Despite computer problems, I got Page 18 finished. I'm starting to think that the problem may be more of a software (ie: Windows) than a hardware problem. If there was really something wrong with either the video card or the PCI-E slot (my other thought was that I'd somehow damaged the slot when removing the card—CI-Express cards have a tab that helps hold the card in place). But if that were the case, remembering from past experience with problem hardware, I would be getting random blue screen errors on boot; when I minimize windows; and not to mention weird banding across the screen, and the screen itself going blank. Yes, I've had had problems with bad video cards so I know how to recognize the signs. Anyway, that means a reinstall might be in order, which I really don't want to do.

So at any rate, Page 19 will follow in the next few weeks. I have to outline the next couple of pages, should probably have a time-line together to understand just what is going to happen when. The current show-down between Syleth and Kira isn't the end of the current story arch, I think I have another fifteen or more pages to go before I get that far.

Still having issues with my secondary computer. This time, it's the video drivers. If you're late to this, check out my last post to see just what started it all.

So I'm thinking everything is pretty much okay when I start up this morning. I load up Poser, notice the view screen is responding a little slower than usual so I pop over to Render Settings and I take a look at the Preview Options. It's telling me that hardware shading is not supported—which I know is bullshit; the option was there the last time I used Poser. So I try to update the drivers—and here is where I encounter problems. It won't let me update.

*sighs*

After two hours of screwing around, I'm going to let it be. I'm thinking that the video card might be faulty in some way that's keeping certain features—like hardware preview—from working properly; or Poser Pro may need to be re-installed. So basically, it's "Bitch, deal with it" until I can get a new card; truth-be-told, it's really just an excuse to upgrade a component I've been wanting to upgrade for a while now and I'd really rather wait on a re-install until I get a new card because I don't want to have to deal with re-activation again.

It's been about a month since I actually worked on anything for Silent Shadow, so the computer that I normally use has been in stand-by for about that long. Well, last night, I figured I'd power it up and start working on something and boy did I get a nasty surprise.

The computer wouldn't start. No fans, no lights, nothing—not even a BIOS error beep. Dead as an effing door-nail. Yeah, imagine my horror. So I pause for a moment, do some research on comps that don't start up, busted out my computer tool box and got to work. I reseated everything except the CPU and tried again—nothing. I disconnected all of the drives—nothing. So...that could really only mean that the power supply could be dead. I disconnect the two power-cables connected to the mother board and then I go and get my handy-dandy power-supply tester. Hook it up and at first glance, the power supply tests out as alright. So what gives? Well, there was a little problem. My psu tester only works on power supplies with 20-pin connectors. My power supply has what is called a 20+4-pin connector—a 20-pin with an extra/separate 4-pin connector. Now, while my tester can check 4-pin connectors, and I did use it to check the other 4-pin which was meant for the CPU (which tested okay, btw), I couldn't use it check the primary because for some reason, the pins were shaped differently. So, my guess is that while the power supply itself wasn't bad, there was a good chance that the main 4-pin connector was bad. Luckily, I still had left-over parts from when I built this computer about two years ago. I had originally bought a 600w power supply but I thought with three hard drives, that it might not be enough, so I bought another psu that was a 700w. Well, I swapped in the 600w, and well what do you know? It booted up just fine.

And you'd think that would be the end of the story, right? Wrong.

The computer started up alright, but immediately, I noticed something was wrong. This computer is running Windows XP Pro x64 so it usually goes from power-up to Windows inside of 30-45 sec (maybe faster). Now, it was taking maybe 2/3 minutes to load up. WTF? I ran a virus scan, which turned up two trojans that were immediately cleaned, and then ran a registry cleaner, and then restarted the comp. Still running slower than molasses but now I'm getting the Windows Activation notice that says I need to activate Windows in 3 days. Double WTF? At this point, I've been working for about an hour-and-a-half on both the hardware, the virus- and registry-scans. My thought was maybe the registry-scan screwed something up so I restored. Still no go; still booting slowly and I'm still getting that fucking nag-screen. So, I did what I should have originally done. I opened up the Event Viewer—should anyone need to do this, you open up Control Panel, and then go to Administration Tools. You should find a short-cut for Event Viewer. Anyway, poking through Event Viewer, I found one entry that was consistent across every startup. Something called the Update Service Center was timing out. I later found out that this component isn't actually apart of Windows; it's actually nVidia's update tool. Makes sense since the video-card is an nVidia Geforce 7300 GS. So I ponder for a moment what to do, then I open up Services (also in Administration Tools), found Update Service Center, and then disabled it. Now everything boots up just fine.

Two hours spent effing around with this, when I could have been actually working on something. Eh. Hopefully, it won't give me anymore problems.

I'll probably start work tonight. Hopefully, the comp will boot with no problems this time...

I haven't had much time, or honestly, much inclination to work on Silent Shadow lately. I think it has more to do with finding a job and passing the driver's test—which I think I'm going to try again sometime next week. I asked my sister how many times did she practice parallel and back-in parking and she told me that she hardly ever practiced before taking the test. Oh well, I'm supposed to go on a driving adventure around Edina and Bloomington on Saturday (tomorrow).

Anyway, eventually, I'll get back to work on the comic. Like I said, once I get past the things that have been pulling my attention away, I should be able to get back to it.

Well, I failed. 90-degree parking was what got me, as well as "failure" to yield to pedestrians in marked crosswalks (actually, I did yield in the cross-walk—it was the dumb-fuck crossing the street not in the cross-walk that got me). And last, but not least, one lane change in a spot that was just fucking confusing as all hell. It was a four-lane one-way with two left-turn lanes and two right-turn lanes. Where I fucked up at was that my mind kept treating this part of the course as a two-way when in fact, it was a one-way. Shane had warned me about that spot but I didn't quite understand what he'd been talking about. Now I know what he was talking about. Now, as for 90-degree and parallel parking, I do need to practice those concepts. I understand them, it's just getting the practice down till I have a good sense of timing.

Yeah, I'm a little disappointed but frankly, I had a vague feeling that I wasn't going to pass. It's really a 50/50 chance of passing on the first try. Part of my disappointment stems from the fact that I do just fine driving in traffic; for some reason, I just have a problem parking except going to the grocery store. I will add that I do think I understand what a lot of people have said about the road test—it doesn't reflect the actual reality of what you encounter when driving.

In the mean-time, I need to return to my reading of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter for my American Literature class.

I don't think I like the format of online classes so much. In fact, I actually hate it. Next quarter, I return to ground classes. I've found that I don't like sitting around; that I need to move around more, even though the last the six days has kind of driven me batty since I wither haven't had the house to myself or had to go out someplace (lol, yeah, after complaining about sitting around the house too much).

So I could possibly have a job by sometime next month. Not going to say much on that score except its going to be a web design/developer gig. Makes me happy because it gives me some much-needed pre-graduation experience in the industry and should also count towards my education, like an internship would.

And finally, I take the driver's test at the end of this week. Trying to keep my confidence up about that. I'm hoping I will be able to pass it on a first try, though I've heard that isn't likely.

I should have some new content in the next few weeks here, once things settle down somewhat for me.

Need I say more?

I only have about a week-and-a-half left of my two current online classes. Then, middle of week after next, my next online class starts. Thank god its only one class, though. Anyway, I realized that I already had Page 17 finished before the hiatus, so I went ahead and uploaded it. Right now, I'm working on concept art for the next series, which I keep hoping I'm going to roll out sometime soon (next year, maybe?) The concept art, I want to be able to roll that out within the next few days, school-work permitting, of course.

Instead of doing my schoolwork, what do I do instead? I decide I'm going to muck about in Poser, that's what I do

Anyway, Daz3D has released Micheal 4 and its been implied that Hiro 4 will probably be released by the end of the year. So, I decided to try and mess around with Aiko 4 again to see if I could get anything useful out of her. Well, I came fairly close to recreating Syleth—which was done with Aiko 3. Close but...no cigar. I think I've determined what the problem is. Aiko 4 really has no character whatsoever. I didn't have to do much to Aiko 3 to create an anime girl that looks about as tough-as-nails as Xena or Tasha Yar (if you watched enough Star Trek:TNG, you'd get that). With Aiko 4, I'm really having to work and combine not only A4's morphs but the Vicky 4 morphs as well, and like I said, I'm coming close but the character just looks too soft and working with Aiko 4 has made me realize that alot of Syleth's emphasis is in her eyebrows. They're highly arched and sharply angular, and I'm having a very hard time reproducing that effect. WTF was Daz thinking, anyway? It's pretty disappointing, enough so that I've considered frankensteining Aiko 3's head onto Aiko 4's body. One thing that Aiko 4 does have over Aiko 3 is better bending, especially in extreme poses.

Well, I'll keep playing around and I'll post my final results sometime soon.

I got busy, that's what. Actually, I'm back in school and its online courses this quarter so I have four-times the amount of work compared to regular ground courses. I haven't worked on Silent Shadow because I've been doing school-work and snatching some time here and there to work on my portfolio. Which has now gone live, btw. Portfolio can be viewed [here]. I was going to use the psy-dreamer.com domain for the portfolio but I changed my mind after seeing how my web host has the directories for my other domains structured. Probably works better this way, anyway. I'll just toss up a decently designed splash screen for psy-dreamer.com and put links to my other websites on it.

I will say this, though. Wordpress fucking rocks. You can do wtf-ever to it and still come up with some incredible solutions. I'm using it to power all of my sites; yes, including the portfolio. Which reminds me, I need to find time to get my Webcomic Manager plugin ready for beta release. I've had that sitting on the back shelf for the last few months now; its time to release it.

Sorry if anyone was expecting Page 17 to be released this week. I fell behind on my work; mostly from being extremely tired. I think the sudden change in the weather may have gotten to me or something; and after tomorrow, I might not have as much time to work on the comic. Class starts, and I have to start looking for another job after the 15th.

I went ahead and uploaded Page 15. I had it completely rendered out last week—despite the nine times that Poser crashed on me. Through trial and error, I figured out that it had something to do with how low bucket-size was set, and how low the minimum shading rate was. Anyway, I'm making a move back to raytraced shadows so the next few pages may have a slightly different look to them.

So, hopefully, I can get Page 16 finished and uploaded by the end of this week but then, I think I'm going to take a hiatus. I need to work on my portfolio, and I need to start looking for job. Plus, my classes start in two weeks.

Later

I am really fucking retarded. I just realized that I already had Page 14 laid out. All I had to do was add dialog; which wasn't very much.

So, Page 14 of Silent Shadow has been uploaded!

Page 14 could be delayed till Sunday or Monday. I am just really fucking tired right now—mostly the result of not having been able to sleep for the last few days (full moon, maybe?). Anyway, Friday was supposed to be the Silent Shadow anniversary date and I wanted to have a new website design rolled out by then but with the way I've been feeling lately, I don't know if that is going to happen. I may move the anniversary-thingy up by two weeks, OR I might go ahead and release the erotic art I've been working on. I also have concept art for the next series—current characters and new characters and I want to outline the one-shots that I have knocking around in my head; one-shots being stories that are, at the most, five pages long and aren't really what I'd call "serious" stories but do add to the main storyline of the series.

*WARNING...SHAMELESS EGO-MASTURBATION MOMENT AHEAD*
I was asked a while back if I'd ever release the cel-shader materials that I use for Silent Shadow. After much thinking and soul-searching, I've decided that I'm not going to release the mats. I'll be honest and say that its been a lot of work trying to get something that looks as good as the cel-shader system that I created for Silent Shadow using just Poser's material room. I could probably make a lot of money if I decided to sell the shading system at Renderosity or RuntimeDNA; I've seen whats available for toon-shaders at both stores and I will say that the solution I've developed is by far better than anything at either site. So, the reason I've decided not to release is that the style I've developed over the last year is uniquely my own ^_^ However, this doesn't mean that I won't change my mind or release free versions of my earlier toon-shaders.

I really want to get back to work on my comic manager Wordpress plugin.

Page 13 is set to roll out Thursday night or Friday morning. It all depends on if I feel like waiting until Friday morning. Which, speaking of, I have to get my hands on a mirror or a chrome ball before then. I want to experiment with making light probes for Poser. The reason I'm saying before Friday is I'm going to make another(—if you read my Lj) trip to Fort Snelling State Park. I'm thinking that the park itself might be apart of the setting for the next Silent Shadow series. While I'm still on that, pay attention to the Silent Shadow website. I'm going to make some changes next week and one of the changes is going to be an adults-only subdomain. Though I am a little hesitant to do something like that since it means I might not be able to use the Silent Shadow site as part of my portfolio. I'll have to do a little more investigating on this subject.

Well, I found out through experimentation that you can turn an IBL light in Poser into a specular-only light Very useful when you want specular highlights but you don't want them coming from one direction.

Anyway, I just uploaded Page 12. Got that out of the way because tomorrow is probably going to be a little busy. I've been kind of futzin' off on working on Page 14; I think because I know its already done, I just have to render it out and that shouldn't take all that long.

I can't believe I did it, but hey, I did. Pages 14 through 18 are ready for final render. Now all that is left is finishing up the outline. Its a little different from what I had originally, though. In the original, Rowan was supposed to save Syleth from Kira; in the new version, its the other way around. Needless to say, though. Page 20 isn't the end of the series. I think I have maybe ten or fifteen more pages to go before the end.

Silent Shadow's anniversary date has been moved up to the 19th (which is when I should have Page 14 out). I'm working on some erotic art for Silent Shadow, which I'll probably upload to my much-unused gallery at Renderotica.com. I may do a limited-run print-thingie for the anniversary as well, using both the adult stuff and some other pieces.

I keep saying it, never do, but I need to do it (so I have something else to add to my portfolio), but I need to update the look of the Silent Shadow website. I've had the same style going since February. I think I'm going to move the comic back to the first page. And, I want the new layout done by the 19th

Well, I'm trying to hurry the storyline along because I want Issue 1 finished before classes resume (and I start looking for another job) in October. While working on Page 11, I'm running into a little problem: I now have more panels than what is originally in the outline. I'll work something out; I always do. Anyway, I've finished pages 11 and 12; I've already started the final render process. That should only take a few hours or a few days, I'm not really sure how long since the scenes make heavy use of the ambient occlusion node. While the pages are rendering, I'm continuing to work on the outline in Celtx. What is Celtx, you wonder? A wonderful script-writing tool that I happened across while searching for outlining templates for OpenOffice 2.4. I downloaded and installed it and have been using it ever since. I really recommend this tool, whether you're writing a script for audio, video, film or a comic, its a definite must-have.

And while I'm on the subject of Silent Shadow, I also realize that in a month will be the 3rd anniversary of the comic's launch. Imagine that. I've managed to keep my attention on something for that long! Anyway, I've managed to miss the anniversary mark for the last two years. This year, I'm going to make an effort to remember. The date is September 15th!

There are other projects that I've had on the backburner — namely learning Python so I can write scripts to make applying materials in Poser a little easier. I also want to get back to working with 3DS Max and Vue 6; I need some other skills to round out my portfolio.

Well, my new website Dumpster-fairy.com has been launched. It takes the place of my old website, Psy-dreamer.com; which has (or will) become my new portfolio site. Dumpster-fairy basically has tutorials, downloads, that sort of thing. Tools for Photoshop, Poser, whatever, and is basically a blog/personal collective-type website.

I did some much needed work on the Silent Shadow website; namely updating the comic guide and FAQ sections. I also added Silent Shadow to StumbleUpon for more hits. I'm thinking about uploading the old comic pages (since I never deleted them), as filler until I can finish the new pages. I'll probably take time to reformat the old pages so that they match the format of the new pages a little more closely.

Alright, I'm all for preventing sexual abuse and all that but sometimes...sometimes, I almost wonder if the laws have gone too far...

Teen girl charged with posting nude photos on Internet
...for crying out loud...the pictures were of herself and yeah, while that was pretty fucking stupid (where's the parents, hmmm?) that does not mean she should be charged with sexual abuse of children? WTF?!?

Long-ago charge to cost man his home
Eh, don't get caught pissing in public unless you want the brand of SEX OFFENDER on your record...

Sex Abuse Laws: Unintended Consequences?
And this one really fucking pisses me off...

Is it just me or has this country gotten even more paranoid about sex in the last twenty years? No fucking wonder we have such a "problem" with child molesters and rapists....or is the problem really as big as the media attempts to make us believe?

I just don't know what to say except the times just continue to get scarier and scarier. And the politicians just have no fucking clue whatsoever. Tell me? Is it really worth voting in the fall?



Heh, I can't even begin to describe just how appropriate it is that I'm listening to Disturbed's cover of Land of Confusion right now....

I picked up the most recent issue of 3DWorld (Issue #106) and now I am very very glad that I did. There is a 50% off coupon for the Aiko 4 Pro Bundle at Daz3D.com. If you combine that with the Platinum Club discount, you're getting the bundle for roughly 65% off. The coupon is good until September 30th. I suggest running to your nearest bookstore and grabbing a copy, or better yet, note me if you...uh...want to know more