Lucky Number 2D6

Taking a break

I'm afraid that, given how little time I'm spending using it and my current financial situation, Lucky Number 2d6 is going to be taking a break for a while.

I may look into relaunching via one of the free blogging services, or perhaps starting a different blog with a narrower focus, I'm not sure just yet. Based on past history, I have the feeling that I'll be back here at some point, but until then, take care and have fun. =)

Merry Christmas and all that stuff

Well, as is pretty obvious from the lack of recent posts, I got a bit distracted over the last month and haven't been keeping things up to date around here. I'll be trying to be a bit more regular with the new posts in the new year, but for now, just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year - hope you all enjoy the holidays and have fun.

Superman car complete

Finally finished my first car design in Forza 3, which I've been blogging about over the last few weeks as I worked on it. I decided to use the HKS Genesis from the first DLC pack as the 'canvas', since I'd just bought one to see what it was like.

I actually find laying out a complete car design much trickier than creating the images for it, so I'd been experimenting with a few ideas as I worked on the vinyls. After trying a few things, I settled on something I was pretty happy with, and as other people seemed to like it as well (thanks to the Sams for their kind words), I've taken the plunge and put it up for sale on my in-game 'Storefront'.

Here's a 'montage' of the car in action:

And here are close-ups of the sides:

(If you happen to own Forza 3 and would like a copy of your very own, you should be able to find the design by searching on the Storefront for Superman/Batman, BigBadB UK or Big Bad Racing. Even if you don't buy it, feel free to rate the design so I can see what people think.)

Next up will be the second version of the design, featuring Batman. No idea when it'll be done, I'm afraid, but I'll post some pics when it is.

Back in the paintshop

Just finished the second image for the Superman/Batman series of designs I'm working on in Forza 3:

Next it's time to work on some logos and other bits and pieces before trying to put everything together on a car.

Not dead, just busy

Been quiet around here for a while now, thanks largely to a stinking cold and a job interview (not the ideal combination, but fingers crossed), as well as my innate laziness. I'll try to post a bit more regularly this week, but in the meantime, here's a quick summary of things I have seen/done/played:

• 500 Days of Summer is a fun reaction to rom-coms, and one of those rare movies where the ending is actually the best bit, as opposed to tacked on, implausible, just downright bad, or some combination of all three. Dead Air is okay, but not as well produced, intelligent or effective as the almost-identical-in-basic-premise Pontypool. Pandorum and Spread are both extremely forgettable. Gamer is just downright bad. And not in that appealing, so-bad-it's-actually-genius way, just in a bad way.
• Have been working my way through Seinfeld, finally. It takes some time to find its rhythm, and the short first season is very weak, but it gets much better from the second season on, and I can already see why it was such a big hit in its day. 
• Haven't seen the latest Doctor Who special yet, but I do have it recorded for a rainy afternoon, which are becoming increasingly frequent here in sunny Brighton.
• Modern Warfare 2 is very slick and very good, at least in multiplayer - haven't actually done much single player yet, as online always beckons. It's definitely more of an evolution than a revolution, but when the previous version was so strong, that's no bad thing.
• Work on the Superman car design for Forza 3 has been slow, but I'm hoping to have something to show for it this week.

Once more unto the paintshop, part 5

Finally, the first image of Superman is complete, at least for now. I tend to keep messing around with things for a while after 'finishing' a vinyl design, cleaning up lines and making small adjustments to things that I notice aren't quite right, and it's likely that I may do some more work on the cape, depending on how many layers the rest of the final car design uses up.

Anyway, here are the last stages of the design. First, I cleaned up the face a little and blocked in the basic outline of the cape:

Then did the first pass on the shading for the main figure and face, as well as adding a little more detail to the shading on the fist:

Then, finally, the line work and some basic shading on the cape finishes things off (well, like I said, for now anyway):

Next up will be the second image, a close-up of Supes' head and shoulders for the other side of the car. I probably won't bother with lots of 'stage by stage' shots for this one, but I'll post a pic when it's done.

As anyone who's been following this will have realised, I don't work very fast, just doing a little bit here and there as the mood takes me, but the second image is a lot simpler, so I'm hoping to get it done relatively quickly. Then it'll be time for the Superman/Batman logo and putting it all together on a car, before moving on to the Batman version. I still don't have any real idea what car I'm going to use, so if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to leave a comment.

Once more unto the paintshop, part 4

Got the first pass at the line work for head and face done. Unfortunately, while it looks pretty good in the editor, once it's on the car the scaling messes up a lot of the detail, especially around the nose:

I'll have to give it a revision, thickening some of the lines and simplifying some of the shapes so that they remain visible at 'on car' size. Once that's done, it'll be time to get to work on the shading for the whole figure.

Once more unto the paintshop, part 3

Been managing to fit in the odd hour or two in the Forza 3 paintshop, which combined with my slow pace means that there's still a way to go on my first design. On the plus side, I am getting faster as I get used to the new control layout, and I'm starting to get a better feel for how much detail will actually come through at 'usable' size. (One of the main reasons it takes me so long to get anything done is that I'm a bit obsessive about detail, and often spend lots of time on things that don't actually show up very well when the design is shrunk down to fit on a car.)

I got most of the black line work on the main figure finished first, along with the basic detail for the belt and trunks. The 'place markers' for the left-hand side of the cape and the neck are just to get the relative positions right - I'll work more on those later:

This evening I took a first pass at the chest emblem, which wasn't quite as tricky as I expected, but took more layers than I'd like. After looking at the pics, it seems I'm going to need to thicken up the black outlines, and I may change some of the proportions at the same time to make the central 'S' stronger - the lines are a little thin on this version:

Once I've mucked about with the emblem a little more, it'll be time to tackle the head and all-important face.

Doing bonfire night right

After something like five years in Brighton, I finally made it over to Lewes for Bonfire Night yesterday, and it was definitely an experience. I knew that it was supposed to be a big deal, but didn't quite grasp how much time and effort the inhabitants of this usually sleepy little town throw into a night of pyrotechnic mayhem, or quite how many people would be packing the streets (and this was supposedly a 'quiet' year).

Of course, what with low light conditions, constant jostling and ever-increasing state of inebriation, hardly any of the dozens of snaps I took with my phone camera actually amounted to anything beyond indistinct blurs of flame against black backgrounds, but I am glad that this one came out - the juxtaposition struck me as immensely amusing at the time...

Here's one of the only other shots that came out quite well, although it didn't really pick up the haze of smoke that by this time had settling over all the main streets of the town centre from the near-constant torch-lit processions and countless firecrackers that they strew along their routes...

Thanks to Sam for hosting the evening, and the people of Lewes for unleashing their pyromania in such memorable fashion.

Once more unto the paintshop, part 2

Busy day with job hunting and related activities, but found some time this afternoon to finish the outline of the rest of the figure, apart from the head and cloak - the former because faces are so important to get right that I wanted to get back into practise with the rest first, the latter because you only get 1,000 layers and I want to see how many everything else takes before deciding how detailed the cloak will be:

It was then a fairly simple matter to fill in the block colour for most of the figure, and delete the pale green outline that I'd been using as a guide. I'm not entirely convinced about the blue I've chosen as a base, but I didn't want to get bogged down in choosing just the right shade. It can be changed later if necessary, and this way I can get started on the details and shading tomorrow. Once that's done, I'll get the trunks and belt (which should be simple) and the chest emblem (which I suspect will be a nightmare) done before moving on to the head and cape:

Fans of 'sequential art' will probably be able to make a fairly good guess at the identity of the superhero in question now the blue's gone in, if the pose alone hadn't given it away...