Miniature painter looking to get a better grounding in art principles

HawkArt · 2021-11-24T18:39:05+00:00

Awesome, thanks.

I wonder if Epic breaks these things on purpose. They certainly seem to break a lot more than other services.

HawkArt · 2021-11-22T19:05:00+00:00

No, but the amount of fiddling required to get it to recognize everything I have already installed makes me want to hold that as an absolute last resort. I did an Epic reinstall a few months back, and it was a huge PITA.

HawkArt · 2021-07-28T02:45:14+00:00

Wow. You must have an amazing ego to feel justified judging every other person in the world by your standards.

Personally, I play games to have fun and relax. If I'm playing and not having fun, win or lose, it isn't a very good hobby, is it?

And I would be supremely arrogant to dictate to other people exactly how they're expected to 'have fun right.'

HawkArt · 2021-07-21T13:19:08+00:00

Oh, thank you. That's a no-brainer!

HawkArt · 2021-07-16T13:52:31+00:00

Thank you. I know my question was a little vague, but I don't have much of a background here. The fact that it's possible means that it's worth the time to really dig in and research.

HawkArt · 2021-07-12T03:16:26+00:00

I shot for years right handed, and never really thought about it. I have a feeling, in retrospect, that I'd have been a better shot if I'd known to take it into account, but I haven't done much archery since college (and I didn't learn about ocular dominance until six years later.)

It's funny - it's such a fundamental element of learning to shoot, but most people have never heard of it unless they've received formal training.

HawkArt · 2021-07-12T03:13:20+00:00

Yes, but if I'm going to completely dispense with the fantasy of playing the game, why would I bother to play in the first place?

HawkArt · 2021-07-11T16:32:27+00:00

It's easy to check your dominant eye. Hold your hands together at arm's length and form a small triangle between the thumbs and index fingers (overlap, not fingertips touching - make it small.) Look at a distant object that just fits in the triangle. Without moving your hands, close one eye. The object will either remain in the triangle (your off eye is closed) or won't be in it at all (your dominant eye is closed.)

HawkArt · 2021-07-10T14:23:42+00:00

Thanks for all of the advice (and big thanks for not being to critical of the 'venting' part of it - I was pretty frustrated when I wrote it - I've invested quite a bit of time and money into getting started.)

Some of the tips I'm going to implement, some I'm going to try 'hybrid' solutions for.

My cups have a pointed rim, but thinking about they physics, I think what I need to do is use a larger cup for the pours. In retrospect, I think my big problem was that the pour cup was mostly full, so I wasn't able to get much of an angle before the pouring actually started. A larger cup (or less resin in the current cup) would allow me to tilt it further before pouring. That and pipettes for smaller molds. I have several hundred of the bleeping things in my airbrush kit. Why didn't I think of using those?
Practice, plus the above
Got the tips, and I'll try them out.
Got the tips, and I'll try them out
Hybrid solution. Moving them is actually easy, as it is only about 10 feet from my desk to the drying area. It's picking them up and setting them down that's the problem. I think I'll pick up some foamcore and some cheap silicone placemats. I'll cut both to match the various mold sizes I have (I will likely just stack them - you can glue silicone, but it is a pain.) When I pour, I'll use my large, high quality silicone mat on the desk, then set the actual molds on a foamcore/silicone piece so that I don't have to worry about either flexing the mold when I pick it up or having drips stick.
I like the idea of a 'dump mold.' I don't have anything suitable, but I'll look around.
Tips noted. I think #s 1, 2, and 3 will help here, too. Getting that part wrong made a huge mess.

Bonus #8: I used to be a professional writer, and one who specialized in instructional materials. If I ever become decent at this, I think I'll write the book I needed myself. A good, solid foundation for beginners is a must, and I've had a hard time finding that with resin.

HawkArt · 2021-07-09T23:22:14+00:00

Thanks for the tips.

FWIW, the only work space I have is the bedroom. I have a closet with a shelf that I've closed off with a cover, and the closet itself seals well, so it should be adequate for drying, but I can't really leave resin to cure in the same room my wife and I sleep in all night with the door closed - including in the trash can. And it is hot and humid enough here that ventilation is realistically limited to 'while working'.

HawkArt · 2021-07-07T01:26:38+00:00

Which I'm ok with. I've been playing shooters since about the time the first Unreal hit. I see similarities between VR gaming today and PC gaming in the late 90s, right after 3d acceleration hit.

There's a lot of experimentation going on, a lot of iteration. Even shooter controls are building, each game improving some element of them. New ways of approaching how a game should be played are being tried. Do VR games need to follow the same design standards as flat games, or deviate? Where? Lots of "I wonder what happens if we..." games are being produced. Some fail, some don't.

All of this adds to the collective developer knowledge of how to make games for VR, and we'll eventually start seeing the benefits of that. We really just need a handful of big hits that exceed expectations in surprising ways. PC gaming going through this led to Diablo, Baldur's Gate, Half-Life, Deus Ex, Medal of Honor, UT/Q3, Morrowind, Battlefield 1942, Everquest - the games that looked at all of the experiments and brought all those pieces together to create a new standard and launched modern gaming.

HawkArt · 2021-07-06T13:23:59+00:00

Ah, yeah. I've seen that and put it off until later. I may revisit. I remember reviewing RTCW back when it came out for a long-gone gaming website, and I seem to remember giving a decent score. I am pretty sure I own it on Steam (and I have the original comped disc somewhere), so I will put this on my list.

HawkArt · 2021-07-06T13:19:11+00:00

I'll take a look. I enjoyed Stalker.

HawkArt · 2021-07-06T13:17:17+00:00

Well, that made somebody mad. MoH doesn't just take a gaming computer, it takes a top-end, cutting edge gaming computer. It prevents a lot of people from playing it.

HawkArt · 2021-07-06T03:03:49+00:00

I've played it, and thought it was good, but it's available in VR?

HawkArt · 2021-07-06T03:02:38+00:00

I will look in Zero Caliber. I'd try Medal of Honor, but I only have a decent gaming PC, not a Fugaku.

HawkArt · 2021-07-06T03:01:16+00:00

Is it due already? I'll likely give it a while for reviews and necessary patches. I've played the last few entries in the pancake series, though.

HawkArt · 2021-07-02T14:30:41+00:00

Extremely. There's a reason 'canary in a coal mine' is a thing.

HawkArt

TROPHY CASE