What I Played in 2010

Just like Notch!  Okay, I was planning on doing this anyway, but his blogpost got me to do it now. 

Serpent Babel

Today I talk about the Bible and Snakes and Harry Potter and Milton, I guess.

Infinite Elephants

Here's the latest thing I'd like to share.  From the fantastic mind of Vi Hart, doodling infinite elephants.

 

Those of you who know me are aware this is a pretty fantastic representation of the way I think at any given moment.

Fall

Autumn Song

Know’st thou not at the fall of the leaf
How the heart feels a languid grief
   Laid on it for a covering,
   And how sleep seems a goodly thing
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?

And how the swift beat of the brain
Falters because it is in vain,
   In Autumn at the fall of the leaf
   Knowest thou not? and how the chief
Of joys seems—not to suffer pain?

Know’st thou not at the fall of the leaf
How the soul feels like a dried sheaf
   Bound up at length for harvesting,
   And how death seems a comely thing
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?

--Dante Gabriel Rosetti, 1883

Thoughts: The Secret of Kells and Traditional Animation

Traditional animation is a dying art.  Within, why this is bad, and how a small film by a no-name studio fought back.

Beginning, End

I urge everybody to read the short story "Beginning, End" by Jessica Soffer, a new up-and-coming author.  I've had it open in a tab for three days because I don't want to lose it.  I hope that you will not want to lose it either.

The Prime of Life

"Our indifference to money was a luxury we could afford only because we had enough of it to avoid real poverty and the need for hard or unpleasant work. Our open-mindedness was bound up with a cultural background and the sort of social activities accessible only to people of our social class. It was our conditioning as young petit bourgeois intellectuals that led us to believe ourselves free of all conditioning whatsoever."

Simon de Beauvoir, The Prime of Life

Older Man

I've actually got several new drawings coming down the pike, but this is the only one that was properly inked for scanning. This one is also more cartoony, as the rest are more realistic object studies and such.

(click to embiggen)

I'm dissatisfied with his left arm and the way it looks so limp.  Also, I think the angle of his hand is awkward.  Fingernails don't look so good, I need to find a way to either improve them or simply not draw them.  His right arm actually took longer than the rest of the entire picture.  I attempted maybe ten times to have his fingers hooked into his belt before I finally gave up.  I'll need a reference picture before I can draw that, I guess.

Some of you might wonder how much digital editing goes into these pictures after I scan them.  Some but not a lot is the answer.  Mostly I simply resize them from the GIANT size they scan at, and then use an eraser to remove any artifacts of scanning that aren't part of the actual drawing.

I've been reading a lot about the technological singularity and I got Ray Kurzweil's first book from the library, so stay tuned -- I might have an interesting editorial piece about that in the future (probably not)

Observer-dependent physics undermines the gods' decision three thousand years ago to ban cats from straddling the borders of the netherworld. We won't have it! - Sokar

Girl

Today I drew this girl.  Is she smiling or frowning?  I can't decide.  The feet were by far the most difficult part, probably taking as long as the entire rest of the picture and I still am completely unsatisfied with them.  On the other hand, I'm pretty pleased with the not-quite-profile on the body.  3/4 views are maybe the hardest things I have drawing.  Maybe.

(click to enlarge)

On the original picture her hair is shaded in with pencil but the scanner didn't pick that up and I didn't want to use pen because pen does not shade so imagine her hair is dark okay?  Okay.  I had to reline the entire thing the first time because even in pen the scanner didn't think it was dark enough so resizing it caused augh blurry.

Tomorrow is the release of Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep and I full expect my life to suffer a hit in social activity and work as a result because I can not resist the sweet siren call of Mickey Mouse.

When I was five, I was in a car with my dad and he mentioned that there was this Batman TV show in America about a man who dressed up in a costume and fought crime. The only bat I ever knew was a cricket bat, so what I thought he looked like was rather odd, based on that. - Neil Gaimen

Character Studies

I've thought about doing a comic for a while.  It may never get off the ground because I am terrible at keeping up with things like this (see this blog,) but I decided to do some character studies because I totally suck at drawing people doing things.  Anyway I like the far-left one the best, and the one in the middle the worst but only because I think the facial expression is ridiculous.

 (click to expand)

This won't be a martial arts comic but it's a good way to check out the human body.  Also I could be drawing this realistically and "good art" but if I did it would take six times as long to draw a table and I would kill myself.

BONUS GAME: How many influences from other cartoonists can you spot? (hint: more than one)


He says comics now are just a bunch of Xeroxed talking heads because there's no space to tell a decent story or to show any action. He thinks people should write to their newspapers and complain. - Calvin

No More Final Fantasy

I was planning on really digging into Final Fantasy VIII this month, but I realized I just don't enjoy it.  When you're looking for reasons NOT to play a videogame, it's a hint that you should stop playing.  So maybe I'll do erratic updates to that, but don't expect it.  Ever. 

So while I spend some time thinking about what to repurpose this blog for, here is a rundown of games that I AM playing and enjoying (or have played/enjoyed) in the past month, ranked roughly in terms of of how much I have enjoyed them.  List after the jump.

Day 5: Ballin' at the Ball

Today I migrate from playing on the PSP to playing on the TV.   Oh, and the story is supposed to actually start now.  We'll see.

Day 4: The End of the Beginning

Today, the game's opening sequence comes to a close.  It only took four days!  I don't care how long or (or short) it takes, but I will finish this opening TODAY.

Day 3: Rebel Scum

Today I ascend the electric tower into the heavens, all in the name of a passing grade.

Day 2: SeeDs of Destruction

Today I attempt the SeeD exam.  Or try to, anyway, if I can ever wrest myself away from duel monsters.

Day 1: Through the Fire and Flames

The most important thing about a game is possibly the first hour or two.  It's like the opening chapter of a book, or the establishing shots of a movie.  It sets the mood for the entire rest of the game, and oftentimes is a good indicator of how much fun you're going to have.  Sometimes a game with a horrible opening can turn out to be good (I'm looking at you Aquaria,) but those games are the exception rather than the rule.  Thus, this first hour will be crucial to Final Fantasy VIII's success.

A Long, Dubious Journey Begins

Today, having finally procured a Memory Stick which is capable of holding more than a single gigabyte of data, I decided to take the classic PS1 title Final Fantasy VII for a spin.  I've never played this "classic" but I've certainly heard about it, and really, what gamer hasn't?  It regularly vies with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the title of "Best Game Ever."  I personally didn't play Ocarina until about ten years after its 1997 release, following the logic put forward by one well-known webcomic. I do this regularly -- I didn't play the fantastic Max Payne until this year.  My experience with the Final Fantasy franchise proper (the numbered titles, not the spin-offs such as Tactics or Crystal Chronicles) is limited at best.  I've only played Final Fantasy III (not VI, I mean the Japanese III) and hated it.  I regularly cite it as the worst game I've ever played.  However, millions of people have purchased this game, and supposedly the series picked up after the third entry.  We will see, I thought.

Anyway, I decided now was the time to experience this so-called masterpiece.  I booted up the Playstation Network store and payed the meagre fee to download the game.  With an hour to download the game and another hour to install it, I went to eat my dinner, presuming that I would begin the adventure of Cloud Strife upon my return.  I also noticed that Final Fantasy VIII was available, which I decided to look into at a later date if VII was to my liking.

Fate had a trick, it seems.  I came back and realized with some amusement that I had accidentally downloaded and installed not Final Fantasy VII, but VIII instead.  Ha!  I had originally planned to start a small blog to chronicle my journey through the land of Gaia, but it seems that I will be playing a very different game instead.  In the upcoming days, I will post my thoughts about my travels, my opinions about the game from a modern perspective, and anything else about this game that I find amusing.  That is, unless I hate the game and decide to stop.  Then I'll never write again.  Anyway, enjoy I guess.  The first entry on the game itself will go up when I have time to actually start a JRPG and dedicate time to it -- likely by the end of the week.  Until then, you can go read something else, because I got nothing.