Vainamoinen

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Everything posted by Vainamoinen

  1. Creativity

    I'll gladly echo the others: Don't stop drawing, front, middle, center. The great artists are those who refused to give up, there's ten thousand bad drawings in you that you just need to get out to be great, yadda yadda yadda. There are so many tips, hints, resources and the like that I don't even know where to start, and much depends on what you actually want to do with your art: Where do you want to go, what do you want to create? Judging from your drawings, you have a pretty good idea of proportion already. What I also see is what Mike Mattesi calls the "infamous hairy line". He preaches a "one line per idea" approach, i.e. longer, confidently flowing lines instead of minuscule insecure strokes. This has nothing to do with 'getting it right on the first stroke' – you can redo longer lines easily after all. I'm working hard at the time to get anywhere with lost&found lines and line variation – being in command of line is a surprisingly powerful tool in the artist's toolbox.
  2. "Cars sucks." - A Pixar Thread

    It's interesting that so few people have written about Finding Nemo. I watched it last week, and while I still find it fairly well done, I haven't felt the need to talk about it at length. But, hey, The Incredibles next week already. I get to talk about Herbert Feuerstein. That'll be a hoot.
  3. A lot of this stuff sounds really good. http://www.treknews.net/2016/03/03/rod-roddenberry-joins-star-trek-all-access-series/
  4. Creativity

    I love the final pass, the texture and the line variation... this is definitely going somewhere. In other news, I backed Mutant: Genlab Alpha. So obviously I am now drawing NPCs.
  5. Cows in Space! A MoO thread

    D'awwwww. Reginald Barclay III., Worf AND Q. Makes a TNG fan all weepy. I still can't connect to Master of Orion.
  6. "Cars sucks." - A Pixar Thread

    But first, let's get this out of the way.
  7. "Cars sucks." - A Pixar Thread

    Not to mention energy shortage and rampant misopedia. The dystopian impression – I think it's quite purposeful. Pleasantville style, or even Fido style.
  8. The Flame in the Flood Kickstarter

    Got it from GOG yesterday and only played a bit... let's see if I can really get into this.
  9. "Cars sucks." - A Pixar Thread

    A few more things about Monsters. Inc coming up. First up. Having a door in a room that doesn't lead to another room, but to some kind of tiny pantry for clothes and other stuff, called a closet, that seemed a very weird thing to me when I first travelled to the States. In other words, this entire international approach may not work particularly well for the scream collecting company. No wonder they're on the brink of bankruptcy.
  10. "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

    Nothing that hasn't been going on for 300 pages. Still, if there's no value perceived in this thread anymore, I've no problem with having it closed and/or abandoned.
  11. Indeed. It's beautiful. I'd wear that, but I'm in no financial situation to import T-Shirts right now.
  12. "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

    Sorry for posting double content, but I thougt this to be an interesting observation about gamergate, 'censorship' and their desperate need for opposition. I posted the stuff in gamergate spheres, of course, and *surprise*, downvotes galore. Frankly, it's a bit depressing. So, maybe reposting it here is more fruitful: For funsies, I investigated the Fire Emblem Fates "censorship" case a little bit. And boy it is a wonderful exemplary case when it comes to gamergate reality construction. Evidently "SJW" now means "opposed to diversity". Now, I have seen people perform that leap of utter idiocy a few times. But, in all seriousness, whatever "SJW" meant yesterday, forget about it. Let's just use a new definition so it fits Fire Emblem Fates. Yesterday's "SJW" was the fantasy of people who violently demanded that developers put an LGBTQ agenda into their games. In the Fire Emblem Fates case, the term "SJW" somehow seems to describe people who censor LGBTQ stuff from Japanese games. Sacrebleu. Man, those stupid SJW make no sense at all, yet AGAIN. I am absolutely enamored with the way the argument flows here, as it once more shows "SJW" to mean absolutely nothing. It's the ultimate label devoid of any kind of meaning besides maybe "person I don't like". There's literally zero fixed ideology attached to it, the perfect versatile fascist enemy figure. The first info about the Fire Emblem Fates stuff I found was on thegg.net – known for the most ludicrous of conspiracy theories (see the Tale of Tales/Sarkeesian bribe absurdity they still have online, to their embarassment). However, as their website is so funny, I stuck around a bit to see how far I could get with this source. Apparently one Alison Rapp, proven to be of female gender (oh noes!) and wearing a hipster nose ring (double noes!), hence clearly being one'o'dem, has made some precaaaarious statements on twitter concerning education in game culture (she's for it, sadly) and xenophobia in so called progressive US culture (she somehow manages to think it's there although clearly US media is generally perfect before SJW fuck it up again). And there have been some femimimisms from her, I must report. Scary femimimisms you should shield your children's eyes from. The frequented gamergate website has no idea what position Rapp holds exactly and whether she has any kind of influence on actual gameplay decision making (she's been with Nintendo for only two years and only as a marketer, so how about no influence at all). Rapp's outspoken sex positivity and her embrace of the Japanese culture will not play into their judgement, even though the proposed cuts mainly concern homosexual content – content which Rapp would certainly advocate for whenever she could. So Rapp is pro LGBTQ, which makes her an SJW, and SJW are known to censor LGBTQ stuff from games, so evidently it must have been Rapp who censored Fire Emblem Fates. The finest hour of gamergate reasoning. The most hilarious thing I found on thegg.net was some kind of history about the 'petting minigame' "censorship" issue. The first source to report on the cut and deplore it was kotaku and, to be more precise, Mr. Nathan Grayson (name spelled correctly here), who would be gamergate supporters' enemy no. 1 if gamergate made no difference between male and female targets. So when in January it looked like Nintendo wouldn't cut the minigame – some random gameFAQ users had said so after all – thegg.net calls Grayson and kotaku liars immediately, adds a whole lot of screenshots as "proof" and litters their website by discrediting the only source they had as of then (emphasis in bold by me): Two updates on the same day, several screens scroll. Fuck Kotaku, man. Needless to say, the section is in no way transparently corrected when Nintendo confirms that, yup, exactly the cuts Grayson had been reporting would be applied. You may search an apology to kotaku until judgement day. Instead, thegg.net "authors" follow up with an impressive amount of social justice outrage about social justice warriors. TL;DR: kotaku protests against those cuts, gamergate supporters protest against those cuts, real gamers as opposed to gamergate supporters protest against those cuts, LGBTQ gamers and their friends protest against those cuts, and the female developer targeted by gamergate supporters at Nintendo USA very likely protests against those cuts, internally, as well. But gamergate needs enemies to thrive... many, many sneaky enemies. And that's the only takeaway here: Enemy definition is far more important than the issue at hand. Judging from the ggnet article, just about 20 times more important.
  13. Illustrator in need of advice!

    Ohhhh I love those dappled 'pixel' light pictures with the dog.
  14. It really is high time for more Star Trek that deserves the name. If only to enrage the Puppies. And, well, if Enterprise was pretty bad and went on for four Seasons, maybe the new series runs for at least three. Like Hannibal...
  15. *sigh* I just hope it's TNG/Asimov/SoJu Star Trek again. Then again, the budget for too much action won't arise anyway. Ideally for me, we're set 22 years after TNG. Michael Dorn is probably already crazy about whether they'll have him as a regular. We're safely ignoring the JJverse, of course. But nope, let's not go with the flagship this time. Even though TNG is my favorite Star Trek series, the Voyager scenario was the better one, with largely uncharted, hostile territory and a good few crooks on board (well, not crooks, but we could easily go there, hello Firefly). What I'd also like to see is a much smaller ship, and one that isn't so meticulously repaired between missions. One that reflects use/abuse, damage and modifications of former episodes. That needs to fit the setting, of course... and that might not fit Starfleet. I guess we can have Star Trek without a ship named Enterprise, but not without Starfleet, no? I wouldn't be opposed to a captain Deanna Riker-Troi, but only if Marina Sirtis doesn't lose a single gram of weight for the role.
  16. "Cars sucks." - A Pixar Thread

    January 18th - 31st A Bug's Life February 1st - 14th Toy Story 2 February 15th - 28th Monsters, Inc. February 29th - March 13th Finding Nemo March 14th - March27th The Incredibles All right, here it is. The movie that actually brought me to like Pixar. And it's the first time I ever saw it on Blu Ray. My set contains two BRs and I still could not find the incredible "gag reel" anywhere. On my DVD, it's clearly in the extras AND attached to the end of the movie. It may not be on the BRs... or I haven't found it yet. MotherFUCK. Regardless! Pixar's technical leap from Toy Story 2 to Monsters Inc. is breathtaking. Sully's range of emotion is brilliant, and I still have fits of laughter when I see him fainting repeatedly. This is so_well_done. And Boo... the eager smiley nod, the stiff lower lip, the sudden change from determined rage to accomplishment pride after beating up Randall. I'm still melting, and it's definitely not because the character model is particularly great (Mary Gibbs did a stellar job as well though). With the BR's detail, texture becomes pure show off. I found Sully's fur to be really impressive. Of course, Pixar was soooo proud of handling texture here that it's ritually overexposed. And 'more' is neither better nor more realistic. As a result, my eye continuously hung on irrelevant details instead of the movie's action. Good thing I know it by heart anyway. /edit: GOT IT. The Outtakes were on the second disc. Choose "Humans only" from 4 item menu, then "Release" from 13 item menu, then "Outtakes & Company Play" at the very bottom of the twice scrolling 11 item menu. Wasn't that easy.
  17. "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

    That has been evident for a long time. Even the helpful judges had to actually ask Quinn how to word certain things in the restraining order. The legal system is unfit to deal with the situation, period. As strange as that sounds, that must have been unsatisfactory for both sides, a waste of time and money for both sides. I congratulate Quinn for her decision, it is unfortunately the only correct one. Eron Gjoni is a deeply abusive personality in dire need of psychological help, and nowhere is that as evident as in his long and incoherent rambling about his ex-girlfriend that somehow is still online, to his embarassment. I read the whole thing in its entirety again last August, and was once more baffeled as to how people could, on the basis of this, run amok with harassment that hasn't stopped since then. And no court order could ever stop organized harassment. The harassment machine is in no need of further pedaling supplied by the original abuser... as we've seen, that machine has no shortage of energy. Today, I'm seeing gamergate supporters doing their desperate best to untie their and Gjoni's abuse of Zoe Quinn from their heralded history of uninformed and excessive consumers running amok. But whatever amount of lily white spray paint covers the tube like links between the Quinnspiracy and gamergate, their humongous contours will always be visible to those who look. In that respect, we may even have to thank John Bain for his now historical blog entry. I can and will point to it again and again, because, as I've said before, he literally speaks about his prejudice concerning Zoe Quinn and presages/dictates the three pillars of gamergate ideology – goals, targets, smoke screen – on the basis of exactly that. Meanwhile, the Milo Yiannopoulos White House petition to reinstate his twitter verification has ended with 1.624% of necessary signatures reached.
  18. Well, there at least is a DRM free Firewatch digital publication I can buy, and I even have enough RAM for it. Will one of you guys spoil me rotten on the Ornate Box Turtle baby options please?
  19. The games that made you buy the system

    *sighhhh*. This isn't actually easy. I was in the US in 1985, and they were nuts about Super Mario Bros.; I shared in the hype, being 7 at the time, and that was probably the reason I got my mother to give us an NES for Christmas in 1986. However, games like Faxanadu and Battle of Olympus were much more up my alley, and I didn't even know about those when I first got the system. I didn't buy the original GameBoy for any particular game, though importing the Final Fantasy Legend parts from English speaking countries was about the most hardcore gamer thing I did back then. Seeing The Secret of Monkey Island at a friend's house in 1992 was definitely a driving force in buying an AMIGA 600. Which, of course, wouldn't run any more modern games. I played the Wing Commander (I) port on the Amiga – which, at this framerate, me and my friends considered turn based – and was furious when the rest of the series didn't get a release there. So Wing Commander III and IV were actually my arguments to buy a PSX in 1996. Naturally, I bought Final Fantasy VII when it came out and that was the hottest shit I had ever seen. Final Fantasy VIII and finally Final Fantasy IX. Then they announced the price of the PS2 and I abandonned consoles instantly. Thanks, Sony! I bought an entirely new PC for Angel of Darkness in 2003, which turned out to be the then worst of the Tomb Raider series. One year later, I actually did get a PS2 slim after all to finally play Final Fantasy X. It was a pure protest and frustration purchase after I experienced the worst game I had ever played on PC ("The Fall - Last Days of Gaia"). Well, I didn't care for FFX in particular, so that evidently backfired. Nowadays, I always think about buying a PS4, but I just can't find games that would really sell it. Particularly not the utter crap SQE puts out today. I was pretty damn hyped about the FFVII Remake, but whenever they announce new details about that venture, it puts me off completely.
  20. "Cars sucks." - A Pixar Thread

    I watched Spaceballs long before I first watched Star Wars. And boy did and do I love Spaceballs. Because the plot and the characters have their own legs to stand on instead of just latching on to something else that's moving at its own pace, in its own direction. The hommage itself never makes a movie great, I think.
  21. Let's discuss RAM requirements as well.
  22. "Cars sucks." - A Pixar Thread

    Okay, just to be absolutely precise. January 4th - 17th Toy Story January 18th - 31st A Bug's Life February 1st - 14th Toy Story 2 February 15th - 28th Monsters, Inc. February 29th - March 13th Finding Nemo
  23. "Cars sucks." - A Pixar Thread

    So, we've been discussing Toy Story 2 since Monday, and... hmmmmm. Personally, I thought Toy Story 2 made much more sense than the first part. And Pixar's essentially just turning the plot of number one around. Buzz knew all about his backstory and nothing about toydom and its rules. Woody, however, knows jack about his backstory and is the toydom law preacher extraordinaire. That may even be more strange than the Buzz Lightyear ignorance conundrum, or at the very least not quite in line with the idea. With Buzz (and all the Buzzes in TS2) we're supposed to believe that all toys come with an all encompassing knowledge of their franchise backstory pre-baked into their brains. Woody seems to have zip. Woody has a backstory dating back more than 40 years, and was created in that time. He has kept his one true name all through that time. Was Woody handed down from generation to generation? Do you guys remember your actual favorite toys being 40, even 50 years old? Was Woody's first owner ignorant of the franchise? Has Woody simply forgotten due to old age? Or maybe it does illustrate how things change in the world of toys. When Woody was created, there usually wasn't any IP or backstory tied to human/anthropomorphist toys that much, so maybe Woody just wasn't so tied to his backstory that it was ingrained in his being. If I understood correctly, the Woody figure was created to sell the cereal, and not the cereal created as Woody series merchandise. Things are so wildly different today, and Buzz Lightyear still serves as a prime example of how an established IP influences (and maybe even reduces) creativity in child's play. Maybe in 50 years, little Ray and Fin action figures face similar identity problems. Regardless of logic, I loved that 50s Woody TV show with its perfect protagonist projection figure, I loved the collector and the fairly implicit message that toys don't belong in a museum, but in the hands of children. To think that Andy will go on playing with a few handmade figurines that might be sold for a few ten thousand bucks in the crappy world of adults, that's an actually calming thought.
  24. The Witness by Jonathan Blow

    *sigh* It's even available DRM free from Humble, but the price tag is scary (particularly over here). The only real point of criticism reviews bring up is that it's basically all the same puzzle type – how much does that issue weigh for you guys?