I thought it would be interesting to start up a thread to see what everyone's working on. Got any big art projects in the works? Writing the Great (insert nationality here) Novel? Programming a game? Trying to attain the world record for stuffing grapes in your mouth? Let's hear it!

Me, I've once again succumbed myself to torture as I've decided in mid-September to make another catgirl calendar this year for sale during the holidays. This is the third year in a row I've done that, and while I keep starting earlier, it still doesn't leave me much time when I still have 11 pictures left to go!

That's also sort of on hold at the moment as I'm working on graphics and coding for a redesign of my website, and I'm in the process of writing a fantasy novel. The current chapters are here, if anyone's interested.

After all that, I have something like a dozen other pictures in progress and still more ideas in my head for others. While I'm glad I'm keeping busy, I just haven't the time to finish anything lately!

So what are you working on?

• Finishing writing my game.
• Finishing Side 7 v4.
• Work.

-- BK

I have a project which I've been working on since I was in 7th or 8th grade (I'm a sophomore in college now--I could be a junior but I worked for a bit after high school) which at first was meant to be a comic book, but is now sort of branching out into a lot of different things and taking on a life of its own. It's....I guess you could say sci-fi. It's set on Earth like 100 years in the future, so nothing is really that different. No post apocalyptic wastelands or anything xD. Space travel is better, as is trade with other planets, so it's common to see other species mixing with the population. Other than that, things are the same old same old. My story is about boxing and and arms deal. It's also a lot about character study, and why people act the way they do. There's a little politics (mostly about race relations) but the story isn't a proverb or an allegory. More just a commentary which people can take however they wish. At the moment I'm writing it as a novella and planning on illustrating it. It might morph back into a comic book later though shrug

haha...congrats if you got through all that blather without falling asleep xD

I'm also working on a collab/crossover story with my boyfriend, and I want to start experimenting with paper cutouts and flat color work for character art/pinups.

I started writing a sci-fi/fantasy sort of novel last July... and I'm only on chapter 2, still. Also been doing some artwork for it, of which none is finished. I'm slow -.- lol

It's difficult to describe it, but mostly it's about a war on another planet.

It seems like all artists either writes poetry, comics, sci-fi, or fantasy, so I had to be a little different. I recently started a satirical series of essays. Also I am working on a 9/11 piece, although it is quite late by now. Somehow I am not finding much more time now that I am in college…

I'm finding it very interesting seeing what everyone's working on. Gotten some site design work done today so far - yay for a day to myself! - though I need to get back to coding.

It does seem like a lot of artists are also writers. I've also noticed that talent tends to go across the board. Never fails to amaze what good writers artists I admire are.

well apart from the random pictures, I am curently illustrating a children's book about chess... The very first dragon anthro chess bood hooray

I did something like that (the first one) when I was in highschool. It was a fun project

Question though: why would you do something just to be different from what you think everyone else is doing? I mean, in the end what makes things interesting isn't that they're different, just that they're well done. Beyond that, poetry, comics, sci-fi, and fantasy are really broad genres (the first two in particular). You make it sound like everyone but you is being cookie-cutter

Not to say that your stuff isnt potentially interesting. Just like...dont trivialize what other people are doing by saying that its common.

I was more so commenting on what everybody here was doing, along with most of my art friends. It just seems to be a trend among artist. Also it was never my intention to trivilize the other people's work; rather I feel a little strange doing something different, but perhaps I should be more clear next time on what my intention is in what I am writing.

I just finished a big progect for a "art swap" on another forum.

I need to work on my sculpture of a hobo's puppy for English (does anyone know how to sculpt things for sculpy, I have NO talent at this)

My website is my major focus right now. I've been having some issues finding time for it. Senior year of HS is HARSH, I swear I'm writting essays everyday. I'm going to die in college :\ Expecially becuase I'm going to have to write papers about the way the human brain works -_- is a psychology major

BK

:Finishing writing my game

What kinda game...?

FG

:haha...congrats if you got through all that blather without falling asleep xD

I didn't fall asleep... I just tuned you out and started humming something instead of paying attenti- ... Wait... You said something? XD

:Question though: why would you do something just to be different from what you :think everyone else is doing?

To be different? 'Cause you're bored to death with what everyone else is doing? To get attention? I know that's what I'M doing with one of MY projects! XD The second one. Not the third one. [COUGH] What?

Moving on...

I have a TON of projects... Of course, I have so many, nothing useful ever gets done with any of them... But if I don't keep adding projects... I feel like I'm wasting away.. And yet.. I still never really get anything done.. ^^;;;;;;;;;;

1. Art. I SHOULD be doing a Mario piece. I keep saying I'm going to do it next. I've been MEANING to do it since I was waiting for New Mario to come out... Instead... Trying to force myself to finish an extremely late gift picture from someone that I've been dragging my feet on because it involves Satoshi Urushihara and... Well... His skill is quite intimidating... ^^;;;;;;;;;;;

2. Secret Manga Project. I've been working on this for... God... How long has it been now? Probably 3-4 years now. The script's been rewritten more times than I can count and all I've really done is draw the first issue. Which ... Was actually finished years ago... But I've been dragging my feet on pushing it through Photoshop and stuff... As of last week, it's all Photoshopped and ready... Except... At the last second, I realized, I never made a logo to stick on the cover art... >_< And now I'm being lazy about that... ^^;;;;;;;;;;;;; As to what it's about and stuff... I'm not saying. That's why it's a secret. And only three people in the whole world know ANYTHING of it and its contents. And while I'm sure it'll use a standard set of cliches and such, I will only say that it is indeed HIGHLY different from all the other manga currently available in stores and online. Well... I can't promise that it'll be completely unlike anything you've ever read... But at least the setting, story, and genre are different. No comment on those, though.

3. Experimental Game Project #2 - Tetris Clone. Ever since I was little, I was always fascinated with video games and always wanted to make my own. I can't tell you how many agonizing hours I wasted in Elementary School, pouring over the BASIC manual for my Tandy Color Computer 3... Of course, I never got anywhere... Not even in college, while I was getting straight As in my C++ classes... For some reason, I was never quite able to understand how to even begin to go about planning a game program. I'll spare you the sob story (unless you really want to hear it, but it's really quite long. :p), but it wasn't until a few years ago that I finally was able to write my first game. Tic-Tac-Toe. Yes, I know. Child's play for a pro. But for me... Well... Let's just say I'm... "Differently Abled" as Peter Griffin would put it and ... Leave it at that. It took about a year and a port to QBASIC from Microsoft Visual C++ 6, after our Windows 95 committed ritual suicide one fine morn, to get it done to where I was happy with it. From there... I set my sights on something far more challenging... Tetris. Taking everything I learned in Tic-Tac-Toe and applying it to Pajitnov's classic took some work but... After two years of hair pulling and screaming at my monitor... The program's almost done. And the only time I ever need to ask for help was when I couldn't get pieces to fall faster than once per second. A kind person on a QBASIC board provided me with a neat algorhythem which handled the problem in a way I would never had thought of. ^^ And as of this writing, it's really almost done. Technically, you can sit down and play a full game of Tetris on it already! ^^ The only sticking point is that I don't have a Game Over routine yet so it keeps playing on into infinity, even if you've filled your way to the top of the board. ^^;;;; I need to do that one of these days. Plus I want to add a High Score thingy (which will be the first excercise in file opening and writing that I've done in... ... Uh... 5-6 years?) and of course... The ol' Title Screen. Can't get away without having one of those! XD Of course, I've been thinking past Tetris for a least two years now... I have several game ideas I've been brainstorming. I want to do an original puzzle game, based on my Tetris engine but I really need to sit down with those ideas and some paper and scissors and figure out if it's any fun or not first. I've also been toying with the idea of having my third experimental project being a clone of the first stage of Super Robot Wars 2 (since it's the only game in the series where I've actually been able, with the help of a friend, to divine how the game calculates damage and stuff), as the basis a Strategy/RPG engine for another couple of original game ideas I've had (plus, I been wanting to do a fan game for a while with series that have never and may never be in the series.... XD XD XD XD XD). But all that's in the distant future... Distant. Who knows... -_-;;;;;;

Wow. That was ten times longer than Grin's story... ^^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

1. Super Robot Wars 2 - ROM Translation. Yes, yes, I know. The subject of ROMs and emulators and such creates many, many flame wars on message boards and such but... I ... I really don't care. An English Robot Wars game is the dream of many, many people... Though, maybe not enough people. [COUGH] A dream that was realized a couple months ago by the good people of Atlus with the release of Super Robot Taisen (bleh. Even Banpresto's own 15th Anniversary logo says Robot WARS): Original Generation. However, this has been a pet project of mine for more years than I can count. And before you ask... I know exactly 90% less Japanese than YOU do. At this point, it's just as much a learning excercise in Japanese for me (before you ask, my school won't or rather CAN'T teach Japanese because there are no qualified instructors available. I've bugged them about it a lot) as it is a labor of love for the series. However... Given this information... You should probably know that in all these years... I've only recently been able to move on to Mission 2. XD Blame slang for that. And the fact that I discovered a secret part to the first mission that makes it longer. And that I get stuck a lot and have to depend on those that do know it better than I which makes me feel guilty and I end up not asking them for help for long periods of time, even though I can't move any further without it. >_<

2. Webpage Redesign and Launch. I used to have a page. It was called MECHAnical Endeavors. It was on a free site. Then the site took the freeness away. And I had no money to pay for the site. And I didn't want to tear out 2/3rds of my site to make it family friendly for GeoCities, which my site had escaped from a few years earlier. And since. I've been without a page. I have to link my Side 7 gallery because that's all I really have. Now that I have a job, paying for a site may actually be feasible, however, I don't want to put back up the ugly old HTML from before. But... ..................................... I have NO idea what to make it LOOK like! ;_; And so... This remains an open project. To be completed. Someday.

Last.. And almost certainly least...

1. The Weekly Comic. I.... Uh... I don't want to say too much about it. Mainly because... Well... ^^;;;;;;;;; Let's just say... In today's gaming world... It's not exactly... "PC" By which I mean Politically Correct. ... Pun not intended. I have nothing against PCs or PC gamers. [COUGH] As such, I won't post links and stuff... But it's been going on almost ... Probably 5-6 now... Or rather... It was started 5-6 years ago. And I used to post new strips on time every Monday. Sometimes, I worked so hard, that I might actually be a couple strips ahead of schedule! And while it never got more than a maybe a hundred visitors at a time, if even that, I was still happy with it. Alas... Things began to go down hill when I joined the work force.... Creativity and energy began to drop and I was finding it harder and harder to deliver strips on time. Eventually... I began to miss weeks. Than months. When I got a tablet and could draw stuff instantly without having to go through the tidium of scanning, I honestly thought I would start to really put some good work behind the strip but... Well.. It's gotten to the point where I ... I need to get back into it... But everytime I try...It feels like I'm doing a chore I don't want to do. Even IF I have a good idea. I just don't seem to have the will anymore. This past E3, I really thought I could get back into the swing of things but... In the end... I couldn't do more than post past the first day.... It remains an open project because I don't want to give up... But I seem to have hit a wall that I just can't get past.

...

Dang. I talk too much.

Have you thought about trying something new with the comic art, beit a new style or characters or something? Sometimes, when you hit a block, the best thing to do is try something completely different. Have the entire comic acted out by cats or talking shoes or something. Experiment with a different way of portraying what you're trying to say. Just a thought.

So, I had this wonderful idea to use CSS to make possible future redesigns of my website easy, but it turns out that I guess I'm going to have to spend a lot more time learning about it to make it work properly. Considering I'm going to have to alter every single page for this redesign anyway, I guess it's back to raw HTML. Ah well. My Control and V keys are going to get a workout today.

migucast:

BK :Finishing writing my game What kinda game...?

It's a table-top, sci-fi role playing game. I've been working on it since late 1993. I'm very close to having it finished, and ready to send to a printer. I'm actually working on starting a gaming company, as I've got 5 expansion books in the works for the game, 2 other role playing games, and a card game, all either on the drawing boards or in the planning stages.

Here's my schpiel on my current game:

Quote:

Stellar Chaos is a table-top role playing game, set in the not-so-distant future against a science fiction backdrop. It's heavily influenced by both Japanese animation and American classic sci-fi. The playing environment surrounds Earth's numerous colonial worlds, who have suspiciously lost contact with Earth, and therefore have banded together into Nation States to survive and share/hoard resources. Expeditions back to Earth to discover the source of the loss of communications have never returned, therefore Earth is unanimously declared off-limits until further notice. The playing system is a system of opposed rolls (i.e. skill vs skill or attacker vs defender), based very much in real-world science and physics. It boasts both a detailed, "normal" system for those who wish to play as real as possible, and the Point Blank system, designed to introduce novices, and for use to streamline and up-pace the action. The primary overall story is broad and open-ended, officially ending at Present Day, so that Game Masters may mold the universe's continuing story to their liking. Likewise, the game system is scalable so that adventures and campaigns may be as modest or as grand as the Game Master would like it to be. (It's been tested in both deep-space, ship-to-ship campaigns, and small-scale, police story-type games.) Beyond that, I really can't go into detail. Or, more accurately, I'm not coming up with anything else describably at the moment. Hm... but it does look like I'm starting to become a Sales Droid. Grand.

Stellar Chaos sounds awesome... I wanna play!!

Anrui:

Stellar Chaos sounds awesome... I wanna play!!

Sweet. When the manual's ready, I'll be looking for people who want to play/run one final playtest before we go to print.

In the meantime, have some SC Wallpaper:

• Wallpaper 1:
  • 800x600
  • 1024x768
  • 1600x1200
• Wallpaper 2:
  • 800x600
  • 1024x768
  • 1600x1200
• Wallpaper 3:
  • 800x600
  • 1024x768
  • 1600x1200

-- BK

It's always better to say what you mean :P. You really aren't doing anything too different though, so don't feel out of place :). I mean, as I say, I did satirical essays in highschool, and a lot of my artist friends are working on similar projects.

AREN'T YOU HILARIOUS?

migucast:

:Question though: why would you do something just to be different from what you :think everyone else is doing? To be different? 'Cause you're bored to death with what everyone else is doing? To get attention? I know that's what I'M doing with one of MY projects! XD The second one. Not the third one. [COUGH] What?

My point was that just being "DIFFERENT" isn't the same as being clever and inventive. Everyone should try to find their own voice, but doing that doesn't have to involve removing oneself from everything that's ever been done before (I mean, unless a person lives in a cave and has never come into contact with the rest of humanity how can anyone avoid influence?)

That was a conversation about trends in genre anyway ~_^ so by the fact that you're doing something DIFFERENT with a MANGA project you're sort of proving my point. You can do interesting things within genres that get used a lot.

:Have you thought about trying something new with the comic art, beit a new style :or characters or something? Sometimes, when you hit a block, the best thing to :do is try something completely different.

Something completely different... Hmmmmmm... FULL FRONTAL NUDITY!!!! XD No, wait. We did that already once. Dang. Joking aside, though... Hmmmmm... I'm not sure what I could do different than what I've been doing... But it's certainly worth some thought...

:Have the entire comic acted out by cats

I think there's already a gaming comic like that.

:or talking shoes or something. Experiment with a different way of portraying what :you're trying to say. Just a thought.

Hmmmmm... A different way... Hmmmm....

:BK

Neat! Ship to ship battles, you say? Hee hee hee! I like the planet wallpaper best. How did you do the atmosphere on it?

:AREN'T YOU HILARIOUS?

Aren't I just? ^^

:My point was that just being "DIFFERENT" isn't the same as being clever and :inventive.

Whoever said it was the same? Well, even as I was writing my original post, I did seem like what I said could've been misconstrued (sp?) in a negative way which is exactly why I included the disclaimer sentence: "I can't promise that it'll be completely unlike anything you've ever read... " I didn't mean to say that it would rival everything else that came before, indeed, it's far more likely to rival them in sucking, rather than greatness. It's just hard to specify what I mean any more precisely without giving away the big secret.

:but doing that doesn't have to involve removing oneself from everything that's :ever been done before

Oh, believe ME, it's heavily steeped in everything that came before. It's kinda hard not to. To quote semi-quote you, it's quite "cookie cutter" in its own right, but that "cookie cutter"ness lands outside the spectrum of everyone else's "cookie cutter"ness. However, there IS a specific difference in what I'm doing. In fact, it's a very small difference, or rather, truthfully, that's what it may look like to everyone else... But to me... That difference is the whole genesis of the project. As I said... It's really difficult to put it in words without completely giving it up. ^^;;;;

:(I mean, unless a person lives in a cave and has never come into contact with the :rest of humanity how can anyone avoid influence?)

Precisely. Everything is built upon the foundations of what came before. Rare is the person that can truly cast away past influences to create something truly unique and revolutionary. And, I'm pretty sure, I won't be that kind of person. I just want to... No. I can't say that either... Sorry.

:That was a conversation about trends in genre anyway ~_^ so by the fact that :you're doing something DIFFERENT with a MANGA project you're sort of proving :my point. You can do interesting things within genres that get used a lot.

Uh... You're welcome...? ^^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Hey, migucast-- You're taking this way out of context. I was not talking about anything you are doing (or about you at all) untill the very very end of my last post (at which time I just reiterated something that you said and made no conclusions of my own). I'm not making assumptions, and I'm certainly not making judgements. You seem to feel like I'm attacking you, or at least like you have to defend yourself and your work. I don't know your work (or you) at all so how could I be? My post about originality was directed to a specific person, about a specific thing that they said about how many artists choose their genres. It was not about anything more specific than that. I didn't say that I thought everything should be absolutely unique (or that it should "rival everything else that came before") in fact what I was saying was completely the opposite. That it doesn't have to to be good and interesting.

I'm sorry if you felt threatened or talked down to, neither of those were my intention. You're acting as though I'm saying that being influenced is bad when I specifically said, several times, that it was not something one could or SHOULD avoid.

migucast:

:BK Neat! Ship to ship battles, you say? Hee hee hee! I like the planet wallpaper best. How did you do the atmosphere on it?

Yep. Ship-to-ship battles.

And, thanks! I just used a few photoshop tricks to get the planet down the way I wanted to. The whole image was done 100% in Photoshop.

-- BK

:You seem to feel like I'm attacking you, or at least like you have to defend :yourself and your work.

Well, I wouldn't say "attack"... I suppose I did feel a little on the spot and that my previous post may have been misunderstood in a negative way as if I was agreeing with Nolani or making myself and my work out to be something it was not and I was just trying to explain myself. I'm sorry if it seemed as if I was making it look like you were attacking me or something, I guess I need to word things more carefully.. ^^;;;;;;;;;;

:My post about originality was directed to a specific person, about a specific thing :that they said about how many artists choose their genres.

I know. It's my fault for chiming in on that when I shouldn't have. Sorry...

:I didn't say that I thought everything should be absolutely unique (or that it :should "rival everything else that came before") in fact what I was saying was :completely the opposite. That it doesn't have to to be good and interesting.

I know and I actually agree with that. I just thought you had misunderstood what I said to be similiar to what Nolani said and I didn't want you to think that. ^^;;;;;

:I'm sorry if you felt threatened or talked down to, neither of those were my :intention.

And I'm sorry if I made you think we were fighting or something... I was just trying to explain myself, nothing more... And I guess I also misunderstood what you were saying as well... A lot of misunderstanding... ^^;;;;;;;;; But this is my fault too so I'm sorry and I'll be more careful with posts in the future, okay? ^^

:And, thanks! I just used a few photoshop tricks to get the planet down the way I :wanted to. The whole image was done 100% in Photoshop.

What sort of tricks, eh?

migucast-

Oh well, that's alright--no worries :). I just wanted to clear the air with you.

No hard feelings, ok?

:migucast-

Call me Red.

:Oh well, that's alright--no worries . I just wanted to clear the air with you.

Me too.

:No hard feelings, ok?

None.

migucast:

What sort of tricks, eh?

Quite simple, really. Once the planet was built out (consisting of several layers for land textures), I added another layer for the clouds, and spherized it.

After that, I added an light blue inner glow, and a whitish-blue outer glow, in opposite directions to help build out the atmospheric effect.

I really should go back into that one and create the stereotypical sunrise coming from behind the planet look. But then, the planet would need to be very dark. Perhaps, a second version is in order.

1. Finish Trades and commissions
2. Work on a few submissions to doujin projects (I was requested to x.x)
3. Webmistress 'pike
4. Webmistress Studio Kemono.net
5. Maintainer of some art clubs/projects
6. Character Design sheets
7. Work more productively and expand horizons on art, instead of just "cute" "anime" stuff
8. Save up to move out of state

:Quite simple, really. Once the planet was built out (consisting of several layers for :land textures), I added another layer for the clouds, and spherized it. : :After that, I added an light blue inner glow, and a whitish-blue outer glow, in :opposite directions to help build out the atmospheric effect.

I see. I'm going to have to try that one of these days. I can't keep making crumby planets. ^^;;;

Well, well... Arshes! I haven't seen you in... How many years? ^^;;; Nice to see you're still around! ^^