Furry animal & Dragon Ball's Scooter

Realizing this one I played around a little with different brushes and different levels of pression for the pen. I am still unsure about the colors, I might change them... Right now I am working on something more complex, and it's kind of giving me an headache @.@ so I thought I'd take a break and use the chance to write this blog post. I have a lot of ideas about monsters to draw for the game, plus some extra that is not exactly related to it. I hope I'll manage to get done as much as I can in this break, also 'coz GW2 release is getting close. Considering that today (it's just past midnight) is the 6th of April, I'll be able to prepurchase the game in 4 days. Sure we might not know the actual release date yet, but I am sure that at least in a couple weeks I'll get in the beta and I'll go around stabbing people with my thief (I know I'll spend at least an hour deciding the way he'll look ._. ). Talking with my guildmates I realize I am not the only one that is getting more and more frenzy day after day. I guess it's only natural considering just how much time we've been waiting for it.

I woke up with no net and with no telephone this morning, since Fastweb started the switch-over. At around 10 am the line was back, but...they forgot to send their router, so I had to contact the customer service in order to get the parameters to attempt to set my own router as a replacement while I don't get theirs. The girl on the other end of the phone was rather gentle, but not exactly expert in the net domain, so she gave me some confusing instructions. After a few attempts I managed to get the whole thing to work, but since they are still testing it, and I don't have their device, it's not stable. I'm getting a faster net for half the price...but what a pain!

Today I've read that Google has showed a prototype of its "Project Glass", an head-up display for augmented reality. For those of you who watched Dragon Ball (wait...who didn't?!?) it will be kind of like Vegeta's/Nappa's/Freezer's Scooter, just with an Android OS.

Jokes aside, despite the ugly shape (I am quite sure the commercial version won't look like this though), I find it pretty interesting. Augmented reality, means having a "virtual layer" overlapping what you normally see, giving you info and functionalities you normally wouldn't have. It will be like having your cellphone always on, displaying its content straight on your eyes, without the need to interact with your hands. Just think about it... You can answer your calls (videocalls), write messages, keep track of your appointments without the need of a cellphone/tablet. You can take pictures/videos of what you're seeing and share it on the fly. You don't remember/know the way to get to that place you need to go? No problem, your glasses will show you the instructions. What you can do is bounded only by the imagination of the developers. I've always been enticed by this field, and I don't miss the chance to check the results of our university research lab in it whenever I can. But I suppose that a video is worth more than a thousand words...so watch this:

Pretty cool, isn't it?
But yea...they ought to change that ugly shape... <.<

Back to drawing,
See y'all soon!

Easter's break starts

Wouldn't it be really, really great if it was possible? :\

Easter's break just started but I can't avoid feeling it as really really short. I am pretty sure that it'll be gone in a breeze and I won't manage to get anything done at all. Beside that, it's going to be Easter, but I don't know since when I started not enjoying holidays. Maybe it's 'cause all around, all the air we breathe,  all the atmosphere we bathe in, is nothing but a big commercial lie to fish more money. I think the original feelings for Xmas, Valentine's day, Easter, have long been gone, and that, honestly, kind of sucks. I still remember when I was a kid, my grandpa used to give me a chocolate egg for Easter. Its package was really shiny, back then, there weren't fancy toys inside, but as a kid I still would let my imagination fly wondering what was inside. I remember that I looked at that egg for days, till the sunday, and then, I would hurry and eat everything because at the end of the meal, I could've finally opened it. My grandpa would hold the base of the egg for me, and I would open it, and then we'd share the chocolate with everybody else. It was really, really nice. That, was still Easter for me.

While going to uni today (I'd be more correct to say "yesterday" given the time), me and Angelo decided to have lunch at Mc Donald for a change. I got my Big Tasty Menu, while he got his usual Mc Chicken's one (always chicken) plus we got Mc Flurry Pistacchio flavored (for me) and Smarties flavored (for him). I must admit that McD's Pistacchio is simply delicious...it's big...and delicious. What makes it all even more tasty is the fact that thanks to our University's Meals SmartCards we managed to pay it all...just 1 Euro. Crazy.
What's less funny is what happened after. You gotta know that the weather is rapidly turning hot, and since we were all cool after our icecreams we didn't want to ride an uber crowded bus, with lots of sweaty people, so we decided to walk up to the campus, it wasn't more than a few Kms apart afterall, and it wouldn't have been bad to digest. We walked and chatted, and while we were all focused in our talks, cars started to dart on our sides, we found ourselves in the opposite side from where we usually walk. We were on the highway, where pedestrians should absolutely *NOT BE*. We were unable to go back or to cross the road, so we slowly walked ahead, having care to stick closely to the sideway. Given the little distance from the cars, Angelo was quite worried,   but I found the thing a little hilarious though. Having to walk like that, while the cars passing by thought of us as crazy, took us 2x/3x the time we would usually take. Lame.

Our teacher suggested us to watch "Numb3rs" I might give it a try afterall...I hope it's good.
It was a long (and hot) day, I feel tired and sleepy, but I guess I'll draw a little to relax before falling asleep.

See y'all soon!

Potions & Zombies

After focusing on the mascotte, CodeP-chan (I received some valuable feedbacks on the last post, her blushes got modified, and also her ear's level changed a bit, I think you'll see the new revision directly on the official website of the game), it was time to get something done about the "consumables" for the game; so I've started attempting some prototypes of the "Big Potions" and "Small Potions". They're still under iteration, but this is what I came up with so far. I decided to add some particle effects to the standard concept of potions, something akin to what you might find in a laboratory (my chemists friends will be happy), with all the bubbles and the hazy mist. Even if it was a pain trying to balance all the particles (not too crowded not too empty) it should be easier to switch the content of the potions (HP, Mana, etc) thanks to the layers distribution.

I've been at home today, tomorrow (actually, looking at the time, it's today) is gonna be the last day of uni before the Easter's break (not that much of a break considering that it's just 6 days long). Since it was possible, I took the chance to nap (it's so rare to be able to when I have lessons) and when I woke up I felt terribly lazy, so the only thing I managed to do was to go out and have an haircut. At least I saved some time  from the next days (that will be really busy considering that I'll have to work on the game development, fix some bugs of my previous software that kept piling up during the last month, and I'll have also to study for my Artificial Intelligence exam). I am quite happy of the haircut, I was kind of scared since the one that served me was a guy in training, but all in all, he did a fairly good job both with hair and shaving (there is always a little tension when someone else is pointing a sharp razor to your throat!). Maybe if I have the time I'll post some picture tomorrow.

Second week since the end of The Walking Dead and I am experiencing the zombie action's withdrawal symptoms, too long (tulong) to wait till the autumn for the third season >.< I've watched this week's episode of Alcatraz, but it wasn't really thrilling, compared to last one it was kind of a let down. Enri suggests Game Of Thrones, but it doesn't really appeal me. It kind of sucks Heroes got cancelled and Scrubs ended. I still gotta look for some new show I suppose :( .

See y'all soon!

CodeP-chan's revision & More 1st April's G-jokes.

Here's the second revision of the work I posted a few days ago. I tried fixing her hand, ear, shoulders line and blush. I think now it's better than before, but I am sure it's still far from perfect. Even though this work has a chibi style, you can't become an artist in just a few weeks. Art is a long way, and you need to sweat blood practicing over and over. Only through passion and hard work you can see the fruits of your efforts, and I really respect those who can draw well. I have to also say that since I started drawing, I've been watching my mangas with more attention to details, trying to understand which technique was used to do "this", which pen/brush did the author use to draw "that", what are the proportions for "this", and how should I try to reproduce "that". It's a long way, but I am having fun drawing. 

When you draw a character, even if unconsciosly, you pour in it your story, your emotions, your experience, your feelings, so you want to break the boundaries of your skills and improve, you want to make it better, always better, because you can't let all that you infused in it go to a waste, you feel like you'd be disrespecting those. That pushes you forward to not give up, and to take care of every small detail, learning some little thing more, putting that little touch of color that someone might never notice, but your heart won't rest at ease without. Thanks for all the support of those who are helping me :)

I intended to post this a little earlier, but something come up...particularly...the sink's pipe in the kitchen broke up and so I had to help my dad fixing it. That's one of the kind of jobs I don't really like and since I was all wet with water, I ended having a good, warm shower, which is always good before sleeping. Sleeping...right. Yesterday night I went to sleep around 4 am. After an hour or so, at 5.03 am, my cellphone rings. All sleepy and confused I answer. A lively voice says: "Hei Save, are you sleeping? I couldn't manage to fall asleep, and since you told me you usually sleep late at night...let's talk!". I was like in my mind "I did tell you that but...look at the time ._. ". My brother all alarmed was like "Did something happen?!?".
I mean c'mon, it's true I have vampire-like times, but everything has a limit ._."

The 1st of april is gone, but Google didn't stop with a single prank, it wasn't enough. They went out in full force this year. Beside the one I presented you guys yesterday, here are the others:

 

Chrome Multitask Mode: More mouse to speed up your browsing!
(Check their interactive page here)

The new "Really advanced" search ( here ) where you can use everything to search your wished website, from background, font, rhyming slang, innuendo, or even odor.

The new Google's Nascar racer Team. With a car completely automatized ( here ).

Gmail Tap: Writing everything with just a dot & dash. 

Bringing back the good 'ol Morse Code.

(More infos here)

This should be all for the day guys, 

see y'all soon (and let's hope no more nightly calls income x_X).
Cya! :)

Pics & Video from yesterday!

I just got back home, afterall it's saturday night, the perfect time to hang out and the likes, so it'll be a waste to rot at home :)

As promised I am updating the blog with the pictures we took yesterday, even if due to the lights their quality isn't that good :\

Before that, I'd like to thank all those who gave me feedbacks about yesterday's works. Particularly, I'd like to thank a person that more than others, through constructive criticism and detailled pointers, gave me extensive hints on parts to fix. Had things been a little different, I think that (learning to draw &) drawing together would've been really fun.

I already started working on the changes, maybe they'll be done by tomorrow, I just hope I'll be able to make them the way they should be x_x. While I was at it I discovered a few new tools and functionalities with layers and the digital equivalent of the wooden model dolls which I am sure will come handy in the future.

Here in the picture, from left to right, Angelo, Me & Enrico, while we were waiting for the others to come. The blue-led stairs blurred us out though :\

It was more than a year, maybe two, we didn't eat at a Burger King, because the one we were used to visit closed down. Since we were hungry, we decided to sink our teeth into their great burgers (I personally think that BK > McD ). Setting aside chips (with barbecue sauce) and Coke (I would've prefered Pepsi) I had a Triple Whopper with Cheese  and a Big King XXL .

After eating, we decided to have fun and burn those extra (delicious) calories playing bowling. Well...not that  bowling would burn that much, but as Elvio said, "It should be enough to soothe our conscience".

Despite the video, I had some up & downs so I didn't win, but I'll do better next time, fear me guys!

Lastly, there is no sweeter way to end a night than with an ice-cream. Particularly this one was Strega liquor's & Crisp Black Cherry's flavored. Yummie!

Today I Installed MSN2011 and while it's nice and all with its new features, I discovered with disappointment that it doesn't support anymore customized Nicknames. Rather, it assigns the "Name" and "Surname" that you have setted on your Live profile (I'd suggest you guys to check yours, since I've seen some embarassing new names from people that randomly chose theirs when they created their account thinking they'll never be seen by anyone else). Solutions for this (partial) is to edit your name/surname to use a nickname, but even so, you can't use tags like [B] or the colors.
The other option, which I'll probably adopt on at least one of my machines, is to downgrade to the previous version.

 

If you check the time, it's 1st of April, so watch out for pranks. Also this year, Google prepared a good one for us. Particularly, this year, the focus of it is Google Maps, that for the day has been turned into an 8-bit NES game. Great as always! :)

I feel like there was something else I wanted to say but I can't remember it at moment so...
That's it for the day, Time to drink my Sprite and Draw a bit maybe.
See y'all soon! :3

Glad to have my net back, and artworks.

Finally I got back my net. Last night I was so pissed I totally felt like:
(╯°□°）╯彡 ┻━┻
It would've been awful not to have net during the weekend, and I hope they won't attempt to switch the ISP during the Easter's holidays. As you can notice on top of this block of text I uploaded a new drawing of CodeP-chan. Something is different from the previous iteration, because as Enrico pointed out "She looks a little older, more mature, but also more feminine and stilish". I am still experimenting some techniques and checking what style would suit her the most. It was a pain drawing her hand. I am particularly uncertain about the eye, even though I think it's drawn well on its own, I am not sure if it fits all the rest and I might change it later. As always, feedbacks and critiques are warmly welcome.

As planned, I went out tonight and had a good time. I could finally wear my light shirt and my leather jacket since the weather is warmer now, even at night. We ate a lot and had fun playing bowling. Tomorrow when I'll get the pictures (and a video) I will upload it. It was particularly interesting because I got to know some stories and sides of a person I didn't know, and that it would've been hard to discover in other circumstances. Overall it was nice.

Here is another of the works I am experimenting on. It's based on a picture of mine (kinda low quality and definitely not one of my best expressions as "someone" already pointed out >.< but I needed one on the fly and I didn't have the time to prepare and take more) and I used it to experiment some tecniques for the colors (the shirt, but I don't like the left part of it), the details (check the necklaces, I think they are okaish), and the hair drawing/coloring (I think they're okay, but I am still unsure about the use of white shades on black hair to  define the hair-strands, I'll keep trying with something else I suppose).

See y'all tomorrow! :)

=_= Crappy Net.

2:04

Bah! 

I planned to post my most recent works... but my net is totally crap tonight.

I suppose it must be caused by the change of ISP I requested (I am upgrading my net to 20 Mbps).

I barely managed to post this message, but there is no way I can upload pictures.

So I suppose...that's it for tonight.

Good night, and hopefully tomorrow it will go better.

[Append]
11:42
I am online from uni, when I checked this morning the net was still behaving oddly. I might show online on skype, gt, but msn and webpages are screwed.
I hope that when I get back at home the issue will be gone. In case it doesn't, the only good thing is that I had planned going out tonight to have some fun.
Oh well...