Dock

House move start

2008-06-27T11:24:33Z

Some blue korean drink shaped like a panda... not very good, but the bottle shape makes up for it.

I just picked up the keys for the new house, so now I just need to work on the rest packing, ready for moving over the weekend! Yosh! Of course, my laptop will be the very last thing to be packed.

House Move preparation...

2008-06-22T07:13:14Z

The office where I work is located in Cambridge Science Park, which is presently occupied by lots of baby bunnies. We see the bunnies every day as we walk to the office and back, and on Friday soundslikebuuu and I decided to take photos of them. (my photos didn't come out well, so this is one of hers. Check out more bunnies at her flickr!). It's a nice area to work.

So, speaking of the Science Park, I'm moving house next weekend so that I live much closer to work, which will save me something like seven hours per week in commuting alone. House moving is always a bit of a pain, to say the least. I'm looking forward to settling in at the new place though, and I think it will be much better. Many thanks to pinkapplejam for her bringing of boxes yesterday.

I'm doing lots of packing at the moment, and trying desperately to sell / throw-out / donate-to-charity as much stuff as possible. The house move is a fantastic opportunity for me to re-evaluate my belongings, and generally minimise the amount of clutter that I own. For example; I'm getting rid of all my PC stuff so that I'm mac only now, except for my laptop. I'm also going to massively cut down my wardrobe.

Right, time to get packing... o_o

RSOMUK&I3 arrived! :3

2008-06-16T18:59:27Z

Rising Stars of Manga UK & Ireland #3 arrived in the mail today, with my comic 'Two for Joy'!

It was pretty cool to read the judges comments for my piece, as well as their comments for all the other comics (though, I would have been grateful for some more criticism than I actually got ^^; ). In fact, I was surprised by some of the criticism for the comics in general. Nevertheless, the cover (and back cover) look great with everyone's matching artwork, especially the main artwork from fuuringo. The comics look clean and crisp in print without any traces of moiré. It's an awesome looking book, and I'm proud to be a part of it.

Gomo Test!

2008-06-13T11:24:08Z

I'm learning some new tools and techniques at work, and in doing so I made this. o_o

Installing / Anticipating

2008-06-12T18:23:44Z

XDDDD, been looking forward to this for ages, and haven't bought any games in months. I promise I'll post no spoilers though.

Watermelon breakfast!

2008-06-02T20:27:00Z

Breakfast at fehed's place was legendary! ^_^

PS, everyone, add me on flickr plz.

LostWinds - Available now!

2008-05-20T09:23:26Z

LostWinds is now available for download from the Wii Shop, in both USA and Europe. It costs 1000pts, which is about UK £7.00, or US $10.00.

It came out in the USA last week, and it just launched in Europe about 10 hours ago, haha. I did the characters and the end of game boss character (which you can see HERE, if you don't mind the 'spoiler'). There's a review for the game at Eurogamer, as well as a bunch of others (EG gave us a 9/10 though, haha).

Desktop Meme

2008-04-27T14:23:52Z

Rules: Upon receiving this tag, immediately perform a screen capture of your desktop. It is best that no icons be deleted before the screencapture so as to add to the element of fun.

I'm still using a stock desktop background! o_o Shocking!

Keyboard Firmware

2008-04-12T23:10:41Z

Since when did wired USB keyboards have firmware updates? o_o

Also, our router crapped out recently, so I have bought this as a replacement. It's really effective, and wireless-N seems to work amazingly quickly. It's also a massive improvement for all of the wireless-G devices that we have, with a better range and signal in general.

Smeeeeary

2008-04-07T09:16:47Z

This is one of the reasons I moved to using a Mac, you know. I've always hated it when the PC gets busy and doesn't update the screen properly. I assume this doesn't happen in Vista, but I previously assumed that the move to XP would have fixed this (it happened in 2000 too). My Amiga never did this, haha.

Spent yesterday playing Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes and did very little else. It was a much needed break, I really enjoyed it.

Birthday Snow!

2008-04-06T05:54:44Z

It's my birthday and it is snowing!!
Fantastic! ^-^

Birthday, and mac update

2008-04-02T11:44:07Z

It's my 28th birthday on Sunday, so I'm looking forward to chilling out and taking it easy. I'm going to London for a 'Sweatdrop meet' the day before, so it should be a fun weekend. I'm glad it's not a work day!

I've had my imac for five weeks now, and I feel pretty comfortable with it now. I'm definitely happy that I made the switch, and it's generally a pleasure to use. It hasn't been without its problems though, and its clear that the mac is still behind the curve when it comes to support, but it more than makes up for it in other areas. I'd be grateful to hear from mac owners about some of these issues, or from anyone really who has any interest in this stuff :)

Things I really like about the mac:

The User Interface.
The user interface for the mac is fantastic. It takes a little getting used to, but in general it seems a lot more responsive, and much better for dealing with the sorts of files I use. I love the ability to have giant thumbnails with useful contents, and I like that I can preview PDFs, DOCs and PSDs without having to open any programs. I love the fact that there are lots of design conventions that applications adopt in order to keep the experience consistent. It sounds lame, but I especially like the fact that everything animates into position - it makes the whole experience feel very solid. I still like Windows, but I find Mac OSX to be more 'comfortable'.
The Dock.
Initially, I found the dock to be weird and confusing, but now I find it second nature. I like the 'stacks' feature a lot, I like the feedback on application progress (like new messages from Adium, or speed reading from Transmission).
The Keyboard. Best keyboard I've ever used. I'm oddly smitten with the 'pause itunes' button on there as well.
The Dashboard
I keep a 'web clip' of my google calendar on here, as well as using the gmail gadget, and a few other gadgets too. I quite like the stickies, and in general I like the idea of all this stuff being resident but well out of the way.
Front Row (the media-centre style front end, with remote control)
This was something I didn't even consider of interest before I bought the mac, but I have taken to using it almost every day. It's really great to use Front Row to watch videos, listen to music, or listen to podcasts. It helps that I have 'Hazel' to automatically move any movies that I download into my proper Movies folder. I love the tiny remote control as well, and video-podcasts now make a lot more sense to me. The fact that front row sits on top of all the other applications means that I don't have to care whether the mac is doing stuff, I can just grab the remote and fire up Front Row at any time.
Speech
I really liked this on my old ibook six years ago, and I still like it now. Getting an audio alert when an FTP file has completed, or failed, and any number of other alerts... is really useful. It means I can concentrate on what I'm doing without a pop-up window interupting me.
Boot Camp
I don't use it very often, but it does work fantastically. The only thing I've used it for lately is printing (see below), but it's nice to know I have the option. I intend to give Half Life 2 another shot at some point, for example, and I will definitely be using this for 3DS Max. I have itunes setup so that it accesses all the music from my mac hard-drive, so it's pretty comfortable to work in XP on my mac.
iTunes.
I've been using this on the PC for ages, but it seems to run much better on my mac. I have album artwork for all my music (about 200 albums) and the general user experience is fantastic. I've never really had a 'well kept' music collection on PC before, but now I have everything tidy and organised, it's great.
The mouse's 'scroll ball'.
I was prepared for doom and gloom with this, but in fact I find myself making good use of it. Sidewards scrolling actuallly makes a lot of sense at times, and it works a lot better than those stupid tiltable scroll wheels.
Sleep mode!
I never turn off my mac. It sleeps if it isn't doing anything, and it stays awake but whisper quiet if it is busy downloading or processing. It basically acts a lot like a laptop. I've never had sleep mode work nicely on a desktop PC, but this works great on the mac and I love it.

Things I don't like about the mac:

No 'fullscreen' option.
This is something I'm getting used to, but it's initially a bit weird for everything to be so window based. Things like 'expose' help a lot to cope with this, but with certain sorts of work I quite like working in fullscreen mode. I'm getting used to working this way though, and it isn't too bad.
The mouse 'movement'
I'm not very fond of the way that the mouse pointer moves on the mac. It has a completely different set of acceleration curve and movement speed options, and it feels very different than Windows as a result. I having two large monitors makes this problem more pronounced, and I'm getting used to it, but it's not something I'm fond of.
My Printer
Or rather, my mac doesn't like my printer. My HP 1018 Laserjet doesn't work at all on the mac, not even with weird fruity 3rd party drivers that I wasted time with. Consider me shocked that HP would be so lame as to not have mac support. I had considered printers to be pretty 'universal' now, even with linux.
Ejecting USB-keys / SD Cards
Windows XP has had it for a while so that you can eject any SD card ormemory stick without risk of it breaking. The mac, however, is stillvery picking about when you remove these that they need to be ejected,which is a bit of a nuisance.
Parallels.
Parallels was a big fat disappointment to me. It didn't support graphics hardware properly, and has weird restrictions (like it won't access all the USB drives that my mac has access to, etc). It also buggered up my Max license too, which I need to fix - seems that max's anti piracy stuff considered parallels to be a weird hack.

Despite the problems, I'm really delighted with my mac. When I sit down after work at my computer it's a breath of fresh air, or at least air that smells significantly different to my work PC. I've done one big project on it already and that was a pretty joyful experience. I took to displaying all the stuff I had done so far (image windows, windows full of files, etc) on my right monitor. I have upcoming projects that I'm looking forward to doing, especially comicking.

Fun with watercolour pencils

2008-03-25T01:02:21Z

Snow!

2008-03-23T08:38:53Z

Happy Easter, everyone! I love snow! ^o^

Weirdmote!

2008-03-20T16:14:45Z

Working long hours has caused people here to go a bit strange.

Speaking of which, I'm working here on both days of this easter bank holiday. Bugger! Ah well, it'll be worth it in the long run.

My Legacy

2008-03-19T09:04:50Z

My pre-order for the Commodore 64 book arrived in the post!

Showing my true geeky colours! (10 POKE 53281,5)

Don't worry, I already have this one too... :3

Crit 'Two for Joy' (my Tokyopop RSOM comic)

2008-03-10T13:28:54Z

I'd really appreciate some solid critique of my Rising Stars of Manga piece.

I'm looking to get started with the production of a new comic soon, so I thought it would be worthwhile to take a final look at my Rising Stars of Manga piece to figure out what I need to learn moving forward. Whilst there is plenty that I'm happy about with this story, I don't want to rest on my laurels and overlook the flaws in this piece. It's important to recognise flaws and weaknesses so that I can overcome them with my comics in the future.

See the comic pages here:
http://www.sweatdrop.com/dock/twoforjoy/

Some criticism that I've already received:
Page 11 - top right panel, punch is rendered poorly

Page 09 - bottom panel, kneeing in face is poor.
Random: "very dodgy anatomy during the fight scene"

It's clear that most of the criticism so far has focused on the fight scene, which has been helpful for me to consider for future projects so that I can either taking more time, care or choosing to omit combat such as this altogether.

Were there any aspects of the art that you found to be weak or jarring? I'm also interested to know whether the story made sense to you. Was the abstraction straight-forward, and did the dialogue 'work' in general? Were there any parts of it you felt were strong, or especially liked?

Any input is useful for me, and I promise I won't be upset. I'm focusing on my next comic now, so any feedback should help me to make my next project even better, especially as I'm not bound to deadlines or page count.

This isn't any sort of fishing for compliments, I just want useful feedback so that I can improve my comics in the future.

My imac

2008-03-09T19:22:09Z

Here is my mac! ^^ I've had my imac for a few weeks now, and I'm really starting to like it it a lot. There are a handful of problems I run into here and there, but I'm generally getting used to it and finding the experience to be an enjoyable one. There's a whole host of aspects of the user interface that really suit me and I don't regret making the switch. It seems like a much friendly machine to use at home, I just wish I had more time at home to do things like graphics and comics work on it.

I still have my PC running alongside it, as I'm currently using it to do 3D graphics work. I haven't had much success with 'Parallels' so it doesn't seem too well suited to 3D modelling, so for the time being I'm going to keep my PC going for stuff such as this.

Work is really getting on top of me right now, and I need to make a concerted effort to manage this better than I have been. I'm about to do some more 3D work but I need to make sure I get sufficient rest.

Oh yeah, so.. question to mac users. What LJ client do you recommend? I'm currently using some sort of Dashboard Widget, but this is a bit cramped.

LostWinds for 'Wiiware'

2008-02-20T15:19:29Z

Looks like the game I'm working on has been announced! :3 It's a downloadable game for Wii, it should be coming out on May 12th in USA.

More images:

More here: LostWinds Homepage
LostWinds Interview: N'Gai Croal interviews David Braben on Lost Winds
Another Interview: Stephen Totilo/MTV: First look at LostWinds

Edge Next Month...

2008-02-17T10:45:15Z

Hey, this looks interesting! ^_~

Now I had better get back to work... o_o

Sweatdrop is Six today! :3

2008-01-25T20:09:55Z

This week sees Sweatdrop Studios reach its sixth year as a manga collective! To celebrate this special occasion, they are giving a whopping 50% discount on their comics until 1st February 2008. Sweatdrop also offer free international shipping for orders over £15 (about US$30), so if you ever wanted to check out some UK-made manga, there couldn't be a better time. Visit their online shop HERE

Furthermore, there is a free prize draw on the forum, with prizes including Sweatdrop anthologies, books and an original watercolour image by Selina Dean. Just reply to the competition thread on the forum to take part.

Sweatdrop Studios (www.sweatdrop.com) is a group of 19 UK-based manga artists which has been operating since January 2002. They have published a number of anthologies such as "Cold Sweat and Tears", "Blue is for Boys" and "Pink is for Girls", as well as original titles such as "Looking for the Sun" by Morag Lewis and "Fantastic Cat" by Selina Dean.
Sweatdrop members Emma Vieceli and Sonia Leong recently released "Hamlet" and "Romeo and Juliet" respectively with SelfMadeHero; and Fehed Said released "The Clarence Principle" with Slave Labor Graphics. Several members are also featured in Tokyopop's UK & Ireland Rising Stars of Manga anthologies.

(Oh yeah, I'm feeling much better today than I was yesterday. I've ordered a new hard-drive from ebuyer, and it is due to arrive tomorrow by courier.)

If you're interested in buying comics by me, you can see all the comics I've done HERE on my profile page. I don't have any individual comics left in print, but I have stories as part of anthologies Cold Sweat & Tears, Sugardrops, Blue is for Boys.

I'm on Sweatdrop Podcast #08! :)

2008-01-07T20:16:52Z

Sweatdrop podcast number eight is online now! It features soundslikebuuu, emmav, pinkapplejam, sonia_leong and myself. I think it's probably my favourite podcast that we've produced to date, mostly because it's the most relaxed and funny podcast we've done. I think it's quite listenable, even if you don't have any interest in comics. Please give it a try.

- Download the MP3 (20.1mb, 87 mins)
- Stream and listen online via ODEO
- More info (moooar!) HERE

Massive thanks to fehed for the editing, he did an awesome job. I'm really hoping to get his dulcet tones back on the podcast at some point. I still can't believe we're up to episode eight and have always released on time, I'm really happy the podcast seems to be working out okay.

Games! Oh my god, Games! ("I think you have too many games" "Shut up!")

2008-01-07T11:46:58Z

10 Jan: Another Code (DS)
13 Jan: Wario Ware Twisted (GBA)
14 Jan: Wario Ware Smooth Moves (Wii)
21 Jan: Kirby Canvas Curse (DS)
29 Jan: Super Castlevania 4 (SNES/VC)
01 Feb: Gears of War (360)
04 Mar: Kororinpa (Wii)
01 Apr: Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures! (GC)
30 Jun: Adventures of Lolo! (NES/VC)
06 Jul: Peggle (PC)
31 Jul: Yoshi's Island DS (DS)
12 Aug: Raw Danger (PS2)
03 Oct: Halo 3 (360)
05 Nov: Portal (PC)
15 Nov: Metroid Prime 3 Corruption (Wii)
25 Nov: Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
30 Nov: Zoo Keeper (DS)
26 Dec: Dynastic Hero (TG16CD/VC)

I like to keep track of it when I complete video-games. I buy and play a lot of games, but I don't complete too many of them. Last year I completed ten, but this year I completed eighteen. I have a bunch of games that I'm keen to complete, and in fact I completed Zelda Phantom Hourglass last night.

Also in 2007, on 30th Jan my 360 decided to get the 'Red ring of death'. This is my third dead xbox 360. Nice try, microsoft. I'm going to take it to Curry's Digital and get it replaced, again, lol.

Bleargh~! Ramblings...

2007-12-18T09:42:12Z

I'm off work today, suffering a cold. ~D:

I've been sick for four days now, which is much worse than I usually get. soundslikebuuu has also caught the cold from me now (sorry about that). I had originally planned to go into work today, but that plan was scuppered by a massive 4am coughing fit. Ah well, it's better I recover as soon as possible. Massive thanks to pinkapplejam for dropping over on Sunday for hanging out and delivering coke and cold-relief medicine, that was much appreciated and a lot of fun.

I need to get on with image for the cover of Rising Stars of Manga. I'm really struggling to get a pose I'm happy with, for some reason. I'd love to spin some pretentious line about how the character was intended only for black and white comic pages and how he wasn't meant to be a pin-up, but the reality is that I'm either being too picky, or sucking too much right now. I think I might leave it for a bit, so that I feel better at least.

In other news, I've got a new short story that I'm determined to hammer out. Maybe I should force myself to get the thumbnails figured out today. I always find this to be the hardest part. I'm incredibly weak when it comes to comic thumbnails, actually. It could be something to do with commitment issues regarding the content on the pages. It's something I need to get over though, so I'm going to try to make a concerted effort with this comic to 'do it properly', like all my peers. ^_^

Elementary, my dear Adidas.

2007-12-12T11:49:47Z

Best clothing of all time! XD
(...and research like this is part of my job!)