largento

The page count will depend on how it's printed. If it's saddle-stitched (has staples on the spine), it will need to be set up to be a factor of 4. If it's perfect bound (glued to the spine), then it's only a factor of 2. Being as short as your book is, I would assume it would be saddle-stitched. Using CreateSpace, I would probably consider adapting the page count to what will provide the biggest margin of profit. :-) I would think they handle pagination, but if they don't I'd recommend putting together a simple chart to work out what pages would be on the same spread. For instance, if it's saddle-stitched, the first spread would have the last page on the left and the first page on the right of the spread, then the second spread would have the second page on the left and the second-to-last page on the right, etc. etc. The other thing to keep in mind is the physical size of the page and any bleed that might be used. I'd have to look, but I'm sure there's a standard bleed they'll require for anything that goes past the trim. Usually it's between 1/8" to 1/4" on all sides. It's always best to plan for the bleed, so you don't have to try to create bleed or risk having something important cut off. Also be mindful of their resolution requirements. Building the pages with their templates would be the best way to make sure that everything works. The scale material does give it some texture. Kind of looks like construction paper. I would look to see if the typeface has any licensing information. Given the fact that you'll be doing POD, I don't know that this would really qualify as a commercial venture.

That could be a very appealing way to go, Ken! The material Robert is talking about is what I did with the skin on the Glimey model. It's a material called "Scales2" (it's in the basic Data directory that is installed with A:M, look under materials/skin) and I set the scale to a very small value (5, I think.) Not sure what it would look like on flat surfaces and it does "break" in places.

Haha! That's great! You know, looking at the photos, it looks like the "gray" areas should be more metallic than a flat gray. I gather there were different looks from season to season. I found this company that will sell you a licensed automated replica for the low, low price of $24,500. :-) They look really amazing, though. The "design and construction" video on their video page shows a lot of details.

Lookin' good, Gerry! I agree with Ken about the irises. With them being black, they look like they are the pupils and that the irises are white... kinda' creepy. :-)

It does seem awfully dark on the ol' Jupiter 2, Al. Those cables make you wonder how many times he fell over. :-) Yeah, James Doohan was injured during WWII. Ironically he made it up the beach during D-Day only to be shot at night by friendly fire while going between command posts. He was shot 6 times! One of those bullets took out the middle finger of his right hand. With that knowledge, it's fun watching old episodes of Star Trek and seeing how much effort he puts into hiding his right hand.

Excellent job, Al! I was curious and did some reading on the costume. To move the robot on camera, they had a cable that some crewmembers would pull. To make it easier on the actor, there was a second version of the lower part of the costume that only came down to the actor's knees. They called it "The Bermudas" because it looked like shorts! I did a google image search hoping to turn up a picture of this, but like Scotty's missing middle finger, they must've gone out of their way not to photograph it.

Yes. There is no different in the file type.

He's really looking great, Al!

I guess you're just wanting to visually see what I mean by the tips I outlined? Here's a section at the bottom of the face, I just concentrated on the chin and the area directly below that: And here it is after making some modifications. To really see the benefits, these sort of modifications would need to be made along the entire length of the spline, since every curve has an effect on every other curve. Again, the idea is to try to even out the spacing between the splines. Using a low angle allowed me to see the curves in a way that I couldn't see them from the front or side. I used modifier keys to limit my movements. Mostly a combo of 1 and 3, so that my adjustments did not move them in the y axis. (Those adjustments, I would make in a front view.) This isn't my model, so I don't know what shape the final should be, I'm just doing it the way I would do it. The other two points I made (use only as many splines as you need to and position your hooks in places where there isn't much movement don't apply here, but I think they are self explanatory.) I don't view modeling as a science and I just feel my way around a model. I also am not one to say that there is only one way to do anything (I don't even follow that dictum in my own work). As such, I don't think I'd make a very good teacher. These suggestions mostly come from Barry Zundel's excellent tutorials (available at Lulu, do a search for them) and he does a way better job of explaining them than I could. :-) I cannot recommend them enough!

This a great showcase, Rodney! Some really cool images even *I* haven't come across!

Yes, and I said I didn't know how to do it because I never mess with biases. If I were to painstakingly go back through each CP and reset every bias handle... (I tried selecting the whole thing and mass changing them, but when I clicked on individual CPs, I still found they had varying settings) it would change the shape of the model and very likely the specific crease you wanted to smooth out would no longer be a crease. Too many things would have changed. I then gave the instructions of how I deal with making models smooth without using biases.

Why would there be a difference?

Really? A spline set to the default 0 is different than a spline with the default 0? Can you show a case of that? A spline with default bias settings has not had it's biases adjusted. However, if the biases have been adjusted, then the spline will not behave the same way: In this example: 1) spline with no bias adjustment 2) spline with center CP's bias adjusted 3) spline with no bias adjustment and moved center CP 4) spline with bias adjustment and moved center CP

Not when the biases have already been adjusted in the modeling process. They've already been "corrupted" and will no longer act like virgin splines. The tips I can offer are: 1) Try to keep even spacing between splines. Splines too close to other splines, cause ridges. good when you want ridges (I do this to give an "edge" to the lips of my characters), but not good when you want smooth. 2) Make adjustments using the constraining keys. This is a biggee. As much as possible, keep your splines on even planes to begin with. 3) Don't forget to look at your splines from above and below. When I began modeling, I tended to just look at the front and side view, but be aware that your curves should be curved when looking from above and below, too. 4) Only use as many splines as you need, but not any more than you need (less dense, less opportunities for hiccups) 5) Try to put your hooks in places where the skin of the character isn't going to move substantially (like the temples or the cranium).

I'm not putting myself on Jim & Will's level, but I don't ever use the bias controls in modeling. I keep them turned off (except when animating to use in the spline editor.)

Are you on a Mac? HDR input doesn't work on the Mac version.

Danger Will Robinson!

Thanks, Gene! Thanks, Paul!

Thanks, Homeslice! I'm missing it, too. I couldn't completely stay away and after a bunch of problems with our host server (and the site being down 3 days), I decided to move forward with redesigning the site for the relaunch at the beginning of November. The site was in desperate need of having the Wordpress/Comicpress installs updated, so it was pretty much a do-over. At least I was able to export all of the posts and comments and import them into the new one. I even found out how to make it so that it's located at the root directory, rather than having to go to another directory. Most of this Wordpress stuff is a mystery to me and most of the knowledge I've gained doing websites over the years with html is useless. It's a game of digging through all of the files and trying to guess what does what. Still some more things to do, but wanted to get it up and running *before* I started promoting the relaunch. Clicking on the banner in my sig will take you there, of course. :-)

Nice little jump there. :-)

Haha! He looks great!

I would take that spline that hooks in the space between eye and nose and run it across the nose.

Thanks, Andy! I'm afraid there's not going to be much of anything to see for awhile. Although I was hoping to build up a 10-week buffer for the strip, I'm going to have to settle for 7-weeks. My freelance work has pretty much dried up and I've got to spend some time focusing on getting some money coming in or else I'm going to be in big trouble. It's going to be tough not to work on this! I've really been enjoying the process, but I really enjoy having a place to live and food to eat, too. :-) If anybody knows of anyone who might benefit from my talents, let me know. It looks like there's not a whole lot out there right now...

#35 and the end of Chapter One!

Thanks for the suggestions, guys! In my thinking the whole Parrot thing is a case of "having is not so great a thing as wanting." He wants the validation of the Parrot Review Board to be a "real" pirate more than he actually wants a parrot. It's sort of the endless quest. If he ever got the goal, the story is over. David, monkeys are a whole other thing in the Wannabe Pirates. They are seen as being evil and are involved in something big and don't really interact much with people... except for Flemm who, unbeknownst to him is becoming the one human they view as a threat. Let's just say that in the future Flemm is going to have to deal with certain monkey assassins. All of this is upsetting to Flemm because he is completely fascinated by the monkeys and thinks they are funny and cute. Myron, a painted chicken is Flemm's go-to-substitute for a parrot. He used one to get the job in Henry Morgan's treasure and chickens play a significant role in this current story.