Jumpin' Jack Flash (It's a gas gas gas)...

Day 2 in the saga: I fixed up the centre a little more... I tried having white highlights around the knot but it didn't look that great so I settled with what I had and then just tied up so of the stray lines left around. I was happy enough with it so I moved on to phase 2.

This was the annoying part, since I switched to another program so I could get everything the right size. Apparently the Tshirt place needs an A3 sized thing at 300 dpi. Anyway, I had to use a different program, so I took the tongue from flash and went about doing the words in Fireworks. The arc of words wasn't as hard as I'd previously imagined, but I experienced a fair bit of difficulty adding new fonts, so I had to settle with what I've got here. They'll change before the final shot though.

The last issue was that it wouldn't let me save...:S I imagine that it was because the file was too big, but whatever... I managed to at least export this jpg, so all was not lost.

Tomorrow... I'll probably start work on the back, or maybe iron out the last few things with this.

I can't get no satisfaction.

My attempt to make up for last week is as follows:
I'm pretty sure I have something thats going to keep me working pretty much every night this week, so every night, I'm going to post what I've worked on, whether its finished or just an update. This is in no way going to be my new plan (although I think maybe my plan needs some tweaking), but it's just going to be until I feel comfortable making up for dropping the ball. It's like punishment :P

So projecto numero uno is something my sister asked me to do, and then I forgot about it, but then got reminded. Her speech pathology buddies are going on a pub crawl and she wanted the make sure they had the 'Bestest Pub Crawl Shirts Ever'(tm) so naturally, she turned to her talented and totally not overworked (and currently pretty sick) brother. I naturally obliged, even though I wont get anywhere near the pub crawl, or the speech pathology girls (as they are all in Adelaide) (and mostly taken) because that's just the kind of hero I am. I hero who does things for people over the internet.

So anyway, Esther's given me the basic design... I've started, and mostly finished the logo for the front. They work with speech defects so its supposed to look kind of tongue tied. I'm not too happy with the knot in the centre.. the whole outlining thing doesn't match the rest of the logo and the mass of dark lines doesn't work either, but it's enough for me to happily retire for the night.

Seeing as this is the only thing that really has a deadline, expect me to be knocking over this before moving on to other things later in the week. See you tomorrow!

Boring post Monday

I had meant to have something better and more interesting go this post, but things got out of hand... and other things came along (*cough* No more heroes *cough cough*) so I was forced to rely on something I'd already done.

I mean, I was planning on using this eventually, but since I already did a map post a few posts ago I felt I should mix it up a little. Maybe I'll do an extra post this week or something, but right now it was more important to actually make a post.

So here is my second map for CnC: Generals.... Crater. It's not really a map I would've considered making myself, it's only really because a friend of mine wanted a massive map with a ridiculous amount of resources. I couldn't willing just make a big flat map though, so instead I made a big depression. All the map is passable, so there is no choke points or anything like that. I felt I had to add something, so I put a bunch of derricks in the centre and and a few on the outskirts of the bases, so at least there are some soft targets to go for at the start of the game, but considering the stupid amount of resources available theres really no need for them. Well... accept maybe as a perimeter monitor.

This is also the first map I added AI waypoints for. It was a lot easier than I expected.

The really funny part is that we wont even get a decent game out of this map, since these big ones where you build mass units always seem to lead to early deref nulls. Oh well..

Whoa, close one there...

So... I'm desperate not to fail my self imposed schedule of death, and despite my transgressions so far, I've done pretty well. Admittedly, it's been two weeks, but its totally the minor victories that count.

So here we are, friday night, I've been having 'A good time(tm)' and it's almost like I don't have anything to show for it. It's not like that though, not at all. I mean, since my last post I've made another map for Generals, I've worked on the script for Johnny a little more (but still not enough that I'm comfortable showing other people) and I've tried to draw character studies for the characters in Johnny but to no avail.

I put in the effort, dammit.

But still, that doesn't make for a good post, and the character studies didn't turn out, so here we are, with me scrambling with what I've got, attempting to make it seem like It's all part of the plan....

And with that heady admission, the plan for this post is to analyse one of the only good things I've seen on TV recently, and try to work out why its good, and how I can apply that to my future endevours.

So, behold this thing of L from Deathnote I drew sometime. I think I drew/painted it after seeing the live action movie, and I've gotta admit, it's ruined the anime for me (thank you, Tasha). It's really (REALLY) out of character, but I was pretty happy how close it looked without reference material.

Anyway, the greatest thing about this anime is the back and forth between the main character, Light, and his would be foil, the enigmatic L. Seeing the live action version, with surmises the anime in ~4 hours has ruined the suspense, but for a few weeks there I was willingly tuning in weekly to see just how things were going to turn out.

I mean, originally, I was willing to ignore Deathnote. The fans were rabid, and there's nothing that ruins anything like rabid fanboys, but this series went above and beyond my expectations.

I mean, for a start, It's played out from the perspective of the villain (well, misguided hero) of the series, which is something I consider to be an important consideration for every story, i.e. proper motivation for the antagonist must be examined. It's something thats ignored by most games these days, the villain is simply the villain because he happens to be on the opposite side of the hero, but, as the old science show states, 'Why is it so?'

Secondly, the difference between the hero and the villain is trivial at best. I mean, both have similar goals and beliefs, it's merely the execution that differs. Neither is truly bad (ok, that's a lie... :S) but the point is, they are equal. They are both mere men (albeit extremely intelligent men) that are pretty evenly matched. It's not like Superman, where its an unstoppable force of good versus an incredible mind for evil (which in itself conjures so many issues regarding brains versus brawn... that's right kids, being smart is bad :P) It's a battle of wits, with constant shifting of power and redrawing of the battlefield.

This specifically is what I feel is missing from video games of this generation. It's never just a guy who's better at applying himself who is the bad guy of the game, its an infinitely powerful (and bad ass) demigod, only interested in something as base as destroying the world for reasons that only sound plausible to an angsty 12 year old amped up from listening to linkin park, or whoever angsty band of the moment is.

It's hardly ever (and there are exceptions here) a bad guy who could technically be right. Games, and gamers have progressed through the age were such petty actions are justifiable. I hate to bust out buzzphrases and crap like this, but if games are ever going to be considered a justifiable art form, this has got to chance.

And now, it's time for bed.