Friday, April 26, 2013

Page 79 and 80 of Zheph Skyre

I have uploaded pages 79 and 80 of my web comic Zheph Skyre. I have also uploaded previous pages and images that required a little more detail and words in certain areas.


Here we see Zheph trying to decide what to do next for the night. He looks over to an invention of his laying out across a table with a sheet on top of it.


Zheph knows he can't work on this invention because he is out of metal to work with. He could go down into the mine and search for more, but a flashback reveal that the last time he went down into that mine shaft, he nearly got killed by a cave in. I believe this scene is important because it at least explains where he gets a number of materials for his work considering he is poor.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Internet Radio

I never heard of the website Pandora before the 24 Hour Game Jam. Someone's laptop was playing Within Temptation, a band I really enjoy listening to. I noticed that after the song of Within Temptation, the laptop played songs from other bands that I never heard before, but I enjoyed how they sound. I decided to try out this website for myself.

I was surprised at the substantially huge selection this internet radio has. This seems like the logical route to take for all radio to go. You type in the name of a band or a genre of music and this website will begin playing music from that genre or that are similar to that band. If there is a song you don't like, you can always press skip. There are commercials, but there is only one commercial in between two songs once in a while. These commercials are not as annoying as most of the commercials I have heard on the normal FM radio. There's an upgraded version when you sign up for an account, but I just stuck with the free version, and I am satisfied.

I have found a few new bands that sound awesome! From there I have looked into their albums on Itunes and saved them in my wishlist. I don't know where else this website is accessible other than on a computer, but I highly recommend this internet radio.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Page 79 of Zheph Skyre in Black and White

I have uploaded page 79 of Zheph Skyre, but it is in black and white again. I'm sorry, things just keep coming up. One thing is, I have a confirmation that I have a vendor's table for Anime Boston! Yeah!

I have decided to add a few things to the header of my web comic. For instance, there is a warning label that the web comic has adult language and violence. I decided not to bother censoring the language of this web comic because there are plenty of web comics out there that have swearing as well, so there's no real point. Also, my web comic will have some graphic violence, so I had to put the label on anyways in that regard.

Monday, April 22, 2013

The Sprinkler Factory

 There is an art gallery called the Sprinkler Factory located at 38 Harrow Street in Worcester, MA, not too far from the Genesis Club House. I know that the name sounds strange, but it is a genuine art gallery and it contains studios that artists work in. Here are some business cards from the gallery.


 I have stopped by there one time so far, but I do intend to visit it again.


The Genesis Art Committee was looking into this gallery for a possible show for the artist members, but supposedly we are looking more towards Arts Worcester the Aurora Gallery. Perhaps I'll look into showing my work here on my own at some point.


Friday, April 19, 2013

Page 77 and 78 of Zheph Skyre

Here are pages 77 and 78 of Zheph Skyre. They were taking quite a bit of time because of all the meticulous detail.


Here we see Zheph is working hard on refueling one of his inventions. We also get to see the inside of his home. I tried to fill up the walls with as many gears, tubes, and pistons as much as possible in order to give it more of a steam punk feel. The floor also has tracks for certain things to move around on and there are a row of levers right next to the sink.


Here I have some exposition about the city of Corthon. It may seen a little like pandering now, but I assure you it will be important later on. Besides, here we see Zheph's assessment of the reason why Corthon is deteriorating. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like anyone will listen to his opinions.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Boston Marathon April 15th 2013

My thoughts and prays go out to the victims of the Boston Marathon this past Monday. What happened was a tragedy, and whoever is responsible is a coward that deserves to be punished.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Page 77 is Uploaded, But Not in Color

Honestly, I thought I was going to have this page of Zheph Skyre uploaded early, but than I realized there was a lot more detail in this page than I realized. Hopefully I can get caught up soon.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Firefly

I had recently watched the series "Firefly" on Netflix. I wanted to watch it for a while, but forgot to. I am glad I finally got to watch this series from beginning to end. I had seen a few parts here and there from the series and the movie "Serenity", but I didn't get to see it as a whole. I am very glad now.


This is an awesome series with well developed and interesting characters. It is a show that follows a space ship captain and his crew as they take on illegal jobs throughout the known galaxy. It is another astounding product of Joss Wheadon.
 
Unfortunately it was canceled on the Fox Network before it ever got a second season. The people in charge of Fox do not know what they are doing. They canceled "Futurama", "Firefly", "Greg the Bunny", "The Tick", and numerous other shows, yet kept the Simpsons running and have brought back Family Guy only to have it desensitized as well as having two other cartoon shows run by the same people.

Supposedly "Serenity" was supposed to wrap up every unanswered question there was in the show, but many fans still want more and a few are sad at certain characters dying off. However it did answer a few questions I would have had.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Page 75 and 76 of Zheph Skyre

Here's page 75 and 76 of my web comic Zheph Skyre all finished. I have to say, there is a lot of detail in rubble and ruins! At least there's less to fix up because it is supposed to look dark and dirty.


Here we see Zheph entering what appears to be a broken down house. Obviously he doesn't just sleep out in the open where his enemies, so he has to have a secret entrance to his hiding place. I decided to have a pull cord and key lock hidden underneath a burnt book on the floor that activates the entrance hidden underneath a pile of rubble.

Zheph appears to be unaware that someone has been in his shadow this entire time. Whoever this is, it will most likely bring him trouble.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Free Kaiju Card Game



Here are the Official Rules of the card game I helped create at the Becker 24 Hour Game Jam:

"Kaiju Card Game Rules

Turn order will be decided by the flip of a coin.

A game of Rock Paper Scissors, Die roll, or a best 2/3 match in Super Smash Bros Brawl determine who will decide which player gets to call heads or tails during the coin flip to see who plays first.



The player that plays first does not draw a card on the first turn of the game.

No maximum hand size.

When the game starts both players draw 5 cards. Draw 1 card at the start of your turn.





1 Kaiju per turn
    You can only call Kaiju on your turn.
1 Nature per turn
    You can play a Nature card at any time.

Kaiju can attack your opponents Kaiju.
Each Kaiju can attack once per turn.
You may use your Kaiju to block attacks directed at your other Kaiju.




Damage stays on Kaiju permanatnly, and can only be removed by card effects.
Only attacking Kaiju deal damage, defending Kaiju do not unless stated otherwise.

To whoever gets 10 or more power on the field first:




Congratulations on amassing the most terrifying army of Kaiju that should have never met in the first place. You are now doomed to a post apocalyptic existance, in which you struggle to survive. You have to live off of the corpses of the lucky ones that were killed by your army of Kaiju. Why would you assemble such a force?! NOBODY NEEDS 10 POWER!

TL;DR: You win. Hope you had fun."



Also, I would suggest printing out 4 of each card that we made for two people and then choose turn by turn which card you want in a 40 card deck.

 We never got to test play this game, so if anyone prints these cards out, please let me know if this game works or if certain rules do not make sense.

If this game actually works well and is fun, perhaps I will try to expand upon it while  making the images better. I couldn't have done this without the help of my partners Justin LaFleche-Tomlin and Ryan McCurdy.






Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Becker Collage's 2013 Game Jam: Part 1

I went to Becker College's 2013 Game Jam this past Saturday. I was invited by Breeze Grigas, a student at Becker College and a friend I met from one of the 24 Hour Comic Book Marathons at the Worcester Art Museum. He has created a tabletop game of his own called Project AEGIS. I had a really good time working on creating a card game in 24 hours with two other people in a group. There were plenty of other things going on since we had access to computers.

My main job was drawing up pictures for the cards after we discussed the rules for the game and how many cards we would require. Our group was assigned to create a card game based on water and Kaiju, Japanese giant monsters. I really enjoyed sketching these creatures. I might even fine tune some of these sketches and use them for my web comic at some point.


Here is a sketch of a phoenix and a alligator and a lobster hybrid.


Here is a sketch of a dragonfly monster with a scorpion tail and tentacles as well as a beast I refer to as the Jersey Devil.


Here's a sketch of a giant robot and a snail monster.


Here's a sketch of a twisted version of a Venus fly trap and a slime monster.

  

Here's a sketch of a Kraken and a hydra. I based the Kraken mainly on a sperm whale and I gave the hydra a turtle shell.

 Here is a sketch of a bee, a fish, a clam, and a seahorse. They all have some strange aspects about them, but I considered these the smallest creatures for the game.
These were sketches for certain affect cards in the game.


Here's a sketch of a cybernetic shark and a sting ray spliced with an octopus.


Here's more sketches for certain affect cards in the game.

There was some food brought for everyone participating, though many people brought extra knowing the food would only last a while. People took naps whenever they could.

This was one of the most experiences I have had in a while where I had been able to run off of about 3 hours of sleep.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Page 75 of Zheph Skyre & Portfolio Update

I have uploaded the next page of Zheph Skyre, but the latest page of this web comic have had a lot of detail and I have been very busy lately with the 24 Hour Game Jam and organizing a vending table for Anime Boston. That means that this page has no color currently and no text. I will fix these details as soon as possible.


I have managed to upload my latest two designs to my portfolio page, but I have lost the links to my store in the process. I will try to fix that too.

Monday, April 8, 2013

An Ideal Husband

I went with my mother to see the theatrical performance of "An Ideal Husband" at the Cannon Theater in Littleton, Massachusetts this past Thursday. In this comedic stage play, written by Oscar Wilde, a coworker of mine from the Worcester Art Museum, Sonya Richards, had a major roll in the cast as Mabell Chiltern. She brought her bizarre yet charismatic humor to the character. The next performance of hers will be in Shakespeare's Othello.

(This image is from http://www.thecannontheatre.com/an-ideal-husband.html)

The cast, crew, and everyone else involved did a wonderful job with this play. Honestly there were not as many laughs as quite a few plays that I have been to due to the wealthy English humor associated from Wilde's time period, it seemed odd for there to be three intermissions instead of one, and it seemed odd to have one random performance on a Thursday instead of the weekend. However, the actors did a really awesome job at portraying these sophisticated English gentlemen and ladies, the sets were surprisingly well made, and the costumes were stunning. As for the story itself, I preferred the last two acts. There seemed to be much more going on within the plot in the second half.

In the end, I suggest checking out this small theater if you ever find yourself in the area. The price is a bit high, but it is worth it if you enjoy the theatrical arts.

Friday, April 5, 2013

Page 73 and 74 of Zheph Skyre

 I have uploaded page 73 and 74 of Zheph Skyre, and I have also updated the archive page.


Here we see Zheph is very nervous and tries to back out of this sparring match, but Vanessa brings up the point that they both require practice. It does not sound like Zheph is doing too well in this duel though...


Zheph leaves Vanessa's bitterly with more aches, but why is he in the slums? Does he live there? Is it even safe for him?

Last night I went to see the play "An Ideal Husband" at the Cannon Theater. Tonight I will be participating in the 24 Hour Becker College Game Jam. I will explain more about both of these events next week.