Saturday 3 September 2011

Anime: Occult Academy

This is a series I've been meaning to watch for a long time now and finally got around to watching it. It's the first time I've watched an entire series in the space of a day. Personally I love watching supernatural comedies so I knew I was going to like it anyways. There are times where it's predictable and times where it throws you off guard. And to be honest people like figuring out bits of plot to feel smart but still like to be surprised so I think it was very well done on that part. The animation style was a little unusual at times, it's like it was made to intentionally look a bit older than it actually is, which is good to a bit more variety to the animation styles on display. All in all I'll just say it's a series well worth watching.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.co.uk/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=11390

Thursday 1 September 2011

Final Year of University

My final year of University is fast approaching. It's been a long time coming yet it feels like no time at all. Currently still trying to set down my final year project, but currently it's looking to be something along the lines of making a board game. This year will probably be a particularly large amount of work which is why it's particularly important I do a project I can truly devote my year to.

Tuesday 16 August 2011

Mini minecraft texture pack. Slimes and glass

Slimes and glass, what a great combination....Originally I was trying to get my glass to look all cracked, but in the end I decided to go with the swirly design which would suit the overall theme. Also I was originally goign to do all mobs before doing the blocks, but currently mu plan for skeletons is for them to have pumpkins on their heads (So I moved onto the pumpkin block, couldn't make it any way I liked so then moved onto another random block)

Currently I have 2 ideas for ladders so I'll do one soon. One is actually to make the ladders vines. I really like this except it won't make sense for vines to be made out of wood...

Anyways here are the videos of slimes and glass

Monday 15 August 2011

Mini Minecraft Texture pack - spiders

Here are the current spiders from the mini minecraft texture pack. I'd like to work with them a bit more if I can figure out the skin zones on their texture.


Sunday 14 August 2011

Mini Minecraft texture pack - pictures of stuff so far

Not everyone will want to look at videos so here are some pictures showing what has been done so far.








Mini MInecraft texture pack - 0.3.1 download

For anyone who wants to try out what is done so far they can get it partially complete texture pack here

Saturday 13 August 2011

mini minecraft texture pack v 0.3.1 - creepers

I just added in the texture for creepers after getting the idea of making them look like ghosts

Mini Minecraft texture pack v 0.3 (Most of gui)

Here is a video demonstrating the latest additions to the mini minecraft texture pack.That covers most of the gui. I have an idea for the crepers so that will be my next change, and I'll possibly work on all mobs while I'm at it.


mini minecraft texure pack more interface

here is a picture of a bit more for the interface. For these screens I just have the furnace one left to do. Then I'll probably make another showcase video and call it a night.


Mini Minecraft Texture pack - text boxes

Here are the text boxes I have currently. Again I'm not entirely sure if I'm going to go with them, but at the very least I'll make them available as an extra



minecraft - 60 piston elevator, fastest retracting

For anyone who hasn't seen the other version s they are on my channel.

I edited my V1 of the 60 piston elevator to have this. It's faster than the other 2 on fast forward... The original mechanism in this had a 4 tick pulse cycling about the circuit until it stopped.This system sends out lots of 2 tick pulses 2 ticks apart. Most of the looping tower is now redundant and can be removed(making it smaller if I remove it, currently it's still there but just cut off)

As I mentioned somewhere before the v2 version is much smaller and easier to make but it will never be able to compete with the max speed of this version. V2 depends on sending out long pulses which will slow it's max speed quite a bit compared to this.

minecraft- fast 60 pistons retracting

I've managed to come up with a mechanism to retract 60 pistons super fast =D

Currently I'm working a couple of bugs out of it but look forward to it =D

Minecraft - how to extend any amount of pistons

Here is a tutorial on how to extend any amount of pistons. it's actually really easy, though some people were wondering how to do it.


Meme generator

So I created 2 pictures on meme generator last night. Then I logged in today to see the 2 of them in the top 5 =D

Friday 12 August 2011

FileServe File hosting

So I was looking for a filesharing host to store my minecraft stuff and I came across FileServe. They seem pretty good as far as actual file storage goes. But they actually seem like you could make decent money from them with 25$ per 1000 downloads (Not sure if I'll have that many downloads but you'll never know.



Majora's Mask Mirror Shield - CANNOT UNSEE!!!

I just saw this picture while trying to get an image of shields in my head for doing the armour symbol on the texture pack... and I saw this instantly...

Mini Minecraft Texture pack V 0.2

A bit more done with the texture pack. I'm not sure if I'm going to stay with that item bar. But at the very least if I don't use it I'll leave it as an extra in the pack for people who may want it.

Edit: Download link for this version


Mini Minecraft Texture pack - armor symbol + crosshairs

You can see the armour symbols here and I've made the cursor very small so you may or may not see it. I'm still currently deciding on a heart symbol and on a look for the item area. I had an idea for hearts but I can't fit it into the amount of pixels available.



Mini Minecraft Texture Pack V 0.1

Today I started work on the mini minecraft texture pack. So far I've only changed the texture for the sun, the moon and zombies and you can see them in the video below. I'll have it uploaded sometime soon so that you can download it.


Thursday 11 August 2011

Wednesday 10 August 2011

FullMetal Alchemist Pocket Watch Drawing

Here is something I drew a couple of years ago. I had to do a drawing of a watch in photoshop for photoshop class in University, and being the anime fan I am I had to do a rendering of the fullmetal alchemist watch :)

This took a considerable amount of time to do overall. Especially considering I was still pretty new to photoshop at the time and had a lot to learn.


Minecraft Texture Pack

I've decided that I'm going to do my own minecraft texture pack. For those of you who don't know I'm a design student who has some skill with photoshop. I'm going to take my time and make it a good one... also when I finish it I'm going to make a monochrome version of it for epicness :)

If you want to see what I'm capable of when I put in the effort just take a look at this

Nothing as Clean as a Lab coat

I can see myself quoting this while in the design workshop while wearing a lab coat...
Edit:


Minecraft - Hiding Behind Lava

Here is a clever solution to making a hidden entrance which has no obvious give aways (apart from the ones in my examples which look like doors of course

 

After making that I thought of this would let you hide any redstone based secret entrance using lava.

 

Minecraft- Having Fun Protecting Chests

I made this video for http://www.youtube.com/user/Minecrafters (Check out their channel for more videos)
Also check out my channel at    http://www.youtube.com/user/razzlero

This video is basically showing my expermenting with different ways to protect chests (Though this was in single player so they were safe there anyways.)The last idea is probably the actual best for hiding chests provided nobody steals your lava.

Tuesday 9 August 2011

Minecraft - 60 Piston elevator V2

So continuing from my elevator project I remade the elevator using a much more compact mechanism

From Dust

So this game was interesting me for a while so I decided to buy and play it. There aren't many games like this but the closest one I can think of is the original Populus (And that's pushing it). You play the game by  picking up pieces of dirt/water/lava or special trees and place them to effect the terrain. So for example you might make a dam to block off water, though if it's flowing water you might have trouble with where the blocked water flows to. There are also a couple of special powers to help you along.

In short it's an interesting mix of a strategy game and a physics game which leads to a pretty unique and enjoyable gaming experience.

Internet problems

Currently having problems with internet, can only access it from my phone for now :(
If I seem pretty inactive for a small while that will be why, so hopefully it won't take too long to fix.


Edit: Internet seems to have magically fixed it's self :)

Minecraft - Advanced pulse extender

Here is a more advanced version of my pulse extender. I've wanted to make a better version of the pulse extender for a while for a specific purpose and here it is :)
You may wonder what it's needed for but it is actually incredibly useful and you will see in one of my posts to come why that is


Why can't I hold all these slimes?

Tee hee, a very quick photoshop job


13 pistons retracting V 2

Currently my most popular Youtube video is 13 pistons retracting... well here's some good news. I'm managed to do it in a fraction of the space and this version is much more realistically usable. the only bad thing is it doesn't give the pretty light show the other one did XD


Monday 8 August 2011

60 piston elevator teaser

Still not finished but here is a teaser. It's pretty close to completion though.

Blogging from my phone

I just installed the blogger app on my phone and I'm just testing it out :)

Sunday 7 August 2011

Short Story Star Lake

Here is the last of the short stories I wrote on livejournal.

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Did you ever wonder where the stars go when they don’t shine in the sky? Did you ever wonder if stars are more than just some light twinkling in the sky?
Some people say that the stars are spirits that live in the sky at night and sleep on the earth by day. Nobody knows exactly where they sleep, but some say that they sleep in special lakes known as star lakes.
One day Adam was late for school and decided to take a shortcut through some fields. As he rushed past trees and through hedges he suddenly came to a place he didn’t recognise. He found himself at a lake that he never knew existed. As he looked around he wasn’t around he wasn’t surprised the lake was completely hidden from sight by the bushes and trees around it. Though he was surprised he was still in a hurry, and despite being in a hurry he had to move slowly to that the muddy ground didn’t dirty his clothes and didn’t dirty his shoes any more. As he walked by the edge of the lake his foot slipped and he fell in to the glimmering lake. As he flailed he attempted to call for help, but the shock and the water veiling his mouth kept his cries of help from escaping. Not that it mattered anyways, there was nobody nearby to hear his screams, at least he thought there was nobody nearby, as he had given up hope a hand gently grabbed his flailing arm and carried him safely back to dry land.
The boy opened his eyes to see a nice girl whose entire being seemed to shimmer gently and let out calming waves. She yawned and her voice calmly rang out “Are you ok? Lucky I woke up when I heard you splashing. I’m normally a very heavy sleeper... hmm… what were you doing out here anyways? It’s very rare for me to get a visitor.”
The boy nervously replied “I was trying to take a shortcut to school and ended up here, and then I fell into the lake while I was trying to get by. What were you doing sleeping in a place like this though? I tried sleeping outside before and I caught a cold because of it”.
“I guess you could call this place my home… and don’t worry, I won’t catch a cold from sleeping here” replied the girl with a heart-warming gentle smile.
“This is your home? Does that mean that you’re homeless? You must get lonely here” said the boy with a look of worry.
“Don’t worry, I’m not homeless. I just have a different home to most other people, and I’m not lonely, I just stay here during the day to rest and I go out at night with all my friends… It was nice to get a chance to talk with a visitor, but maybe you should hurry to school.” said the girl with the same heart-warming smile.
With a look of shock the boy realised how late he was and started to rush off towards school again and said quickly to the girl “It was nice talking miss, I’ll come here to visit you again so that you won’t be lonely during the day anymore”. With that the boy smiled and rushed off out between the bushes towards school.
As the boy left the girl spoke quietly to herself “It would be nice if you visited again, but my lake may never appear near you again, and even if it did star lakes are very well hidden from normal people. It’s only at times when I think of this that I do feel lonely…”. As she said that she fell gently into the lake and disappeared into it to continue her sleep until night time arrived.

Short Story - Starcrossed

Here is another short story I previously wrote on livejornal

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The full moon shone brilliantly in the starry night sky. The teenage boy ventured to the lake on the outskirts of the city like every other night to gaze at the stars. The city lights rivalled the starry lights in the sky and prevented the boy from gazing upon the stars from his home. Nobody understood why he went through so much trouble each night just to see the stars, in fact he didn’t fully understand himself... he just found the stars beautiful… or more accurately he found a star beautiful. One star always stood out to him, he always knew which star it was in the vast seemingly infinite sea of stars in the sky, and it always captivated him for some unknown reason. This night seemed like every other night. However, little did he know it that on this night he would come to realise why the star captivated him so.
He gazed in awe at the most captivating star in the sky like every other night from the late hours of the night until the dark hours of the early morning. However tonight something seemed different. The star looked almost as if it was moving. Actually it was moving! And it was moving faster and faster and it seemed as if it was coming down to earth to greet him, though the star seemed to shrink smaller and smaller as it got closer and closer. The boy watched in fear and awe as a ball of flame came hurtling ever faster towards him. He panicked running around wondering what to do the whole time only ever briefly letting his eyes avert their gaze from the star that captivated them even now as it rushes ever closer. Then all of a sudden the ball of fire plummeted into the nearby lake. The boy rushed over to the lake as fast as he could to see what had crashed into the lake. To his shock he found a beautiful girl struggling for her life in the shimmering lake. Without a second thought the boy dove into the lake to save her.
Even though he wasn’t a great swimmer he managed to pull the girl to safety, while all the time being captivated by her beauty. She had pale skin and wore delicate silver and white clothes that seemed almost as if they came straight out of some fairytale. And something the boy found really strange as he pulled her out of the lake was that she felt very warm, this was very weird considering she had just been drowning in a frigid lake. Then the thought suddenly struck him! Maybe she was related to that fireball that fell into the lake! “Nah… I shouldn’t let my imagination get the better of me. If I do I really will go insane” he thought.
The girl opened her golden eyes and stared directly into the boy’s brown eyes. After a few moments of them doing nothing but staring the girl suddenly started blushing and started to run away before tripping and falling to the ground. The boy walked calmly over to her and extended his hand to help her up and said “Are you ok? My name’s Lanz by the way”. The girl stared at him still blushing for a moment before blurting out “I’m fine. Th-thanks. My name’s Stella. I’m fine. I’m just not able to walk very well right now”. After helping her up Lanz thought for a second and said “… if you’re having trouble walking maybe you should rest for a while. Don’t worry I’ll keep you company until you’re ok.” Still embarrassed Stella just smiled and nodded ok.
Stella and Lanz sat by the side of the lake and stared at the reflections of the stars and the moon on the surface of the lake. Even though they sat down together not a word had been said between them since they sat down. Lanz was still wondering what had happened to that star that captivated him. It was no longer in the sky, at least he couldn’t see it, and he was wondering if he had just imagined that fireball. Maybe all the nights going to the lake to see the stars had finally taken their toll on him. Even though the star that captivated him was no longer visible he wasn’t very worried about it, because his attention had been stolen by the beautiful girl beside him. It was so late that the darkness was slowly being washed away by the rising run and the silence finally broke as Stella mumbled as if she was about to say something, but then stopped as if she had changed her mind. Even though she had stopped before saying anything Lanz looked at her and she felt pressured to let out what she was about to say. “Um... It’s kind of embarrassing….”. Lanz just looked at her with a puzzled look and said “What’s embarrassing?”. Blushing ever more Stella uttered out “It’s kind of embarrassing… the way you always look at me…”. The puzzled look on Lanz’s face became more cryptic after that statement “What do you mean? I was only looking into the lake until now?”. Stella now with a look as if she just realised something said “I didn’t mean just now. I meant the way you always look up at me every night. It’s kind of embarrassing… though when you look up at me I always look down on you too… I just realised you don’t seem to recognise me, but I’m the star that you always look up to… that you always stare at. It’s embarrassing but I like having you look at me...” Lanz now wondering whether he was just going insane or if this girl was going insane noticed the blushing girl glowing and glittering specks of light slowly rising from her and then disappearing slowly as the sun rose. He had much that he wanted to say to her, but too much was going through his head and he found himself unable to say anything. Stella then started leaning closer to Lanz and said “This lake is special. It’s filled with the energy of the heavens that it always reflects. On nights when the light of a full moon is reflected on the surface of this lake stars can come down to walk the earth. But my time here is almost up…”. As she said this Lanz noticed that as the specks of light were rising from her Stella’s body slowly began to vanish. Stella started leaning closer and closer to Lanz and said “When the sun rises stars disappear… and soon when it rises I will disappear. When night arrives I’ll be in the sky again, and I will be looking down on you, so pleases don’t stop looking up at me. And on the nights of a full moon we can see each other like this again…”. As she said this she leaned ever closer to Lanz and was about to kiss him, and as she leaned closer and closer her figure faded more and more, and then, just as their lips were about to touch she faded completely with the rising sun.

Poem - Depth Dwellers

Here is a poem I wrote a long time ago and posted on livejournal after I thought of a clever connection between 2 things :)
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Each one is unique, yet each one searches for the same thing. Though only a lucky few find that which they seek. Many settle for something other than what they sought, and tell themselves that they found it. Each one is fragile, yet each one can gather more strength than you could ever imagine when it matters most. But, alas, many become broken after using that strength… once they break they retreat to the depths of darkness, hiding from the light that would make their cracks visible to the world. They meet others who they try to hide the cracks from, but many see them, many feel them… but many choose to ignore them. Most say that they will go away in time, but to this little heart it already feels like it’s been too long, and that it’s cracks may never fully heal…
So for now all it can do is dwell in the depths, until it is safe to venture out again…

Short Story - Winter's Flame

Here is a short story I previously had on livejournal. This one was wrote for christmass so sorry for being out of season XD
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It was a cold winter’s day. The time of year which once filled me with excitement as a child was starting to leave me as cold inside as it felt outside. Each year the fire of Christmas slowly started to go out leaving me feeling cold and numb, except for that year.

It felt like any other Christmas. I walked casually through the street, the bright red clothes rebelled against the white ground, the lights scattered as far as the eye could see rebelled with the shorter nights and children wore smiles that could melt the heart of any Grinch. It was truly a time of year for being with those you cared about... which was exactly why I wanted it to be over with as soon as possible.
I left my family to work in a far away country, and all of my friends are with those that they care about, and that’s why I walked down the street alone looking at all the presents that I would never again receive or give. Lost in thought I lost sight of my surroundings and before I knew it I had tripped over something that was on the ground.
When I came to be aware of my surroundings I looked at my hand and noticed that it was bleeding after hitting the ground and there was a girl looking at me with a look of shock filling her face. Then I looked at my feet and noticed a bag of presents under my feet. The girl apologised furiously and explained that she had just left her bags down while she was opening the door to her house. After seeing my hand she dragged me into the house and tended to my wounds while all the time talking to me. Every word she said and everything she said quickly started to rekindle the failing flame within my heart. With some courage I asked to spend some time with her the next day, and then the day after that and then the day after that and it continued like a dream which seemed like it was never going to end and every moment spent with her burnt the flame in my heart ever brighter... but all dreams have to end and after spending Christmas day with her and her family she revealed that she was only in town to visit her family and had to leave again in a few days. During those days I knew I had to tell her how I felt I knew I had to unleash the flame that had been reborn within me, but each day went by without being able to build up the courage to say a couple of simple words and all I could say in the end was “Goodbye” with a strained smile on my face...
I counted down the days of the year until I would see her again. I felt like a kid again counting down to Christmas waiting until he could open his presents. With each day that went by and as Christmas came closer the flame in my heart started to flicker more and more with anticipation, until finally the day came. I was overwhelmed when she invited me to dinner and I could see her after such a long time.
As I walked into the restaurant the waiter guided me to a table set for three. I was slightly surprised, but I should have realised I wouldn’t be the only friend that she wanted to see after such a long time... but then I saw her walk in holding hands with a man I never saw before... and on her finger I saw an engagement ring...
As she sat down she had an excited look on her face and said she had something to tell me. She didn’t need to tell me... I could already tell what she was going to say... I knew what was about to happen, my mind didn’t want it to be true, my ears didn’t want to hear it... but she said it anyways. She said that she was engaged. The flame in my heart was suddenly blown out leaving me with nothing left to protect me from the cold of Christmas...

Minecraft Carousel

Hi everybody, here is a neat carousel I made in minecraft, it uses a modified mechanism from my compact piston rotation.

60 piston elevator project v0.1

here is the first video from my 60 piston elevator project. So far it actually on extends, but that still looks pretty impressive. Though teh extending mechanism is actually really simple. I'm busy working on the retracting mechanism now so look forward to it :)

13 pistons retracting

Hi everybody here is one of my impressive minecraft videos of 13 pistons retracting. Opening them is easy but to close them it takes a complex looping circuit.

First post.

Hi everybody. I decided to set up a blog to talk about random stuff as well as to talk about my youtube videos.