Fuzzy Thoughts » Pretty Pictures

To Do or Not

Michelle — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 23:41:24 +0000

So I have a sketch feed at http://tirjasdyn.tumblr.com/, where I upload WIPs and stuff the amuses me too. Final images may end up on this website. Well, recently I have a few folks, whom I don’t know, and some I do, ask for prints or ask to buy stuff.

This is uncharted territory for me. I’ve been doing this kind of thing since 1989 but never gave any thought that someone wants this stuff. Any advice? Should I just keep on as I have been or find a place to makes stuff available. I have a page on DeviantArt but not a paid account and I tend to forget to post there.

Painter 12

Michelle — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 20:40:17 +0000

Through a nifty combination of coupons, upgrade pricing and sales I got my hands on Corel Painter 12.

OMG I’m in love. Pencils work like pencils should. That means the scribbling I do with my 4h pencil on Painter 12 looks like the same scribbling I do with my real 4h pencil, just not staining my hands.

The slimmed down brushes are divine. Settings are right on the brush to change, no more crappy brush editor. The icons on the tool bar light up when you use them and the tool bar actually contains all the controls you actually need. Paint blends like it should with out going to black, that includes markers. They’ve added gels.

Cloning doesn’t work the same as it once did but I’m okay with that since I don’t need to go to blenders every time I need to blend. Painter 11 brushes are still there (and most older brush sets) but they are hidden and really they can stay that way.

The software runs much smoother, the interface way more friendly then the psuedo Photoshop one. Overall I’m so happy I got my hands on it. Yay!

On Painting and other fun things.

Michelle — Sun, 15 May 2011 06:10:18 +0000

So I’ve been working on this for a year. I’ve never been good with drawing the male body. So I spent the last year practicing it and working on this at the same time.

Another gamer stopped me during a game over a year ago and asked if I still do that painting thing.

Queue deer in headlights.

Yeah…I said. I wasn’t sure (I’m still not sure) what painting thing he thought I did, or what he thought of my capabilities were. Even worse, he offered me wine for it. I asked him, really two or three times if he was sure he wanted me to do it. What little actual paid for artsy type schooling I’ve had is in writing, photography and graphic design. This was me, too cheap to use paint and pencil, using painting software that I save up for in one clump. At most he saw an old character pic of Bianca de Niege done in Poser. Sure I painted the hair and dress but it has a lot of lighting issues.

I will never know what he was thinking because he’s forgotten by now. He lost internet for most of the last year so I haven’t ever given him an update. Oh well.

But I did do it. Time to paint other things.

Tattered – a New Web Comic by Nami

Michelle — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 17:30:22 +0000

My friend Nami, has just put up the first panels of her new web comic, Tattered. She has been working on this for more than a year. Go take a look and enjoy!

If you would like to see some of Nami’s other work, check out http://naminational.deviantart.com/.

To Do or Not

Flames in the Dark

Michelle — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 00:49:59 +0000

So I have to redesign Denver Fiction Writers because the current theme doesn’t support some new functionality. That’s what I get for using a premade theme. I like them for ease of use but it comes back and bites you for customization.

Also I’m working on design for Fuzzy Building Blocks, the current site for my ramblings and designing a new tabletop game system. So I decided to go with some designs around fractals, specifically flame fractals. Those are the moving lights on a dark background.

It’s almost soothing to put the numbers in and watch them generate. It’s like letting water flow.

Websites, ASP etc

Vue 9

Michelle — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 14:28:37 +0000

Out of the Forest

I’ve upgraded from Vue 6I to Vue 9 Complete. It’s quite a jump though I’m happy to say a good jump. Vue 9 is much more stable than 6. The default interface is cleaner and easier to read. Ecosystems painting is smooth and much easier to use. I created this picture yesterday. I used an infinite plane, a mountain which I sculpted using the new terrain editor tools, an ecosystems populated material (the trees) and then I painted the plane with grass. Look at that grass! I’m silly pleased with this. If they hadn’t offered such a good upgrade price I would have let it go by again leaving me off the upgrade trail in the future.

Things that were hard to do in Vue6 seem much easier in 9. I’ve played with the pioneer versions of Vue 7 and 8 and I’ll probably put the free version of 9 on Aia’s computer soon. I have been impressed with Vue’s upgrade path over the last few years. They honestly upgrade their product and seem interested in their user base much more than other companies. I hope this trend continues.

Cupcakes and Piggies

Michelle — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 22:56:12 +0000

Racing Piggies

To make up for the crazy rant from yesterday I bring you happier times of last week. Aia participated in a fundraiser in the fall and sold 15 items. This means she won a place in the pig race at school (as well as the piggy). So on race day I headed over to the school to watch her. It was a close race and purple was the clear favorite, representing every class except the 6th grade who was pink.

Then on Saturday we did Aia’s sleep over birthday party. This is first year she asked for a theme. She wanted Tinkerbell cupcakes with my chocolate cherry cupcakes. Now went over the options. She didn’t want the rice paper covers or toys on the cup cakes. She hates icing and cream…sometimes. Finally we decided fondant and as I told her my fairy modeling skills weren’t that good. She looked at me and said, “Momma I want a fairy garden with snails!”.

Fondant Snails!

Well that’s different. I used no sugar added stuff when I could because CJ would be there. Also we made mini cupcakes which were basically chocolate covered cherry drops. Aia helped put on the slime trails and make the snails. Then we had some fun painting the flowers and snails. That took about four hours. Left over fondant and cupcake mix when to make crazy cup cakes for the gamer group and Aia’s lunch and some plain chocolate cupcakes for J. It went pretty well.

Thoughts on Final Fantasy XIV

Michelle — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 20:49:32 +0000

Lightening Storm on the Sea

I’ve been playing FFXIV since September. Not none stop, but rather here and there when I have time. Lately I’ve had to put a few two week long moratoriums on gaming so I could get some writing work done. So I’m not that high of a level. That means less in the context of FFXIV than you might think.

I started with the open beta which was slow but had huge rewards (more xp and way more money). Played through the pre-order game time, into the full on release and with all the updates so far. My little computer played with everything ramped up but very slowly. So I turned off everything and slowly turned on video and sound options one at a time to find a good optimum. With each update I’ve been able to turn on more options. Right now I keep shadows and dust off. Everything else is on.

And it’s beautiful. I haven’t done much exploring yet except in Thanalan, the region in which Ul’dah is located. It has least one small port town which I haven’t been to since the beta, camps and some hidden gypsy like camps. The area is riddled with caves that may have a hidden camp, monsters or be portal to another region. The area is vast I doubt I’ll get to all of it but I’m going to try.

Thanalan Desert

I started a Hyur Goldsmith..she’s a lowlander since females can’t be highlanders. I have a Moon Mi’quote and a plains Lalafell left over from the beta. Unlike FFXI, you can’t do all of the starting cities quest with just one character so there is a high probability I’ll bring them back. Now you have a physical level and job level. The physical level goes up and you get stat points to you get to assign. Your job level gives you powers, skill and access to quests. My combined total of levels is somewhere in the 30′s, but that means nothing. Physical levels up all the time. The job level only levels if you are that job and you’re doing that job’s skills. You change jobs by equipping the main tool for that job. My current physical level is 14. Most of my job levels are in Goldsmith and Gladiator…but I’ve got at least one level in about 7 other jobs. That’s not all of them either.

The character creation process and the huge amount of customized items means that it is very unlikely you’ll see your double. My character’s first incarnation (beta) had black hair with red highlights but I changed that to gold hair with shiny gold highlights. There are basic tattoo options, eye colors, facial features, and skin color. Once your in the game crafting allows items to be customized with color, accents and materials. Right now I have blue shirt and red pants. My shoes are matching red leather. My shirt has brown accents. Jewelry shows up on the character including rings and chokers.

There is a fatigue system in FFxiv. I’ve haven’t seen it’s effects at all. I’ve been slowly accumulating items for each job. So say I get a leviquest for Camp Black Bush. I clear my inventory by crafting anything I have the materials for (Eorizapedia is great for this) by searching for the material in the wiki and check out my level range for the recipes. I make all I can for a goldsmith and maybe level once or twice. I do the same for weaver and alchemist. Then I change into a gladiator and run to the camp (I don’t have to run. I could just teleport…once you touch a crystal you can always teleport there but you only have so many points to do this.) I kill things along the way avoiding the large land dragons that might be sitting in low level areas. If I see a gathering or mining spot along the way I switch out and mine or gather. I get to the camp and do the leviquest in whatever job it calls for. Rinse Repeat. I have a few that I can’t get to yet. I just keep those on the back burner.

So far, intensely fun. Yes, finding items is a crap shoot without a search but not undoable. Money is scarce with level one equipment sometimes costing in the tens of thousands but it’s not hard to make. Unlike anything else with name Final Fantasy, talking to everyone in town doesn’t yield anything but warnings, complaints and the occasional pickup line (the language in this game is above PG-13). So far thought I’m loving it. It’s different and engaging. I have only begun to explore the world.

Website Redesign with CSS3 (and hacks for certain browsers lagging behind)

Michelle — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 03:08:50 +0000

I haven’t posted much because I was in Vegas, the land of little wifis and because I’ve been busing messing with this website.

I just redesigned it using CSS3 rounded corners and background resize. Ie8 doesn’t support any of it and I’m not sure Ie9 will. I can’t be sure because it was messing with my system too much and I had to uninstall.

The gist is this: A close photo of an orange pink tipped rose, centered, two columns on a pink 30% transparent png with sold borders and CSS3 rounded corners (holy hell I can’t wait till they all support css3 tables), wordpress 2010 menu system fixed to the bottom. I am squee.

Of course I have a lot of legacy font colors to work out (2010 footer, various widgets) and I’m playing with some project management plugins. I need to get my static photos ups for the pages I’ve designed and I’m almost redesigned. Not sure if I’ll put the Poser stuff back up at this point. But I’ll see.

With Nano and such coming I better get my ass in gear.

Thoughts on FFXIV Open Beta

Michelle — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 20:22:59 +0000

I’ve been playing the open beta of FFXIV. It runs slow right now on both my computers. Now both of them blow away the specs, except my tablet only has a 1.3gig processor. So I expect it to be slow on that. However if I log in late at night or early in the morning there’s no lag or slowness. I have the graphics setting up on both computers just to see if they can handle it.

The graphics themselves are beautiful. From the vegetation to the water to the character design the graphics really really nice. The picture above is just outside the city of Ul’dah.

The game play is different. I chose to make my character a goldsmith. Battle is active, no auto-attack as far as I can tell. Simular to how 12 and 13 handled it. I can change jobs by switching weapons. I wish I had more of an idea of how the points affect things. I haven’t hit any of the fatigue limits.

The first quest in Ul’dah, “Some Like It Hot”, was interesting. It showed you the politics of the city, basic crafting, emotes, layout of the city, battle mode, and gave you starting cash. Things are more expensive in FFXIV than in XI so the end pay is in the 10s of thousands.

The game works much better with a gamepad than mouse and keyboard. It has more reliance on menus than XI did. Things like active maps, in game help, teleport, retainers are listed in the map but seem to be off for the OB.

I’m having fun. I hope that the slow and stability issues less with initial release.

Working on the Site: Child themes, Portfolio, Gallery

Michelle — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:28:33 +0000

So I’ve been working on the site. I know I said I was working on a new design. Well, then WordPress 3.0 came out and twenty-ten and well.

Okay I’m working on a child theme instead, expanding my horizons. So the site should change randomly piece by piece. Fun huh?

I’m also updating my portfolio and gallery. I’ve done some new paintings I like. So I should actually get this done this year, the update that is. So yeah. Things. So if things seem wonky, don’t worry. I’m working on it.

Happy Bookmark!

Michelle — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:24:24 +0000

I won a bookmark from Jennifer Tatroe. She’s an awesome collage artist, and writer. I met her through the local gaming conventions.

The bookmark is a mini-collage with pages of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and sheet music.

To see more of Jennifer’s work you can check out her web page at http://www.jennifertatroe.com/ or check out her Etsy store at http://www.etsy.com/shop/palimpsestic. I love seeing such creativity. Makes me want to squee!

Painting Stuff

Michelle — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:19:13 +0000

My new tablet pc allows me to draw right on the screen. I can’t tell you how much fun this has been, but I can show you the paintings I’ve completed so far:

Painting Minis – Medium Play

Michelle — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:45:43 +0000

Okay, so I don’t have any pictures yet. The plan is to finish cleaning up Book ‘Splode 09, run my Serenity game, then take pictures.

I’ve been playing with blending. Most of the stuff I’ve read on it say to use some type of extender medium and water. I’ve just be using water with good results…but I thought it’d try extender.

Well, it really extends. Come on, if I wanted the pain of oils in my mini paint, I’d just use oils. Even a tiny dip kept the paint too wet to the point where it felt like I was blending with washes. Add water to that mess and it like painting on clear color.

Which is great for over blends…not so much for base blends.

My goal is to finish Syd de Kaiber for Tacticon. I still need to work on my skin tones and faces but I’m feeling confident to try out one little contest.

Refuting the Need for IE6

Michelle — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:18:09 +0000

The call to quit IE6 has gotten louder over the years. Now with the release of IE8 and PROOF that MS can make a standards compliant browser, those calls are turning to screams.

I am one of them.

Frankly IE6 is broken and old and should be tossed with the bath water. I am less and less inclined to bother checking my sites in them unless a client requests it. Why? Because there is less need. Lets go over the arguments for supporting IE6:

Most People Use It

While not only debatable it’s silly. First of all, just in case you had no idea (don’t worry most don’t), you can see who’s visiting your site with what. Most sites I develop have seen a serious down path in IE6 users over the last 7 years since IE6 release. Most sites don’t even garner 1%. Now if you want to say most people use IE as a whole you’d be right. But developing for IE7 is much easier and only needed a few tweaks and hacks…while so far IE8 needs NO tweaks or hacks. It’s a beautiful thing.

No one wants to spend the money to upgrade

Dude it’s free. Even MS isn’t that stupid. IE8 works on XP and Vista. If you don’t think it will run on 98 or Me (I’m sorry you’re still running that) get 7.

We are limited to IE6 at work because of proprietary software the company uses

Besides the fact they should upgrade for security reasons; you shouldn’t be surfing at work. I know we all do it, but you can’t cater to those who are doing something they shouldn’t. If, by chance, your job IS surfing the web you should be making a case for updating. Hammers aren’t screwdrivers. Get the right tools for your job, especially when free.

Websites shouldn’t limit the latest bling and I don’t need to see new bling on websites

IE6 not only doesn’t see the latest bling, it’s also 8 years behind STANDARDS. That’s right, it’s not to code. Things that IE6 can’t support have been around longer than IE6 and are no longer fads. Png, CSS, fricking padding are here to stay folks. MS upgraded the browers twice now. Even they know.

You can’t upgrade without a valid copy of windows

Dude pony up or get Firefox. FTL.

It’s time to drop IE6. Drop the support and you’ll have much saner webmasters.

Vue 9

Vue 7 Pioneer For Free

Michelle — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:13:43 +0000

Vue 7 Pioneer is out of beta and it’s still free! Yah!

It’s a great way to try the software and you can buy modules to bring it all the way up to complete if you wish.

Vue long ago surpassed Bryce as Bryce suffered from a string of uninterested companies finally devolving into a plugin for a Poser knock off. I really enjoy Vue and I have both Vue 6i and Vue 7 pioneer on my machines.

Recently I’ve been painting more. Took some time off from forums (It was just wasting time and people were getting to me). So I bring you a sketch I started last night.

Just a quick sketch. I try to remember to post more as I finish it.

The Best Laid Weekend Plans

Michelle — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:00:08 +0000

So last week turned into really busy work week, which hasn’t finished. Plus I had strep. Yeah me. So again this means I’m behind. If you’re waiting for updates from me, I promise I’m doing them…really.

We got a new camera. It takes some great photos. The first thing I tested was the zoom.

Zooming in on the cloud.

A cloud

On the left you see an innocent cloud. On the right is me, zooming the crap out of said cloud during our morning walk. Wait, did I say morning walk? Yes I did! Last week I started walking Aia to school and then walking back to get the car. It’s actually be a great way to get in 30 minutes regardless of how my day turns out. In fact I took a picture of the sunrise one morning during our walk.

I also took some photos to test the camera on my minis. One is in process of painting. The other is that dragon I’ve been mumbling about. And yes that wing stayed on.

Stupid wing. This weekend I wrote quite a bit and dog snuggled. Whinnie is Whinnie. Dagny is not doing so well. She’s been diagnosed with bone cancer and has about 3 – 6 months. Sigh. We’ve been trying to make her comfortable by allowing her to sleep on the couch.

I got a massage on Saturday though it was a last minute change because my appointment got lost a week before and they could only fit me in with this other girl. She was nice and all. However she really likes wax. A lot. Having my feet wrapped in wax was okay, until it got cold. Then my feet didn’t seem to hold traction for a bit afterward. I turned a bunch of stuff in to Black & Read for credit. It was good day.

Sunday was supposed to be ski day. We made to the top of the mountain.

But Aia, on our second run, fell. Not so bad. However, when she tried to get up her skis were pointed down hill and she started sliding. She ran over my skis and we had to have her taken down on a Ski Patrol toboggan. She has big bruise on her back but is otherwise okay.

At Tarot last night one of the members was paring down his collection. I have a new deck out of the bargain…tarot of the spirit. Can’t wait to trade out my study decks…it’s time again.

Of Goals and Other Squiggly Things

Michelle — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:07:57 +0000

Other than having strep I’ve been working on web pages. I have a large update ready for the Pulp website…but they’re changing the document now…so it’s best if I just wait. I need to get that new porfolio up and working too.

WH is coming along. I’m finishing up the last chapter. I’ve started a new program where I get up early, do the 5 Tibetans, meditate, and then write until shower time. Then I walk the spawn to school. So far so good. Today was the first full day of doing all four…I’ve been working up to it.

I would like to have a set of miniatures to bring with me to conventions for Serenity and maybe other games I run. This involves me getting more pulp miniatures, and some sci fi ones. Painting continues. This brings me to the Cynwall Dragon.

The Cynwall Dragon is a “mini” from the Confrontation line. I don’t play mini games…though I wouldn’t mind this one…if I knew a group that played. This mini is huge. J. gave it to me for Christmas last year. I finally started cleaning up and putting it together. This is my second dragon. My first was an old Ralpartha. I had to glue the tail and the head and the wings on. It’s a very pretty amytheist…but this was before I knew about sculpting. So it has a lot of gaps. I could fix it I guess. But it’s fine for what it is.

I was at Valhalla’s last week and found a Reaper limited edition Dragon vignette on sale. The base is the dragon hord with cliff The dragon is one piece just needing wings and horns glued on. The dwarven thief is pre attached to the cliff and just needs to be glued on the base.

Back to the Cynwall. Confrontation minis come in pieces. Even their tiny 1 inch minis come in many pieces. Now imaging a huge dragon. The body comes in not one but three parts that form a hollow shell. The head is separate. Not only are each wing separate but the folded wing? Two pieces. That’s if you don’t count the five claws that need to be attached to feet and wings. Bestly (that’s my new word for today) the tail part that needs to be glued on is the middle part…since the tail curls and all.

So this posed a problem. I needed a hobby vice. No screaming…I hadn’t needed on yet…some kind of gap filler and more glue. I already have a hefty glue and putty stash: Elmers, Aileen (clear, wood and regular tacky), wood glue, spakle, Insta-Cure thin, GW Green Stuff and probably stuff I can’t remember. The Insta-Cure is the best for putting together metal minis. I took one look at this heavy beast and decided I needed better glue. I debated picking up more of the Insta-Cure stuff…but it’s expensive and tends to dry out in the bottle IME. The thin seems to last the longest.

I headed to hobby lobby and my local train hobby story. I got some gorilla glue and some gap filler (I forget the company…but it’s called, predictably, White Stuff. So First I gorilla glued the two halves of the main body together. That took a day to dry. Next I gap filled the body and stuck the neck on. It came off. (Stop with the pinning. There will be no pinning) But the filler had sunk as it dried. So I refilled and stuck the neck on again. This worked and I cleaned off the bleed.

For the head I used Insta-Cure. Success!

This morning I tried to connect the tail middle. Stupid thing was not at the right angle to fit between the tail end and the tail base. I used my new vice to squish the piece into the right angle. Again I’ve used Insta-Cure.

The damn folded wing was back to Gorilla Glue.

This figure is going to take a lot of green stuff to fill the gaps. I have to attach the wings and the claws. In the meantime…I wish pulp, sci fi and western minis were cheaper.

Okay I’m Still Sick

Michelle — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:40:44 +0000

Look at the pretty until I feel like writing something:

Vue 7 Pioneer – Open Beta

Michelle — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 19:01:59 +0000

I can’t afford to upgrade my copy of Vue 6 Infinite for the moment. I’m not really worried about it…eventually I’ll upgrade. But I couldn’t resist participating in the new Vue 7 Pioneer open beta. Pioneer is the new entry user level version of Vue as in below d’Esprit. So it’s pretty simple. It works fine on Mac and Windows. It doesn’t have Ecosystems, which I’ve come to rely on…but it comes with the basic level of stuff, just like all Vue versions do. The render options are not as wide as in Infinite…but I’m seariously thinking of getting this for my daughter. She likes Bryce, but her copy is my old copy, and I’m not interested in installing DAZ’s version which is pretty much just a plugin for their software line. The results, with little effort, are high above what Bryce can do. As for what it can to with effort…well have you seen the latest Indiana Jones or the last two Pirates of the Carribean.

Num.

Pioneer doesn’t have anything but the very basic Vue, so none of those plant apps, wind, or various shader apps that make it a lot of fun in the more advanced areas (I’m a shader whore, it’s Bryce’s fault, Poser and Infinite just feed my addiction….I hate math, why do function editors make sense to me when adding doesn’t?).

This is what I did yesterday. Pioneer renders the objects first and then the sky. Because it’s a beta, watermarks. It took about 10 minutes to put together, with some simple terrain edits and some tweaks to a pre-set sky.