Show Posts - superboyac

Living Room / Want to be in my story? See inside.

« on: December 30, 2014, 06:18 PM »

So I'm practicing writing stories. One of the things I'm doing is drawing my characters out and seeing if that helps me with ideas. I've done about 5 characters so far. I want more practice. Since I've become very familiar with several users here, I'd like to draw some of you guys.

If you want to be included, all I need from you are a few characteristics, describe them however you please. And they don't have to be true, they can be something exaggerated or fantastic.

I'll give an example with my own character. Tall, dark, failing in attempts to be positive so he's an unintentional cynic.

Living Room / Are you a DeadHead? Grateful Dead thoughts go here.

« on: December 23, 2014, 06:03 PM »

http://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/1o4vsl/is_anyone_else_as_baffled_as_i_am_why_so_many/

I was reading this and thought it was an interesting enough question to post here. I've often had this thought. I love music (I'm obsessed a little), I'm a musician, I love classic rock...but I never fell in love with the dead. I don't think they are bad, I do think they are good. I've just never really gotten into them. I always ask myself "Is it really an LSD thing?" Is that really the only way to wrap your mind around the band?

Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. I enjoyed the reddit board, it's perfect for these kinds of discussions. If you've actually had Dead concert experiences please describe! I remember having a group of high school friends who were way into them in the mid 90s, and I actually regret not tagging along now. There was no way I would have gotten away with it anyway.

Living Room / Animation question: exposures on "eights" or "twelves"

« on: December 15, 2014, 05:31 PM »

So I've been studying animation, and perhaps I missed something as I was going through this one book...but maybe someone here can clarify my question. Here's the passage in question:

I just want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly. The only reason why I'm particularly interested is because I also have noticed that I like the Tom and Jerry timing more so than other similar cartoons.

So...when he says people are walking on "twelve exposures" or "eights", as far as actual time units go [seconds], does that mean (for the 8 example):
cartoons are 24 fps
so 8/24 = 0.3 seconds

is he saying each step takes 0.3 seconds? Or every two steps (one cycle) takes 0.3 seconds? I don't quite get it. It seems like a brisk pace either way.

Living Room / Decibels, loudness, amplifiers, formulas...complete confusion!

« on: December 09, 2014, 04:05 PM »

OK, I just admitted something really embarrassing in another forum, thought I'd share it here.
As a music nut, musician, engineer (electrical at that), all around nerdo geek...I don't understand decibels as it relates to loudness. More so than that, I don't get it in relation to amplifier circuitry and the formulas used.

This all started when I began researching types of headphone amps to get for my home studio. This is really embarrassing to admit...I've written books on electrical engineering.

All the circuitry (obviously) uses volts, amps, currents. Fine, I am comfy with that. But then, somehow these numbers are magically turned into decibels! How the f? Now, decibels is not a unit I enjoy using. First of all, for loudness, the unit it uses is called SPL, which is a measure of sound pressure. But decibel in itself is dimensionless; it's a ratio of one unit over another number of the same unit (i.e. they cancel out). So a inputted values for decibels can be volts, ohms, watts, spl, mattresses, bicycles, whatevers.

On top of all that, I have to sort through all the audiophile pseudo-science, snake oil nonsense.

Am I crazy?

Here's a fun chart:

from here:
http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-loudness.htm

I don't know what is going on there, but it looks helpful if I did!

General Software Discussion / Mischief 2.0: very promising drawing software ($25 !!)

« on: December 03, 2014, 09:51 AM »

https://www.madewithmischief.com/mischief

There's this new player in the art software category. I just installed it, it is really amazing. It's fast, as in drawing the strokes on a tablet with a stylus is much more responsive with this program vs. photoshop, clip studio (which is what I currently use). And it has this "infinite zoom" feature, which is essentially vector graphics for a program like photoshop. So it combines features of Illustrator, photoshop into one program, which is what the clip studio tries to do a little also. What makes mischief stand out is the touch-friendly interface...very simple layout (you don't have to hide/unhide the sidebars all the time, or get those artdocks), and it supports multi-touch gestures.

I really like the idea of zooming in and out and not getting any pixelation. Also, a unique feature...the brush size doesn't get smaller/larger as you zoom out or in. it stays the same size. Why is that cool? Let's say I drew a tiny tiny circle...now I can zoom way into the circle and draw yet another tiny circle inside it without changing the brush size and the thicknesses are relative to the zoom.

Topics - superboyac [ switch to compact view ]

Living Room / Want to be in my story? See inside.

Living Room / Are you a DeadHead? Grateful Dead thoughts go here.

Living Room / Animation question: exposures on "eights" or "twelves"

Living Room / Decibels, loudness, amplifiers, formulas...complete confusion!

General Software Discussion / Mischief 2.0: very promising drawing software ($25 !!)