Black Desk, Sen, and helping out a brother

Hey guys! Sorry for being quiet. But quiet means a good thing because that means I am busy, which I am. Since I got hold of my new rigs I've re-designed my workflow a bit and I'm doing a whole bunch of things at the same time. Its fun work but over here its the height of the hot season and I'm sweating like a horse! Heat slows me down!






 COMIXX!!

On the side of comics I have designed and setup several locations for future comics, in particular the 3rd Lali Lite: Disco Dragon, the next 'Black Desk' comic and the first 'Adventures of Sen'. I have a lot to think about, namely in what format I wanna carry on. As some of you will remember my recent comic Lali Lite 2: Impulse had a rather unique format and it got a lot of positive feedback, however, I still feel very warmly for the old-fashioned comic book style. I might do comic book for the 'Black Desk' series and Cinematic for the Lites and Adventures of Sen. The reason for that is that I've had a few people suggest that I actually start printing comics, so it might be worth thinking ahead. And since the Lites are more for 3DX (which is a highly specialized type of entertainment), I think the cinematic approach is better because I doubt that will ever get printed out. I still need to think about it though.

 

Speaking of 'Black Desk' comics, I've decided to step up the pace. Its been almost 2 years since the last 'Black Desk' story and a lot of people are very curious now! So I'm gonna stoop Lali into action a.s.a.p and the Disco Dragon will be the last Lite for some time... although I'm kindof hoping that my new rigs will speed things up a bit, and maybe allow me to make more comics than I usually make per year. 



'The Adventures of Sen' series, which have yet to be kicked off, will be quite a big experiment. For now you guys have known me to be more of comedy-adventure but this will probably get quite rough, and a little less comedy. Exactly how rough it will get depends on how well I can deal with having it on my conscious haha. I've learned a LOT about erotica these last few years and I cannot say I am entirely comfortable with some of the things I've come across, but at the same time I slowly familiarizing myself with its meaning, and how to play around with it. I just hope I can get away with it. The same actually applies to Lali's more serious adventures. We'll see, we'll see...






















Project E

The other thing I'm doing is off course Project E. Since the blessed update of the software I have a green light to carry on developing. I'm very excited because PE will now be fucking awesome! But to do that I really need to get into the mind-set of coding, morphs, programming, and thinking 5 years into the future and 10 steps ahead of what I want and what other people want. Quite daunting to say the least. This week I should get started again!


Then there's our man Metatechnocrat, fellow digital artist and big fan of 3DX, who is in trouble and needs our help. Meta unfortunately narrowly escaped death in 2012, he's now stuck in a wheelchair and basically to make a long story short, he is doomed to get shipped off to a nursing home in a month's time. That would mean the end of his digital arts career. I post this on my blog because the man is so strongly positive, full of energy, smart and deserves a chance... and he reminds me of me. I had cancer when I was a baby (I've only told a few people this), and I know that if people hadn't done what they did to make me survive, there would be no Lali today! So if you have a few bucks to spare, or if you know someone that can help, or even a facebook page where you can spread some news, please do! You can find him here:

http://www.gofundme.com/Parartistneedshome

his work you can find here

cheers peeps!

Light at the end of a tunnel!

Whoohoo. Project E might be back on track sooner that I expected! Remember those 'software bugs' I've been mentioning earlier? well they seem to be solved, and fucking quick too!! I'm just waiting on the finals on them and then I can see where I can go from there. I'm well excited!!

So just a quick future projection on Project E:

1. Mesh - done
2. Rig - done
3. UV mapping - done
4. JCMs - can now be done properly
5. texturing
6. making essential morphs
7. trying out in comic
8. placing PE original head
9. texture conversion software*
10. preparing for the store*

Those last two items are vital for the development of PE. Without an ability to convert your V4 textures, PE will be left stranded like most other figures. Preparing for the store is also a BIG fucking hurdle because I wanna make sure I don't piss off any legal entities, I don't wanna mention any names like DAZ for example... lol.

So now about this texture converter. I have experience in C#, and I've got a schematic for setting up the geometry calculations. I can set up a class schema. But I'd rather do something else than program and debug it. Are there any clever buggers out there that wanna make some cash? Full experience with C# preferred, good knowledge of UV mapping and OBJ files essential. If you're into python, that's fine, but you need to be flipping brilliant at it. Email me.

Timeline? ETA? fuck no. These things take time friends, a full figure is no joke. I've never done something like this before, and remembering Lali's Bits, there's always something unforseen to delay the development. So, like I always say, and I maintain: my first priority is comics, but obviously I'll need PE for there comics, just as much as, or perhaps even more than you. So that should guarantee some sense of urgency on my behalf hehe... I'm on your side bothers and sisters!!! :D but be patient! 

Heat, dust, beer and new machines

After coming back from the mega-dusty festival I ended up with some stupid fucking flu type coughing disease job thing... no not Ebola. Besides the usual 4-day hangovers, all my friends ended up with some stomach bug and my GF got malaria. Typical harvest for a festival in Africa lol. We're all getting better gradually.

So anyway, back in Eroland, loads to do. I need to get that WM update for the bits out. Its been tested and it works. Still need to wrap it up and send it off to Rotica. But I've managed to import and setup my new machines. Man they're a game-changer! Now with all the new RAM and the graphics cards I need to redo my render settings and see what I can squeeze out of them. Its not necessarily that my renders will improve, but hopefully I can work faster now.


BTW have I ever shown you my wall of scribbles? Check the wall on the left in this picture. That's where everything happens. That couch is where I sit and chill and design shit (and where my GF plays her XBox). Then it goes on the wall, and then I work it out on those 500 screens there (which have been reduced to three thanks to the KVM switch!). 

 Anyway, back to work (and replying to my inbox)!!!Oh and btw Lali's getting new hair, not different, but better than her current Kuzaburo adaptation.

Update Oct 2014

Just a quick update. I just returned from a 4-day festival.

The Bits Update has been tested and will made available soon. Sorry for the delay. 

Project E is still on, but postponed until some software bugs have been resolved. I won't go into details but these bugs are of such a nature that they impede the development of PE. Proceeding despite these bugs would just make PE a cumbersome MASSIVE figure that will eat my (and your) computer's memory, then I might as well continue using V4. I prefer PE to be done properly and efficiently, and not weighted down with work-arounds.

The Arcas Afterparty series will be continued as soon as I have my new PC's with me. I'm about to go collect them from cargo! Whoohoo! And btw, the Arcas Afterparty pics are not just doodles or wasting time. Besides having great fun making them, I am actually actively testing and experimenting with things like background figures, populated scenes, volumetrics and other things in preparation for the Disco Dragon. Hopefully with my new rigs things will speed up and improve.