Medusa Outfit WIP 02

Added the tail! Though, it looks like it's a bit low.

Also added better lighting to so it would be easier to see her tail.

Medusa Outfit WIP 01

Well, I've made some progress in redoing the outfit for Medusa. At this point, I have her clothing down and I just need to work on her collar and hood. After that, I need to figure out how to get her hair done.

And the color I set on the base outfit is so I can see if there were any areas of poke through that were hard to identify when everything was colored the same shade of gray. So, don't worry about that!

I guess I should test to see if it works in Poser 7 before doing anything. :lol:

Any feedback on this and what I'm doing would be VERY helpful! ;)

Modeling updates

As you can see, I've gotten off my lazy bum to create something I had been planning for months! What's odd is that it's actually much better looking after I finished tweaking it in ZBrush, but Poser hates the rigging on it. Meh... I'm still trying to figure out where I messed up in regards to that, but at least I've made progress. Though, what's also silly is that Blender crashed out on me at least a dozen times when I tried to do things related to the underlying model, such as hiding it or using a higher subdivision setting. If anything else, those crashes reinforced several aspects of basic computer use: SAVE, and SAVE OFTEN! If I had headed those words more carefully, it wouldn't have taken me several hours to redo and fix things I had already done! But, I digress.

So, that's it for this update! Later!

Been a while

Ugh... seems like my text editor is conspiring against me! I couldn't even get the original text typed up before it crashed on me while spell checking the document. Major loss, so I'll just retype it to the best of my memory.

Anyway, it's been a while since I've posted much of anything here on my personal blog; two months to be exact. I've also had a thought that no one so much as glimpses at any of my pages (blog, personal website, and DA account), so I don't imagine there being much, if any, sort of response to this depressing drivel.

Moving on - no updates to any of my projects, image requests, or game project. Yup, that's right, no updates! This is really due to nothing more than me either being lazy or depressed, or a combination of both. Plus, everything I've attempted to do lately doesn't work out or has been lost when my external hard drive died - did get a working replacement though. Not that I expect anyone to care... no one reads this anyway.

Did post a couple of images on DA, Sticky-Site and QS Fans a while ago. They're not much and are not related to any of my projects, but you can expect to see them at the end of this posting. Hope whoever reads this enjoys them!

I'm still unemployed as ever and, as a result, have considered taking commissions to fill the money gap. The idea is/was to do some images for people with Poser or do photography shoots for people in my area. The Poser portion seems pretty straight forward and with a nice overhead; but, being that I have yet to sell any of my prints for photography in nearly ten years, I'm having my doubts about photography. Plus, I have yet to really do a photo spread for anyone. So, that entire idea is pretty much up in the are at the moment, but if people are willing to pay, then I could give it a shot.

And, what of my IT troubleshooting, repair, and administration job you ask? Well, it's not so much a job as it is a once in a blue moon deal that people seem to call me up for. Hardly, if ever, do I have any jobs constantly lined up to make a decent income to be considered self-employed. Seems that when I finish, everything is working in such a way that I never get a callback unless it's catastrophic; which is good and bad. You obviously know what it's bad, but the good thing is that I did great work. :) And apparently, having that much experience seems to be a problem in getting a more permanent job anywhere in the town I live in.
Which leads into my other recent problem: getting, but not getting a job selling stuff. Sure, I was called out of the blue due to posting my job information on Career Builder; but, it seems that my resume is probably telling employers that I'm overqualified for many jobs. Case and point with the call I received a couple of weeks ago, this marketing company needed people to fill a position that sells computers for HP. Sure, the job is right up my alley, great part-time hours per week, and with nice pay; yet, even after being pretty much guaranteed a job with this company, I somehow managed to not get it. When I pressed the issue to see what made them think this way, all I got from the recruiter was another guy had more experience since he was already doing the same thing for another company. Okay..? Somehow you want to say that makes sense; but, at the same time, I have salesman experience and an in depth knowledge of computers and how to fix them. Another clue that I should have picked up before was during my interview, the guy mentioned under his breath that I had a LOT of computer experience. AT first, I figured it was a good thing to be acknowledged for and, yet, here I am still unemployed! So, I figure that they were thinking that I would want more money for what I know - which is true, since I did ask about it during the interview - and they went with the cheaper choice. Oh yay... So happy that seems to be working out for them! *Heavy sarcasm*

And so, I'm also playing in a closed beta online MMO which has a pretty wacky NDA contract. Can't say much more than that, other than my computer is totally under spec for the game; but, I do my best to inform the developers what's good and bad about the game. I only wished I could afford a better rig to play it on. Sigh... and a better internet connection.

So... other than that, nothing else has been done! I'm a total loser... :(

Anyway, enjoy these images!

Two variations of the same character, only one has a real photo backdrop! These were posted at DA and the later at QSfans.
This last one is actually a re-render of an old piece, not that anyone has seen it anyway. <_<>_> Posted at Sticky-Site.

Ugh... Now Playing part 2

Well, in my previous post, I mentioned that I had a massive hard drive failure with my external. As it now stands, I got a replacement back from Seagate less than a week ago and guess what happened; IT DIED on Memorial Day! Kind of poetic when you think about it.

Yup, it died when I decided to write data to it, giving me a cyclic redundancy error with the application I was using to download data to the drive. Not thinking too much about it (I initially thought that the drive somehow became over heated. WRONG!) I then fired up the software that came with the drive to see if there were any actual errors with the drive and to see if it could fix any of them. Turns out that it had some sort of fault when it was on part of the night as I attempted to download the data in question (around 250+ megs apparently) and the software couldn't do squat about it and blasted the error message stating that it needed to go back to its mothership for repairs/replacement.

As I sat there, miffed over the entire set of events with this blasted drive, I couldn't help but to wonder why this sort of craziness happened. Turns out on Seagate's own support forums and at this blog dating back as far as August 2007 (just about 1 year before I purchased the drive), there have been multiple problems with these drives and others under the same line of FreeAgent products. So, this made me think of why, why in the hell would the drive be built in such a way as to force it to keelover due to heating and cooling problems when making the case properly in the first place would alleviate most of the problems? And, why would Seagate also use a drive in these units that, according to their own acknowledgement, has faulty firmware that can disable the entire drive?

These sorts of questions and issues bothered me greatly as I made plans to somehow get Seagate on the phone the next day (well, this past Tuesday anyway). I even wondered about the reliability of the next drive that they would send me to replace the replacement!

So, after a lengthy call to their tech support and warranty department, they agreed to have it mailed back for a replacement, free of charge. That last bit made me cautious since their website generally states there is normally a charge for shipping, but thankfully that was free as well. I just need to get a shipment label printed and have UPS pick it up.

Now, this time I just hope that the damned thing will work as advertised and for more than 8 months!

---

In other news...

Deviant Art still does not work properly for me after nearly 2 months of issues. The DA admins claim my ISP and/or cache memory in my browsers are to blame for my misfortune and T-Mobile states that the site should load up unless the site is a severe bandwidth hog. Technically, T-Mobile is correct in that assessment since DA has all sorts of random ads, flash, images, web code, and etc. that had problems with my connection up until recently. Though, in my defense, I had enough sense to have an ad/flash/script blocker installed on Firefox to taper off some of that; though, it no longer matters since the site refuses to load for me anymore.

To make matters worse, Google Chrome 2.0 and IE 7 have the same issues and they don't have any plugins that block the ads or craptastic scripts DA spams to through my connection. So, I'm thinking they updated or changed some portion of their web coding and it borks my connection (and maybe others) with it's dial-up bandwidth. Just don't tell the DA admins that, since they could give a fly fuck about users in my situation.

So, without further a due, I might as well begin posting my next several project updates here and on my Fur Affinity page as I'm able. Screw DA and their incompetent customer assistance. I'm just glad I'm not paying for additional services at that site, I'd be even more livid!

Now playing...

Once again, I've managed to neglect my blog... It seems to be a growing habit when I should at least update more than once a month, but I digress.

Anyway, updated the header with a temporary image of one of my favorite characters, Whip from The King of Fighters '99 - XI. It does not seem like much, but I'm attempting to alter my little piece of space to something that fits more of my style and not be so damned awkward looking. Hopefully, I'll have an image of something I'm working on in her place, but until then, Whip will be there to stay.

In other news, Deviant Art has once again become the bane of my existence as it refuses to let me check my messages and view any of the artwork and associated artists I have on my watch list. I don't know what sort of beef they have with T-Mobile and slow connections, but they've somehow managed to keep pissing me off with their antics. So, if I ever get around to finishing any work that may be post worthy, they will all be posted here or on Sticky-Site until further notice. That or my other websites, which also need some updating. Bleh...

And for those that did not already know, my external hard drive, with just about everything I've gathered for the last several years - anime (Soul Eater just finished! T_T), games, music (had a ton of game music) , movies, porn, etc. - took quite a hit this past Monday. I was over my brother's home trying to get some updates and finish some downloads for anime along with playing some games on his high definition tv when his silly dog decided to play dash! through the area my equipment was occupying. Needless to say, the dog managed to snag one of the wires to the external drive and send it crashing to the floor. I attempted to rescusitate the drive (lol, sounds so silly now that I think about it. There was no way in hell I could have done it.) to retrieve my data from it, but it was all for naught. And to make matters worse, Seagate would send me a new drive for free (so they say), but charge over $1,700 to recover any data from it. I assume that figure is based on how much actual data the drive can hold, which in my gloriously messed up case is 500 Gigabtyes, and how much time and effort they can somehow manage to squeeze out of my pockets to do anything. Obviously, being broke and unemployeed, I said fuck it and sent it off for a new one. I just hope I can get another one back in exchange.
Sigh... And the thought of tracking down and downloading everything again makes me feel ill to my stomach whenever I think about it. I'll manage somehow.

I'm also trying to keep my spirits up by not thinking about it... Ugh, and it's not working too well.

Oh... and here's a sneak peek on what else I'm trying to work on. It's really nothing more than screen capture of a character I've fallen head over heels for, but you should get the idea of where I'd like the final product to look like! Enjoy!

It's been a while

Yup, it's been several months since I've last posted anything here on my journal. Most of you have probably forgotten about me, and some may have not. Either way, it doesn't really matter, as I'm here now and giving updates.

First off, I've had my birthday and I'm currently 27 years old. Woo... I don't feel much different, but I am older and approaching 30.

Second, my family and I have moved out of our previous residence to one that's much, MUCH more livable and secure. The downside is that during the moving process, I've found that I'm in terrible shape and have begun a pretty brutal workout regimen to at least begin feeling better and stronger. So far, it's working! I just need to get my walk in sometime this afternoon.

Third, my plans in the game design space have been put on hold for the time being. Yeah, yeah, I know what I've said before; but, I've come to the sad realization that most people are not willing to help out someone in my position, regardless of how interesting the concept may be. Plus, I have yet to get any headway on the game engine needed to play the game in the manner I've envisioned.
So, for now, the super large scope game will be placed on hold and a simpler, already planned out game will take it's place until more work can be done with it. Once I've nailed down a couple of specifics, I'm going to get some characters designed and playing with the idea for it. More details to come!

Oh, lastly, I've come to the conclusion that it's best that I at least try to finish some of my outstanding requests and trades that I've somehow accumulated over the years. Some of them are really simple - which may be the reason they were skipped over, lol - and some require some real planning to get right. So, I'm going to be posting quite a few things over in my Deviant Art page and here on my blog as I finish them.

Next, I'm in the process of writing out a short sinking and sticky story/comic. You can see where it's going based off the initial render that sparked the idea below. Enjoy!