Month: May 2015

KM11 delay

One of the things I really had intended was that I could pump this thing out pretty quickly doing it with screenshots – and mostly I’ve been able to.  But I’ve hit a snag with this update.  Just Real Life stuff though.  Last night I got at least 3 or 4 “sets” of screenshots that I’ll use, but I’d like to get another few in first.  Even got one for KM12 since it will use almost the same scene as some of these do.  KM11 could be a bit controversial, but isn’t that the point sorta?  Besides, I wimped out and made it much less so on KM12. It will make sense when I get them out.

KM10 stuff

I guess I’ve pretty much come to post a comment on all the KM posts I do, and this one is no different.  But I’ve got Disqus set up on the site itself, so I think I’ll post there to try and get at least some feedback on KM.  So, if you’re interested in my comments, open the Comments at the bottom of the post and I’d REALLY REALLY like to hear from anyone reading it!

KM9 stuff

And now we’re rolling…  Next scene is going to be not all that crucial to the plot, but the most complex posing I’ve ever tried to set up with all the major characters in one place at the same time.   Well, it’s a challenge and that’s what makes it fun – right?

I thought about yoyos and pineapples, but na – I can’t imagine Skyrim having handy pineapples around and I doubt even Katherine has a clue what a yoyo is, let alone what her ancestor did with one.

I’m getting better at using the various console commands.  There’s a lot of them!   For anyone interested, here’s essentially what I do to set up a scene for screenshots:

1 – Move characters into place roughly.

2 – Make sure they’re wearing the right things and remove bows and arrows (for some reason they seem to love to equip those)

3 – Set poses with Halo’s Poser mod.

4 – Set individual expressions

5 – Set mouth “phoneme”

6 – Set eye modifiers (blink, up,down,left, right)

7 – tweak positioning with either tc or setpos commands

8 – disable ai (to keep them from moving anymore)

9 – disable user interface (to keep display clean of any UI stuff)

10 – Screenshot at a lot of different angles.

11 – Wash, Rinse, Repeat as needed

Oh, and somewhere in there remember to tweak ENB settings for more color saturation (Skyrim is too “grey” for my taste).

So, hopefully I’ll have #10 out in another few days.  I never know when I’ll get time to work on it, but this is definitely my major passion the last few weeks and I do want to get the story complete.

Mod credits for KM

I should have posted this already.  I’m heavily indebted to the following Mods and their authors for the screenshot webcomic thingy so I should credit them here.

UndergroundBathhouse by Andragon at Nexus http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/27361/?
Katia Race – FancyPants – http://www.mediafire.com/download/3m41cnsb1r5hqqq/Katia+Race+2.1.2.zip
Marriable female argonian followers – Jermu73 – http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/23585/?tab=1&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fskyrim%2Fajax%2Fmoddescription%2F%3Fid%3D23585%26preview%3D&pUp=1
Marriable female khajiit followers – Jermu73 – http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/users/3401560/?tb=mods&pUp=1
PrettyKhajiit – tktk – http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/17040/?
Sweet&Sexy Lingerie – Nikitaa – http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/25389/?
DIMclothes1 – Dimon99 – DIMONIZED UNP clothing resources
Edhildils – Latex collection (can’t find the URL now)
Shiny Catsuits – mxwqtkl – http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/25389/?
SkimpyAssassins – http://modtype.doorblog.jp/archives/17421748.html
SuccubusCBBEGiftByNausicaa
TS_FetishWardrobe – TurboSnowy – http://www.loverslab.com/topic/6874-turbosnowys-fetish-wardrobe-new-optional-body-mods-pcnpc/
SJs_InvHelms_eng_Main_AHead
PinupPoser – Halo – http://www.loverslab.com/topic/6874-turbosnowys-fetish-wardrobe-new-optional-body-mods-pcnpc/

Not all of them are actually seen (at least not yet) in the comic – but they may.

HiRes Katherine Managan

So, you want HiRes?  I give you HiRes.

Well, kinda.  I found out something kinda wonderful and something else kinda dreadful about Tumblr today.  When you upload a hires picture into a TEXT type post, it resizes it to either 500 or 540px wide.  So all my KM posts are kinda lowres.  But darned if they don’t ACTUALLY create multiple images of it at OTHER resolutions too.  They just don’t SHOW them. 

For instance, in the HTML source code for KM7 there’s this URL which is the URL for one of the 540px images:

https://40.media.tumblr.com/9a08d3ac91c047beb0176e5dd77fb780/tumblr_inline_no8rjkZEN61sn6wro_540.png

But at THIS url, there’s another at 1280px wide:

https://40.media.tumblr.com/9a08d3ac91c047beb0176e5dd77fb780/tumblr_inline_no8rjkZEN61sn6wro_1280.png

just sitting there uselessly, waiting to be seen in it’s full 1280 glory (though my originals are actually in 1600 width, but still, that’s over twice as hi res anyway)

So… what to do.  Well, the 500px images in the post aren’t linked to anything – clicking on them does nothing.  But that’s the natural expectation – clicking a image is traditionally how you view a higher res version.

So I took the HTML from that post, added the links, and it worked fine!

So now, in KM7 ALL the posts, if you click an image link, it will open a new window with the 1280px wide version.  HURRAH.  It will take some extra work to do that for EVERY post so I may only do it for future ones (unless requested otherwise), but at least I know how to do it now!

I went ahead and updated them all.  So hires now available for all posts. Give it a shot – should work.  http://katherinemanagan.tumblr.com

I think I’ll ask the designer of the theme if he can make this change if possible so it can happen automagically.

More KM stuff mostly

http://katherinemanagan.tumblr.com

I got through most of the major character introductions needed.  I’d like to throw some more in before the plot really gets moving, but I’m afraid they’d be tedious to shove them all in back to back, so I’ll forgo that and work them in after things get going.

Plot should become apparent after the next 2 updates, and perhaps then I’ll feel I’ve got enough going to hold an audience beyond “oh look, more furry ass and scaly tits!”.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to promote this thing?  It’s a bit tricky with the Adult nature, but I do wish I could get some people to take a look at the thing.

I had the “Ask a question” turned on for a bit, but I didn’t realize it would post directly to the blog, and I don’t want them there.   I also got Disqus working, but it wouldn’t hurt to make it more prominent.

So, I’m up to 7 characters now.  A couple still mandatory to introduce to make the plot work, but they can come after it gets moving:

Katherine Managan – protagonist and only real connection to Prequel. H – Lord of the Manor and owner of “Tails of the …” monthly mags.  Sabhira, mentor to Katherine.  Udaran, friend of Sabhira.  Milahme, bitchy argonian model. Red/Muz-Ra outspoken and oversexed Argonian model.  Ubergard, giant Argonian guard.

Still to come, Lydia – the only human model and recent addition to modelling staff.  Unnamed (as yet) human guard.  Unnamed (as yet) khajiit. 

And I have one small bit of plot I’ve yet to figure out exactly how to do.  I need to see if I can call a Dragon on command.  Guess I’ll find out if I can do that when I get there!

Oh, this IS fun.  I just hope I can figure out some not-too-spammy way of promoting it.  Oh, and KillerfishSG, I totally understand about not wanting to reblog it.  It would take a certain kind of blogger to do that.  But awfully glad to have you guys at least along for the ride!

Got Katherine moved last night

I managed to get KM moved over to katherinemanagan.tumblr.com successfully last night.  I was worried – I’d deleted everything here and wasn’t sure I could recreate the text and pick the right images. (I have them all – but I have more that weren’t part of the series).  I’m not a very religious guy, but when I got home from work, I found that my home PC still had the original page up and all the text and images were still cached there.  So damn lucky!

I even had time to do some shots for the next one.  And I think maybe I have a plan for the ongoing style of KM now.  If not a full fledged plot, at least a good idea for how to keep it “different”.  At some point I’ll want to promote it, but I feel I have to have a pretty good backlog of posts before I do that.

Using the SWC (Simple Web Comic) theme.  I was concerned at first since mine doesn’t use a single image but multiple ones.  However, turns out it works just fine.  It’s a bit staid in it’s presentation right now, but those are just tweaks I can work on.

And then Prequel updates!  Woohoo!  ALWAYS a good day!  Is it just me though, or does everyone think like I do:

“GREAT – AN UPDATE!”

(read, read, read)

COOL!

(reread, reread, reread). 

(slight depression sets in…) 

When’s the next one coming out?  

Must just be human nature.  Never satisfied for more than 5 minutes. 

Katherine M. Moves On

After only 3 posts, don’t think I’m abandoning Katherine.  She’s just getting her own tumblr blog.  Setting it up over at katherinemanagan.tumblr.com now.  I’ll leave commentaries here.

I INTENDED to move the 3 posts over there and delete them here.  I managed to figure out how to reblog them to there, and then I deleted them here.  But then I found out that if I delete them here, the reblog won’t display the whole blog and clicking doesn’t bring it back.

Sooo… now I’ve got to post them again over there.  

Katherine M. Commentary

Had fun with this one.  Saves SO much time not worrying about those silly balloons!  (the speech bubbles.  Get your mind out of the butts.)

One thing I really, really appreciate about Prequel – up until recently – was that it’s a lot more like real life (which is an odd thing to say about a web cartoon involving talking cats) than nearly anything out there.  I have a fondness for characters that have more realistic lives.  Never could get into superhero stuff, it just didn’t interest me.  It wasn’t real.  Prequel, as I said, was.  Now, I fear, it may be leaving that behind – but stories have to have a climax and an end.  I guess it couldn’t go on too long being about a regular cat with nothing special about her.  Something had to give.  

Long ago I used to be a little bit into Anime.  Old stuff.  My favorites were Maison Ikkoku and Kimagure Orange Road.  Still are I guess.  KOR had a bit of “magic” stuff, but only for comic relief really.  And yeah, both sappy romantic story lines.  (Though I REALLY appreciated the realistic split of the triangle at the end of KOR.  People get hurt in life, even squeaky annoyingly cute people.)

So, after I finished the last one, I thought about that a bit.  It was a bit of sexy humor to end the “strip” with, but it wasn’t real.  What would REALLY happen if KM did that?  Well, this is what would really happen.  Or worse.  Probably worse.  And if I like stories that are a bit more real, I’d best haul this one back in a bit.  With a bit of a teaser for “almost nobodies” since in real life, everything can change too.

Finally, I’m thinking seriously about if I should stop using the Katia/Prequel tags.  Seems kind of blatantly coat-tailing on the back of Kaz’s hard work with my ridiculously easy work.  If I do, I’ll just tag with Katherine Managan instead.

So if you like this, and want to promote it, and aren’t too embarrassed to do so, reblog it.  

But I feel kinda like a leech, and Kaz probably already knows I’m doing this by now, and I do respect his wishes and his work so much I’d drop this in a heartbeat if he asked me to.  But it sure is fun to do anyway.  So, is this officially a fanfiction of a fanfiction now?  How far down the rabbit hole does it go?