please note: this blog has moved

enterthestory.com/blog/

if you can’t log onto EnterTheStory.com

The blog has moved to EnterTheStory.com/blog and there’s also a forum at EnterTheStory.com/forum

The good news is that, with everything hosted on one place, I can control the look and feel of every page. But the bad news is that if EnterTheStory is ever offline then EVERYTHING is offline. About twice a year the site disappears for a few hours. I use Dreamhost, but last time I checked, other hosts are just as bad.

If the site is ever down and you’re curious to know why, visit dreamhoststatus.com. If you think the site goes down more than other web sites,  or you need to get in touch with me urgently, please drop me a line at hotmail.com: my address is “tolworthy”

Thanks for your patience.

This blog has moved!

If everything goes well then the new permanent address will be

EnterTheStory.com/blog

Hope to see you there!

I’m thinking of moving the whole blog to the forum

Yesterday I said that I plan to run the blog and the forum side by side, but I wonder if it makes more sense to just do everything on the forum? I mean, the forum can do links and pictures and everything else. And it’s easier to update and check one place instead of two. And if I really wanted the blog format I could easy add a “blog” sub-forum and just start a new thread each day.

The reason for this change of heart is this: Today I was talking to one of my son’s friends. (Yes, I know, I’m getting old.) I asked him what he preferred, blogs or forums. He said forums, definitely: it’s much easier to find what you want, and if there are other people online it’s nice to post stuff back and forth. He gave some examples, And you know, he’s right: Blogs are great if only one person is talking and their ideas change every day, but forums are better for everything else.

Well that’s what I think, but what do YOU think?

New forum! Moderators needed!

I just set up a forum:

http://www.enterthestory.com/forum/

I’ll still blog, but blogging is a bit one sided.  I want users to feel in charge of this game. Also, blog posts tend to fade into history, but in a forum the important topics are always at the top.

Is anyone willing to be a moderator? That is, someone to check a couple of times a day in case there are new visitors, spam, or anything that needs changing?

If the forum runs smoothly then in a few days I’ll start to discuss stuff there instead of here. The blog will just be a place to log news and pictures. What do you think? This may be your last chance to comment on the blog!

More random Genesis of the Gods art

I just finished the final Prometheus – versus – Typhon animation. Typhon is just off the screen to the right. The finished game will have other characters standing on that ledge.

some mystery children

I’m not saying who they are. You have to wait for the game in December to find out!

what makes a good photo (game-wise)

I’ve been converting photos into characters, and some are easier to convert than others. But not always for the reasons you might think. The above photos seemed like they would cause problems at first: there are two photos, which is good, but in one the person is wearing glasses, and in the other she’s pulling a face. However, that doesn’t matter so much – I am sure the ancient Greek gods knew about lenses, and maybe some gods wore glasses for fashion reasons? And the face happens to fit a particular character who could shout at one point in the story, so I can use them both. (Normally I only use one photo per character, because converting them takes too long, but this one was easy to do.)

The best thing about this photo is it’s taken in daylight, so everything is very clear and not grainy, and no shadows.

This other picture was the opposite: at first it seemed like it would be easy, but it ended up taking ages, and that’s why the result looks a bit odd.

The person had again sent two photos, which is good (more photos means makes it easier for me), and one of them had a very interesting expression – the one I used. Plus the eyes in the photo were very clear, so I thought this would come out looking really good.  But then I noticed that the top of the head was missing!

I tried just drawing hair on, but that looked silly. I tried adding hair or crowns from other pictures, but they either weren’t at the right angle or did not fit that expression.

So I tried using the second photo, but it was much less interesting. Plus the hair was very dark and against a dark background, under artificial light, so there wasn’t enough color information to enhance.  The low light also meant that after processing a lot of subtle details were lost and the face just looked flat and wrong. The first photo looked much better.

Another problem with the good photo was that it had strong shadows, They made it look even better, but the minimalist look of this game works best without shadows. I managed to get rid of the shadows without losing the detail, but it took a while.

The real problem was still the missing hair. I finally found some that would fit, but it looks very untidy. Then I started looking for a suitable body. The untidy hair plus the expression meant that only one body really fit – the one you see. It’s not as dramatic as Zeus, or Apollo, or Neptune, but you have to remember that the Greeks had all kinds of gods. And it was the best I could do with the artificial hair! Actually I quite like it though – it has character. I do want every god to look unique.

In summary: the best photos are:

1. the whole head (or even better the whole body)
2. in daylight
3. with either a choice of photos, or one photo that’s exactly how you want to look.

If you don’t have any photos like that, still send them in anyway, I can always do something with them, but sometimes I need to be creative!

Well now you know. 🙂

PS thanks for all those who have sent in photos so far. It really helps to give the characters more personality.

Prometheus bound

This is Prometheus, punished by Zeus for stealing fire from heaven to give to mankind. I should probably change the left leg (his right). The line looks right before the chains re added, but after the chains it just looks odd.

The funny thing is, when I finished Prometheus’ face I found, completely by accident, that he looked exactly like a real person I know. The trouble is, this person is the complete opposite of Prometheus in almost every way. I keep trying to forget that 🙂

The god Apollo (edited)

This is another character from Genesis of the Gods, based on photos kindly sent in by a visitor to the site. I’m not making final decisions about who is who until November 14th (the closing date for submitting photos) but when I saw this gentleman I immediately thought Apollo! (Or maybe Poseidon, since one of the photos looks like it’s taken in the sea.)

Keep the photos coming, folks!

Edit: the arm and neck looked wrong, so this is version 3 (version 1 was the short legs version that was only online for about five minutes)