Elusiveness Found

Once in a while one gets something really good.
I found ArtRage as an iPhone app. I found the interface clean and easy to use and the range of tools was good. I decided to take a look at the PC version and liked the look of it and the feature list was good so I purchased the ArtRage Studio Pro version.
After using it for a couple of days I can say that it is by far the easiest, most pleasurable piece of software and that it lives up to and beyond my expectations. What it is is a tool for artists. What it is not is a tool to turn you into one. There are plenty of helpers to make your digital art easier and a couple of cheats but beyond that it's a fully stocked set of materials and a blank canvas.
It's going to be one of the pieces of software that gets used all the time for all kinds of different things.
It's my new right hand man.

New Rule

It's totally my own fault that I'm not getting enough sleep.
I'm not bad at getting into bed at a decent time it's just that technology distracts me and I end up staying awake until all hours. I've decided today that the only things allowed after 10pm are things that get me to sleep rather than keep me awake. This includes my radio, sketchbook or reading books. No netbook and definitely no iPhone.
This rule only applies on work nights. For the rest of the time I'll distract myself as much as I like after ten. I really am tired of being exhausted during the day.
This rule fixes that.

X, Y & Z

Not very impressive I'll admit.
What is impressive is that I've now got all my vector 3D software back onto my PC and I'm ready to make objects and scenery for my cartoons. The idea is to build what I need then basically trace it into a paint program and use it in my cartoons. Considering all the drawing I've been doing it looks like everything will be done in the digital domain. Don't get me wrong here, this stuff is just as time consuming as doing it all by hand on paper but at least at the compositing stage it'll be easier and quicker to put together.
I'll still carry on drawing and sketching, I'll need to to get ideas onto paper fast and to put together rough but accurate landscapes for my strips so I haven't wasted any time with my practise.
What I do want is clean lines and this is the way to get them.

More From The Past

Fair play to ElectricRain.
I bought Swift 3D 4 from them years ago and pretty expensive it was too but worth every penny. This was the software I've been searching for all afternoon to no avail. I thought I'd try their site and with my memory functioning I remembered my password and there in my account was the software ready to download with a serial number to get it running. This quite obviously has made me very happy.
We'll see if I'm still smiling once I try and install it on my Vista PC.

While I'm At It

And on another disc...
I did a remix for a friends band called The Shift. My friend didn't like it but that's OK because he played in a rock band and I don't really do rock tracks. Having said that I like the finished result and even after all this time it makes me smile.
You can hear it via the Audioboo player on the left.

The One That Got Away

Just a quick post.
I was looking for some stuff on old discs today and I came across a track I wrote nearly ten years ago. I hadn't heard it for that long either. It's not great but it does show my musical influences at the time.
A lot has changed.
You can hear the track via the Audioboo player on the left.

Software Cheat?

I've been drawing for a while now.
While I've had a lot of fun and my drawing and perception have improved I'm still not drawing cartoons which is what I want to be doing. I've considered on and off using software to get right into the action. Sure there are some bits of software I'd have to use but what about the ones that make all this drawing easier?
I spent the night reading about perspective and while I now understand it am I prepared to spend hours drawing out all of those lines? Well, in all honesty, not really. And what about posing my figure? Should I study my mannequin for hours or just trace a basic 3D model? The latter wins again. There is lots of stuff that I still need to draw by hand and I'm at the level whereby I can do that. My cartoons and comics will still look like my creations.
When considering the above I thought about my use of FL Studio. I can't play drums or guitar well enough to record live for my compositions so I program them and use software to adjust the sounds and timing as needs be. Should I not be allowed to write music because I can't play certain instruments? No, of course not.
So what about drawing and 3D software? I've used most of the software I want to use before when I made animations for my VJing. So why not use my software skills now for another purpose? No reason not to.
I still need to buy and learn to use a couple of new bits of software on top of brushing up on software I've used before but it's all part of getting where I want to a bit faster and that'll get my ideas out of my head too and make space for new ones.
Isn't spontaneity what this is all about?
I think so.

This Is The Blogger App Test

I think that the Blogpress app is still formatting all wrong. Why don't devs check more than one template?
Let's see if this app fares any better.

A Blogpress Test

I haven't used Blogpress for a long time. The reason is that I didn't like the formatting so I'm giving it another try here to see if it's any better since the last time I used it which was a long time ago. I'll let you know.