the Eight Petals Crossed square pendant in sterling silver.
4. and a Desperados bottle top with a greenish two pence piece from 1979.

It's a strange combination to wear all at once. I like it.

Just five things.

My boyfriend has set me the challenge of selling five things before he gets back from England. Just five things. Any five things. If I can sell five things by the 15th of May, I'll be such a happy bunny for managing it!

The sterling silver pendants vary in price but are all currently less than £50 each.

The translucent plastic pendants also vary in price but are all less than £10 each.

If you want to help me, you can do any of three simple things:

1. Show the shop to everyone and their mums if you think they'd like the look of these. 
2. Buy something you like from here: www.shapeways.com/shops/chargyse
3. Get someone else to buy you one ...or five.

Even if you only get one thing, that's 20% of my happibunnyness meter filled up - all thanks to you!


Here are five things, just five things, that I can share with you for free:

• Thing #1: Pair up to take advantage of the prices. If you and a friend want the same or matching pendant designs, go for the earring pendants instead of the singular pendant. It works out as cheaper, and WAY cheaper in the case of silver. It's like two for one!

• Thing #2: Gather your friends to lower shipping costs. There is only one shipping cost per order as it all comes in one box, so if you and a few friends get together and place everything you want in one order, you can split the shipping cost between you.

• Thing #3: Consider which pendants will work together to make a really cool combo. I'm currently wearing one silver pendant and one translucent plastic pendant that hang on top of each other on one chain. With the nine designs being currently available in two materials, there are 324 possible pairs.
  Add a third pendant to the mix and the number jumps up to 5832 different combos!
  Add to that the endless varieties of chain or cord you use to hang you pendant on, and you'll end up with a pretty unique piece of neck-wear.
  
  No need to stop at necklaces either - combine with macrame to make a cute bracelet, or go somewhere completely different with it. You ever heard of Paco Rabanne? 

• Thing #4: Paint your plastic, polish your silver. The people who 3d print the pieces before they are sent to you have a forum where people can share post-production techniques. Some of these techniques include painting and polishing. Have a look for inspiration and tips for what to use and how to do it: Post Production Techniques @ Shapeways.com

• Thing #5: Feel free to sell your combinations on. I know there are a lot of handmade jewellery makers out there, and I'd be so excited to find out my pendants were helping them make their beautiful works. You want to sell or give away some jewellery you made using one of my pendants in the design? Go for it. I'd be delighted to hear that you did.

3D printing jewellery with Shapeways: Two months in.

It's been two months since I started playing around with Autodesk 123D and Shapeways, so here's the second report of what I've managed over the past month.

CharGyse 3D Printed Designs - Find these and more at www.shapeways.com/shops/chargyse

My first shipment of items arrived from Shapeways about a week later than it would normally take (production of sterling silver pieces was behind schedule on their end). I've been waiting to post this update so that I could include the photos of them.

Photos of the earrings and pendants
These are the photos I took only minutes after unpacking them from the box. I have updated the shop images with close ups, so you can follow this link to the [SHOP] if you want to see the close ups of them all.

Earring pendants in Sterling Silver

Earring pendants in "Frosted Ultra Detail"

You can find these earring pendants in the Earrings section of the shop.

Necklace pendants in Sterling Silver

Necklace pendants in "Frosted Ultra Detail"

You can find these necklace pendants in the Pendants section of the shop.

Bangles to go with each set
I got the bangles done on time, doing two different designs; the second more dainty than the first.

The "SevenBangle" style - one bangle, but with seven pretty sides to it

The "DiAngled" bangle - shaped like two bands attached to each other at an angle

You can find these in the Bangles section of the shop.

Blender renders for a quick preview of the pieces

I did a little searching around and found a video tutorial on how to make a golden material in Blender. They've disabled embedding by request, but the link is here: Realistic Gold Material Tutorial Blender 2.62 (Cycles) 

I followed the video but changed the colour I used so that it would look less like gold and more like a silver material. Here are some quick screenshots I took of some stuff:

Oh yeah - I also modelled a little something up for the Shapeways "Flextest" challenge

After the first shipment arrived though, I realised that I would need to change the Blender material textures. I remember seeing a "Brushed Steel" texture tutorial somewhere, which could be handy in achieving the layered look of the silver pieces - if I can find it again.

COMING SOON:-

Beads
I have managed to get the beads modelled up - but I've yet to upload them to the Shapeways site.

Rings
I haven't managed to do the rings yet, but I have decided how I'm going to do them. The ring band will be based on the DiAngled bangle style (the dainty, minimalist, second style above).

A new collection of designs - in "Stainless Steel"
Looks like the series based on Fibonacci numbers is going to go on hold for a while. Instead, I will be working on "Stainless Steel" versions of everything I have done so far, which should work out cheaper than Sterling Silver. Good for those who want a metal pendant, but at lower prices.

Marketing and Selling Stuff
Now that these are things that exist, I have to get them noticed out in the wider world with marketing materials and stuff.

3D printing jewellery with Shapeways: One month in.

I've been playing around with the Autodesk 123D Beta and Shapeways for just over a month now, so I wanted to write a little report of what I've managed over the past month.

Tumblr



I've created a tumblr blog especially for images of the growing mountain of jewellery that will be generated over time by me. Follow it and eventually you will see photographs of the pieces up there as well as the computer generated renders of the designs before they have been printed.

Pendants



I've designed, modelled in CAD software and uploaded nine designs for pendants, and each has been listed publicly and are available for sale in both sterling silver and a translucent plastic known on the Shapeways site as "Frosted Ultra Detail".

Click Pendants to see them all.

Earrings



I've modelled matching pairs of earrings for each of the nine pendant designs, again in sterling silver and Frosted Ultra Detail.

Click Earrings to see them all.

Cuff-links



I've also designed and modelled the matching pairs of cuff-links for each of the nine pendant designs, available only in sterling silver, and a glossier sterling silver for a little extra [the cuff-links are polished/buffed before they are sent to you].

Click Cuff-links to see them all.




COMING SOON:-

Photos of the earrings and pendants

Yesterday I put through an order for all of the earrings and pendants designed so far. They should be shipped by April 18th at the latest so I should have them ready for photos by the end of next month. I've been looking at potential models and photographers for a shoot, but nothing has been decided just yet...

Bangles to go with each set

My "homework" for the next week is to get ready the matching set of bangles for sale - that's designed, modelled AND uploaded. Thankfully, my experience with the software I'm using has grown a lot over the past month and I'm now able to complete such tasks a lot more quickly and efficiently than I could in the beginning.

Charm Beads

I've been looking into creating the designs on a much smaller scale for charm beads, potentially in the threaded charm bead style or the Italian charm bead style... We'll see how it goes over the next month.

Rings

To complete the collection of each design, I will be working on ring versions for each design this month. I have no idea how I want to do it yet, but I intend to make them fit in with the rest of the collection in sterling silver and possibly Frosted Ultra Detail. We shall see.

A new collection of designs

We've been having lovely weather in Cardiff over the past week, and all that nice weather made me ditch my laptop for the little 2 by 3 inch notebook I made a while back. I had to make sure I was doing some kind of work while I enjoyed the nice weather during my self-enforced work hours, and ended up drawing up some nice designs based on circles and Fibonacci numbers. Keep an eye out for those in the next couple of months. Here's a sneaky peek:



I'm really looking forward to next month!

My First Nine Designs for 3D Printed Jewellery

17 days after checking out Shapeways, I've got a collection of 9 designs uploaded:

Each charm is available in Silver, Glossy Silver or a plastic material they have called "Frosted Ultra Detail".

They are available for sale separately, so you can buy one on its own to hang and wear as a necklace, or buy multiples to hang from your own earring hooks or string together to wear as a bracelet.

Fancy yourself a bit of a fashion or jewellery designer? Buy a variety of them and incorporate them into your designs, mixing and matching with other beads and materials however you like. All of these are 3cm by 3cm and quite thin, with four corner holes, each hole 4mm in diameter for cord, thread or wire to be threaded through.

I'm really happy to see items bought from my shop be combined with other materials and used as part of your own jewellery or fashion designs to be sold at markets, online or offline, just be sure to leave me a photo or a message linking to it so I can see what you've done with them!

You may wish to modify the charms with paint or other treatments to add your own personal touch, or leave them in their natural state. Shapeways has a forum section dedicated to Post Production Techniques that you can check out for tips and ideas. Go wild, it's up to you! :)

Click here to check them out in the Shop!

Using free Autodesk 123D Beta to design Shapeways models for 3D printing

I'm excited. Really excited.

The other day I was introduced to the Autodesk 123D Beta. The software is Computer Aided Design [CAD] software that allows you to design 3D models. It's also free to use at the moment... Here's a work in progress I'm working on today:



After a little bit of browsing, I found out about Shapeways. Shapeways is a website that allows you to upload .STL and some other file types containing models you've designed, and get them to print out your design in 3D in various materials, including Plastics, Metals, Ceramics, Sandstone and Glass. The price you pay depends on what price the material is per cubic centimetre, and how much material your model uses up.



Shapeways also allows you to open up a shop of your designs and place a percentage markup on the design. Whenever someone purchases a 3D print out of your design, Shapeways holds this percentage for you and sends it to you at the end of the month.

This means I and all my friends who have 3D modelling skills [CGD, I'm looking at you!], can be uploading model designs for objects for other people around the world to buy on demand.

Essentially, it's a Passive Income Stream. You put the effort in to make one model, upload it, and do some publicity, and there you go. If people want the model, they'll be buying it while you sleep.

Like I said; really excited.


To keep up to date with my new designs and artwork via Facebook, check out my FB Page at CharGyse Art & Design and give it a Like!

Searching for sand paper.

That moment when you've been researching how to cut glass bottles,

and have consumed plenty of Harveys Bristol Cream sherry,

so that you have a nice blue bottle for cutting,

and realise that the rough and fine sand paper you have kept

- in your collection of potentially useful things that never actually see the light of day

(except when you add another potentially useful thing) -

may actually have a use now,

and are searching for it in every place you can remember it being

- while tipsy,

since you've decided you're going to do a trial cut on a spare Desperados bottle

that you just happen to have kicking about although you finished it a long time ago,

- but you are still probably too tipsy to be attempting such things,

when really it would probably be easier to just buy one off the Internet.

But where's the fun in that?

IndieDB Genre & Theme Popularity February 2012: Part 3

On the 1st of this month (February) I spent some time collecting data from the IndieDB website, and created a few graphs from the data. This is Part 3 of 3 in the series.

Do let me know in the comments box below if you find the results helpful, for example, when trying to choose a genre or theme for your next game. If there are specific combinations of Genre and Theme you would like to find out about in more detail, leave me a comment and I will check it out for another post.

Popularity Based on Average Number of Views per Games Listed.

[Average number of views per game: 12,880]

As you can see from the graph, averaging out the number of views over number of games listed has really changed up the results.

Popularity of Genres on IndieDB [based on average number of views per game]:

1. RPG [16,316]

2. Simulation [15,325]

3. Adventure [14,421]

4. Strategy [13,907]

5. Action [13,362]

--[Average]--

6. Driving [8,988]

7. MMO [8,189]

8. Puzzle [4,835]

9. Sport [2,103]

Popularity of Themes on IndieDB [based on average number of views per game]:

1. Fighter [27,435]

2. Medieval [27,228]

3. Western [19,937]

4. War [19,196]

5. Anime [18,216]

6. Fantasy [16,155]

7. Realism [15,501]

8. Sci-Fi [13,174]

--[Average]--

9. Horror [11,808]

10. Movie [9,736]

11. Antiquity [8,494]

12. Comedy [7,277]

13. History [7,214]

14. Politics [6,603]

15. Nature [6,376]

16. Various [5,494]

17. Comic [4,850]

18. Sport [3,451]

Top 5 Most Popular Combos:

1. Medieval RPG [72,293]

2. Horror Driving [65,269]

3. Fighter Adventure [52,459]

4. Realism Strategy [42,714]

5. Anime Action [37,146]

Part 1: Popularity Based on Total Number of Games Listed.

Part 2: Popularity Based on Total Number of Views.

Part 3: Popularity Based on Average Number of Views per Games Listed.

IndieDB Genre & Theme Popularity February 2012: Part 2

On the 1st of this month (February) I spent some time collecting data from the IndieDB website, and created a few graphs from the data. This is Part 2 of 3 in the series.

Do let me know in the comments box below if you find the results helpful, for example, when trying to choose a genre or theme for your next game. If there are specific combinations of Genre and Theme you would like to find out about in more detail, leave me a comment and I will check it out for another post.

Popularity Based on the Total Number of Views.

[Note: Zero views is a result of zero games being listed rather than a lack of interest from those searching.]

Popularity of Genres on IndieDB [based on number of views]:

1. Action [16,569,687]

2. Adventure [11,580,708]

3. Strategy [5,076,047]

4. RPG [4,699,093]

5. Simulation [2,237,476]

6. Puzzle [1,373,202]

7. MMO [835,288]

8. Driving [638,196]

9. Sport [100,947]

Popularity of Themes on IndieDB [based on number of views]:

1. Sci-Fi [12,199,964]

2. Fantasy [8,950,136]

3. War [4,300,076]

4. Horror [3,140,973]

5. Fighter [2,551,495]

6. Medieval [2,314,380]

7. Realism [2,170,226]

8. Various [1,620,951]

9. Anime [1,439,084]

10. Comic [1,328,901]

11. Comedy [1,288,123]

12. Western [498,430]

13. Nature [427,250]

14. History [281,352]

15. Politics [204,701]

16. Antiquity [161,394]

17. Sport [155,315]

18. Movie [77,893]

Most popular combo: Fantasy themed, Adventure genre.

[Closely followed by: Sci-Fi themed, Action genre.]

Part 1: Popularity Based on Total Number of Games Listed.

Part 2: Popularity Based on Total Number of Views.

Part 3: Popularity Based on Average Number of Views per Games Listed.

IndieDB Genre & Theme Popularity February 2012: Part 1

On the 1st of this month (February) I spent some time collecting data from the IndieDB website, and created a few graphs from the data. This is Part 1 of 3 in the series.

Do let me know in the comments box below if you find the results helpful, for example, when trying to choose a genre or theme for your next game. If there are specific combinations of Genre and Theme you would like to find out about in more detail, leave me a comment and I will check it out for another post.

Popularity Based on Total Number of Games Listed.

Popularity of Genres on IndieDB [based on number of games listed]:

1. Action [1240]

2. Adventure [803]

3. Strategy [365]

4. RPG [288]

5. Puzzle [284]

6. Simulation [146]

7. MMO [102]

8. Driving [71]

9. Sport [48]

Popularity of Themes on IndieDB [based on number of games listed]:

1. Sci-Fi [926]

2. Fantasy [554]

3. Various [295]

4. Comic [274]

5. Horror [266]

6. War [224]

7. Comedy [177]

8. Realism [140]

9. Fighter [93]

10. Medieval [85]

11. Anime [79]

12. Nature [67]

13. Sport [45]

14. History [39]

15. Politics [31]

16. Western [25]

17. Antiquity [19]

18. Movie [8]

Most popular combo: Sci-Fi themed, Action genre.

Part 1: Popularity Based on Total Number of Games Listed.

Part 2: Popularity Based on Total Number of Views.

Part 3: Popularity Based on Average Number of Views per Games Listed.

Making a Race Car Game in Unity3D

I've started work on a racing game to get myself to learn Blender, GIMP, and brush up on Unity3D. Here's the proposal document I wrote to myself:

Fancy looking document to help Developer Me persuade Publisher Me...

So far I've been following the Unity Car Tutorial for an "arcade-style race car set-up" and have gotten through section 1. I took it for a test drive and it definitely needs some tweaking, which is where the second section comes into it.

I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to make my own car after going through only this, so I'll have to have a look around to figure out what all different parts of the Car Game Object are meant to be.

EDIT: I found an even better tutorial for making a really basic car from scratch.

Glossy Buttons

I've been doing a spot of 2D texture work for a friend's game.

I've never done glossy before! It's quite exciting.

To Do Lists: Because sometimes this stuff doesn't just happen.

Here's my current To Do List. Usually the things on my To Do List aren't actually things I have to do, and are more like things I've considered doing, thought would be good if I did do them, and hoped that I actually do get around to doing them. I probably only get round to half of the things before deciding, "Another time," or "...nah, I changed my mind." It's not a very good system. I highly recommend working on the things on your To Do lists instead of just hoping you end up getting them done.

To Do.


Christmas presents for family and boyfriend. All done!
Bought. Sometimes I like to start with things I can strike off straight away.
Wrap Christmas presents.

Sort out Digital Files and Folders. Half done...
I've been meaning to do this for years. I've just found out you can get some nice desktop backgrounds that look like rooms, which you can arrange your icons around on. I may have to make one for myself one day, but this has done for now.
As for the actual Files in the system.... well. That is going to take a little longer. But once I've done it, I'm sure life will feel a little clearer.

Learn how to do a Self Assessment.
I downloaded all of my transactions for the past 5 years yesterday and put them into a neat little graph. I'll learn how to actually do it properly after I've sorted out my Folders though.

Work on First Novel
First Draft of more than 40,000 words done thanks to NaNoWriMo.
Need to follow the steps on The Plot Whisperer to refine the plot arc.
And then... See what happens next after that.

Sell artwork.
Make more artwork.
Be less attached to artwork made.
Set up gallery of artwork, on or offline. Preferably online to begin with?
Actually start cataloguing artwork made.

Blog More.
I'm currently in the process of that...
Sell advertising space. By the way, if you have a site you think I'd like to link to, do let me know :)

Sort out Online Presence.
I did that less than a year ago, but I think I need to do it yet again. I have more than one blog, more than one email account, and those email accounts need sorting or deleting too. And I think I want to sort out my blogs too, add in some proper labels etc.

Do Laundry.
Sigh. Done?

Alright, this list is getting a bit cumbersome now. Better stop now and get on with the decluttering.

December: Post Nano Plot Reflection

I realised that although I didn't manage 50,000 words in one month, I have managed over 40,000 words over October and November put together. Throughout October I spent some time trying to write a diary entry everyday, mostly of odd trains of thought I was having as I was having them, even the nonsense ones, just to see how many words I would do. I'd definitely like to see if I could combine parts of the two into any sort of entertaining novelish object.

NaNoWriMo has a list of things that you can do once you've recovered from thirty days of novel writing.
December's is all about sorting out the plot arc of the novel:

The Plot Whisperer -- Plot Writing Month (December). Goal: Refine the plot arc of your first draft.


And here are some others they've listed that go on throughout the year:

NaBloPoMo – National Blog Posting Month (Year-Round). Goal: Post every day for a month.

SciFiWriMo – Science Fiction Writing Month (Year-Round). Goal: choose a target word count and reach it in a month, writing sci-fi or fantasy.

750 Words – (Year-Round). Goal: write 750 words a day. Includes month-long challenges.

Wriye – (Year-Round). Goal: Set a word-count goal for the year and work towards it between January 1 and December 31.

There are also 24 hour and 48 hour challenges that you can take part in if you don't fancy a month of writing tonnes of words:

24 Hour Comics Day – (Changes annually, lasts 24 hours). Goal: Draw a 24-page comic in one 24-hour period.

48 Hour Film Project – (Varies; operates via tours around the USA, lasts 48 hours). Goal: Create a short film in 48 hours.

Lots to be doing!

I really have no idea how my novel thing is going to go at the moment. There were some mentions of tea stained diaries being found in parks, so I really feel I have to transcribe those particular diary sections on paper and tea stain them. And then leave them in parks where they can be found. Especially after finding it so fun writing on my little 2x3 inch coptic bound book and singeing the edges with Sam's amazing rocket lighter of blue fire. It's pretty nice, the burned smell I get off it now.

I'm not a pyro.

NaNoWriMo: 2011

For the past month of November I've been a half busy / half not busy little bee, typing away at my very first novel.

It's not going as quickly as it should be. I began on 1st November 2011, like all the other NaNoWriMo participants. Unfortunately, I spent many days away from my laptop in that time and wrote not a word. I ended November with just over 17,000 words out of 50,000. Poor. But never mind. I'm carrying on, with a current word count of 19,458 and rising. If I really set myself on the task, I could definitely hit 50,000 before we reach 2012. Easy. Just so long as I keep typing! I've even begun to write in a little 100page 2x3inch book I made, just to make sure I can write something while I'm away from the laptop.

Novelist Gyseman, here I come.

I've also got another idea in the works. I'm going to spend 2012 making sure I write between 137 and 164 words every single day for a year. Maybe every night just describing my day. I could call it "My 2012", since I'm sure a lot of books are probably already called or are going to be called "2012", what with the universe ending and everything. Perhaps you can buy my first novel before Christmas next year for a loved one, just in case the universe does end. Then you can buy my other book after that, if it turns out the universe still exists and is doing fine with us still here? Best to cover your bases.

Also, I had a nice idea today. You may notice XXX has suddenly appeared as a page on my blog. I'll write more about that another time.

Cereal box doll houses, the Desperados Dojo Mansion, and zombie survival simulators.

So here's the story.

Yesterday, I heard something post through the door after I had already been down once and signed for a parcel for one of the guys living downstairs. I don't know why I thought this second thing would be anything interesting, but lo and behold, there was a brand new Ikea catalogue, addressed to no one in particular.

I nicked it.

Mine now.

I spent the rest of the day thinking about how when I was little I liked making little environments for woodlice out of sand, and a paper house with an amazing special thread operated lift for my Polly Pocket figures [I surprise myself with this memory. Perhaps I'm remembering it better than it was... no, it was definitely as wicked as I remember it], and totally loved watching Art Attack and Blue Peter when they made little rooms and models for toys to live and play in.

And then I wondered. Now that I'm adult enough to use a pair of scissors without a guardian present and childish enough to still love this stuff... Why haven't I actually made a sturdier one out of cardboard yet?

In my second year of Computer Game Design I thought about modelling my bedroom in Maya for practice, and got part of the way there. Ever since, I've been thinking about recreating the main areas I liked to spend my time. Didn't quite happen. And now I have five empty cereal boxes beginning to clutter up my bedroom floor because I haven't decided what to do with them yet.

My original plan for this cardboard was to go around measuring my room to recreate it to scale out of the cardboard, and do the lounge and kitchen and bathroom after that. Even make little mini-us's to live in it.

Except while I was measuring I had the idea to recreate our flat in Unity 3D, and add zombies or monsters and turn the flat into an FPS. Or a zombie survival simulator. Exciting idea.

In the end I decided to use the cardboard to make a Desperados Dojo Mansion for my Lego Man. I got about this far before I decided I wanted to make the FPS/zombie survival sim of my house more.

Three walls, a floor and a bridge to fight on. But nobody to fight. Hmm.

I think maybe if I had done some solid pre-pro on it, I might have been more focused. Oh well. It's currently sat on my windowsill, along with my purple should-sort-through-but-haven't-yet folder of.. stuff, and green bag of old journals dating from as far back as a decade ago [probably].

I haven't decided if I'm going to keep working on it or dismantle it for the cardboard to make the cardboard version of my room. Although I am going to finish another box of Maple Pecan Crisp by tomorrow, so the Desperados Dojo Mansion is probably safe for now.

Unless it falls out of my window.

It's not going to fall out of my window.