Ze Weekly Nuggetsketch

So, a mere 4 months after buying my new PC laptop, I suddenly realise that this means I can play with zBrush!

What I really love about zBrush is how totally intuitive the sculpting process is. If you know how to sculpt in 3d (as in, with real, traditional clay, etc), you know how to sculpt in zBrush. I do understand that there's a lot of things like polygon counts and whatnots that models made in zBrush have downsides in... but I hope in my nuggetheart that this is the kind of interface that 3D programs can move towards. I have no idea if that's practical within my nugget shelflife of course, but in the meanwhile... VIRTUAL SUPER SCULPEY! WOOT!

I've also learned that the top part of the sphere should not form the front of your 'face'. -_- It only took me 4 hours to figure out how to patch the hole in the mesh. Ah noobie goodness.

 

How Annoying Are the Names? A Fantasy Novel Rating System

Welcome to the Nugget's How Annoying Are the Names? Fantasy Novel Rating System, inspired by a couple of fantasy books I've read recently.

How Annoying Are the Names Rating System
Not Annoying at All - Barely Noticed 'Em: Good book
Mildly Annoying at First, but Quickly Got Used to Them: Decent book
Quite Annoying - Never Got Used to Them: Bad book
Hai! I'z a Fant'Asy Nov'el and I haz the Nam'ez to Prove I't: Toss the book, all you'll remember about it was how irritating the names were 

Now, to be clear, I've always loved the fantasy genre. But unfortunately, as a nugget gets more aged and fermented, I find I have less and less patience with bad fantasy. Which is sad, because... as in any genre, the bad outweighs the good. :(

Big Bear Butt Blogger » This blog needs an enema!

I wrote the last post just before bed, moments after announcing in the guild forums of Sidhe Devils, the guild that Cassie and I led for the last several years, that Cassie and I are closing the doors on Sidhe Devils permanently.

Sidhe Devils is done. Rather than turn over leadership to someone else, we’re going to close the doors and ask folks to move on to more active, vibrant, forward looking guilds. We’re going to liquidate the bank, mail out the gold to the players that are left, and bid everyone a very fond farewell.

Big Bear Butt talks about the price Guild Leaders pay for leading their Guilds. Though it's about WoW guilds, what he very thoughtfully covers is relevant in *any* context of guild leadership, imo.

It's very, very easy, when just a 'regular' member of a guild, to forget that leading a guild, (especially leading it well), whether it's a social guild, or a raiding guild, or any other type, is... well... work. It may be work that the Guild Leader enjoys, but it's still work.

As the Guild Leader of a Newbie Helper's Guild for near on ?5? years, I know this. And yet - I also very, very easily forget it, just like everyone else.

If you are a Guild Leader or Officer in any online game, even if you don't play WoW (anymore, or ever), this is worth reading.

Ze Weekly Nuggetsketch

Part of what I'm trying to do with these weekly sketches, (other than prodding myself into not being so darn lazy about sketching) is to get myself to 'loosen up' stylistically. Not to have this neurotic desire to delete each and every single 'mistake', and instead, to work the 'feeling out' lines into the sketch.

Intellectually, I know that madly deleting lines left and right can lead to a piece that isn't as rich as those where the feeler-lines (can't think of a better term right now) are left alone to do their thing. Soooo here's me mentally slapping my hand going, 'No! No eraser (tool)! Bad nugget! Leave it! Erase only for highlights!'

I think it's working - especially compared to my first sketch of this series (bleck!) but still a long way to go towards training myself NOT to twitch for the eraser. XD

Jade Dynasty - Gorgeous Wuxia Style Music

For almost every game I play, one of the first things I do is...turn the music off. The only other game to recently escape this fate was Sacred Gold.

Jade Dynasty, however, has a gorgeous soundtrack. It's pure Wuxia, through and through, and could easily be a Wuxia movie soundtrack. While I don't play Jade Dynasty anymore, I'll most happily load up their sound track and go, 'OOOOOMMMMyaaaaa....'

 

 

Paying for Those Games – Facebook Credits « The Ancient Gaming Noob

From the article:
"You can buy 56 Facebook Credits for $9.99. Why that ratio? I have no idea. But ten bucks gets you 56.

You can take those credits to FarmVille and spend 50 of them on 25 units of Farm Cash or 7,500 Farm Coins.

Or, to put it another way, you can take approximately $9.00 worth of Facebook credits and buy $5.00 worth of FarmVille currency."

Hmm...

Kralkatorrik, Elder Rot Wallow

According to legend, Kralkatorrik is one of the slumbering elder dragons, who's been snoozing in the middle of Grothmar Wardowns in the Charr Homelands since... before anyone remembers when!

Rotty, though, informs me that Kralkatorrik is the Elder Rot Wallow, far superior to dragons. He cites his own adorably spiny back as a reference. Gotta admit, there is a resemblance...