Weapon of Mass Imagination

Transformers Ripoff #37

2012-02-01T11:04:00.003+08:00

Transformative King
Sadly I once again got chased away from these (a common ending to Transformer hunting in China), but in good news there wasn't much English on them apart from the title board.

A sample of the lower robots. They all only had their name (if that) in English.

Transformers Ripoff #36

2012-02-01T11:02:00.001+08:00

Armourrakker

Transformers Ripoff #35

2012-02-01T10:57:00.002+08:00

Transformable A "Deluxe Class" of the "New Arrival" series and is of course "The Latest Film Version".

Transformers Ripoff #34

2012-02-01T10:35:00.002+08:00

Taikongshenrs

So this fellow has a "Mcthcest Weapon System" and is "Biggest Power Robot Toy".

Sadly I was very aggressively chased away from this stall. So I only got the two shots of a possible 3-4. You'll note the figure underneath has an equally keyboard mashed set of text including the title "Traesfnrmors" who has a "Mcehtceh Weapon System"

I did manage to snap this from a distance before the vendor spotted me again. Here we see THIS ripoff sports a "Menglie Weapon System".

In all seriousness I think this particular vendor was very dodgey (and his wares support my hunch). I've been shooed away before , but this guy had an air of true violent aggression had he managed to catch me. Otherwise I would have risked a second go. So unfortunantely you'll just have to enjoy this sample of what seemed a gold mine...

Transformers Ripoff #33

2012-02-01T10:32:00.001+08:00

Warlords Botos He is an "Intermediate Level 3" on top of it all.

Transformers Ripoff #32

2012-02-01T10:29:00.001+08:00

Collect Them All

Transformers Ripoff #31

2012-02-01T10:27:00.002+08:00

Change Robots III Change Opeman from the New Arrival Series.

Transformers Ripoff #30

2012-02-01T10:25:00.001+08:00

Hero 2 Star Soldier

Transformers Ripoff #29

2012-02-01T10:21:00.002+08:00

Super Change Robot

Transformers Ripoff # 28

2012-02-01T10:18:00.002+08:00

Court Deformation Change Ball God

Prepare for his "Shock Debut". He really "come together". Though do be aware that "specifications colours and contents may vary from illustrations".

Transformers Ripoff #27

2012-02-01T10:15:00.001+08:00

Super Warrior Warlords Robot Stealth Fighter

Transformers Ripoff #26

2012-02-01T10:11:00.002+08:00

The Warrior Hero
From the Shinkansen Line.

What is hard to appreciate from this photo (I had wanted to take more, but I got quite forcibly chased away by the vendor!) is this is basically a Pixar Cars merged with a Transformer. You can see the big toothy smile along the bottom rim of the nose.

More Transformer Ripoffs!

2012-01-30T10:03:00.004+08:00

I have just returned from a weekend trip to China, and boy what a productive trip when it came to discovering Transformer knock offs! So get ready for a whole bunch more already...

Your first taste of it are these oddly themed battle robots (pun intended with the use of taste). These are apparently from a legitimate Chinese cartoon series. Everything else in this particular high end toy store were authentic (especially the many Transformer toys sadly), so I'll left to conclude these must be from something real and popular.

First up is the Fruit Combo Defender (though it really should have been the Fruit Salad Defender ;P)

My arch nemesis the Pineapple Slasher (I'm allergic to Pineapple)

The Mandarine Beserker

Apple Twin Guns

and Turbo Grape...

So pop in hopefully tomorrowish for a whole bunch more proper true Transformer counterfeits. A few are hilarious in totally brand new ways!

Transfomers Ripoff #25

2012-01-26T22:02:00.005+08:00

Variety King Kong... I kid you not that is what he is called! My other gem from last night...

That brings to a wrap, for now, all the Transformer ripoff toys I've encountered. However I'm sure there are more for me to find. So I'll post them as I find them.

I'm also trying to get back on track with regular Hong Kong/China posts. I think I'll aim for a daily post, but not till next week (the inlaws are visiting at the moment).

Transformers Ripoff #24

2012-01-26T22:00:00.001+08:00

The Ultimate Series... and it really is the ultimate of Ripoffs!!!

I came across this beauty in China (though have since found it in Hong Kong). It combines all the best of the other ripoffs from before.

It is an Interchange that has "Superheroes Weapon System" and is the "Ultimate Deformation Version".

Transformers Ripoff #23

2012-01-26T21:58:00.002+08:00

Hundred Changes Jin Gang

He is a "New Influence" and also "Bingtianwang". Jin Gang also helps "By developing intelligence, and inspiring potential, to make children grow up with happiness."

Transformers Ripoff #22

2012-01-26T21:57:00.000+08:00

Warlords Robot

Transformers Ripoff #21

2012-01-26T21:53:00.002+08:00

(My new favorite which I discovered only just last night! Showing that even as I come close to posting all my current finds, that there are bound to be many more out for me to discover in the future!)

Fresh Dinobot Including the ever famous Tyranno Bot, Bronto Bot, Stego Bot, and of course Tritop Bot.

Transformers Ripoff #20

2012-01-26T21:50:00.002+08:00

Animal Roibot

Made up of Puma Bot, Eagle Bot, Bull Bot, and Lion Bot...

Transformer Ripoff #19

2012-01-26T21:47:00.001+08:00

Intelligence Warrior

Transformer Ripoff #18

2012-01-26T21:45:00.001+08:00

Steel Divine

Transformers Ripoff #17

2012-01-26T21:43:00.001+08:00

Slusher Car

Transformers Ripoff #16

2012-01-26T21:38:00.001+08:00

Warlords Robot
Not only is he a super warrior but also one of the many "superheroes".

Transformers Ripoff #15

2012-01-26T21:35:00.001+08:00

Super Hero Change Robot

Transformers Ripoff #14

2012-01-26T21:15:00.003+08:00

Change Robots
This is another of the Chariot Missile titled toys and it always causes me to laugh. He is also one of the Warlords.

Transformers Ripoff #13

2012-01-26T21:02:00.003+08:00

Transformable Tomas... I think they mean Thomas

I know I'm not the first to post this, but it is pure awesomeness!

I even love how on the back art the various engines spit out fire as they go!

Transformer Ripoff # 12

2012-01-26T21:00:00.002+08:00

One of our all time favourite Transformer Ripoffs... The Distortion Bus!!!

You'll note as per his chest is is ALSO a Super Bus in addition to a distorting one!

Transformer Ripoff #11

2012-01-26T20:57:00.001+08:00

Erectorbot

This one can be misread in a funny way. Included in their number are Tri Lorry and Rabbler.

Transformers Ripoff #10

2012-01-26T20:48:00.003+08:00

A Modern Design He is not only a Machine Robo Rescue but a Super Century Design who is playing the New Powerful Game

Transformers Ripoff #9

2012-01-26T20:46:00.000+08:00

A Wiser Beserker Super Robot

Transformers Ripoffs #8

2012-01-26T20:44:00.000+08:00

Transbotix

Transformers Ripoff #7

2012-01-26T20:43:00.002+08:00

A Street Trooper... the transformering battle robot car kind

Transformers Ripoff #6

2012-01-26T20:36:00.001+08:00

The Deformation from the hit film Deformation III!!!

One of my absolute favourite ripoffs. I howling for the rest of the day with this one...

Transformers Ripoff #5

2012-01-26T20:32:00.000+08:00

Warlords Botos

Transformer Ripoffs #3

2012-01-26T18:43:00.003+08:00

Title: Super Change Robot

Transformer Ripoffs #4

2012-01-26T14:16:00.001+08:00

The Interchange This was actually technically the first transformer ripoff I ever encountered. It knocked me on my back with laughter... Just sing it "The Interchanges merging before your eyes"

Refocusing

2012-01-20T10:37:00.002+08:00

So if push came to shove I could submit my current feathered Dinosaur piece to the ART Evolved gallery as it stands right now. However it is not quite finished to my satisfaction.

One thing pointed out by David and Matt is that my camouflaged Gorgosaurus are so well camouflaged they pseudo blend into the background.

I have tried a few things to fix this. Sadly to no avail.

The first was trying different depths of view. Sadly this hasn't worked out well due to the controls on Carrara's tool for this and the scale I built this scene at (which is more my fault than Carrara. I need to remember to build things on a real world scale so they match normally).

Here the camera is focused on the Troodon.

Here it is focused on the Albertosaur.

Yet this still doesn't really help truly pop the Gorgosaur out at all.

My other solution has been a light blue mist. This has helped, but only with the tree line and not the shrubs at mid level in the picture.

So probably tinker more in this department.

Next I wish to populate this pic with some more smaller feathered theropods. Probably another Troodon or two, and some others...

Stand by.

Flip Flop

2012-01-12T18:22:00.003+08:00

Managed to get in some more tinkering this week, and my feathered Dinosaur piece is nearly at the point of completion. There certainly are some teaks to be made, but overall I'm getting quite happy with the piece.

As I've got the majority of the difficult terrain and environmental work done I'm thinking about a second set of feathered theropods. I am aiming for a more simply colour scheme on them (which will reduce the number of feather replicators needed). I'm thinking Hesperonychus, but any other suggestions for Dinosaur Park era critters who'd scavenge from a Ceratopsian corpse are welcome.

Here is the piece, and apart from some branches and bigger twigs I feel this one could go up as it (with a bit more picture in frame in front of the Troodon).

Just to test the composition I mirrored it, and found I actually perfer it this way.

Thoughts or comments?

Lighten Up

2012-01-09T11:09:00.004+08:00

Having looked into the qualities of the "magic hour" as David and Matt called it, I've decided to go with my sun higher up in the sky. I didn't realize till now just how little variation there is in the angle between "normal" daylight and the more drastic lighting effects of sunrise and sunset.

My sunlight was originally only set at a 38 degree angle (with zero degrees having the light pointing straight down at the ground from a noon sky position). It surprises me that at this relatively limited rotation I produced such a distinct part of the daily lighting cycle. I would have expected this effect at more around 50-60 degrees. In my reading though 50-60 is in the later sunset or rise part of the day...

I guess being from the prairies I have a slightly distorted sense of landscapes. In most places there are hills, plants, buildings, and/or mountains (which in fairness I'm used to the Rockies effecting sunsets in Calgary!) so the true 90 degrees is never going to happen. Mind you I come from one of those weird places that (at least for sunrise) an 70-80 degree emergence of the sun is possible. This last observation is mostly pointless other than I've expanded my lighting horizons (pun unintended :P). Cretaceous Alberta would have had a similar sunrise situation to its east due to the the inland sea... oceans being the one place I think of with a nearly 90 degree sun emergence event horizon.

So here is the new lighting scheme. Overall I actually like it more anyways. I'll have to do some work on the corpses shaders to better capture this lighting scheme. Also a few teaks to the gorging Gorgosaurus (in particular his arms).

While the old lighting scheme adds some mystery to the corpse, it also obscures it and the eating Gorgosaurus. So I think I'll be going with the new lighting scheme.

Thoughts or comments?

Mark My Lighting

2012-01-05T13:10:00.003+08:00

Okay though still in rough form, I'm ready for some hard feedback on the new lighting scheme.

I have added my first ever secondary sky lights, proper bounce light, and rim lighting to all the following Dinosaurs.

The environment (the water in particular) needs some more work. So this is just the Dinosaurs and their effective lighting byproducts (though I am aware there needs to be a shadow on the water).

The Troodon

Chasing Gorgosaurus

Feeding Gorgosaurus

The rough layout of the final will be this (though I'm thinking about playing with field of depth on the camera later)

Thoughts? Feedback?

Matt and David in particular feel free to let the honesty flow. I'm new at this, and don't want to get in bad habits right out of the gate.

Another Feathered Dinosaur

2012-01-02T20:17:00.003+08:00

Since I am hoping the Feathered Dinosaur "relaunch" gallery at ART Evolved will be a big event I want to go all out on my piece (possibly pieces). As of such I need some additional feathered Dinosaurs.

I don't have the time to model anything new (my Xmas break ends today :( ), so instead I've just added some feathers to my existing Gorgosaurus.

How do they look?

Transformer Ripoffs #2

2011-12-31T14:05:00.000+08:00

Name: Deformation

Another Optimus figure, whose payoff is all in the title.

Lighting Retry

2011-12-29T16:23:00.003+08:00

So me and Bond have been creating art for nearly hours. We must be getting rusty or something, because neither of us is anywhere near done...

Mind you as we were both trying out new techniques and methods, so while the art isn't done we did make a lot of progress each. In Peter's case figuring out how to use his new tablet in conjunction with his new Photoshop suite.

I on the other hand am making a fresh start on 3D lighting (in addition to the challenges of 3D feathers) with the help of Jeremy Birn's amazing book Digital Lighting and Rendering. This book has given me a good catch up on professional terms and concepts my friends David and Matt have been trying to relay to me for a while.

I've made it through sky and bounce lighting this proto scene and Troodon so far. I need to definitely come at him (and his feathers) with a rim.

Thoughts on this initial prototype. Especially from the lighting crew?

Live Blog 2011 #1

2011-12-29T11:39:00.002+08:00

Working away on my ART Evolved feathered Dinosaur, while talking to Peter Bond.

While we've worked on art while talking together on skype in the past, the new feature of being able to share live screen shots, has massively increased the experience. Not only can we discuss our art, we can take the other through our process. Amazingly fun stuff.

I finished rigging and feathering the Troodon.

However as rigging 100's of individual feathers is slowing things to a near halt I'm tempted to engage in a short side project of "billboard" decal replacements that might let me not slow down.

Transformer Ripoffs #1

2011-12-28T14:27:00.000+08:00

Name: Chenge Rnboes

So kicking off my Transformer toy ripoff series is this unique, but all telling entrant. The toy itself could be passed off as a medium quality Optimus (and smaller bumblebee) figure. However the names and titles instantly give away this particular unit's counterfeit origin.

The title Chenge Rnboes was clearly someone in China smashing a keyboard at random till they got something that vaguely resembled changing robots. While this might sound silly, but it is very common in China.

What endears this one to me is the "alternative title" of Chariot Missile at the top. When spotting this particular model in the toy markets, it is the Missile title I always notice first.

Most of the other Transformers toys I'll be posting have proper english titles, but these can be just as funny as random letters. So stay tuned.

More than meets the eye

2011-12-28T14:25:00.002+08:00

The public transport in Hong Kong is unlike any I've ever seen before. No matter where you want to go, there is a bus and/or train to take you there. Anywhere!

As of such you'll see small 16 passenger buses like this EVERYWHERE... only this one is completely unique. It also makes me wonder how safe I am wandering this city...

For the decipticons have apparently infiltrated the city's infrastructure.

Speaking of infiltrating, all the local toy markets and stores are selling transformer toys that are not quite what they seem. In the spirit of "More than meets the eye" I'll be posting all the Transformer ripoff toys I've been coming across. Some are cute, some are just plain bad, and a few will make you laugh until you cry!!!

Best name wasted on the worst toy!

2011-12-28T14:02:00.003+08:00

I just love the name "Dinosaur Epoch" for a toy series. It'd be even cooler is the first Dino of the line was an Acrocanthosaurus...

They appear to have mispackaged this fellow instead :(

U.W.O.

2011-12-28T13:45:00.005+08:00

Scary events reported in our area, every evening between 6-7pm.

A bright blue object can be seen wheeling its away along the sidewalks...

It can be seen from blocks away...

What is this unidentified wheeling object?

A more honest name for Mickey

2011-12-28T13:42:00.001+08:00

From Lady R's new umbrella purchased at our local mall.

No Empty Success here!!!

2011-12-28T13:37:00.001+08:00

Welcome to the Club

2011-12-28T13:34:00.000+08:00

Bags that Ham it up

2011-12-28T13:28:00.001+08:00

Women's fashion here in Hong Kong are always amusing me and Lady R. These handbags being a definite example of the weird...

Yes that is not only a pig handbag your looking at, but it is made of sparkly beads.

This was a whole store full of such bags too!

Back to the HK style

2011-12-28T13:14:00.002+08:00

Just got back from my Xmas break in mainland China.

Still a little brain dead from semester one at work, I figured it was well about time I got back to funny Hong Kong (and China) photos.

While this first one isn't so funny, it is cool. I have no idea why, but Dinosaur (specifically T-Rex) origami is THE thing to put on print ads. This one is for one of the big banks in HK.

Style is everything

2011-12-22T11:30:00.002+08:00

Semester is over. Leaving me realizing I've been in Hong Kong a while now. I just never had the time to look around and truly absorb that fact. Not that it is freaking me out. I'm just finally taking in the fact I've been here a while.

Anyways so while I have some spare time (sadly not as much as I'd like), I need to sort out some concrete creative objectives. Right now I have any number of options. However I've decided to focus on two.

1. Is my 3D lighting. I finally acquired what is considered the textbook on 3D lighting, and have read half of it. I however have not had time to try out anything discussed within. So that will be my priority. I will use it on my feathered Dino ART Evolved piece.

2. Try and get a bit of an idea how I want my eventual future Traumador project to look. So I'll be playing with styles of rendering like below.

A possible (though not likely) cartoon style.

The original

I'm also planning on finally catching up on all my silly HK discoveries and adventures.

Footing about an Ankylosaur

2011-12-15T22:03:00.002+08:00

Albertonykus was nice enough to alert me to a bunch of papers about Ankylosaur feet and how they apparently look more like Sauropod feet than traditionally rendered.

Sadly the papers were all in technical speak which I can't read effectively enough to be sure of how to draw, and the diagrams only helped me a little bit. Hopefully someone will want to take a crack at them on the Palaeo-art Database once it launches here in the new year.

So I took a leap into the dark, which I sure is wrong.
So attack with feedback science enabled people. Let's get these feet fixed!

Starting to look like an Ankylosaur

2011-12-14T20:41:00.002+08:00

Been toying away on the Minmi. It is finally starting to feel like I might be getting it a bit right.

There is still work to be done, but do let me know what you think. I've only added the bigger scutes to the body itself, not the limbs, and I'm not sure if I need more on the head or not.

Oh well here it is.

I have a big post on Ankylosaurs in art coming up on ART Evolved.

Ankylosaurus, like no living animal

2011-12-06T21:52:00.003+08:00

I'm hitting a very interesting set of issues in recreating my Ankylosaur. That namely being there is nothing even remotely like an Ankylosaur alive today.

At least if the way the three palaeontologists I've talked to about them were accurate (in their defense none were specialists in armoured Dinosaurs). What I gathered was that all the scales of their skin had been hardened to some extent. The more advanced the Ankie the more hard the skin. However this essentially meant the whole (adult) animal was covered in varying sized bones on its hide. A true exoskeleton.

The problem is no reptile today has this type of protection. At least not to the degree and complexity of an Ankyosaur. So how do you reconstruct them?

There seem to a lot of memes and trends in how Ankylosaurs are recreated. I'm collecting various "official", professional, and museum sanctioned Minmi recreations to supplement Peter Bond's original Minmi post on his blog. All the recreations I'm collecting should have had scientist input at some stage, which leads me to hope there was science behind the armour placements. There are a few methods and choices I follow, but others are making me wonder if there are some really rampant Ankie armour memes out there. Standby for a more detailed post on ART Evolved, and possibly reposted here.

At moment I'm just trying to finish the baseline of my Minmi so that I can play next week.

This is the animal completely covered with baseline textures. Thought and comments?

This is the body and legs covered in actual armour objects via a surface replicator (my favourite tool of all time!). I think I need to bring the scutes up on the limbs to about knee level, but otherwise I'm really digging this look so far. That and I'm really starting to like my unique warning colouration scheme. Of all Dinosaurs to be flamboyantly coloured I'm thinking the hard and prickly Ankies were the ones to sport this look!

Thoughts?

Why Ankylosaurs are like onions

2011-12-04T21:39:00.003+08:00

Perhaps my years long battle with 3D feathers has finally paid off...

My new quick and easy method seems to work perfectly fine on armour too. Okay easy yes, sadly the quick part gets taken out with rendering times.

Armour is requiring a few more layers than feathers. Though I may try multiple layers of feathers later to see if it helps them.

First I need a rough colour scheme. I opted for a bright coloured scheme as I see (grownup) Ankyies wanting to warn predators they're not to be messed with. I got this rough pattern by mixing together a few different snakes.

I tried to build initial armour into my standard skin texture. The results as you can see are wanting.

Lucky for me that was but one of many layers. As of layer 2 all is covered up.

This is all still just a texture.

Next I applied physical objects to the skin with a replicator to get actual osteoderms in place.

The first ones were too small, so I came at it with another round of larger ones, which I think do an admirable job.

Thoughts, comments so far?

I HATE armoured Dinosaurs!

2011-12-03T18:50:00.005+08:00

I think if there is one thing I'm good at in my art is always trying new things. In putting together my new portfolio I can't believe how much my techniques and methods have changed and refined in just 2 years!

The only problem with this constant change is I'm always having to relearn and rethink how to do things when I return to them. My wife has once or twice challenged my focus on Dinosaurs in my art, and if their look were remaining static I'd accept. Thing is I'm never doing them the same way more than 3 times (first model of a "mark" is a break through, second model is me hoping I've finally nailed it, the third model ends with me thinking "this looks terrible!"). I'm constantly coming up with new things to try and work on with them... The rest of my modelling is following them quite well.

So while I've conquered feathers for the time being, there are other Saurian qualities to can still cause me no need of trouble. Enter armoured Dinosaurs...

Armoured Dinosaurs provide me with two very annoying problems.

The first is that without my books, finding good references for them is VERY hard! Added to that the actual placement of their armour seems to be a highly subjective matter for us artists.

The second challenge is getting the armour actually on the critter. In my previous models of Scelidosaur and Ankylosaurus I'd used simply body shaders and than surface replicated major armour pieces on the body. While this was good for my older style Dinosaurs, my recent improvements in texturing have meant I will need to completely overhaul how I do armour...

I will try the solution I have used with feathers. However I'm holding some doubts that it will work properly for bony osteoderms.

We'll see.

I'm trying to make a Minmi. Though as it'll be filling in for mostly unknown NZ Ankies I have a bit of artistic licence.

Killer Instinct

2011-12-01T21:46:00.002+08:00

I'm trying to turn my doubts around. So I thought an aggressive Dinosaur would be just the thing to turn the tables.

A generic Carcharodontosaur. It is a retooling of my original NZ theropod. How does the shader look? The digits haven't been reshaded is all.

The anatomy shot for you experts out there.

The plan is to do a spread of generic versions of all the potential candidates for NZ's little known theropods. I'm planning on an Abelisaur, Spinosaur, and an Australovenator like animal. Are there any other Gondwannan animals or groups I'm missing (I might do a Tyrannosaur too due to the possible Tyrannosaurid bone found in 2009)?

Decaying results

2011-11-30T21:47:00.002+08:00

One of my procrastination projects at work is to tinker further with my Dinosaur corpse.

I've toned done the blood into dark tones, and smeared it around a lot more.

I also played with a possible means of creating footprints. My only hesitation is that these footprints are 2D effects I painted on with photoshop. Are they effective? They are not the final anatomy, wait on that sort of feedback.
Thoughts comments?

Cheeky Hypie

2011-11-30T21:36:00.003+08:00

Got a lot more work on the Hypsilophodont done. Mostly on its mouth, and a new method of cheeks.

I'm also quite fond of my new beaking method.

Thoughts, comments?

Ironic Timing

2011-11-29T21:49:00.002+08:00

So today is a pretty huge day for my long time palaeo-friend Peter Bond. He just had his first legitimate palaeo-art publication with his illustrating our mutual ex-Tyrrell friend Caleb Brown's description of a new species of Thescelosaurus.

This makes Peter the first of the two of us to achieve legitimate Palaeo-artist status. I'm very happy for him.

This however has done a sever number on my self esteem today. Not due to Peter's publication directly, more his tactics and resulting success compared to my own. There is an implication about my own art I can not help avoid detecting.

Whereas I've been proactively canvasing and approaching scientists in a hope of finding an interested party to create art for, Peter simply posted his stuff on ART Evolved and our friend Caleb approached him. So in Peter's case who he knew was as useful as having the art they wanted. In my case I've had every one of my contacts refuse or reject me (in one case mid art creation). Leaving me to ponder does my art suck?

I can not be sure. I know as a matter of fact this year has seen my art ascend to the next level. If even just accidentally. Whenever I open any of my pre 2011 models I immediately have to embark on a major overhaul of them as they are not up to my current abilities.

So in all honesty I may not have been up to the big league standard until now. The question is am I there yet?

I'm also questioning whether approaching people I know is the way to go. My only current hopes lay in essentially strangers (who I approached for totally non-art reasons initially).

So here is to Peter, and may this be the beginning of a brilliant hobby career! Now I just need to sort out my own $h!t...

Ironically I'd started retooling my Leaellynasaura model on the weekend while talking to Bond, which is basically a Thescelosaurus. So I guess I'll call it a tribute to Peter.

In reality its a WIP, so thoughts would be welcome. I can use this for both my New Zealand Palaeo and Traumador books (as I have a CSIish case for Traum Cretaceous NZ)

Need some focus

2011-11-27T21:57:00.005+08:00

At moment I find myself in something of a tailspin creatively.

To help me better focus I'm opening up the floor to outside suggestions. I'm feeling a book or similar project might help me. I seem to thrive better when I have an end product to strive for (in the past Traum or AE galleries have done me wonders).

I could:

1. Work on creating a kid's book format for Traumador. I have a few ideas. My most favourite is working Traum and cast into something of a fossil CSI spoof where he must travel through time to solve weird fossil site mysteries.

2. Work on a series of short articles or possible short book about New Zealand palaeo. Their literacy program requires many new books and articles each year. While it will never be a best seller it'll be good practise for me, and I'll talking about something I know and love quite well. With a possible side benefit of inspiring the next possible wave of kiwi palaentologists!

3. I have an idea for a book/story set in Cretaceous Dinosaur Park Alberta. This one's my most ambitious. While it could be years off, I'll definitely have some goals and hurdles to over come to complete it.

4. I can just tinker and bounce around like I am now on misc portfolio pieces and ART Evolved galleries as they come up. I'm not sure this is the best for me, but people with more experience on trying things like books might have cautions for me...

I put up a poll on the right sidebar for quick input. Though I'd certainly welcome more detailed feedback in the comment section.

Cheers.

More Hong Kong craziness this week. Promise!

Soundtracks: YouTube is an album's friend!

2011-11-24T16:51:00.004+08:00

A short request to record labels and companies.

Do NOT take full albums of your music off YouTube or other online video forums.

You're shutting down a new and unique advertising platform for your product, and not really stopping the "illegal" distribution problem you're seeking to address.

In the past two years I've taken to previewing potential soundtrack purchases by listening to the whole thing on YouTube. It is the perfect venue for encouraging me to purchase music. I can hear ALL of the music to ensure I want it (as opposed to the 30-60 second sample snippets offered on traditional preview sites), but yet not have it convenient enough for me to listen to the way I want. I can't download it properly. I can't listen to it without internet access. It suffers some major quality degradation. It is prone to net failure or lag.

So once I'm hooked on an album from Youtube I HAVE to buy it.

So far I have purchased some 20 CD's in the past 2ish years using this strategy. Of these, I might very well not have purchased 15 of otherwise. Yes I have previewed more than this, but I was never going to buy them without a preview anyways. That means out of say 100 albums I listened to the 20 I bought more than half were because I knew I liked what I was buying. Had I not had Youtube to listen further, I'd have only bought 5-7 of these 20. That is 1/4 the profit for the music industry.

Taking the album off Youtube doesn't stop the piracy of this music anyways. Youtube was never the venue for illegally exchanging the music. Those serious about pirating the music are not going to be detoured by this, and will use the real means of piracy elsewhere. Those are the sites you should engage.

I on the other hand purchase music that is available (limited edition music being another case) if I know I like it. Youtube gives you, the music companies, a new relatively safe means for letting me preview an album before a potential purchase. Remove this certainty about your product, and I won't buy it.

How is encouraging customers bad for business? The pirates will do their thing regardless. Taking music off Youtube only hurts your sales...

Soundtracks: Limiting the profit on limited edition albums.

2011-11-24T15:26:00.005+08:00

I'm trying to figure out if movie soundtrack labels have perfected their market, or are simply extraordinarily lucky to not be out of business.

In this age of digital music commerce and easier than ever piracy how can limited edition releases honestly help the industry?

That's right, soundtrack specialist labels still engage in the pre 2000's strategy of releasing rare soundtracks in a mere 3000 disc runs. Back in the day I can see this vaguely making sense. Albums were harder to produce and distribute. It was easier to simple limit the release and make interested parties come to you. This system also helped create the collectors mentality that many soundtrack enthusiasts older than myself tend to have. So it built in loyal costumers.

The thing is the times they have changed. I'm really confused as to how this practise has not.

While I understand that increasing the physical production of albums will hurt this collector niche market, releasing the musical in digital form for sale can't be anything but good for business.

My reasoning, classic collectors covet the physical product. They want the case, the cover art, and nice shiny compact disc. It goes well in their shelves full of other such albums. So long as the album you sold them is only one of 2999 other such items they are happy knowing they possess their one share.

However the rest of us don't really care about the collectibility. If you're like me, you don't care about the case or collectibility of the CD. Hell, I don't care about the CD. I just want the music, and I'm willing to pay. If I was given a venue to purchase the music I'd do so in a heartbeat. As that is not currently the case the industry is limiting itself severely by only allowing 3000 transactions on a particular album.

The thing is they are REALLY losing out, by not offering a digital option for non-collectors. The biggest lose is in the resale of these albums on secondary markets of the modern internet age. Many of the hottest limited release albums are bought in bulk by online traders, who once an album has sold out resell them on Ebay and the like for immensely inflated prices. Meaning not only is the label not making money on these further album sales, but a totally non-related party is profiting more so on their scarcity. This form of commerce parasitism is further evidence that the labels are still living in the 90's. Ebay is not new, and clearly the labels must have noticed some of their limited edition discs going for literally $100's after their out of stock.

This increase in price, and just the difficulty in acquiring the disc in the first place has lead to piracy being one of the only venues to get this music. While still technically illegal, I suspect the label will have a much harder job prosecuting the illegal distribution on a product they themselves no longer distribute themselves. The biggest form of legal action is the lose of revenue, and if your not still selling it we're not hurting your business.

The only pro limited edition argument I've seen presented by collectors (not the labels directly) is that digital releases would lead to the risk of counterfeit albums. How is this not a danger in this age anyways? Seriously if I can find this for download, so could a counterfeiter. If you're really concerned about the legitimacy of an album just make sure you buy one of those 3000 directly from the label.

Digital versions of the music won't devalue the collector's market, as it is the physical object that is collectible in this information era not the content. Like it or not through piracy the genie is out of the bottle one way or the other. Everyone should just accept it, and instead of fighting reality adapt to it make more money off people like me, and thus help the legitimate sale and production of soundtrack music albums by giving the companies more income to acquire more rights and thus increase their sales again!

The 90's are way behind us. Time to catch up soundtrack people!

Lunch is served

2011-11-19T21:55:00.005+08:00

Tinkering away on things in the background.

I'm coming to grips and with much more limited free time than I used to in my substitute teaching days. I miss that job for a lot of reasons, but the biggest one was the ability to leave school at the end of the day and not worry about anything till the next bell rang. I'm certain there'll be things I find equally rewarding in normal teaching. Time to focus on art is not one of them.

Still I'm coping, and getting in work where I can.

The last few nights I've been working on something for my feathered Dinosaurs to munch on.

Enter the partially eaten remains of my Styracosaurus. It's by no means finished, but I think it is off to a promising start.

Quick test with it in the possible environment. I have plans for this scene. Oh I have plans ;)

More Set Play

2011-11-15T10:19:00.002+08:00

Starting to tinker with yet another environment setting. This time for my feathered Dinosaurs to exist in.

While I'm not done, I think I've started to get the rough construction of an environment down pretty good. This is passable as is. Though I do intend on doing a LOT more work on it.

Comments thoughts. Especially from the lighting think tank. I'm thinking a sunset once this is set up a bit more.

A Chinese Resturant in China... Really?

2011-11-13T15:23:00.002+08:00

A direction sign in a train station. Though it was a bit of a let down when it turned out the resturant was called "Chinese Resturant". I still post it for the amusing factor of my inital encounter with it.

They believe in quality control here...

2011-11-13T15:18:00.001+08:00

You can order it assured it is very good!

Yet another misspelling nickname

2011-11-13T15:07:00.002+08:00

So I have more nicknames from the past 12 years than I can actually remember.

However one subgenre of my nicknames that have always boggled my mind, a bit, are people misspelling or mispronouncing my (apparently very difficult) name. Among these are Craf (misspelled by my roommate thinking she'd found it in the dots on our roof) and Crang (misprounced by the same roommate announcing my name to our coworkers at the Tyrrell).

Now a Hong Kong starbucks employee has given me a new one!

Earthshaking Pizza

2011-11-13T14:58:00.002+08:00

Love this name for a pizza parlour. Havn't eaten there yet. It has the worst location imaginable... Right in the middle of TST beside so many other fantastic and tasty restaurants. If this was a local joint I'd try it out, but being 45 minutes away I'd rather eat at the western style places on either sides or across the street from it.

Local Elections

2011-11-13T14:15:00.003+08:00

For the last two months the local Hong Kong election has been building up around us. At first it was just bill boards and the odd person handing out pamphlets. However entering late October the vigour picked up substantially.

To the point that every major mall or living complex had a camp full of canvassers outside in your face with their candidate. This is right outside my front door... for two whole weeks (one of the challenges of living in a complex with over 3000 apartments. Yes you read that right. There are over 3000 apartments in my complex.)

My favourite was the ramp up to the actual election last weekend. Where we had random parades (at some points yelling at each other when they ran into each other). Note the candidate at the front wearing the sash. They all wear them sashes boy and girl.

Electrifying Church

2011-11-13T14:04:00.003+08:00

Funny how a graphic of lighting and slightly off synonym of lighting can make for a funny sign. All I have to say that is one heck of a sparkle on this sign...

Best Pharmacy Names

2011-11-13T13:55:00.002+08:00

Trying to figure out if the owner of this one likes soccer or not... Otherwise he's definately got himself together.

Of course you've heard of this one, even if your from Coruscant or Romulus. What with it being universal and all.

Feather progress

2011-11-11T13:31:00.005+08:00

I think I've got base feathers down pretty solid these days.

While it is time consuming to render I've got my work flow on the feather base coat and over coats to near clock work. Apart from the odd replicator malfunction I can feather a body part every 40-60 minutes (with most of that being rendering time).

Undercoat.

Overcoat.

Feathers beyond the coats may be another story. How do these primary feathers look beyond placement (which frankly I'm not worried about as we don't know where the feathers on Troodon were).

The digits aren't finished either. I'm debating whether the fingers should be feathered or not too. The toes won't so I can play with my new scaling trick there.

Thoughts or input? (Okay including primary feather placement... Albertonykus :P)

Another stab at Troodon

2011-11-06T21:19:00.002+08:00

Considering how long I've been trying to get a formal Troodon together, I thought it would be the ideal subject for ART Evolved's Feathered Dinosaur gallery in the new year.

I had always planned on bringing Zendin the Troodon back into Traumador's life in a big way (though this effort to rebuild the Troodon model into a Mark 7 model is once again demonstrating the death of the Tyrannosaur Chronicles... this has taken me a week so far, and its only half done. The finale of New Zealand was going to require at least half a dozen new feathered theropods... Though I'm wondering about a point form finale just to wrap up the current loose ends, and because I have some great photo plates).

So here is a half finished Troodon. Let me know your thoughts. The arms and legs have not been touched at all in this new effort.

Little Marmot in the big city...

2011-11-06T16:41:00.002+08:00

We're not the only ones enjoying Hong Kong.

Our Marmot sidekick Mukmuk has been having a good time too.

Mind you we're not 100% certain what he gets up to while we're out of the house...

Out on the town

2011-11-06T16:13:00.002+08:00

Action shot of my trolley or Tuiche 推车 in action.

Man that is a tall, pale, and fashionably old lady... Oh wait its me. Though that's a nice pickup 推车 I'm using to hail my groceries.

Most random lobby decoration

2011-11-06T16:06:00.003+08:00

So while walking through Tsim Sha Tsui (TST as call it here in the good old HK) I randomly spotted out of the corner of my eye the most unexpected and awesome statue in the lobby of an office tower we were walking past.

I had to run in and snap a photo (though I was chased out by security)
The honest to goodness Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

You just can't make this stuff up!!!

Whose house...

2011-11-06T16:01:00.001+08:00

The best pet store in Hong Kong...

Temple Street

2011-11-06T15:48:00.004+08:00

One of my favourite spots in Hong Kong so far has been the famous tourist market held on Temple Street.

It is a fantastic place to find random fun things... well okay junk. I love random junk.

I'll do individual posts on the junk, but here are some visuals of the place itself...

The most crammed store ever!

2011-11-06T15:37:00.003+08:00

One of my favourite stores I've encountered is this one in Yuen Long.

It is as full as it looks. There is not even technically enough room to enter in to it without pushing through stuffed animals. Once inside there is a spot for the clerk and one costumer. The two areas are not connected. There is a 2 foot thick wall of stuffies in between the two. I'd have taken a picture, but it was too tight.

Way to funny...

It's what Bogs Bunny eats

2011-11-06T15:32:00.002+08:00

Carrots are good for your eyesight...

I wonder what a corrot is good for? Based on the blurriness here obviously not eyesight.

Evidence of Counterfeiting

2011-11-06T15:28:00.002+08:00

So counterfeit merchandise is incredibly here in Hong Kong (shock I know).
It's not everyday the subjects of the intellectual theft realize their being copied on the copy!

Pickup Trolley (Pimp my 推车 part 1)

2011-11-06T14:33:00.003+08:00

After my first week with my trolley or Tuiche 推车, I definitely was in need of a modification. The lack of a solid bottom was letting my school nearly fall through my trolley (the bag I packed them in prevented them from outright escaping, but there was some definite dragging on occasion).

My solution sadly confirms me as a true Albertan, but I swear it is functional as opposed to aesthetic.

I turned my 推车 into a pickup.

At a houseware store I picked up a cheap plastic box (for about $4CAN). Key features were the box's size (in this case ideal for holding my school supplies) and the pre-molded handles on the sides.

The size criteria I hope is self evident...

The handles are for properly securing the box to the trolley.

To do that you need the 推车 enthusiast's secret weapon, duck ta... errr no wait not a handy man here... for trolleys you need bungee cord.

The handles give you the means of sturdily attaching your box to the trolley. Just run the bungee cord through both.

The cord ends attach at the top to holds the trolley stable side to side.

Running your cord through the bottom framework holds the box on the trolley.

The only disadvantage is that the trolley loses its ability to easily collapse and fold up.

In my book that is not as important as getting my stuff to work in one piece, so I'll leave with it. You other 推车 lovers out there need to keep it in mind when making this change.

Coming soon a totally aesthetic modification to my 推车...

At least they know who I am...

2011-10-30T20:39:00.002+08:00

Finally a entryway worthy of my presence.
Very weird name for a lighting store though I have to say...

They know what I am...

2011-10-30T20:35:00.003+08:00

I don't normally take pictures of stuff on or used by people. This one I just had to capture.

Now I just have to figure out where they are buy these from!

Bumpy Road... errr Escalator

2011-10-30T20:26:00.002+08:00

So read the sign below...

Makes sense if I was anywhere near the street or a road. Thing is, this is a sign for an escalator inside a mall.

Now I know why I hate telemarketers so much!

2011-10-30T20:20:00.002+08:00

Another of those ads that just makes you double take.

A gopher with a phone... I can only guess it is a visual metaphor for a telemarketer.

A place I do NOT want to shop

2011-10-30T20:17:00.002+08:00

I have a nominee for creepiest mascot ever.

This one for a mall in downtown Hong Kong.

Logical Fashion

2011-10-30T19:58:00.003+08:00

Want a bizarre clothing advertisement. Well here you go!

Vulcans selling outdoor gear.

Seriously what is up with this. Do the Chinese even watch Star Trek?

So if you start seeing hipsters in Vulcan ears we know where they got the idea.

There are those that say...

2011-10-30T19:32:00.003+08:00

One of the most hilarious and delightful discoveries I've made in Hong Kong was a public sculpture on display in a metro train station...

A bunch of "Stig sperm" floating around the roof...

For anyone unfamiliar is who or what the Stig it, he is the mascot/test driver for the British car show Top Gear. In reality the Stig has been a number of professional car drivers whose identity has been hidden by the jumpsuit and helmet combo above. However this "character" has proven so popular the show has maintained a running mythology about him.

In every episode the Stig is introduced as Top Gear's "tamed racecar driver" and than various silly facts are stated about him introed by the line "there are those that say". Well I have a new one totally in the spirit of this list.

"There are those that say the Stig met the love of his life in the form of a Hong Kong Metro Train, and their offspring can be seen to this day at Mong Kok East station."

Mind you they to me are more like what the Stig's genetic couriers should look like.

I think they were aiming for train tadpoles or fish.

All I know is I was laughing for a good 30 minutes after seeing them!

Local Toys

2011-10-30T18:19:00.004+08:00

So the first rule of teaching is figure out your kids are into. As I'm in a totally new culture, I'm sorta back to square 1. So today I'd thought I'd do some homework.

I picked up one of the robot model kits that are very popular with upper primary boys.

I thought putting one of these together would be pretty easy. Man I was in for surprise. This is what I got out of the box...

Two hours later I ended up with this rather handsome fellow.

I just can't get over how cool this guy is put together. It is fully posable but yet solid like an action figure. Yet he is made of many loose pieces adhered by no glue whats so ever.

Though he seems to be getting kind of mad at our prying into his business...

Oh no run!!!

Blubber 5 standing by

2011-10-30T18:02:00.002+08:00

I couldn't resist combining two of our Hong Kong acquisitions toay. The first being my Red Army fighter helmet, and the second being our tissue whale dispenser cover. Put them together and you get blubber squadron member 5.

Normally our whale is Achoo. We picked him up about a month ago. His primary function it to dispense tissues from his blowhole. As we keep forgetting to pick up soft packaged tissues to fill him up with, Achoo has spare time to help protect our house.

My New Wheels (Pimp my 推车 part 0)

2011-10-29T20:42:00.004+08:00

So I took my first official plunge into doing as the locals do. In this case I picked up the means of transport all the cool kids... errrr little old ladies are using for getting their things around.

Behold my new ride (well ride for my work stuff). This is my trolley or Tuiche 推车.

推车 are more common than cars and bikes (though not taxis). So now I am the proud owner of the most common means of transportation in Hong Kong.

Its even collapsible.
That said I think I can personalize these wheels a bit. At moment I could just blend into the crowd as just another little old lady... who is the wrong gender, different skin colour, and three times the size of all the other old ladies. I also think I can increase its functionality.

So stay tuned for my efforts to "pimp" my 推车...

My neighbor

2011-10-29T12:45:00.002+08:00

So within 2 hours of moving to Hong Kong I discovered I had an amusing neighbor. In the mall directly under my hotel room (and a mere block and a half from my apartment) is this pudgy little guy...

Don't recognize him. Well believe it or not this reptilan impersonating Budda is supposed to be Godzilla.

Though you can't see it from this angle, he is a kid's ride. They hope inside him and for a few dollars play some sort of video game. I've never seen the game (in fact this picture was snapped during one of the ONLY times we've ever seen him unoccupied by children). Is it wrong for me to want to come by sometime late at night and try it? :P

I don't know why but they are really into this silly cartoonized version of the king of monsters...

Yet he is everywhere!

I would have taken more detailed photos of everything, for example the mothra larva behind, but some kids ran in and jumped on before I could finish my pictures.

Note this is probably the only version of Mothra I like! He works as a cartoon. Definately far better than Ghidorah does anyways!

Soundtracks: Primeval

2011-10-28T23:35:00.006+08:00

Funny how timing can work out.

I finally got around to acquiring the fifth, possibly final, season of Primeval. Unlike the 1st and 4th seasons which entertained me, this latest season was a big disappointment overall. It is still way better than the terrible 3rd, but it just didn't deliver anything unique (apart from the amazing submarine adventure in the 2nd episode).

Of course I did the usual google and wikipedia searches for various things on the show in watching this, and discovered they "had" released the score for the series. The reason I say "had" as this score only came out a month ago!

I've never associated Primeval with particularly great music, but this being yet another year lacking in good score music (I will hopefully get around to posting some of my soundtrack musings soon) I'm desperate. So I decided to check this album out this week.

I'm very glad I did.

Primeval by Dominick Schirrer

In listening to the score removed from the show I'm realizing part of the appeal of the show for me may have been my subconscious picking up on the music. I always remember liking the music in the first season when the mystery of the time crisis was addressed, but beyond that I couldn't really say I'd noticed Primeval's music.

Often the most noticeable music in Primeval, like all modern shows, tended to be the popular song they'd try to shove down your throat. As someone who typically dislikes lyrics with music, this never appealed to me. I want my shows score to be a musical identity for the show (or movie) I'm watching. Pop music isn't that. It's just somebody mix taping over the program.

Yet in listening to the Primeval album I am amazed at how consistent the overall themes and music quality is. Primeval is one of the best TV series scores I've heard from a musical identity point of view. In listening to the majority of these tracks I can tell you it is from Primeval (even if I, still, don't know which episode). The music all works complimentary with each other, and actually builds a very enjoyable musical mythos (whether the actual episode deserved it or not later in the show is another question!).

The album collects music from the first 3 seasons (from what I can gather), and gathers the highlight moments from the show. While I didn't notice his efforts at the time (due to the disappointment in the scripts) composer Dominick Schirrer definitely tried to inject the wonder and awe back into episodes when the overall show left them out.

To convey the enigmatic qualities of the Primeval universe, Schirrer employs three components in all his effective themes and pieces. A combination of off key strings, synthesizers, and piano give Primeval its sound.

The main signature of the overall pieces is the string section always having a small but noticeable regiment of players playing out of key to accent the overall strings with an uneasy creepy edge. No matter the emotion a piece is, Schirrer will always apply these off key strings. So while not exactly being a discernible theme, the strings unify all of Primevals music. Every song has an off kilter dynamic that (removed from its episode) gives you a sense of tension. In some pieces such as "Cretaceous Sea" and "Mystery of the Anomolies" you will get chills down your spine from the application.

A echoed piano with synthesizer ambience is used for heavy emotions in the music. While not present in all tracks, any that deal with the human elements of the story will include a piano (for obvious reasons). In the most successful pieces the piano will be backed up by a synthetic ambience to give the convention some resonance. While it is a cheap trick it works. Not that most of the episodes deserve this treatment, but on album it is quite appreciable.

The Primeval theme makes the rounds in any of the pieces about the prehistoric beasts. While the title theme is incredible simple in some senses, it is comprised of about four musical "idea" layers. Throughout the music Schirrer will base tracks on one or more of these layers, and this is how he achieves a distinct recognizable "Primeval" sound in all the music. If you listen carefully to the title theme you'll hear the strings, percussion, and two different sets of synthesizer horns (long and harsh I shall call them) all stacked together. Yes I know in orchestral pieces technically all the music is made of "stacked" accumulations of players and instruments efforts. However if you listen carefully in Primeval title theme these elements are actually in a sense doing their own things, they just happen to work together in a cohesive piece.

Don't get me wrong I really like it. I just point it out as cleverly Schirrer gives himself a title theme
that is easy to integrate into any piece of music no matter its emotional tempo. All he has to do is use one or more of the four possible sets and you can hear something of the title in the music.

For threatening monster music we get the percussion most heavily, sometimes augmented by the strings or harsher synthetic horns. The heroes tend to get the long horn and strings. My favourite use of this element breakdown is in the track "Silurian Scorpions" where we see him transform a piece from horror, and its percussion and harsh horn, to a glorious heroic piece with the long horn subverting and taking charge of the other two elements. It is quite a satisfying technique. If I played snippets it would sound very simplist, but all together the whole piece's craftsmanship is very intelligent and effective.

Primeval the album is very diverse, and covers a multitude of scene types. The key ingredient sounds are supplemented with a nice range of supporting instrumentation to give it variety. Genre tracks are particularly clever at capturing their subject matter. The medieval episode's theme "Dracorex" has a lovely sampling of choral chatting spliced into the Primeval theme elements to convey the knight of the story.

If you're a fan of the show, or TV soundtracks this is definitely worth checking out.

Traumador Limbo

2011-10-25T21:46:00.002+08:00

I have become quite pleased with my Maori Mosasaur pattern. So much so I thought I'd play with it for a few minutes.

The result you get some Traumador photos that have been in limbo for almost 2 years. Not that I'm planning on really getting back to Traum (sorry to the Traum fans out there, and my tiny now neglected saurian friend). The time and commit just aren't there (especially with the new teaching job).

I might give you a shortened version of his last year in New Zealand I have 3/4 of the photos for (and it was this missing quarter that killed the blog... I had too many holes in the photos).

In any case here is one of the most exciting sets of photos from the "Hunt for the Taniwha"

All Black Mosasaur

2011-10-25T20:42:00.002+08:00

In pseudo-celebration of the All Blacks bringing victory to New Zealand at home in the Rugby World cup I give you a more polished version of my Maori Mosasaur.

I won't lie and say I had a vested interest in NZ winning the rugby. In fact being married to an Australian I'm basically forbidden from actively cheering for the All Blacks. Fortunently I don't really care for rugby one way or another.

However given the year New Zealand has had with Christchurch I hoped they'd take it. Especially as I see the alternative being a country sized repeat of the Vancouver Caunck meltdown of the spring :(

So well done All Blacks! Hope that helps ease the pain of the past year (not that I'm implying that it will undo all the suffering and hardship).

So how is this guy looking?

I'm actually getting kind of happy with this configuration.

Any thoughts or comments?