Since my last post I've been trying to find more stuff to post about, but I've come to the conclusion that lately I've been spending most of my time drawing and rendering, not writing. And while Blogger is very good for writing, it's not as good for posting pictures. So after much thought and deliberation (okay, okay, it took place in the time span of two or three Google searches. But there was at least a little thought and deliberation, I promise!), I'm moving Building Cyberworld to Deviant Art!
You can find me here: http://buildingcyberworld.deviantart.com/. And of course my Twitter isn't going anywhere! Right now I just have one sketch up, but I've got more in the pipeline. Besides that, I'm going to be posting a bunch of the stuff I've made in my blogging hiatus. A blog-style post to my page Journal can be expected now and then, and I'm planning to finish the Designing Armor tutorials there, too. Everything that's on Building Cyberworld right now will stay there, at least until the sad day when Google discontinues Blogspot sites :( Hopefully that won't happen for a very long time, though!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Unplug? Not me!
Hello Bloggerers! Long time no see! I'm shamefully behind in posting new updates... but I promise I'll try to post more often from now on :)
Today it's time for a long overdue post: why I'll never unplug. This post was inspired by an blog post I found on Twitter: http://kaitnolan.com/2011/08/19/why-ill-never-unplug/ (I believe the blog post was written by @KaitNolan; I found it through a tweet by @GeneLempp.)
I admit that I'm just starting to barely dip my toe into the online writing community, but even in my everyday, non-writing life I've noticed a lot of people talk about how we're "plugged in all the time" like it's a bad thing. I don't really understand the push to "unplug" and I agreed completely with what Ms. Nolan had to say, but I also thought of some other reasons why I'm joined at the hip to my technology and proud of it. So without further ado, here are my own personal reasons why I'll never unplug.
#1: There are interesting people online.
Seriously, if I had no other motivation to surf the web, the shear variety of cool people there would be enough to tempt me. My interests happen to be CG graphics and writing. Just on Twitter I've found an official DisneyPixar feed, some amazing artists, and a whole series of awesome writers who love to share expertise. Give that all up? Are you nuts!?
This is where I agree 100 percent with Ms. Nolan. I'm lucky to have a group of friends and family who are very supportive and interested in my hobbies, but sometimes it's nice to be able to vent about Photoshop and Comic Sans and n-gons with people who've been there, ya know?
#2: Online interaction and non-online interaction are not incompatible.
Honestly, I can't see how online interaction is a direct path to ruined social skills, like some people claim. For decades now, people have been fluent in face-to-face, writing, and telephone interaction. You don't as a rule see letter writing or telephone calls ruining businesspeople's social skills, do you? I don't see a reason why we can't add internet communication to our toolkit. I talk with people in real life, and then I carry on digital conversations with them later. The two are not mutually exclusive.
#3: Technology is not a one-way path to physical problems/mental problems/any other sort of problems.
Yes, if you spend too much time on the computer you'll end up with problems. But if you spend too much time exercising, you'll end up with different problems. Moderation is better for just about everything.
Angela Ackerman said something in the comments for Ms. Nolan's post that I think makes a lot of sense: "Social networking should never run the show…it should not be this giant flying circus that people need to get away from. If it is, then you’re doing it wrong." I couldn't have said it better myself. YOU run the technology. If your technology's running you, then you need to change your approach. No killer robots will emerge from the depths of Twitter to punish you for neglecting them. I promise.
#4: It's fun.
Yes, that's one of my major reasons. In fact, that's my final, all-encompassing reason that I'll never unplug. I happen to enjoy tweeting, chat forums, and video games. I happen to enjoy them very much. 'Nuff said.
I think sometimes people are way too harsh on entertainment. Being 100 percent practical, 100 percent of the time would be very stressful. Sometimes you just need a little pure entertainment, and I think that's okay.
And on a completely unrelated note, Twitter is down and it's driving me NUTS because there's something that I really want to tweet about. Normally I would vent such a minor irritation on Twitter. But I kind of can't do that, because Twitter is kind of... not working. Oh dear.
Today it's time for a long overdue post: why I'll never unplug. This post was inspired by an blog post I found on Twitter: http://kaitnolan.com/2011/08/19/why-ill-never-unplug/ (I believe the blog post was written by @KaitNolan; I found it through a tweet by @GeneLempp.)
I admit that I'm just starting to barely dip my toe into the online writing community, but even in my everyday, non-writing life I've noticed a lot of people talk about how we're "plugged in all the time" like it's a bad thing. I don't really understand the push to "unplug" and I agreed completely with what Ms. Nolan had to say, but I also thought of some other reasons why I'm joined at the hip to my technology and proud of it. So without further ado, here are my own personal reasons why I'll never unplug.
#1: There are interesting people online.
Seriously, if I had no other motivation to surf the web, the shear variety of cool people there would be enough to tempt me. My interests happen to be CG graphics and writing. Just on Twitter I've found an official DisneyPixar feed, some amazing artists, and a whole series of awesome writers who love to share expertise. Give that all up? Are you nuts!?
This is where I agree 100 percent with Ms. Nolan. I'm lucky to have a group of friends and family who are very supportive and interested in my hobbies, but sometimes it's nice to be able to vent about Photoshop and Comic Sans and n-gons with people who've been there, ya know?
#2: Online interaction and non-online interaction are not incompatible.
Honestly, I can't see how online interaction is a direct path to ruined social skills, like some people claim. For decades now, people have been fluent in face-to-face, writing, and telephone interaction. You don't as a rule see letter writing or telephone calls ruining businesspeople's social skills, do you? I don't see a reason why we can't add internet communication to our toolkit. I talk with people in real life, and then I carry on digital conversations with them later. The two are not mutually exclusive.
#3: Technology is not a one-way path to physical problems/mental problems/any other sort of problems.
Yes, if you spend too much time on the computer you'll end up with problems. But if you spend too much time exercising, you'll end up with different problems. Moderation is better for just about everything.
Angela Ackerman said something in the comments for Ms. Nolan's post that I think makes a lot of sense: "Social networking should never run the show…it should not be this giant flying circus that people need to get away from. If it is, then you’re doing it wrong." I couldn't have said it better myself. YOU run the technology. If your technology's running you, then you need to change your approach. No killer robots will emerge from the depths of Twitter to punish you for neglecting them. I promise.
#4: It's fun.
Yes, that's one of my major reasons. In fact, that's my final, all-encompassing reason that I'll never unplug. I happen to enjoy tweeting, chat forums, and video games. I happen to enjoy them very much. 'Nuff said.
I think sometimes people are way too harsh on entertainment. Being 100 percent practical, 100 percent of the time would be very stressful. Sometimes you just need a little pure entertainment, and I think that's okay.
And on a completely unrelated note, Twitter is down and it's driving me NUTS because there's something that I really want to tweet about. Normally I would vent such a minor irritation on Twitter. But I kind of can't do that, because Twitter is kind of... not working. Oh dear.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Designing Armor, Part 1: The Overall Suit
First off, welcome to the first post of the Designing Armor tutorial series!
Whether they're illustrating sci-fi, historical fiction, or fantasy, a lot of artists need to make armor designs eventually. If they're not armor experts, then designing armor that is original and effective-looking can be tricky. Of course, I NEVER experienced any of that myself *shifty eyes*
Who am I kidding? Of course I have trouble with armor, because I admit to not knowing a thing about it. I'm an artist, after all, not a historian. Fortunately, I have a resident assistant in the form of Bricklayer, who is a military history buff as well as a Lego Mindstorm enthusiast. I tell him the look/function I'm going for, he tells me what that armor has to do, what kind of armor I need, and shows me some pictures for examples. (If you can make friends with a military history buff, I highly recommend it if only for the sake of your armor drawings.)
But not everyone is able to keep someone like Bricklayer around, and so for that, I'm writing this tutorial with his assistance. I'm not going to dwell too much on drawing specific styles of armor, since the goal of this tutorial is to give ideas for designing your own armor, but I will use 2D sketches as illustrations. This tutorial would work for 3D modeling too—it doesn't matter how you create, the design process is still the same.
Whether they're illustrating sci-fi, historical fiction, or fantasy, a lot of artists need to make armor designs eventually. If they're not armor experts, then designing armor that is original and effective-looking can be tricky. Of course, I NEVER experienced any of that myself *shifty eyes*
Who am I kidding? Of course I have trouble with armor, because I admit to not knowing a thing about it. I'm an artist, after all, not a historian. Fortunately, I have a resident assistant in the form of Bricklayer, who is a military history buff as well as a Lego Mindstorm enthusiast. I tell him the look/function I'm going for, he tells me what that armor has to do, what kind of armor I need, and shows me some pictures for examples. (If you can make friends with a military history buff, I highly recommend it if only for the sake of your armor drawings.)
But not everyone is able to keep someone like Bricklayer around, and so for that, I'm writing this tutorial with his assistance. I'm not going to dwell too much on drawing specific styles of armor, since the goal of this tutorial is to give ideas for designing your own armor, but I will use 2D sketches as illustrations. This tutorial would work for 3D modeling too—it doesn't matter how you create, the design process is still the same.
Jump break.
I am making this post solely to see if Google's advice on making jump breaks in a blog post will work.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Tuesday Tweetcast
Nothing fancy, just my favorite tip/wise advice/fun stuff from my Twitter feed.
Photo: Horse cheat sheet. When people ask how to draw horses, this is what I jot down. http://tumblr.com/xtr3z9ibu9less than a minute ago via Tumblr 
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Emma
lawnrocket
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
App of the Week: My Favorite Live Wallpapers
Okay, this is going to be a group review: my favorite live wallpapers for Android! All of these are fairly dark (I like to check my phone in the middle of the night and I don't like to get blinded, plus I have heard that dark wallpapers use less battery), and they all run well, and they're all interesting--at least to me. Looking over this list I see that I have a distinct taste for scifi wallpapers, especially those that show spacescapes rushing by... Hmm. I like spacescapes, okay?
Shadow Galaxy: If you love the scenes in Star Trek that show an exterior shot of the ship plunging into a mass of swirling iridescent nebula, and you love those scenes not because of the ship but because of all that beautiful nebula, then you'll probably like this wallpaper. I had tried a couple of this developer's other "Galaxy" wallpapers and, while tolerable, they didn't knock my socks off or were too bright; I really like this one, though. Seems to run very stable.
Hyperspace 3D (free version): This one leans more to the "fiction" side of "science fiction" by superimposing a glowing "tunnel through space" on top of a vivid spacescape. (You can turn the tunnel off if you want to just have the spacescape, but what would be the fun in that?!) Some lagging issues on my Droid 2, but works well the majority of the time.
Solar Wind: By far my favorite live wallpaper, period. 5 patterns plus a "customize" mode mean that you can have pretty swirly dots swirl around your screen in several different ways. (The only pattern I really don't like is "Jiggly", because I find it vaguely nausea-inducing, but that might just be me.) Runs well.
3D Fireflies (free version): Same idea as Solar Wind but a bit different aesthetic; glowing trails behind little arrowheads rather than dots in lines. Lags a bit, although very rarely.
Starfield: "Set a course to take us around the nebula. Warp 2. Engage!" "Aye-aye, Captain!" And as the ship lurches into motion, a handy lieutenant videotapes the view out the front window to be included in this app. As a lover of the warp-speed visual effect, this was the second live wallpaper I downloaded after getting my phone (the first was Solar Wind). My only gripe is that the animation is centered on the home screen of my phone and doesn't move with scrolling; scrolling to the screens on the right or left causes the starfield to streak across the screen rather than from the center of it.
Shadow Galaxy: If you love the scenes in Star Trek that show an exterior shot of the ship plunging into a mass of swirling iridescent nebula, and you love those scenes not because of the ship but because of all that beautiful nebula, then you'll probably like this wallpaper. I had tried a couple of this developer's other "Galaxy" wallpapers and, while tolerable, they didn't knock my socks off or were too bright; I really like this one, though. Seems to run very stable.
Hyperspace 3D (free version): This one leans more to the "fiction" side of "science fiction" by superimposing a glowing "tunnel through space" on top of a vivid spacescape. (You can turn the tunnel off if you want to just have the spacescape, but what would be the fun in that?!) Some lagging issues on my Droid 2, but works well the majority of the time.
Solar Wind: By far my favorite live wallpaper, period. 5 patterns plus a "customize" mode mean that you can have pretty swirly dots swirl around your screen in several different ways. (The only pattern I really don't like is "Jiggly", because I find it vaguely nausea-inducing, but that might just be me.) Runs well.
3D Fireflies (free version): Same idea as Solar Wind but a bit different aesthetic; glowing trails behind little arrowheads rather than dots in lines. Lags a bit, although very rarely.
Starfield: "Set a course to take us around the nebula. Warp 2. Engage!" "Aye-aye, Captain!" And as the ship lurches into motion, a handy lieutenant videotapes the view out the front window to be included in this app. As a lover of the warp-speed visual effect, this was the second live wallpaper I downloaded after getting my phone (the first was Solar Wind). My only gripe is that the animation is centered on the home screen of my phone and doesn't move with scrolling; scrolling to the screens on the right or left causes the starfield to streak across the screen rather than from the center of it.
Friday, July 15, 2011
The Rules for Writing
The following rules have been hanging on the wall of my family's book room for the past several years, at least, and I wanted to share them. Unfortunately I don't know who the original author is (my copy of the Rules is an uncredited computer print-out, which I rather think was brought home after circulating around someone's office). Nonetheless, I think this is valuable advice for authors everywhere!
1: Verbs HAS to agree with their subjects.
2: Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3: And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
4: Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat.)
5: Also, always avoid anything alliteration.
6: Be more or less specific.
7: Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.
8: Also, too, never ever use repetitive redundancies.
9: No sentence fragments.
10: Contractions aren't necessary and shouldn't be used.
11: Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
12: Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary--it's highly superfluous.
13: One should NEVER generalize.
14: Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
15: Don't use no double negatives.
16: Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
17: One-word sentences? Eliminate.
18: Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
19: The passive voice is to be ignored.
20: Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.
21: Never use a big word when a diminutive one will suffice.
22: Kill all exclamation points!!
23: Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
24: Understatement is always the absolute best way to put forth earth-shaking ideas.
25: Use the apostrophe in it's proper place and omit it when its not needed. (Note: it's and its are not the same thing! Look it up.)
26: Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
27: If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand time: resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly.
28: Puns are for children, not groan readers.
29: Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
30: Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
31: Who needs rhetorical questions?
32: Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
And finally,
33: Proofread VERY carefully to see if you any words out.
DISCLAIMER: Building Cyberworld is not responsible for any failure, disappointment, rejection, ridicule, or loss of money or reputation that may result from the use of these rules.
1: Verbs HAS to agree with their subjects.
2: Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3: And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
4: Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat.)
5: Also, always avoid anything alliteration.
6: Be more or less specific.
7: Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.
8: Also, too, never ever use repetitive redundancies.
9: No sentence fragments.
10: Contractions aren't necessary and shouldn't be used.
11: Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
12: Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary--it's highly superfluous.
13: One should NEVER generalize.
14: Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
15: Don't use no double negatives.
16: Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
17: One-word sentences? Eliminate.
18: Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
19: The passive voice is to be ignored.
20: Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.
21: Never use a big word when a diminutive one will suffice.
22: Kill all exclamation points!!
23: Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
24: Understatement is always the absolute best way to put forth earth-shaking ideas.
25: Use the apostrophe in it's proper place and omit it when its not needed. (Note: it's and its are not the same thing! Look it up.)
26: Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
27: If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand time: resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly.
28: Puns are for children, not groan readers.
29: Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
30: Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
31: Who needs rhetorical questions?
32: Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
And finally,
33: Proofread VERY carefully to see if you any words out.
DISCLAIMER: Building Cyberworld is not responsible for any failure, disappointment, rejection, ridicule, or loss of money or reputation that may result from the use of these rules.
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