I’m glad so many of you have been enjoying the Music Player! I’ve just added two more songs to it: Sled Racing and Cardinal Flight.
In other music-related news, I’ve also gotten rid of all of the other music pages I had on this site. Many of this site’s visitors will remember when I’d update individual songs as part of my two-updates-a-week schedule. Now that the Music Player exists, it’s a bit confusing to not have all of this site’s songs there, so I’ve gotten rid of the other posts. I may be bringing those songs back in the future (like I’ve already done with Cardinal Flight).
Four months since posting? Ouch. Sorry about that. Hopefully this post will make up for it a bit.
I have finally uploaded a music player! It includes almost a half hour of music that I have composed, mostly for Club Penguin. Enjoy!
Oh, and in other news, I am now on Twitter as _screenhog. I don’t use it a whole lot, but for those of you out there that are Twitter fans, you may have wanted to know.
Hi there! Yeah, I know that I’ve been neglecting this site some, but it’s for a good cause! I’ve been working on bigger things!
I can’t share much about them now, but they include music composing, more work on that Wii game idea I had, and card game codenamed “Jacks Out The Window”.
However, it’d be pretty lame for me to end my first post in over two months like that, so here’s something new for you. A fan named Zach e-mailed the idea that Screenhog should meet Porky Pig, so here it is:
Hey there!
I haven’t been around for awhile, I know, but I have a small Christmas present for any aspiring artists out there… check out my new GET FREE ART STUFF! page. I will be updating it later, but it should be a good resource for a few of the more avid readers of this blog.
Hello Screenhog.com visitors!
Since last November, I’ve made it a priority to update this site at least twice a week. It was important, not just because I wanted to let people see a lot of the creative stuff I work on, but also because I wanted to give myself a schedule. You see, I’m not always the hardest-working person, and this was a good way to force myself to work on artistic stuff outside of work hours.
Unfortunately, there’s a problem. Most of the things I do for Screenhog.com take a few hours to make, but there are bigger projects that I want to work on, too. I have ideas in mind that would take weeks, months, or even years to build, and updating this site takes time away from those bigger projects.
So, I’m going to be updating Screenhog.com less often.
Don’t worry, this site isn’t dead. In fact, if things work out as I hope, you’ll see bigger and better things here in the next coming months (as well as the occasional random doodle, Jellyfish in Armour comic, and puzzle).
See you soon.
Scribblenauts is the game of my dreams. I mean that literally… it’s the type of game that an 8-year-old version of myself would have dreamt about, without believing that such a game could be possible, and yet here it is on my Nintendo DS.
The concept is simple, yet profound; you are an odd-looking boy with a rooster hat named Maxwell, and there are a series of minor tasks for you to complete. The reward for solving these tasks is a starite. However, instead of taking the usual video game route where you have very few items to work with and must rely on your skill, in this game, you can summon into existence ANY OBJECT YOU CAN THINK OF to help you on your way. (There are restrictions to the “anything you can think of” rule, like not including vulgar terms, shapes, Latin names, or copyrighted things, but those restrictions do make a lot of sense, and don’t ruin the overall game.)
For example; on the far side of a lake, there is a flower that you have to pick, but between you and the flower is an angry bee that won’t let you go past it. How do you get rid of it? That is entirely up to you. Flyswatter? Sure, it works. Bug spray? That works too. Boomerang? Yep. Sword? Absolutely. Venus’ flytrap? Um… actually, I’m not sure about that one, let me check…
*a few seconds later*
OK, Venus flytrap doesn’t actually try to eat the bee. However, dropping the plant on the bee’s head seems to kill it. This illustrates one of the downsides about Scribblenauts. Just because you can summon nearly anything doesn’t mean that it will always act the way you may expect. An ostrich will not bury its head in sand. Playing the flute will not make rats follow you. A ceiling fan will not automatically attach to most ceilings.
(more…)
I intend to do a review of Scribblenauts later this week, but before that, I’m going to give some lists of notable items you can create in Scribblenauts. Of course, not all of these items are notable for being useful, but they’re all worth mentioning.
Unexpectedly Useful Items:
- RAMP: In Scribblenauts, there are these annoying buttons that are on the side of a wall. The level can only be passed if the button is continually held down. Ramp solves that problem… just roll a ball down the ramp, it will press the button and stay there.
- AIR VENT: Blow things in any direction you want. Useful for avoiding certain enemies or blowing a starite towards you. Similar objects: LARGE AIR VENT, FAN
- BLACK HOLE: At first I expected that a black hole would destroy absolutely everything, making it useless, but instead, a black hole only works in a localized area, which can be very good for clearing out enemies. As an extra bonus, if you create a LHC – which stands for “large Hadron Collider”, the world’s largest particle accelerator – and interact with it, it creates a black hole. Synonyms: NOTHING, ANYTHING
- HAIR DRYER: This is really quite useful, but not for the obvious reason of being able to blow air (it’s actually not particularly good at that at all). No, hair dryer’s are great because they kill sea creatures. You know how you’re not supposed to drop a hair dryer in the bathtub because it will electrocute you? It works in Scribblenauts… you can get rid of sharks, pirahna, and barracudas quite easily this way. TOASTER also works for this, and as a bonus, if you use a toaster, you can kill sharks and get a loaf of bread at the same time! Other similar objects: BLENDER, WAFFLEMAKER
- WINGS: I went into this game fully expecting that I would make a lot of use out of the JETPACK. It is indeed useful, but I hadn’t considered that there are situations (such as falling into water) when a jetpack will break down. Giving your character wings to fly takes away that problem. Of course, if you don’t need to fly into a small space, it’s a lot cooler to ride a PTERODACTYL, SPACE SHUTTLE, or PEGASUS.
- ICEBERG: If you need a flat surface to reliably float on in an open expanse of water, I’ve found none better than putting in an iceberg.
- CHERRY PICKER: Got a place that’s too high to jump to, but you don’t feel like flying? This may be just the thing for you. It’s a little difficult to use sometimes, though, so you may want to try other things that will lift you, like ESCALATOR or ELEVATOR.
- FISHING ROD: Are you close to the starite, but can’t quite reach? Do you need to get a small object from far away? Fishing rod may just be your best friend. It’s quite useful for much more than just fish.
- CARROT: If an enemy is standing on the edge of a precipice, the easiest way to get him out of your way isn’t to shoot him… it’s luring him with food. I chose “carrot” to represent this, but really, most foods will work just fine.
(more…)
I was at a family gathering last night, and there was a dog there. The dog’s name was Duchess, and she looked like this:
Yeah, she was one of those Ewok-faced dogs, who’s breed I can’t remember the name of. Despite the fact that I’d expect a dog named “Duchess” to most likely be pretty snappy and mean, she was quite friendly.
It was rare that I was able to draw a dog while they were awake. Usually, when I’m trying to draw a dog from real life, they move around too much from place to place to get a good drawing, unless they’re sleeping. I have quite a few drawings of sleeping dogs, and it’s nice to have an awake one as a model for a change.
I decided to challenge myself to work in an artistic medium that I very rarely use… sculpture. I figured it would be an interesting change of pace, so I got out my batch of Sculpey and made this:
Unfortunately, I’m not a great photographer, but hopefully you get the idea… the head of a guy with a big smirk on his face.
Oh, incidentally, if you are at all interested in sculpture yourself, you really owe it to yourself to pick up some Sculpey. It’s pretty expensive stuff, but it’s the best thing I’ve ever found to sculpt with, for two reasons. First, it never dries. Ever. The Sculpey I used for this is 5 years old, and after about 10 minutes of kneading it in my hands, it was ready to go (unlike clay, which dries out ridiculously fast). Secondly, if you want to keep your sculpture, you just bake it in your oven. Easy as that (check online for baking instructions).
Anyway, that’s that. Maybe I’ll try and make the same head in Blender 3D sometime.
