#cause i like to semi render them so i know how the colours work

[coldturkeybabe]

WIP- i refuse to look at this for much longer JKFDSFJK ill finish it later today

[idp-dome]

Stage 1

For our following meetings, I began by presenting the research I had done over the weekend. I had come across a very useful article (https://doi.org/10.1145/2994310.2994339) that demonstrates one of the first dome interactive experiences that was catered for the game AstroSurf. Even though our project is not a game, the research process and its outcomes exposed me to the various technical aspects of creating a dome-based projection, which helped me start visualising the structure. Many concerns arose while reading the article, so I wanted to share them with my teammates. The first thing I noticed is that we did not know the definitive shape of the dome structure. Is it a semi-sphere resembling an igloo? Or is it a cylinder base with a flat dome ceiling? Is the video we create going to be projected from the top to the base of the walls, touching the floor? Or is it merely going to be projected on the top surface of the dome? All valid questions that we did not have answers to.

Another thing I presented to the group was the strong impact that the positioning of viewers has on the experience. In the research paper, there is a discussion about how people experiencing the simulation ended up lying on the floor instead of standing up and moving around. This exposed a greater need for designing the game in a way that makes it comfortable and easy for individuals to interact with. In our case, people will be lying on their backs looking up towards the top of the dome, but the problem is we don’t know in which direction their bodies will be positioned. For this reason, I suggested erasing the idea of having sky-ground, up-down, and ceiling-floor as recognizable perceptions. Instead, I proposed creating a spatial environment where the person is floating from one space to another. In this manner, the dome projection acts as a simulation rather than a mere representation of an image, a key concept when handling depiction and immersion. I also found a video which could help us learn how to convert panoramic renders from Unreal to a full-dome video in After Effects (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM_PDDpaD_Y). It also gave the example of visualizing the projection in 3D using a virtual dome. Some videos I provided to better understand the technology at use were the like of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QOAILi0OZg and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYWJr1u8AU0.

On the other hand, Talha explained an experiment he had done regarding setting up an Unreal Engine scene and camera where he tested the rendered outcome using the Oculus VR headset. He proposed that motion sickness is one thing we need to be mindful of as camera movements can heavily impact the experience. He deduced that keeping the camera fixed, or only animating it on one axis would be preferable. He also provided us with another useful resource (https://lumenandforge.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-360-domes/) which helped us understand the technology of 360 domes better. Talha also suggested the use of fade transitions in our video to go from one environment to another, but I felt like it would cause disruption to the experience, and make the simulation seem fragmented. Talha ended up setting up an Unreal Engine collaboration using GitHub source control and repositories, which we could use to work on the same project files from our own devices.

Anosh proposed using sound design elements to link the stages of our dome experience as a base for narration. He also set up the Tumblr blog for us and wrote an introductory post for it. He also explained how we could use it to submit posts to it from our own personal accounts. He also spent the time he had to get a bit familiar with Unreal Engine 5 and ask the rest of the team some questions in regards to the technicalities involved in our workflow.

Overall, we had agreed that we wanted to have colourful and vivid visuals that are eye-catching. Since we wanted to focus on the holistic experience, we thought of how we could use lighting to our advantage to direct the viewers’ attention and implement abstract geometric shapes in the landscape. For this reason, Eric developed some cool sketches and drawings that could inspire us to create 3D environments.

We had some alternate ideas that we wanted to keep as a plan B in case we decided to shift from our original concept:

Journey through desolate wastes (low-end soundscape, wind that ends up picking up as we ascend a mountain, Journey game)

Floating through space (slowly revealing some sort of hazard in space, maybe a wormhole)

Paralysed patient in lab or hospital (geometrical dimension)

Maybe combine all ideas through flashes. Basically Walking Simulator without the walking.

A jungle with mysterious creatures around.

To conclude, I ended up sharing a Pinterest board with pins I had gathered that could act as further inspiration or references to finalise our concept. (https://www.pinterest.com/itsjoeas/dome/?invite_code=0f2fdec8fce74f75aa46dbf6744733b7&sender=594756831948224619)

[bird-in-a-cage]

18 or 45! 💖

Thank you for the prompt! Sorry it took me a while to get back to you but I’m sure this will more than make up for it. Also two in one day? Look at me go!

My ask box is always open if anyone wants to drop a prompt from the list or just spout an idea off the dome!

I’ll get around to doing both. But here’s one just for now.

#18: “This is… exactly what it looks like”

Sailor Boy

Billy knew Steve’s routine as if it were his own, written all over his arm in permanent ink. He knew Monday was inventory day, Tuesday was delivery day. Wednesday and Thursday were Steve’s days off. Friday and Saturday Scoops Ahoy stayed open late, to coincide with the mall’s longer opening hours due to the movie theatre on the top floor, owners of the nautical based ice cream franchise clearly hoping that maybe movie goers would want to sneak in a cone or a tub mid flick.

Friday was when Billy finished early. His last swim class was at three. He could easily be done by five, shower just enough of the chlorine smell off his skin, change and be parked at the mall by six. He had taken the same route so many times now he could do it with his eyes closed, knew every stop sign, the rhythm of the traffic lights. How the cops liked to hide behind that low billboard on Maple to catch potential speeders heading out of town.

Even if he’d spent all of Thursday with Steve, rolling around his parents fucking mansion like the both owned the place, Friday was Billy’s favourite day. Friday he got to see his little sailor boy at work. Steve hated his uniform, he wasn’t shy about ever saying so. Hated the dumb hat, hated the dumb shirt that got itchy after two days of wear if it didn’t get washed in between, hated the socks he had to wear up to just below his knees that would constantly fall down, hated the fact his whole uniform felt wipe clean even though it wasn’t in the slightest. The one thing Steve hated and complained about most though, were the shorts. They were long and baggy and unshapely.

“It’s like wearing a sown up trash bag man, honestly!”

Billy loved those shorts. He loved the deep but not navy blue of their colour, he loved the white stripe that ran along the bottom of each cuff, he loved the deep pockets than ran much further down Steve’s thighs than they had any right too, he wasn’t carrying all that much around with him day to day, but most of all Billy loved the elasticated waistband. Always hidden almost halfway up Steve’s stomach the shorts were so big on his skinny frame.

Well, not skinny. Just skinnier than Billy. Steve still had plenty of muscle definition even if he was eating spoons of ice cream all day now, stealing maraschino cherries straight from the jar and rolling them with their juice in little cups of chocolate sprinkles, swearing blind he’d invented the greatest semi-healthy snack of all time just because at one point it had been a fruit.

Billy also knew that 6:15 was when Steve’s little work friend, that smart mouthed girl with too much eyeliner, went on her final break even though the store shut at eight. He knew to time it so good that sometimes he’d stroll in and Steve would still be talking like it was still her.

This day wasn’t one of those days. He strolled through the big open doors, that stupidly cheery music playing on a constant loop that must have driven Steve completely mad sometimes, to find him scooping up ice cream to display on their tubs. The place was dead. It always was. No one ever left the movie theatre mid picture to come down two floors just for ice cream, when the concessions were right outside. He kept scooping and piling even though Billy knew he had seen him. The corners of his lips twitched just a little then damped back down. Hiding a grin. Billy could play this game. He leant over the counter, pressing his chest up to the glass, knowing it would smudge just a little. No longer perfectly clear. Streaked with the last stubborn remnants of suntan lotion a crappy public shower couldn’t remove. Steve raised his head after a few long minutes into their stalemate and was still trying not to smile.

“Sir,” Oh he had on his customer service voice too, Billy loved that, it made the game more fun and he couldn’t hide the grin it caused to grow on his face. “Can I help you with anything?”

“That depends,” he pushed himself off the counter and slowly started spinning around the container of rainbow sprinkles, unscrewing the cap. “I’m looking for something specific.” He sucked on the tip of his finger and rolled it in the first layer of sprinkles until his fingertip was completely coated. Billy knew Steve hated when he did that. Both hated and loved it. Hated it because it was kind of disgusting, but loved it, cause, well, Steve was kind of disgusting. Under all the rich daddy’s boy front he was willing to try some kinky shit and Billy just drank up every last drop he could squeeze out. Billy wiggled his sprinkle coated finger around, watching Steve’s eyes follow it around like fish to bait, growing darker by the second.

“Well, I think I can be of some assistance….” he spoke calmly, and walked around more to the side of the counter. Billy matched his steps. He wasn’t quite over the invisible ‘employees only’ line just yet.  They locked eyes and Steve’s were nearly black with desire. He took Billy’s hand in his cold ones, they had just been in a freezer after all, and he pulled gently. He popped Billy’s sprinkle covered finger into his mouth and let his eyes get hooded, in the way he knew drove Billy crazy, especially when that perfect wide tongue started cleaning up the sugar speckled digit and with his pretty boy pout sucking further down to the second knuckle, then the third with clear intent, firm muscle sweeping back and forth and around Billy’s rougher skin, rendering his brain fucking mush every time.

Steve let the finger go with a wet, but soft, pop, letting his eyes open again. Billy glanced a look down and there was a definite tent in those hated shorts. They both crashed together at the same time, kissing feverishly as Billy pushed and Steve pulled, both of them stumbling through the swinging door and up against the wall next to the always empty notice board. Billy pinned Steve up to it, knocking the cap off his head in the process as they kissed deeper, licking into each other’s mouths and sharing the taste of chemically coloured sugar. Steve’s needy hands found Billy’s hips easily and pulled, hard, letting out the sweetest little desperate moan as Billy’s thicker thigh found its way between his own. Billy let Steve’s lips go, kissing over his jaw heavily, and moved his leg higher, tighter, to ring out more delicious sounds. 

His little sailor was always so cute trying to be quiet, especially at work, but Billy knew him inside out. Had made it his job to know every button Steve Harrington had, how and when to push them, which threads to pull at to watch him completely unravel. One of the first things they ever did, out in the quarry in the back of Billy’s camaro, Steve had humped his thigh like a bitch in heat. Steve loved his thighs. He was never shy in showing so. They were one of the big flashing buttons to push, to the point of Steve couldn’t come to the pool if Billy was on shift or risk popping a semi then and there just seeing a flash of red covering not very much leg.

Like this though, pressed up against the wall, Billy had all the control. Steve was pliant, warming his cold hands on Billy’s sun soaked stomach under his shirt, going over his abs with needy thumbs. Billy worked his thigh harder. Steve groaned biting his lip so not to let it all come streaming out loud and hot. He started grinding his hips at long last, all the layers of fabric between skin doing nothing but adding deliciously painful friction, as Billy nibbled his earlobe. 

Yeah, Harrington had a lot of buttons. And god if they weren’t fun to press.

Deep down Billy wanted to ruin Steve for good. Even if what they had, whatever it was, wasn’t a long term plan and just a way to blow off steam for the long hot summer months, Billy was determined that no one would ever rock his little sailor’s boat like he could. No one would ever make Harrington come like he could, no one would ever make him cry out in the middle of the night with his peachy ass burning with hand marks like he could, no one would make him choke on a cock behind the arcade in broad daylight where they could be seen at any moment and still have those swollen come shiny lips beg for more like an angel’s prayer like he could.

Whether he knew it or not, Steve was going to be ruined for the rest of his days.

Billy growled next to his ear possessively. His sailor melted and ground his hips harder, starting to get desperate so soon. God if that didn’t make Billy’s dick kick something horrific in his jeans.

“Needy tonight huh baby?” Billy grunted roughly in his deepest voice, the one he knew that if Harrington had a pussy, it would make him gush buckets and ruin those shorts. “Did I not do a good job filling you up yesterday?” Billy pulled Steve’s hips off the wall to get his hands on that perfect peach, where he knew it must have been difficult to sit down all day, what with how red and sore it looked the night previous. He felt Steve’s hips stutter for just a moment, hissing around a moan as his body wasn’t sure if it was pleasure or pain or both it wanted to express. Billy wanted to laugh. He did keep singing harder god please harder so had no one but himself to blame for the mess he was in.

“Too good,” Steve sighed out as Billy worked his hands down the back of that elasticated waist, past his own briefs Steve had stolen that morning, grabbing handfuls of tenderized meat and squeezing rough. The noise Steve made was exquisite, his hips starting to rock again faster and stronger, pushing forward and pushing back in equal measure with no set rhythm. Billy loved when he was like this, his little plaything, teetering on the edge of no return.

“Let me see baby,” he muttered, dripping with heat and desire. “Don’t wanna get your uniform all messy. Captain will be mad.”

Steve scrambled to push his shorts and briefs down just enough for the thick, gleaming head to pop free but the rest still be trapped and untouched, pushing his shirt up over his stomach, fingers trembling and lips quivering around a sound that couldn’t be kept quiet as Billy’s sucked on but now dry digit found his sailor’s well used hole. His cock throbbed visibly between them, pushing out more shiny clear liquid that threatened to stain Billy’s pale denim jeans. God it made Billy’s mouth water. And if he wasn’t rock hard before he definitely was now.

But later. That was for later. They were running out of time.

Billy worked his thigh harder still, trying to keep up with Steve’s erratic hips which was no easy job, drinking down his noises of pure ecstasy, until his whole body stuttered and tensed and he came with a cry that couldn’t be contained, creamy white come splashing up his torso and staining his already pale skin. Billy smirked like the devil, kissing Steve deeply as he tried to pant coming down, taking his hands out of his boy’s shorts, only just managing to tuck him away and let his shirt fall over the mess when the door swung open and there was eyeliner girl, right on time. As always.

Steve had the dignity and had regained just enough mental function to look embarrassed, even if he was still panting like a mutt trying to speak with Billy all up in his space, greedy for it all. No one laid eyes on his sailor boy.

“It’s… fuck… I’m sorry Rob…” 

She stared back blankly at the two of them, setting a Burger King milkshake, if Billy had to hazard a guess it would be strawberry flavoured, on the counter they had back here, simply saying “You’re scraping the freezer tonight,” before going back through the door from where she’d came.

Billy didn’t let Steve stand back up straight away, even as he knew the messy spatter of come was starting to dry and cause the uniform to stick to his slender body. He cupped Steve’s cheek and kissed him, rough but sweet. As sweet as Billy did really. Steve melted for it each time. Another button. Another step of ruining.

“I’ll be waiting,” he said, getting Steve solid on his feet before letting go and walking away like he wasn’t painfully hard. The girl scowled at him blankly out front, especially when he took a cherry from the jar and grinned with it between his teeth while holding the stem, walking backwards out of the store and giving her a two finger salute from his forehead.

“Captain...”

Billy walked with purpose back to his car out front, having parked in his usual spot near the back where it wasn’t under one of the tall lights that illuminated most of the area, getting straight in to sit on his backseat and wait. He checked the time on his watch and lit up a well needed cigarette.

He had 45 minutes to wait for his little sailor to pull into harbour. 

[theshatteredrose]

Relic Keepers: Awakening of the Red Lily (Chapter 8) - Original Fiction

AN: Thanks for being so patient! My health still isn’t the best, but I hope to maintain the weekly updates. And I hope you’ll enjoy reading~

Ao3 | Wattpad | Inkitt | FictionPress

~

Chapter 8:

Eishirou wasn’t entirely believing what was occurring right in front of him. He didn’t have that much experience with ShadowDwellers. No firsthand experience. Only knowledge from documents and data. He had no idea that they could be so…big.

The black centipede shaped ShadowDweller curled its entire body along the outer edges of the expedition site. Even with the sun nothing more than a splash of colour in the sky and the forest now a maze of twisting trees and shadows, the ShadowDweller itself was so much darker.

It was so black. It seemed to absorb light, distorting energies around it.

The noise that it made was just unearthly. Air vibrated around it. Skittering. Shrieking.

However, it was its size that was the most dauting. What he found difficult to fathom.

It was just so…huge.

Jacob suddenly placed his hand atop of Eishirou’s head and forced his head downwards so that he was staring at the ground where they crouched.

“Don’t look at it,” he commanded firmly. “Just ignore it.”

Ignore it? How was be going to simply ignore something like that?!

“Just keep your head down and trust the Elites to do what they do best.”

At the mentioning of the Elites, Eishirou gaze immediately darted toward them. Zayne was the centre of his gaze, but he could see Ernesta and Tatsu as the three of them stood there. Unflinching, even as the ShadowDweller clacked and snapped its pincers at them.

With mana wings of blue, yellow, and red; the three Elites lunged toward the centipede. Zayne’s twin gun-blades of blue mana, Ernesta’s lancer of yellow mana, and Tatsu’s duel pistols of vivid red mana.

They all attacked in unison. Directing their attention toward the head of the creature. The most dangerous part, yes. But aiming for its body was to do no good. By destroying the head, the body would be rendered useless.

Zayne and Ernesta took turns sending attacks toward the ShadowDweller’s head while Tatsu bombarded it with rapid fire from his pistol at a distance. Distracting it. And agitating it.

The ShadowDweller thrashed its enormous head back and forth as it released a deafening screech. It then started to move. It was running around in a giant circle, staying to the outskirts of the clearing. Sending dirt and debris into the air. Preventing them from attempting a retreat.

Jacob suddenly forced his head to face away from the sight and instead directed him to look at his chest as he kept an arm around his shoulders. “Leave them to their work. Are you all right?”

“I-I’m fine.” That was kinda a lie. Though, physically he was all right. “Zayne protected me.”

“Good. He immediately jumped in to follow you when that ShadowDweller appeared,” Jacob explained.

So, he did jump down after him.

Despite Jacob ordering him not to look at the ShadowDweller or the battling Elites, he just had to. The urge to look for Zayne was just too strong for him to ignore.

It didn’t take him long to find said Elite.

However, it also didn’t take him very long to realise that he, along with the other two Elites, were becoming increasing frustrated. Their attacks were having little effect on it. Little outside effect. Maybe inwardly? Though, the ShadowDweller showed no sign of slowing down. Literally.

A dreadful thought soon occurred to him.

It was too strong.

It was winning.

Zayne darted forward to deliver another attack to the ShadowDweller’s large cranium. But the ShadowDweller reacted unexpectedly by thrashing his head to the side and its pincers slammed into Zayne. He barely had enough time to raise his gun-blades in front of him in a defensive manner when the tusk smashed into him.

He immediately flew backwards and hit the ground, skidding across the grass a couple of feet. He laid there, on his back, as he breathed heavily. Winded by the attack.

He soon sat straight up, however. And in his hands were his gun-blades once more. Though his breathing was still laboured as he pulled himself to his feet.

“Zayne!” Ernesta called out to him, concern in her voice.

“I’m fine!”

That was a lie.

Eishirou tore himself from Jacob’s protective hold and rushed toward Zayne. He placed his hands on his back and offered him some healing. The stress of holding back such a ShadowDweller had to be a great strain on him. Elites were strong, but not invincible.

Zayne stiffened at the touch, but didn’t immediately pull away. He must have needed that healing more than he let on.

As Eishirou pulled back his healing, Zayne abruptly spun around and snared his hand with his. He abruptly pulled him toward him, causing Eishirou to fall silently against his chest.

“Stay back,” Zayne ordered him, his tone highly stressed. And with a sense of desperation. “I’ll make an opening and you run like fuck when I tell you too.”

He then released him, took a step back, and turned around. He then launched himself into the air once more. Throwing himself back into battle.

It was…really going to come to that, wasn’t it?

As Jacob grabbed him once more, a thought occurred to him. He quickly crouched down onto the ground and pulled out his communicator. If he could get a message out to the rest of the expedition that were at the landing site, maybe he could get a hold of the rest of Team 3. Two more Elites were sure to be of help.

Eishirou fumbled with his communicator, trying to get it to work. But tensed almost violently as a dark shadow fell over him.

He immediately looked up. And his eyes widened.

The ShadowDweller had stopped its violent trampling.

It now towered over the both of them.

Its gaze was on them. And only them.

It almost felt…as if it was staring at Eishirou directly. As if he was the one that it wanted all along.

The ShadowDweller’s pincers seemed to clatter with excitement as Eishirou stared up at it. He couldn’t look away. Even as Jacob tightened his arms around him in a futile attempt to shield him. Even as the ShadowDweller began to lower its head in a painfully slow manner.

Even as its pincers snapped open to reveal an ungodly number of razor-sharp teeth inside its blackhole of a mouth.

…Was he going to die?

“No!”

There was a flash of blue and suddenly, the ShadowDweller was no longer towering high above Eishirou’s head.

And it took a moment or two for him to figure out what had happened.

Zayne had recklessly thrown himself at the ShadowDweller, forcing its head to lurch to the side from the impact. It was a desperate attempt to get the ShadowDweller away from them.

But he wasn’t done there. He managed to climb onto the ShadowDweller’s back. The mana sustaining his blades unexpectedly flickered to that of a dark blue as he raised them over his head.

With an expression of rage, Zayne brought both blades down onto the back of the ShadowDweller’s head. The mana-tipped blades somehow extended in length inside of the ShadowDweller’s head, the tips poking through to the other side.

With a loud grunt of exertion, Zayne twisted the blades before slicing them in a wide arch away from the body.

The ShadowDweller gave one last flailing death cry, coming out as a sickly gurgle, as its enormous head fell to the ground. In reaction of its head being severed, the body flailed back in an eerily possessed manner. In doing so, it threw Zayne back.

Time seemed to almost stand still as Eishirou watched as Zayne’s limp body arched through the air.

A second later, Zayne crash-landed on his back, hitting the ground hard. His arms spread eagle to his sides. His wings and mana weapons flickered and disappeared suddenly.

And he didn’t move.

No…

Eishirou pushed himself away from Jacob once more and ran over to him. He instantly dropped down to his knees next to him and placed his hands flat against Zayne’s chest in order to do a medical inspection.

Fast heart rate. High blood pressure. Unconsciousness. Laboured breathing. Stained muscles in his arms and chest.

He wasted absolutely no time in gathering his mana and urged it into Zayne’s chest to heal him. He had to heal him slowly as he knew that giving too much healing too quickly would cause more harm than good.

Nothing else seemed to exist. His surroundings faded from his mind as he put all his concentration and effort in healing Zayne. Easing each ailment. Ensured that his pulse remained steady. Ensured that he kept breathing.

Please…please be ok…

Finally, Zayne opened his eyes.

Eishirou nearly cried with relief when Zayne rolled his head toward him and peered up at him through hazy eyes.

Thank the heavens…

He slowly pulled back his healing and fell back to sit on his heels. His sudden healing left him feeling a little drained, but he was relieved. “How are you feeling?”

Zayne swallowed thickly. “I could totally go for a five-course meal right about now.”

That got a small laugh from Eishirou. “I don’t know any restaurants like that. But I do know a place offers an all you can eat. I’ll…take you there some time.”

He raised his arm and unexpectedly poked Eishirou’s forehead with his index finger. “I’ll hold you to that.”

Tears of relief welled in Eishirou’s eyes, but he blinked them away. He managed to give Zayne a shaky smile and simply nodded his head. He didn’t trust his voice to verbally respond.

He had no idea how long the two of them just stared at each other in a semi-comfortable silence. It wasn’t until the soft sound of approaching footsteps prompted to lift his head.

Ernesta crouched down near Zayne’s side. Her usual peaceful expression was replaced with that of true concern. “How are you feeling?”

Zayne rolled his head to his other side to look up at his team leader. “Fine,” he said simply. And then made the effort to sit up.

Eishirou instinctively reached out to help him. Ernesta made to do the same, but Zayne waved her off. He allowed for Eishirou to aid him, though. He finally sat up and bent his knees toward him so that he could lazily rest his arms against his legs. He then rolled his neck and shoulders, allowing for a couple of pops and cracks to be heard.

“Probably feel that tomorrow,” he said simply, casually.

Seeing that Zayne was going to be ok, Eishirou finally allowed himself to look around the impromptu battlefield. There was no sign of that ShadowDweller. Only the torn-up trees and deep gouges within the forest floor was left as evidence of its presence. The ShadowDweller itself had dissipated into ether. Like all ShadowDwellers did when defeated. Especially defeated so soundly.

They were mysterious creatures.

Ernesta sighed and pushed herself to her feet. Though satisfied that Zayne’s condition was nothing to be concerned about, a frown marred her face. She folded her arms idly under her bust and took a moment to survey the surroundings, too.

“That was quite the formable foe,” she murmured to no one in particular.

“Bit of an understatement,” Jacob added in a disgruntled manner. “This whole expedition was a near disaster.”

Yeah, it nearly was.

“But it wasn’t. We actually discovered something potentially important,” Eishirou pointed out in an attempt to find a positive out of the situation.

“You disappearing down that god damn hole took ten years off my life,” Jacob counted as he roughly scratched the back of his head. “I’ll be having a very long chat with the one who opened that chest without permission…”

That person was going to be suspended from joining expeditions for quite some time.

Though, it was understandable. That wooden chest truly was the cause of all their troubles on this assignment. Whoever put it there certainly had malicious intent. He couldn’t help but wonder if it was somehow connected to the broken stone tablet.

Eishirou was pulled from his musings when Tatsu paced over to them. His expression was unreadable as he stared intensely at Zayne. It was as if he had trouble understanding something. Or perhaps he was just agitated.

“Area is clear now,” he said as he tore his gaze from Zayne to regard Ernesta.

“Yes,” Ernesta nodded. “I think it’s time that we escort Professor Chryses and his assistant from this forest, don’t you?”

Yes, that sounded like a good idea. The sun had well and truly set now. And only the source light was that of Ernesta and Tatsu’s mana wings.

Zayne grunted lowly as he moved to push himself to his feet. Once again, Eishirou immediately went to help. He took a hold of Zayne’s arm and placed it behind his neck as the two of them stood on their feet.

He was unsteady for a moment, but managed to right himself. He made no attempt to pull his arm back from Eishirou, and Eishirou made no attempt to loosen his hold on his arm either. After everything Zayne had gone through, what he had to do to protect him; it was nice being able to offer the Elite a bit of support.

Honestly, though, that was all he could do.

“I will lead with Professor Chryses. Tatsu will follow at the back. Zayne, you continue your protection of Eishirou,” Ernesta ordered, leaving no room for argument.

“That was a hell of a first day,” Zayne commented both casually and dryly as they fell in formation and began their trek out of the forest in the dark. “I wonder what tomorrow will bring.”

“Well, hopefully a sleep in and a hearty breakfast,” Eishirou replied.

That got a short laugh from Zayne. “Sounds good.”

[olwog]

Visitors

The people of who pass my door seem to be of three varieties. There’s the visitor that’s read some of my missives here and have come to search me out and take some photos, there are the passers-by who happen upon me and look surprised that the planners should demolish all around me and build a couple of brick boxes with no architectural merit as my bookends and there are the concerned locals who are interested ensuring that whatever is happening it needs to be right. They all have one thing in common, they’re interested in every stage of my renovation. George encourages them to call in and Lee always makes some time for them unless his work is time-critical. Some of the tasks over the last few weeks have been just that, very time-critical. My floors under the kitchen and to a lesser extent under the stairs had been affected by a collapsed drain. It’s all sorted now of course but the re-laying of the limecrete, once mixed, had to be done fairly rapidly. Lee had sent the lads out to acquire three mixers and they were all running side by side in the yard. They looked like hungry cows chewing the cud and working in parallel to produce the amount of material required to fill the carefully prepared kitchen floor.

I’m pleased to say that we get concerned faces at the window and, when the front is open, a ‘Hello!’ at the door. George or Lee (Waring) invite them in.

Mary and Glen Portier dropped in when Lee was laying the limecrete floor and he showed them around. They’re from Houma, Louisiana although Mary’s maiden name was Dixon and she hails from The Ropery, a street that runs parallel a couple of hundred metres behind me but they’ve been in the States for 50 years and follow the updates – Hi Mary and Glen, I like the colour of your top!

    Many others have called in over the summer and they all have a story. I really enjoy listening to them. They seem to have lots of questions especially about when I was built and how I got into the semi-derelict state that was caused when the roof caved in. It wasn’t noticed for several years and the furniture and other soft furnishings absorbed the rain. Sadly, once wet, they retained the moisture and fed it back into my floorboards, joists and walls over many months even when the weather outside was dry or even warm and that’s what caused the rot. That’s in the past though.

A few weeks ago George showed two ladies and their lovely little girl around the ground floor and he was told about granddad who spent some happy childhood years growing up here. They told him about the bakery next door and George showed them a little hatch in my southern wall with a message written in pencil during the 1970s.

    I’ve had the first coat of lime plaster on my walls and it feels good. For many years when the concrete sucked the life out of my bricks but now they’re breathing again and will continue to do so under this beautiful, lime based, blanket. The electrician’s been busy too and George has been investigating electric heaters to keep me warm as winter sets in.

They’ve been listing the snagging jobs and I’m looking forward to an outside step at the back so that the rear door can be fitted.

Martyn Cana is doing that and it’s interesting what thoughts contribute to the planning. On the face of it, it’s a simple task. i.e. how many steps, size of step, how big the landing area should be, dealing with rain and snow, leaving a fall for the drainage of water so it doesn’t enter the cottage, there’s lots to take into consideration and they’re doing that in detail.

  Martyn Canna

  The plan is to finish the plastering then the final fix electrics then do the painting so there is no necessity to cover the floors, they’ll be fitted after the painting then the skirting boards. There is still lots to do but we’re getting there.

George has been using local labour and suppliers where it’s been possible and I’d say that’s been about 90% of the time. They have pride in their work and are often family members. It’s also handy when one trade needs to call on the services of another at short notice. On the odd occasion one trade or another has been able to come at short notice and alleviate a hiatus that could have caused a complete halt for the initiating trade.

Initially, there was some surprise at being asked to repair stuff rather than replace it but everyone is working on that principal now although a lot of the plumbing and all of the wring were exempt from that clause. 

Tim of ‘Barn Antiques’ dipped my doors and did a sterling job on them. He was also professional enough to advise against dipping some of the others as he thought it wouldn’t work and I’m happy with that. He and his lovely wife Elizabeth have a business out on the Scarborough Road which is worth a visit if only for its quirkiness – boy is it quirky. George has included a few photographs of the yard. All towns should have things like this, nothing is wasted and if you need a ‘widget for a whatsit’ there’s every chance you’ll find a second hand one there and if you can’t then Tim or Elizebeth will. He dipped my internal doors and removed seven layers of paint off one of them; if they could talk you’d get a tale, but then, you’re getting that from me anyway!

    Mark, Luke and Nathan Storr have been busy with the lime plaster. They’re family; Mark is dad and Luke and Nathan, his sons. They work as a close team and seem to know what the others need or are thinking. I listen to their interaction as the first coat is ‘thrown on’ and thrown on it is. The idea is to get the base layer into all of the tiny cracks and porous elements of my 250-year-old bricks to form a key; however, the idea of the lime base is that my walls will still breath. The last 50 years or so have been very difficult when my inner walls were rendered in concrete. My bricks were suffocated and my walls, particularly the ones exposed to the elements were drawing moisture in but not able to release it due to the cladding.

All of that stopped last year when the concrete was removed by Lee and Ash Waring and team. Some hold-ups inhibited work for several months and in the case of my brickwork, it worked in my favour and allowed natural drying to take place so my walls are now ready for the luxury of proper lime render and this is where we are.

        Mark, Nathan and Luke are now working on the second coat which is much finer and you can see some of the results on the photographs of my top dormer floor. I’m looking and feeling good!

George is in the process of ordering the kitchen which should be here in about a month. My ground floor still has a lot of first fix stuff to take place especially the electrical work prior to plastering. I’m hoping it will take place over the next couple of weeks so that Mark can return and complete the plastering downstairs as he has with the upper two floors.

So, what’s to do? Well, quite a lot really. All of the above plus the fitting of the kitchen, rear door, step, floors and heating and there’s a fair amount of work for Jack Atkinson, my joiner as he works on my stairs and floors. Jack is another local tradesman from Goathland. I think I heard him say he’s sixth generation and married to a lady that’s fifth-generation from Goathland so he really knows the area and understands old buildings. He’s clearly proud of his work and this was underlined when George asked him about a particular panel under the stairs that has some damage on one of the frames. George asked him if we need to replace the frame and his answer was music to my ears, “No”, he said, “I can repair that” and he explained what he could do. I like tradesmen that are craftsmen and I’m delighted with the team that I have.

I’ll tell you a little bit more about all of the people that have worked on me in a few weeks,

More to come…LYC..x

  Please feel free to share.

Little Yellow Cottage – Update 16 – Local Trades People, Visitors and Progress Visitors The people of who pass my door seem to be of three varieties. There’s the visitor that’s read some of my missives here and have come to search me out and take some photos, there are the passers-by who happen upon me and look surprised that the planners should demolish all around me and build a couple of brick boxes with no architectural merit as my bookends and there are the concerned locals who are interested ensuring that whatever is happening it needs to be right.

[liza-wr12]

Submission to Class Anthology

Memories as Thin as Water:

    Drops hit the ground rhythmically, one after the other, from the leaky pipe on the roof of the old house. The puddle of the floor had been growing steadily since last night. A damp, musty smell had filled the room.

    A week later the leak still hadn't been fixed. The old man that loved in the house could no longer muster the energy to patch the hole in the pipe. The pool of water had rendered the floorboards soft and mushy, dangerous for the man that lived in the house. Reluctant to call his children to fix the problem, the dripping continued.

    The man had lived in the house for many years, spending countless days in his childhood, raising four children, living his best years. Sentimental value grew with each passing year. The man had refused to move to a retirement home each time one of his children asked, eventually they stopped asking. The framed and dusty photos that lined that walls reminded the man of better and happier times, but as he aged the faces grew more unfamiliar.

    The leaky pipe continued to drip on the floor, a pail was place under it to stop the puddle from forming again. After a particularly violent storm the pail overflowed with water. The force of nature had caused a larger hole to develop in the pipes of the old house. The old man didn't mind, he forgot about the leaky pipes almost as soon as they were brought to his attention. Memories leaked out of his decaying mind like water from the pipes, once escaped they never returned.

Amazing Grace:

     All of the mourners stand in a neat semi-circle, black umbrellas form a domed shield around us. The rain pours down relentlessly, the angels are crying for my grandmother today. This would mark the first time I had felt grief. Earlier than all of my friends at school. “Amazing Grace” plays softly over the speakers in the mildew-smelling reception hall. The priest speaks but I do not hear the words over the ringing in my ears and the tightness in my throat. It was then when I realized that all life is precious and should be treated with respect and maturity.

     My grandmother and I were never very close but the time I did spend with her was lovely and meaningful. She was ill, my mother had taken care of her in her final weeks. She sheltered her, kept her sickness hidden from our family. But in the end, my grandmother died suddenly and unexpectedly. My mother cried for weeks, didn't eat or work. My father tried the best he could to console her but in the end, he did not help much. So I felt comforting her was my responsibility and that is quite a feat for a shy nine-year-old.

     On a rainy night in November, I couldn't fall asleep, I didn't know why I just couldn't. I stepped out my room and walked to the couch where my mother was reading. She sat with me as I fidgeted with the blanket draped around her.

     The phone rang and my mother sprang up to stop the ringing that would wake my father sleeping in the next room. “Hello?” she whispered in the phone. It was her brother on the other end. “No... when... alright” she pressed the phone against her body to cover the speaker and tells me to go back to bed. I get up off of the couch and tiptoed to my room and I strain my ears to hear the rest of the conversation. I can just make out my mother sighing but that is all I am able to hear.

     There is silence for many minutes, then my mother walks past my doorway and steps inside, leaning against my desk. She brushes my hair behind my ear not knowing I was still awake. I turned my head and she looked back at me with tears in her eyes.

     “Your grandmother,” she said to me softly, “had a heart of gold.”

     “Had?” I ask. My mother turns on my light and nods. She explained in the best child-friendly way she knew, she told me that my grandmother was sick and was so sick that she would never get better. She told me that she was sitting at home, alone and she fell but had been too weak to get up. She told me that the paper boy had noticed her on the living room floor through the large bay window, and how he came in through the open patio and tried to revive her- but it had been too late. My mother started crying and I held her hand, she kissed my forehead and turned off my light.  

     The next morning when I woke up my mother look so tired, she had stayed awake all night I assumed. I decided that I would still go to school what day and I walked there by myself for the first time. My teachers didn't know and I didn't tell them; nothing was different to me. My mother, on the other hand, was distraught. She cried and sobbed and I never knew what to do, I was trying my best but always felt as though I was doing something wrong.

     The funeral service was held the next month. It was small, respectful, and tasteful. My grandmother was buried in out family plot at the local cemetery, it overlooked the mountains and was beautiful on a crisp fall day.

     On the day of the service, I wrote a letter to be placed in the grave. In my messy and unorganized child's writing I confessed that I was sorry. I was sorry for being a bad grandchild, the only one she had. I should have visited more, talked more, wrote more. She loved me and I did nothing in return. I was selfish, uncaring, and indifferent. To this day I still have regret. I make a plan to visit her grave site that never gets fulfilled. I tell myself I will spend the time with her that I never did when she was alive, but I don't do it. I still haven't gone, and I have made plans to go and sit down next to the grey stone marker and clean it off and to talk. It sounds strange, I know, but there are some things that I know I will never be able to tell my parents, that I need to get off of my chest. Even more strange is that the things I would confess to my grandmother she would be even less accepting of than my parents could ever be. But I think she would hear and judge me, and not be able to say anything back because I am living and she is not.

     Grief is a funny thing. Until now I had not felt it in its full force, not until years after her death. Now I think of my grandmother every day and the things I would tell her. I would take her out for lunch and we would talk for hours and hours about my life and hers. And she would listen and love me.

     The truth is that I had been a terrible granddaughter. I never visited her, our talks on the phone were short and uninspired, and I actually dreaded going to see her. If I had that chance today I would take it with no questions asked. My mother has never disclosed much about her life; I used to sit and wonder what she had been like at my current age. My own guilt has stayed with me, especially since I had every opportunity to visit or talk.

     Today I like to think that I am a good person, that experiencing this loss at a young age has made me kinder and more considerate. The truth is that I probably would have turned out this way anyways. People don't really change. Knowing how grief affected me in a far different way than my mother made me feel as though my own feeling weren't valid. That I wasn't sad enough, crying enough, mourning enough, feeling enough. However, I know that loss and sadness can change the mind and body in all sorts of different and equally vital ways and we will not know until we experience it in full. I do believe that the grief we feel teaches us something, perhaps I was unwilling to let myself feel this or perhaps I was afraid of how it would change me. I am grateful for the short time I did spend with my grandmother and the lessons I obtained from her passing. All life should be treated with respect and maturity because it is fragile and fading.

Dandelion:

Kissed by the sun, warm wind blows to and fro;

The essence of spring, the season of growth,

Renewal and clean air. Fresh things to show

Fasciated children, with open mouths

And wider eyes; they see all with delight.

Multicoloured flowers, shining sunshine,

And not a care in the world; not a fright

To be seen. Buds bloom new on the green vine

That surrounds the fence, below it something

Sprouts from the soil; bright, yellow, clean and new

Dandelions grow each spring beginning

The time of vibrant colours and bright hues.

Yellow flowers dance in the gentle wind

And standing near by the young children grinned.

[sickchickenstudios-blog]

Guard Duty: A Development Retrospective - Devblog #4

The Art of Guard Duty - Pixel Practices

Howdy. Today I would like to take some time to talk to you about my process when creating art for Guard Duty. I’m going to be focussing on pixel art and practices you need to be mindful of when creating your art. Hopefully this will give you a bit of an insight into my process for creating the many pixel packed locations in Guard Duty.

Let’s start with a few basic things you’ll need to keep in mind when working with pixels. My advice here is geared around creating pixel art in Photoshop, but most of the rules will apply to other art packages.

First thing’s first - Decide upon a resolution and stick to it.

The problem I see a lot of people run into when starting in pixel art is in consistency of resolution, that is they often mix different resolutions within the image (or game). Mostly called ‘mixed resolution’, it is a where pixels in the image are not all of a consistent size, often leading to an undesirable look. Traditional pixel art is based on the foundation of a grid, where each pixel acts like a grid square. The pixels are unable to be placed outside of these grid squares, therefore keeping a consistency throughout the image. The hardware used to render pixel art in it’s heyday was unable to handle high resolutions, meaning that each pixel had to be carefully placed to make up the intended image.

See this graphic for example, the image on the left is using a consistent pixel density whereas the one on the right is using a different density between the character sprite and the background (mixed resolution).

You see the difference? The larger pixels on the right-hand image look messy compared to it’s counterpart, this not only looks a bit strange but does not keep with the traditions of creating pixel art. You want to stick to the resolution you started with. There are some examples of modern games which used mixed resolution pixel art successfully, but these are normally used sparingly and are scaled in-engine, mostly to benefit gameplay.

Platformers often use sub-pixel movement to make gameplay smoother, which can lead to character sprites not lining up correctly with background assets. Sprites however are very rarely scaled in engine as this is far more jarring to look at.

Either way, you will save yourself a lot of hassle if you decide on your game’s resolution at the start and stick to this resolution throughout. Guard Duty uses a similar resolution to many of the early LucasArts and Sierra titles using a 4:3 ratio of 320 x 240px. It might not sound like much but that’s 76,800 pixels you’re going to have to wrangle. More than enough for me!

Moving on - Do not use anti aliased tools

Another problem I see that newcomers often run into is the temptation to use tools designed for high resolution artwork, things like the brush tool, smudge, burn/dodge and gradient fill are all inherently anti-aliased and will give you a heap of extra clean-up work. These tools create way too many pixels, with a massive array of shades and colours. You’ll find that tweaking your artwork becomes increasingly harder when using these tools. So just forget them, resist temptation to smudge your wall texture, or use your neat grass brush, It’s really not worth it if you want to create pixel art. The easiest way to keep track of anti-aliasing is to use (almost exclusively) the pencil tool, the pencil tool can be found by click-holding the brush in the toolbar and selecting the pencil from the drop-down menu.

I also recommend turning off the anti-alias setting on the marquee selection tool, transform tool, paint bucket tool and magic wand tool. All of these can be used in pixel art, but with the anti-alias checkbox active you will find that they create a lot of different coloured pixels around the edge of your selection, again causing issues when flood filling areas, or otherwise editing the image.

So as a general rule, make sure each pixel that is going onto your canvas is intentional. Photoshop isn’t really geared towards creating pixel art and you want to make sure it doesn’t do anything without your permission. Bad Photoshop! Behave!

Try to avoid scaling your pixel art

This is similar to my first point, but can often catch you off guard. Once you’ve drawn something on the pixel grid you may find that it doesn’t fit in a scene you’ve created previously, despite both images having the same resolution. You’ve drawn the sprite too small and although the pixels are consistently sized, it just looks tiny in the scene. Well, you’re probably going to have to redraw it, somewhat.

When you scale pixel art Photoshop will try to scale the pixels to match the resolution’s pixel grid, anything under a 200% scale will result in only some of the pixels being larger than others (some will become rectangular) and at 200% the pixels will be twice as big, but still fit into the grid. This is because Photoshop has to keep to the bounds of the canvas resolution and doesn’t know what to do with the new space between pixels.

You can see from the image that some of Tondbert’s upscaled pixels have stayed 1px wide/tall whilst others are now 2px wide or tall. His eyes, nose and left shoulder have suffered the most. Poor Tondbert. This is because Photoshop doesn’t know what to do with the pixels, at the chosen scaling it only has ‘small’ (1px) or ‘big’ (2px).

Anyway, to combat these issues you should always draw your pixel art with other assets in mind. When working on a game you don’t want to have to be scaling the character sprites differently between locations, so you should paste your character sprite into the blank canvas for the new location, so you’ve got something to reference the size. If you stick to a consistent resolution with all your art and be mindful of other assets you’re intending to use together you shouldn’t run into any of these problems.

When scaling pixel art, always use Nearest Neighbour interpolation and scale in multiples

Pixel art is kinda small and most modern computers are displaying a 1920x1080 resolution or higher. This means when showing off your pixel art on a website, it can often look reeeeeally tiny. So, you want to be aware of your image resize settings. You need to make sure the image is scaled in exact multiples of itself, 2x bigger 3x bigger etc. So if your canvas is 320 pixels wide and 240 pixels tall, the upscaled image would need to be 640 pixels wide and 480 pixels tall. To keep it simple scale the image to either 200%, 300% or 400% depending on how big you want it, but never 250% or 225%.

There is also a setting at the bottom of the ‘Image size’ box in Photoshop that has a drop down list of interpolation types, next to the ‘Resample Image’ checkbox. Set this to drop down to Nearest Neighbour(preserve hard edges). It will make sure that your pixels always stay crisp when resizing.

There is a similar drop down box when using the transform controls which you will also need to change, if you do not your sprites will become blurred.

Note the amount of pixels Photoshop has added when trying to smooth out the sprite to 121%, this would make the sprite near impossible to modify beyond this point. Using the Nearest Neighbour interpolation solves this issue.

Stick to a limited palette

When starting out with an image I try to keep the colour count to a minimum, this way you won’t get bogged down with tweaking the finer details and can focus on the bigger picture. It also makes tolerance selecting bits of the image a lot easier. Try to keep to three or four colours per texture, dark, mid and highlight colours. You can add extra colours later if needed but removing colours is a bit of a pain.

Now we’ve gone over the basics, let’s get started on a creating a scene.

Start with a basic thumbnail sketch

This technique applies to both sprite and background creation, but for the purpose of this post we’re going to work with a background.

I like to sketch out a few different compositions for the scene before committing to one. I usually find I get something decent by the third sketch but it may take longer, just stick with it. Each sketch shouldn’t take more than a minute or two, we’re just establishing where the shapes in the scene are going to sit. I use a black 1px brush for this stage but the colour is mostly irrelevant (we will be changing that later). I liked the composition in the second sketch and decided to make the opening more central, adding a fallen tree to the left similar to the first sketch.

Develop the thumbnail sketch

I was pretty happy with this so decided to roll with it. The next image shows how I developed the detail in the image, sticking to the sketchy black lines for now. I occasionally use a dark grey colour to show objects that are further back in the frame.

Establish clean 1px outlines

In the next step I set my sketch layer to semi-transparent (20-40%), lock it and create a new layer then begin to outline each of the individual elements. Remember to use a 1px brush and the pencil tool. About 80% of the time I’m holding shift whilst click two points on the canvas to draw a 1px line between the two points. This saves a lot of time and really helps when drawing straight lines, or long curved ones. At this point in the process you want to keep your pixels as clean as possible, avoiding ‘double pixels’ where the line becomes more than 1 pixel wide.

For the time being I’m using a different colour for each of the elements in the scene, this will make it easier to colour them in the next step and helps to cut down on having lots of layers at this early stage. It’s not necessary, but if you’re drawing everything on the same layer I would recommend it. Plus this is probably the only time you’ll get to use bright pink, vomit green and orange in the same scene!

Separate the outlines and block in the colours

Once I’ve outlined the each of the elements in the scene I pick one and start detailing! I don’t worry about the finer details, I just aim to block out the main shapes and colours. What I have done below is use the magic wand tool (anti-alias turned off) with the tolerance set to 0 and contiguous turned off. This way it will select just that colour from the scene. I cut out the element and paste it into a new layer.

I decide upon a highlight colour and start blocking out the parts of the trunk that are raised, drawing these on the same layer as the trunk outline. Underneath on a new layer I am able to fill in the darker base colour of the trunk, as seen in the third image. This leaves the outline and highlights intact and allows me to use a larger brush size to block in the colour underneath.

You can see where I’ve added some trees and foliage from another background in the top right of the image, this is to get a feel for the colours used in those backgrounds, to help consistency between scenes and because I’m too lazy to draw new trees.

Apologies for the slightly blurry images, they were pulled from the timelapse video.

Add definition with shadows and fine highlights

This is the fun part, giving the object volume. First you want to add another layer above both of your previous layers. Then by carefully placing your shadow colour you can add heaps of definition to the shape. Here I’ve used it to bring out the cracks in the wood, as well as help the branches stand out against whatever will be behind them.

Thanks to having the colours on separate layers I am then able to tweak the balance between the three colours, ready for adding an extra fourth colour for fine highlights.

After adding the fourth colour we’re about done, the object has a nice shape to it with a decent amount of detail. You could work on it further from this point, maybe adding a second dark colour for shadows but I tend to leave it here. Remember, every step of this process was done with the pencil tool and a 1px brush, the only exception was the use of a 10 pixel brush for blocking in the colour. You can use this technique for everything in your scene, I like to merge the layers once I’m finished on each object but that’s personal preference. If you do decide to merge them you have the option of using a Brightness/Contrast or Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to tweak the contrast between the highlights and midtones etc, this won’t affect the pixels or add any anti-aliasing.

Okay! That’s about it. There’s nothing particularly fancy going on once you’ve setup Photoshop to handle pixels appropriately, you just need to follow the process I’ve laid out above and you’ll be creating rad pixel art in no time. If you’ve got any questions feel free to drop me a line on one of our social links or email me on the contact form @ www.sickchicken.com.

Here’s the finished image:

You can watch a timelapse of the process on Youtube here:

For a bit of additional learning, I highly recommend watching the ‘8bit & 8bit-ish’ Graphics GDC talk by Mark Ferrari:

Cheers!

-Nath