#blendernewb

[adornesibley]

ACTUAL FACTUAL FICTIONAL PLAYS: a Newsletter

Reading: White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson, How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

Finished Reading: Limberlost by Robbie Arnott

Podcast: Dungeons and Daddies Season 2

Playing: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

Making: Fictional Play (Original Term do not steal!!! jk, use it as you like)

Writing: Project E

Word Count: 165487

TLDR: Showing is showing and telling it telling. Fictional Plays are incoming. 3D modeling and you. RAMP 2024: David’s Existential Nightmare

First, I’d like to talk about something I’ve struggled with and have seen MANY writers struggle with as well. Show don’t tell. Sometimes this isn’t necessary, but the problem usually isn’t whether the writer would LIKE to use this rule, it’s recognizing the difference between showing and telling.

I’ve come up with a pretty good description that I think is a useful litmus test. Showing will feel like a scene unfolding before you, almost cinematically. This can still be hard to sus out. Telling, however, is often quite easy to hear if you read out a given section. Telling will sound like someone who read the book TELLING you what happened, not just reading out a section of the book to you. If it sounds like a synopsis, you’re telling, not showing.

I have a project I’ve been working on, nightly, for over a week now, chipping away slowly. I’ve been playing The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, for the first time in two years, and journaling about my experience. This journal is being written, however, from the point of view of the character I’m playing. As well, I’m supplementing this with screenshots which I include in the compiled copy on my Google Drive. My thoughts are, for this to feel like a daily journal with included sketches from my character. Sort of a travelogue, sort of an old-fashioned Let’s Play (like the ones from Something Awful). This is what I’m calling a Fictional Play. (A joke based on Actual Plays, where folks play TTRPGs and record those sessions, live.)

After I’ve finished playing as this character, my plan is to play as other characters in other regions of Morrowind and build up a little collection of adventures.

To help give me plenty of things to see (for potentially hundreds and hundreds of hours of gameplay) I’ve installed a few mods. These range from mostly visual to massive expansions. I’ve installed Beautiful Cities of Morrowind, Morrowind Interiors Project, Amazing Balmora Expansion, and last but DEFINITELY not least, Tamriel Rebuilt. Tamriel Rebuilt alone will add an almost unthinkable amount of gameplay and land to explore. There are many optimizations and fix mods I’ve installed, but I’m not going to list those here.

When I’ve finished a good chunk of writing and had a chance to go back and edit it, I’ll start uploading it here and on my Patreon as a free download.

I recently downloaded Blender… I’m not sure if I will use it. I have so many grand ideas. So many things I want to create. Right now, I’m finding it hard to make any good quality claymation because I lack space to have my things set up and ready to go. Any time I want to film, I have to set up and pack up each time and I normally only get small amounts of time to film. If it takes longer to set up and pack down than I get to film then I just don’t do it. I’ve had Claythulu made for so long. He’s just sitting there… He has probably hardened and can’t be used anymore 😅 

Anyway! So, that’s why I decided to download Blender. There’s a lot I need to learn and it seems impossible right now… I will possibly upload pics if I manage to make more than a vaguely clay-looking square. I will also be doing it with a laptop touchpad… no mouse… no pen or draw pad… wish me luck!

RAMP 2024 is officially over, with more than 300 maps (sorry David), and I’ve managed to create one map for the project this year. This year did not pan out as I’d hoped, as I had a second map in the works, but life has been very hectic, and I’ve had to pick and choose where I’ve spent my time. Below is a playlist of the three maps I’ve submitted to RAMP this year and last. Of note: Fell Delivery broke about halfway through David’s playthrough, but in the final build of RAMP 2023, it’s fixed.

Here is a link to RAMP 2023 for you to go download and play for yourself!

My maps are 157 (Tiny Tek), and 251 (Fell Delivery)

Support weird. Support yourself, because no one else can make the things you want to make.

[blenderrookie]

BEST BLENDER TUTORIAL

I am so happy to have found this series of video. I just started a couple since my last blog post. This first video I posted gave me a good foundation to start with. It explained the structure of Blender and all the tools and how to use the tools before diving into creating something. Soon I will post my progress on learning how to blender. Still struggling a bit with the selecting tools but getting better every time.