I just finished this drawing. It's once again different from what I've usually drawn, more western-style for some features I'd say. I managed to get this done while following some tutorials about shadows and suits. It's one of the few male characters I've drawn and the hands gave me some troubles. If I have the time I'll practice some more drawing them over the next weekend. I applied different backgrounds and in the end I was really undecided on which one to use to open this post, but in the end I decided to attach also the other one at the end of this (plus the rough sketch).
Yesterday I finished BattleField 3's campaign...it took less than 5 hours. Okay it was funny and the story was intense and interesting, but seriousely...5 hours?!? A few years ago games lasted for months, and now all they want to do is rely on DLC and online modes. It kind of sucks that the campaign lasted less than 5 hours and their credits took over 50 minutes to show (I stupidly waited them expecting some extra but...no.). The game is well over 15 Gb. 3 Gb per hour. 50 Mb per minute. Sigh.
Today I got to know a certain Cosplayer from Taiwan, Neneko ( https://www.facebook.com/neneko.page ) that cosplayed many anime/manga/games I like (Ahri from League Of Legends, Haruhi from Suzumiya Haruhi no yūutsu, and others).She's funny, cheerful, with a fresh face & a cute smile (...and a smokin' hot body. A babe. Oooops. Hello there Kuo-chan ;) )
As promised, here is the rogue sketch and the alternative background.
Rough Sketch
Alternative Background
I'll keep this post short today, but I gotta hurry and go to bed since I have classes early tomorrow! See y'all soon!
Today was a pretty normal day, nothing much happened. I spent most of it studying my *beloved* First Order Logic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-order_logic) and I can guarantee that works way better than a sleeping pill. Beside that, tonight we had dinner outside (I just got back home and I am typing this) because we had to celebrate my cousin's betrothal. The food wasn't bad but was a little atypical. I don't know if you ever tasted nouvelle cuisine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouvelle_cuisine), but if you did, you should understand me. Funny thing was that for a good while the power went out in the whole street, so we had to switch to candles. In the middle of the dinner I found myself thinking "Wedding...such a far away idea!". Even if many push to get married, I think I want to enjoy my life for another good while. Afterall, there is no need to rush it. And even once you find someone you feel good with, it's better to be sure she's the right person. First months always seem so nice, but the real test is on the long run. Better to spend a little more time before, than to break up right after, like you can see from many other couples. I think that before to get married I'll live together with my partner for a while. It's a good crash test ;)
To relax a little, I decided to try Battlefield 3, since may were talking really well about this game. FPS are not exactly my genre, but I decided to give it a try anyway (also to test my gaming hardware and devices). The game ran smoothly and I have to say I had a good chunk of fun. :)
Tomorrow I'll have to go to uni, not too early, not too late, but with public transports...dang. I guess I'll stay up another couple of hours and keep working on my next drawing. See y'all soon!
Hello everyone! Today I am opening this blog post with a drawing I managed to get done across the weekend. Initially I was practicing the outline and shape of hands but while I was doing the sketch all the rest flowed pretty natural, and it turned out to be the one you can see. This time I remembered to export different stages of the drawing process, so I was able to prepare a step-by-step gallery and even a video (Check the last part of this post).
Beside drawing, it was a funny weekend. Did you guys check out the Super Moon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermoon)? My balcony was a nice spot to observe it, plus there was nobody home, since my parents went out with some friends, so I could have the house all for myself and invite someone over. With a telescope first and iced Martini cocktails for two then, the saturday night flowed on its own nicely :)
I'd suggest you guys to watch this one. It's really worth a laugh. Credits to Vic. Now here are the different steps of the drawing process:
Here instead is the video made with all the frames I took:
Today I decided to share one of my favourite motivational images.
It's one of my favourites because imho, it has a couple of really deep messages. To be really strong, we have to know our weaknesses. It's stupid to think we're perfect, no one is, at least on this earth. Only knowing our weaknesses we can work on them, overcome them, and turn them into our strong points. Often people have a low self-esteem, lack of self-confidence and don't trust themselves. They have problems relating with other people and facing the challenges & the hardships of life, because they think they aren't adeguate, they aren't smart enough, they are ugly or weak. Everyone of us has got flaws, I think I might have more flaws than perks, but I am not ashamed of that, I am myself. We have to learn to accept them, and make our good points shine. Everyone of us is different, thanks God, so it's plainly stupid to look down on yourself because you're not like the mass. Stop trying to be a sheep, stop trying to be like others want you to be, be unique, be yourself.
As lucky as one can be, life is never easy. There are many times in which we can feel lost, powerless, useless. Times in which you feel scared to even take a step forward. Even so, often we are the worst enemies of ourselves, because we can't look objectively to how things really are, and we see the situation far worse than it really is. We should learn to tell apart what's real, and that has to be faced, from what is only an illusion, a fruit of our fears. Let's open our eyes and look at life for what it really is and not for how bad it might become. If we turn on the light and can finally see, even the darkest night won't scare us anymore.
We make mistakes everyday. It's unavoidable, we're humans. Even if they are bitter memories, we shouldn't forget them, because they're part of our story, and we shouldn't forget them, because only this way we can avoid repeating them. There is a lot more to learn from a mistake than from something correct, just think to a kid that burns his hand with a flame. There might be some mistakes that make us suffer deeply, but it's useless to cry over the spilt milk and just regret them, we have to work hard to fix them the best we can. Others may not understand how much you tried, they might hold onto their hatred and not forgive you, but nonetheless you should try, because that is the only way to improve, to redeem yourself, to become a better person.
I think nothing makes us more vulnerable than love. Only if you care about someone, only if you love that someone, you can get hurt. The persons we open our hearts to, are those who can hurt us the most. When that happens, everything seems to crumble inside you, you feel a stupid to have trusted that person, you feel an idiot to have given all yourself to her/him, you forsake yourself for having opened your heart, only to get it stabbed. Someone might feel hate, someone might shut himself and refuse to love again. It's natural to feel bad, it's natural to feel sad. But it's important not give up, not to forget that for every dark night, there is an even brighter day. It's important to react, and learn to appreciate even more those feelings. It's stupid to let yourself get affected by those dark feelings, it's stupid to let that anger warp all the good memories that are still left. If you felt happiness in a moment in the past, you should just keep it as it is, and treasure it, beacuse if in that moment you were happy, it'll have to be happy forever. Hatred is a venom that only consumes ourselves and aggravate our wounds, Love is a potion that can heal those wounds and give a meaning to those scars.
If you've known the sadness, you know how important it is to be able to smile, so don't allow anyone to take away that smile from you. If they don't want to smile with you, just give a fuck about them but let 'em know with your smile that today you're a lot stronger than you were yesterday.
Finally I have some time on my hands to draw.
See y'all soon!
ATTENTION: You may think this is just a funny / bouncy picture, but it is not!
This picture was in fact used by one of my professors during a lesson, to explain resonance, resonators, normal modes, fundamental frequency and overtones. Without being too much academic, there is a physic's law that says that if a mass A (the girl) vibrates at a certain frequency (as example if the girl does 2 jumps per second), and there is a mass B (her breasts) attached to it, that mass will vibrate at a frequency that is a multiple of A's frequency (as example her breasts will jump 4 times per second). My professor went as far as extend the concept with a mass C (that would be some gadget attached to...well you can imagine), and vibrate at a frequency that is a multiple of A & B. I can assure you guys that I never saw students so focused on the teacher's explaination xD ! (You can find more accurate infos about it here: Resonance)
If I were to ask you guys what is the cutest and most moe musical instrument, what would you reply? You don't know?!? Psht...it's the Otamatone!
The new Otamatone was created by Maywa Denki, and Cube works. Since this little device was demonstrated at the 2009 Tokyo Toy show, it has been creating quite a stir. You need to think of the Otamatone as cross between a japanese musical toy, an actual instrument and a theremin.
It creates "waaaah"-like singing sounds, which are produced by squeezing the 'face' at the bottom of the the tadpole looking instrument. The pitch of the note can be changed by sliding a finger up and down the neck of the japanese musical toy instrument. So, with two hands you can sing your way through your favourite piece of music in a crazy, "waaaaaaaaaaaaah". Join with other to create a whole spooky serinade like no other before.
A small otamatone sample
Isn't it...errr...cute? Okay...its voice can be a little creepy but you'll get used to it...eventually.
A more "technical" video about the Otamatone
Today I want to introduce you guys yet another song (that was added to the blog's music player). I was hanging out near a cafe and I listened to it on the radio, I promptly used Shazam and managed to find it out. The song in question is Blood For Poppies - Garbage.
Okay the song isn't exactly about *this* Poppy but...xD
Today was a terrible day for one of my dearest friends. I know what it means, I've been through that too. As much as I can, I am close to you in this sad moment.
Phew! I just came back home. Lately, all of a sudden, the weather's got really hot, so I had troubles staying home and decided to go hanging out for a while. We ended in the park drinking an iced cocktail with a fresh breeze blowing through the trees.
Yea, yea, I've been preeeetty busy in this weekend, there is not even need to tell. So...GW2. Let's cut it short. Yes. Yes. Yes. I am satisfied!
It's so freakin' amazing I just can't wait it to be released!
If I should say how I allocated my gametime it would be 40% PvE, 45% PvP, 15% WvW.
A satisfied Save...
I usually am not fond of PvE, and I found useless to level up much my character considering it was a beta and it wouldn't matter pvp-wise. Even so, I completed all the marked dynamic events in Queensdale & part of the following area (Humans starting area) and I thoroughly explored Norns and Charrs starting areas and cities (believe me they are huge!). One of the main differences from the many other MMOs I've played is that usually you have a fixed progression area-wise. Like...if you're level 10 go to Area A, then once you have finished questing and grinded a bit, go to Area B that is for level 15+, and so on. GW2 shatters this concept: I roamed around the map without a pre-established path, but wherever I walked there was something meaningful to do. I never had the feeling of "This is the wrong place for me" or "There is nothing I can do here". It felt kind of like it would be in Skyrim or GTA. And it's true that the world changes. If you pass by the same area after an hour, it might be drastically different from what you saw previousely. It's a living world, where the actions of players matter and make it change.
After an hour or so from the start, me and my guildmates formed a small squad and headed to WvW. It was thrilling. Our levels were low, but with a good coordination we managed to conquer a few mining camps, claiming it for our guild. We ambushed enemies supply transports and hunted down wandering invaders. It was a blast.
After this, I decided to give a try to Structured PvP. Truth to be told, my first experiences were traumatic. It was fast paced, I panicked a little, and by default my thief had Dagger/Dagger & Pistol/Pistol as weapons setup and some rubbish traits. I got owned bad. Traumatic. I decided it was better to get first a better control over my character. The day after I came back with D/D and Shortbow, with different utilities and traits and slowly I managed to get the hang of it, I knew what I had to do, where I had to go, and how I had to react to enemies. Not to brag, but by the 3rd day, I think I got quite good and I managed to slice down a lot of opponents. Ph43r m4h d4gg3r5!!! :3
As you may have understood my main character has been (and will be) the Thief. I was unsure between Dagger/Dagger, Pistol/Pistol and Shortbow. On field practice proved D/D and SB to be the most effective. Actually I used the SB even more than D/D. It was the most versatile and safe to use, even when outnumbered. P/P did load of damage but had no crowd control, particularly, no cripple. D/D is incredible for 1vs1, the backstab from stealth can crit devastating an opponent.
Even if Steal mechanic has still to be fixed, Thief was a funny class to play. Stealth was different than what you usually have. It's not an "hide and wait" that once you pop out from you can't re-enter for the rest of the fight, but an active mechanism that has to be used to defend yourself and prepare other attacks in the middle of the fight. Thief makes use of venoms of different kinds to empower its attacks and weaken opponents, or traps to confuse them. Really fun! Check the THIEF GALLERY
The 3rd day I also tried around the other classes I found interesting. Warriors - they deal consistent damage but they are too straightforward for me.
Elementalists - they are fragile but have loads of skills, to adapt to any situation. They are particularly fun with their summoned weapons. Check the ELEMENTALIST GALLERY
Rangers - they are overall great, and funny to play, especially with shortbow and longbow (I used bows a lot as thief, so...). They have cool skills with animals aura (Bear, Hawk, Serpent, Bee, etc.). But I don't like having to take care of a pet. It's not bad, it's actually useful, but just I don't want to have a pet to mind :\ Check the RANGER GALLERY
Guardians - they feel like a solid, strategical class. I had fun with the hammer bashing enemies away. They can summon ethereal weapons. Oh and they have some skills that make them feel like Iron Man!
Mesmers - I tried one, because they were annoying opponents in pvp. You don't have to let them roam around and keep you at distance. If you can, cripple them and don't let them shuffle with their illusions! (Btw they are sooo gaish with their pink butterflies :\ ) Check the MESMER GALLERY
Yup, I took a lot of Screenshots. In high definition. About 1 Gb of stuffs. I had to make use of my university uber net this morning to be able to upload all of them. Sadly I found out a bug with the tiling under water so all the screens with water in it got screwed. Sigh. I reported the bug. I hope it's fixed by the next beta.
A few other things happened...but those will have to wait for the next posts! See y'all soon! :)
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