T w e n t y S i d e d
Heads up.
Wednesday is a holiday. I’m going to be goofing around instead of spending time on the website. DMotR will resume on Friday.
Faces
I’m working on a research project right now that involves deforming polygonal faces and bodies in real time. It’s strictly low-polygon stuff. I’ve had an itch to work on this sort of thing for years. The idea is to have a few basic controls that allows the user to radically change the appearance of the starting mesh. If you’ve played with the face builder in Oblivion then you have the basic idea, although the models I’m working with have a tiny fraction of the polygons to work with. (A wild guess tells me the Oblivion meshes are 5 to 10 times denser.)
What has shocked me is how easy it turned out to be. I thought I was going to need a lot of logic to manipulate points on a face. This is complex business, and I assumed it would need complex code. It doesn’t. The only real trick is identifying the right points on the mesh. Once you know which points make up the tip of the nose, you can pull them around in different ways to make different noses. It’s so simple it’s stupid. In fact, the surest way to make it work badly is to make the logic too complex. I keep trying to come up with more “intelligent” code that will do more with a face based on calculations, but the results are rarely as realistic as simply moving groups of points along an axis. For example, if you want higher or lower cheekbones, then identifying the “cheekbones” points yanking them down is much more effective than trying to analyze the shape of the cheekbones and re-create that shape using points in the desired location.
In the midst of this project, my wife has sent me this video:
Not realtime, but very, very interesting. I remember an episode of Star Trek: TNG where the ship’s computer reconstructed someone’s face based on a small portion available in a photograph. It seemed far-fetched at the time, but here we have the ability to turn flat photos into moveable 3d shapes, which is half the battle right there. Amazing.
DM of the Rings CXX:
Luck Thief
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “DM of the Rings CXX:
Luck Thief”
Cox Art
I just want to point out the great work John Cox has been putting up at his new site. I first discovered his work years ago by way of the political cartoons he does with Allen Forkum. (They’re Objectivists. I’m not, but their work is witty and wonderfully drawn and I always enjoy it, even when I disagree.) Now his new site gives everyone a chance to see what else he can do.
My favorite part of the site is the series of “Say What?” cartoons, which present an already-humorous image and and empty word bubble, with the implied challenge to commenters to fill in the word bubble with something witty. This is hilarious. This one is pretty good too.
He seems to update at least once a day as well. I can’t image how he keeps up. Brilliant stuff.
Idiot of the Week
Remember my Rollercoaster video from last year? This week I got a message from another YouTube user: [Link redacted: Please see the followup.]
Hey, im the original maker of the Bowling Plus Rollercoaster = fun!, I posted that video on www.thatvideosite.com on October 10, 2006 and then last posted it on youtube. Please remove the video now or state that i am the maker. Thank You
Astounding.
This is like walking up to a random stranger on the street and saying, “Excuse me sir, but you seem to be eating my ice cream cone.” You are lying to the one person in the world who is least likely to believe your lie. I didn’t bother asking him why, if he made the movie, he put my real name in the credits. He doesn’t seem to be a forward-thinker.
I can understand that there are idiots and freaks all over the internet, and I’m aware that YouTube tends to draw the wost ones, but it still amazes me when I run into these people and I get to see them do their thing. I’m captivated by this sort of behavior: What are these people like in real life? Could they possibly be this dumb and this dishonest and still survive?
Amazing.
DM of the Rings CXIX:
Oops.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “DM of the Rings CXIX:
Oops.”
Rewarding Negative Behavior
This week I posted almost nothing, aside from the comics. I realize that for a majority of my current readers this site is “The Comic, plus some other stuff”, but I still think of it as “my blog, plus this comic I’m doing.” For me, this week was hopelessly lame, because I didn’t get any of my writing done. I still have about a dozen half-written posts waiting to be finished. (I’m finished with Prey, I’m playing D&D again, and I’m working my way through a new anime series, all of which I intend to write about. Eventually.)
And now that I’ve utterly failed in my blogging duties, I see that many, many new people are visiting site and clicking the everlovin’ crap out of the ads in the sidebar. (BTW: Thanks. Seriously. Profusely. You people are great. I hope you found something good.) I can’t explain this upsurge in traffic this month (more than double last month) during the time in the year when I usually see a lull in traffic. Visits usually slow down in summer, but instead traffic is going way up. To all of you who are new to the site, thanks for coming. Have a look around the archives, if you like, maybe read some of my “best of” posts. Maybe visit some of my friends over there in my blogroll. Or just wait for the next comic, if that’s more your style. That’s cool too. You know. Whatever.
I will say this: If I were to do another comic – and I’m not saying one way or another what I plan to do, since I don’t really know yet – it would not appear on this blog. It would get a domain or a blog of its own, because this arrangement is oddly lopsided.
From The Archives:
Free Radical
The product of fandom run unchecked, this novel began as a short story and grew into something of a cult hit.
Trekrospective
A look back at Star Trek, from the Original Series to the Abrams Reboot.
The Death of Half-Life
Valve still hasn't admitted it, but the Half-Life franchise is dead. So what made these games so popular anyway?
Control
A wild game filled with wild ideas that features fun puzzles and mind-blowing environments. It has a great atmosphere, and one REALLY annoying flaw with its gameplay.
Best. Plot Twist. Ever.
Few people remember BioWare's Jade Empire, but it had a unique setting and a really well-executed plot twist.
Game at the Bottom
Why spend millions on visuals that are just a distraction from the REAL game of hotbar-watching?
Rage 2
The game was a dud, and I'm convinced a big part of that is due to the way the game leaned into its story. Its terrible, cringe-inducing story.
The Best of 2015
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2015.
If Star Wars Was Made in 2006?
Imagine if the original Star Wars hadn't appeared in the 1970's, but instead was pitched to studios in 2006. How would that turn out?
The Best of 2013
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2013.