#but the originals were done in inkscape

[wordsandrobots]

Not to be all final-final-v3 on everyone but I think that actually is it. Having now accounted for a sudden last-minute extra scene in the last fic, I believe that's now a section break icon for every individual point of view in Wishing on Space Hardware.

Some of these won't actually end up being used, since the POVs only occur at the start of chapters, but I like to be thorough. There are still two POVs not covered here: the omnipresent narrator who shows up occasionally to address the reader directly (which is *technically* another character POV, because the narrator has a definite voice, but that'll remain my little secret); and one you'll find out about in the very last fic in the series, which has an icon prepared already, but isn't a singular point of view, exactly.

So yes. Hah! Done.

Now I just need to finish writing that last fic.

Key to the characters represented below this cut:

Eugene | Kudelia | Elion | Almiria | Azee

Shino | Atra | Julieta | Asher | Eco

Yamagi | Akatsuki | Toka | Embi | Argi

Chad | Yukinojo | Gallus | Lin | Liarina

Dante | Merribit | Gaelio | Reuben | Volco

Derma | Dexter | Iverson | Isurugi | Ilyana

Zack | Takaki | Ordsley | Carta | McMurdro

Dane | Sri | Mackenzie | the pluma | Cricthlow

Ride | Sakura | Ahmed | Gargin | The Chief

Hirume | Cucubita | Iznario | Nobliss | Greyling

Pel | Victor | Deira | Dominic | Ms Phiri

[tanadrin]

The map you did for the interior of Pr is really really good - how did you make it, if you don't mind me asking?

Thank you! I make all my maps using GIMP and Inkscape. For Pr, I drew a heightmap by hand, then applied a gradient to it using the Color > Map > Gradient Map function, and then used the original heightmap with the Filter > Map > Bump Map function to show the relief more clearly. The lakes were done in a separate layer so I could add them over the top last. The names and cities were done in Inkscape, because positioning curved text is a lot easier in Inkscape.

I only recently learned that you can adjust the modes of individual layers in GIMP to do thinks like additive or subtractive composition, which when you're working with grayscale heightmaps is really helpful for topography--you can, for instance, do a topography layer, then create a noise layer and just add that to the topography layer to give a little more texture to the whole thing. You can also make features in different layers overlap nicely by using the "Luma/Luminance Lighten Only" mode, for instance.

My favorite tools for making heightmaps in GIMP are the airbrush and smudge tools--I like to rough out terrain using the airbrush, and then use the smudge to shape it in more detail, and add like erosion and stuff. You can rough out large terrain areas like that and then go back over them later to add more detail when you're happy with the large-scale features. I still haven't found a tool or program I like to add very fine detail, like small-scale erosion or very intense cratering, though. You could do that stuff by hand, but it would be pretty exhausting.

[beamycomet]

I'm curious about your rebuilding process - I had never played a Lovestruck game before but I did follow some people who were quite into those games when Voltage shut down. I know there was a ton of Lovestruck/Voltage games so I was still sad to see that all go, hats off to you for recreating all of this and sharing this with the internet. Do you recreate all the art yourself? How do you go about getting the writing for all these stories - is it a lot of scouring the internet, or did you have files of the games to reference? I'm genuinely just curious about your process, not trying to be nosy, so if you feel like talking about it I'd love to hear it :)

Sorry for the slightly long post but this is how I made my Love & Legends remake.

So first of all, I need a copy of all of the game assets to remake the entire game. (This means backgrounds, character sprites, music etc...) Without a copy of the original game assets, remaking this game would be next to impossible. Luckily, a couple of Lovestruck archive groups have managed to recover and archive the game assets from the Lovestruck app before it shut down, so I just had to download the game assets from their archives so I can use them for my remake. I was missing some VFX assets for the game but fortunately someone here on Tumblr was kind enough to remake those for me.

Next, I needed to start building the foundations of the game and make sure that the game assets shows up in game correctly before starting work on remaking the game. For the game engine, I'm using Ren'Py and for creating and modifying assets like menu buttons and making small adjustments to character sprites, I've used both GIMP and Inkscape.

Once the foundations of the game is in place and some of the character sprites is built, I started to rebuild each route from the ground up starting with Helena. To help me achieve this, I found some route transcriptions from a Lovestruck discord server and found multiple recordings of each route from Love & Legends from a bunch of different sources from YouTube, Tumblr and Discord. I then used these recordings to rebuild each episode as accurately as possible.

And that's pretty much it. Just remake episodes from each route and upload them onto Itch.io once I'm done.

[pentriahex]

Regarding More Shapes + Raves + the blog's future

So you might be wondering why I mostly moved on to making Kirby fan art and other interests, from making the S3RL Trilogy. This sudden loss of interest in making MSPR wasn't explained very well by me, but given the current state of things right now, I should say it.

Right now, the old iteration of More Shapes + Raves has been considered "canceled". This is mainly because of the comic's development being hit by major scope creep coming from suggestions made by my friends and myself. With a scope so huge, the comic's ideas became disorganized and very arbitrary, unnecessarily causing too much growth and less motivation to make the comic.

A plan I have been considering for a long while is to reboot MSPR. The core concepts (such as Raver Dimension, Neko Nation, Rave Six, etc.) will be retained, however I'd need to change up some things to prevent a potential case of scope creep coming for the reboot, such as the addition of unnecessary ideas and songs. Given the return of activity on the Interdimensional Library Discord, MSPR's reboot might be one more chance to spring the comic back in action.

Some things to keep in mind for the MSPR reboot:

All panels will be remade in a 1920x1080 resolution to match the highest screen resolution rendered in Just Shapes & Beats. They will also all be made in Inkscape, in comparison to past S3RL Trilogy panels, which mainly made use of MediBang Paint.

The musical aspect of MSPR may be potentially toned down. I haven't been in the mood lately to make musical songs for stuff like lore, backstories, etc. Instead, MSPR will continue the traditional storytelling and dialogue that the previous stories (Hexagon's Adventure and Fiveside Force) have.

The playable flashback acts will be completely removed. Think that's way too much from the original scope. These will be relegated back into regular cutscenes.

The intro act may be completely changed. I think there has to be a more coherent reason why Fresh rediscovered the Ravortexia in the first place, not just by finding some random book on the ground.

Some songs will be retained, but there might be some new ones too. Additional fights that were introduced in my Mixtape concepts (like Endless Summer) may be re-incorporated into MSPR.

The Rave Six, as of now, is based on guest characters that represent the vocalists of various S3RL music, and other celebrities and friends in real life. To lessen the connection to the real deals, some names of the characters will be changed. I've done a few ideas with HexaCryonic about this.

Most importantly, the skeletal structure of the lore and backstories used in MSPR will be kept, but they will be refined over time for a more coherent storytelling. This includes the backstory of Raver Dimension, Fresh, etc. while also coherently tying it in with aspects of JSAB Story Mode including the Lost Chapter.

Teasers will be handled better, as I might include things like more song hints, WIP art teasers (in the Interdimensional Library server), and more.

Regarding where the MSPR reboot will be posted, they'll be posted to any Just Shapes & Beats servers that I'm in, but these will be the most active places where you can find the S3RL Trilogy and MSPR:

This blog (obviously). @pentriahex

Interdimensional Library (JSAB Comic Server, where S3RL Trilogy also gained popularity there)

Berzerk Studio Official Discord

r/kirby Discord

These are just some of the basic plans I had in mind for a potential MSPR reboot, and there might be more in the making as the reboot plans are still developing. However, this is not all what I have in mind:

Raverian Encore: MSPR & S3RL Trilogy Extra Mixtapes & More

If you have been following my works in the Berzerk Studio official Discord server, you might have noticed I've been developing some "extra levels" that still have ties to the MSPR theming. Most of the time, these are levels that have very arbitrary song picks.

If you don't know what extra levels are, these are levels in Just Shapes & Beats that do not have any ties to the main story, and must be unlocked by other means (eg. collecting Beatpoints, performing certain actions, etc.) There are already obvious examples such as Tokyo Skies, Paper Dolls, and even tracks like Deadlocked and the Strike the Earth (Shovel Knight) remix by Danimal Cannon, but I'm sure you'd already know that by now.

The songs revealed for Raverian Encore were:

Caleb Hyles & Ironmouse - Omae Wa Mou (Silva Hound Remix)

Crispy & KungFuFurby - Electrospire (from SMW Central Production 2)

Shirobon - Counter Format

S3RL ft. Lexi - Heart Thief (Promoted from EleCyon Mixtape)

I'll be eventually posting these later on the S3RL Trilogy blog, but this is not important right now. I want to discuss more about how I'll be handling extra content going forward:

Scrapped levels and arbitrary level concepts will most likely end up in these so-called "extra mixtapes". Notably, there will be three mixtapes, each containing new levels that are tied to the theming of the three stories in the S3RL Trilogy.

There are three colors of mixtape: purple, green, and yellow, corresponding to Hexagon's Adventure, FIveside Force, and MSPR.

The purple mixtape is called "Extragon-N-On", and is obtained after completing the OctoChaos boss battle in Hexagon's Adventure.

The green mixtape is called the "Side Five", obtained after liberating Planet No. 5 in Fiveside Force.

The yellow mixtape is "Raverian Encore". I planned this to be given by the Rave Master after Triangle begins his quest to reassemble the Rave Six in Act 1 of MSPR, and I'll keep that too for the reboot.

The old iteration of More Shapes + Raves will be archived as a separate thing when I make the S3RL Trilogy downloadable in the future.

Some scrapped levels and even mixtape levels may be subject to being added in the MSPR reboot, but this is purely based on my decisions.

Concept art and the MSPR plan documents may be shared in a separate download if I do decide on doing that.

The future of the blog

Right now, More Shapes + Raves is still being re-developed as a reboot, so I can't say I'd be posting much of the comic here. However, since this blog is designed for the S3RL Trilogy in general, I'd want to clarify some things:

I originally planned on reblogging most of my old comic posts from Hexagon's Adventure and Fiveside Force on my main, which also used to be the S3RL Trilogy blog before rebranding as my main Tumblr account in general (which also has a main focus on Kirby fan art). However, I decided that I'll be just making new posts on this blog for Hexagon's Adventure and Fiveside Force, as I do plan on rewriting most of the comic captions and dialogue.

The state of the comics will be kept as is, with some exceptions. I really should note once again that Fiveside Force admittedly took way too much from Decagon's JSAB comics (which are sadly cancelled as of now), and as a result I'd need to remake some of the panels.

In regards to the above, the worst offenders I've seen were that one PentaBoss scene in the Perfect Rave battle and the meet-up of Lord Apeirogon with Marga in the introduction of Act 4, and I'm not sure if the entirety of Act 1 and the Monsta boss battle in Act 2 counts. In this regard, such quality does not match up with my current standards, as I've now strived to push for more original content nowadays, and as a consequence I'll just be remaking some panels in Inkscape.

There will be now unique tags for the blog's posts, which I will explain in the following section.

If ever the S3RL Trilogy has concluded, there are plans for the blog to switch over to just being a comic blog for my Just Shapes & Beats universe in general. I also plan to repost some of my old Tumblr ask art for posterity purposes, and also revive an old JSAB Flower OC I've adopted from the Bountiful Blossoms JSAB adoptable blog (thank you once again).

Anyways, next part is least important but is something I'd want to talk about in the event I do plan on posting comics to the blog:

Blog Tags

I'd want to promote the use of blog tags to make it easier for people who want to navigate my comics. The planned tags would be:

#hexagon's adventure - This is for posting comics related to Just Shapes & Beats: Hexagon's Adventure.

#fiveside force - This is for posting comics related to Pentagon & The Fiveside Force.

#more shapes plus raves - This is for posting comics related to More Shapes + Raves

#the s3rl trilogy / #s3rl trilogy / #s3rltrilogy - These are the main tags of the blog in general.

You may also use these tags in fan art, just be sure to tag this blog or send me an ask for posterity purposes. I'd like to see what you've made.

Anyways, that's pretty much it then. I hope you are still patient enough to look forward to the eventual revival of MSPR and to the blog in general. Thank you for the patience and the long read, and I hope to see you again soon.

If you also want other non-JSAB content, you are free to check out @cyonofgaia, which is more dedicated to all my passion projects in general.

[trixybobbitt]

AI generated art is theft, do you have to have an AI Art Profile picture?? It really bums me out ):

Yes, I was using an AI profile portrait. It was one of those early photo style edits from before the AI art stuff really blew up. The photo it was based on was of me and taken by me. Still, I recognize that it is inexcusable laziness and complicit in theft almost certainly committed when the AI was trained. It was a placeholder which is overdue for replacement. This new vaguely heart shaped icon is one I created myself with a freeware vector art program called Inkscape for use in my book. It is based on a heart shape which I think is old enough that no one is quite sure where it's use started. It's also meant to resemble a pen nib. Pen nib shapes are largely functional and whether you would judge their origin in Roman ruled Britain in the 40s AD, or Egyptian reed pens far before then, those are both a bit past the copyright cutoff Mickey is staring down. I don't think I can get any more theft-free than that and still use a standardized web image format. I could be wrong. Posting publicly on the internet is an efficient way to be corrected and learn. I think I'll add some genderqueer colors to it after I'm done writing this. While the genderqueer flag was designed by Marilyn Roxie, it's covered by Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License so I think I can use it without taking food from the mouths of creators. I also own commissioned cover art, which I did not draw, but I own the reproduction and modification rights. If I wanted to use that for a bit more color, do I credit Angrboda in my profile, or a pinned post? Do I post the artist's legal name to avoid confusion with the norse goddess? Is it enough that tineye will reveal its origin? I haven't seen anyone else posting citations for their avatars, so I do not know the appropriate convention. I'm not sure what is enough. I also love the art of simz, but I have not commissioned a piece from them. Is there a way to use their art in an avatar without bumming you or other folks out? Is it enough if I'm a contributor to their patreon?

In addition, I've probably used one or two Felix Argyles in my few 'original' content posts which were not illustrated by Shin'ichirō Ōtsuka, and some backgrounds which may not have been either stock, meme template, or from recognizable intellectual properties. (I made a few of them while drunk-posting on a friend's couch, and probably didn't click through my google image search to check.) I'm not sure if they represent fair use, but I don't think you were raising a legal complaint, just feeling bummed about art friends struggling to commoditize their creativity in a capitalist society that is predatory toward small business, so I'm not sure what to do to cheer you up. ☺

[skybirdpulse]

Isis flag

“I seem to be the only person that’s spotted this, and nobody seems to be raising any questions or pointing it out,” said CNN reporter Lucy Pawle. The Secret Service says it is 'aware' of a photo that appeared to show an image of an ISIS (also known as ISIL or Islamic State) flag in front of the White House. So CNN, as is its wont, blasted the headline “ISIS FLAG SPOTTED AT GAY PRIDE PARADE” for a rollicking seven-minute segment, even going so far as to pat itself on the back for the “scoop.” Indeed, during the network’s live coverage of Saturday’s gay pride parade in London, an intrepid CNN reporter claimed that she’d spotted an ISIS flag among the rainbows. “The award for greatest moment in global Pride celebrations actually had nothing to do with gay marriage, and everything to do with the idiocy of CNN,” said Oliver. Explore 'Isis-flag profile at Times of India for photos, videos and latest news of 'Isis-flag. And the outrageous screw-up served as perfect comedy fodder for satirist John Oliver on his excellent HBO program Last Week Tonight. 'Isis-flag News: Latest and Breaking News on 'Isis-flag. Saipov, who was shot in the stomach by police, was. One of the biggest foot-in-mouth moments came-of course-from CNN during its coverage of London’s gay pride parade on Saturday. Saipov requested to display ISIS’s flag in his hospital room and stated that he felt good about what he had done, the complaint states. The words ISIS is COMI had been spray-painted on a wall on the school’s east side, KUTV reported. It was the day the Supreme Court, in a landmark 5-4 ruling, legalized gay marriage for all Americans-including the 13 states where same-sex marriages had been banned.There were mostly positive reactions to the SCOTUS ruling, as well as some strongly worded dissents from Supreme Court justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. The American flag was left shredded at the scene.

No other changes.Friday was a historic day for America. But the video of the flag being raised appears to show younger children chanting Isis slogans, which may suggest that indoctrination is being led by women in the camp, according to one expert. The flag contains two parts of the shahada, an Arabic declaration of Islamic faith which asserts that Allah is the one true God and that Muhammad is his prophet. The graphic image depicts the 23-year-old Egyptian feminist, artist, and social activist Aliaa Magda Elmahdy facing the camera, nude and menstruating over the Islamic State flag, IS painted in. This is a flag known by some as the Black Banner. Higher svg resolution from same file: resized by "Inkscape". This Dildo Flag Was Mistaken For An 'ISIS Flag' By CNN. Svg image based on press photographs (original 2007 upload apparently based on a picture of the "Official website of Islamic State of Iraq" which can not now be traced press photographs showing this flag first appear in early 2006).Ĭlick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.Īligned "svg" image scale (1000x1000) to page size (1000x1000). (more precisely, the "seal" design is based on a 1980s facsimile of Ottoman era copies of letters written and sealed by Muhammad, in which the copyists had manually inked the seal impression the jihadist flags seen in press photographs do not show the seal as circular but in a slightly irregular shape that faithfully mimicks one particular such specimen see w:seal of Muhammad for details).Īlso note that the representation of this seal formerly uploaded to commons but since deleted is merely a graphist's "fictionalisation" of what the seal might have looked like the actual artefact on exhibit as the "seal of Muhammad" in Istanbul is rectangular) It shows the shahada in an arrangement that includes the image of the historical "seal of Muhammad" This particular version is used by the "Islamic State of Iraq" and by al-Shabaab in Somalia.

Description Flag of Islamic State of Iraq.svg

[thatsparrow]

repainted my kitchen cabinets 🍋 🍊

progress steps w photos below:

first I found a wallpaper pattern to use as my inspiration/reference (I went with this one). then I took screenshots of the different design elements I wanted and imported them into inkscape (a free alternative to adobe illustrator) and made simple vector outlines to use as stencils

ex:

in terms of designing the stencils, they weren’t perfect, but I mostly focused on trying to maintain the major shapes of each piece of fruit that I would have the toughest time replicating on my own

once I had all my stencils, I roughly figured out how large I wanted the oranges to be on the cupboard and then sized the stencils accordingly in InDesign on to as few sheets of paper as possible. I did two versions of everything — one with the oranges at about 4″ diameter and one at 5″ diameter with everything else scaled accordingly. then I printed them out on printer paper and roughly cut them out:

to actually make the stencils was a little bit of trial and error. I went to michaels looking for sheets of acrylic but couldn’t find what I was looking for, so picked up a sheet of corrugated plastic. used mod podge to adhere the paper cut out to the plastic and then cut out the shapes, but the cut-outs were a little rougher than I’d hoped and actually applying paint turned out a little less clean than I wanted. I also picked up a sheet of thicker acrylic from home depot intended for replacement picture frames, but that was too thick and totally unworkable, so finally I caved and ordered some mylar sheets intended for making stencils off amazon. i do hate ordering from amazon but the mylar was pretty perfect

once i’d used mod podge to adhere the paper outlines to the mylar, I used an xacto knife to cut out the shapes which was pretty painless. now it was time for painting!

I had an interior semi-gloss paint picked out that I wanted to use for the border so first mixed it with white to lighten it for the background

once the background had dried, I started with the stencils. I used simple acrylic paint from michaels — I bought larger bottles of orange, yellow, green, white, and black, and then a sample pack with a variety of colors to use for mixing. I started with the leaves in the background and then just kept layering colors on and slowly adding the citrus stencils on top:

for the oranges and greens (but particularly the yellow) it took quite a few layers of paint to build up until they were opaque and I could start doing the details on top. as I learned too late in the process, adding titanium white to the yellow helps strengthen the opacity.

once I had all my base colors done, I went back over to add some shading, and then finally did another pass just with white paint to add the highlights. I wanted it to have a somewhat stylized look so I wasn’t stressing too much about everything looking perfect

from the first to the second, I ended up going over the flowers because I wasn’t that happy with how they’d turned out and also added more fruit to fill in some of the blue. 

next, I took my original paint color and added in the border, then used a semi-gloss water-based polyurethane to cover the acrylics to give them some protection and give everything the same sheen:

and that’s it! I definitely could’ve kept tweaking the acrylics forever but overall I’m very happy with how it turned out

[insectoid5]

The Making of Insectoid (Part 1)

Several weeks ago, @whistlingwindtree complimented me on my icon, prompting me to talk a little bit about it.  But it also reminded me that, back when it was new, I had planned to write a page covering how I made the thing, and post it on my website.  Obviously, that never happened (because social media, fanfic, and everything that goes with it crept in and took over my life), but now that I'm out of school till August, I have more than enough time to tell this story properly. 

Tagging those who expressed interest: @raksha-the-demon @frozenartscapes @shardsofarendelle @carrieasagiri @grrlgeek72 and @above-d-clouds.  Wall of text and pictures below the cut!

Disclaimer: I would really appreciate that these images do not wind up anywhere else, on Tumblr or otherwise.  I trust most of you to do the right thing, but this is Tumblr, you know.

The Name of the Bug.

I suppose I should begin at the beginning, and explain the origin of my screen name.  Now, I was a fairly avid Lego builder when I was young; it's lesser now, because of Real Life and Social Media Distractions, but a significant portion of my closet is filled with it. 😂  Anyway, about 20 years ago, Lego's newest building system was the Insectoids, which look like this:

[That's my own scan, BTW, of the #6907 instruction manual.  No point in hoarding Legos (and instruction manuals) if I don't show them off sometimes . . .]

Now kid-me, being an avid builder, and seeing that these sets were TOTALLY WICKED looking (and since I'd always liked the space sets in general), wanted every single set.  (We didn't accomplish that for many years, but some deals on eBay finished the collection eventually.)

Around the same time (late 1999 or 2000), my dad discovered a computer game for Linux that had been around for several years, called XPilot.  XPilot is a arcade shooter sort of game, largely influenced by Atari's Gravitar (which my dad also enjoyed), and a game inspired by it, Thrust.  As such, the game has fairly simple graphics, but has endless potential for customization, both in the server program (which runs the "map" or world you play in) and in the client program.  Most importantly, it is a multiplayer network game, gathering users from around the world, with a "meta server" that shows you what XPilot servers are running and who is playing, and allows you to join them.  (Despite the game's decline in popularity, by the way, the meta server is still running.)

Because it's open source, XPilot was soon ported to other OS's, including Windows.  My dad, brother, uncle, and I started playing around what I would guess was the peak of interest in the game; it wasn't too many years before human players started becoming scarce.  Here's an example of what XPilot looks like, captured from a game I played in 2016, using the teamplay-optimized fork of the original XPilot client:

[Full-res image is HERE.  That's my ship in the middle; the heads-up display shows who I'm targeting and what items I have, while the list at the left shows the players in the game, which on this map are mostly robots (R).]

Anyway, back to my story.  (If I carried on explaining the game, you might be stuck here reading all day.)  The short of it is: when we started playing XPilot, I needed a suitable nickname, and my latest Lego obsession fit the bill.  (As a side note, at the same time, I gave my brother a nick that complements this one: Arachnoid (or just Spider).  This earned us the collective nickname "oids" from a few players. 😂)

The Ship(s) of the Bug.

The spaceship that you fly around in XPilot, or "shipshape", can be whatever you choose or draw yourself, as long as it follows the predetermined rules.  Anything from a simple triangle—

[This is the default ship, if you have no other ship set.]

—up to a custom-drawn polygon of 24 vertices:

[Insectoid XII, 2012.]

The Insectoid ship here, "XII" or "Mk 12", is the twelfth iteration of its design going back to 2000:

[Twelve years of artistic tweaking.  Note that "I" is not here; it was lost long ago, but looked similar to "II".  "IV" and "VIIIB" were seldom-used prototypes.]

These are, of course, not the only ships I've designed.  Being artistically-inclined, I have, to this day, drawn 350 different ships.  (The bulk of these can be seen on my website.)  Now, because XPilot ships are simple polygons, it's fairly easy to make a graphic of one to use as an avatar online.  For a while, I did use a screenshot of my ship, hand edited in MS Paint and filtered in IrfanView to look more flashy:

[Insectoid VII, 2007, firing missiles.]

I used that method to make avatars until about 2011.  With Insectoid XI being more hexagonal in shape than its predecessors, I added an extra background feature to the drawing:

[Insectoid XI, 2011, with honeycomb background.]

In 2012, I discovered Inkscape, and eventually started using it to make vector graphics for my webpage.  The first thing I did, though, was convert my entire XPilot ship file at the time to a PDF, and thence to individual SVG images.  From there, I improved on my previous avatar-making process to present my newest ship, "XII", with the clean lines and filter effects only a vector graphics program like Inkscape could produce:

[Insectoid XII, 2012, with honeycomb background.  The engine exhaust was done using a "film grain" filter, and glows with multi-layer opacity tricks.]

I was content with that for almost two years.  In 2014, I decided to try something a little more ambitious: a 3D model.

Next: from vector image to 3D model . . . and back again.

[Continue to part 2]

[hopearchive-blog]

Project #1

Introduction and Learning Outcome

I want my final project to encompass some of the interesting artifacts related to how information institutions have evolved, ie libraries, archives, and museums. These changes have been to keep up with the changes in technology, interests, the economic challenges, and the current added parameters of the pandemic.

This first graphic looks at the technology changes.

Learning Outcome: "Librarians will be able to recognize how technology has changed in information organizations to better perform in their field."

Original Files and Licensing

Cuneiform- https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.britannica.com%2Ftopic%2Fcuneiform&psig=AOvVaw1XvOBP9WfTEiRBTfYgSNI8&ust=

1604376172414000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCIjFuJL94uwCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

MP3 Player –

https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1421757350652-9f65a35effc7?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjEyMDd9&auto=format&fit=crop&w=500&q=60

E-reader –

https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1594498257673-9f36b767286c?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjEyMDd9&auto=format&fit=crop&w=500&q=60

 Captured Images:

+Bookcase

+CD Stack

Used Gimp and Inkscape

 Techniques

Raster -

Basic = Change image sizes, rotate, adjust brightness/contrast, adjust color vibrancy, adjust hue/saturation, subtracted from the selection

Advanced = Add objects by cloning, remove a large object, add texture, create a graphic shape

Vector - 

Basic = Cut and erase, add a line of text, format text, draw simple shapes

Advanced = Reshape text, use paths, and recolor artwork

 Design Elements

Contrast: Used darker bookcases with white text and lighter, brighter backgrounds

Repetition: Used clone stamp tool on the bookcase to make it look like a uniform set, used the same bullet points and font through out

Alignment: Lined up the text elements to the image and their rectangular surrounds

Proximity: Had the descriptions close to the elements they were defining/describing

 Reflection

I learned more about vectors in this process, I only ever took one illustrator course. When it came to raster images, I had previously done a lot with gimp and photoshop. I relearned some techniques I had not used in a while. The critiques helped me to clean up the images and make them clearer to see.

I like the element choices I ended up working with.

[buzzsawmoonpony]

Part of how I got into creating infinitely-scalable show-styled ponies was from how off-putting little things like this were (and still are) to me.

Short answer: Z-order blues.

Long answer:

Well, even though this only concerns the goggles and ears, let’s start by reconstructing Soarin in his entirety, just because we can 😜:

Aaaand take a closer look at that head:

Just looking at it, the layering probably would’ve looked something like this on the Soarin puppet used in the show by DHX:

The goggle strap needs to be above the ear, yet, also under his mane and the goggle itself, which is already layered underneath the ear.

Now, because one of the general principles of vectoring something to reproduce means it’ll be a still image as opposed to something that can look nice in-motion or be animated easily, any defects will be preserved or frozen to be seen by anyone unless they are fixed. And that’s basically what we’re going to do, by making his strap appear to go over his ear, but also tuck under the goggle and through his mane (however way it seems to work in the latter):

All that really needs to be done is to duplicate the goggle strap so that even in pieces it’s indistinguishable, and cut it so it’s away from the objects it’s supposed to be layered under (the new object is labeled as “Goggles 1″ and colored green here; it’ll be colored the same shade of yellow normally).

...Unfortunately, while Inkscape is proficient with many things, the filtering or antialiasing of different objects on top of each other is one that it is not. It’s especially noticeable when the colors are different, even at a small, less zoomed-in scale, like the lightning rings around the sleeves of the Wonderbolt suit. Specifically the thin bit of blue filtering on the edges of his legs where the lightning rings are:

Using the goggle strap as an example, we’ll duplicate the object again, and cut the duplicate and the original in a way where there’s little overlap (but not too little, or a sub-pixel thin gap between the two objects will be noticeable for the same reason the filtering overlap is visible):

...And on the legs, we’ll clip/mask them into two pieces so there’s little overlap with the lightning rings; the opacity of the lightning rings was reduced to show the gap in this comparison. While the result isn’t that the antialiasing is necessarily completely unnoticeable, the effect is ideally “satisfiably less” noticeable:

(This supposedly wouldn’t be an issue on Adobe Illustrator.)

...And for the last thing, like a previous Soarin vector, I wanted to swap that goggle model so it’s no longer a rip-off of the female Wonderbolt one, since at least on the Season 1-5 models they were distinct (and looked more-three dimensional, at least with a slight modification in position):

Aaaand the end result:

Not that I’d know, but something like this would probably still be more-difficult to animate in the same fashion. Just a little disclaimer that as “easy” or “simple” a fix like this might be, that I don’t claim to animate as good as the DHX animators do.

In any case that’s just a little pony vector mini-demo of sorts for you, since I can’t say I’ve done anything of the sort on this tumblr yet. 😊

[gamedesigngarrett]

Week Eleven

This week I focused on doing more token designs as well as figuring out the hex layout for the board. Originally, we were going to have 53 hexes, which with how they were laid out, looked able to fit in a perfect square. But, after putting the hexes into Inkscape and placing it inside a square, it turned out to be longer one way. So, I added two new rows of seven hexes, making the total hex count 67.

I also cleaned up the police force token, giving him a high-tech visor over one eye. It may end up looking a bit too similar to our eventual cyborg token, though it wouldn’t be much of a problem because of how in a cyberpunk world, everyone is geared with cybernetics and robot parts. At one point I asked the group if we should backtrack and draw the designs, rather than doing them in the simple shape vector drawings I’ve already done, but decided to keep rolling with the style already in place. 

For next week I want to be prepared to continue making a demo for our game, and to further brainstorm our Black Market card effects. I’ll also be doing more token designs and may start gang leader card designs, as well. The board design also should begin soon, which I will probably task one of my group members with. 

[jbpiggin]

This Oldest Map is a Beauty

The oldest surviving Latin diagram of the world was rediscovered by accident in the Vatican Library in the 1920s. Youssouf Kamal (1882-1965), an Egyptian prince and aesthete, had financed a huge undertaking to publish a collection of ancient maps depicting Africa fully or obliquely. While combing through the Vatican, the scholars stumbled on a lavish, full-page colored spread, folios 64v-65r in Vat.lat.6108, which had been completely overlooked in all previous historical research. A few weeks ago I digitally plotted a simpler diagram of similar age which is now held by the archives of Albi, France and has been recognized as a UNESCO world heritage treasure. The Vatican Mappamundi was drawn in about 760 or 770 CE and has been a good deal more difficult to plot, since the photographic images compress the central part into the gutter of the book binding.  

This is the first-ever color plot to be published. Zoom in and you will see that the diagram has south at the top and therefore Europe at bottom right. The scribe evidently turned the parchment and wrote place names from every side.  Six cities are represented by star-shaped symbols: Constantinople, Rome, Alexandria, Carthage, Jerusalem and Babylon. The big island at left is Sri Lanka and at lower right are the British Isles. The meaning of the "fourth continent" at top right has been much debated. The crescenty things on the rim are thought to represent sun and moon. The current received wisdom is that this is a Christian adaptation of a diagram which had been used to teach (secular) geographical knowledge in late antique schools in the Latin West. The Vatican Mappamundi is probably contemporary with the original of the 12th-century Tabula Peutingeriana, a Latin diagram in roll form which shows the whole known world as a very long strip. My view is that abstract diagrams (of which both are fine examples) are an invention of late antiquity, not earlier. For this digital plot I used the Vatican Library's scans, uncurling the center part with the lattice deformation tool in Inkscape. The transcriptions are mostly Glorie's, while a black and white engraving by Menéndez Pidal helped decode some of the ambiguities. The color adaptation is my own. Now, back to the discoverer. Prince Youssouf belonged to a dynasty of Albanian origin who ruled Egypt until the army-led revolution of 1952. Through polygamy it was a large family and Youssouf held back from the jostling for leadership, instead founding seats of learning and cultivating the arts. Such was his wealth that he built three palaces and financed culture. He seems to have been interested in two major topics: the depiction of North Africa in ancient cartography and the contributions of Islamic learning to cartography. That is why he financed the Monumenta cartographica Africae et Aegypti, a catalogue of facsimile images of manuscript maps.  He is listed as author, but the research and compilation of was done by Frederik Caspar Wieder (1874-1943) of the Netherlands. Only 100 copies of the 16-part series published in Cairo between 1926 and 1951 were printed, with a few sold to collectors and most distributed to libraries and institutions. 

Chekin, L. S. (1999). Easter tables and the Pseudo-Isidorean Vatican map. Imago Mundi, 51(1), 13–23. DOI 10.1080/03085699908592900.

Edson, E. (1998). Mapping Time and Space: How Medieval Mapmakers Viewed Their World. London: British Library.

Englisch, B. (2002). Ordo Orbis Terrae: Die Weltsicht in den Mappae mundi des frühen und hohen Mittelalters. Akademie Verlag.

Glorie, F. (1965). Mappa Mvndi (Vat. lat. 6108). In P. Geyer, O. Cuntz, A. Francheschini, R. Weber, L. Bieler, J. Fraipont, & F. Glorie (Eds.), Itineraria et alia geographica (pp. 456–466). Brepols.

Menéndez Pidal, G. (1954). Mozárabes y asturianos en la cultura de la Alta Edad Media, en relación especial con la Historia de los conocimientos geográficos. Boletín de La Real Academia de La Historia, 134, 137–292.

Uhden, R. (1935). Die Weltkarte des Isidorus von Sevilla. Mnemosyne, 3rd series, 3, 1–28

via Blogger https://ift.tt/2JZdyqP

[svgsalon-blog]

How You Can  Use SVG Files in Silhouette Studio Free Version

Don’t wish to upgrade to the Designer Edition of Silhouette Studio but still want to enjoy using SVG Silhouettes files? Well, there’s a simple (and FREE) trick to do so. You can convert SVG files to other formats that are available under the free version of this software.

Using SVG files along with your Silhouettes studio files will make things easier and you can do it in many ways. Generally, if you have a JPG or PNG image and you open it in Silhouette Studio, you would be required to use the tracing feature in order to get it converted into a cut file. If not, the software won’t understand where to cut file. People who have already used the software must know how challenging and time-consuming the trace feature can feel.

With SVG files on your side, the software automatically identifies all lines in the image as cut lines. In short, all you need to do is download original SVG files and then convert it into other formats. Such file is usually known as a DXF file. You have three methods to do this. Let’s have a look at two most used ones.

Adobe Illustrator

If you have been using Adobe Illustrator for a while, you will find it easy to convert SVG files into DXF using the Export feature in the software. First open the SVG file in the program and ensure you’ve clicked on it. Now go to File>Export.

You will see a dialog box, where you can rename the image. In the dropdown menu of ‘Save As type,’ choose ‘AutoCAD Interchange File (*.DXF), and next click on Export button.

You will see a new dialog box showing DXF options. You can leave it as it is and click on OK.

And you’re done!

Inkscape

Adobe Illustrator is great but it comes with its own downsides. Also, you need an active internet connection to work with it. So what do you do to access Silhouettes designs with SVG? Well, here’s a free and offline way to do so - Inkscape. The software works with both Windows and Mac, making it easier to convert SVG files to DXF ones.

Just open the software and click File> Save As and choose DXF from the dropdown menu. Mac users might find trouble using Inkscape at times. This can be resolved by making sure you’ve installed XQuartz and restarted your machine. If it doesn’t work yet, simply head to System>Preferences>Security & Privacy>General>Allow app downloaded from and ensure that you’ve kept it Anywhere.

So these were two easy ways to use SVG files in Silhouettes Studio without paying anything. Silhouettes Studio files are great when used with SVG. follow the steps above and you will be ready for some fun at no price.

[myupdatesystems-blog]

Design Tips For Graphics And The Web

New Post has been published on https://myupdatesystems.com/design-tips-for-graphics-and-the-web/

Design Tips For Graphics And The Web

I started following my dream job a year ago and I have never been a rich man.

In fact, I think I can never remember being rich at all.

Like many, I have searched for a type of work that I could see myself doing for life and up until my 28th birthday, I had very little success in finding it.

3 years ago, I was involved in a very nasty assault that left doctors not sure that I would pull through. I was unconscious for eight hours and woke up to find out that whilst walking home drunk in the early hours, I was jumped for my mobile phone. The attacker hit me in the face with a bottle and stamped on my head 8 times when I was out cold. The ordeal left my face scarred for the rest of my life- with it taking 2 and a half hours to stitch me back up.

I hope that no one goes through what I have in the past and those who have, I’m terribly sorry. It’s a struggle to get your head around what has happened for so long and looking people in the eye for the first part of your recovery is a difficult thing to do. My advice is as follows, stay strong and use the experience as an opportunity to leave the past behind and begin new things, starting fresh.

This is what I did……

It became very apparent that when you come so close to losing everything, that you appreciate things a lot more and also, a lot less. A lot less, in that there are aspects of your life that when you really look closer, see that they need changing- as spending your life unhappy, is a life unfulfilled and with regrets in my new opinion.

During my recovery, I tried to find things to do to help me get myself back to normal. Looking back, that was never going to be the case completely, but anything that would help me come to terms with my attack was looked into and explored. I gave up drinking and have not had a beer in over 3 years. Also when exploring solutions, I found that one particular past time helped the most……. drawing.

I have always been a creative person and loved Art at school. I loved painting, drawing, and sculpture and this led me to a university degree in Architecture which I began in 2001. I had always dreamed as a young person to create things that the public would appreciate. But from a problematic course at the wrong university with little finance to drive it, I lost confidence in what I was doing and disengaged with my learning. I never quite believed that I would ever see one of my designs become real.

It was not until my attack that I began to truly connect back with creative practice, finding that drawing things took my mind off what was going on and allowed me to escape using my imagination. What’s more, to see things grow from scratch there on the page into fully rendered sketches of people, buildings and landscapes gave a sense of gain and development.

This helped, so I began to explore the possibilities of learning new things, so to see creation happen in other forms of media. These were effectively projections of my imagination but was really therapeutic. Most importantly, this past time was there to add a little more value to me as someone dealing with that notion of being a “victim” which leaves you feeling quite useless at times and unproductive.

I learned how to use AUTO CAD first of all so to revisit my designs that I drew up whilst at university, re-creating them with a little more detail and also, presented in a more professional manner. I also began to look at different types of software to design graphics such as posters and Leaflets- all conceptual, projections essentially, but something that brought about a feeling of achievement.

After a few months and on the way to work one morning, a colleague had heard that I had learned to be an architect at university and asked about the possibility of designing his new conservatory, that he wanted to build himself. I didn’t know at the time that this day would become one that would influence the next chapter in my life and from taking on that project, would go on to learn so many new things that make me what I have always wanted to be…… a Designer.

I designed the project and watched as the drawings came to life and it is to this day, still my proudest achievement. It is still 2 years on, in need of painting, but looks great if I don’t say so myself. It gave me confidence that even through an experience that could have taken me right off the rails, I could then see that life could still go on positively. Through Design, I was able to see improvements in me, I could see results, tangible results happening by my hand which was crucial to my development at that time.

I say that this period has seen great learning curves and this is true. I have been able to learn so much from using the internet and books.

I must admit that business has not been plain sailing, but I am able to do is in my view, something to write about. I can now design small buildings, Graphic Products such as Business Cards, Leaflets, Brochures, CD Covers and I also learned how to design websites.

Using Dreamweaver and now, MySQL based Content Management Systems using Concrete5 and some nice tricks using Jquery and CSS to make things a little more exciting, I have a full online portfolio that is possible to view anywhere. I have taught everything you can see myself and I wouldn’t have it any other way, as every new thing makes me feel better about myself and more comfortable about the things that have happened.

I found that design was becoming a huge part of my day, thinking about what new things I needed to learn, what new products I could learn to design and generally, what creative projects I could get stuck into. My occupation at that time was a school teacher and for anyone who has been in teaching, you will know that it is a lot of hard work that needs 100% commitment. If your hearts not in it, then don’t do it as your not doing anyone any favors, especially your students. After returning to work and due to my new perspective, my eyes began to open noting a few things that gave me a clearer idea of what teaching was about nowadays in secondary education for the teacher.

I began to see politics in action, I began to see the tricks that other teachers would use to safeguard themselves and themselves only. This left me feeling very detached from what I believed in the past to be a job that was pro-people. In fact, what I began to see was people who could not be trusted, ineffective management systems and generally an occupation that uninspired me.

I remember the day I had made the leap of faith.

It was a Thursday, I was sat at my computer waiting for a parent’s evening to begin, thinking that I would be seeing three sets of parents and then off home for some web designing for my new on-line portfolio. I went to my inbox and found an e-mail titled RE: Parents Evening and opened it.

What I was to read was a list that initially started with three appointments, but described in the e-mail, a confusion with Admin that had arisen and what I actually found was I had 15 appointments. I would not be home till around 7.30pm. I think this was the straw that broke the camel’s back and I picked up my bags, left my classroom and never went back.

From then on, I began to work on my online portfolio that I named Portobella Rain Creative Design Solutions. In 12 months, I have received 2 web design awards albeit bespoke titles from Nodus and MyDesign Awards for Web Excellence. I am also ranked 36th out of 2200 in the UK through Design Crowd, which also sees me 290th out of 34,000 globally. I have worked for clients around the world, ranging from Israel to Melbourne, Australia and with the first year in practice being the most difficult I have ever experienced with the lack of funds and no life, funnily enough, have never been happier. I am more confident, I have a thicker skin which helps in the design and I am still learning from the knocks that working for yourself brings.

When I threw the towel in back then, unlike many people, I started with no capital to get the required tools to work with. All I owned was a laptop, an internet connection and some default software like Dreamweaver and Fireworks- as this was originally a work Lap Top. My first challenge and obstacle were to get the required tools with no money and sort out an online portfolio that would be considered credible.

In looking around, I have found some software that this article relates to. In the past 12 months, I have found tools that you may or may not have heard of, that I now use daily to get my work done for graphic and the web and so far, I think they are brilliant.

All Open Source and thus, all free.

1. 000webhost (Free Server Space) 1.5GB Free Space 1.b 1&1 Domain Names for $1.50 / 12 months – Web Forward your Free Server to this domain and your cooking. 1.c Filezilla- FTP Software that will connect your local desktop to the server space. 2. Concrete5 Content Management System- a great, dynamic CMS that when using the right tutorials, can create sites that look as good as Drupal and Joomla, but so much easier to use and is growing popular with clients nowadays. 3. GIMP 2.0 – Photo Editing, for presentation and anything that you would use Photoshop for. 3. Inkscape – Vector Graphics, easy to use, dynamic and a tool that I use daily for web design, web graphics, logo design and so much more. Much of the results I have had through Design Crowd has been due to this package. 4. Google Sketch Up- 3D Modelling, product design can be done here and if you check out the 3D Design Page on the.co.uk site, you will see what you can achieve with the plugins that come with this fun and addictive product.

I hope you find this article useful on many levels. I hope that those of you reading this who have had similar experiences to me, or are simply wanting more out of life. Take everything I have written and see how with a little determination and passion for what you are doing, you can make a change and take steps towards making a life for yourself that you want.

I warn you, this is not a get rich quick scheme, it doesn’t describe the ingredients for gold making. In actual fact, these are the tools that you need to begin creating within the 21st century and the rest is up to you. Marketing, Business Leads, SEO the lot is all part of the learning curve. Expect knocks. Expect people being rude about your work. Expect cheap clients. Expect all that. But if you have the desire and passion for taking that leap of faith for getting more out of life, then make that change. If you are a student wanting to learn new things, I highly recommend the list above as the work you see in my websites are all done with these types of packages and being free, that leaves you a few more pennies to buy a few beers at the Union Bar.

As my first sentence of this article suggests, I am not a rich man. This is not a story of financial success by any means. I have worked part-time and earned more money. But I can say for the first time in my life, that I am happy and the decision I made back then, was worth it. Sometimes, I don’t see that with work being difficult or just life being life and throwing up obstacles. But as I put words down on this page, I do know that I am happy.