Let the sun shine!
Friday \o/
Friday is a good day, it's the weekend AND I get James home early - woot!
The last couple of days have been reasonably hectic around here, at least for me. Earlier in the week I joined a development team online who're working on creating a Mod for Half Life 2 (which I mentioned in my previous post) and it would be typical that my muse and inspiration would fuck off at a time when I need it most! It's most unhelpful. My task at the moment is to create character sheets and concept art for the mod and I'm focused on creating a unique, believable, race of aliens that look positively terrifying - so far I have a head O.o Wow - Go Me. -.- James took a look when he came in yesterday and said my creation was pretty much how he imagined a character from Hitchhikers (which I've still to read). I'm not sure if this is a good thing of bad thing yet and when I work that out I'll be sure to let y'all know!
In other game development related news, Maf has been working like a Trojan on his and it's coming together really nicely. I've got the current build sitting on this laptop at the moment because I've been dubbed the "Lead Artist" for the project. I'd also like to point out that i'm the ONLY artist on the project >.< This has it merits ofc, MORE portfolio work :P Not only am I currently the concept artist, I'm also the UI artist, character artist, environment artist, texture artist and soon to me modeller! CRAZINESS. The game is still very much in the early stages but his idea is to create a modern FPS/RPG game - Imagine Resident Evil or S.T.A.L.K.E.R without the hordes of crazy monsters and something less monster-y? (Unless that changes)
These projects are a lot of fun and don't take up masses of time, but once you've committed there's the pressure on deadlines and when you have a slacking muse, you're fucked ;) Ok, I exaggerate. One can batter something out, whether it's good or not is a different matter. Maf, being one of my closest friends, id a little less demanding than a stranger and I have high expectations of myself, so when I'm not working to my highest standard I get annoyed, which is what I've been feeling the last day or so on this damn Alien thing. It's never good when you're taken on on the spot because your work is deemed "excellent", ok it is, but it's MORE PRESSURE to pull of work of a similar or BETTER standard ./cry.
Ok, enough of my whining. I love my projects really, I just get nervous and antsy about it when I do :(
Other news...let me see! Oh biggie! James' dad, Kim, visited yesterday!
I woke up as James left for work around 8:30am say, felt very ill for a while, staggered through to the kitchen to get a drink and almost has a coronary! The kitchen looked like Satan had had a banquet the night before followed by a rave and several shots of COCAINE. It was chaos. I had approximately 3 hours or so to fix the place up to something his dad could come into and what was worse, I didn't know if he was bringing his girlfriend with him >.< So I cleaned and cleaned, and washed and tidied and by about 12/12:30 the place was looking accommodating, but I still couldn't arrange seating or get to the shop for supplies because James didn't leave his key ./sad face.
At 1pm on the dot (100pts for punctuality Kim!) his dad buzzed. He was on his own (phew!). Everyone and anyone who knows me will know exactly what happened next...yes I rabbited on at 100mph about everything and anything because I WAS THAT NERVOUS >.< I suck. I calmed down after he was in the door about 20 mins and it was perfectly fine. We were both a helluva lot more chatty than we were thon christmas lol Kim talked about his various trips he's got planned this year, we talked about James moving and the state the place was in and Colin (grrr!). We talked about my health and college and a smidgen about the fact James hasn't changed since he became a teenager (LOL) It was pleasant and not strained after those first 20mins, so that's good, right? He stayed for quite a while then trotted off to Dom's after wishing me a safe journey back to Scotland when I go. :) The one thing I'm kicking myself for not remembering was to remind Kim about PHOTOS. Photos of James pre-2005 preferably. Basically anything before I knew him - the younger the better as I can't imagine James as a kid at all! I'd also love to see his graduation photos <3 I shall be seeing Kim again in summer, at his place, so i'm sure I can wait until then :)
When J got in I was kind of in a huff with him from the previous night and his crazy mess he'd left me that morning, but with the offer of cooking dinner, helping me re-string his guitar and the promptly showing me his small collection of guitars I forgave him a little. Yes the way to my heart at the moment is with food and guitars - WOT OF IT. I bloodied my finger with a sharp string, which hurt like hell, but all in all the re-stringing was a success and I only needed J's strong hands to push the pegs in sufficiently. He showed me his very first acoustic he ever got, which is a wee classical, nylon strung thing (I say wee, it's full size). I almost died from sentimentality alone. He got it when he was 10yrs old! A little bit of J's history there in wood and strings <3 He also whipped out his bass and plugged it into his wee amp and played some, which was cool :) Now we have two guitars kicking around we can actually play stuff together :D *high five* (I must say, I totally miss my guitar... :/ )
Tomorrow James and I are off to see Mark in his new pad in Leamington Spa. We're going to have lunch, hang out and then in the evening we're seeing Luke, James' old flatmate and band mate, who's also putting us up for the night, bless him. As far as I'm aware, there's plans for something at night, but I've totally left it to those two to arrange as J is generally balls with emails and things, but whatever goes, I'm easy.
We come back Sunday sometime, so it's just and over night affair, and I'm currently trying to arrange a meet with Dom (J's brother) for a chinwag and a drink, but we'll see how bust the man is as he's apparently having some relationship problems at the moment from what his dad said yesterday :(
Right now I'm starving and need to nip to the shops for beverages and FOOOOOOOD.
Friday is a good day, it's the weekend AND I get James home early - woot!
The last couple of days have been reasonably hectic around here, at least for me. Earlier in the week I joined a development team online who're working on creating a Mod for Half Life 2 (which I mentioned in my previous post) and it would be typical that my muse and inspiration would fuck off at a time when I need it most! It's most unhelpful. My task at the moment is to create character sheets and concept art for the mod and I'm focused on creating a unique, believable, race of aliens that look positively terrifying - so far I have a head O.o Wow - Go Me. -.- James took a look when he came in yesterday and said my creation was pretty much how he imagined a character from Hitchhikers (which I've still to read). I'm not sure if this is a good thing of bad thing yet and when I work that out I'll be sure to let y'all know!
In other game development related news, Maf has been working like a Trojan on his and it's coming together really nicely. I've got the current build sitting on this laptop at the moment because I've been dubbed the "Lead Artist" for the project. I'd also like to point out that i'm the ONLY artist on the project >.< This has it merits ofc, MORE portfolio work :P Not only am I currently the concept artist, I'm also the UI artist, character artist, environment artist, texture artist and soon to me modeller! CRAZINESS. The game is still very much in the early stages but his idea is to create a modern FPS/RPG game - Imagine Resident Evil or S.T.A.L.K.E.R without the hordes of crazy monsters and something less monster-y? (Unless that changes)
These projects are a lot of fun and don't take up masses of time, but once you've committed there's the pressure on deadlines and when you have a slacking muse, you're fucked ;) Ok, I exaggerate. One can batter something out, whether it's good or not is a different matter. Maf, being one of my closest friends, id a little less demanding than a stranger and I have high expectations of myself, so when I'm not working to my highest standard I get annoyed, which is what I've been feeling the last day or so on this damn Alien thing. It's never good when you're taken on on the spot because your work is deemed "excellent", ok it is, but it's MORE PRESSURE to pull of work of a similar or BETTER standard ./cry.
Ok, enough of my whining. I love my projects really, I just get nervous and antsy about it when I do :(
Other news...let me see! Oh biggie! James' dad, Kim, visited yesterday!
I woke up as James left for work around 8:30am say, felt very ill for a while, staggered through to the kitchen to get a drink and almost has a coronary! The kitchen looked like Satan had had a banquet the night before followed by a rave and several shots of COCAINE. It was chaos. I had approximately 3 hours or so to fix the place up to something his dad could come into and what was worse, I didn't know if he was bringing his girlfriend with him >.< So I cleaned and cleaned, and washed and tidied and by about 12/12:30 the place was looking accommodating, but I still couldn't arrange seating or get to the shop for supplies because James didn't leave his key ./sad face.
At 1pm on the dot (100pts for punctuality Kim!) his dad buzzed. He was on his own (phew!). Everyone and anyone who knows me will know exactly what happened next...yes I rabbited on at 100mph about everything and anything because I WAS THAT NERVOUS >.< I suck. I calmed down after he was in the door about 20 mins and it was perfectly fine. We were both a helluva lot more chatty than we were thon christmas lol Kim talked about his various trips he's got planned this year, we talked about James moving and the state the place was in and Colin (grrr!). We talked about my health and college and a smidgen about the fact James hasn't changed since he became a teenager (LOL) It was pleasant and not strained after those first 20mins, so that's good, right? He stayed for quite a while then trotted off to Dom's after wishing me a safe journey back to Scotland when I go. :) The one thing I'm kicking myself for not remembering was to remind Kim about PHOTOS. Photos of James pre-2005 preferably. Basically anything before I knew him - the younger the better as I can't imagine James as a kid at all! I'd also love to see his graduation photos <3 I shall be seeing Kim again in summer, at his place, so i'm sure I can wait until then :)
When J got in I was kind of in a huff with him from the previous night and his crazy mess he'd left me that morning, but with the offer of cooking dinner, helping me re-string his guitar and the promptly showing me his small collection of guitars I forgave him a little. Yes the way to my heart at the moment is with food and guitars - WOT OF IT. I bloodied my finger with a sharp string, which hurt like hell, but all in all the re-stringing was a success and I only needed J's strong hands to push the pegs in sufficiently. He showed me his very first acoustic he ever got, which is a wee classical, nylon strung thing (I say wee, it's full size). I almost died from sentimentality alone. He got it when he was 10yrs old! A little bit of J's history there in wood and strings <3 He also whipped out his bass and plugged it into his wee amp and played some, which was cool :) Now we have two guitars kicking around we can actually play stuff together :D *high five* (I must say, I totally miss my guitar... :/ )
Tomorrow James and I are off to see Mark in his new pad in Leamington Spa. We're going to have lunch, hang out and then in the evening we're seeing Luke, James' old flatmate and band mate, who's also putting us up for the night, bless him. As far as I'm aware, there's plans for something at night, but I've totally left it to those two to arrange as J is generally balls with emails and things, but whatever goes, I'm easy.
We come back Sunday sometime, so it's just and over night affair, and I'm currently trying to arrange a meet with Dom (J's brother) for a chinwag and a drink, but we'll see how bust the man is as he's apparently having some relationship problems at the moment from what his dad said yesterday :(
Right now I'm starving and need to nip to the shops for beverages and FOOOOOOOD.