After receiving a package today that I had actually forgotten about I came to the realization I might actually have an addiction problem. Inside the package was a game box. The game, Lord of the Rings Online. Why do I say I’m addicted? Because when I looked at one of my bookcase shelves I notice that I have a growing collection of these games.

I laid them all out on the floor and took this picture. That’s a few games if you ask me. This is also not counting the many digital downloaded games I have. They are all MMO’s. Online worlds to which people like me escape to spending countless hours.

This “addiction” started way back when a friend introduced me to Anarchy Online. That was the first MMO I played and the beginning of the long journey… into this, um, hobby.

There is little point to this post, I guess, but it’s a little glimpse into what I do when I’m not drawing something. Now I have to go and… play that new game I got.

~gp~

During my recent research into 3d animation programs, I bumped into this little gem. Anime Studio by E-Frontier. Well actually it used to be called Moho and was bought by E-Frontier. In any event this program utilizes vector and imported graphics that can then be animated using a system of bones and virtual cameras. It’s quite ingenious. Granted it won’t have the animation flow of a true cel animated cartoon, but I’ve seen some pretty impressive animations done with this app.

Here are a few:
La Reine Soleil
Gone in 60 Seconds
Drowtales 6th Anniversary Animation

Fairly impressive if you ask me. If projects like D7Peacemaker can become fairly successful with even less animation then those above then this seems like a great application to tell a story. In my case it also seems like a natural transition from 2D comics.

The price tag is also not scary at all. I may just be picking this up…

~gp~