KSP Log: 001 - Bill Goes Skydiving

I've been using Facebook less and less, but I really love sharing my experiences on Kerbal Space Program. So today I decided I would start logging my adventures through space on my very own blog. Previously, I've reviewed games and my own life experiences and to an extent- I may still. But perhaps this aspect will really take off and what I have to share will really help other players in their own space faring adventures across the Kerbal System. While I'm still not entirely settled on what kind of information I'll be sharing beyond personal Kerbal stories. I would certainly like to see this become a resource for other players who'd like to master what can seemingly be the impossible. Looking back, I know I was scrambling across the web looking for any information I could find on docking, orbiting or any other (now) basic maneuvers that at the time seemed to be frustratingly difficult.

Today however, I'm going to keep it simple. You'll note from the picture above that Bill wasn't doing so good for himself as he fell through the Kerbin atmosphere (ProTip: I use a couple of mods, in this case an atmosphere mod that really adds to the visual experience.) So here's the story, I have a craft that I'm trying to return home from Minmus but the problem is, I ran out of fuel to slow my craft down and unfortunately I was coming in at a really steep slope. Which means my craft didn't have the necessary time to slow down, nor did it matter as the craft didn't have a heat shield. After a few moments of flight the entire craft started to rip itself apart before exploding into shrapnel in the sky! Luckily, I quick-saved (F5) prior to entering the atmosphere. This gave me a few tries to get it right, but no matter what I tried, I just couldn't cause enough friction to slow down my craft quickly enough. The re-entry heat can be a real pain sometimes.

So in my final try I decided all was lost. I sent out via transmission all the science data I had collected and hunkered down. The craft thrashed and flipped but held together just enough for Bill to exit the craft. Even while the craft was sheering apart from the heat, Bill was protected from the bulk of the heat. The cockpit exploded, but again Bill was saved from the worst of it. The flaming craft finally slowed, the fire reseeded and Bill was left in free fall with a pile of metal around him. There wasn't much choice, he was going to have to jump solo.

This created a bit of a situation, as Kerbals don't come stock with parachutes. But I knew there was a slim chance he may still survive. I was only a few thousand meters over the ocean at this point, so I ignited my jetpack and vectored myself against the looming ocean. It wasn't a slow decent, but I burned off enough speed to still slam hard into the ocean. To my surprise and perhaps the Kerbal Gods themselves Bill survived. The mission may have been a failure, but that's not to say everything was lost. Bill would return to fly another day- and hopefully with better equipment.

SEO, Marketing and Just a Little Fairy Dust

These past couple of weeks have been a nail biting adventure. The tension is real, the stress is palpable, and the nerves are beyond fried. Welcome to Marketing. Though really marketing doesn't seem incredibly difficult, not from a creative standpoint. Marketing is difficult from an endurance standpoint. There are plenty of articles and links to really high quality resources. Such as Moz, whom I've become incredibly friendly with their help articles.

Frankly, there's just a lot to do. There's an overwhelming number of facets and angles marketing has to be attacked from and tended to. From social to analytical it drives a very wide path down an even wider road. A little over a week ago a colleague and myself started on the journey to repair the marketing damage that had been done to Lettering on the Cheap. I've worked in Video for a few years, so I had a sense of what needed to be done from the outside looking in, but I didn't know what I was getting myself into before I looked under the hood. While LOTC is a great company and I would encourage anyone to purchase from them for any of the Vinyl Lettering or Graphic needs, from a marketing standpoint LOTC lacks a lot of optimization and because of that- it has fallen behind the pack.

This is where Tyler and I come in. A week later we are up to our neck with tweaks and changes and an avalanche of new Link Prospects we are making headway. Hopefully with this new surge of work we'll start to see real results, wish us luck!

Kerbal Space Program V1 REVIEW!

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I have been to play the official Version 1.0 of KSP. Having sank over 800 hours into Kerbal since I started in .18 it's been one hell of a journey to where KSP stands today. So was the anticipation worth it? Was the hype train worth the wait? In a couple words: Hell Yeah.

Right off the bat there's some really fantastic big changes to KSP. First and foremost an proper atmospheric drag model has been implemented into the game. You'll notice it as soon as you launch your first rocket. But to really feel the effects, you only need to wander into your space plane hanger and construct a winged vessel. There are a number of things about the atmosphere that create a more compelling experience. For one, parachutes finally seem to work in a realistic way. While I was cruising around at 300m/s in an early space plane (that admittedly was more plane than space.) I found myself taking off using nothing but the forces of air pressure under my wings and slowing due to drag after launching parachutes will gliding to a stop. It's subtle, but the changes make for a brand new set of experiences to play with. Space planes in general have been boosted with various new parts including landing gear, winglets and air intakes.

But the new areo model is really only half the recipe. The new implementation of heat has been a serious game changer. Previously your craft would harmlessly catch on fire as it re-entered the atmosphere or broke supersonic speeds. But no more. Now heat- or friction has turned beautiful spires of fire into horrifying moments of nail biting experiences. As I discovered dozens of times (and I mean dozens) friction really turns on you in multiple ways. It's not simply a matter of entering the atmosphere as perhaps the classic 'movie-esque' belief goes. Friction is a relation to how your craft moves within a dense atmosphere- it's like swimming. This all relates back to the parts your craft are built from. Sometimes you can get away with making your ship more aerodynamic, so it slips through the atmosphere like a knife or other times you can use a heat shield. Each situation has its pro's and con's and even then things don't always go as planned. For instance, I've used a heat shield on a top heavy vessel, but without SAS it spun and flipped me upside down- rendering the shield useless and ultimately turned my ship into a fireball.

But it's not all big changes that make a difference. The 'advance to next day' button outside your space center is a welcomed addition, making it far easier to launch during the day. Other elements like additional parts, engines and connectors have helped bridge the gaps the previous versions fell short on.

The biggest and perhaps most profound element to KSP is mining. However, I haven't advanced far enough in the game to properly review it yet. I will gladly offer a second Review as I've advanced further in the game. However, after the first few hours in KSP, I'm a solid believer.

8/10 - Can't wait to see what they do next.

The Cirlce is Nearly Complete

It's really wonderful to see things coming together so smoothly. Enjoy it while I can I say- as harder times are sure to come. It's been a few days since I've been able to update anyone, much less work on our project due to a busy weekend with family. But, there have been some very exciting updates. Chief among them, the first draft of our revised script has been finished and the Gallimimus model is nearing texture completion. Another critical step in it's development.

When I tasked myself to work on the script as I've mentioned previously, I knew there were a number of criteria that had to be met, for production reasons and so forth. I spent about a week just letting the thoughts rumble in the back of my mind as I pressed on with other issues. To be fair, I really wasn't looking forward to writing a first draft. It was a daunting task: take everything we've written before, capture the spirit of it, remove the fluff, polish the good parts and implement as much as we could into a compact spot. It just wasn't something I was looking forward to, but having a bit of time to let the ideas marinate did me some good. Best yet, it let the good ideas stand on their own and the bad ones fade to the background. I found I could focus on what was important when all the ideas of our previous script weren't jumping out at me at once saying 'well what about me?' So finally, I gathered my courage and dived in- and it didn't take longer then about five hours. Not too shabby for a days work. Next I'll be sending the draft to my other colleagues for them to review and I'll be setting up an appointment with 'James', a previous writer I've worked with to smooth out any details. Honestly, I don't foresee the script taking too many revisions, perhaps changes in verbage or slight actions sequence changes. But nothing dramatic- which is good news.

Having such a concrete script from the get-go also means organizing the film in a much more productive way. Storyboarding is an easy one to spot, but there's other advantages. Like the complementary use of B-Roll. For those who don't know, B-Roll is typically used in advertising. In a feature film for instance there's often a 'Secondary Film Unit' which goes around and shoots all the filler stuff- like rolling landscapes, the big master shots of a city, or other details that the main shoot isn't focused on. It's a time saving move for the production. Well, Ranger Corps don't have a second unit to go out and film with, and going to locations like Hawaii to film would certainly cost us a lot more than the roughly $500 we have to make this film. So that puts us in a pickle it would seem. But that's where B-Roll comes in. B-Roll is essentially the same thing, but more often than not it's filmed by someone else, so there's no control over what is being shot- but because there's so much footage you usually can make good use of some of it. You just have to be creative.

In the case of Ranger Corps, filming in Hawaii was out of the question. We're filming in Florida, so we do have some varying levels of passable jungle- but where we're lacking B-Roll can sometimes be used to fill the gap. Knowing this beforehand and designing the script with this in mind, has meant I can produce an animated storyboard, complemented with B-Roll, and temporary audio to create the film in pre-production before ever having to set foot outside. It's a big step forward for us, as it shows us a glimpse of what we're shooting and has huge implications from a storytelling point of view. As it stands currently, about half the film has been constructed this way and I imagine after tonight the latter half will also be constructed.


Last but not least, the Gallimimus model is nearing the end of it's texture stage of production. It's been nice to work on an organic model again, as it's been a while since I've animated anything, much less an organic. But truthfully, I over did it. The model really doesn't need to be as fancy as I made it for the screen time it'll in. But hey, it was nice to get things moving again. Next comes rigging, in which I place a bone structure in the creature to give it degrees of movement, then the run cycles begin, then animating the sequence, then rendering, compositing... and finally it'll be done. But the big thing is just finishing the textures.

Cheating Textures

I'm not sure words can really express how excited I am to be finished with modeling. Not to say I wasn't having fun, but now that the modeling is finished it brings about new challenges to breath life into this character. It's funny how simple things like skin folds or wrinkles can make so much difference, but it says something about who we are. When we see an older gentleman with harsh lines across his forehead and deep creases stemming around his cheeks, we see someone who loves to laugh and has marked his body with his tales of joy and love throughout his life. It's a sublte but visual sign of the person before us and in many ways this is true regardless of if you're human or even a dinosaur. The little details speak volumes about us.

As you can see from the photo above, I didn't get too far with the texturing last night. In fact the majority of the night was setting up for this process. To texture a 3D model like a dinosaur, is a lot like drawing on an Orange. It's way easier if the skin were to be removed and flattened out. Now, assuming you cut the skin in such a way that it would be easily wrapped around the fruit again, you'd be in a pretty good position to create some really stunning artwork when the peel is flattened out. This is essentially what was required of our Gallimimus. Her skin was unwrapped and flattened. The pieces that belonged together were re-stitched together and after hours of work, she lied out flattened before me. It was a very important step, because next I began to hand draw the detail back onto the dinosaur.

Which is pretty close to where I left off last night. While she does have a basic color attached to her right now, that's not really my focus. There's this certain truth to Animation in which states 'Never do more than required'. It seems lazy, but there's an honest truth in that. The audiences will never know what you didn't do if you plan ahead to know what they'll be looking for. Adding texture follows much of this same thought process. When I modeled the dinosaur I knew I wouldn't be forced to create an over zealous amount of detail because for one: the animal would be in motion, and a lot of detail would be lost in the blur, and two: the animal wouldn't be in any extreme closeup position.

There's two aspects to the texture which are really important. The first is called a Bump Map. Which works to create the illusion of thin creases in the skin, much like the ones you'll find on your own hands. These are low intensity creases. The next step is using a Displacement Map. This is unique in that it actually displaces the mesh itself and will react properly with lighting. You can see this most notibably at the moment if you look around the arms of the Galli. But the combination of the two tactics creates a pretty well done skin texture.

The downfall in all of this of course, is simply the fact that it has to be hand created. While there might be an automated process for it I'll find in the future. At the moment I can take credit for every wrinkle you see before you.

More to come!

Muscles Groups

Quick update today, last night I worked pretty hard to define the Gallimimus' muscle groups even further and smooth out some of the rough areas across the body. From about the shoulders back I'm pretty happy, even the feet have come a long ways since the beginning. The fingers still need a bit of work, they're a bit too sharp and fearsome in my opinion. The shoulder blade needs to be refined too to make for smoother animation when they're curled up into a 'traveling position'.

The head has brought about a new set of problems. I took a crack at it last night, but wasn't too satisfied with the results I was getting. I'll probably start from scratch again today and see what I can do. The skull is a very odd shape, namely around the eyes. It's a very angular shape that softens into deep wells for the eyes and chubby cheeks. I decided against designing the mouth to open, the animals simply won't be seen long enough to bother putting in that level of detail.

Galli- Galli- Gallimimus!

It's nice to see progress being made on the Ranger Corps front. Last night I got the change to flesh out the body and feet on our Gallimimus Model. This might just be the first herbivore model I've ever made and there's some unique challenges in that alone. Rather than teeth and a certain about of 'snear' Gallimimus are all about speed and raw power. Which has meant a lot of emphasis on muscle groups and giving the Gallimimus the right look that conveys speed. There's a silver lining however when it comes to this model and it's simply the fact that you won't see the animal resting in place but running in a group. This is beneficial because I won't have to put an extreme amount of detail into the model, considering it'll be blurred anyways. Which means a faster turn around for production. What you're looking at now is a good first past, but the final model will likely have twice the level of detail when complete. The feet still need additional work, they have this odd shape in which the toes are thin, the heel is thick and the lower leg bone bulges- finding the right ratio is a bit of trial by error. Tonight, I'll begin work on the hands and head too- which will have come with their own set of challenges. The fingers won't be difficult and again aren't required to be animated too heavily, the head on the other hand will be defined a fair amount. Not that it'll be seen in any high resolution, but I tend to think people's eyes gravitate to the head of most creatures. So I'd like to see it moderately fleshed out.

Other interesting aspects of the Gallimimus I've learned along the way are in response to its growth patterns. The young often has shorter snouts and grew in length with age. This has lead to me to consider creating a secondary model, tweaked to be a sub-adult. It would be a minor variation, but perhaps needed variety for the film.

On the scripting front, not a whole lot of progress has been made. I've been putting a bit of thought into the storyline, but I haven't taken the time to sit down and flesh it out. The problem really comes down to the main antagonist. With so little time for this story (I'm thinking under 5 minutes) that puts a lot of pressure to focus on only one main antagonist, rather than two- which was the original story design (like a one-two punch). But who knows, I have a clever approach to involving two antagonists, but it's really a question of logistics. Not to mention this means double the work.

At the moment, the idea stands that a Ranger has arrived on scene to a truck crash. He realizes the truck operators are dead and the animal cages have been torn open in the chaos that ensued. The problem is what was on board- creatures that were on their way to be euthanized. Predatory creatures with teeth like serrated knives and deadly saliva filled with a slew of incapacitating toxins. Finding and killing them is the Island's top priority. The problem is the Rangers are already deeply involved in a security threat. The island has just received it's first Tyrannosaurus Rex and she's scheduled to wake up soon. It's up to our hero, with limited chopper support to hunt down the creatures before they can escape the area. But even with the advances of 1992 military grade technology, is he the hunter or hunted?

The other issue is physical manpower. I'd like to produce this was as few of people as possible. Two or three would be ideal and I have people in mind- but the problem is again, logistics. More people, more problems. I'd also like to keep the speaking parts to a minimum, but again this becomes an issue with ideas of never before seen dinosaurs or abstract concepts. How do we explain to the audience its mouth is full of toxins if we don't say it? Showing it opens up a new set of problems. In these cases I often look back to Metal Gear Solid, where as an audience member we met Solid Snake, a fielded agent who still had a million questions about the complexity of the the 'Metal Gear' world around him, much like the players. We might be able to field a similar solution here too- perhaps the Rangers in the chopper are experienced, senior members and our hero is still a bit of a rookie. But they provide invaluable radio support and logistics from the air.

That's about all the film notes for today however- hopefully I'll have a much more rendered out picture by tomorrow!