High noon and it's time to bubble

Time for another 7seas fishing item for Judi’s pier. Behold the bubble slinger, the worlds least threatening weapon (well perhaps beside the the ray of hope, but I digress). I don’t do that many weapons and none that actually work as weapons but I do find them entertaining to make. Though actual violence is no fun at all the same isn’t true of virtual violence. The bubble slinger is capable of no actual violence, except possible mental if you have a friend with a deep seated phobia of bubbles.

He's here to pull that troublesome set of teeth you have

Then its time for goblins. First up are a couple of dentists. This one specializes in tooth extraction, he doesn’t mess around with that one at a time tooth extraction work either, its the whole shebang.

Who doesn't like the sound of a dentist's drill?

This one wants to do exploratory drilling in your mouth. Maybe he’ll find oil or the source of your childhood trauma in there. If he had friends they could form a drill team.  On to the final goblin

Wide load

Finally is another avatar using my ape knuckle walker animation override. I have vastly exceeded the limits of good taste with the width of this one, which is to say he reminds me of some of my relatives. This just goes to show that overfeeding ones nightmarish pets can lead to health problems, such as being eaten in your sleep.

Servo whirring

I’ve been busy, but sick. Like any good animal knows this means hiding away in a dark hole till I recover.  So lets get down to business.

First off is a avatar that still needs some scripting, but is complete build wise. I was in the mood for some mechanical details so I went back to a concept I’d produced before, but never to a degree I was entirely content with, a mechanical dragon. I wanted a outer shell that was not the support mechanism for the structure surrounding some inner workings.  So I worked on that first and then added the supports and dodads that made it look functional. The end result? Roar!

Behold the poor photography!

Next is a couple of fellows with wheels. They are somewhat along the lines of my goblin rolling on a lizard but more mechanical.

Who runs Bartertown?

Its not chariots of fire, but chariots of something pointier. Getting the rotations to run at the right speed so that the frame rate doesn’t make the wheels look like they are going backwards proved the only problematic part for this fellow.

Happy fun ball it ain't

This one inspires me to start my own tilling and yard care service for virtual worlds but it turns out prim ground is to hard to till.

Probably a funky monkey junkie

I’d intended to do a knuckle walker for awhile now, as long as I was making animation overrides, so I went for it. If I was a steam punk tarzan I should imagine this would be among my best of friends.

Bird is a word

the next two look very similar but were constructed separately and one will fit on your shoulder and the other has a wing span of over half a football field (I suppose the other as a wing span of over half a Foosball field).

Big bird

They were done for a friend of a friend who needed some phoenixes to complete a in world adventure. I was fearful of the prim limits but I think they worked out nice enough even if I didn’t get to put the individual scales on their legs.

Mothara!

Finally I was given some land for a month and a half display. I went with another mechanical piece exploring a favorite theme among artists: metamorphosis. If widely explored it is none the less still compelling and still holds the same mysteries. Mine combines the theme with that of the transformation into a mechanical world that virtual worlds always brings to mind for me. That ends our round up for now.

Blech

While I was working other larger projects to near completion, I took some brakes out to refuel my mental rocket ship to the stars (some would argue I’d be likely grounded on the launch pad). I did this in my standard fashion (incidentally a standard fashion show involving a lot of anorexic models with flags would be awesome) I made weird avatars. First of is a little fellow I simple know as Mr. Blech. I secretly suspect that somewhere one of those poison stickers making the icky face wished it was a real boy and a very drunken fairy godmother said what the heck, mind you she might have been a bit soused for proper human formation but he’s at least animate.

Log rolling meets alligator wrestling

What do you get when you mix a pill bug, a deadly lizard, and a lumberjack log rollin’ contest? This guy. He rolls his little lizard along and urges it in the right direction with his lizard herding stick (way easier than herding cats). I used a fairly classic tiny avatar on a ball trick for this one, I can tell I have to do another one as its just too much fun to resist, maybe something rollerballesque.

Vee demant youh surrenter!

Last up is a fellow who speak on the dangers of arms races among the terminally witless. Just because you could throw another feature on something doesn’t mean you should. This little gremlin is clearly overcompensating.

Time to build anew tata for now.

Its like the hurdy gurdy man, man.

Time for more of the next musical series (eventually we will have more of these sthan Rocky has movies). First off is a plump little fellow who plays the hurdy gurdy. If you don’t know what the hurdy gurdy is you can come down to my local farmers market and listen to one. His arms are a bit short so I gave him a remote control hand robot to work the keys. Cranking also looked problematic so I helped him out by attaching a motor to it for him (people never attache motors to thing for me, no motor controlled spoon or even a descent automated pencil). He then just needed a custom hurdy gurdling (this word will take the nation by storm) animation and was ready to head off to get all gussied up with sounds by Lorin Tone.

I callz 'em Sitar Slim

Next up was the sitar, among the most recognizable of the instruments from India. I rather like the shape of the body of the instrument, but where I really had my fun was texturing. I decided I’d go bright and there was no force in the world that could have stopped me (unless it felt like it). I made up a quick gradient for all the striping on him and went to town. He uses the same animation override I used for the sarod which was very convenient after making so many custom ones that will probably not see a lot of future use (hey I am looking for a tiny misshapen drum player animation override with limited animations anyone have one? No one ever asks this.).

Vee vill playen zee fluten for zee yez?

Tipping the scales at 10 pounds soaking wet (4.5 kilograms for our more educated readers) its the tiniest of the band members. He comes from a high tech planet and doesn’t let his diminutive stature get int he way of his music (not unlike my wife and science). I wanted him to look alien and vaguely sharky or arguably sharky and vaguely alien. Even his flute is clearly made of high tech glowy stuff (the future will apparently blind us with its glow thus his need for goggles).

Do ray fa and some other singy stuff

Last but not least is our singer. He’s got a lot of mouths because that helps in singing (as we’ve learned from all the multi-mouthed singers of the past). He has backup singers in the rear also. I liked making the floaty space aged mics for this one also. The final touch was a swaying head(s) animation for singing and I was in business. Onward to the sandbox!

Go Johnny go

I must have been very bad in a past life (as compared to this one where I’ve been very good, at least when I tell the story). How else do you explain why I would purposely do a series of avatars that each require their own animation override?
First off is a little fellow named Dutar Dan. Having been told by Lorin Tone that I might enjoy making one I looked it up and sure enough its gorgeous.  Who couldn’t love an instrument with a neck like that? I also found out that the name, very fittingly, means two string.  I decided that the little fellow playing it had too short of arms so I gave him some robotic extenders. this one was the least trouble AO wise as its pretty much the sarod AO.

Plink plink

Karl was up next and his animation override was a bit of a challenge. Basically it has the basic shape of a quad, but the avatar is reclined rather than bent forward leaving the head in the back to merrily peck at the keys. I enjoyed doing the colors on this one as I had a lot of rainbowy (definitely a real word) room to play.

He charms snakes and takes them on dates.

The next one uses a nice little trick, it only uses one arm attachment point for both arms. This freed up the other arm to use to control the tail so it could bob and weave as needed. I did have some difficulty getting the side to side of the head and instrument to line up while playing not really sure why, but oh well. I enjoyed the strange beaver tail, not enough things have strange beaver tails. onto the next!

Beaty beat

Finally Tom enters the scene with some nice regional drums. The AO on this one is fairly simple as drumming just requires a bit of up and down movement. I liked posing the legs as I don’t do a lot of seated figures so it was a good opportunity. Onwards to building!

Fully built and operational fishing rod

Time again for more stuff for the alien isle’s 7seas setup. As I eagerly await the new avatar hiding goodness to roll out, I decided I’d do some fishing equipment (versus just weird garbage, my raison d-eter). Fishing poles!  I assume that people that fish want these (idle speculation on my part really). First up I did one in the style of the isle (a phrase the rolls off the tongue as well as the star Zuben Elgenubi) with clean shiny textures and enough glow to make it look like a neon sign production plant had a rave held in it. This one went together very easy as does everything in this style with its clean lines and simple shapes and texturing easy enough to make me forgive myself the shiny abuse.

Heck of a kisser too

The second one was an idea that will probably see several variations: the living pole (the jokes here are so obvious you don’t need my help filling them in). I had a hard time deciding between arthropod and chordates so in my usual way I just made it both (eat that taxonomists!). Though impossible to see in my typically poor picture, it has a cute little mouth that its fish impaling tongue sticks out of. My two-a-month minimum dosage completed, it was time to work on my next series of me and Lorin Tone’s musical avatars.

drummity drum

I received a list of musical instruments that Lorin thought would be fun to do. Upon review I determined that he was in fact not just right, but extremely right (do two extremely rights make a left?). It was full of instruments I’d never heard of and full of graceful lines fun features and interesting histories when I looked them up (they sounded neat too but that’s a recommendation from someone tone deaf and rhythmically impaired with a love of of such bands as cannibal corpse, so you should take Lorin’s word on matters of music). For this run I went with critters playing instruments as I like to keep each series different as possible so that people of all different tastes (read all different tastes for the bizarre) can enjoy them and because it makes them more fun to make them for me.

First off was the hudak, or talking drum. Apparently outlawed because slaves could use it to communicate and coordinate. Coming from what I hope to be a more freedom loving period my hudak player is in a more celebratory mood. Using the zig tiny animations as a base so that it would work well with as many tiny themed items as possible I made a custom animation override to give him a happy hoppy walk and allow him to beat his drum. Unlike some of my animations this one didn’t go into the teens for total uploads to get each animation at least passable (my cats stare at me when I shout Kkkaahhhnnn!).

Play it again Sam

Finlay it was time to make Sarod Sam. Just making the instrument for this fellow was highly enjoyable. I’d never heard of the sarod before but it only took a couple of pictures of its outline to convince me I should make one. I then just needed a critter to play it. I wanted something long necked because I thought it would complement the instrument, I also knew I needed long arms just to reach around said insturment. I just went from there and was rather pleased with results build wise. Next was the animation override which was tedious in the extreme with the avatar half folded like a tiny cruncher, but its arms extended fully and contorted into playing position. This took dozens of tries and adjustments, but it was well worth it to get the look I wanted. Now I just package them up and send them off to Lorin for the hard part while I sit back and torture some new prims. Mission accomplished (saddly I don’t get to wear the flight suit).

Squeal piggah!

Yes! More in my endless series of goblin avatars! I know you wait at the edge of your seat for small round things with teeth riding other things (also often with teeth). They keep my hands occupied while my head refuses to consider more taxing projects (not actual taxes though those got done months ago). The first of this batch is riding one of my ever numerous and multiplying totem creatures: The hog (also African cape hunting dogs, those things can put away pounds of food in seconds, I’m in love!). I rather enjoy making overweight things.  Be it corpulent demons, chubby mutants, or potbellied animals, I am ready. This is probably an extension of my real world desire to overfeed everyone.  Its best not to think about all of ones friends waddling around like overstuffed parodies of humanity at an all you can eat buffet (an imagine that will haunt my dreams for lives to come).

Vee Haf dem in site

Next up is a fellow who understands the high ground is what ones needs when sniping, especially when one is sniping with a plunger loaded in a cannon (not to be confused with snipe hunting which requires a brown paper bag). The stilts have drills on the bottom to assure maximum stability, clearly a danger to all that would stand a long ways away and oppose him.

Armored and Ignorant!

This goblin takes defense seriously (note the lack of silly glasses with a big nose and mustache attached). Well shielded on all parts with the exception of everything but his legs he clomps into battle fearing no foe (not to be confused with the fraternal order of eagles which I secretly believe to be a super villain group who’s real identity is the fraternal order of evil). He looks happy to me, or at least as happy as a creature strapped into a glorified tin can can be.

Gobble Gobble

The last one took a bit of extra work. I wanted it to both hop and snap its jaws a lot (no more than you are thinking), so it was time for another animation override (boo animation making). Having done a hopping animation before I felt well enough versed in that part leaving only the jaws. I decided on tiny little stubby t-rex arms so there would be no need for them to move and I used the arms to act as my jaws, kinda like if you put your arms in front of you and made munching motions (not unlike when I visit people with newborns). A dozen uploaded mistakes later I had what I needed. All that was left was to fill in the scaly skin and lots of teeth quota for the build. Thus complete I prepare myself mentally and physical for my next building project.

Peer into the noggin

I was in the mood to do some more arty art, so I decided I’d make something related to my reptilian level of social skills. Its called “Greetings “for the sake of brevity otherwise it would be called “mechanical I went through the motions of another greeting”, but that’s too long winded (I could have scored major pretentious points!). I set out to make the face in segments with no need for the impossible transition pieces necessary to make a more realistic face.

Oh hia

When finished with the exterior it was time to deal with the inside which I didn’t want to be a huge focus, but I wanted to feel complete so I added some functional looking things inside:

Painted in loving red!

And before that I churned out some more goblins while my brain was wooky (this should be a real word).

Buzz to the skies

The evolutionary niche for giant bugs that fly people around is now filled, you can quit selecting for it nature. Small things with missiles? Yeah I got that covered too:

full of smiles!

How about tiny animals that spit from atop your head? That’s old hat (note if I was more clever that could have been a pun involving things spitting from on top of a hat).

spit

Finally the pressing need for chubby things to ride around is getting filled also:

Shake a leg fatty!

Let see that smile one more time:

Awe!

Forward meat shield!

Having decided to continue to develop my goblin vs. child game I moved on to making the system this week. Game systems are something that, as an old pen an paper geek, I’ve worked on often.  I am of the opinion that some number crunching and some play testing are needed for a good one, but this isn’t Madcow’s Madhouse of Numbers (coming fall of 2013!) so I’ll spare you the details. The pertinent part here is that designing the game gives me insights as to what I will need to build to flesh it out. Because of the nature of it, most of the avatar things I do will be for the goblins not the children.  I’m also working on the goblin’s first. Expect some children’s accessories when I get to that part (I know you will hang on my every word till then). First thing I needed was some meat shields, things big enough to get in the way of a goblins attackers (and everyone else). The rotund fellow up there shows the benefits to overfeeding your nightmare creatures. Next I needed one that was more hostile looking easily made but hard to photograph (which combines with my lackluster photography to give you this big foot sighting like picture):

The hammer helps him steer it.

Next up I needed something small and bitey (it should be highly obvious I’m the one making up the system when that’s a requirement). I Decided that shoulder pets aren’t the way to go for creatures that don’t have shoulders, so I put it up on his hat. Note the ideal body to tooth mass of this creature, if only everyone could be so perfect:

Nom Nom nom

Finally I needed some gremlins (aka mechanically inclined goblins). I lacked two key categories: small defensive things, small melee things. For melee I decided the over sized weapon look would be necessary, but do to the small arms hand held didn’t seem the way to go. So I went for back mounted which worked out nicely. Toss in some sounds from Lorin Tone and my blade whirled away in an angry fashion.

Power Tools! In real life I fear them.

Finally for defensive options the mechanical articulated spiked turtle shell seemed the way to go (I know you were thinking the same thing). Working with link sets and rotating around a central prim makes aligning this go much quicker, try it you’ll like it! This one almost looks Mario Bro’s like, which though I dislike imitation I’m fine with subconscious childhood memories subtly tainting my actions.

Don't tread on me.

That batch completed its onwards to building!

The Cadillac of Hats

More goblins! They come from the dream land to eat you delicious babies (sometimes I put too much of myself into my creations). In this case they come with an awesome hat. The only problem with this avatar is resisting the urge to bump into people with it. But, in the end, provided that they are your friends (or at least pretending to be) who needs to resist. I love eyeless things with big teeth, its possible that as well as being the only eusocial mammal the naked mole rat is my totem animal (I am a nearly blind subterranean mammal low on hair after all). This one is clearly a bit puny for its rider, which gives it just the look I was going for (hat to mount ration is optimal).

Whhoooa there little doggy

This next goblin has enough walrus in his blood to inspire a heart felt coo coo ca choo. His little buddy is ant eater inspired, but with more ridiculous spindly legs (like pot bellied geeks and their chicken legs). I decided to have the goblin rest on the head of the creature rather than the back as to help it look more animate (much more animate than me in fact). The lack of head movement sometimes makes these guys a bit still for my taste, so the twitchy head motions help out. Someday I’ll probably make him spit too, but for now spitting is optional (unlike baseball where its mandatory).

Safer than your average jetliner.

Finally I made their more mechanically inclined cousin. He has developed a highly safe and efficient form or travel (for some values of the words safe and efficient). With a bit of modification I used the script from my escape squid so that he can erratically launch himself in a highly controlled manner (much like a kid who has down 50 pixie sticks has a highly controlled manner). All that’s left to do is add some sounds to these guys and they are done. I’ve even begun to seriously look into making the HUD for an RPG based on little fellows. Who knows maybe this project will eventually be more than an excuse to make silly avatars.  Let’s hope not though.