Scribblings

[nekokami]

I've been resisting this thread for months, and now just read the whole thing at once. {insert woozy smiley here}

I have kept various notebooks in the past, and for a few years now they've mostly consisted of game design notes and story ideas. I'll post a few later. (I need to go to class in a few minutes, so I just want to respond to a few posts that caught my eye while reading....)

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

As an attractive female, there's no reason you should [know about Settlers of Catan].

Hm. I'm quite familiar with the game, and female. Oh well...

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

Who said anything there made sense? Or that you read the binary in the proper direction and orientation?

I once made a case for a friend's Palm Pilot with a beaded flap that spelled out his name in binary/ascii codes. I didn't tell him what the pattern meant. He's a unix kernel engineer-- I assumed he'd figure it out. He figured out that it represented something, but I don't think he ever thought to check binary.

I haven't seen him in years. His wife decided she hated me, so we parted ways.

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

I whined to ZP that "I wish I could draw" and she told me the secret: draw.

I suspect this advice works for writing, too. Possibly other things as well.

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

I thought about going back in and darkening everything, working on the shading, but decided I'd probably mess the whole thing up. And I liked it, so I put the pencil down instead.

More good advice, about drawing and writing. Know when to stop.

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

I still draw, although 3D rendering has sort of taken over as my most frequently used tool.

...

I've always been the sort of person that does things in spurts. Creative mood swings of a sort ... which means there are always a few million projects around the house (or the studio or the office) that just don't seem to get done.

Half finished quilts, a three story enclosed cat condo with only the first two stories complete, several partially written books, a short film for which I haven't been able to get the music rights, so I gave up on that ... it's the curse of the polymath with a short attention span.

Another lost twin!

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

So with guitar, I bought one and played about 6 hours a day, day after day, until I could play the few songs I set out to play. No lessons, no books, just me and a guitar and some basic instruction on how to form specific chords.

See, Z-chan's advice works for learning to play the guitar, too.

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

i find it quite interesting that you seem to be very comfortable with languages (english, french, programming) in their written forms, but less so verbally. i wonder whether it is linked to the parts of the brain used for visual comprehension rather than aural ; perhaps your neurons are more efficient there, or have more connections. however the guitar would seem to bely this, since learning guitar must be at least partially aural.

But music isn't processed by the brain in the same way as aural language.

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

When I need to know LEFT, I have to look for which hand has a particular scar. That's left.

Instructions that include LEFT-click or RIGHT-click require me to hold both hands over the mouse, find the scar, and that's the LEFT mouse button. I'm generally quite easily confused by such "frame of reference" situations.

I have to look at my hands to know left from right, too, though I don't have a scar to help me. For some reason, I manage right-mouse-click and left-mouse-click, but I think it's because I use different fingers for them.

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

oh god. you have no idea the trivial distractions i've been able to involve myself in, to avoid doing something more important that i just didn't want to do.

Like reading 25 pages of a Mobileread thread rather than debugging a CSS problem?

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

I've got a TON of real live work on my desk that needs attention. So, right now .... I'm trying to figure out a way to correct errors in a Marvin the Robot model so that I can rig it properly for posing.

Now, no one has asked me to do this ... No one CARES if I do this. So, naturally, it takes priority over every other single thing in my life.

I care! I'd like to have a posable Marvin!

Ok, gotta go to class now! Love you all, you wacky geniuses. See you later!

[Taylor514ce]

Welcome to the party. We've been missing you.

[zelda_pinwheel]

we love you too, neko. it's about time you showed up.

[nekokami]

In addition to jotting notes and sketches in the wire-bound sketchbook (and other various notebooks over the years), I often use my iLiad for this purpose, these days. Here, for your entertainment, edification, and mystification, are two pages related to my manga. (Now you can see why I use 3d software rather than trying to draw the art by hand... though, to be fair, I really wasn't trying to "draw," in this case, but rather to lay out approximately what I wanted in some panels.)

Edit: oh, and I was still organizing panels right-to-left in traditional Japanese format at this point. Not that knowing that will probably help much....

[zelda_pinwheel]

thanks for the scribblings neko ! since i'm following your graphic novel in its final form it's quite interesting to see your notes as you're thinking it through. i particularly found "bird-->" to be a sstriking example of the creative process at work.

but i'm *really* intrigued by the diagram on the right. are you actually some sort of evil mastermind, plotting your ultimate weapon which will give you world domination for you and your llamas ???

[badgoodDeb]

I was fascinated by the drawing on the right, too, since I work at a particle accelerator where we slam neutrinos into things, and protons at other things, etc.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

I was fascinated by the drawing on the right, too, since I work at a particle accelerator where we slam neutrinos into things, and protons at other things, etc.

Oh yes, that reminds me, knew there was something I'd forgotten - the Large Hadron Collider is going to destroy the planet when they turn it on later this month.

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archi...2/1326534.aspx

[nekokami]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

but i'm *really* intrigued by the diagram on the right. are you actually some sort of evil mastermind, plotting your ultimate weapon which will give you world domination for you and your llamas ???

The llamas and I don't need an "ultimate weapon"!

Hm. How to describe the notes on the right....

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

I was fascinated by the drawing on the right, too, since I work at a particle accelerator where we slam neutrinos into things, and protons at other things, etc.

Here I confess to my misery as a frustrated physicist. I actually started my undergraduate degree in physics, hoping to work in quantum mechanics (or whatever eventually replaces it) on the theoretical side. But eventually Linguistics took over from being a minor to being a dual-degree to being the sole degree (after some severe budget cuts at the university).

Suffice to say for now that the diagram on the right represents my attempt to provide some kind of rationale or framework for supernatural events that may or may not occur in the manga at some point in the indefinite future.

Originally Posted by Sparrow

Oh yes, that reminds me, knew there was something I'd forgotten - the Large Hadron Collider is going to destroy the planet when they turn it on later this month.

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archi...2/1326534.aspx

Oh good. I could use a break.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

Oh yes, that reminds me, knew there was something I'd forgotten - the Large Hadron Collider is going to destroy the planet when they turn it on later this month.

Originally Posted by nekokami

Oh good. I could use a break.

oh my. you know it's bad when *that's* your reaction.

[nekokami]

Here are a couple of sample pages from my Watson-Guptill Sketchbook: one about a game idea to teach algebraic concepts, the other about an emotional state model that might be used in a computer game to provide more interesting interpersonal reactions between the player and computer-controlled characters.

[zelda_pinwheel]

neko, i wish *you* had been my algebra teacher. that was the only class that ever made me cry.

[nekokami]

I wish I had been your algebra teacher, too. Nobody cries in my classes. (Collapses in fits of giggles, maybe, but no crying.)

[zelda_pinwheel]

well that's infinitely preferable.

hm. we're going to need a TARDIS for this.

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

...
hm. we're going to need a TARDIS for this.

You rang?

Evelyn Wensleydale-Diablerie
General Manager - War and Chrono-Travel Divisions
Montsnmags Enterprises

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by montsnmags

You rang?

Evelyn Wensleydale-Diablerie
General Manager - War and Chrono-Travel Divisions
Montsnmags Enterprises

ah, right on time ! of course, you sort of have to be, with that job. company image and reputation to uphold, and all that.