Tonight almost didn't happen. And you should be thankful that it's not another nothing. But tonight and all of today has been less than cool. I hover between artificially happy and crazy/angry. I've cursed more times in the past four days than I have all year. This is what the IRS has done to me. This is what I have to say to the IRS: Your days are numbered you fucking pricks.
Oof, if you're looking at this first person, you're about to get hurt. There should be a sign on the door of Jav's room that says: "Never practice angular momentum air-kicks in the presence of obstacles." Of course, such a sign is admitting the great possibility for disaster. Love Hina showed a sign like that right after Motoko (master of the sword) nearly kills two of her roommates with her sword. Anyway, this is scene 5, Page 5. I think I'm done with Jav's animations. I might adjust them. Now I just need animations for the rest of the characters. Looking at other mangas, I find that JF is lacking large pictures. It really could use some, but I am afraid to waste space yet. JF Final will certainly have a bunch of large boxes to show off my complete mastery of the manga art. ^_^; Or not. But the idea is that Jav is making a big kick here. The motion lines are just bezier curves that are black, but 80% transparent. I drew them right onto the BMP (single layer) with Corel Photo-Paint. I'd like a better tool, but this actually does a pretty good job. My lesson for you is to animate your mesh and take a good clean picture of it that really brings out the mood. Then add in lines to ensure that everyone knows what's going on and then you have yourself a box of your manga. Remember background, though. Some people like compositing, but I'm a fan of actually having everything in real-time in the same place. All my characters, my terrain, and my building are all in AltSci3D and I just take a screenshot. So, really, I'm thinking that this whole idea is about solidness. The lines are solid, the mesh is solid, and the animation is solid. Together, you get a good picture. We can see that it is simple, yet beautifully rich.
Again with the nothing stuff. Sorry about that. I'm rediscovering the school thing, which truthfully means lots of video games and a bit of homework. This is one thing I've been looking at lately. This Open Source Racer thing has something to it. It's not easy to drive, but it sure is beautiful and physics-intensive. It looks and feels pretty real. Of course, that mainly has to do with the models. *shrug*. My lesson is download that racer and have a bit of fun with it.
Sorry, no nothing tonight. I spent all my time writing the blue reply in the letter below.
