So largely due to MASSIVE amounts of procrastination I'm still not able to take commissions because the Mk9 isn't ready yet. However I'm getting no small amounts of flak for not earning any money so here's how it could work.

Who among you would like to commission me to make renders / animations / custom characters in spiffing 3D (Mostly pony related but open to other stuff for the right price TBA)? Drop a comment bellow (either definitely or considering etc) I haven't decided on prices but they'll probably be around the same as what AnthroAnim charges/d.

Also pizza. I like pizza.

With any luck in the foreseeable future I'll finally reach the point where I'm able to start taking commissions. Who'd be wanting to part ways with a little dosh in exchange for my renders? :D

Starting tonight (spirits willing), I'll be running streams every night from now until Friday to get back into serious gear and start posting pictures again regularly.

https://derpibooru.org/tags/artist-colon-sparkbox

I don't know if I should be scared or pleased that they've actually tagged it as my work with links to the source...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IecMNkv75Bo
Mix in my usual work and that would be one hell of a stream!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27677712

SWEET JEBUS

http://renderman.pixar.com/view/registration

:EDIT: Obviously this is an announcement for those who're interested / already create 3D artwork.

In other, slightly more normal phrased, words my birthday is on the first of June! Expect some streams this week and next with a special mega stream thingy on the big day itself.

However I must admit that I'm home with all the joys of family and slow internet, service may vary.

Is to keep the head and body's silhouette smooth and curvy from EVERY conceivable direction. Lumps stick out if your eyes start wondering.

SO! The latest invention from 'Mad' Sparkbox's lab is to parent a bezier curve to the scene's camera, Ctrl-Alt-0 the camera into position, tweak the curve to desired position then try to match the silhouette of the mesh of the body to the curve.

The bezier curve needs to be 2D and that's about it.

Who here plays it? Veterans of my streams know I usually start off with about half an hour of gaming before I begin the Blendering and I would quite like some backup when I go do some tanking.

#Stug Life

...

Because hell I need to finish up the weight painting for the facial animation but I'm too tired to do it now.

On the 9th of May my 3rd and final year project is due in. While I don't have much actual physical work to show off, I do think I have notes to flesh out the report which is where all the points actually come from. Toss in a couple of advanced rigging animation methods, neither of which have official support in Blender and one that hasn't appeared on the forums at all...

If I stream in the next fortnight it'll be question and answers only. No more Blender, boobs have long been forgotten, there is only Microsoft Word.

And some nice music perhaps.

Finally finished setting up my computer rig and stopped my desktop from throwing hissy-fits and spontaneously freezing... Phew.

Slower internet connection so if I stream service may vary.

I'm still here!
Still working on university work.
Going home for Easter.
My first exam is on the 29th of April >.<

Do it.

At least when you have the time.

...

Come June I swear there'll be a flood of pics!

Also Warthunder...

But it's okay! I rolled around in World of Tanks upon a mighty KV-2 with the hand of Stalin himself guiding my 155mm shells into my cowering foes!

Double also, I hope to do a lot of streaming this coming week so keep your eyes pealed because I cannot give much prior warning.

When a picture that has writing in it that's too small to read in the preview I always click it to find out what it says.

Speech bubbles and text boxes... Practically guarantees that I'll have a look.

It's pin-up art!

- Few character designs will make the transition from 2D to 3D without compromises to actually make them work.

- Tutorials are all very well but always, ALWAYS, leave bits to guesswork for you to work out.

- 80% of the work is going to be spent swearing and wondering if it'll ever look good. The last 20% is the fun time.

- Practice makes perfect. It's cliché for a reason. But with 3D it also involves learning methods for solving certain problems.

Who'd be interested in joining in my half-hour of gaming at the start of mah streams? Hoping to organise something quite a bit bigger come June but until I'm free of Uni work... You know the words.

Anywho, games I have that could be played:
- Saintsrow 3
- Team Fortress 2
- World of Tanks
- Warthunder (newbie at it though)
- Borderlands 2
- Civilization V (but given the time constraint it'd be episodic gameplay)

Requirements are Skype and flexibility to match my erratic time keeping, with a little luck this'd actually help me get streaming on time. If you're interested drop me a comment below n'stuffs.

Well... 10907 at time of writing.

Can something special wait for a bit? Real life is closing in on me big time.

Since I spotted in in my Steam library for freebies for 2 days I thought why the hell not.

Seven hours later I can think of a few reasons but they've all been drowned out by the ingenious madness...

http://juicedane.deviantart.com/art.....ream-423301301

... Honest!

Welp, enough of you kept poking me about advice on 3D modelling so here's a choice selection for until I come up with some actual tutorials.

1. The less vertices the better / K.I.S.S. / Keep It Simple Stupid.

2. Triangular faces are evil, avoid at all costs if the model is going to be deformed.

3. N-gons (lit: faces that are made up of more than 4 vertices) are less evil, though best gotten rid of.

4. The mirror modifier is your best friend.

5. Armature modifier first, sub-surf second.

6. "It doesn't have to be perfect, it only has to look it." So don't do all the super high res cloth simulation if you can help it.

7. What may look sweet on paper may not actually be possible in 3D without compromises.

8. Tip 9 is a lie.

9. Tip 8 is the truth.

10. Learn the way of edge loops. No seriously do it. Don't even think about trying to model a head without reading up about it.

T's been less than a year since I posted my first render of my first pony model and I look back at it now and think: "Wow I was such a newbie noob!". Still am really but much less so I hope.

Nine months down the line and I've got 420 of you watching me, friendships with some really great artists and at the very least acquaintances with a few big names which I still squee about when I'm going to bed at night. /)>3<(\

Plans for 2014?
+ Get better at smut
+ Post more smut
+ Art trades for smut
+ Raise army of smut fans