Ooops

Well, it looks like I should search before I name my blog. Evidentally there is another blog named ficklepixel that also owns the domain name. Meh.. Oh well. Hopefully there is enough room for both of us.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

Want to keep that New Years Resolution? Here is a good place to start:
How to make and keep New Year’s Resolutions at Documenting Success (found via LifeHacker)

Zombies, digital painting and photoshop!

A couple of things caught my fancy lately. Zombies and Digital Painting. Here is the synthesis of the two:
So, on the zombie front, here is some knowledge I can impart:

ZOMBIES:

1. Read The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman published by Image comics. For the time being the first issue is a free read here: The Walking Dead issue 1. If you can get past the similarities to the movie 28 Days Later (which is purely accidental) you are in for a TREAT!
   
2. Play Urban Dead. It is an online, turn-bases, MMO zombie/survivor game. I don't know why, but it is addictive, and since my wife won't let me play WoW, and you only earn 1 turn every half-hour, this is as good as it gets for a while.

DIGITAL PAINTING:

1. Download the free version of ArtRage. It is fantastic, the tools are super intuitive and if you have a tablet or Tablet PC then it is as close to real natural media tools as you can get, and you can't beat free. The upgrade to full-version is a whopping $20, so if you like it stop being a cheap bastard and buy it.
2. As much as I love ArtRage, I am not very good at getting tight detail, so I started using Photoshop, and I found a few (probably obvious) tips that help speed things along. For now, some keyboard shortcuts.
   
   KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS (When in Brush Mode):
   
   • B for Brush
   • [ and ] to change the brush size
     
   • Shift+[ and Shift+[ to change the brush the brush softness
   • , and . to cycle through the available brushes. These are also the < and > keys which visually help you remember.
   
   

Buy the way, I am using Photoshop CS2 if that matters. Also, I drew the zombie before I started reading The Walking Dead, so... I am not as happy with is as I was before I saw the beatiful zombie art in the book.

Also, with all this zombie love, you can bet your ass that I will be trying my hand at a zombie game of some sort.

A brief introduction

So, here is the "Hello World" of blog entries. I have had false starts on blogs before, but I have HIGH hopes and a New Years resolution to try to stick with it.

Here are my goals with this blog:

1.) To share the knowledge I have gathered in the mobile application and video game industry.

2.) To have a central place to measure my personal growth and hopefully grow from mediocrity to excellence.

So, about me:

I am a 29 year old father of two. I design and create graphics for games and applications for mobile phones. I come from a multimedia design and programing background and by change happened to get involved in pixel art and mobile device graphics. After 3 years of moonlighting I now do it full-time. Kids, if I can do it... SO CAN YOU!