KageRyu's cave

[KageRyu]

@Flint_Hawk re lights, sadly no, saving them to the library doe snot work properly as I have many lights parented to objects that move around the scene. This causes issues with trying to save the lights.
In any event the problems and frustrations just with Poser are so much bigger that just that one issue at this point. This is the third complex scene in the last year that has developed "issues" with either rendering or saving, or what have you. Not to mention I have spent the last 2 years trying to reciver from catastrophic HD corruption across 4 partitions, nearly full, totalling almost 4 TB of data - third such massive HD corruption in 5 years... it just never ends. As I said I never have the resources or the funds to get the tech I need - and I have been trying for so long. There is so much more, but I just don't want to say more. Feeling very frustrated, bitter, resentful of the world, and generally in a very dark place especially as my art and hopes and dreams go. I don't want you to feel it is aimed at you or others wishing me well.

 

[Janet]

Hang in there Kage. You are very talented.

 

[KageRyu]

Trying to revisit some old animated projects. Some dating all the way back to my first dabblings in Poser 4 Pro Pack on a Celeron 833 Win98 machine in 2005-7. Wondering just how much work I should put in to upgrading them. Some got shelved out of frustration as just having a few figures and outfits brought that machine to it's knees. Heck without an external library manager I couldn't even see everything in my runtime as after 255 items Poser 4 stopped showing entries and did not support sub-folders. What a long strange trip it's been... I still had such hope and enthusiasm back then - but not the know how...
Now my machine can handle hundreds of figures, but I am still trying to make scenes that crash it and cause problems... funny how I never have what I need to bring what I envision to life.
I went from a Runtime and Rendered Frame Directory that could both easily fit on a 30gb HD to a collection of external 4tb drives all with varying content, audio, stock footage, frames, and a massive set of runtimes that add up to almost 2tb themselves...
and I still never quite have enough...

I miss being able to just pick up a pencil and draw. I regret I never was able to get into classes for traditional animation when I was younger.

Currently Revisiting this and upping the size, render quality, textures, and fine tuning some movements, as well as creating the expanded scenes that go with it that never got done due to hardware limits:

 

[Alisa]

Very cool!

 

[KageRyu]

I've been trying to get some poses finished for Dusk and Dawn i had hoped to release at the beginning of summer. I hope to have some previews tomorrow and have them ready for Alpha testing by Sunday.
I am having increased difficulty getting Poses done lately - like my heart just isn't in it anymore. I am going to try to button up these two sets, and 6 sets that have been in the queue for almost 8 years now I want to release in October. I at least want to finish some old projects if I can.

 

[KageRyu]

I know, I promised previews over a week ago, everything hit a wall again.

 

[KageRyu]

Would there be any interest in themed breakdance poses for Dawn, Australian Style?

 

[KageRyu]

Life just punched me very hard in rapid succession while already struggling to get up. Pretty sure I don't have the strength to get up from this. Saying this here because I have no one in my life.

 

[Flint_Hawk]

Please hang in there! You do have people who care about you!

 

[Rhia474]

Humans are very resilient creatures and art and beauty are actually restorative. Hang in there and please know you are seen and heard and cared about.

 

[Alisa]

What they said. Hang in there, Mark!

 

[KageRyu]

I appreciate the well wishes. Things are mostly hopeless for me without a miracle and I stopped believing in those a long time ago. Too many reasons to explain. One of the biggest has to do with new problems with my hands, that I already have had problems with that essentially forced me to give up traditional art almost entirely around 2012...now it is increasingly difficult to type and work a mouse too. Other problems just have to do with the constant abuse I endure in this world and the state I see society falling into... I feel like I am just spinning my wheels. Any time I start to make progress getting back on my feet, I get hit by a deluge of problems, and these last 6 years in the wake of my father's death it has been non stop. I can't even set up my computer lab again, its mostly all in storage and has been for 5 years...even back then the machines were all old and refurbished because my income is so tight. Even if I could set up the computer lab again I could never afford the electric sots with the outrageous rates the crooked power company is charging, and the rates go up every 2 months lately (the bill tripled in the last year and they were already triple what the rates in Ohio were). I never thought moving back to my home state would destroy me as it has...I had no idea Massachusetts had become so corrupt and over run with abuse at all government levels. I can not get any of the health care I need, nor an advocate to help me navigate the system, and I lost the services I fought 15 years for in Ohio. I just do not have the strength anymore. I am trapped here though.

As to products, with Dawn 2 being released I am trying to decide if I even want to bother trying to finish all of these unfinished projects for Dawn and Dusk. I have lost so much time and productivity to life problems, health problems, and depression.

My responses in the forums, if any, will become infrequent. Just not up for being very social these days. It takes a lot out of me.

 

[KageRyu]

I was really hoping to release the Psycheward Pose Sets for Dusk and Dawn by Halloween, but it just is not possible. I have lost too much time to health and dealing with real world problems. I am pushing foreward with the sets, but currently have about 20 poses and 10 expressions left for the 2 Dusk sets before I send them off for alpha testing...then if they pass I need to mirror everything and make thumbs and promos, then Beta testing, then QA... doubtful any will be released before Halloween.

So... Madness as a Thanksgiving/Christmas theme? Anyone?

 

[KageRyu]

I knew there were serious proportional differences between Dusk and M4, but it is now problematic. He does not fit the PsycheWard bed. quite right. So do I try to work around this, or rescale the bed and bake it into the poses?
For the Moment I am working around it, as if I rescale the bed it would throw off compatibility with the Other figures and Pose sets. Though Dusk to M4 or Dusk to V4 and vice versa will not be as compatible as V4 to M4 in terms of mixing. Some adjusting is going to be nescessary. It is my hope and plan to keep cross figure mixing available with Dusk to Dawn at least.

 

[Rhia474]

Have a separate pose for the bed 'Scale to Fit' that user can apply if they are using Dusk?

 

[Janet]

I can resize the bed and save it for you if that would help.

 

[KageRyu]

@Rhia474 & @Janet Thank you both. My only concern with resizing the bed is breaking compatibility with other related sets for other figures. I am probably over thinking it.
If I can't get the poses looking reasonably good without scaling the bed I may have to do that for dusk. I just did not realize how much of a difference in proportions their were from M4 to Dusk.

Alternately - I could slightly scale Dusk and bake that into the Bed poses. How would Dusk users feel about that? It would be maybe reduced 5% to 10% at most. Pretty sure 5% would be enough.

 

[Sunfire]

@Rhia474 & @Janet Thank you both. My only concern with resizing the bed is breaking compatibility with other related sets for other figures. I am probably over thinking it.
If I can't get the poses looking reasonably good without scaling the bed I may have to do that for dusk. I just did not realize how much of a difference in proportions their were from M4 to Dusk.

Alternately - I could slightly scale Dusk and bake that into the Bed poses. How would Dusk users feel about that? It would be maybe reduced 5% to 10% at most. Pretty sure 5% would be enough.

Shrinking Dusk could well stop people from buying the poses.

 

[KageRyu]

Haven't done much Pose work or complex animation for a variety of reasons. Too many problems.
As was inevitable, I grew frustrated with the proportional issues and Pose conversion and set the sets aside for now. I may return to them if I get a clearer head.
As ADHD demands I have jumped between a few projects. My mind is too agitated and restless to focus, and frustration and despair makes doing anything creative challenging lately.

I did return to work on the Colonial Space Explorer yesterday and today. It feels like I have been building this thing forever. This was what I was working on in August of 2022 when my main Content HD developed severe damage and corruption. I finished the exterior in late 2023 and started some interiors around then. Today I made significant progress kitbashing a support skeleton lining the inner bridge hull, laid out some more details, floors, etc... The Upper Bridge-bubble set is nearly done which makes this set of interiors about 45%. The scaling is huge, much larger than I thought when I laid it out. Lighting this is going to be a nightmare...

On the one hand I want to show WIP, on the other hand I want to wait until it is more finished...not sure if there is enough interest in WIP shots for just a kitbash.

 

[KageRyu]

I have reached 50% completion of the Interior Foreward Domes of the Colonial Explorer, not counting retexturing and lighting. I was calling this entire foreward area the "Bridge" but that is not really accurate. It turns out this ship is gigantic - but then again it is carrying the future hope of salvation for all mankind across that vast dark oceanic void of the cosmos. Before finishing the lower half I need to figure out what to put on the two levels. I'm thinking maybe one should just be an observation deck.