So, finally things have gotten to the point where I'll be hitting a con :) Things happened to work out where FC will actually be the first furry con I've been able to attend. I'm very much looking forward to this. It'll also be one of the few times I've actually left Alaska :P

For anyone who's going to FC as well, be on the lookout for an Arctic Kirin wandering about the place, more then likely in the company of a certain Arctic Unicorn who was there last year.

Anyway, I'm both excited and nervous about attending. Trying to make sure I bring everything I'll need for the trip.

Will be posting a few photos of my new fursuit, as well as Aayrick's arctic unicorn suit, over the next day or so.

And since am posting up pics, here's a quick video as well:

http://youtu.be/r_irP5dq1Is Me and Aayrick in full suit walking down a trail

So, been catching some of the latest movies at the theaters, and figured would post a few impressions of them. They aren't really in any particular order.

X-men: Days of Future Past:
Overall, decent flick, seemed to patch a few of the plot holes and repair some of the damage from earlier films. Was interesting to see the conflicted Prof. X after the events of First Class. Not sure how i feel about how they did the sentinels in the future portions of the movie, considering, to me at least, it means that the sentinels may have actually been living creatures. I rather enjoyed Quicksilver's scenes in the movie. Really curious how the next one will be handled.

Godzilla:
It's been said before, but i'll repeat it, A movie named Godzilla, should have the title character pretty prominent throughout the movie, not hidden, or views through secondary screens just when things start to get interesting. I did enjoy the movie for the most part. I thought the Mutos were interesting creations, and have to admit i liked the scene where they showed the underside of the "female" Mutos, belly heavy with glowing eggs. I thought i'd dislike his new design, but it actually kinda grew on me, i do think the feet could've been more clawy, versus the more elephantine look. If there are more Godzilla movies on the way, I really hope they don't do the whole, "cut away" style watching of action like they did so heavily in this movie. I want to see what's going on. It's fine hinting at stuff for awhile, but it went on way too long in this movie.

How to Train your Dragon 2:
This is one of the few movies i think that may actually have surpassed the originals. I do have a few gripes about things that happened, but they're pretty minor. I do kinda wish they hadn't stressed that Toothless may be the last of his kind quite so much throughout the movie. Yes he's special, but he doesn't need to be the last of his kind to be such. I keep meaning to pick up the books these movies are based off and read through them, see just how different they are from the movies. Maybe get some background info that would fill in the gaps from the movies. Watched the Riders/Defenders of Berk series while they were showing on TV, and was kinda surprised there didn't seem much in the way of call-outs to the series. Course 5 years had passed since the events in the first movie, and unsure of how much time the cartoon series is supposed to have progressed, though i think was probably less then a single year.

Transformers 4: Age of Extinction:
Saw it, didn't dislike it too much. Biggest gripe is Bay still needs to differentiate his characters more, especially during the fight scenes. All too often it's hard to tell who's fighting who in the larger battle scenes. Story line was a bit dull, no real surprises. Not sure how i feel about the "upgraded" transformers depicted, yes it was kinda cool, but this new way to transform just has too many issues for me. Was commented that it was transformation Lego style, by the person i went to the movie with. To be honest that term fit pretty well. Definitely a few issues with various scenes/situations/characters in this movie for me. Was a fun movie, introduced some concepts/events have been waiting for, but for the most part, almost felt like filler to hold us till the next one. Two last things, was not expecting how they introduced the Dinobots, and i REALLY wish they'd gotten more screen time!

So, i was thinking of the possibility of setting up a booth at the 3 barons fair this year, selling foam swords and shields, and was curious if anyone would like to try and sell other stuff. Was thinking of ears or tails and such, but would be open to other ideas. I was also tossing around the idea of having a theme of being traders from some far realm where anthros are the norm, rather then humans.

I'm thinking it'd be a lot of fun to add a bit more of a fantasy element to the fair, and maybe make a bit of money on the side. Anyway, I've just started looking into the prospect, and i think the deadline to get a spot in the fair is April.

If it doesn't pan out, would anyone want to hit the second week of the fair as a group? the theme for the second week is supposed to be fantasy, so there shouldn't be any issues with fursuits...

Thoughts ideas, comments, input would be appreciated.

The fair's the first and second weekend of June

I've got a couple projects I'd like to work on over the summer. A GryphRaptor fursuit, and nerf gun modding.

As far as the fursuit goes, i have been watching and reading a few tutorials on doing such, and it's really something i'd like to try for myself. I'm going to start out with a fairly simple suit, something easy to wear and move around in, though eventually i'd like to get a bit more complicated and add in things like stilts to get a bit longer in the legs, some articulated wings, as well as a few other things. However, for the basic suit, i'm wondering if i would have better luck getting a predesigned pattern from a costume catalog and modify it as needed. For instance, using angel wing patterns for static wings on the back, added to a dinosaur costume. I do have some sewing experience, but have only done simple costumes and sewing projects before. I'm also not really sure what fabrics to use.

For the nerf modding, there's actually two main projects i'd like to do. The first being, I'd like to convert two of the new Stryfe guns into a single 40k style storm bolter. It looks like a pretty good match up as far as size of the guns and so on. The main issue here is how to basically hack off the handles and move them to the middle of the gun. I suppose i could just remove one handle and have the handle offset, but i think the gun would look much better with a centered handle. There's also the issue of the inner workings and reconfiguring them for the new handle position, not to mention the durability of the finished project. I'd like a fully usable gun that could stand up in a nerf match.
The second nerf project deals with the large drum clips that you can get. I'd like to basically hook two of them together to increase the dart capacity. I've already been poking at a few drums, and the trickiest part seems to be figuring out how to redo the springs inside to basically turn a drum around. I suppose i could just load the darts in backwards, but i'd prefer to try and get the reversed drum to look as similar to the standard as possible.

Anyway, those are some of the projects I'd like to work on over the summer. Any input or suggestions would be appreciated. Links to helpful guides would also be appreciated :) I've found a few for both fursuiting and nerf modding, but it's hard to tell sometimes if the guides are actually useful or not.

PS: I've already been looking into the nerf forums and such, but no one seems to have done either project i'm pondering, and the main forum i've been looking at seems to only want guides and finished projects posted.

Managed to make it to the local furmeet and spent some time bowling and just goofing around with everyone that showed. Think there were about a dozen furs that showed up, which was really cool. Several brought their suits and did very good bowling for the most part with their suits on. There were a few kids there that came over and enjoyed interacting with the suiters, that was fun to watch.

After a few rounds of bowling, we headed out and attempted to get some food from Pizza Hut. Got there around 9pm or so, and were told that we couldn't come in and sit down, yet the time table said they were open till 11 :P kind of a bummer there, but we headed over to Carl's Jr and had burgers and fries instead. Hung out at Carl's for awhile, till they started getting ready to close, then finally called it quits, and everyone headed home.

Overall, was great meeting up with other local furs, and just hanging out and having some fun. Am really hoping to make it to any future meets that may pop up.

Also, the furmeet really got me wanting to get to work on a suit of my own, dunno if it'll actually happen or not, but it is a project i've been pondering on and off for quite awhile now....

http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/ef66/

brainwave activated cat ears...shame there aren't any other animal type yet....

Been a fun weekend. Went and saw Wreck-it Ralph at the theater and enjoyed the movie quite a bit :) was definitely a fun watch. Loved all the references that got tossed around, and am for sure, going to pick up a copy when it comes out on DVD. I want to try and catch references i missed in the theater. Saw it with my brother and some friends and we all enjoyed the movie quite a bit. Have plans for another similar get together when Rise of the Guardians comes out. Hoping that movie will be just as fun a watch as Ralph was :)

Also been hanging out at Homecon on and off through the weekend. Info here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/9213374/ basically was an online version of a con, for a few artists that weren't able to make the big con this weekend. There were 6 main artists running streams through the weekend, lots of people dropping in and out chatting and goofing around. Was great fun. Only problem i was having was my browsers kept crashing with multiple stream windows open :( but aside from that, got a few pics commissioned and just enjoyed hanging out with everyone. Seems like it was pretty popular. I think the record was about 60 or so people there at one time...though the most i saw was a bit over 30

Been poking around with 3D modeling programs lately (i'm really liking Sculptris) and am thinking of opening a shop on Shapeways. Basically you submit a model, and they print it in 3D for whoever wants to buy a copy. I'm kinda curious as to if there'd be any interest. I've got a pony model in the works http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7855355/ thing is, i'm not sure how detailed to get...should i model on stuff like wings and manes, or leave them off for other people to add on afterwards? I suppose i could model them separate from the base model in a sort of accessory sprue or something.

Just kinda looking for some input. I've never done anything through Shapeways before, so i'm not sure what sort of markup i'm looking at or anything along those lines. I did experiment a bit with my snake-mantis model http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7845962/ and a model about 3 inches long ends up around $20 dollars or so. however a 7 inch model is upwards of $100. Now that can be reduced if the models are created hollow, so prices will definitely vary depending on what sort of model and how it's built.

Been trying to get back into both games a little bit, and am curious what groups are still around that are furry based? Also having a few issues re-learning both games as have been out of them for quite awhile, lots of updates since last played either :P Ah well...

Got two of my chars on CO updated, Warwolf (Munitions Build) and Pheonix (Fire Build). Only about a half dozen more to go there :P Also have my COX account up and running again, have characters on Triumph, Champion, Virtue and Freedom servers

Been watching the series from the beginning, and have actually enjoyed the show for the most part. Though i do think they're not using nearly the stuff they could considering the location everyone's at. I mean come on...there are dinos running around! Why don't we see them with dino pets, or using dinos for transportation and such? I mean seriously....you see maybe a couple minutes of one dino and the rest is all humans interacting. I"m not asking for Dinotopia here (though i wish that series had done better :( or at least stayed closer to the books) but really, a bit more screen time for the native critters would be welcome.

All that being said, I'm wondering if there's gonna be another season of Terra Nova, saw the 2-hour season finale last night, and didn't notice anything being mentioned about next season. Usually they say when they're return, or at least give a rough date like Next Fall, or This Summer :( Guess just gonna have to wait and see what happens. I hate when they leave a series with unanswered questions (Stargate Universe anyone?)...and a pretty big one sure cropped up at the end of the finale there....

Thought would post this, Lohfrum is having some computer issues, and could use a bit of help if anyone's able to. Journal post is here: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3005468/
If anyone could offer help on how to get his computer up and running, or has anything that might help, would be much appreciated.

Well, i picked up the last book in the series finally, and read through it. For the most part i enjoyed the book, though i may have to go back and read the entire series in order, since things were referred to that i didn't remember. Anyway, for those of you that may have read this book, what did you think? I was kinda left feeling like it was unfinished.

To be honest, it kind of feels like there will be another series in the work since this one has completed...Something that tells the tales of what happens farther forward in time. At least that's kind of what i hope, if not, the end of this series just left me feeling kinda bleh....

If you have read the series and reply to this thread, please don't post things that might spoil the books for those who haven't read it.....

Just kinda curious as to who has accounts on Gaia Online? I've been a member there for quite a while, though I haven't really done much there lately. While i've been gone from there, they've gotten a couple new games. Similar to the games you tend to find on Facebook and such. In one of the games you breed monster armies to go out and attack others. The other game is where you build a island resort. If you played some of the games available on Facebook, you're probably pretty familiar already with the style of these games.

Anyway, if you're over on Gaia, drop me a note there or something :)

GryphRaptor

Saw some fan art of DJ Pon-3 (or Vinyl Scratch as i believe she's also referred to), and for some reason came up with the idea of a revision of the Scott Pilgrim battle of the Bands scene where they fight the Katayanagi Twins. Basically DJ would be replace the twins and have those dragons coiling around her DJ booth :) Might be interesting if there were two ponies there, the second having inverted colors (who could be Vinyl Scratch) with DJ keeping the colors from the show.
Kind of a fun, but silly idea :)

Scott Pilgrim Clip: http://youtu.be/gtQx3OKQC9U
DJ Pon-3 page: http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/DJ_P0N-3

was looking through e621 and one of the pics i thought was a joke...but apparently in red faction this is an actual weapon O.o
pic: http://www.e621.net/post/show/141707
Actual Clip? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRutb1l30IE

just....not sure i have words... :P

Ok, just got back from Kung Fu Panda 2, and must say, i really enjoyed the movie. It was a fun flick to watch overall with some back story for Po. I loved Shen though, specially the way he fought, though i think i would've enjoyed seeing an aerial battle between him and Crane at some point. The fight scenes were amazing, and really felt like old style kung-fu movie style fighting. I'll definitely be looking forward to the rest of the KFP movies as they arrive :) I did have a few issues with the movie, i really wish they'd do more with Viper, she really seemed to have a thing for Po in the first movie, specially if you watched the end credits ;) It'd be nice to see and hear a bit more from the other characters as well, i know Po's the main, and everyone else is really supporting, but they could flesh the others out a bit without detracting from the main story line. I did enjoy how they used Mantis' size to good effect at one point in the movie, was a neat idea. Now, as far as the ending of KFP2, i'd have to say i'm firmly in the camp of "if there's no body, then the guy's still around" though whether he'll be reformed or out for further revenge will have to be seen.

Watching the movie got me thinking about what sort of styles my characters would use if they were in the KFP universe. It's kinda hard to figure out just what styles to choose, though mostly i think my characters would end up in combination styles, drawing influence from several different styles for their own brand of Kung Fu.

My GryphRaptor form would most likely be a blade fighter, possibly along the lines of how Shen fought, though with some kick-boxing thrown in. Lots of sweeping motions with wings/blades and so on. Loved how Shen used his tail to good effect during his fights.

My Elephantaur form, is a bit harder to figure out. It's tempting to go the route of Sumo with hir, based on hir size, but it doesn't quite feel right. Maybe something like judo, where you turn your opponent's strength against them? Not that shi'd be lacking in the strength department :P shi is a full sized elephant afterall....

My Alien hybrid form, or Snake-Mantis, is also somewhat hard to figure out, though the basic fighting style would probably be close to Mantis' even though shi has a lot more limbs then he does :P Shi does sport the ability to create webbing and poison, just not sure what styles those would fit well with.

Prehaps a bit more research into various kung-fu/martial arts styles is required here...Anyway, kinda curious what sort of styles other people might use if they/their characters were based in the KFP universe?

Started watching this anime series on Phoanime, and have been rather enjoying it. It's another card-game based series, though the main character isn't the best player around. Which is actually a rather nice change from the norm. He does slowly get better as the series progresses however. Some of the dialog is quite funny, as in order to get new monsters, the players can go out "monster mounting" which is where they touch a card to a monster for 5 seconds, and the monster is drawn into the card. Now there's something very wrong, yet very funny about these kids going around saying they're gonna mount a monster, or asking each other "did you monster mount" or the like :)


Anyway, I've been trying to find the series on DVD but haven't been having any luck. I know there are some programs/websites around that are supposed to allow you to download videos from YouTube and the like. Anyone know a good one to use? I'm not sure if the series ever was released to DVD, since a few of the larger anime distribution sites don't seem to carry it. Any help on this would be appreciated :)

Revamped my elephantaur zoid, overall much happier with this version, though i may continue to tweak the model a bit here and there. Have decided the gray schematic background is the one I'll be using for the model sheets, and the blue schematic background for the stat sheets for each model. Later on I want to try and do some action scenes using the models I've built so far, rather then just static poses.

Think i got the text blurring issue fixed finally. Had to dig around in the settings for how Gimp saves stuff as jpg. I tried the png format as was recommended, but it still tended to blur the text too much for my liking.

In other news, Guardians comes out next week, and I'm definitely gonna be grabbing a copy, I hope there's a nice collector's set with a bunch of extras for the movie :) Has anyone read the books? how close was the movie to the books it's based off of?

I've been watching Transformers Prime, and overall i kinda like the show, though i do wish that the producers didn't feel obligated to throw stereotypical human characters into the shows. The girl is just so obnoxious :P I do like the designs for the Autobots though. It's interesting to see that the creators have basically pulled characters from the various series and kinda smashed them together for this series. Not quite sure just when Transformers Prime is supposed to take place, and if it's supposed to be connected to any particular continuity or off in it's own...

Lastly, for now anyway, gonna try and pick up Golden Sun: Dark Dawn with my next paycheck. I really enjoyed the two games for the GBA, and look forward to this new version. Thought it was kinda neat how in the second game you could port over all your characters from the first, and you actually ran into them a few times before they joined your party fully. Curious to see if GS:DD will follow in those footsteps.

Overall, I've been happy with how Gimp works for my image editing and such. But I'm having issues with text and saving files. I can get small file size, but my text gets all blurry. I can keep nice looking text, but my file size bloats. Anyone familiar with Gimp (or similar programs) that might be able to point me in the right direction on how to save the files without blurring the text contained within so much?

I've tried changing the quality settings when saving to jpg, and have tried from 85% to 100%. Granted 100% gives the best results as far as the text quality goes, but the image size gets too big. I also didn't notice much difference in the picture quality till i actually hit 100%. Currently i've been working at 1280x1280 pixels for my images. I tend to shrink them down by about 50% before converting them into other picture formats. I've played around with some of the filters and such to try and clean up the text, but haven't had much luck with them.

Any advice would be appreciated :)

Just watched the CN Movie Firebreather, for those that don't have Cartoon Network, it was a movie about a kid who was half Kaiju/half human. Anyway, while the rest of his clothing is destroyed, his pants remained relatively unharmed. It also wasn't just one pair of pants, several different pairs all remained fairly intact, while everything else was burned/ripped, or otherwise ended up destroyed. Just an amusing observation of the movie.

As for the movie itself, was decent overall, i liked the designs of the Kaiju they created, the main one, the king and the main character's father, was able to go from a feral mode to a more humanoid form. The feral was definitely the better of the two though. I found the movie rather dark, but I'm wondering if the contrast on my TV was off for some reason, lots of details were obscured by shadows and such, though other programs looked fine when i checked. May have to pick it up on DVD if it becomes available.

One amusing point was when the mom told the kid, "i bet you're wondering how you were conceived..." only to have the kid put his hands over his ears and go "not listening..la la la." :) I have to admit, I'm curious as to how a 30+ foot tall dragon-like creature coupled with the lady, not to mention just how the heck they got romantically involved in the first place.... though all thing's considered, perhaps some things are better left unknown ;) More then likely it wasn't anything all that fun for either party, a couple samples and a injection and that was that :P Anyway, am wondering if there'll be a new series coming soon further detailing the lives of the kid, his friends and the world they live in with those Kaiju.

Sorry...that Echinda was amusing :) Anyway, yet another Guardians journal post. Thought it was a pretty good movie, and will probably have to hunt down the books it's based off of and see just how different the plot of the movie was from the books. I liked the variety of owls used, for some reason i'd been expecting only a few species, beyond the main group. Got a kick out of Mrs. P (the snake, though not sure what species she's supposed to be) Makes me wonder a bit that she and the Echinda shaman were the only other speaking animals besides owls. Another reason to hunt down the books, see if any other species makes an appearance.

What got me thinking though was the way the owls used armor and weapons. There were different fighting styles as well. Watching them, i have to wonder if the helmets at least were a bit too much. I don't know what the weight limits are for owls to fly, but putting a large (seemingly anyway) chunk of metal on their head seems a good way to make flying a whole lot harder. Now granted they probably train to build their strength in order to wear the armor, but still..the helmets used in the movie just seemed too big. I also wondered a bit that they didn't use breastplates, but again, there are weight limits to take into account. Was also kinda cool seeing the wing blades the bats sported, rather good design overall there, i think they clipped on over the arm bone for added protection.

I guess my main thought/question is just how much armor would a flying creature be able to wear and still be able to fly. Realistically speaking here, standard physics, no magic or anything like that. I know some birds can carry quite a bit of weight for their body size, but that's carried by their feet, not covering parts of their bodies. How would armor affect their flying ability? their center of gravity? how much of their feathers need to catch air currents to keep them flying and so on? I know I'm over-analyzing this a bit, but i can't help it.

I know horses can be outfitted with quite a bit of armor, but that's a land based creature, while they can be overloaded, it's not as much of a burden to their movement and abilities as I'd think armor would be for a flying creature.

And...just because.... It was foretold....that this journal would come to an end :)

Well, seems i'm on a kick with the legos. Hope no one's minding the pics i've been posting of the models i've created using Lego digital designer. Anyway, the madcat i posted will probably be the last model for awhile, untill I've finished the elephantaur zoid. So far all's i've got is the trunk build. I'm partially basing it on the Elephander Zoid (command version), I'm hoping it'll turn out really neat. I'm finding that the hardest part is figuring out how big to make parts and keeping the scale close from part to part. I tend to start with one part of a model, then build out from there, trying to keep things roughly to the same scale. Though this method does tend to get me in trouble when i find my proportions are out of wack when i start putting things together :P Still, it is fun doing this.

Have been playing around with Lego's Digital Designer program, and created a custom Liger style zoid. Pondering trying to make zoid versions of my characters as well. We'll see how that goes. Anyway, if i create the models in LDD, and then alter the screen shots into a montage picture, showing different angles and such. Would i be allowed to post the finished pictures here to FA? or should i probably just upload them to photobucket and provide links from here? I read the AUP, and it seems to say that I can post shots of the model, provided it's my own creation, even though i used a program to help build it.

Have also been going back through and watching various Zoids episodes, which i guess has kinda gotten me onto a Zoids kick at the moment. Anyway, the current liger zoid I created is fairly large, and if sold as a kit, would cost around $800+ o.O not quite sure just how many peices it uses, as i haven't uploaded the design to the lego website yet. That seems to be the only way to actually get a brick count on models. Was kinda shocked at the final price, you'd think they'd give a discount for larger projects :P ah well :)

Well, if all goes well, it looks like  icansee will be taking over from me in maintaing the Voretex website. I wish him the best of luck and hopefully he'll be able to bring it back from the brink of wherever it is websites go when people no longer have time to work on them...