Season of Fruitlessness

I’m more ‘creative’ (Photoshop, Bryce 3D etc) when it’s summer and the days are brighter and warmer. In winter I spend less time in such projects… and it’s happening again now. Halloween is not all that far off… the days are cold and rainy, and my room is chilly and dark. It is driving me back downstairs to read a book!

People are affected differently by the seasons, but perhaps I would feel more creative at this time of year if we were living in a hot country or a brighter, warmer house.

I’m in more of a ‘blogging’ frame of mind than I’ve been all year, though. I suspect other interests have shifted, leaving more room for that. I’ve been looking around  and reading more; wondering more about other bloggers. I doubt if I will be here every day, especially if I’m so cold that I’ve taken refuge downstairs… but I have more appetite for it.

Sometimes I miss being young… I used to feel there was no limit to what you could do or write about. To think of something was to write, and I didn’t worry about originality as such… if it came from me and wasn’t a repeat of something I remembered reading or hearing somewhere else, then it was original. I wasn’t stupid — I realized that true originality is rare… ideas are derivative and people often think the same thoughts independently. But the world seemed big enough and diverse enough to bear it.

The reason I miss my naivety is that my world seems to have shrunk… I have fewer options and less faith that I will write about the right things in the right way. I’m no longer some carefree child leaping off the plank at the deep end, sure that I will swim, and swim well.

I wonder if the internet has added to this over-flowing cup? My pictures are the same as everybody else’s, and there is nothing new under the sun. Some articles, discussions and reviews are repeated word-for-word on different sites, and it doesn’t matter how hard you try at something, there’s always someone else who does it better.

Anyway, when the weather takes a nose-dive, so does my mood. Perhaps switching off and reading a book is not such a bad idea!

Not a Picasso: Update

I finally finished my ‘Not a Picasso’ wallpaper, and it’s looking OK. A bit better than I feared it might, though it still has its faults. But as it’s late at night, maybe I’ll just (hum haw) sit on it for a while… you know, there are some flaws I definitely have to fix; irritating things that wouldn’t even be there if you had noticed them happening along the way… but if you notice it too late, you can’t go back to an earlier stage without losing something you’d carefully done at a later stage….

Grizzle.

Anyway, it needs my signature, and a little description thingy written up for it, but I’m too tired just now. I’ll do it tomorrow… if the time feels right, don’t you know!

Persnickety Pie

Oops, didn’t mean to stay away so long. I was reading Windlord by Michael Scott, rearranging furniture, fighting minor infections and creating desktop wallpapers… few of which I actually posted! It’s my perfectionist streak. Even if the wallpaper itself has nothing much to blush about, the time has to be perfect for posting it. Maybe I could save it for a small contest, or it depends on the right atmosphere, or time of day… but I’m too persnickety about what is ‘right’.

It’s the same with the blog; I haven’t stopped writing posts, but I leave them overnight, reread them the next day, and shudder. I don’t know if that technique is doing much for its survival.

The other evening, my sister made a huge pot of her famous lentil pie. I would never refuse it, as it tastes good and is the ultimate comfort food… it’s ironic that I confided to Mum that I associate the pie with receiving bad news! She said she has the same experience every time she sees a spider brooch, as she bought one the same day she received similar news. “It’s how superstitions start,” she said. Now, will I think about spider jewellery every time E makes her pie, and will Mum will think about pie every time she sees a spidery brooch?

Lentil Pie and Decorative Spider

I only meant to do a black and white doodle… perhaps I can’t help myself. The colours will out!

Friday Hair Blogging

We both have colds… Mum had to cancel her flu jab. I told her next year she should make sure of having the flu jab before she starts playing Bridge! The nurse says her chest sounds like an organ. I’m not like that but I feel funny around the middle… sort of cold.

So, keep away…..

Just now we were watching The Coach Trip (one of their eternal repeats) and a couple of men said (rather sadly) that they are good at annoying people without meaning to. “Yes,” confirmed one of them; “it’s very easy, really.”

“Actually,” I said to Mum, “it IS easy to annoy people. It’s as though they think they can pick and choose their friends, and that there will always be new ones along. Not like in the old village communities!”
“There, people picked their enemies and stayed with them,” said Mum.

One of the boys on The Coach Trip was saying how he rather hated two of the girls, but instead of making up with them, he continued to keep his distance as it was easier just to make up his mind and stick with it. I wonder if it’s important for human beings to be able to say “I really don’t like so-and-so,” as a matter of pride. It seems to be a way of expressing your identity, particularly if a whole group of people decide that So-and-So really isn’t cool.

I keep musing about friendships, don’t I!

Anyway, to explain the title of this blog post, I came here to apologize for being so quiet, and to show you one of the reasons I have been ‘away’… trying to draw hair and fur in Photoshop! It’s not easy. It sounds easy when you know how, but all of the time you’re working on it, it looks terrible, till suddenly (after several minutes of slaving) it begins to look possible. And you have an unsettling feeling that it could easily go bad, or not be a success at all. Maybe it will be a bad hair day!

PS: The Pom-Pom was the most aggravating to make. And WordPress crunched my last hair picture when uploading… Now it looks duller than it was. I hate having things forced on me… like with the double-glazing regulations!! But that’s another story.

Experimental hair drawing

Colourful Pom Pom made in Photoshop

Hairy Heart made in Photoshop

Mousy hair drawn in Photoshop

Still Battling with Files

I’ve been offline a few days because we were near the end of our 2GB download limit for the month! I haven’t done much online so was surprised… I can only think that the ethernet transfer of files between my computers was doing it, but I don’t know if that counts or not.

Anyway, we should find an ISP that gives us a better download limit. I tend to make the mistake of checking to find out what other people think of various ISPs, and they have such horror stories that I get put off! But the problems people have are sometimes individual to them and their circumstances, and they don’t always recognize that.

I still remember allowing Amazon reviews to put me off a book, but when I saw it in the library, I borrowed it, and thought it was good.

Dragging up files from the depths of my storage folders has led to strange experiences. Some files are damaged, but mostly I’m able to replace them with healthy ones. Sometimes the files aren’t of recognizable types, but IrfanView says something like “this is a .psd file with the wrong extension — should I rename it?” and after that, all the other applications are able to open the file as well. Sometimes I could rename files myself, and other times only IrfanView is able to do it… strange. Very useful little program, though!

That doesn’t mean it doesn’t make mistakes… I came across a bunch of .PSF files and assumed they had something to do with Paint Shop Pro… but it couldn’t open them. IrfanView said they were really JPEGs and renamed them. After that, they opened in everything except Apple’s Preview, which insisted there was something funny about them. Finally I realized they were PhotoStudio files, and PhotoStudio can open them perfectly happily without messing around turning them into JPEGs! So I threw those strange hybrids out, and put the original .PSFs in a folder labelled PHOTOSTUDIO.

The reason I was so ready to believe they were really JPEGs was that the Toshiba’s mammoth crash a few months ago damaged files in weird ways… for instance, a Photoshop image of flowers is now named after a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. For some reason that reminds me of the bowl of petunias in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy!

The Toshiba’s crash was so bad that I could only save my files by using Linux to boot up the laptop. The recovery CDs did not a thing.

Anyway, it’s funny how quickly you forget what files are and how you made them. When they’re created in something you use a lot, it’s fine, but if you just tried an application a few times and then moved on, it can be hard to remember. A couple of times I found I was dealing with Paint Shop Pro presets, not actual images. PSP is a program I used a lot in the past. It has a complex raft of presets behind the scenes; I was happy to make lots of custom presets without always knowing what file type they were saved as. You were saving settings and that was all you knew about it, though I had a good radar for the PSP gradients (just change the extension and they can be used in Photoshop Elements!)

The image below shows one of my ‘unavailable files’ (looks as though the mouse has left home) but I was able to open it. A resave mended the thumbnail so that it recovered its body and colours! It’s hardly high art, but I see these things through rose-tinted spectacles now… like finding a much-loved old teddy bear and making sure it’s on a shelf nearby.

Mouse Unavailable at This Time

The reorganization continues…

The Fog, the Fog!

When I’m working in the Bryce 3D image application, I sound like Hammy the Squirrel from Over the Hedge. After lots of puzzling over something I don’t understand, such as a strange transparent boundary that’s ruining my object mask, the penny suddenly drops…

“It was the vapour! OHHHHHHH!”

Shortly afterwards: “what’s that radial light doing in the clouds?? I thought it was down in that dark bit. I wondered why it was still dark there…”

Total 3D scatterbrain. I just want to speed-speed-speed up and down the 3D hedge, but the Bryce renders don’t keep up with my ideas. Sigh.

Mum, after days of watching me poring intently over the rock texture of a recalcitrant volcano, said she’ll soon be calling me Slartibartfast. You wouldn’t want me as a real-world Slartibartfast, but I would love a nice big Slartibartfast desktop picture, preferably of Bill Nighy. Only I don’t have time, so I hope someone else makes one.

“That was one of mine. Won an award, you know. Lovely crinkly edges.”

I wish.

PS: the above picture was the render zapped by the Windows update. Or should I say, its successor… It took 12 hours 16 minutes, so I was spot on about the time. I’ve been tearing my hair out because it looks bright and clear on the new Mac, and murky and horrid on the old one! I bet all of Slartibartfast’s computers are perfectly calibrated.

Forced Reboot

My iMac desktop computer restarted itself in the early hours of this morning. This is the first time I was aware of Windows restarting without permission — and I was surprised. At first I wondered if there had been a power cut during the night. But I knew there hadn’t been, as my Toshiba laptop was still on and logged in.

I normally save my work and turn everything off at night or when going out, but last night I had a Bryce ‘final render’ taking place (probably 12 hours or more).  It’s recommended (by other CGI users) to leave the computer rendering overnight so that you can work during the day. The thing is, there is no autosave of the render, so you have to save it yourself once it’s done.

I got up this morning expecting to see a nice bright picture and a flag saying “this render took 12 hours, 15 minutes and 1 second!” Instead I found myself looking at a desktop with no application open. Furthermore, I wasn’t in Vista any more, I was in Snow Leopard! (I have Bootcamp, so the machine runs both operating systems. A restart in Vista always takes me back to Snow Leopard, unless I’m holding down the Alt key to give me an option).

Talk about confused.

I went back into Vista, and it told me there were Windows updates installing and I was to wait till it was done. Then it let me in, and I found that I’d lost the fine render of overnight… it had reverted back to the rough draft I’d saved earlier. I was absolutely spitting!! I did not realize it could or would reboot without direct permission from me.

I looked online and in fact it seems to be a well-documented issue! It has happened to very many people, some of them losing hours of work. One unfortunate man had his computer shut down in the middle of an important Powerpoint presentation. He said there was a warning notification, but he didn’t see it because he was facing the audience.

The complaints aren’t recent; they’ve been going on for years.

I checked my settings, and the update options are:

1. Install updates automatically (recommended)
2. Download updates but let me choose whether to install them
3. Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them
4. Never check for updates (not recommended)

I was surprised (after this morning’s experience) that they recommend that you do this automatically and they don’t warn you about the forced reboots. The first ‘recommended’ option should come with a data loss warning. The nearest I found to that issue in the help files was:

“Troubleshoot problems with installing updates. ‘I keep getting prompted to restart my computer to finish installing updates.’ Some updates apply to files or services that Windows is using. These types of updates can’t be installed while Windows is running so you should save your work, close any open programs, and then restart your computer to finish the update process.”

It still doesn’t mention that if you happen not to be around TO save your work, it goes out the window anyway when it reboots without your input!

I’m not going to mess around disabling auto reboot (as some of the other sufferers suggest)… hopefully the problem will be solved if I switch to ‘let me choose whether to download and install updates’, though my mouse hovered over ‘NEVER check for updates’ – I was very tempted! You don’t want your renders interrupted by any sort of activity, and I might still plump for the final option… I’m good about checking for updates myself in any case. In Vista (and probably XP) they should have warned inexperienced users about the ‘auto reboot’ part of installing updates.

I was saying to Mum just now that automatic updates are one thing, but rebooting without permission is another. Maybe I’m behind the times and Windows 7 has a better solution for this… I don’t know.

I’ve read comments from people who say when they pick the second option (‘download updates but allow me to choose when to install’), they have had reboots forced on them anyway. They end up disabling automatic updates altogether — which I’m sure Microsoft would consider a step backwards. I wonder if the same happens with the third option, as it’s not allowed to download anything at all? Fingers crossed it will be OK.

It struck me that the reason I haven’t had this problem before is that I was rendering on my laptop, which is generally not connected to the internet. It presumably tried to get updates, but couldn’t get online and had to go back to just rendering. That’s why it successfully completed a render last night while the Bootcamp Vista did not!

Gazing at the Constellations…

A portrait of my favourite dragon, Stargazer.

I did it in Photoshop Elements today. I cheated by having the photograph on a bottom layer as a guide, but the actual painting (by mouse) is mine. It’s a bit rough, but it all takes practice.

Stargazer says his dad was as big as the container lorry in The Transporter. I’m not sure what I’ll do with him if he grows that big.

Brycian Worlds

Over the past few days I’ve been involved with Bryce 3D software again…

I’ve always loved the idea of creating and controlling my own world. It’s frustrating, though, when you have something on hand that looks good… it was rendering fine in the practice runs, but you make it even better by putting in a light here, a tree there, and vamp up the materials with reflections and transparency where needed… then you come up with a good lighting scheme with the right atmospherics, colours, and maybe a rainbow, or a handful of stars. The scene looks positively magical so that you start plotting to move in… and it takes forever to render!

It probably all slowed down when you increased the reflections and added a radial light (or two).

Perhaps it’s a message that you can’t just create a world of your own and explore it when the urge takes you… everything you do has a cost. The more glamour you add, the slower and more impossible it is. If you made everything ash-grey with no particular lighting effects, you could move in tonight.

But what I want to do is see how everything looks from every angle under every possible kind of lighting, using all materials and colour schemes! Instead, I sit watching the picture change, oh so slowly, from the last permutation to the new one. Further possibilities lie ahead — as yet unexplored, even though my mind already races ahead with them. Eventually I’ll get tired and find something else to do, forgetting about my plans for my new world.

My last two journal entries (edited!):

??

Can’t even remember the day of the week! Ohhhh.

Bryce can be frustrating — every time you try to do something perfectly straightforward, it never seems to work — and after lots of tinkering, you discover that you forgot a vital step, or the preview was just very slow refreshing and you couldn’t see your changes right away. And clicking on some bits is not very good, as they just wink at you, and the box of options you wanted flashes on and off — till finally it stabilizes. I think it sometimes has trouble deciding whether we’re in Bryce or on the desktop. And some things just never do what you expect, and there seems no reason for it.

But when it works, and when it looks good, it’s very nice.

I’m trying to put a light on inside my house, but I can’t tell yet whether or not it’s on! Perhaps that’s a good description of me. Someone’s home, but no light is on.

?? Tuesday? Not sure.

My ‘scaly tenants’ (very nice tenants!) are taking my house again… good news!

In Bryce I’m rendering a little house for Stargazer the dragon. Stargazer’s going to live in it (rent-free) when it’s fully rendered, as Mum told him all magic houses have more space inside than outside. I’m doing it at 1920 x 1200. When I went to bed, it was 33% of the way through anti-aliasing.

The next day (today) we went to town. At the time we went out, Stargazer’s house had reached 42%. “That’s ridiculous!” Mum cried, and I said I’ve been reading a lot about how slow Bryce is compared to other 3D software.

As I write this post (near bedtime), it has reached 55%. I think Stargazer’s losing the will to live.

Stargazer waits...

Two Things That Photographers Hate

(1) Things that move when you don’t want them to. (Especially vexing for HDR enthusiasts, who need to take at least three exposures without a pixel out of place).

Pulsating Pulsatillas

(2) Things that don’t move when you’re eagerly hoping for action.

Cat No Motion

You wind up making your own images, as they will do exactly what you expect them to do, but I don’t think I’ll do that again in a hurry! I set up the name banner below in Paint.NET, and it took me hours of mostly monotonous work (duplicating layers, erasing, merging layers, saving layers…) Then I took it to Jasc Animation Wizard (in my old Paint Shop Pro 7). It took just 4 seconds to create the animation, all 96 frames of it, and I felt cheated. What an anti-climax! I expected it to chug and grumble and have things wrong with it that I needed to fix.

Ow, my tooth

I have a tooth infection… tried to make a dental appointment; got fixed up for a month away! Why? She’s doing volunteer work in Peru. I don’t know if I can last… I’ll just crawl away and die somewhere.

But if it rains on my washing again, I’m going straight out there to strangle a cloud. It took my pink towel two days and nights to dry, and even then it felt damp around the edges. Peeve.