Took me hours to decide on a name: The Artist’s Bane. A friend of mine came up with it, so I don’t take the credit on coming up with the name. But it is a good one.

I managed to get an affordable compression. I’d like to share them in case someone else is wondering what kind of compression works.

Specification as below:

High Quality: HDTV PAL. (1280×720, 25p)
I’m using Xvid MPEG-4 Codec with default settings.
Audio is compressed a lot: 8000kHz, 16-bit, Mono.

File size: ~320kb per 4 seconds of footage. 4.8Mb per minute.

I’m only speaking and it serves its purpose. If and when I have sound effects of music, I may have to up-spec the audio compression.

Low Quality: 640×360 25p
I’m using the standard FLV flash video setting.
Audio is also default.

File size: ~180kb per 4 seconds of footage. 2.7MB per minute.

The FLV is streamed online right on the site, as well as for podcasting RSS feed. The HQ version will be embedded on the site for download and archival purposes. :]

A few hours ago I decided to take my vocal skills a step ahead - going to buy an unidirectional microphone. I’m looking at around $40-$80 AUD in price range, a good entry-level professional recording device. I have a basement at home where it’s sound-proof - perfect for recording without extra noises, and hopefully by hearing myself singing I can figure out where my weaknesses are.

But the next thought kicked in. What about a podcast? I always wanted to do one, but never figured out why. I already have the awesome free software CamStudio for recording my computer screens; adding a microphone with a USB input, I would have all I need for a podcast in terms of equipment.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today I was glad to see the weather staying sunny, and decided to take the visit on a Monday. Fortunately, it soon occurred to me that today is also the birthday of Robert, son of the zoo manager Steve Irwin. He turned five on this day, and they had a special show an hour before the crocodile hunter show just for him. Too much kids dancing and music for me, though. :P But it was great fun.

Walked lots, been to all the places from 9:30 am to 2pm. The train from Chelmer to Beerwah took one transfer, and takes about an hour and a half single-trip. Not too bad. I spent all my time waiting/on the train reading Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, the third book The Dragon Reborn. Once I got off the train, a free bus took us from the station right in front of the zoo within 4 minutes.

The admission ticket for one single adult was $52 AUD though. Ouch. And I heard Seaworld here is even more expensive - I’ll find out later. But I must say the day in the zoo is a lot of fun. Wombats were bigger than I thought, and you can actually sit next to the kangaroos and pat them, or feed them with special food you can buy. The entire place is not too big; I could walk from the main entrance around and back within twenty minutes if I wanted to, but they had a lot of animals to see. If I had brought friends (don’t know anyone here yet), it might have taken a few more hours going around as well.

Anyways, some photos here. Enjoy. =]

I like the fence behind it in this picture, actually.

Eyes... so reflective. Like liquid chocolate.

Looking at me looking at you!

Yeah, totally gentleman-like.

Or lying down and enjoy the shade.

From a different angle.

The bird's name is Edward. Go figure.

Sleepeh..

Wombats are huge!

He's actually cleaning its teeth.

Walk... walk..

Statue of.. lion? What?

Great fun. Went out at 4:30 in the morning and shot some nice pictures with direct sunlight. It was so bright and gorgeous, I could not lie in bed and miss it.

Taken right in the entrance of the station.

Guess what, it's a pub!

Little big things . . .

Sunrise, with a twist.

Walking back on the Station Road.

It's the Shopping Centre complex.

Beautiful apartment design.

Birds!

Quick paint over to show the intended colour for the creature. Time to work on another project! :)

Joined a small team over at ModDB and started some freelance work. This creature was rather interesting to draw. A quick colour paint over is coming soon. =]

As much as I think that name is silly, I do have to admit that it’s quite convenient living here. The shopping centre (like a mall) is around 8 blocks away, and 2 blocks away for bus/train station. I have awesome mobility. Not to mention they seem to have every shop in the centre!

AirTrain, basically the train transportation in Australia.

Interesting tree I found near the bridge.

Wall decoration in Indooroopilly Train Station

Bridge connects Indooroopilly southward across the river.

Cool design near where I live.

Chelmer station. I get off here every day from places I go.

So, I got myself some markers, about roughly a little under two weeks ago. Haven’t been drawing much. Not enough, anyway. I have been busy with modding on Unreal Tournament III. It’s great fun.

After a few pictures with the markers initially, I went and bought the CG4 and WG4 to fill in the gap - so the picture shows my entire collection - currently. I have to be honest and say, I’m really not comfortable enough with value reduction, and these markers are pushing me to the limit. I can’t blend them without leaving a stroke. Very hard.

(CG stands for Cool Grey; WG, Warm Grey.)

So I drew a chart - that’s the picture - and experimented with blending, both with the same marker and with other markers I have. Here’s what I learned:

1. Apparently, they cap out at around 4 repeated strokes.
2. Markers close to their values (like CG2 and WG4, as opposed to WG4 and CG9) seem to override each other in terms of temperature. If you look at the table I drew, the line was made vertically first, and then horizontal. That means the lower left corner has the cool first, warm second, while the upper right corner has warm first, and then cool. What’s interesting about this, is that the last stroke applied determines the temperature. For example, CG2 first and then WG4, it’s cooler, while WG4 first and then CG2 second, it’s warmer.
3. The warmer ones blend less well. I don’t know why. It’s a feeling.
4. Even though the 120 Black is supposed to be . . . well, black, it still blends somewhat. As you can see, I can apply it over and over to about 4 times before it caps out. So it’s really not “black”.
5. I should have bought CG8 instead of CG9, so the gap is not so obvious. Stupid me. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently I successfully transferred to Software Engineering over at Griffith University. It’s going to be a 4-year full-time course, on campus, and I’m quite excited. As one who has a strong background in fine art and visual design, I’ve been always intrigued by the amazing computer technology - especially in the Computer Graphics industry - and I really would love to program for a game one day. Game Engine Architect is a title I’m working for right now, a stretched-out long-term goal I want to reach as soon as possible.

So I took a friend’s suggestion over at Gaming Artist forum and bought Unreal Tournament III. Totally beat that game in three days, and started doing tutorials I found online about modding. Like a Mutator, or an imported model. Read the rest of this entry »

And here goes my first celebration of my new website. This time I rewrote everything for the CSS, and implemented Wordpress as my main CMS. It’s about at the stage where it’s fully functional and I hope you enjoy the rest.

I’ve added a few things since the last post:
- My portfolio
- Commission details
- Photography gallery

Poke around and leave me a comment! Also, stay tuned by subscribing to the RSS (link is to the right of About on the top) is also a good way to keep an eye on me.

Last, but not least, get Firefox! Also get Flash Player while you’re at it. Internet Explorer by default blocks all the Flash content, and doesn’t do z-index correctly. It’s ugly.

Have a great day!