Moving to Getting-Handsy.com

Hello Everyone!

I have created a new official website, Getting-Handsy.com.  

I have moved everything over to this new site, and will plan on only updating that.  So head over there and check it out!

Thanks!!!!

- Zach

Drones/UAVs and Exemption 333

Drones/UAVs

Recently our insurance agency has jumped feet first into the Drone/UAV insurance market.  It's new and exciting, and from the sounds of things, only going to get bigger in the near future!

(I've heard that the estimate for drones being sold during Christmas will be over 1 million...)

We decided that since we were insuring these UAVs, that we should at least have one.

First we looked at building our own.  There are tons of parts and kits out there, so we went looking for a professional who might be able to tell us more about it.  We ended up at a local hobby store, Hobby Haven.  They gave us tons of options if we just wanted to buy the parts, but also said if we were looking to just get into drone flying, that it might be easier and cheaper to buy a pre-assembled beginner-type drone.

Then they asked an important question, "what do you want to do with the drone?"

We hadn't really thought about it.  We just wanted one to say we had one.  Were we just going to fly it in our back yard for fun?  Did we want to First Person View race (google/youtube it, you won't be disappointed)?  Or did we want to take pictures and videos?  Those are the main 3 things we had considered, and each requires a different type of drone.

We decided that we would start with a picture/video drone and go from there.  We picked up a Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K.

My father and I with the new Typhoon

Quick first flight of our Typhoon

The Typhoon is on the pricier side, running about $1300 or so, but that's because it comes with a number of safety features (button to return it "home", smart/follow mode, etc) and a camera that can take professional pictures and video.  Our thought was that if we wanted to get into the commercial side of drone use, then we needed a drone that was capable of fulfilling those requirements, and the Typhoon met them.  

Which leads us to...

Commercial Use and Exemption 333

The FAA is the Federal Aviation Administration.  They are the governmental agency that regulates and oversees our (the U.S.A.'s) skies.  Because Drones/UAVs fly in the sky, they have to be regulated by the FAA, and for the last number of years the FAA has been trying to come up with rules for UAVs.  Technically UAVs fall under the hobby, model aircraft rules that are already on the books, but since UAVs are a hot topic, it seems like the FAA has decided to make new rules specifically for these.

There seems to be a lot of confusion, frustration, anger, etc when talking about the FAA's proposed (or lack there of) rules for UAVs.  I'm not going to get into that, but what I will say is that currently in order to do commercial operations (such as photography with the intent to sell photos) "legally" with a drone, you must use the Commercial rules for regular Aircraft.  

This leads to some problems because, if you didn't know, drones are NOT large manned aircraft.  Most drones are no where near the size of regular aircraft; they don't run on the same fuel; they don't require a pilot riding in the drone...and the differences continue from there.  Because of these differences, if a person/company wants to use a drone for commercial operations, they must file for an Exemption to the Aircraft rules (commonly known as Exemption 333).  

Our Experience

Once we acquired our drone, we decided we might as well go through this Exemption process, as many of our clients have.  That way we would know what they went through, and if we so chose, we could use our drone commercially as well.  I took an afternoon at work to try and figure out what we needed to do to file our exemption.  After about 3 or 4 hours of research, I had written our company name and address....that is all I could figure out.  It is a complicated process, and completely based on regular Aviation/Aircraft.  

We ended up sending our information to a lawyer that my father had done a UAV Podcast with,  Enrico Schaefer, of Dronelaw.pro, who specializes in the Exemption 333 process.  They asked us some questions, and then put together the whole thing.  Currently, our exemption is awaiting approval, which they say can take anywhere from 60 - 180 days to just acknowledge, let alone approve (or something like).

Again, it's a long complicated process and it helped having someone who specializes in providing the information the FAA is looking for.

My Biggest Complaint

The main complaint I have with the current rules for commercial UAV operations is that you must have a pilot's license.  This affects me personally, which is probably why it's the biggest problem I have with it.  

I don't have a pilot's license.  I have never wanted to fly regular aircraft.  It's not my thing...but drones look fun, and they are much cheaper to own than an actual aircraft.  Also, with my years of experience playing video games, I felt like I wouldn't have a problem flying them...and I haven't.  I'm not saying I'm a professional UAV pilot by any means, but I flew it for 15 mins for the first flight, and didn't crash....didn't have any close calls...nothing.  It was super simple.  In the 2-3 weeks we've owned it, I've flown about 45 mins (not a whole lot, ya, but the batteries only last 15 mins).  All the flights we have made so far have been with high winds, and we haven't had any problems at all.

My point is, why do you need Private Pilot experience to fly a UAV?  It doesn't make sense.  The only crossover, that I can find, is not based on skill, but based on rules.  If you are a Private Pilot, you should know the rules of the US Airspace.  That is something I don't know, but could easily google if I needed to.  But besides that, any kid who plays Mario Cart, or a First Person Shooter can fly one of these drones.  The requirement is a big joke...but anyway...

In Conclusion

So long story short: drones are fun, working with the FAA is not fun.

If you have a chance to fly a drone, do it.  It's been a fun experience, and I am actually looking forward to getting a second Drone for racing (First Person View is neat!).

This isn't technically FPV, but as close as I can get currently

- Zach

2D Animation and Roleplaying games

So it's been awhile....longer than I had planned... but I swear I have been doing some productive stuff!  Well somewhat productive...

First off, I have been dabbling in the art of 2D animation.  I figured out that Photoshop includes an animation feature!  I have no idea how to use it, but I'm working at it!  I made a couple of "quick" videos.  Here is a guy waving...this is the first one I did, so it is super terrible...

The next one is a box with a secret in it:

My plan is to continue making little animation and hopefully get a bit more detail in them.  As I said before, these are pretty rough and terrible.

The next thing that has happened recently is a group of my friends and I have started playing a Roleplaying game called Deadlands.  It is an old west, steam punk type of setting, and it should be pretty fun.  We're meeting every other week or so and my plan is to animate our sessions.  Should lead to some fun and interesting stories.

I haven't had a chance to get through the whole session yet, but I was able to get a little "intro" video put together.  It's mostly about the setting and area we are starting in.  It's a little slow, but once we get into the actual playing of the game, it gets pretty good (I know...because it was fun to play).

Welp that does it for this addition of.....whatever this is....so keep an eye out for more bad ass animations :-D

- Zach

Popsicle sticks and car shows

For the last 2 weekends I have had to go to car shows for work...

Now first off, I'm not real big into cars, let alone old cars...ya sure, I deal with them a lot because we insure collector cars at work (the reason for working the car show), but they aren't like a passion of mine.

Secondly, I'm not really big on crowds of people, or talking to strangers in general.  I can, it's just not my preferred method of communication.  I would much rather sit at the office and answer emails.

Third, it's hot, and I hate sweating in public...well all the time.  I'm a bit self conscious, so it just doesn't help my overall anxiety of being around people I don't know, then add on feeling gross.

But anyway, so I've had to go to these car shows recently and it's screwed up my weekend schedule, and I'm sad.  I haven't really had any time to do any drawing or nerdy stuff lately.  I'm falling behind in my imaginary schedule of completing my comic, and/or doing anything else productive that could lead to some sort of career doing my hobbies.

However, I did get a quick video put together on making Popsicle stick fences, so that is pretty cool.  They are just simple little fence sections that can be used as fences in tabletop games.  It's not a very long video, and they are really easy to make, so check it out:

Well that's all I have for the moment, but as my schedule starts to get back to normal, I will hopefully have more stuff to show.

Until then,

- Zach

Motivation and Distractions

I have a hard time getting anything productive done at home....

With netflix, video games, friends, cats, internet, etc etc, there's just so much I can do besides doing work, art, or anything even somewhat productive.  I'm trying harder to prioritize, but after working 8-10 hours at my day job, it's hard to motivate myself to then go draw and do more "work"...which is actually weird/stupid to say because it's not like I'm being paid for my arts and crafts, so it's actually not work, it's a hobby.

The idea is that I would eventually be paid to do art because it is something I enjoy doing, but at this time it feels like a chore.  I know if I want to get anywhere that I need to continue to work at it and continue to grow as an artist.  And that probably means I'll need to sacrifice some of the gaming and friend time in order to pursue this potential opportunity....I just have to do it now.

I have been having some success with being more productive by changing the scenery and getting away from my house.  I have been going out on the weekends and hanging out at Panera, or this new cafe called Main Street Cafe.  Both are about the same style, lots of tables, no servers, just pick up your food at the counter and go do your thing.  It is pretty perfect for me.  I just sit around with my headphones in and draw.  I have gotten a decent amount accomplished lately while doing this.

It also has the added bonus of people randomly coming up to you and talking to you about what you are doing...which is kind of nice.  It might bug some people, but I don't mind.  In my head a lot of my work is sub par.  I have a hard time telling how good my art is because I see stuff online, and just wish I could be as great as some of the artists that I follow, but I forget that I actually am at least mildly competent in the area of art.  I did go to school for it, so I should know something about it, right?

Anyway, it puts in in perspective for me.  Example, I was sitting working on a comic page the other day, and I just didn't think it looked right.  It wasn't perfect...maybe you get that feeling, too.  While I was sitting there, sulking in my own imperfection, an employee walked up and said, "Wow, that's really good.  Are you a professional?".....It sort of took me by surprise because what I saw was a mess of errors and disproportionate figures, but she saw something that was good enough to be done by a professional artist.

I guess my point is, there is always going to be someone better than me.  They have more experience, more training, more drive to accomplish, but on the other hand, there's also someone "worse" than me: the people that haven't even started.  So I guess as long as I am moving forward with my art, then I am doing well!

Welp, to conclude, I was able to get a little actual drawing done.  I penciled and inked the first page to another story (I'm kind of all over trying to figure out what I want to move forward with).

I'm going to overwrite the text digitally later, but at least it's a start on a new idea.

- Zach

Deadzone: Marauders

My new Deadzone faction video is up for the Mighty Space Ork Marauders....or just Marauders as they call them.  The video shows all of the models I received in my Deadzone kickstarter box for the Marauders.  Check it out!

Don't forget to checkout the other videos I have done for the other factions of Deadzone.  The only one we have left is the Enforcers, and they are pretty badass looking.  Keep an eye out for the next video.

Thanks!!

- Zach

Heroes of the Storm

Hello again!

So lately my friends and I have been playing Heroes of the Storm (HotS), a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) from Blizzard, the company who created Diablo, Starcraft and Warcraft.

Synopsis

It basically takes characters from each of their universes and puts them together so you fight can on teams of 5 to try and destroy the other team's base.  That is pretty much the standard MOBA style, 2 teams fighting to destroy the other team, but after that is where HotS sort of expands and becomes unique.

Maps

Typically most MOBAs I have played have 1, maybe 2, different maps.  And the main differences between the maps are typically aesthetic differences.  I will agree that League of Legends has a second map that actually changes gameplay, the capture and defend tower one.....I can't remember the name of it at this time.  Smite also has the Arena which adds in a portal rather than destroying a base.  But anyway, HotS has a number of different maps and each map has different...let's call them "map objectives".  While the overall idea is still to destroy the other team's base, each map has a different way of doing it.

Example: there is one map where you travel underground to collect skeleton skulls, and once all of the skulls have been collected, each team summons a golem whose power is based on how many skulls your team collected.  The golems then head to the opposing teams base to destroy it.  If you can get all of the skulls, then your golem is much harder to kill and leads to lots of base destruction.

Currently, I believe there are 7 different maps, each with its own unique objectives.  Typically your team has to work together to achieve these map objectives because if you don't, the other team will work together and just completely destroy you.

With 7 maps it has been rare to play the same one back to back.  There are of course some maps I enjoy more than others, but for the most part it has been a fun experience.

Differences to "Regular" MOBAs

A couple other differences with HotS compared to the other MOBAs I have played:

There is no shop or buying items in the match...this is a pretty big change.  Most MOBAs are about killing creeps, gaining money, then spending money on items to enhance your character.  In HotS, there is only experience and talents gained at certain levels.  The big thing about experience, is that your team gains experience together.  Meaning if one player gets behind, the whole team gets behind, but it also means that if someone is doing well, everyone is doing a little better.  This is another reason why it is a big deal to work as a team.

Talents are different abilities or enhancements that you get to choose at certain levels and are different depending on the character/hero you are playing as.  Examples would be like increasing the damage of a certain spell, or being able to cast a shield now in addition to your normal 4 spells.  I basically pick talents that enhance my play style.  So if I like using a certain spell, I will pick talents that empower that specific spell over another.

There really isn't any last hitting.  Last hitting meaning you are the one to deal the killing blow to a minion/creep.  Basically in HotS you get experience just for being around things that die, so it is important to have people by dying creeps a lot of the time, otherwise you will fall behind in experience.

There are also some talents that say kill a certain number of things to get increased damage, but I'm not sure if you have to actually kill said things, or if you just had to damage them in a certain amount of time.

Another interesting difference is that when you play a hero, you gain experience outside of the match itself.  This goes towards that specific hero's level.  Raising a hero's level unlocks variation skin colors, mount colors, and sometimes gives you gold, which is the currency you buy new heroes with (if you don't want to spend real money).

Mo' Money, Mo' Heroes

The only real problem I have with HotS is how expensive it is to buy heroes with real money.  In League of Legends and Smite, I had no problem spending a couple of dollars here and there for cool skins or new champions, but in HotS, Blizzard is really trying to make their money back....Champions and skins cost between like $10-$15.  Sometimes there are sales for $5 but they seem to be on the cheaper heroes anyway.  That is expensive as hell, and unless something changes I don't plan on spending any real money on this game.

Also, most decent champions are between 7,000 and 10,000 gold, the in-game currency that you gain from playing matches.  You get 30 gold per win, and 20 per loss.....that is about 230 games, if you win them all, to get one 7000 gold (mid range) hero.

There are other ways to gain a little gold, and you really have to do them if you want to get anywhere.  There are "daily quests" that will say "play 3 games as a Warcraft Hero and get 300 gold".  It has seemed like it is typically play "A" amount of games and get "Ax100" gold.  Most quests have netted me between 200-300 extra gold, which is great...but still not enough.

And because of this, then you want to buy the heroes with real money because it takes so long to grind the gold for them....but then you are back to the expensive as hell part, and it is a vicious circle.

Conclusion

So in the end, I think Heroes of the Storm is a nice change of pace from the typical MOBAs I have played, and since it is Free To Play, I encourage everyone who enjoys League of Legend type MOBAs to at least try it.  But I don't know if I would invest much real money into it because it is so expensive.

Anyway, thanks for reading!

- Zach

Random - Ginger Chew incident

So today when I went to get a ginger chew (basically a piece of ginger "candy"), I opened it up to find this:

Now...to me it looks like someone took a bite of out of it, then wrapped it up and sent it on its way.  I don't know how they are packaged, so I'm not sure if that is a valid thought or not, and I suppose it could just be that individual chew just looks like that randomly.

Either way....I threw it away.  Not taking any chances.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting.

Thanks!

- Zach

Comic Cover - Update

Just a quick little update of some additional progress I have made while inking my comic cover.

I'm not super happy with the face, but I'll probably just fix it in photoshop.  Take a look!

Adding the inked shadows makes the cover look significantly darker...and I mean mood wise, not just the fact that it is actually darker....

Anyway, I think it's coming along, and I'm learning more with each page I try.  So I'll be a semi-pro in no time :-D

Thanks for checking it out!

- Zach

Comic Cover

Just wanted to show a quick update on my comic book class progress.  Yesterday I had some time to sit around and work on my cover.

I took some critiques from Ron and added the forest in the background, and that changed everything!  Anyway, take a look at what I am currently calling "Animal Kingdom".

- Zach

Jury Duty, Comic and Deadzone

Jury Duty

So I have been a little bit busy lately, specifically, I had jury duty last week and that threw a kink into my regularly scheduled life:

Lanyard we had to wear all the time

Basically, what happened was I was called in with like 200 other people, then they randomly selected us to go get into smaller groups for trials.  Then the attorneys got to look us over (like livestock at the State Fair) and ask us questions to see if they wanted us to be on their jury.  The process is much more boring than TV makes it look...I don't know how many hours we actually spent sitting in the jury room waiting for stuff to happen.  Anyway, I got on a civil trial, did my duty and here I am...hopefully a more well rounded person because of it.

Comic

Next on my list of updates, I am still taking my comic class for I think 3 more weeks.  This week we started making a cover, and I haven't gotten very far on that.  I did get a new addition to my technology family, though....I got an over-sized scanner, so I can start digitally coloring the pages I have done.  You would be surprised how difficult it is to find a scanner that can scan bigger than 8.5 x 11 (well at least at an actual store, I'm sure you can find something online).  

Anyway, my photoshop skills are pretty poor, but here is the beginning of the coloring of my first page, the cat guy hunting the boar.  

Scanned B&W page

Coloring has begun!

Again, it's pretty rough, and my digital coloring skills are bad...but it's a start at least. I think it looks pretty!  I also have no idea how actual comics are colored.  I like my style so far, but it seemed to be different than the few comics I have laying around my office.

Deadzone - Rebs video

Last thing to inform you about today, I added another video into my Deadzone series.  This one is about the Rebs faction.  They are rebels fighting against the big Corporation....type scenario.  They are ill-equipped compared to the Enforcers, and so must scavenge supplies.  The video just goes through the models I received in my Kickstarter package.

So in conclusion for today - jury duty, no so bad; comic creation, fun; Deadzone Rebs, watch the video.

Until next time, thanks!

- Zach

Comics and Class with Ron Wagner

For the past few weeks I have been taking a class from comic book artist Ron Wagner in Des Moines.  It has been a really fun experience, and already I think I have learned a lot from him.  I still have no idea what I'm doing overall, but I enjoy drawing and this has been something I've wanted to do for a long time, but never had the opportunity until now.

My history with comics:
I've never been one to run out to the comic book store every Wednesday to get the latest issue of Green Lantern, or whatever is cool right now :), but I have volumes of comics and graphic novels that I have collected since college.  These are things that I just thought looked "cool" because if something isn't visually stimulating, I'll have a hard time getting into it.  I've really been drawn towards things with lots of action and color (not a big fan of just straight black and white, although I have some).  I also pick things like this because I have no idea about the stories.  I don't know what multi-verse we are in right now, or what story is being told right at this minute, so all I've had to base my purchasing decisions on is the visuals, or if a friend has mentioned something, I suppose.  Anyway, long story short, I would call myself a casual comic reader.

I have only dabbled in comic drawing previously, and had no idea where to start.  I have made random panels, and some mini pages, and they all looked terrible.  Part of this was when I last tried comic art, which was before/during college, and also because I had no direction at the time.  I was just doing it to do it.  I have tried readying about comic drawing, and I have had difficulty learning anything from the books I own.  I just don't learn that way.  I am much more comfortable with people showing me something, then me going from there, which is why I have enjoyed watching Ron draw in our classes.  I could care less about me actually drawing in class; it is much more informative just watching his process.  I do appreciate the critiques we have been having on our work, though.  We will bring in what we are working on, and he will just magically (through his years of experience) tell us better ways to do something.  It's not in a mean way, he just says this doesn't work for me, try this.  And BAM your whole panel is better just from a little change in the angle of the view, or something like that.  It's amazing to watch.

In my first class with Ron we worked on some characters.  Our goal was make characters from 4 genres - Western, Monster, Romance, Sci Fi.  My characters didn't quite meet all of the genres, but the exercise was more about creating characters and less about the actual genres.


My first character was the riot squad type robot for my sci fi category.  Second was the sheriff crocodile.  Third was my monster/romance and the is the chick with the knife.  She was more of a metaphorical monster, rather than an actual "monster".  And then I rounded out my 4 with the cat warrior guy.  I suppose he could have been my monster, but I felt he was more of a good guy.

And now we have been working on making a "day in the life of" type of comic page.  I had a quick little story for the cat warrior, that I have been working on.

Original penciling	Added some ink and shading

We haven't actually talked much about inking yet, so the stuff I did above was just from the little bit in class then glancing through a couple comics I had sitting around from Free Comic Day.

There's more to my cat story, but this was the first page, and it's sort of a complete mini-story encompassed in one page. I have a couple more classes with Ron and hope to get some more tips/hints from him. He is very knowledgeable and a neat guy. I hope to have more interactions with him in the future.

Hopefully you enjoyed this. My hope is to continue with this comic drawing stuff. It is fun and seems to be a good medium for the stories that are spilling out of my brain.

Until next time,

 - Zach

Mother's Day (belated)

So Mother's Day was just this last weekend, and I did something a little bit creative, and thought it would be fun to show.

My parents really love the Despicable Me Minions, so I made a Minions Mother's Day card based on the scene from the second movie (I believe):


Anyway, it was fun to make, and my mother seemed to enjoy it, and in the end, that is what all holidays are about, so I'm calling it a success!

- Zach

Switch to "Getting Handsy"

It's been too long since my last post....but I have some interesting news!

I am slowly starting to switch over all of my "extra curriculars" to the Getting Handsy, let's call it "brand".

With this change has come more YouTube videos, and I hope to continue that.  Recently I have been uploading a number of unboxing videos and some craft-y Popsicle stick building ideas.

Anyway, keep an eye out for more changes and I get everything moved over.  Thanks!!!

- Zach

Stick People

Well I've been neglecting my internet obligations of late, so I apologize.  Busy, lazy, whatever...I haven't had much to put on here lately anyway.

But I was thinking that lately I have been seeing a ton of those stick people on cars.  The one that struck me the most, was one I saw the other day.  It had 2 parents and like 12 kids....not sure if it was a joke or real, but either way it got me to think...what would my stick people look like, if I were to put stick people on my car?  I decided to make one. 

If you don't know, I am single, have no kids, am pretty nerdy, and have 2 cats.  That is my life, I guess.  So I put together a set of "stick" figures that I think would be cool to have on my car to show people who I really am.

Ya, pretty badass in terms of stick people, if I do say so myself. 

Anyway, that is all for today.

- Zach

Vikings! and Cable TV ala carte

So when I was a kid, my family went back and forth between having cable tv and not having it.  It was this vicious cycle of having nothing to watch and having everything to watch but never wanting to watch any of it...or missing the only thing you wanted to watch.  In the end we gave it up completely.

When I left for college, every dorm room or apartment I lived in came with free cable, and it was great.  I got to catch up on all those shows that I had missed, and started a lot of new shows, but again, the problem came with timing.  If you wanted to watch a new show, you would have to be ready at the exact time the show is on.  I like to watch things when I'm trying to avoid being productive, or when I'm going to bed, and that doesn't always coincide with the timing of the tv programs that I liked to watch.

Then came along Netflix.  I can pick what to watch, when I want to watch it.  People say, "but Netflix doesn't have everything I want to watch"...neither does cable.  When was the last time you found an adult cartoon on at 9 am on tv...exactly.  If there is something I feel like watching, I see if Netflix has it.... and if it doesn't, I pick something like it. 

There is a minor problem with only having Netflix - there are a number of shows I would love to watch now that Netflix doesn't have.  These shows have new seasons coming out soon and I want to keep up.  I've heard Hulu might be something to try, but I didn't want to spend more money on another streaming service at this time, and they don't have everything I want to watch (Game of Thrones, being the big one).

I first saw a free episode of Vikings on my Xbox.  I really liked it...but again, no cable and I didn't want to pay $20+ to watch the episodes on my Xbox, so I just waited until it came out on dvd and bought it.  But now that the 2nd season is coming out, I really want to watch it now.  I am in that Vikings mood.

(I'm not the first to say this, and I won't be the last)
So my proposal is an "a la carte" system of cable channels.  Why get 200 channels when you know you will watch maybe 5-10 of them regularly. 

When I had cable I watched:
Cartoon Network
Comedy Central
Sci-fi (SyFy now)
FX (for Archer only)
Discovery
History
USA and TNT (pretty much the same channel in my opinion)

I never had HBO, but I would love to grab that on "a la carte".  Perhaps even Showtime as well. 

But out of 60+ channels that's all I watched. 

Anyway, get on that cable channel providers.  I can't guarantee I would pay what I can only imagine would be outrageous prices per channel, but just having the option would make me contemplate getting a channel or 10...

- Zach

Kickstarter: Mutant Chronicles Warzone

Warzone

I received another one of my Kickstarter tabletop war games called Mutant Chronicles: Warzone Resurrection.  It is another space fighty game from the looks of it.  This was early in my Kickstarter "career" so it is a much smaller order than some of my more recent ones.  Anyway, below is a quick look at the set I received.

Cats!

I also had some interesting experiences with my cats this weekend.  First, the box that my new game came in turned in to a nice Cat Trap.

Then I was playing hide and seek with my kitties, and Abby (shown above) decided to hide in the bathroom.  I don't think she understood the concept completely.

When I called her out, she proceeded to find a new hiding spot.



Sorry for the blurry, moving picture, but anyway, that's what I did this weekend. 

Fun times! (Wow I need a social life....)

- Zach



Game engines and Unity practice

I love playing video games...

And since I love playing them, I think it's only natural that I want to do more with them, such as create them.  I think of myself as fairly creative, so it makes sense to me that this would be the next step in my evolution from Gamer to Game Creator.

Now as far as my background goes into programming, it is a short list.  I pretty much only know the basics of programming logic.  I took a fairly low level class way back in high school (and I don't remember much of it), I know a little bit of HTML and I have taken an actual programming logic class.  The programming logic class was very helpful.  It made a lot of the ideas easier to comprehend when they aren't directly applied to a specific language.

So in the end, I understand the basic concepts, but I don't know an actual language.  I've been told the language is the easy part; it's basically just looking up the syntax for what language you are using, and using the basic programming logic of what you think you want to do, and plugging the two together (logic and language syntax).  Example: this should repeat; that means I need a loop; where's the syntax for a loop in Java, etc. etc.  Ya ya it's more than that just that, I know, but that's the basic idea.

Anyway, I've been looking for a way to get started learning something...anything...in the game design/programming area.  I recently took a class in Game Design from the local community college for fun, but it just wasn't what I expected.  They had us working in GameMaker creating a 2D side scrolling game, and that isn't what I picture my game to be.  GameMaker just didn't seem to meet the requirements I have set in my mind for the games I want to create.  It also wasn't as much of the actual programming as I had hoped for.  GameMaker has options to code directly, but for what we were doing it was pretty much just plug and play.  Plug this "block of code" into that "loop block", and done.

So I've done some reading and decided it's probably easier for me to start with a pre-made game engine (besides GameMaker, if you count that).  I don't know enough programming at this point to be able to make an engine myself, and I've read that it is very time and energy consuming because there is so much that goes in to it...so my thought is why waste time creating something that has already been made, when I could jump to the good part of making the actual game I want?

There are a bunch of engines already out there made exactly for this type of thing! Engines where noobs, such as myself, can jump right in and get their feet wet.  Well, some are more noob friendly...but that is what I found out in my research.  I've looked at Unreal, CryEngine, Frostbite, and Unity.  I love Unreal games, but I have looked at the engine, and it seems so daunting.  There is so much going on, and most of the tutorials you have to pay for, and to be honest, I'm pretty cheap when it comes to buying something I don't know if I'll like.

In the end I would like to advance to one of those super high quality engines like Unreal, CryEngine and Frostbite, but with what little I know, I've decided to start with Unity.  My understanding is that Unity can do a lot of what the "higher end" engines can do, just without necessarily all the graphics and physics capabilities.  Also I've read it's a bit easier to learn than the others.

Then since I had some free time today, I did one of the tutorials on Unity's site.

http://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/projects/space-shooter

It's for a simple space ship, shooting asteroids game.  I did it and it seems to work, although I can't find an easy way to just share it on here.  The only way I figured out so you can check it out is to go to my dropbox with the link below.  It should load up in your browser, but you may have to install the Unity plugin.

(You move with the arrow keys, and shoot with the left mouse button)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/260910663/Space_Shooter.html

Anyway, it was fun to create, and I look forward to making some of my own games in the near future...I have sooooo many ideas...just need to narrow them down to things that are actually feasible for me to make.  Keep checking back and we will see what I can come up with.

- Zach

ps. Let me know if that link doesn't work and I'll try something else.  Thanks!

Cat pics, Dreadball, Deadzone and a little bit of League of Legends!

Welcome back!

So it's been longer than I had hoped to get this post out, but with my addiction to Netflix, League of Legends, and a new routine to get back in shape, I haven't really been focused on writing anything.  But I figured what better way to get back into the spirit of the internet than to lead with a cat picture!

I will preface this picture with this:

In Iowa, it's been awhile since the sun has been out, and so when it was shining bright and early the other day, I just had to open the blinds...but that was a mistake.  As soon as the blinds went up, my two cats fell victim to that ray of death which came from the sun.

After a few healing potions, the kitties were good as new, though.

Dreadball

Over the holidays I had some time to hang out with a friend, and we played a couple games.  The first game we played was Dreadball, which I could see myself playing a lot more of.  It is fairly simple and quick to play, but with enough depth and strategy that it will take numerous play sessions to get good with a specific team.

At this time I only have the Deluxe starter set of Dreadball which includes 2 of the first 4 teams, the Corporation (humans) and the Orcs.  I believe their actual team names in the book are Trontek 29ers and the Greenmoon Smackers...or something to that affect.  If we start a league, I think we would make our own team names and such, but since we are just learning, I am okay with the standard team names.

Anyway, I was the Orcs, and my friend played the Corporation.  It was fairly uneventful for most of the game, just Guards slamming jacks left and right, but no scoring until the final couple of turns.

It ended up being a pretty epic showdown with my Orcs winning by 1 pt in the last turn. 

We are only playing with the basic rules, and so there is a lot more we can add to enhance the gameplay, like cards and a referee to watch for fouls.  There is so much more to the game that we haven't even scratched the surface of, and so I look forward to playing more games.

Deadzone

As I said before, I recently received my Kickstarter edition of Deadzone.  I have slowly...very slowly...been assembling my guys.  I have been working my way through all of the Plague faction bags that I received. 

This is a Stage 3 human.  I believe they refer to them as Stage 3A.

These are more Stage 3A's. 

This is a Plague Teraton (teleporting turtle).  It has other names, but I can't remember them at this time.

This is kind of an in-process shot of what I am currently working on and what I have already put together.

I still have about 2 more bags of Plague after this lot.  Then I will move on to one of the 3 other factions I have received: The Rebs, Enforcers or Marauders.

League of Legends

League of Legends season 4 just started, so I'll probably be focused on that for at least a while. 

For any of you who don't know what League of Legends is, it is a computer game known as a MOBA - Multiplayer Online Battle Arena.  Basically 2 teams fight to destroy each others base.  There are tons of different characters to fight as and each has unique abilities and play styles.

There is also competitive play, called Ranked play.  Each season is the new start of the ranked season, and resets everyone's stats and usually introduces changes to existing game mechanics to make things interesting. 

It has a tiered system to show the levels of skill:  Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Challenger.  I ended in the middle of Gold tier last season, and started this season a little higher than I ended, so I am already pleased.  My goal is to get to at least Platinum and that should be doable.  I am also trying to play positions I didn't get to play much last year.  I am already feeling positively about this season, so it should be a good one.

Anyway, this is what I have been up to lately.  I plan on posting more pictures of Deadzone as I get more models put together, and I hope to play more games of Dreadball, so we can talk about that as well.

- Zach





Animations from College

So I was digging through some of my files and found some animations I did for a science animation class in college.  Figured I might share them.  They are pretty crappy, but they were fun to make.

First one is an over simplification of Evolution. 

(Forewarning: the second creature is furry; it might be hard to tell in the animation)

Below is another project I created for the same science animation class.  This one was a take on "Deadliest Warrior", the tv show.  It is also less science-y and more just whatever I wanted to do.

If I find any others that might be mildly entertaining, I'll be sure to add them. 

- Zach