palaceblog

Finally, a new update!

2012-01-25T15:41:00.000-08:00

Last year was very busy. I had lots of payed work. We also had a death in the family, which was very hard on my wife. I wasn't happy about it either and when Nicole gets upset, I get upset!

I have felt very inspired to write a series of related stories. This seems an interesting project and I hope I'll actually get these published and you'll have the fun of reading them in the future.

I'd like to use replicate in my SVG comics. This allows you to do complex gradients, which should make things look more realistic. The trouble is that I can't find any place that clearly explains how to do these things.

Anyway, this installment has more sea monster action and we finally get another look at that submarine that Dawn's so interested in.

Part IX update

2011-04-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's been a while but it's not just another update it's an animated Part IX update. I know they authorities are cracking down on videos showing animal cruelty but most people find Marine Reptile: McSillyness annoying!

I also discovered that parts IX and IX x were in a huge mess (some web comic creators have readers who warn them about things like this) and have fixed them up so all the links should now take you to right places.

Part XI frames 9-12

2011-01-31T09:22:00.000-08:00

Well I've finally got an update and it isn't for Part X! We continue the flash back to 20 years before the start of the main story.

I'm afraid, that last time I tested it (yesterday) Opera had still not got that bug fixed. Very iritating. I suppose I could try changing using visibility instead of display but I'm not sure that would work and I'm told that there's some technical reason why display is better.

Opera 11

2011-01-17T13:33:00.000-08:00

Opera 10 was about the best browser for SVG support and on a similar level with ASV3 . Now Opeara 11 has come out. Unfortunately this has a javascript bug, meaning that it screws up this comic badly. As far as I can make out, if you have an element with display set to "none", use Javascript to change one of it's descendent's display to "none" and then use Javascript to change the ancestors display to "inline", you can't see anything. Well you might, if there are other descendents with their display changed to "inline" by Javascript or with SMIL animations.

This is a big issue for me, because I use exactly that sort of thing to make frames and their hot zones and speach bubbles appear and dissapear. I've reported this problem to Opera so hopefully, there'll soon be a bug fix.

New Part X update

2010-11-23T08:44:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a bit more than a month so I thought I'd better do an update. Unfortunately I've been having a miserable time for most the last month so I haven't been able to work on the comic as much as I'd like.

Anyway I've uploaded a Part X update about Barach Gold.

The next instalments of Part IX and XI are probably somewhere between 1/2 and 1/3 done so hopefully at least one will be ready in the next month.

Part IX x update

2010-10-13T10:36:00.000-07:00

At last another update. I know it's a part IX x update but I've been busy. I am working on updates for Parts IX and XI and have some ideas for Part X updates. You should be seeing at least one of these in the next month or so.

I don't know if you read blogs by other web site creators but they allways seem to be complaining about their miserable lives. I don't know enough about any of them to say how justified these complaints are. However my life's been terrible the last couple of years, a friend died, a family member's had to go into a home, I've been sick, even the weather has been awful! Is there a conspiracy against web comic creators or what?

People I know were recently in a controversy involving an award which is voted on by people who attend a convention (for which you have to pay) or others can vote if they pay $5. Well you can vote for my web comic at a number of places (links on the site in multiple places) but hardly anybody ever does. Why? If you don't like the comic, let me know why and I'll see if I can fix it (but not if your complaint is something like, "I want something like Peanuts" or "I use IE 8 and I'm too lazy or stupid to install a plug-in or another browser so can you do the comic in VML?"). Even if you put your complaints in the forum or something, you might get people arguing with you and getting me more publicity. You also now have buttons to share this blog on Facebook and Twitter.

Does anybody even read this blog?

New Part XI update

2010-09-06T10:13:00.001-07:00

Yes, at last a half way decent update. Well this takes more time than a lot of other comics. Now we get to see what's happening inside the space station.

I've discovered that some objects don't show up in all browsers. Can you figure out which ones?

Another update

2010-07-27T10:13:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a while. I've had various things on my plate. Yeah it's another Part X update but there aren't many of those left (you've probably realized that we're running out of charactors). I'm going to try to get another part IX or part XI update in the next month.

New Part XI update

2010-05-26T08:43:00.000-07:00

Yes, at last another update and this one's worth seeing! It has a complicated space station that was modeled in Blender and still hard to draw. It also has a fair bit on animation and I've gone to some lengths to have it still be intellegable in browsers that don't support SMIL.

New Part 9x update

2010-04-22T09:56:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know what you want, updates for Parts IX and XI. Well I'm working on them! In the meantime I've got a new Part IX x update featuring Tiffy!

Time to dur the "Ride of the Valkyries"

2010-03-18T13:39:00.000-07:00

Yes, in this update we get to see some Mech: Van Goes actually flying. We also get to see a bit more Tiffy.

There are of course more Part X and Part XI updates in the pipeline and possibly a Part X x.

New look Part X

2010-03-04T10:01:00.000-08:00

Now you have a new and hopefully improved version of Part X with an added bit about Hernandez. You can see the new bit by clicking on Hernandez's picture on the picture at the top. Yes cleaverly using an SVGZ image to control a different frame!

Needless to say updates for parts IX and XI are still in production so look for those in the coming weeks.

Avatar

2010-02-16T14:15:00.000-08:00

I went to see Avatar as a nice romantic treat on Valentine's Day. I realize that this movie was already three hours long but I felt there were a few things which needed to be explained.

Were the twins identical or not? I know somebody said they had identical genomes but they never actually used the term "identical twins". Also I find it hard to believe that a scientist had an identical twin who was a marine.

How do you go to the toilet when in a pod operating an avatar (not to mention being paralyzed by a spinal injury)?

There was a brief mention of Pandora having low gravity but they never said how low. Everything seemed to fall at normal speed.

How long were the days on Pandora? Also being a moon of a gas giant, you'd expect there to be frequent, and possibly long, eclipses (from the planet but there were also other moons) and the planet shine would often make the night rather bright. Perhaps Pandora's rotation locked and all the action took place on the side facing away from the planet (I don't remember how often the planet was visible in the sky). I've thought about these things because one of the short stories Dragon Knights is based on was set on a moon of a gas giant and I did work a strategically timed eclipse into the plot.

None of Na'vi seemed to be pregnant. Isn't pregnancy obvious in them or don't they reproduce very often?

What was the toxic substance in Pandora's atmosphere (obviously it wasn't that toxic as humans sometimes survived breathing it for several minutes)?

How did those mountains float in the sky? I'm guessing it had something to do with unobtainium but I'd like a bit more explanation.

What exactly is unobtainium and why do people want it so much?

Where were the cute flying buffalos?

Omega space station

2010-02-03T14:25:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know, it's yet another space hardware technical info page. Well you will see that I now do have a Blender model of this. This will be the last technical info page for possibly a very long time. I now have the space hardware models I need to do the next part XI update. I'm also working updates for Parts IX and X and may put up something for Part IX x. Of course it's parts IX and XI you're really intersted in (isn't it? - feedback is good people).

On a totally different subject, it seems that Obama has cancelled NASA's plants for manned space flight but given them money to do something more inovative (after all that effort getting something reliable rather than another overly complicated thing like the space shuttle). I'm not sure what that means, perhaps they'll come up with something like the Stormrider and/or the Red Bishop? It's things like this that make you wonder if there really is a Stargate program.

Finally a new Part IX update

2010-01-12T13:12:00.000-08:00

Yeah, it's finally done. The Part IX update that's been driving me insane for months! Tell the men in white coats that they can turn round and go back to the funny farm without me! If they're really desperate for work, I'm sure they find somebody else to drag back and give electric shocks to.

Anyway this has some bikini clad elves and out last look at the Red Bishop for a while, perhaps ever!

The next update will probably be a Part X but there's also another Part XI update in the works and another space ship background info page (I know you all love those). It depends on what gets done first and how long it takes.

Shizi Zhanzheng

2009-12-09T09:09:00.000-08:00

Wow two updates only a week apart!

OK, this another technical notes page about another crappy human space ship you haven't seen yet! However it does mean that I've got a Blender model of this ship which will be used in the next Part XI update. I'm also still working on the next Part IX update which should be really spectacular.

Cornicopia

2009-12-01T09:18:00.000-08:00

Yes I know, you've read a bunch of web comics where instead of new comics, they post pictures of characters who they say are going to appear in future issues of the comic. Then the comic just dies! Sometimes fillers are posted by comics which contiune or revive. Well here I am updating with a page about space ship which is going to appear in the comic in the future. It's not even a very exciting space ship (remember that a big part of the problems faced by the humans is that their ships suck compared to the alien ones). Well, you will notice that the picture of this ship is a 3D rendering because I've modeled it in Blender. I model most the spaces ships, meca and other complicated 3D objects in Blender and export to SVG so I can show them from different angles and have them consistent. Therefor this was modeled as part of the process to produce the next installment of Part XI.

Part IX is still in production and hopefully it won't take too much longer before I can post the next installment. I may post another Part IX extra installment (I know they're basically just fillers), if it takes that long to get another Part IX or XI up.

Mods in new forums

2009-11-20T10:52:00.000-08:00

I've now added all the mod kinds that have so far appeared in this comic (at least those identified), to the forums so you can discuss them. I've also fixed the mod database so the forum links now take you to the forum for the mod in question. I know you all wanted that and were waiting for it in great anticipation.

The next three updates are in production so one of them should appear soon!

Finally here

2009-10-28T13:34:00.000-07:00

Yes, the promised start of Part XI is finally up! Anybody who says that you can't graft Agaves or Aloes onto cacti (or anything else because their monocots should Google Astrophytum caput-meducae!

Still working on the next Part IX update, it will be ready before the release of Chinese Democracy - oh, what they actually finished that thing? Well before there's real Chinese democracy anyway. Seriously some time in the next month or so. There may be another Part XI extra update something before then, we'll see how things go. Unfortunately the next bit of Part XI involves the Omega space station which I'm going to have model in Blender so that could take a while.

Update soon

2009-10-01T10:11:00.000-07:00

I'm still working on restoring the forums. This is partly because the next update will need its own forum and to have a link to it. That meanst I can't finish it untill I set up the forum.

In addition to the first installment of Part XI, I'm also working on the next installment of Part IX. That should be a lot to look foward to.

New forums

2009-09-15T10:05:00.000-07:00

I'm setting up new forums at:

I'm in the process of changing all the forum links to point to these forums. If you find yourself at an Invision forum, try to remember what you wanted to discuss and come back in a few days. If you're really impatient, you can click on the gargoil (at the bottom of most pages) and email me.

2009-09-08T10:46:00.000-07:00

I've got the first two frames of Part XI nearly done but it would be nice to have a forum for them. Invision seems to have forgotten my new password and ditto for my Zetaboard password. From their websites, it seems that these two boards have merged and their moving the Invision stuff over the Zetaboards. I suspect they're loosing passwords and things in the process (if I was paranoid I might think this was a conspiracy against me).

I'm seriously thinking about just setting up a forum somewhere that's run by different people.

I'm also trying to figure out how to get svgweb to work so I can have at least parts of my website doing fancy stuff on IE without having to worry about plugins. I tried writing a very simple script for it and it didn't work!

I'm also updating the svg viewers page for Opera 10. As far as I can tell so far, it's very similar to the previous version. This is generally good but there are clearly some issues, like why some SVG's used as images don't work and why some text doesn't appear.

Back from Conversion

2009-08-24T09:57:00.000-07:00

Conversion 25 went really well and I had a great time. However this now means I'm rather exhausted.

So stop making excuses for the overly long tmes between updates! Let's tell you a bit more than "had a great time" which every other web comic creator seems to say when they're back from a con.

I followed Tanya Huff (writer of "Blood Ties") in the caberet so I felt I needed to eat some garlicky humas to prove I wasn't a vampier. It was good the niblies included something garlicky so I didn't have to demonstrate that I wouldn't die if staked through the heart :)

I have a sneeking suspicion that I'm in a computer simulation and there's a pause button hidden somewhere, if I do things I haven't done beofer I might find it. Most of the things I can think of never having done are illegal, imoral, difficult, dangerous, expensive or some combination thereof. However I now know that doing a stand up comedy act doesn't get out of this annoying, poorly programmed and rather boring game. Nothing lost even though people laughed at me.

I also read my short story, "The Prince of Wizards" and played Thor in the radio play, "Gods Annominous".

There was also a very interesting talk about the unsolved mysteries of astrophysics. I don't know how you can be a atheist considering all the weid stuff in the universe we don't understand (including the very real possibility that there are multiple universes).

Then there were loads of people in really cool costumes and I had some interesting conversations with people I don't see that often. Nicole and myself went to a filk session with Manx Cat but few people turned up. Filk doesn't seem very popular at this con. It was a bit sureal when Manx Cat started talking about how Sheiagh (I hope I spelt that right) Campbell had died last year like it was something in a history book. Sheiagh was staying with us while she was ill and we're still looking after one of her cats and another cat she was looking after for a friend.

Talking about sureal. The radio play, "Space Oddity" had an alien named Lucy (they actually had some "Lucy in the Sky with Diamons" references - this play was many bits of song lyrics, some of them distorted) quoating lines from "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft". I once had a girlfriend called Lucy (or perhaps it should be said that she once had me - stop it!) from Wallacy (just across the Mersey from Liverpool) who looked like one of the people on the back of Klaatu's (who wrote "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft") "Sir Army Suit" album.

Anyway, I suppose I should get back to checking email for oportunites to make huge amounts of money and perhaps working on the comic.

Gettin somewhere

2009-08-05T09:03:00.001-07:00

Well I've got Scour to work and used it on the first frame of part XI. I've also added some animation to this frame because I want it to look really impressive.

I'm still fighting with svgweb. This is probably a longer term thing as I don't want to make loads of changes to get everything working with it and then have to change everything again when a new version comes out (it's still in beta).

I'll also find the time to continue working on part IX. The trouble is that this part seems to do somthing stupid each frame so I have to render one at a time and can't do much with the computer while it's being done.

New developments

2009-07-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

If you're a regular visiter you'll know that you're previously had to click on the link to see this blog. I decided that I'd be more upfront with it so more people would read it and I could more easily give news relating to this site.

Firstly Part IX is still in production, it's just rather slow because I can only render one frame at a time and can't use the computer for much else while it's happening.

I've also started working on Part XI, which will start with a flashback so I can put it up without it being a spoiler for Part IX (Part X is a summery of the story so far). This will be a return to interactive SVG but with a few (I hope) improvements in the format. This will hopefully mean more frequent and and more interesting updates.

Another reason for starting on Part XI is so I can test Scour which eliminates unecessary code from SVG (this seems to be an inherent problem with using WYSIWYG programs - which you have to use for complicated SVG). This should produce shorter files and speed up the development process.

I'm also looking into svgweb which uses JavaScript to display SVG using Fash in Internet Explorer and native SVG support in other browsers. This will mean that 97% of people will be able to read this comic without having to mess about warning people about SVG. Unfortunately the latest version doesn't work locally, making development difficult. I was told a version which got round this would be available on Friday or Monday but it has yet to materialize.

I've also been having problems with the Forums as I've lost the ability to access the Admin CP and Invision haven't been very helpfull in sorting this out. This main mean a new forum, not that anybody seemed to be using it anyway (you will notice that links to the apropriate forum are now on the mod database - if anybody uses that).

Still working

2009-06-24T09:42:00.000-07:00

The animation is proving to be like extracting teeth! Blender seems to find a new silly thing to do with each frame so I'm rendering them and tweeking them one at a time! I've also changed my hosting company which required more tweeks because it does some things a bit differently from the old one (e.g. didn't allow avi movies).

I've also changed those video adds because they were discontinued. All the comic is now Google Chrome and Safari friendly, except three frames which crash Safari 4 but worked in Safari 3!

I'm now on Twitter and will try to update that more frequently.

2009-03-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

Another update to the part IX animation. I know that's what everybodie's been waiting for! It's really about half of what I intended for this update but I should be able to get the next installment (what should have been the second half of this) done fairly quickly.

It took a day for me to get my hosting company to let me upload it and now my site seems to be down. Anybody know a good cheap hosting company who are SVG friendly?

It seems that Buzz Webcomics has died so I've taken all their links off my site to get rid of the image not found messages. This probably means that they'll ressurect like a dead superhero and I'll have to put all the links back. I now have links to Choice web comics and Super100 webcomics list (or something).

A certain webcomics list rejected me because they claimed that most browsers can't read ".svga" files and seemed to think I worked on Mac because I suggested the use of Opera! (In case you don't know, it's SVGZ files, they're supported natively by Opera, Safari, Google Chrome and Firefox and can be viewed with Internet Explorer using a plug-in. Opera of course works on PC - I think it allwasy has. Safari used to only work on Macs but now also works on PC's). I think this guy ignored my instructions about how to view the site and just thought that if he couldn't see anything, nobody would be able to! What do you do about jerks like this?

Problems with hosting company

2009-01-22T09:29:00.000-08:00

I'm affraid my hosting company has been having serious technical problems of late. My site seems to be down a lot of the time, I can't access with FTP to make changes and sometimes cgi scripts don't work. I've emailed them about this. Cgi scripts were working just now but I still can't log in with FTP. This means I can't upload the Safari/Google Chrome friendly version of part V I've been working on.

Hi to COMIXtalk

2008-10-21T13:32:00.000-07:00

Well, if this works this blog will now be viewable on COMIXtalk

This is related to PixelPalaces pressents: Dragon Knights, which is one of the more technically ambicious comics and hopefully also has a good artwork and story (feedback would be nice people).

AFAIK it's the only major action comic mostly in the SVG format. SVG is similar to SWF (Flash) but is a non-propriatory open standard. It's now natively supported by most browsers except Internet Explorer (which still needs a plug-in to display SVG). I'm trying to make full use of SVG's features, using gradients and filters to make the vector graphics look more like bitmaps, and using interactivity and bits of animation. Unfortunately browsers and plug-ins are inconsistent in how well they handle this but things are improving rapidly. I'm also making an effort to produce this comic as much as possible with free software - mostly Inkscape.

Part IX is still in production and will be a 3D animation produced in Blender. Unfortunately this means that updates are rather slow at the moment.

Part X is an XHTML page sumerizing the story to date. I'm doing this to have some updates between the part IX updates.

Part XI will be back to SVG but with stylistic improvements.

The story is unusual in that it's about superheroes but set in the 22nd century (so far). The Earth has been plunged into an ice age and most people have super powers due to nanotechnology. There are also some ominous aliens. I try to tackle controvertial subjects and keep things scientifically accurate.

Life imitating art?

2008-08-21T11:39:00.000-07:00

I find it a bit creepy when reality starts bearing a weird resemblance to something I've written or drawn. I wanted a character who'd lost a parent in 9/11 and, as a result, had developed a great hatred of Islam - even converting to Judaism. Muslims tend to accuse their critics of racism although Islam is a religion, not a race (so this is inherently illogical and certainly doesn't counter objections to things like doctrine or the behaviour of Muslims). To dispel such accusations, I made this character of African extraction and appearance. I thought this character would have changed his name to something fitting his rather fanatical ideology. Barach was a good first name, as it means "Thunderbolt" and belonged to an Israelite warrior in Judges. Maybe his family name was originally Brown and he Jewized it to Gold. Then he needed a daughter so I called her Jael after the woman who killed the Biblical Barach's arch enemy. Then I discover there's a company called Barrat Gold. Then Barach Obama became a likely candidate for the next US pressident, the first black man to do so. Now I discover that he has a poor half-brother who's mother was named Jael!

Actually this is a bit odder because Obama's father was a Muslim but Barach and Jael aren't mentioned in the Koran and Barach Obama senior pressumably didn't name his wife!

New part 9x update

2008-08-01T09:56:00.000-07:00

Yes there's a new part 9x update, which means that I think I'm about 25% of the way though a rather complicated part 9 update. This is an animation of a new and rather silly mod.

I've also been putting more adverts on my site. Sorry but I have to eat and justify the time I spend on this to my family. If you want to see it advert free, send me lots of money!

Another update

2008-03-31T09:36:00.000-07:00

Well I've finally got theoretically half way through the next Part IX update so you get a new Part X update. Hopefully the second half of the next Part IX update won't take anywhere near as long as the first half.

I'm still not comfortable with the main page. It looks kind of messy but at least you should be able to find things easily. Any ideas on how I may improve it?

According to Google Analytics, most the people who visit my site don't come from comic sites. It may be that they don't know that they're supposed to vote for comics and make comments in the forums or on comic sites. Therefore hardly anybody does this and I don't look as popular as I really am. Let me know if you can think of a way to get these people to vote etc.

Terminator gaff

2008-02-19T10:46:00.000-08:00

I was watching Terminator: The Sara Connors Chronicles last night and it was said that Sara's blood type was O- and John's AB-. Er, don't science fiction script writers check their basic genetics! Somebody with blood type O can't have an AB child! Well they can if they're a chimera or have two copies of the very rare h-ve gene but this is highly unusual! They could have made John and his uncle both B- (which is still fairly rare) and it would have been possible without invoking anything weird!

What is so difficult about genetics that so many people just seem to have soom weird blind spot about it?

New update and site change

2008-02-19T10:42:00.000-08:00

I've finally done an update but it's basically just a filler. I don't normally do fillers because I think you'd rather I got on with the main story.

I've also changed the main page so it's easyer to find the link to the latest update (whatever it is). Now there's a separate link to the warnings about content and the fact the comic's mostly in SVG. Hopefully I'm not going to have people complaining that they weren't warned or just not comming back and not telling my why (feedback is good people!).

Changes to comics listing sites

2008-01-07T15:46:00.001-08:00

Well it seems that comic rankers has died and they never got round to listing "Dragon Knights" anyway (that after I drew a special picture for them). I've removed their link from the main page and replaced it with the Web comics list, where you can at least find "Dragon Knights" although it's listed as "pending" or something. I've already got something like 12 hits from there, which I think is more than I've ever got from Webbed Comics!

Working on PDF version

2008-01-03T13:07:00.000-08:00

I recently discovered a site called Wowio which lets you post PDF books and you get paid when people download them. I thought it might be interesting if I could convert "Dragon Knights" to PDF and put them on Wowio. The trouble is that I don't have any PDF authoring software. It certainly used to be the case that most the functionality of the Adobe SVG viewer was included in the Adobe reader but I wasn't sure what was happening with this as Adobe's lost interest in SVG after buying Macromedia. Anyway I thought it might be possible to just convert SVG files into PDF with all their interactivity and animation. Another complication is that the "Dragon Knights" comic files use external JS, CSS and image files to try to reduce bandwidth and I'm not sure if any SVG to PDF converter can mange this.

I'm stiff researching this. If it turns out to be simple to convert my comics to PDF I'll do that fairly quickly. If it's a more complicated job it may take longer or I may decide it's too much trouble.

2007-12-06T15:11:00.000-08:00

Another update for part IX. That mech was like one of those people who, when given simple instructions, find some way to mess it up. I'm sure you've met people like that. The thing just had a mind of it's own and bits kept moving in wierd directions for no apparent reason when all it had to do was rais up on a platform.

The cord conecting the net launcher to the compressor thing was surprisingly hard to model as well.

2007-11-22T15:15:00.000-08:00

I've just modified the version of the logo with the stary background. Hopefully it now looks like a stary background. I've changed the filter I use for the background with one similar to the one I used for the new splashscreen and the file which you get if you click on one of the last file controles (the one with the pregnant woman looking out at a departing space ship).

I hope this is an improvement.

New splashscreen

2007-11-20T15:44:00.000-08:00

It seems that about 75% of people who saw the splash screen left without doing anything else. Maybe some were downloading SVG viewing software but I rather felt that this was an unacceptable level. Therefore I've redesigned this page so it's hopefully cooler and more user friendly. Let me know what you think!

I've also been putting a lot of links to the forums on the site, in the hope of actually getting people to post something other than viagra adverts there. I think I've done this with all the HTML pages so now I'll start of the SVG files.

I've also put up an update to part X, with Dwites bit.

Convention

2007-08-27T12:56:00.000-07:00

Convention coming up

2007-08-15T14:08:00.000-07:00

Hi,

OK, I'm taking a while to get the next post up. This is for a variety of reasons but one is that Nicole and myself are going to Conversion, the anual science fiction and fantasy con in Calgary. We're not just going but we're doing several things there.

We'll be performing in The Phantom of the Space Opera with the IFWA players. I'm also playing a couple of roles in the IFWA radio plays and reading a short story at the IFWA reading on Friday evening (the theme is "no good can come of this").

Anyway, I've got a Maine Reptile: Leopleurodon moddled and I'm trying to animate it. When I get that done, I'll put up the next update to part X and start working on the next bit of part IX (I think this makes sense).

Part IX update

2007-07-27T15:00:00.000-07:00

Well I've managed another installment of Part IX. This wasn't quiet so much hassel but I had to figger out how to do clouds in Blender.

I now have new respect for Corel Photopaint. I was under the impression that it was just a pale imitation of Adobe Photoshop and didn't really use it although I'd installed it alone with Corel Draw (this must be much better value for money than Adobe Illustrator as it's a lot cheaper, you get Photopaint, and Corel Rave and a few other things with it, although Inkscape is a lot cheaper still). Photopaint creates and edits movies, which Adobe Photoshop dose not. I was stugling with Adobe after effects to put this movie together but I still ended up with a couple of black frames that shouldn't have been there. I got rid of them with Photopaint which allows you to edit frame by frame which After Effects does not (or maybe I haven't figured out how to do it or newer versions are better).

How many ways can you remove the epidermis of a feline?

2007-06-27T14:09:00.000-07:00

ARRRR!

Finally got the first part of the Dragon Knights part IX movie made. Boy was that a load of hassel! I thought it would be a simple matter of modeling it in Blender, rendering in Blender. As per the Blender manual, I rendered it as indevidual frames. Then I got Blender to make them into a movie. Only the movie was completely blank! Therefore I decided to put all the rendered frames on my zip drive, transfer them to the Mac and make a movie in Adobe After Efects. Only I couldn't find the USB lead for my zip drive. Fortunately I could use Nicole's new thumb drive. Well this took a couple of hourse and the movie only had one frame! So I decided to re-render the movie in Blender, this time going strait to Quicktime. After a day or so of rendering, I got a movie which was short of the last few seconds, you know that part with the title on it (this firs bit is the title sequence)! I put the movie on the thumb drive, went back to the Mac and combined it with the last few frames in After Efects. Then I put the complete movie on the thumb drive and went back to the PC. Now the new movie was completely blank on the PC! Tried exporting it from After Efects as an avi file. Now I got an "Explorer has encountered an unexpected error and has to quit" message when I tried looking at the thumb drive (not even selecting the avi file). Next idea, email it to myself so I asked Nicole to do that. The next morning she still hadn't done it so she said I should do it. I emailed it to myself from her Hotmail account and got a message saying it had failed. By now Nicole was at the computer and wanted to do her stuf. After a bit of persuasion, I got her to try to send an email to my other adress from her Yahoo account. Unfortunately she didn't know how to attach files so I had to show her and part way through this a cat knocked her coffee cup over, onto her keyboard. She was not pleased. Anyway, she managed to finish sending the email with the mouse, and when it arived the movie ran on the PC.

Now all I have to do is upload it along with some changes to my web site. Then I'll have to do the rest of the movie. Don't let anybody tell you SVG is hard, movies are much harder!

Introduction

2007-06-07T14:08:00.000-07:00

Hi,

Somebody told me the other day that I'd get more trafic if I put a blog on my site. Well this it!