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Posts
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Quote:I don't allow "pawning" on my rigs anyway.This is where I hit a snag... Not even CR has the skillz enough to build a Uber enough computa to allow me to "pawn" anyone at anything...
Quote:Very cool...thanks Suichiro. I think I know what it is now.
During our phone conversation, CR and I were talking about a few different types of games, and gaming systems that we had both grown up playing. From the Atari 2600 to ColecoVision to Intellivision to Nintendo and so on... This is one of the surprises that CR was saving for me, so I'll let him explain it in more detail (if he chooses to). Basically, I'll be able to enjoy some of the old classics that some of us might have grown up playing as a kid.
Nice!!!! I'm loving it so far CR!
I cropped #6 to just barely show the bottom of the letters USB as a 2nd visual
clue in addition to the word convergence and while the brand is off (it's not a KiKi Joy)
Suichiro is correct, that is indeed an adapter to allow console controllers to be used
with USB for modern games (sometimes an analog stick is the right tool for the job)
like flight sims and fighting games... but it also lets you rock the classic games of Yore... more on that later.
Also since the theme of the PC is primarily black with blue accents and lighting
I went searching for one that was either blue or black (most are beige, ewww)
and found a blue one I also have a few other "blue" accessories to go with it.
P.S. It's triangular so as to be able to plug two controllers in at
once and go head to head with a buddy... or a wife.
Quote:I've been meaning to get an mp3 of the original Super Mario song, and replace that Windows start up sound... thanks for reminding me.
"Have no place I can be since I found Serenity... but you can't take the sky from meeeee"... yeah I'm a hardcore browncoat what of it?
It's built into the mother board right next to the 12 USB ports.
Quote:Hey now...it's was your guesses that got me on the hunt. If it weren't for those, I'd still be sitting here wondering. so...good job! -
Went and dug it out, here is that other thread for ya.
Oh and totally agree with Eddy get a good app like painter or photoshop
(or elements if on a budget) if you do not have one already.
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Well since no one else has answered this I will just say I was considering the same one
(was actually keeping my eyes peeled for a sale on an Intuos4).
It was answered in another thread by "Auntie" LJ that it makes a big difference to have double
the sensitivity but then again that is someone who has been using a tablet for years and someone
new to tablets may not notice as there is nothing to compare it to.
Also it is still a Wacom and even if it is their entry model it should be one of the better tablets out there.
Buying this as an entry point might be a good idea for Jr. and if he uses it all the time then down the road
maybe a nice Intuos 5 would be great, and if he out grows it or something better comes along then you are
not out much and got your moneys worth.
Last point... though he hasn't commented on this thread I do know that Eddy Swan does all his
amazing color work (when he is not using a mouse) on a Wacom Bamboo.
Hope this helps.
P.S. if you want more opinions from people that own one goto Amazon and look at their tablets there
are dozens more reviews than at Newegg. -
Well the Foo did say he planned to win by any means and then crow about it for years to come... I guess it starts now.
Congratz Foo! Knew ya could do it... and by a landslide too... more than 2 to 1 margin...
we are never going to hear the end of this are we?
Gratz Shia for going the the distance and putting up a valiant struggle until the end.
And thank you to all the artists involved for sharing your works with us over the last year.
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Quote:Correction... Photobucket does indeed have thumbnail capabilities same as IS does you just need to goYou need to host the images somewhere else, like PhotoBucket or ImageShack. Both of those places, once you upload the image there, should give you a "Forums" code that you copy and paste into a post here to display the image. I happen to prefer ImageShack, since it gives the option of either a full-sized image or a thumbnail, which Photobucket does not.
into the options and turn it on. I've posted the steps for this several times but just go
there and look in the menu... it's easy to figure out.
PB thumbnail ------------>
Oh and here is one of my canon themed heroes the Tick Tock Clock and his minions.
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Hahaha it does look a bit like a high tech tape dispenser... maybe some others have a guess as to what these mean/are?
I will give a small hint on #6... it has to do with convergence.
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It's taken me a while to decide but I'm going with the Foo.
Gratz to both for making it this far and for putting up great art for all of us to enjoy...
May the best FArt-ist win! -
While I have yet to do anything much with MA this looks interesting and I like the entrants so far. Thanks for the heads up Bubba.
Sorry to hear your laptop died Red... there seems to be a lot of that going around. Hey but at least it's a good time to buy a new one.
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The USB 3.0 spec was just ratified and is only just starting to appear on a very select few highend boards...
true there are no devices in existence yet that can make use of the "order-of-magnitude" (10x faster)
increase in throughput speed... but when there are Pyro will already be good to go.
SATA3 (called SATA 6G) on the other hand, while also a just released cutting edge tech, has devices (like SSD's in RAID)
that are starting to hit the limits of the current bandwidth limit imposed by SATA2 (commonly called SATA 3G
so as to confuse the hell out of people not familiar with PC specs and nomenclature) so this potential quadrupling
in speed (if raided) was needed a while back but is just now starting to appear.
The USB Power 3x is something new to accommodate those times when you plug in something and the system tells you not enough power for that
on the USB port for that... this particular motherboard can draw extra current from the PSU and triple the power to the USB ports to make sure that never happens. -
A few more tidbits.
Teaser 4... Did someone say future-proof???
Teaser5... It's good to have options.
Teaser6... Hmmm, what do we have here???
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Quote:This is your opinion and you are entitiled to it but I don't agree with you.Generally a parts list is posted before parts are ordered so the builder or buyer or both can get feed back on it from the community at large. This is done so that the buyer can find better deals or better parts. I'm not trying to be rude. I just don't understand the need for the secrecy. Given your old computer anything newer should be a big surprise for you as far as performance is concerned, even if you know the specs ahead of time, it wont compare to the experience of playing on your new computer.
Had Pyro wanted help from the community the OP would read "hey I'm thinking about getting a new machine
and I need some help on the parts so I can give a list to CR" or something to that effect rather than "hey this is
what's already happening and I wanted to share my experience with you all so you can all follow along and hopefully
gain some good insights and info to help if you are trying to decide on a custom rig yourself."
It's more of a I'm sharing info and my custom builder is willing to answer questions than a I can't decide
between X and Y any ideas? kind of thread.
Read through the OP again and I think you will see what we mean.
P.S. As for secrecy, if I have not mentioned it before already somewhere, let me say that I include not only
a parts list and receipt for the system but a CD (& a folder on his desktop) with multiple photos of of
every single part that went into it. Every relevant technology, spec, model number, serial number
and all warranty info in one place for easy reference. I know of NO OTHER builder
that provides this service at any price... much less as a free bonus.
Why is this important? Lets say 5 years down the road he has a problem with his ram
and someone asks him what kind he has? Most people have to hope they saved
the paperwork that came with their comp and dig through and then try to
make sense of what the receipt says if it even lists it at all
(many don't tell part names at all).
Pyro on the other hand can either open the folder on his desktop (or if the machine is
inoperative grab his CD receipt and load it into any other computer) and click through
to the section on RAM and there he will find several full color pics clearly showing
the brand, what make/model, the serial number, the sticker with the voltage
info and all the default timings for the BIOS and oh hey here is a card
that says I have a lifetime warranty on my premium ram from
the manufacturer that I forgot all about and here is the
number to call.
Once the system is delivered he can post up examples if he wants to but if he
chooses not to it's his call and it is certainly not a result of any secrecy on my part.
Quote:I know nothing about generally... I'm basically tech illiterate these days. Back when 1200 baud was cutting edge I actually knew about hardware and programming but alas, I got left behind decades ago
Anyway, I don't know for sure, but I think it's a deal where Pyro gave a price range he could spend and CR is building the most kick butt system he can for the money? So CR is having fun teasing Pyro about just how kick butt it is?
Quote:Or I could be totally wrong on all of the above,,, CR could just be trying to totally frustrate the technophiles... He does have a bit of a cruel streak.
Quote:I wouldn't know what the numbers or parts meant anyway... Once he does post an update I'm going to start talking about bacon in this thread just so I know what's going on!
If there is something you do not understand by all means ask and I or any of the other techies following along will answer I'm sure.
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Quote:I concur Arcanaville in that I have not witnessed an insta-load either but on my highly tuned and optimized R.A.I.D. arrays I doActually, your starting and zoning times wouldn't be bound by disk anymore, but sorry to say no instant zoning with the SSD. One of the first things I did after getting the new system up and running was copy the entire game client to a RAM disk to see what would happen. Honestly, it was only marginally faster than running off my internal drive.
I believe the bottleneck on zoning is due to the server having to send to the client an initial data bundle for the zone that is larger than the normal data stream it sends during gameplay. This is bandwidth-limited on the server-side (to prevent players with high bandwidth from starving out the other players) and places a limit on how fast you can zone no matter how fast your computer is. It seems to be about eight to ten seconds depending on zone.
On the other hand, *patching* the game client gets very zippy indeed.
PS: my guesses from the pictures were memory, SSD, and heat sink, but I didn't recognize the specific vendors. The memory was obvious, the SSD was obvious, but the heat sink was a lucky guess because I had recently done research on the heat sink changes between 1156 and 1366.
often see 6-7 second loads. My setup is highly tuned for gaming though and even my already blazing fast internet has been tweaked
so that gaming packets get priority over any other web traffic so it's as fast as I can possibly make it go and I can only guess
(no real way I know of to verify) that it's something on their (coh server side) end that prevents insta-zoning, that said on
most systems I would think the amount of delay caused by a slow machine and or interference (processes running
in the background) is far worse than the server side cap so the goal becomes to remove any bottlenecks
on your end and that is the best you can do. To that end there are a couple new technologies in this
setup that may have a bearing on this, the first being the Solid State Drive... the second I will
post more on a little bit later.
Also bear in mind, when you say it was only marginally faster than my hard drive, that you have one of the fastest single drives on the market.
The 7200.12 edition Seagates with Perpendicular Recording Technology (PRT) are just a hare slower than the Raptor drives drives from WD
and it doesn't get much faster without going to RAID's or SSD. Not everyone is on that end of the curve.
P.S. Guess 1 correct, guess 2 correct, guess 3 is close... the crossbow is not a heatsink but rather it is a mounting system
that makes heatsinks compatible with the newer sockets.
I wanted Pyro's system to be as future proof as possible so I went with the new 1156 socket. Plus some of the tech sites
claim there is a problem with the 1366 socket that can potentially leave an air gap with some coolers... Intel won't
confirm (yeah big surprise right?) but their future roadmap looks good for the 1156, there is an i3 coming
soon but it will be budget option and should not affect the 1156's long term viability, so this
looks to be the best choice for performance computing at this time.
Sidenote: Long before I found the art forums and began posting anything I only came to the forums when I couldn't find
an answer to a question anywhere else... often times there were a lot of people speculating or outright
guessing/arguing with almost no hard numbers to support their claims.
There were however a few who really knew their stuff and took the time to do the work and research to actually KNOW
before they posted. After a time of wading through the tons of nonsense I began to just seek out a handful of
names and wait to see their take on a given subject... right at the top of that short list was Arcanaville
and since I never got a chance to say it before.
Thank you.
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Ok sorry for the delay it's been a marathon last few days here but I have some time now and I will try and answer as many things as I can.
Quote:Gah don't tell me you are a Jewish Zombie now too?Okay Pyro, I admit, you need this way more than I do. My laptop was pretty much top of the line as far as laptops go when I got it and it's still at least lower end of middle ground overall. You my freind have a dinosaur that should have gone extinct years ago. I call it divine intervention from the gaming gods that gave your PC the boot. I may not have a top of the line machine but I can run things like Oblivion and Half Life 2 without very many hiccups. ChristopherRobin, you are to give this forumite the gaming machine of all gaming machines. If you don't I will eat you.Oh and no worries he will truly receive the gaming machine of his dreams.
Quote:P.S. CR, I'm moving locations in January to a studio apartment/dorm room at my new college and wanted to discuss some things about my new place and what it will mean as far as new output ports, stands and locking mechanisms. Anyone else is welcome to chime in as well.
if I missed anything let me know, and if you feel any of what I sent you is relevant or that peeps here can benefit
from it (like that half price powered hub) feel free to pass it along. Many of those questions are ones I get asked pretty frequently.
Quote:1. Yes it is awesome but any guess what it is?
Okay that looks like RAM but I can't really tell.
2. Nicely done SW and correct on both guesses. But there is even more to it than that.
Yay me! Oh wait there's more and am I SW??
3. Nope (funny guess though) lol complimentary crossbow... bolts not included... some assembly required.
Okay I'll take a CPU cooler mounting bracket for a big *** cpu cooler for $1000 CR...
2. My apologies Powerstream I have answer so many tells and emails lately I got your mixed up with something I was typing to Eddy about Starwind's
art we are working on (Eddy has more time now that classes are done) for him. I meant PS.
3. While not huge it is one of the best coolers on the market (in terms of performance and quietness) but it does not fit the latest greatest Intel socket
(only a very few do as the socket is very new) so I either had to use the lame freebie stock cooler (Blahhhhh... nevah!) or find some way to adapt it.
Turns out a different company makes an adapter for their own coolers that makes them compatible so I bought it
separately so Pyro can have the best of both worlds .
Plus a hard core bolt on mechanism (with steel tension springs) like the crossbow provides a greatly increased surface contact pressure for better heat
dissipation and will hold up to anything the shipping company throws at it far better than the Intel plastic push pins.
Quote:1. Kick butt memory chip.
2. Solid State drive. If your game files were on this, your load times would be close to nil.
3. Cooling system.
1. Yep
2. Yes it is currently one of the two best SSD's on the market. Not quite nil as you are still capped by the servers how fast
you can pull stuff down to your client but that will be Pyro's only limit now... his pc will not slow his load times anymore...
maps will load almost as fast as he can pull info down from the net.
And for games or applications that are local (i.e. do not use the web)... freakishly fast comes to mind.
3. Close.
Quote:did you google all that DE?
personally i'm a little tired of all this beating around the bush, I just want to see a parts list, would have preferred to see one before parts were ordered but too late for that.
sorry if i sound like an A$$ but it's friday, it's been a long week so my patience is nil and i'm comin down with a cold. life is peachy, (how is that not some rage releaseing youtube video?)) but I think you are missing the point of the thread.
You would have preferred to see the parts list before I ordered parts for a machine that is not even yours???
Not sure I understand this sentiment, are you looking at having one built or are you vicariously following along with Pyro's build but hate surprises?
Let me assure you were this your machine you would have all the info upfront. Most people people fall into one of two categories
"I don't care about any of that techno-babble just make sure it does what I need it to do and doesn't go over this price" and
" I want to know everything! What parts, what brands, what costs... what color shoes were you wearing when you ordered
my Power Supply?! Were they brown?? My wife hates brown!! Wear sneakers next time!"
I can accommodate both.
Quote:If my understanding is right, there was no parts list before they were ordered. I believe CR had a good idea of the specs he wanted to end up with and a price range he could spend in but that the exact parts were dependant upon sales and availability...
That aside, I believe Pyro is in the dark about much of the final product and is enjoying the suprise... Since he's paying we either have to play along or ignore the thread I guess
If I go with a custom rig (which I'm considering doing around the time GR comes out) and I decide to go with CR... I'll try to get him to be as upfront about everything as possible in a similiar thread since I know jack all about components and them being a suprise would mean little to me
where I learn what their needs and expectations are and how the new system will fit into their current space but around the
holidays it's all about knowing "ALL" the best parts that are compatible and will meet their needs and then seeing if any will go
on sale and if enough do I can give them a partial refund or (what happens more often) get them more and/or nicer stuff
which can change things around on a moments notice. I.E. "Saved two hundred here? oh cool now I can get that nicer motherboard
which means I need DDR3 instead of DDR2 and a better cooler and a set of right-angle SATA plugs cuz the videocard going
into the new mobo will now block some of the ports etc etc"
There are usually multiple lists (Version 1 Version 2 etc) and notes of what changes, if made, will require parts from what lists.
It's controlled chaos but it usually leads to the very best rigs I build all year.
P.S. ...and yeah this thread was Pyro's idea and it's his machine. When it's your dime you can play it however you wish.
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Quote:Well if you want a place to start there is always...I want to relearn to draw. I picked up a pencil and stared down at some paper yesterday, and then shook my head because I couldn't even pick a place to start. Yeesh.
Quote:Are you nuts? Saying something like that is just asking for ChristopherRobin to beat you over the head with the Hot Pencil - Quick Sketch Thread!!!
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=193833
Don't let the 5 minute rule scare ya, us non pro's get to cheat and take as much time as we wantAnd if I'm willing to post up my drivel in that thread there should be no reason for you to be scared to jump in!
Quote:Funny...I wanna go to work. Being unemployeed (still) gets kinda old after the third month. Everyone...enjoy your work day, rejoice your Fridays, and live your weekends.
Quote:I live in PA for three years (NE of Pilly about 45 min.) My first winter there was the worst one in 100 years, dropped something like 4' of snow overnight, shut down the entire state for a day or two.
My first day back to work the comments from some of the other folks made me rais an eyebrow at them. "Bein' from Cal-y-forn-eye-aye, you probably not use to this."
I looked over one shoulder around the shop, then the other shoulder, and responded...
"Guess that would explain why I'm one of only 4 people that showed up today..."
I've got a picture similar to the one Viv posted above, of my old truck half buried in snow.
Almost worse than lake effect snow (Wisconsin is a state of 10,000 or so lakes... yay us
) is "Plow Effect" snow. grumble grumble... bastiches!... grumble.
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Quote:Yay Vivace!Presenting, my first attempt at drawing anything other than smiley faces for my daughter in years.
Ignore the face. I ran out of time.And my 3yo was directing me, so...yeah. Enough excuses!
-hides away from the drawing world and goes back to taking pretty pictures-
EDIT: New topic (I think): City statues
Quick someone get the net-guns before she gets aw.. err I mean... welcome to The Hot Pencil.
Nice work on this, as already mentioned, your proportions came out quite good.
Great for a quick sketch... your little one directing you must be why it
came out so awesome.
I did have a question though, which category was this drawing for?
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Reminds? D'oh
To clarify I'm not bothered by borrowing a pose or most of the design elements if
it is intended to be a homage to the original. It however does bug me if the artist is
trying to pass it off as his/her own original work and subsequently profit from that deception. -
Yeah there are several bugs in the CC lately, shoulder plates floating behind on female forms,
faces being changed, or my personal favorite (read one I hate the most) the headband pokes out the back
of your head no matter how much you distort the head to "tuck it back in" and it's on at least one of
the hairstyles I use a lot.
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Quote:ummm her Sig?Personally it's not VexXxa's avatar I'd be trying to tag....
Hmmm, 0-2 on the tags (so far at least...) That categaory may not make the playoffs.
Must be a baseball joke I don't get or something.
P.S. Don't count that category out yet I still think David Nakayama will post a sketch at some point...
anything that encourages others to draw ya know?
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Quote:I'll let people take guesses and see what they come up with.Anyone other than CR (who obviously knows what he ordered) wanna take a guess or explain to me what I'm seeing here? I think the second pic would be the hard drive maybe. The other two...I've no idea.
Is the solid state 2.5" 60 GB a good thing? Crossbow? Gaming series (pic #1?)
EDIT: sorry, was seeing the 5" and didn't realize it was actuall 2.5" (I think)
It is indeed 2.5" but I cropped it so it doesn't give it away too easily.
Quote:Okay I'll give it a shot:
Teaser pic #1:
Teh Awesomes
Teaser pic #2:
Ok it really is a hard drive but looks like it also means this is the hardrive for OS ONLY no pr0n allowed here! And also means you are probably getting a ginormous storage drive... Just guesses
Teaser pic #3:
Sounds like he also bought you home security!
1. Yes it is awesome but any guess what it is?
2. Nicely done SW and correct on both guesses. But there is even more to it than that.
3. Nope (funny guess though) lol complimentary crossbow... bolts not included... some assembly required.
Quote:Ok...just to give you an idea of the computer that I currently have now (before it actually dies on me), and the basics of "how I have had to play the game" for 5 years now.
Ahhh...the wonderful Dell Dimension 8100
Purchased in 2001.
Intel(R) Premium(R) 4 CPU 1300 MHz
1.28 GHz, 1.25 GB of RAM (this is only after I added 2 sticks of 512...AFTER I had already been playing CoH a year).
I also added/upgraded to ATI Radeon 9550 vidcard (but something tells me that I have never gotten the full benefits from it).
So basically, you know the graphics slider in the game...the one that mentions "recommended"? Yeah, right!!! I have only used that "selection" in order to grab screenshots for reference of characters. I HAVE to play on the lowest graphic selection there is, AND tweak the other goodies down to practically ZERO.
Remember back in the good old days of the original Hami Raids? My first level 50 was an Illusion Controller, so I was often asked to join the "phase teams" that did the initial distraction runs. The lag was SOOooo bad, I couldn't keep up in the runs when it was my turn to go again. Team leaders hated me...and I hated that I couldn't participate when larger groups were involved (ran 2 Hami Raids in 5 years...and really didn't get to see the ones I did).
Zone PvP?...forget it. As long as there were only a few people in the zone, and spread out...I could do it. Larger events...lag kills everytime.
A good friend of mine that I introduced to the game was visiting, and wanted to check out the game from "my point of view". I managed to jump on a team of 7, several controllers (so you know graphics wise...I'm screwed).
He was speachless at first when he witnessed the lag, but then summed it up perfectly. "Wow...that looks like an impressive power point presentation!" We still laugh about that today.
So you see...THIS is why I'm having CR do it right. I love this game (my wife has mixed emotions), and I can't see myself continuing to enjoy it at the levels that I have been. It's going to be like a totally different game to me. What most of you see (and I'm only guessing) is what the dev's intended for you to see. I've yet to experience it...for 5 years.
xoxo
Pyro
PS - Get to work CR...I've beaten all of my TombRaider games, and Gran Turismo is getting a tad bit boring.
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Thanks again BW it was very informative. Heard you had some technical difficulties but right when I tuned in to the broadcast it all seemed to be working fine... I got skillz like that.
P.S. I hope you do make this a regular Thursday thing. -
Thanks Pyro... the mask obscuring most of Crestent's face makes him pretty easy to draw quickly.
I considered tagging VexXxa but her avatar seems to change every 5 minutes or so these days.
Quote:Haha awesome sketch man, love the... eh mullet.
I'll try to get back to this soon, but we've started on our research paper in English this week so I will probably be busy the next 2 weeks...
Oh and good luck with the research paper.
P.S. Lol that's not a mullet... these are mullets!
Oh and Updated List... just in case.
--------------------------------------------
CLOCKWORK (4)
PEREZ PARK (4)
FLYING (2)
WILLPOWER (2)
THE SKI CHALET (2)
FIRE BASE ZULU (2)
TRAMS (3)
SHIELDS (1)
MALTA(1)
SEWERS (2)
BADGES (2)
CIRCLE OF THORNS (3)
CROATOA (3)
ISSUE 18 WANTS (4)
ICON (1)
NERFED (1)
WTF? (4)
WENTWORTHS (1)
FREAKSHOW (2)
VAHZILOK (3)
MASTERMINDS
YOUR FIRST HERO (1)
DUAL WIELDING (1)
CATGIRLS (4)
SKULLS (2)
KNOCKBACK (1)
FREEDOM PHALANX
WHAT WOULD THEY (any mob) SAY??? (1)
MISSION FAILED (1)
PYRO EVENT HAPPENINGS
POWERS YOU LOVE/HATE (3)
TRICK OR TREATING/COSTUME CONTEST
GHOST OF SCRAPYARD
DARK ASTORIA
CARNIVAL OF SHADOWS (1)
GOING ROGUE
RIKTI WARZONE
BRICKSTOWN (1)
CHARACTER BUSTS (1)
TAG A FORUMITE (quick sketch the avatar of someone you want to join in) (2)
SOON TO BE GENERIC-IFIED
NPC's
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Newsflash!
Unbeknownst to Juggertha the forumite his Villain has apprently gone on
an artistic killing spree of other prominent members of the art forum!
Film (err artwork) at 11!
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For the category of "Tag You're It" I present....
---------Tag Crestent!----------
Wanted to do more with this one but I was already over on the time, about 8 minutes on this one.
Used some quick finger smudging to make it look like I did more shading than I really did.
Tag you're it Crestent! Now it's your turn to do a quick sketch.
New Category: NPC's