Music

It has been ages since I've written a thing. Needless to say I have been incredibly busy.

It turns out that a year and some months ago I started school at Full Sail University Online, and I am loving it. I am studying to become a music producer, or more specifically I want to write compositions for video games or film. Either way I would be happy.

So what have I been up to this whole time?

www.reverbnation.com/nicholasmwilkin

I started writing music like crazy! And on the page above you'll find some of my work. I really just wanted to share is all. It's been rough going but well worth it. Oddly enough I can write up ideas in hardly any time at all now and I've really only been writing in earnest for a couple of months. Funny how this seemingly inborn talent manifested itself so quickly once I chose to let it free.

I find myself now thinking of music constantly. Sometimes I wish I could just watch a movie without that train of thought going on all the time but I suppose it will make me a better composer. I just love how music can evoke any kind of emotion I want. And I always write for that reason. Everything I do is so visually based that it would be hard to do otherwise. I love telling stories with my music and having some mystery to them. The titles I choose usually give a hint as to what the actual "story" is behind the music, but I like to leave that to other people's imagination. One day I want to do some music videos that really capture some of my music's ideas in visual format. You'd think that after years and years and years of people writing music that you'd have heard everything there was to hear. Thankfully that is not the case, and I find this out every single day - and love it. Is it not incredible that every single composer has something different they hear in their head? And there have been thousands and thousands of them!

I am so glad that I found what I want to do for a living and I am going to pursue it with everything I have. There is so much beauty in music I could spend days just listening and never grow bored. And the best part about writing my own music is that I LIKE it. I like it so much that as my collection of pieces grows I may never have to listen to anything else again. Though, of course I will, I'm just saying I love what I do. It's going to be so neat to see where I am in a few years from now. If my skill at writing continues to increase, I'd imagine in a few years I will be able to do whatever I want.

At any rate, that was all I had for now.

CPU Mag Case Mod

I just found out yesterday that the case mod I did on my computer case is featured in CPU Magazine! How cool is that!? I had no idea until a friend of mine told me about it. Here are some shots for proof. Mine is the red and white case.

If you'd like to see the article in its entirety go here. It's under November's 2012 issue on page 44-45. Sweet!

Racer Modeling

Going through some tutorials on Digital Tutors. This is for a racer model that I finally finished modeling. I had to tweak a ton of vertices and edges because they seem to get added in weird places for no reason. I want to eventually go back and smooth out the rings surrounding the engines, as well as a lot of other stuff, but I'll do that some other day. Next up will be texturing!

Moon and Stars

A scene I am developing from "The Way of Kings" by Brandon Sanderson. I really liked the idea of the slaves looking out from their cart up onto the violet moon and red stars. I'll try and work it up a bit better and finish with color. The shading isn't that dark on the middle going right but whatever. I'll fix it. Just a concept thus far.

Dreams

I recently had a dream where I was standing on a cliff-side looking out over a vast open landscape. There was a gigantic broken mast coming up from the fog below and it pierced the sky far above my head. I stood there in the calm air looking out upon this object wondering what it was. It exuded an evil presence. So, I drew it out. This is just the rough draft of it, I've worked on it since. I'm considering putting it into photoshop and finishing it with colors.

The Well

An ink drawing I did that took nearly ten years to complete. If I had to call it something I'd call it "The Well". I really really like how it came out. Just wanted to post some artwork since it's been a while since I've posted anything.

Work work work...

Seems like I don't have much time to work on my model but I have been progressing slowly. The abomination is almost ready for priming and then the real fun begins. I discovered that when I glue parts together it is good practice to put a little too much glue in the gap areas and then simply wipe it off with a towel of some sort. This both gets rid of those unseemly glue blobs on the gaps as well as filling the gaps in nicely so I have less work later. After it dries it's a quick scrape with the exacto and I'm good to go. Sure beats having to try and use glue as a filler later on. Putty works great for the big gaps but it's a tad messy. I'll try and post shots of the filler I've done for both situations. Glue is much easier if the gap is small but has a tendency to run all over the place if I am not careful. I should look into thicker glues. Anyway, I now have the tail assembled and gap approved as well as a few other bits on the main body. I'll soon attach the lower right arm, some of the legs, do a bit of a cleanup and then some sort of QA over the whole model before I prime. Why do I take all the time to make it look pristine before I paint? Well, because this model is huge! Gaps and mold lines are even more obvious at this level and past that I don't like my stuff looking all hastily put together. If I am to paint it (or try to paint it) professionally then why not assembly professionally? I also think I am going to try a new method for basing. I know a lot of people like to glue the model to the base first thing and prime the sanded base with the rest of the model, but I have not had luck doing that. I always end up getting highlight paint as I am completing the base all over the model and it's a bummer. I suppose I could be more careful in the basing portion but I'm just going to make it easier by outlining the parts of the model that touch the base, then work around those outlines. I've seen GW do that with the Screaming Bell tutorial on their website so I figure I might as well give it a shot. Can't be that bad. I was also thinking of using some of the left over bits from the abomination to mod some of my rat ogres or something. Might look neat if I can do it right.

Well, that's all for now. I'll post pics of the final prepped model before I spray it. Should be fun!