BogusRed's Sketchblog

Random musings from the PaperDemon admin.

The semester has come to an end. I’m so glad it’s over. This was the hardest semester I’ve ever had. Unfortunately it isn’t truly over. I am taking an Incomplete grade in one of my classes, Visual Development, so that I can work on my projects some more over the break in hopes of getting a better grade.

I don’t really feel that bad about taking the Incomplete. I guess I feel that way because so many students get incompletes in the Tide pool class, which I didn’t get an incomplete in and ended up getting an A in if I remember correctly. And after all, this is my toughest semester yet so if there were any semester to get an incomplete in, this would be it.

Looking back on this past semester, I’ve really grown a lot with my animation. I know my work isn’t near the top. I’m sort of in the middle. But I felt good when my teacher and another student suggested I post one of my tests on Acme so that I can improve it for my reel. I felt like I was starting to “get it.” I think I ended the semester strongly, at least for Animation class. I can’t say the same for Art History or Vis Dev, but at least I have something to be proud about.

Now… purgatory. Vis Dev over my winter break. Vis Dev is so darn hard. I feel so lost in the subject. I think what I need mostly is more books. I need to expand my library and I think that will give me more guidance. That’s part of the problem with these assignments during the semester is you know you need books, but if they are ones you need to or want to purchase, you can’t get them in a weeks time. You have to hunt them down online or call up a local bookstore to order it. So the first thing I’ll do tomorrow is build a wish list and then I can send that out to my family and they can buy me something from that list for Christmas or something. Or they can just get me a gift card for a book store.

I’ve made my decision on the BA BFA issue. I’m going for the BFA. Not sure whether I want the Animation or Illustration degree. But I can figure that out later. I’m enrolled in Animation again next semester and I’ve asked if I could work on a personal film for the semester. It’s LavenderGoddessV’s Surviving Together. I need to get that first episode made. And I think doing it for a class may be the fastest way to get it done. I’ll still have to get a lot of pre-production work done this winter break. That, on top of finishing up my Vis Dev work and making my Poison Apple film and, of course, continuing to develop PaperDemon.com and making more episodes for Zarbon’s Masterpiece Theater. Anyway, if I can’t get my way, I’ll probably drop the class and take another class. I have other classes to take.

This is going to be a busy winter break. I’ll be working on Surviving Together regardless of whether I can work on it for school or not, but you know me. I started this project in high school and still have yet to complete an episode. Of course, now I finally have the skills to complete it. I’ve started this project like 3 different times and trashed the version that came before because I want it to be just right.

I also plan to record some more music and post it here for download. I’m always getting requests to record more music. I need money. I need to get some money darn it! I will also be working really hard on my store so that I can get enough money to buy Reason audio software. It will allow me to create better quality music. Plus I’ll be needing to upgrade my hosting account soon.

I’m also planning to learn more about Flash programming. I picked up a couple of books and I’m experimenting with PHP-MySQL-Flash stuff. I intend to implement some of this technology into PaperDemon.com

Several years ago I played this anime role-playing game, sort of like a simple Dungeons and Dragons type thing, with a system called the Tri-Stat system. It was really simple and easy to expand upon. Anyway, I had this vision of a Flash based internet online game based on this system, in which there was still a live person being the dungeon master and controlling aspects of the game, and there were also players connected, and in the same dungeon playing the game together. I actually started to create it but didn’t get very far. I didn’t really know enough about Flash programming to do it and I also didn’t have a means for getting all of the people to be playing together. I didn’t know it at the time, but what I needed to connect the players and dungeon master together in a live game was a PHP and MySQL backend. I didn’t know anything about that stuff at the time but now I’m pretty proficient in it. Now I just need the Flash knowledge to build the interface.

I don’t play that role playing game anymore but perhaps there is still some interest for this sort of thing out there. I’d love to create a game like this that’s multiplayer RPG flash. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like that out there before. If you have, tell me about it.

This is another huge project though. I don’t think I should take on ANOTHER frikken project. Especially, since I have Surviving Together sitting here, unfinished. But I really wanna do it! Grrrr. I’ll maybe start off with something small and simple just to learn the programming. Later, when I’m more proficient in Flash programming and when I have a more solid concept of what I want to do, I can take on this RPG flash idea.

I just hope I get SOMETHING finished this winter. There is always so much I want to spend my time doing. I wish I could give up sleep and just work on these projects night and day. Next summer I’m not going to have as much time for these things as I’ll need to get a job or internship. So its time to get crackin’!

I think the first thing I’ll do is work on Vis Dev stuff and my Poison Apple film. The film might be something that can get me some money since I can submit it to festivals. I’ll touch on Surviving Together a little bit too. I’m still working on storyboards trying to sort out some story issues. Once that’s finished, I can start rerecording sessions. Unfortunately, Zarbon and Bulma are not around for recording. Bulma isn’t so much of a problem because she doesn’t talk much in the first episode and I can keep her lines as is.

I could solve this problem by using Google Talk but the audio quality won’t be perfect. It will be good enough for web publishing though.

Anyway, this post is getting way too long. I need to shut up now and get some sleep.

Permalink | Comments (0) | Post a comment