Bullet Time

So here's my test with the physics engine.  Pretty straight forward.  I am cautiously optimistic about its full potential.  I say this 'cause I couldn't get anything, let along anything useful, from the old one.

Falling Beans

You will notice it squirms around like worms at the end (jumping beans!)  But that was probably because I was trying to get all fancy with the settings.  I attribute that to the settings since the cubes dropped just fine.

Yes, I have rolled dice with more than 6 sides

It was a longtime ago...

In case you cant click the video, here are the GIFs.  Patience, its 15MB each

Out of Oz

Back from Australia.  Here's what I've learned.

1.  If you order an ice coffee, you get a scoop of ice cream.
2.  If you're not sure if its a twig or a spider, it's a spider.
3.  If you're not sure if its a leaf blowing in the wind or a cockroach, its a cockroach.  Flying.

Beautiful country.  Only really had time to scratch out 2 sketches between the sights and sounds.

A quick avatar in profile

Old school Fem Paladin.

I'd say work in progress, but who are we kidding?

The rest of the time was a mix between catching some good movies, some bad movies and some Lightwave tutorials.  The bullet physics engine is actually... promising...

Uh HoH, ok

Feeling more than a little under the weather.  Made some warm honey lemon water.  Yum.
Tonight's short post is Malphite.

Shard of the Monolith

Hoping Riot Games releases more champions like Jinx.  She's crazy =/  Check out the music video.

Body Found, LoL

I watched a fake documentary.  Or as I like to call it, a f'ockumentary.  On mermaids.

What a sweet waste of time.  Apparently some teens found a washed up body of a mermaid and there's a huge cover up.  If you, uh, think there's a conspiracy, it's a hoax man.

It's not real.  I mean Nami, is more real!  And she's in LoL.

Plus, she's not as nasty looking.

Ewww.

Got to get back into eshape playing esports.  I admit I'm getting rusty.  But, no shortcuts.  This is something I'm going to do right and and take my time.

Adagio summoner!

Thanks Sona...

Toast

Sometimes the reward for drilling a safe successfully, is nothing.  It sucks.

Sometimes you get a worse than nothing.

A piece of toast

That's... great!  Thanks buddy.  Great work.

He deserved it.  He misidentified a sketch I had on my desk.

It's a Luigi!!

FAIL!  Geek card revoked.  Nerd cred disapproved.

Heh, jk.  It's all good.  I need him on my team.

End of the month, It's PayDay 2

Playing games again.  Twenty seven hours, as of writing, playing Payday 2.  It's not bad... It's not bad at all.

Join up with your friends and go on heists like robbing banks, breaking into safes in jewelry stores, trafficking substances.  YEAH!  My role is crowd control and medic.

Monkey mask for the Monkey King

We bought the 4 pack of to save a little money.  The punchline?  The 3 of who are married gave cash to the bachelor so none of us gets audited for spending $90.00 on a game.

Don't judge.
You don't know me.  You don't know me!

Looking back Into Darkness

Unboxing

Nice!
Love the packaging

The transparent jacket is always a plus in my books.  Something about it gives it a classy touch.  Just like the old school Underworld DVD starring Kate Beckinsale.

<3 <3 <3

The rest of the unwrapping reveals a pretty straight forward package.  One case and two optical discs.  I'm happy with the minimalist approach.

I won't be staring at the dics anyays.

Grab the popcorn.  Wait!
Before we fire up the reel, I gotta say something.

As you may have figured out.  I am a huge Star Trek fan.  I loved it way back during a time when admitting you watch TNG, arguably the most mainstream one, would get you picked on, made fun of and stuffed into your own locker.  Attending a Star Trek convention was an outright death sentence when you got back at school.  Unlike now where posting your Comic-Con photos would get you chicks (well, no, not really, no).

Why all the drama?  I want to give a little background and put this into context so we have an understanding.  I liked Star Trek before it was cool.  I earned my geekdom.  I happily watched TOS on TV with a guilty shame.  Borrowed all my second cousin's feature films, and watched them holding my hand made Enterprise model on red alert.

I'm rambling now...just
Grab the popcorn.


The Film (Spoilers)

James T. Kirk.  Already disobeying the Prime Directive from the first scene.
Spock.  Always with the rules and regulation.
John Harrison.  He's WHO?  Mind blown!

I was fortunate enough to have been living under a rock, so I had no idea about the character reveal.  Totally got duped.  Even the cameo took me by surprise.

Overall, this is an enjoyable movie and the gaping plot holes brought to my attention after the fact didn't ruin it.  It's exciting, keeps good pace and is tense at the right moments.  I love the battles and the visuals were great. What does a star ship look like rising from the ocean?  Wow!  Yes!  I can indulge in a little VFX eye candy even if it makes absolutely no logical, technical, prepositional sense.

As large as the stakes are, I did find some flashes of personal moments.  Spock and Uhura's relationship.  "What is that even like?"  Spock and Kirk bromance.  Best friends forever!  Yes,  Spock and Khan's rage fueled fight to exact revenge.  "My crew is my family!  Is there anything you would not do for your family?"  All in all, thumbs up.

There were moments, however, that lost me.  There is enough online regarding the impossible physics, technicalities and trashed up continuity, so I'll just mention a few things I warrant a thumbs down.  Scotty, for some reason didn't feel like a complete character to me.  I had troubles tying together the super genius, chief engineer, theoretical physicist and booze hound.  On paper, it's what James Doohan's brought too, but somehow, Simon Pegg's seems a little disconnected.

Also, and I'm going to kick myself for asking this, did Carol Marcus have to be there?  No, no, no, don't get rid of Alice Eve that's not what I'm saying man.  My question is how do you draw a line from microbiologist to weapons specialist science offier?  Is this a misguided case of fan service?  It could very well have been Elizabeth Dehner purely through resemblance.  But...that's another can of worms messing with continuity.

While the overarching intent to mirror Wrath of Khan's themes and lines is noble, it started to get predictable.  Whatever the original Kirk said, new Spock would repeat.  Perhaps undetected by viewers unfamiliar with the original, but not the initiated.  Curse of the hardcore fan.

I love Leonard Nimoy, but this cameo felt out of place.  We've already seen old Spock break from his hard line of not interfering with the timeline in the previous movie.  Does this cameo lead to another and another?  Is old Spock going to hold young Spock's hands though every conflict?  Imagine the damage to Spock's legendary legacy.

While very fulfilling after watching it in the theatre (a 40 foot Alice Eve in her underwear has nothing to do with it) and again now on Blu-Ray, it feels a little bit like it's cashing in some nerd cred.  By asking fans to look over some flaws in exchange for some eye candy and Spock / Kirk role reversals, it scratches an itch but leaves wanting to more forward.  The film does end with the beginning of the 5 year exploration mission.  It has potential.  It's a fitting start.  I'm optimistic.

Special Features

If you're into "the making of" type documentary, this one is for you.  It goes in depth into how a different sets came together with director, cast and crew commentary sprinkled in.  One of the things that impressed me was how much practical effects were used.  Definitely more than I suspected as science fiction films often lends itself to rely heavily on CGI.  Fascinating.  Lots of movie making magic, but I found myself wanting to see more of the cast's personal thoughts.  Doesn't necessarily have to be a formal sit down interview, but on even spot interviews and casual conversations on set would have added a special touch.


Final Thoughts

To be sure, it's a fun ride but if or when the 3rd movie comes out, I hope it'd be thought provoking.  I'd like to see some deeper character insight or growth.  How this crew is different from the original.  We've explored the reflection off Wrath of Khan.  It's time for the next adventure.  No need to Search for Spock.  Right?


Random thoughts

Nice subtle layer of fan service.  Tribbles, Section 31, Harry Mudd's shuttle, foreshadowing Klingon war.

You know who would have made a great Khan? Javiar Bardem!  Evil, smart, creepy.  Especially with a little Spanish flare like Ricardo Montalban.


4 stars out of 5
Live long and prosper

Bench Table

Finally got around to building that bench table I needed for the garage.

I had it all planned out.

Eight 2x6s@eight feet.  Five 2x4s@eight feet.

Cleared the garage and started with the legs.

So far so good!  Yeah, no.  The architectural plans lied.

Off by 6" to 8".

Good thing the scroll saw is already plugged in.

Oops.  Today's lesson is:
Measure like a woman, cut like a man.

This is way harder than that black dude from the Old Spice commercial made it look.  Guess I'm turning this table 180 degrees now.

Polish off the tray and ...

*Slow Clap*

Aesthetics - 10  Great sense of asymmetric balance
Functionality - 10 It works
Cost Effectiveness  - 10 Nope.  Nothing at Ikea's "as is" section
Style - 10 I'm in tears just thinking about it

Will I build anything else for my house?  HELL NO!
I'm getting some Maple Crown and watching Star Trek

Minions Are Broke

Yep!  Animating reveals all the flaws in your rig.  It's back to the lab again.  Might as well try to convert to 64bit.  Shouldn't take too long, right?

He just doesn't learn.  Does he?

Super Nachos

Had a some nachos with my buddy who drags me out of the house after hours.  He knows 1 beer gets me buzzed, 2 gets me wasted and 3 would kill me.  So of course he feeds me 4.

Not impressed

Thankfully, he's always the designated driver.  I never have to worry about my ride home.  Just need to get in the house and crawl into a corner that's easily garden hosed if / when I make a mess.

I should call him up again

Got a Head, LoL

Guess who I bought?

Twisted Fate

Obviously a champion based on Gambit.  Cool!

In other news, Corki isnt as good as I thought.  Same with Fiora, unless you got someone playing who knows exactly what's going on.

Minions

This was originally inspired when I saw the first Despicable Me in San Francisco during Animation Mentor graduation.  I thought, wow!  It'd be great to create a simple character somewhere between those minions and the bishop rig I've been animating with.  Should only take a week.  Two tops!

Almost 3 years later, my beta minion rig "chuyt".  Cantonese for pawn.  In the Chinese Chess context.

 Hey!

Hardest part was leg deformations (cause, chubby stumps) and the hands.  Second hardest part was encountering rig breaking WTFs and to keep going and not crying in despair.

Posing test

Single Whip

So, now what?

Let's get animating!

PS.  I am well aware of the artistic liberties I am taking.  Now is not the time to "correct" Tai Chi poses and Chinese transliteration.

Dragoncall

So I don't know the reason why the dragons got called out.

Be there fire breathers at work?

What I can tell you it has nothing to do with almost getting busted by the boss-man at work for doodling during company time.

Thank's buddy...

Kara Zor-El

Hid at my desk drawing this at work.  Got a blast from the past shading with a mechanical pencil.  Little trouble thinking differently from the usual cross hatching and line work (its been a while), but I am fairly satisfied with it.

Maid of Might

Philosophical question.  Is the iconic chain breaking image only for Superman?  Or is it also valid for the Supergirl?

I'm still mad at her new costume.  I would have been happier if they just adopted Laura's plain jane costume for Smallville.

Mike Turner FTW

LoG

I had a dream once.

That I'd be able to stream through a dungeon on my Nexus 7.  Enter Legend of Grimrock.  I fired it up and got even more excited when I found out that I can import my own character portraits.  So after many lunches with the travel sketchbook, I finally scanned them in.

The Tank

The Rogue

The Chick

The Squishy

Looking colour them up but, I'm not entirely sure where that's going to go.  As for the game itself, I, well, never touched it again.  XCOM got in the way.

Pencil Glaze

Buddy finally coated the controller I pencilled.  Check it out:

Still works after reassembly.  I think?

I wish there was less glare reflecting off.  On second thought, it makes sense.  The light coming coming out of the high-beams.  LOL!  haha.  It was a woman who came up with that one.  No, really...

Flip Flop

Following up my household encounter with buddy who wanted me to switch electrical companies, the very next day a rep from Energy Directly starts knocking on my door.  I have no doubt they sent a pretty girl to reverse the all the people deceived into switching providers to save 3.5 cents a year.

It's official.  I think it is infinitely more rude to ring peoples doorbell than hearing your door chimes and not answering.  Get off my property!

Speaking of getting off my property, I have a story to tell.  But actually, let's switch gears.  Why?  I had an unconventional guest in my house for dinner.  There was an interesting turn of events, but I have to process first.  Anyways,

Kurt Wagner.

Also known as The Amazing Nightcrawler!

Unfortunately, that has nothing to do with what's coming next.  Anyways.

I was thinking about my health and the susceptible heart I have.  I've been trying to get more exercise and lost a little weight, but I wonder if that's enough.  If, inevitably, I'll still have to install wires into my heart like my old man.  Or for that matter, deal with a messed up digestive tract during my mid life crisis.  Wouldn't it be funny if even after eating healthy and doing my best to take care of my body, I overexert myself and my heart exploded?

I'm intoxicated (Crown Royal)
I'm out

PS. I did not open the door for the Energy Directly girl...  Cause I didn't switch anything

knock knock

*open door*

Dude "Hi, I'm Ian from FlowerPower Electric.  I just want to make sure you're getting a fair rate for your power.  Can you tell me how much you're paying for your bill?  I'll wait here"
Monkey King "Uh, oh, ok...Uh"

*close door*

Green Queen "Who was that?"
Monkey King "Oh, ok...Power.  Bill.  Check.  Uh"
Green Queen "We're not interested"
Monkey King "ok..."
Little Princess "Door!  Door!"

*open door*

Monkey King "Hey man, you got shut down"
Dude "Wha?"
Monkey King "Yeah, sorry.  Try to have a nice evening"
Dude "Huh?"  Looks at me all befuddled.
Little Princess "Daddy!"

*SLAM*

HAHAHA!  The look on his face was GOLD!  He was so confused and didn't know what to write on his clip board.  Imagine a Neanderthal trying to figure out...square peg, round hole???

===

Little Princess "Daddy!"
I love my little girl =)

New Champions

I finally saved up enough points to unlock Fiora.  Yay!  And that's where I've been all this time.  Playing LoL.  I wish I didn't have an addictive personality, but I'm so in a tail spin right now.  Is there a LoL Anonymous somewhere?

My name is Ron...
And I have a problem...

Who's that in the corner?  Corki!  He was a another champion I unlocked, but never gave much attention.  He's good to play, if your team needs a steady support guy to hold the fort down.

My hands are twiching.  C'YA!!

Best. Captain. Ever!

The Elder Scrolls Arena

An old DOS game with a title that confused me (for a split second) because it sounded like the up and coming MMORPG.  Nevertheless, if you're into retro gaming, you can even download it here.  Gonna try firing that up on my Nexus 7.  No, I'm not crazy.  I will be playing through an emulator.

How did I get confused between the 2 games?  Maybe I'm not as hardcore of an RPG fan as I thought.  Admittedly, I haven't even played Skyrim.  But, I love to draw fantasy.  Rule 63 applies.

Lady Skyrim

Open Salve

So I emailed Valve hoping for an answer.  After a week, they finally reply with update your steam client.  After specifically specifying the specific problem, and waiting another couple days, I am told they "do not offer technical support for development tools or user made content."  *slow clap*

WHELP !!

I know it's not a whelp.  My brother drew this.

Used with permission.  Thank you Yeegoh!

Lets check forums.  Some help, but even then it's kinda vague whats going on.  What kills me is I can't even post anything on the forum because, as of blogging this sentence, I am waiting for them to authorize my account... to post on the forum.

ANYWAYS

This is what I did that worked.  If you're luck enough to still have the "day of defeat source.gcf" file.


1.  Extract "day of defeat source.gcf" folder with "GCFScape"

2.  Copy "root\dod\materials" folder to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Day of Defeat Source\dod"

3.  Copy "root\dod\models" folder to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Day of Defeat Source\dod"

4.  Open "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Day of Defeat Source\dod\info.txt" with a text editor (like Windows Notepad)

5a.  Add "ToolsAppId                211" to the line after "SteamAppId                300"

5b.  Add "Game |gameinfo_path|." to the line before " // First, mount all user customizations.  This will search for VPKs and subfolders"

6a.  Run Hammer (Source Engine MP / Day of Defeat: Source)

Good luck and may the Force be with you.

***

Actually, I'm back cause I missed a couple things:


6b.  Tools -> Options

7a.  [Game Configurations] tab
Game Executable Directory:
c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\day of defeat source
Game Directory:
c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\day of defeat source\dod
HAMMER VMF Directory:
c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\username\sourcesdk_content\dod\mapsrc

7b.  [Build Programs] tab
Game executable:
c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\day of defeat source\hl2.exe
BSP executable:
c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\username\sourcesdk\bin\orangebox\bin\vbsp.exe
VIS executable:
c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\username\sourcesdk\bin\orangebox\bin\vvis.exe
RAD executable:
c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\username\sourcesdk\bin\orangebox\bin\vrad.exe
Place compiled maps in this directory before running the game:
c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\day of defeat source\dod\maps
[OK]

9.  Close Hammer

10.  Run Hammer (Source Engine MP / Day of Defeat: Source)

Broken Valve

Valve broke my head.

They updated Day of Defeat to streamline it, but the now map creator doesn't work.  Spent 2 days changing paths and looking for assets and have come up empty handed.  WHAT THE HELL MAN?

I was mocking up the office to play with friends.  I had a good alpha test too.  Now, it'sWHAT THE HELL MAN??

I cant fix the app, I cant fix my head.
Going to eat cheese now.  Mixing chocolate milk and Bailey's now.

Video Games

My buddy shared this with me today.

And we started chatting, reaffirming our love for games and how true it is that it has benefited us.  I noted how games are so complex now you can even apply classical texts like Sun Tzu's Art of War to your strategy.  So I quoted:

Strike like the eagle on top of the mountain

Root like the tree in changing winds

Zerglings flow like water

HA!  I cracked him up good.  I was so proud.  By the way its a Korean proverb.
HA!  If you still don't get it, um, its not going to be funny even if I explain. =(

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-moments-that-prove-mr.-rogers-was-greatest-american/

143 Mr. Rogers.

Let the Commencement Beginulate

It's finally here!

See you later,

BITCHES!!

Ghost and Spectres

StarCraft II - Heart of the Swarm is out!  I got the collector's edition but its still in shipping.  Boo!

I sketched a sci-fi girl to pass the time

Drew inspiration from ghosts and spectres.  I was asked what character she is.  I don't know.

I

...

Don't

...

Care

I'm already itching to just buy the digital download and get cracking.  This whole franchise has made my wife a widow and has left my little girl with a single parent mom!

XCOM, LoL

I did it!  I finished XCOM.  Checkout my unlocked achievement.

Humanity's saviour

I started playing over Christmas at my in-laws cause we were visiting and I had buckets of time.  I was power levelling at the end cause I thought the last level was going to be stupid hard.  That, and there would be 2 or 3 diffident squads assaulting select parts of the ship (as opposed to just 1).  After all that grinding, apparently for no good reason, my soldiers beat the game in a blow out.  A little anticlimactic, but I am satisfied.  Here's a snapshot of our heroes:

The team that accomplished the mission

vs.

Team Valkyrie that I wanted to end the game with.

Wait.  They're all...how come they all have the same colour...

ARMOUR!  Yes, good question.  I am too cheap to pay for the Elite Soldier Pack and did not expect enough of the game to pre-order it, which again, would have given me the same thing.  Um, as of writing, I just remembered my brother customizing his XCOM squad with flamboyant colours  You know what?  Never mind.  Moot point now.

So what's next?  I'm not going to play the Slingshot expansion pack right away.  I'm going to play the next StarCraft 2 episode.  But, seeing as how there are still a couple weeks before Heart of the Swarm, I'm jumping in and out of some sweet League of Legends.  Check out my primary and secondary champions:

Wukong and Lux

I really had no idea the Monkey King was going to be one of the champions, but I was scrolling sawhimERMAGHED!!INSTABUY!!so here he is.  Lux is little more of a different story.  It was a toss up between her and Fiora what with the fencing and the sword.  But really, when I considered it a little more carefully,  2 melee charters may get kinda old kinda quick.  Therefore, I elected to go with a ranged support glass mage.  Very low HP.  Very squishy.  =(

Pavilion

Here's a work in progress that almost slipped by.  A Chinese pavilion digital model based on an elevation of a gate from the Laio Dynasty.  

Oh, that Liao Dynasty!  Why didn't you just say so?

Sounding like a broken record, this is part of a bigger master plan (that is crawling at a snail's pace).  But I least I have some colours in mind.  Without further delay, how about some quick spin arounds?

The same way I love them Lamborghini convertibles. Topless.

I have no clever pun for the roof.

Lots of work left.  Especially modeling a suitable site.  In the likely possibility that never comes around, I'll just slap this on top of Queen's Park.

Googly Eyes

Yeah, OK guys.  Real mature...