So I downloaded Blender and the scripts and whatnot that was required for exporting to Uru’s .PRP files. It took me a couple of weeks to get the hang of building, and a little longer to get the hang of texturing down, but since then I’ve been working on and off on several “Ages” (environments).

One of which is an arctic village called Lehns, I figured I’d share some of the hastily drawn concept art for those of you who are interested.

This was the original concept that started it all off, the environment was going to be a vast grassy plain with tall columns of rock with lines of flags on them.

As the concept of the environment swirled around in my head I started to flesh out the backstory for the location, adding new concepts and expanding the location so that in the future it would involve a village.

The initial test build was exported to the game where I discovered that the grass land was not sitting right with me, which thankfully fit right in with the changes in direction I wanted to take the location for the story involved, as a result the location became an arctic environment.

The inhabitants of the environment were very spiritual, the stones (large and small) that littered the initial location were representations of their ancestors, these ancestors were watched over by what they called “The Great Watcher”. A large fractured crystal that had been carved hundreds of years previously to form a primitive facial feature.

The inhabitants lived off of the sea, what they caught in the waters they would use every single part of it, for building boats, houses, clothing, food. The above image depicts a painted version of the Great Watcher, the paint is derived from the animals they catch in the seas.

And finally, an old view taken from within the Uru game;

Anyway, just a few concepts from Lehns, both visual and textural, when the environment is released it will continue a lot more information regarding the backstory but I’d rather let people read it in game than spoil it with a blog post.

I’m curious if anyone is interested in more concept posts like this with other content I am working on, what do you think?

I don’t feel this one was as successful as the the previous one I did of Jen’s Night Elf, I’m not sure what it is about it that doesn’t sit right with me, I have a feeling it is the head again.

Perhaps the lines are not thick enough, I know I had to beef them up a bit on Jen’s picture.

Course it may look better when printed out, we printed out the other one the other day and it came out very nicely, if not I think I may have to go back and tweak the face a little more until I am happy with it.

So this afternoon I sat down and proceeded to try forming one of them.

I wanted to go for a different style than I am used to, and I’m not 100% convinced it worked out, I like how the shoulders and arms worked, but I think I over did the shading and highlights on the body. As for the face, I had a lot of issues with that from sizing to it being a little to wide in the cheeks.

I also think the pose is a little too rigid, the other idea I had for a piece is a lot more dynamic so I think I may try that one next time.

But it was the DS that was a first purchase, and I have enjoyed some of the quirky little game mechanisms that the DS presented (like blowing into the mic to get a fire started in Lost in Blue 2 etc).

Whilst like many others I got hung up on the Wii’s name back in the day, I have since gotten over it and embraced the continued quirky gameplay mechanics that Nintendo have been using for their newer products. So the other week whilst we were out getting the weekly shopping done we noticed that Walmart actually had some Wii’s in stock thus we promptly picked one up along with Animal Crossing City Folk, Mario Kart Double Dash as well as an extra controller.

It came with Wii Sports so we tried that out first, found it a little strange swinging my arms around like a mad man whilst playing the bowling/tennis/baseball games, and the day after I was paying for it as the muscles I don’t usually use were killing me.

Pain aside there is something more inherently enjoyable with how the Wii is played than say playing on the Playstation 2, more engaging, more immersible. Whilst bowling is not a game I’d like to be immersed in I am interested in seeing how it plays out with games that I would like to be.

Of course now I have to get used to playing Animal Crossing on a larger screen, and re-cement myself as King of my town (it takes time training all the villagers to greet me with “Hail Lord Tweek”, no I don’t have megalomania thanks).

Thankfully the Visa was approved and everything was a go.

Next couple of weeks were spent rushing around packing things up and then I flew out to the US to finally see Jen and the kids again. The following week my good friend Thomas flew out followed by my mother and sister (unfortunately my father couldn’t join us in time).

On the 24th, after almost 6 years of being together myself and Jen finally got married.

We just has a short, small ceremony at the house (which has apparently seen 2 other people married in it in its history) with a few family and friends.

I have now placed photos of the day up, there are a couple of movies that Tom took with his camera which I shall put up too.

• Wedding Photos

My Nan was one of these people, each year she would get one of those gifts, be it socks or perhaps a pack of handkerchiefs.

But the thing is, I never minded it, in fact I actually appreciated it a lot because I always find myself needing socks and handkerchiefs. Alas my Nan passed away earlier this year, so unfortunately no socks from her.

We joke about it a lot, my parents and I, not in a mean way, it is just another one of those things about Nan we miss (like my being woken up Sunday morning with her laughing hysterically at something when she is over for Sunday dinner).

This year I was pleased to find I had socks under the tree yet again, this time they were from my grandmother on my mothers side of the family.

You can never have to many socks, especially if your wife to be insists on stealing them all the time.

Merry Christmas all.

So I decided to use the brush I had made of a Unicorn for when I was designing her blog and used that. After completing the initial version I found a few elements that I wasn’t happy with so proceeded to fine tune them so to speak.

It turned out pretty nicely in my opinion, there are a few things I’m not keen on but that is usually the case.

However because not everyone is into Unicorns I made a few modifications, namely removed the horn to make it a horse and called it a “Space Pwnie” thus sent it out for my fellow friends to enjoy.

I have since made a few more wallpapers of it in various sizes and added them to this entry for people to download if they so wish, enjoy.

• 800×600 Wallpaper
• 1024×768 Wallpaper
• 1440×900 Wallpaper
• 1600×1200 Wallpaper

So I updated Grey Skies with it to check out the new features that have been added and decided to post my initial interaction with it.

The Dashboard has been reorganized, with the Admin CP sporting a sidebar navigation. A lot of the fat has been trimmed with the news posts being reduced and no longer taking up a chunk of the page.

The “Right Now” box provides a quick glance over comments, how many pages and posts you have and provide a quick link to those sections.

I also like the movable and collapsible boxes, which can also be deactivated via the “Screen Options” tab at the top of the pages.

This mechanism is constant throughout the various areas of the CP which means I can tailor the pages for adding new Posts and Pages to what suits me best. Something I found with 2.5 was they had moved sections I used a lot under the posting box which resulted in most of my time being spent scrolling up and down the page.

So far I really like what I see, aside from a few issues (rounded corners on various buttons being broken) that is. Of course I now need to relearn where everything is, but that isn’t a problem.

This problem is a big case of being burned out.

Year ago I used to love painting, it wasn’t about what I painted it was the act itself that I enjoyed. Don’t get me wrong I liked trying new techniques out, experimenting with colours and concepts, but it was the actual painting that was at the core of it all.
Over the years I grew disinterested in the Art scene, I found most of it to be tiresome, pretentious and quite frankly, full of crap.

I put down the paintbrush and it has been many years since I have picked it up again, I moved on utilizing the interest I had in graphic design and illustration which in turn lead me into web design.
But I still find myself yearning for the days of old where I enjoyed painting, enjoyed art, so I have been looking over my old work trying to find that spark to fuel.

I found one of the pieces where I had started experimenting with colour and found myself pondering expanding on it albeit in a digital format.

Despite being stupidly busy at the moment with all the Visa a moving issues, it is definitely something I have and shall continue to look into, thus far it lead me to this creating this piece called iRIS;

Hopefully I can get over this burnout and find the spark I’ve been missing for so long.

Across Azeroth a plague spread, those who succumbed and fell to it found themselves risen up again and starting to hunger for human flesh.

Yes, last night during one of the World of Warcraft holidays, a world event kicked off in preperation for the coming expansion Wrath of the Lich King.

Down in the port town of Booty Bay players can find corrupted cargo which when opened infects the player with a plague. They have 10 minutes to seek out an Argent Dawn Healer, or another player who can cure (Priests, Paladins etc). Failure to do so results in the player dying and returning as a zombie, all of the old spells and attacks are replaced with special zombie attacks like being able to cause yourself to explode and infect anyone near you, or lay down a cloud of plague fog which again infects others.

As it stands if you are infected you can infect others by dueling them if you are still alive, if you are dead you can attack them, kill them and they then turn, or you can lay down plague fog or make yourself explode. When you become a zombie you are an enemy with all non zombies, even your own faction, all other zombies are friendly regardless of whether they are Horde or Alliance, the zombies will also have their own language which can be understood by Horde and Alliance zombies.

Last night at the start it was easy for other players to cure those who were infected, but it is getting harder and harder and at some point containing it will not be easy resulting in a huge increase in zombies.

Last night I spent a lot of time in Westfall, or Lichrise as I decided to rename it after we washed over it like a giant undead wave. People ran to us, to fight us and were in turn taken into our fold, Inn keepers and workers cried out for guards as they feel into undeath and joined the ranks, the guards themselves fell to our army.

Alas as quick as we were to rise the Alliance arrived with healers and the zombie army was quashed, Lichrise returned to being Westfall and the war was over.

Or was it?

The odd zombie still roamed, infecting others, and slowly the ranks grew again and Westfall was stormed once again.

Definitely one of the best world events I have taken place in, it is going to be interesting when the ranks swell as the plague is harder to fight. However I can see it annoying people as NPC ’s fall to the onslaught of the war.