More Pang For Your Buck

This one was a bit harder than I thought. Even in the irregularities of the water, there are still patterns which I had to observe and work around.

World of Warcraft Vortex Effect

In World of Warcraft, I like to get as many unique, fancy screenshots as I can. In the Arcatraz dungeon instance I took a screenshot of an energy spiral on the inside, and on the outside. I used a Mini-Zep Blimp I received in the Wintervale holiday event as a kind of sky-cam.

Book Review

I just recently finished a book trilogy written by Dan Wells, "I Am Not A Serial Killer", "Mr. Monster", and "I Don't Want to Kill You".

I felt like this series was something I had been looking for my whole life. The main character is a diagnosed sociopath, whose town is plaqued by a successive series of serial killers (of a most unusual nature, even for killers). The series could have been a sick, erotic, piece of work taking the worst of humanity and rolling in it. I don't care for such works. I like a certain amoun of "grit", but my tastes are more aligned with, say, The Dark Knight rather than the Saw series. However, in this book series the action and gruesomeness was laid out with taste, style, and a certain measure of restraint rather than pure slasher-film titilation. In addition, the main character, John Wayne Cleaver, was not only likeable and sympathetic, but quite possibly the most heroic main character I have ever seen in print or on screen. He is a person who has, due to his sociopathy, virtually no easy motivation to be a good person. He has no empathy for other people, and he has all the main signs of a serial killer, minus actually killing people (fascinated by fire and the torture of animals, comes from an abusive background, etc.) It would be as easy for him to become a monster as it would be for a person to get addicted to cigarettes.
Yet, as hard as it is for him to do the right thing, and practice self-restraint, he does it anyway. He does not let his dark desires become his destiny. In fact, he ends up using his sociopathy for positive ends.

Like I said, I like a certain amount of grit, yet many of the books, movies, and TV shows which lean towards the dark side have elements that I wish were not in there, that would cause me to look away in repugnance (to keep from staring in dark fascination), or not consume the work at all to begin with. But this series, for me, had a virtually perfect balance of promoting wholesome goodness, while still acknowledging, and educating on the darkness. Anyone who likes to at least look at the edge, without actually standing on it, should check this series out.

Just Pang Around

As I was gathering my initial batch of screenshots (and I still have quite a few to go), I realized that I would have less to clear away if I let my game character die and fall off the screen right before I took the shot. Since the dying sequence lasts only a couple of seconds, I have to be quick, but with this one, all I had to get rid of was the little red ball.

Various Versions of a Door in a Wall

Here's the original of a door and wall picture that I made with Photoshop. I used an actual picture of a pair of double-doors, and the wall I built from a section I took from a stucco picture. I made multiple copies of this section, and used it to make "bricks" to build the wall. I took one copy, and stretched and embossed it for the pillars. The rest was made with the bucket and brush tools.

I've wanted to rework this for a while, so I decided to add some filters, this is a water-color filter...

 ...for quilt lovers, here's a patchwork filter...

...and for those with a "negative" attitude,(zing!) here's a neon glow filter!

Can Switches on the Light

This is my "ultra-sophisticated" first animation project with 3dsMax. The light source in the video is actually directly in front of the lamp, since I didn't know a way to get light to shine through an object. I have this film on YouTube, but I'm hoping this player does a bit better with the quality.

3/16/11
I tried to go with Windows Media Player, but it put up the YouTube version instead, which is a bit grainer than I had hoped. Hopefully I can find a way to fix that.

The Rare and Elusive Swake

This unusual creature, a hybrid of swan and cobra, is found only in the southernmost tip of India. It feeds primarily on water plants, but will also take small fish and rodents. It has never been photographed in the wild before, due to its tendency to chase after the photographer in question, and not desist, no matter how long it takes, until it has delivered a bite of its deadly venom. Fortunately I was able to snap this before the creature saw me, and by the time it noticed my presence, I had gotten clean away (wait, what's that outside the window...oh shoot it found me!)