Mega Rock Blog

Donate to TREZ!

2012-01-29T16:17:00.000-08:00

As the new TREZ home page gets closer to being launched, we ran into some money troubles. To get our domain name registered for the site, we need at least $10 to pay for the first year. I have added a donate button to the sidebar which will take you to a Paypal page where you can donate money to help TREZ!

For current TREZ members, if you donate at least $2 now, you will receive a special rank saying you donated which will last 1 month. Your name will also go down in a hall of fame. Ideally I'd want to have TREZ receive the $10 and then disable donations to guarantee the donated money will go towards the domain name and nothing more. Donations are limited time so I urge you to hurry.

TREZ Protested... kind of

2012-01-19T19:25:00.000-08:00

So yesterday was the scheduled Internet blackout date. Webmasters blacked out websites to protest the SOPA and PIPA bills which are just flying through the government under people's noses. TREZ kind of protested. User profiles were censored and the banner was blacked out similar to Google's form of protest.

Completed that Mario game

2012-01-08T12:10:00.000-08:00

So I finally got through that Mario game. I had done a portion on Wii64 because I had no other option. Glitches and horrible lag made it unenjoyable and unplayable beyond a certain point. However, a close friend gave me a leftover 3rd party PS3 controller he had. After about a day, I got used ot the controls and I went on to complete the game at 130 stars!. This truly was an enjoyable game. I praised it in the previous post but this just goes on about how it finished the landing. The final secret level, in particular, is quite tough. Precision and advanced skills are a must. First time was tough and I had to look up a guide. Fast state saves also helped keep my sanity in that level. Second time around though was much more fun and really felt like an accomplishment.

Oh, I even streamed gameplay of this to as much as 3 different people! It's just better than playing alone if I was going to be playing on my computer anyways. Since I streamed, it recorded so now I'm trying to figure out how to manage .FLV video better so I can properly edit future streams I may want to upload to Youtube.

New Year and all that blah

2012-01-04T19:17:00.000-08:00

So the holidays and New Years has come and gone. That's not what this is about.
First, any tips on web hosting now would be appreciated. I've been out of the loop for a while and I'm not sure what's good anymore. This would all be for the new TREZ home. Complete with a custom URL and the services of a paid host.

In my spare time, I discovered Super Mario 64 Star Road which was released recently. I'm playing on my Wii since keyboard controls is balls for those kinds of games. It's like a Super Mario 64 sequel that never was. Most of it feels like a real game. It certainly has the length and effort of a full game. Most of the music feels too anonymous and not really representative of a Mario game. I think I've only recognized about 4 tunes and I'm 70 stars in. Still laggy as hell though. I'd love to play on my computer in HD but again, the controls.

Custom SVG Icons in Illustrator [Tutorial]

2011-12-26T16:51:00.000-08:00

The default Adobe Illustrator Artwork file icon.

Usually when I want to get something done, I get it done right. In this case, it bothered me why Adobe Illustrator allows you to save files into SVG and SVGZ format, yet used the default Adobe Illustrator file icon. This makes them impossible to distinguish in Windows 7 since their properties and appearance is shared with standard Adobe Illustrator files. This is especially annoying if I want to download SVGs off Wikipedia or other sites (like here since I distributed some works as SVG) and the files are mislabeled. All the icon changing guides didn't help in this matter and after 2 days of dabbling with the registry, nothing was working.
However, I now have a solution.

I think the problem exists because Illustrator does not have a native handler in the registry for .SVG files. Something the other guides keep bringing up is telling you how to reassociate file types with programs. Normally this works since a default icon key has already been specified telling the program which icon from the executable to load. Even the Windows solution would work in this case.

The internal SVG file icon for Illustrator.

The main problem is that whenever .SVG files are told to open with Illustrator, it shares the properties of regular .AI files, meaning there is no distinction. I want the .SVG files to look different and open in Illustrator at the same time.

In order for this to work, I would have to make a registry key for Illustrator to handle .SVG files properly. To do this, open up the Windows Registry Editor (on Windows 7). In HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ make a new key and call it Adobe.Illustrator.SVG, just so it's in the same format as other file type handlers. With the new registry key made, a default value is made and can be edited on the right. This is the file type description used by Windows to tell you a brief description of the format. I typed Scalable Vector Graphics, since that's what they are.

With the new Adobe SVG key selected, right click and make a new key again. Call this one DefaultIcon. This key also has a default value. Here is where the icon goes. The SVG icon is internal so locate your Adobe Illustrator installation or enter this data: C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS5.1\Support Files\Contents\Windows\Illustrator.exe,16
This basically means it gets the 16th icon from the Illustrator executable.

Now this next step is important since it serves as a loophole in opening the file in Illustrator. Make sure the SVG file isn't opening in any program right now. Click on the Adobe.Illustrator.SVG key and make another new key. This time call it shell. Click on the shell key and make another new key; call it open. With open selected, make another new key and call it command. On the default value for the command key, enter the location of the Illustrator installation such as "C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS5.1\Support Files\Contents\Windows\Illustrator.exe" "%1"
It's very important the percent 1 and parentheses are in this one.

Finally, in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ find the key for .svg. Change the value of default to the newly created Adobe.Illustrator.SVG key. If this was done correctly, SVG files should now have their own icon AND open in Illustrator by default.

Files Illustrator can save have their own icons now.

This really bothered me, but this seems to be working now. Let me know if this guide is absolutely correct since I'm almost certain there is no equivalent guide available.

Zap Ace + TREZ Home

2011-12-24T12:30:00.000-08:00

Oh, and here is the Zap Ace drawing from the stream finished. Yeah, it isn't all that accurate or at least not as accurate as I had hoped. I think the shading came out well though.

Oh, and about the new TREZ homepage. The coding is almost finished and is starting to look very close to what I intended. I have to be very picky on this. Only concerns now would be a decent PHP content management system so I can make posts and manage the content on the site. Fusion/Cute News are the same thing and rather unimpressive. Now Blogger's current post features is miles ahead of anything I've used so far. If I could use an editor like the one I'm using to write and manage the content on the site, it would be much more ideal.

My TREZ Livestream Today

2011-12-19T19:05:00.001-08:00

I got on the TREZ Livestream toady in part of the TREZ Winter Festival 2011. I drew in vector for my bit for about an hour. I had never streamed before and I heard form GM that all the pro Starcraft players use XSplit Broadcaster for their streams. I was very impressed by how flawlessly it worked. I streamed near-perfect quality at 1920x1080 for my stream. I would like to do more of this in the future.

I drew a Zap Ace enemy from the Megaman Star Force series. Drawing well is still tough for me, but here's what I ended up doing on the stream.

I started with this.

And got this far on the stream.

I have my own stream where I may do these sort of things live. Check it out at LiveStream.

Winter Break: What to look forward to

2011-12-18T14:53:00.000-08:00

My winter break started and here's what may happen in that time.

First, the new website is being made. I'm liking what's been made so far so as long as I supervise the work, the layout should be done soon. Putting it up on a paid host would also be interesting.

There are also more items in the Zazzle shop GM and I have. Have a look and buy what you like.

Browse other gifts from Zazzle.

Proposed new TREZ home

2011-12-11T12:48:00.001-08:00

There is a rough layout of the new TREZ homepage. Feedback would be appreciated so it may be improved. Emphasis is placed on ease of use and placing more frequently used links in easier-to-find places. Doesn't have to update, but will be more useful inactive than the current one in case it comes ot that.

TREZ Home Page revamp imminent

2011-12-02T09:54:00.001-08:00

I may have mentioned it before. but for a class project I will be designing a new TREZ layout. This new home page will make the site easier and quicker to use. So basically instead of never using it, it can be used quickly. It's all part of trying to keep the TREZ name alive through consistency and overall decent design. When I actually have a full mock-up, a few people will be selected to critique its usefulness. I'm hoping I could get someone to actually code it since I have no experience in HTML or any of that. I wouldn't want a project like this to be my first attempt at coding either.

Relating to the redesign, I recently purchased and activated my copy of Adobe CS5.5 Design Premium. It came with an extra CD with resources. Turns out there are DOZENS of pixel fonts in there, one being the Hooge font family. Originally, I had been using that font on some of the TREZ forum images. It turns out it's a commercial font and I was using a cheap copy. The one on the CD has lower-case letters and is a highly legible font. I've removed the copies and installed the real thing on my computer. I hope the Hooge fonts will serve TREZ well since I'll be using them more from now on.

Great new background!

2011-11-30T19:04:00.001-08:00

As I'm working on a school project, a background I was working on suddenly seems amazing. Just looking at it reads very "Battle Network" style. It fits so well with their design that I'll probably have to start using it everywhere until a better one comes out.

It's made entirely in Illustrator.

PET Concept: Final Render

2011-11-23T19:04:00.001-08:00

I think I've worked on this for enough time. I've completed the front part of the new PET. With the screen on top, the presentation is essentially complete.

I think this has been a very involved and amusing project, nonetheless. Lots of skills learned and it was fun going through with it.

Rockman EXE 6 6th Anniversary

2011-11-23T17:02:00.001-08:00

It's that time of year again, the 6th one to be exact. Today marks the 6th year since the release of the last main entry into the Rockman EXE series. I couldn't get anything done to commemorate this day but I'd still like people to remember that 6 years ago, there was excitement among the fanbase and I was part of it. The first game I followed along as it was developed and waited for updates. And clearly the best Battle Network game. This year, there's nothing to look forward too, sadly. Even Star Force was released during November. I hope next year will have an entry into one of the series around this time of the year. It's sad to see that only after 6 years, interest has died to down to a whisper.

The PET OS Home Screen UI

2011-11-21T14:42:00.001-08:00

As you may have seen from last week's video, I wanted to create a conceptual PET based on today's mobile look and if a Battle Network game were actually coming out November of this year, like before.
I think the PET Home Screen is finished and this is what I came up with.

I've put a lot more attention into the UI recently since it says a lot about what a device like this could do. I hadn't studied UI design so I had a lot to cover and I think it may have even interfered with the quality of this work. Keeping in mind it would ideally be implemented in a game environment, I borrowed elements from today's mobile UIs like iOS and Android operating systems while still keeping it relevant in-game.

The status window above would present the user with the most relevant information: money, and location. Tapping the location thumbnail would bring up a mini-map. Below are widgets. The user would be able to open and move around up to 3 useful widgets. The Activity Log lists important activities the player has done such as obtaining items or major story events. There would also be a Folders widget which allows you to equip folders on the fly. Finally, a Net Battle widget would allow the most important functions to be accessed from the main screen. The player can start a battle which would open a menu with the game modes available. Tapping Join a Battle would bring up a list of battles other people have created. You could join any game looking for players.

Below the widget space, various functions are represented by icons. 3 functions can be "favorited" and made bigger by dragging the icon above. In this example, the most common functions (chip folders, navi status, and save) are larger. All other functions would be smaller and sit below the favorites. Finally, the large Jack In button would always be at the bottom. Tapping it would obviously perform the intended function. While a Navi is on the Net, the button would become Jack Out.

This updated PET UI has gotten good reviews so far. I am even adapting it as an AceKard 2 theme which will be completed soon. And of course, this screenshot will be applied to the PET design. I'll finish that soon.

Co-Op Battles in MMBN6

2011-11-19T22:17:00.001-08:00

It's amazing that even as the game reaches its 6th year since the original release, that new things still emerge from it.

This time, using assistance from Prof.9, I was able to get only one battle to load when playing against another person in multiplayer. Using a cheat, it's possible to have them fight on your side, though with odd, annoying side-effects. However, it is possible for both players to fight together, even for a while. Another possibility would be to allow players to fight with AI-controlled opponents. Even so, there are still restrictions to what is allowed since multiplayer battles only allow uncompressed sprites to load. I hope some of the bugs get fixed so the potential of this could be further explored.

Quick draw in Illustrator

2011-11-17T09:19:00.001-08:00

Still kind of at tech demos. Here is a video of me drawing a PET concept in Illustrator.

Maybe I should finish the concept just to see it really nice and thoughtfully created.

Transfer Adobe Program Preferences

2011-11-15T17:49:00.001-08:00

So I finally figured out how to transfer settings and preferences from Adobe programs. I don't know if I missed out on something but upgrading is a hassle, especially when you have to set up your preferences over and over again. Last time I couldn't figure out how to transfer my settings. Adobe couldn't help much either. But it didn't happen this time! I want my workspaces, my gradients, my shapes, etc to be accessible even if I can't open the old programs anymore (since apparently legitimately activating old programs is nearly impossible)

I work mostly on Windows so I don't know how Macs handle this. Your settings can be retrieved in Windows 7 by going to the following folder on your main hard drive: C:\Users\[NAME]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\
There, you will find folders for each Adobe program, some even have Settings in the folder name. If you've already ran the new version, open that folder (Ctrl+Double-click) and open the old version's folder. The structure should be nearly identical. Look for proprietary Adobe files like the Brush and Gradient files and copy them over to the new version. Worksapces can also be transferred this way. Once you've done that, open your new Adobe program and enjoy working like before!

This saved me quite the hassle of updating from Photoshop and Illustrator CS5 to 5.1. Yeah, it's a big deal.

Last Batch: Unused Models

2011-11-01T16:51:00.000-07:00

This is partially what I was trying to accomplish. Being able to manipulate the models in game, I could take the unused 3D models from Star Force and use BN5DS as a virtual emulator to process the files. The models should be correct. Shading is a little different and could be an emulator error. While the model format may have been the same as I anticipated, the motions format isn't. Only the the idle animation can be loaded and I'm very certain there are more. A general-purpose BCA0 animation viewer would be needed to progress further. These models, out of proportion and fairly inaccurate, are ideal test subjects which could have been used to explore the game's barely-developed real-world and cyber-world environments. The foot and buster texture, sharing the same textures as the Mega Man model from the previous post, have no animation textures. It is possible these were used for battle models.

Anyways, here is the last batch: the proper idle animations for the 4 character models found in Star Force.

Next step: GIFs

2011-11-01T12:43:00.000-07:00

I also created animated GIFs from the mysterious unused animations. They are very interesting and it's a shame the models are stiff 90% of the time.

I found it! Unused Gold!

2011-10-31T23:09:00.000-07:00

That was rather quick. After searching Youtube the other day, I was looking for the scene in Mega Man Battle Network 5 DS where Mega Man actually moves. My theory was that whatever was in the message must be telling the 3D model to move. Today I decided to look for it. What I found was surprising.

It turns out there were several unused animation, though not what I expected relating to this canceled BN5DS 3D remake project. Here are some screens of the unusual never-before-seen animations. Once I find a camera code and get Protoman loading, I'll make a video showing off this wonderful find. I'm still really excited.

The default animation from the scene.

Mega Man's battle animation.

Colonel's battle animation.

Mega Man and his forms have strange "punched" animations.

One of Colonel's animations is him waving his hand across slowly.

A new guide?

2011-10-27T17:35:00.001-07:00

I was recently asked about MMBN4 Battle Hacking. Rather than look through my old, poorly written guide, I decided to write a new one, and I actually did!

The new guide takes a different approach and has a little more content than the last one. I think anyone is allowed to check now. If you're still up to it, guide is at TREZ. Enjoy!

3D Star Force Symbol in Photoshop [Video Tutorial]

2011-10-25T21:39:00.000-07:00

Two tutorials in one day? Amazing how that worked out.

Short video tutorial explaining how to make the shape in 3D. Actually really easy.

I'm more amazed at the video quality. Well, now I actually have the hardware to watch and record 1920x1080 video. I gave CamStudio another shot and tried a custom-made Xvid codec. Amazing results! The video I uploaded was only 41MB. Videos I had uploaded before were ALWAYS 100MB and up for decent quality. I think this will suffice for the time being.

Creating a Bump Texture in Photoshop [Tutorial]

2011-10-25T21:22:00.000-07:00

So recently for a class project, I found myself needing a slight bump texture. I'm talking about the texture some electronics have for grip. It has tiny little bumps used for grip and kinda look like gravel. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a tutorial or texture that I could use. I figured out a way to make one using Photoshop using a vague little filter called the "Custom" filter.

I'll explain...
Here is the outcome.

Fairly convincing. It's all in the fine details. Now here's how it goes.

Start with a medium sized, preferably square canvas in Photoshop. I picked 1024.

Fill the canvas black (Shift+F5, pick Black). The add Noise, Filter > Noise. Change it to Gaussian, Monochromatic. Noise is just noise, so it doesn't really look like anything.

Now go to Filter > Other > Custom. You get this window.

The way this filter works is it uses the numbers in the boxes to offset portions of layer. With the right adjustments, certain spots can appear slightly round and others can fade off.

I got this done before and here are the values that worked for the texture I wanted.

And this is the resulting pattern. Feels rough.

Looks great, but it all looks the same. I like to break up sameness with some Difference Clouds. Filter > Render > Difference Clouds. "Oh, but it looks all cloudy". Go to Edit > Fade. Put it on Darker and mess with the Opacity. It blends the filter with the previous state and as a result, some spots get darker while other stay light. It's up to you if you really need this.

After that, the process is finished. That concludes this short tutorial. You now have a bumpy texture.

Latest fangame logo: Legacy

2011-10-25T11:32:00.000-07:00

It seems all I really do is make fantastic logos for promising fangame projects now. Of course, more recently I've been undoing the work I made before.My most recent work is the logo for Mega Man Battle Network Legacy.

They got a name change, which is now the shortest I've worked with. I took this opportunity to try some new things with these game logos. Centered. Blurs. A bend effect that isn't overdone. I'm liking the way this came out. Color choice is still a little iffy.

Now, I wanted to do center because I wanted to stylize "Legacy" like that. Subtle bend with slight 3D effect. Had to pen my own type for that part also since it's very important that the spikes appear on the left and right. In another project, I'm starting to use blurs since I found out they can actually look nice on export and I actually have the hardware to render them now. Blurs everywhere: on the emblem ring, the background squares, the wave glows.

I took my inspiration from the Rockman EXE Anime logos this time. I aimed for this "heavy, elaborate 3D elements" look. I like this logo. It really sets it apart from the other fangames.
I wish the Project Legacy team well.

Getting better at it

2011-10-18T20:14:00.000-07:00

I haven't really been looking at many tutorials, but I'm starting to understand the 3D features more. Exploring all the functions available, I was finally able to make the Mega Man Star Force symbol in 3D using nothing but the outline I created.

The best part is that it looks almost exactly like the vector version I made before. Looks great and I have the advantage of 3D where I could add reflections and all sorts of tacky effects. It's flat on the other side though. It would also be interesting if I could get animations of it in GIF format, but I haven't looked that far yet.

Finally trying out those Photoshop CS5 features

2011-10-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

So yeah, CS5 has been out for about a year now. However, I refused to download it on my aging desktop. Why would I want to download a clip show program? It would have been slow.

Today I decided to play with the 3D features. Seems like lots of potential, but confusing at first. It can make very predictable results so I have to find out how to make it more interesting. One thing I figured out was that the final render has to be ray traced. I guess it will always be slow.

It really pushed my Intel Core i5. Too bad the result looks almost the same after 2 minutes. I rendered this Zerg symbol from Starcraft 2. Just found a vector version and tried out all the 3D features available.

Now I need to make something with a clearer goal in mind. It's still neat though.

How to stay busy

2011-10-11T08:37:00.000-07:00

I'm going to my second job interview today. Maybe this time I'll actually get a job. And when I do, I'll definitely have less time. And with some money, I could change a few things, too.

That's good.

Break Over

2011-10-02T21:39:00.000-07:00

Okay, so my one week break went okay. I felt I enjoyed it. Still, I can't stop thinking about how I could have used the time better. Apparently I'm unemployable since I kinda wasted High School. Getting tired of trying. This week I tried Craigslist but it turns out it's just a portal for scams. Yes, I filled out an application or two, but why should I think I have a chance when most of it has to be blank due to my lack of information worth mentioning. It's disappointing. I'm not supposed to have this much free time, even on break.

Well in TREZ happenings, GM finally released the PA Editor tool. Prof. 9 and Greiga Master were working on a comprehensive PA editor for MMBN6. Looks great and has that completeness quality like the Chip Editor.

You can download it from the topic at TREZ.
http://s6.zetaboards.com/The_Rockman_EXE_Zone/topic/8770274/

Drawing in Illustrator [Tutorial]

2011-09-24T00:33:00.000-07:00

This is the skill-building tutorial I was mentioning all along. Using Illustrator is ideal for drawing since it is a vector-based program. But drawing and shading more complex designs can be difficult. There is a way to draw more efficiently and make future edits easier.

Learn advanced techniques and basic concepts in Adobe Illustrator. Here is what the final drawing will look like.

Hit the break to start.

Sketch it out
Drawing. It's usually done on paper with a pencil. It always starts with the sketch. Now of course I was going to draw a Mettaur. It shouldn't take very long to complete and I can cover plenty of techniques while doing so.

To start, it helps to find reference when drawing. Concept art of the Mettaur is in the Mega Man Battle Network Official Complete works.

I think this is seriously all they had to work with, but it's enough for this. Sketch out an original pose using the reference material. The sketch will be used to create the final product. Here is my sketch.

My drawings aren't the best, perhaps, but the outlines are enough to work with. Just make sure it's in proportion to the reference, which can be difficult at the start.

Going Digital
The next step is taking the pencil drawing to digital. Scan it in somehow and try to enhance the lines if they're not visible enough. In Illustrator, make a new document of any size. RGB is probably good for this. I'm using 600x600 pixels.

After setting up the new document Place the scan of your sketch by either dropping it in or going to File > Place. Fit it nicely in the middle. Making it large will help with Stroke sizes later.

Now at this stage, it is important to evaluate which parts will be their own shape and how they'll work together. I'll start with the face. It's supposed to be a sphere, so that means it's going to be a perfect circle. Take the Ellipse Tool (L) and draw a circle that fits the drawn shape. It doesn't matter if it doesn't fit the sketch exactly.

It matches the most visible part which is more important. Color doesn't really matter right now since all the lines are for reference. Next up is the helmet. According to the reference, the helmet is spherical-based. This means that the part where the face goes in is a cross-section of a sphere making it a circle in perspective. Grab the Ellipse Tool again and draw an ellipse that fits the under-part of the helmet. You can rotate and distort it to fit.

This seems close enough.

Since the eyes are also circular, you can draw its eyes using the Ellipse Tool. Same as the step before, draw an ellipse and rotate it to fit.

Looks okay. Mettaurs also have a black center in their eyes. This part is easy. Select both eyes by shift-clicking them. Copy it and Paste it in Front (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F). This is going to be a very important shortcut later on. Deselect (by click off the artwork) and click on one of the eye outlines. Hold Shift + Alt and grab one of the 4 corners of the bounding box. This will scale the selection equally based on the selection's center. Just scale it back a little to get that dark spot of the eye.

I had it drawn in the sketch, but I knew I could just shrink the eye to get it right. Once you find the correct scale, do the same for the other eye. Remember to keep the proportions nearly identical, otherwise it may look like a mistake. Give the inner outlines a Fill Color to distinguish the eye if it helps right now.

There is one more ellipse on the Mettaur sketch. Mettaurs have the iconic "ear-cap-thingy" which is common among designs from the Battle Network series. The process is similar to the one I explained on the eyes. Draw a larger ellipse, and fit a smaller ellipse inside.

That finishes the instances where ellipses could be used.

The rest of the Mettaur will be drawn using the Pen Tool. This tool is capable of making almost any shape using curves and lines.
Quick things to know if you've never used the Pen Tool before:

Clicking and dragging will create a curve which is identified by the 2 handles that come out from the anchor point.
Clicking, holding Alt, then dragging will make only one handle. This is useful when you have a sharp corner before or after a curve you just drew.
If you're in the middle of making a curve, holding Alt will break the curve and allow you to re-form the curve.
Simply clicking from one point to another makes straight lines.
With the Pen Tool selected, holding Alt and clicking on an Anchor Point will turn the point into a corner. Dragging makes it a curve.

Well I'd like to start with the feet since they're simpler. I'm starting with the round point on its left foot. Set up a round point and make the next anchor point on the left. It should look like the picture below. Also remember you can draw through other shapes. You can always change the layering of the drawn shapes.

Points can always be adjusted later using the Direct Select Tool (A). Finish the rest of the foot. It is ideal to use the fewest number of points necessary.

Easy, right? I drew the underside of the foot. Draw that too, but let the shape go past the foot's shape. This will be solved later.

Last up is the helmet. This part can be the trickiest, so here is how it's done. Draw the outer shape of the helmet. This does not include the inner circle done earlier.

This is what it should look like.

Finally, draw in the pattern which goes across the helmet. Try to adjust the shape to the curvature of the helmet. Again, you can draw outside the bounds of the helmet shape you just drew.

Now it's time to color!

Coloring and Clipping
This is the fun part, but first select all the outlines (Ctrl+A). Under the Stroke Panel, change the Align Stroke option to Align to Outside. Now selectively color each part according to the reference.

Add these colors to your swatches:

Yellow
R=248 G=200 B=48

Brown
R=208 G=112 B=0

Dark Brown
R=178 G=87 B=0

Green
R=54 G=195 B=60

Dark Green
R=36 G=150 B=48

Cool Gray
R=56 G=72 B=88

Gray
R=16 G=32 B=5

Black
R=10 G=19 B=32

Teal
R=88 G=144 B=14

Start by coloring the inner ring under the helmet. Make it the Dark Brown color. Now shift-click the helmet and feet. Color these Yellow. Layering might be odd but to fix this, use the shortcut key Ctrl+[ to lower a selection and Ctrl+] to raise it. The shading shape under the foot should also be Dark Brown. Color the face Cool Gray. Color the pattern on the helmet Green. Eyes are white and black in the center. Ear-cap thingies are Teal. When you adjust the layering properly, it should look more like this.

Yeah, it looks really weird. Clipping will save the rest. The most important one is the face. Shift-click all parts of the eye and face. Group these (Ctrl+G). Select the dark brown-colored ring and Copy it. Click on the face group you just made and Paste in Front (Ctrl+F). Shift-click the face again with the recently pasted ring still selected. Right-click and select "Make Clipping Mask". Should get something like this.

Almost there.

Open the Layers panel. With the recently clipped group still selected, click on the options icon on the top-right corner of the panel and select "Locate Object". Click the circle next to the layer named "Clipping". It's the one with the gray thumbnail. Grab the Direct Select Tool (A) and click on the anchor point towards the bottom of the face.

Click it once, then drag it outwards. This should start revealing parts of the face. The head now "goes inside" the helmet!

The next clipping paths are easier. Group the green helmet patterns. Copy the helmet layer and paste it over the green pattern. Make a Clipping Mask like before and the shape should fit inside the helmet's shape. Do the same for the foot. It should look more like this now.

You can still go back and edit the shape by releasing the clipping mask, then reapplying it. Any clipped shapes can also be freely edited using the Direct Select Tool.

Shading
Once you've got the looks you want, you can proceed to create shading. I didn't draw any shading but I'll still go over the technique since shading a Mettaur is easy. Assuming the light is coming from the upper-right directly where the Mettaur is looking, draw shading on the opposite side. I'll start with the helmet.

I drew a shape which goes around the contour of the helmet's shape. Once it goes outside the shape, I can be as sloppy as I want to since it will be clipped later. In this case, it is the only time you want to make another Clipping Mask for one shape. Repeat the steps used to clip the green pattern, only this time it applies only to the shading. Adjust the layering and it should look fine.

The green part of the helmet isn't shaded. Special attention is given to color so it must be a unique shade and fit the same shape of the helmet's shading. A-click the brown shading. Click on the green pattern and Ctrl+F. Change the color to the Dark Green color. Make a Clipping Mask out of the green shape it is over using the same technique as before.

It should clip exactly the same.

Next step is to draw the shading on the face. It should be darker by its right eye.You can sloppily pen the outside while carefully select the parts inside which should be shaded. Use Gray for shading.

That looks correct. Since there is more shading under the helmet, draw another shape in a curved form. Get some over the eyes, too since it's a defining feature. This time, get the shape, Cut it (Ctrl+X), A-click the previous shade and Ctrl+F. Just like on the green pattern, copy and clip the shape to the eyes. Use a light blue-ish color.

Finish shading all the parts using Clipping Masks and keeping consistent lighting. Spot lighting appears on the Mettaur and it is a white circle.

Keep shading. I got this.

Finalize
When you think you've finished, you just need to prepare your file for output. For the artwork to be in Battle Network style, the final artwork needs a thicker stroke than everything else. Select everything (Ctrl+A) and open the Pathfinder Panel. Copy and Paste in back, the selection (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+B). Select the Merge command, then the Unite command. Add a thicker stroke than the size used elsewhere in the artwork. This should be the final product.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Please let me know below and I'll get back as soon as possible.

This tutorial also appears in image form at Deviant Art.

Quarter finished

2011-09-23T09:49:00.000-07:00

I just finished the final test for the quarter. I'm on break for a week now. I'm going to have some friends over this week and submit more at Deviant Art. Oh, and maybe still look for a job? Sometimes I just feel like giving up, especially since ALL 3 of my friends have worked before me.

First brushes pack on deviantART

2011-09-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

Here are the brushes I said I'd upload. I'm starting to like using them, too.

Try them out!

Things for next week

2011-09-21T18:36:00.000-07:00

Well I feel change for the events to come next week. I signed up Facebook account yesterday and I'm flooded with new features. I'm reconnecting with so many new friends and connecting with current contacts. I'm liking it so far. Apparently long-time Facebook users don't like the new layout changes, but I didn't even know what the old one looked like lol!

Oh, here is a Mettaur vector based on an existing illustration.

I think I've got the technique down for the Illustrator drawing tutorial. I may even throw in a section on making it look like on the right (though it technically isn't in the Battle Network art style)

GM leaves tomorrow

2011-09-17T22:21:00.001-07:00

The day has finally come. Tomorrow morning, Greiga Master, my brother, is leaving for UCLA. He'll be living there and I probably won't see him often now. I... I think I'm ready for this.

Made a deviantART account for stuff

2011-09-15T23:25:00.000-07:00

Today I just finally decided to get a deviantART account. For real this time.
In an attempt to have more of my work available in an organized fashion, I'll be adding my tutorials and such to the site.

Ah, and this.

I finally created my first brush set! Maybe I'll upload them soon. Since I'll be on break in 2 weeks, I really wanted to use the time to write those tutorials I wanted to write. By now, an Illustrator drawing tutorial is long overdue. Perhaps even some of the fangame artists could take a few pointers from this. Then there is a Photoshop tutorial I wanted to do. It's basically how to make a background like the one above.

This is it and I can hardly wait.

Watched the 3DS Conference last night

2011-09-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

I watched that 3DS conference last night around 8pm. Looks like lots of great games. They also revealed the slide pad accessory. Some pics here. I really don't think it looks too bad from other angles. That part on the left is truly made for comfort grip. Unfortunately, the accessory is doomed relying on AAA batteries. Why they would choose to require batteries in this day and age is beyond me. I honestly thought it would just take power from the 3DS or even be a battery itself.

Anyways, watching all the awesome game trailers made me wonder how excellently Mega Man Legends 3 would have fit there. Right now, we would have had more details and probably even a release date announced. Seeing the lineup, they had no reason to quit. None of the other companies did, or there would have been no games. Seeing Gundam and Dynasty Warriors get announced for their 50th game or whatever makes me wish Mega Man was there releasing their 50-ish game on the new handheld. I'm still holding on to the reasoning that Legends 3 was canned because they have something bigger planned. But they missed a big event for a big franchise. Just saddening to know.

One week later, it still works

2011-09-05T21:48:00.000-07:00

I've been needlessly worrying the entire week I've had my new rig running. Everything seems to be running fine and I even placed my Intel Inside sticker on my case. I smelled smoke today and thought it was the wires hitting the fans again. Thankfully nothing happened and I used the time to finally connect the LED cables and hard drive read cable. Also, the audio ports on the front finally work! I lost the icon for my audio driver, for some reason though...
I'm glad it all worked out right now. I don't know if I'm missing out on some must-do post-build procedures. I really want to try some form of video recording, possibly a video tutorial. Any suggestions here would be appreciated.

Ha, and StarCraft 2 runs just fine, even on my rather low-end video card. Finally I have the stronger gaming computer (compared to 2 other people I know)

MMBN6 Navi Cust Editor updated

2011-09-03T09:26:00.000-07:00

GM updated his MMBN6 NCP editor recently. It's been posted at TREZ and if I'm not mistaken, everyone should be able to download it.
http://s6.zetaboards.com/The_Rockman_EXE_Zone/topic/8621191/1/

My new desktop

2011-08-31T12:57:00.000-07:00

So I'm liking my new desktop background. It's basically a combination of backgrounds I made with extra noise gradient techniques. I really want to make a good tutorial on this since it produces a nice grunge look. Remember I was inspired by the subscreen background from Rockman EXE: OSS. Combined with the color schemes used on the graphics I made for TREZ, I get this.

Dimensions:1920x1080

Going well so far

2011-08-29T23:40:00.000-07:00

I'm really enjoying my new system. Everything is running better than before. It's kind of hard to forget my old computer, though. I've imported my Firefox data using Firefox Sync, so it's like I never really left. Since the old computer is connected to the Internet, I have access to ALL my old files when the computer is on. Basically I still have most of my old resources, plus the power of the new system.

Using old source files, I made another fan logo for someone at TREZ. I don't know if he'd want me to post that yet. I also made a new desktop for myself which I plan to use for a good long while. I'm still experimenting with styles so this is the start of something that could get better.

I'm really trying to go for a minimalist thing now. Left is only for instinctive, frequent programs and folders. Top is important programs I don't want to see all the time. Top-right will be links to other computers. I still need to set up a connection to the laptop. Bottom-left is for current projects and internet memes. And the taskbar contains the most frequently-used programs which I want access to all the time. New habits are good.

It works!

2011-08-27T16:42:00.000-07:00

Ah! See that? There is my new computer, all built, standing vertically in working order. I'm going to say it first: the process was really annoying. First day, I felt overwhelmed and confused. It was just really high stress because I had no idea what I was doing. On top of that, my electrical knowledge is fairly weak so I was getting lost on the terminology very often. It seems like I was only partially prepared. I had studied the parts I wanted, but not the assembling process, and I regret not being prepared. It was just really stressful for me. I was on 2 days without a shower and didn't eat much in scorching 95 degree weather. Later on at night, some power cords were placed improperly and it fried my power button when I tried to power on the system. Damn, I hardly got any sleep after that.

The Power Button won't press down anymore.

Thankfully, Mgamerz was on Skype with me to assist me with my paranoia and lack of knowledge in building computers. Today, I almost fried my motherboard connecting the wrong cable again which thanks to the anti-surge on the mobo, nothing terrible happened. In fact, he helped me wire the function of the restart button (which I didn't even know existed) to start the computer. Finally, I managed to finish the computer today and finally booted and ran Windows 7 flawlessly. From what I saw, the initial experience felt really snappy. I wouldn't be too surprised to find out that it's faster than my old build in every single way. I just know I'm going to enjoy this new computer. It will replace my old computer later tonight where I can start download things through the wired Internet and enjoy it in glorious High Definition.

For comparisons, here are the specs of the two computers. I'm taking a huge jump in computing power.

Old:
Windows XP SP3
AMD Athlon XP 3200+ @2.2GHz
2GB DDR
160GB 7200rpm Hard Drive
250 watts power
NVIDIA GeForce 6200 256MB

New:
Windows 7 SP1
Intel Core i5 2500k @3.3GHz
8GB DDR3
1TB 7200rpm Hard Drive
550 watts power
NVIDIA GeForce GT 220 1GB

It came!

2011-08-26T14:24:00.000-07:00

It's like Christmas in August!

Fastest shipping ever! Too bad I don't have the CPU or a DVD drive if it's even necessary.

I finally did it...

2011-08-24T22:01:00.000-07:00

Computer parts I chose on Newegg.

I couldn't wait any longer. I finally placed the order for the computer parts I'm going to use in my build. Long-time readers will know I've struggled for quite a while on this budget 2004-era computer. I upgraded it last year to squeeze out a little more life from it, adding much-necessary RAM and video card. However, now it's just gone on for too long. Overall, this computer just feels too old. Boot time is at least 10 minutes. Programs regularly freeze up for no reason. I can barely even comment on Youtube videos anymore! Video editing is nearly impossible... not that I did much of it. Also, and most importantly, the main graphics programs I use (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign) are far too heavy on the computer, meaning I lose a frustrating amount of time waiting for things to load. After months of research, I'm fairly confident that these parts I selected will build a powerful modern-day build which should satisfy my current demands for performance on a desktop computer.

It is good? Because it's probably a little late to change now.
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=16944052

US Mobile Market Share Infographic

2011-08-21T19:31:00.000-07:00

I made this infographic based on comScore data of Mobile subscribers in the US. It looks neat, but there's something I don't like about it...

Le stress

2011-08-14T19:26:00.000-07:00

Well the weekend hasn't been fun. Aside from the 16+ hours I've already worked and falling behind on my work, I almost hit another snag. I let someone else use my USB - the one where I keep everything including school projects. I'm assuming this person just pulled out the drive with a file still open. When I plugged it in at home... holy shit! My folders became executables.

At first I thought it really was a virus since the virus scanner brought it to my attention. At this point, I had already deleted the folder which contained my Windows brochure project I had been working on at school for the past 3 weeks. Conveniently, I didn't back it up for some reason. I restarted my computer and ran a disk check. When I checked my USB, the folder executables got an icon. Up to this point, I had never seen anything like it. Double-clicking this "application" revealed the contents of my folders in their entirety! However, there was no way to recover my brochure project.

Oh, and did I mention I was falling behind on my homework? Ran off to get a print done and remembered that when I "unpacked" the folder applications TO MY USB, I might have erased anything that may have been left behind on the USB. I ran disk recovery programs to no avail. To make sure I wouldn't lose anything else, I opened my 500GB hard drive from last year. After cleaning out my USB and backing everything up to the hard drive, I selectively returned folders to my USB.

Here is where it gets strange. It said I had a lot of hidden files, which is normal. Mac OSX puts a lot of crap for storing settings and stuff. But when I tried to drag the recovered folders back, it said I was overwriting the folders. But they weren't THERE. Curiously, I typed in the name of my project's folder and miraculously, it was there in it's entirety! I hadn't actually lost any work. Only problem now is that I can't seem to re-enable its visibility. I am just thankful I didn't lose another 9 hours of work this weekend.

I am genuinely confused over this outcome so if anyone can shed some light on the issue, I'd like to hear it. I bought another USB just in case. This is the USB I will use for freebies and printing. That way if anyone needs to get something off my USB, I don't have to give them my main USB. It's just better to be safe.

Oh, and I can't back up my project online because I ran out of room on my Wuala account. (103% used ftw!)
If I back it up online, it auto-updates. If at least one person signs up using the link below, I get just enough room to store the project and make sure this never happens again.

http://www.wuala.com/referral/3GJNAF7N5MPCJ64CK6A7

So... it could have been worse, but it wasn't.

Star Force Official Complete Works Arrived!

2011-08-13T00:10:00.000-07:00

The book arrived and it's in my hands!

Well that was quicker than I expected. My copy of the Mega Man Star Force Official Complete Works arrived today! It's very shiny and impressive just looking through the pages. Unfortunately, I didn't get to read every page, or even get through them all. Almost at the same time, I got an overwhelming amount of priorities for the next couple days. Suddenly my weekend looks very busy. :(

I'll get through this book, soon. So far, I'm very impressed at the detailed working stages to completion. Some things are rather simplified, but the understanding is that they are ALWAYS on a tight schedule, and they have to make great work, fast.

Mega Man Star Force OCW almost here!

2011-08-10T21:06:00.000-07:00

I've waited a long time for this. Since the Battle Network OCW released in March, I've been expecting this to arrive soon. Now is the time. My copy of the Mega Man Star Force Official Complete Works should be arriving on Monday. It's probably later than others since I placed my order slightly later.

I can't wait any longer. Monday is my day off so I'll have plenty of time to read every page.

Selling my designs

2011-08-07T17:49:00.000-07:00

I've impressed myself with the work I've made recently for school. I decided to try and sell my designs on various products through Zazzle. This is really the only way I'm going to make any money for now.

Here is a preview.

Mine are the donut and burger ones. The other ones were submitted by GM and I think not all of them are that great. Still, buy if you'd like.

So that failed...

2011-08-02T21:51:00.000-07:00

So apparently the Mega Man Legends 3 campaign didn't work. I've never seen so much stubbornness to release a highly-awaited sequel. I've still got the site rips for archival purposes. We'll likely not be seeing these assets any time soon.

Capcom is watching the Legends 3 support

2011-07-26T22:51:00.000-07:00

So in contrast from last week's shitstorm regarding the Legends 3 cancellation, things have gotten more civilized since and Capcom is in fact watching the reactions from fans.

Apparently there is this petition Capcom supports. Should it received enough attention, Capcom would have to do something. I'm really amazed by how the fans have collaborated for this. I encourage everyone to support the continuation of the Mega Man Legends 3 Project.

JOIN THE CAUSE

There is also a dedicated Legends 3 page which combines the efforts of many in order to revive the game! Good luck everyone!

Shiny Metallic Bevels in Illustrator (Tutorial)

2011-07-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

I promise this tutorial will be better than my last one. The goal is similar but the technique is better. Getting shiny effects in Illustrator was nearly impossible at one point, but this tutorial will show you how to get this great dynamic, effect in minutes.

Here is a sample of the technique and the final product of this tutorial.

Ready? Click the break for the full tutorial.

We'll work on text since it has enough complex forms to cover all aspects of this effect. I'm working on a basic RGB document at 800x600. RGB mode will help on blending modes in another step.

First step is to pick a font. It would be better to pick a font that is bold, simple, and geometric. I am using Helvetica Black for this and a 5 to demonstrate. Make it big, too.

Good so far. Expand the text (Object > Expand). The text has been converted to vector outlines. With the object still selected Copy (Ctrl+C) and Paste it in the Back (Ctrl+B). Assuming Fill color is black and Stroke is none, push Shift+X to swap colors. The selected object should now have a stroke of 1. This step will add a stroke to the overall text to improve contrast in the final product. I gave it an 8 point outer stroke.

Now with the original shape on your clipboard, click off and Paste in Front (Ctrl+F). We'll make the inner stroke now. Shift+X again and switch the Stroke color to white. Make a thick inner stroke probably as thick as the black outer stroke. This will become the inner shine.

With the inner stroke selected, go to Object > Expand Appearance. This makes the inner stroke a vector outline and it is exactly what we'll need for the next step. Deselect the object. Under View, make sure Smart Guides are on and Snap to Grid is off. Select the Pen Tool and set no fill and a random Stroke color. Zoom in really close to the top-left corner. With the Pen Tool selected, hover over the top-left corner of the white stroke. It should say "anchor".

Click here and move the cursor over to the next corner below. Again, wait for the guide to say "anchor". Click and it should make a straight line from corner to corner.

Deselect it and move on to the next corner. You can deselect by holding the Control key and clicking off the shape.

Repeat this for all corners. We should have something like this now:

Select one of the paths you just made. On the top menu, go to Select > Same > Stroke Color. All the lines you just made are selected. With the objects selected, Shift+Click the white inner stroke. Open the Pathfinder Panel (Window > Pathfinder) and under the Pathfinders group, select Divide. It's the first icon on the bottom. It should look like this now.

Now we can make the gradients. Draw 2 rectangles and make 2 gradients: one highlight and one low-light gradient. The gradients I used are in the source file.

Select the inner stroke we just cut up. With the gradient panel open, click on the gradient to apply it to all objects in the group. This makes every segment have the same gradient in the same direction. You should go in there and manually adjust the gradient angle and use the low-light gradient to mildly suggest light direction. Play around with it and you should get something like this:

It looks really nice already. We can go further though. If you would like, follow this.

You should still have the original shape underneath the gradients. Click on a gradient, right-click and go to Select. Pick Next Object Below. If the fill is black, it's the correct object. Pick one of the simple linear gradients. Select the top-most gradient of the object and change its blending mode to Overlay.

It boosts the contrast. Select the top-most gradient and move it to the top (Ctrl+Shift+]). Go to the Appearance Panel which should be docked on the right by default. Add a white inner stroke and a black outer stroke. They should be on Overlay and enhance edge contrast.

Select the original shape on the bottom again and paste it in front of everything. Copy these appearance settings and set it to Overlay.

That's it! This is how it could look like after the final step.

You may download the sample file I used for this tutorial.

It's really simple. Get creative. Create interesting, dynamic designs.

Got questions or comments? Please leave them below.

New MMBN:Chrono X Logo!

2011-07-19T23:17:00.000-07:00

This past week I was working on a redo of the logo for the fangame Megaman Battle Network Chrono X. I had made a logo for the active project before but after seeing it recently, I was inspired to try a new take on it.

I think it came out great. Overall legibility has vastly improved. It's much more balanced. The colors are also simpler. The developers of the game loved it so it's official now.
I am impressed at myself by how well it turned out and that I made it entirely in Adobe Illustrator. Yes, it was time-consuming but it's clearly the most skilled design I've made in Illustrator to date. In fact, the only thing I don't like about it is how the emblem shape turned out. In an effort to salvage the old design, I didn't rotate the mildly abstract shapes protruding from the emblem. This makes the circle feel kind of imbalanced and the shapes awkwardly head-on. If I didn't work so hard on the shiny emblem, I would redo that part with more complex shapes and proper perspective.
Overall, I like this logo and I hope the fan game will finish soon. They've gotten really far, apparently.

Megaman Legends 3 Canceled

2011-07-18T21:40:00.000-07:00

Wow. In one of the most disappointing announcements I have ever heard, Megaman Legends 3 has been canceled. The project which had a lot of community involvement and really a lot of potential from the start was just canceled. It doesn't make any sense. First they delay the Prototype and then they just cancel the project. I guess with Inafune gone, there was little hope. I always hoped it could go on but Inafune leaving kinda just killed the Megaman series. I just have no words to describe the disappointment. When I saw the news, I just felt a heavy feeling in me about the dire future for the Megaman series. This means there are no games in development for probably forever. I am very close to believing the Megaman series has ended today with the last game being some mediocre cell phone game...

The Megaman series had a nice run, but I think this is the end. Sad to see it go.

Upcoming Illustrator Tutorial

2011-07-18T17:04:00.000-07:00

If there's one thing I'm getting good at that matters, that would have to be Illustrator. I've learned how to do so many things that not knowing seems almost impossible. The veil of uncertainty in some effects has been lifted and everything is obvious.
So my next tutorial will be on making those shiny numbers Battle Network games have historically used for all 11 unique titles. I've made some quick samples of some numbers I made in that style. It really isn't very difficult anymore and the result is a very interesting and unique style. This tutorial should also be simpler. That last tutorial was very lengthy and had poorly planned instructional thumbnails.

Shininess is trendy right now so this fits the times for now. And at least I figured it out before giving up. That's an achievement.

New Photoshop Background

2011-07-11T17:01:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been messing with Photoshop's Noise Gradients. Yeah, apparently there's an option for that. It lets you make random-colored gradients. I used this tool to make interesting streaks which can give something the impression of a grunge look.
I thought it was interesting and I might use this new background somehow. After all, everything Google-owned seems to be changing. They changed my blog editor! It's different, but not perfect so I hope they make some adjustments later. Youtube is also testing a new layout. I knew those fake transparent "background" layouts would be worthless soon. I'm thinking of making a new Youtube background but only once the layout is finalized. It seems to be missing to many things.

Oh, and the background.

There is still much untapped potential with this "Noise Gradient".

Summer break nearly over

2011-07-06T17:10:00.000-07:00

Well that was fast. It seems I'll have to return to school this coming Tuesday. The break didn't feel long enough, but it was actually miserably long. Things I wanted to do didn't happen. Most notably, this whole "getting a job" thing. Either I'm really bad at looking for a job, or there really aren't many jobs out there. I got close to going to my first day of work, but I resigned last minute because it turns out this company had a sketchy reputation. Now I'm probably too paranoid about scams or worrying about better jobs out there that I've sort of given up for now. And now with class starting up again and with a terrible schedule, I might have less time to find a decent job. I feel like I need more personalized assistance because now I feel like I'm falling behind. I'm 19 and I've never worked a day in my life. I pretty much wasted my summer break. It's just terrible.

Anyways. It's going to be my second year at The Art Institute. I will feel a lot better in class this time when compared to last year. Schedule is bad. I have a morning class on Tuesday, a noon and night class on Thursday, and a morning class on Friday. Gotta stay strong!!

MMBN6 Hard Mode status

2011-06-30T21:58:00.000-07:00

I'll be honest. I haven't done much to the Hard Mode patch. The scale of the project makes it very difficult to carry on. And having my parents constantly peering over my shoulder saying it's unproductive is kind of an obvious sign. I gotta admit, a hacking project like this isn't doing me much good, in a point where time is very important.

So in an attempt to save the project, I'm making what I have public. I hope maybe someday, more dedicated people will complete it more than I have.
http://www.mediafire.com/?axxrz98a615rvyw

So really, don't expect any more large-scale hacking projects anymore. I just can't do that anymore due to time and personal issues. I will carry on smaller projects from time to time which are more manageable, but this Hard Mode patch is not very manageable for me anymore.

Good luck.

Star Force OCW pushed back again!

2011-06-30T09:19:00.000-07:00

Well it looks like this book will never come out. I got an email saying that my order for the Mega Man Star Force Official Complete Works has been pushed back... to January 13, 2012! Why the sudden 6-month delay? I've almost had enough with the delays considering the book was supposed to be out LAST YEAR. The Battle Network OCW at least came out in March after a couple delays. This is just silly. Why won't Udon just say it won't come out at all and stop adding months to the supposed release?
Bad Udon!

MMBN5 Cutting Room Floor article written

2011-06-22T23:30:00.000-07:00

I just finished writing the article on Megaman Battle Network 5 for The Cutting Room Floor. Check it out!
http://tcrf.net/Mega_Man_Battle_Network_5

I think it's fairly thorough and mentions that Wireless play feature. I've seen how they write articles on this website, though and I think it needs more comparisons. Primarily version-differences and beta screenshots. This also means I can move on to the BN6 article. Obviously I have tons of content for that.

Speaking of beta, I found something interesting while digging through old Capcom websites. Not only did Dr. Hikari's mugshot in BN1 used to look hideous, Max Mode is actually used. I haven't played the game recently, or any multiplayer, so I didn't know. Apparently Max Mode shows up during multiplayer. I didn't know. But it had to have something to do with multiplayer since BN5 brought it back exclusively for Crossover Battle.

The Past Returns!

2011-06-21T22:01:00.000-07:00

It's amazing! Over at Archive.org, Capcom's old pages started showing up again. I had always wanted to see some of the old pages again. I got to see the Comic Con '06 for the MMBN6 tourney. It's a splash of memories!

In terms of the flash pages, it did contain some content that no longer exists on the live Web.

The Mega Man logo primarily used in the early 2000s. Mega Man Anniversary Collection and Mega Man Legends used it.

An alternate logo used to commemorate the Mega Man 15th Anniversary. The other anniversary logo was used as a base to the TREZ logo.

A tricky little mystery

2011-06-19T17:28:00.000-07:00

Recently, it has been brought to my attention that Rockman EXE 5 had a wireless play option. I didn't believe it at first but after matching a couple of menu tile arrangements, the elusive screen showed up. Apparently, in the Protoman version, you were supposed to be able to choose between Link Cable and a Wireless Adapter. I thought this was normally possible since I had a Wireless adapter before BN5 and I thought I remembered doing local battles with it. As it turns out, it's a removed feature since apparently all the menus are still in Japanese and the Host and Client screens don't seem to be working properly. I'm getting my hopes up that this menu is still accessible in the game. Otherwise, it will make a great entry to The Cutting Room Floor for which I'm planning on writing more articles for.

Easy Bevels in Illustrator (Tutorial)

2011-06-18T16:51:00.000-07:00

All right, here is the Adobe Illustrator tutorial I said I would make. The goal is to create accurate, shiny, vector bevels on text in Illustrator. I mean nice, enhancing bevels used on a good design, not blotchy, over-beveling done on bad designs. I've thought about the process and it's actually quite simple. Perhaps there already exists another tutorial out there on the exact same thing, but I've reached the conclusion in my own way with little to no help from others.

The final product:

You will need:
Adobe Illustrator (I'm using CS4)
A simplistic, squared font
Basic knowledge of tools

Ready to start the tutorial? Full tutorial after the break.
Setting up the Document

Open Illustrator and make a New Document (Ctrl+N) at any size. For this tutorial, use RGB color because the simplified shine effects only work in this color space and that's what this tutorial will cover. On the blank page, type out a short word or phrase using a simple, square font. I'm using Bitsumishi because it will make this tutorial easier.

Preparing the Characters

When you have the word typed out and you think the kerning is set up how you want it, Expand the text by going to Object > Expand. Hit Enter when the dialog box comes up. The characters are now vector outlines. You can color the letters to some other color in order to see the effects in the next steps. Make sure there is no stroke at this point.

I am going to make an Inner Bevel and to do that, I start by making an Inner Stroke on a duplicate. Copy the Selection (Ctrl+C) and Paste it on top (Ctrl+F). You won't see a difference, but now swap the fill with the stroke (Shift+X) and the duplicate now has a centered stroke. Change the color of the stroke to black or any other color not used as the fill.

Creating the Bevel

The bevel will be made from this stroke. In the previous screenshot, the stroke is proportionally too small to work with and is centered. In the Stroke settings change the stroke to Align to Inside. That's the second box. Add some weight to the stroke. I set mine to 3 points which is enough for the next step.

Happy with the stroke? Go to Object > Expand Appearance. The stroke is now outlined. Perfect bevels are cut from edge-to-edge. Right now, the outlines are made of a Compound Shape and the scissors tool won't work. It will later though.
Zoom in closely to the top-left corner and grab the Line Tool. Also make sure you have Smart Guides enabled.

When the cursor snaps to the Anchor Point (it will say "anchor"), click and drag to the next anchor point.

For the next step to work, it is very important that the line you just drew has a Fill. By default it doesn't so set any color. With the line selected, go back to the Selection Tool (V) and Shift-click the outline. Open the Pathfinder Panel and select the Trim command. That's the second one in the second row.

The Trim command made a hairline trim to the outline, eliminating the compound shape. Using the Direct Select Tool (A) click off, then click where the line you drew was and push Delete twice.

Now select the Scissors Tool (C). It's grouped with the Eraser Tool. Align the crosshairs over the next anchor point and click.

Click on the next corner to cut there. The segment of the outline is now isolated. However, it's not connected and this will cause problems later.

Having just cut the outline, switch to the Direct Selection Tool (A) and Shift-click the previous anchor point. In the toolbar, the Join command should become available.

Join the two points (Ctrl+J). Select the segment before and after the line you cut to make sure lines can be seen. If there isn't a line between the two points, it won't work.

This is the procedure you repeat for every segment ahead. To put it simply:

Use the Scissors Tool to cut between two points.
Select and Join the two points you just cut.
Check to see if the segment has no open points.

This is how my sample turned out for the letter "K". Notice the corners.

You don't have to cut every corner if you'd rather do this quickly. You can "cut corners" and skip parts that may be too small.

Round letters are different. Gradients will work just fine on them without being cut up into many segments.

Repeat the process for all the letters. Now you're ready to move on to the final step: coloring.

Adding Highlights
Using the Selection Tool, click on the individual segments you cut out. You can make basic solid bevels by choosing a light direction and using solid colors to highlight one side. But we've come this far, so I'll explain shiny bevels.

Open the Gradient Panel and choose a radial gradient. By default it's black and white. This will work for simple shinies.

Open the Opacity Panel and set the blending mode of the segment to "Screen" for a basic highlight. Shiny, right? Do this for all the edges. Use a combination of Linear and Radial gradients to enhance edges or suggest direction of light.

This is my final product!

___
I think it looks great. Using this same technique, you can also make an outer bevel or use your own beveling color. The technique, when used properly, can provide a nice, subtle highlight which may improve legibility in stylized designs.

Problems? Suggestions? Please let me know in the comments.

Watched X-Men: First Class

2011-06-17T23:35:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess the summer movie season started already. I just finished watching X-Men: First Class. I just seem to have an interest with these comic-to-movie adaptions. Having not read any of the comics or recalling the first 3 movies, I still enjoyed the movie. Slightly over 2 hours long, I thought the story was very enjoyable. It was very suspenseful and involving right until the very end. I really liked the historical setting even if it didn't match the other established timelines at all. The storytelling and backstory were very interesting to me for some reason. I want to try and enjoy movies on a more intellectual level and this movie was a great fit. I would definitely watch this movie again, probably as an HBO rerun whenever the channel is available as a freebie.

Great start to the summer movie season. I'll probably go see 2 or 3 more movies between now and September.

New banner

2011-06-15T21:32:00.000-07:00

Oh, there's a new banner on the blog, by the way. In case you didn't notice, the new banner is actually different from the old one. I kinda liked the layout of the old one, so the portraits and double-Megaman thing stayed. Since I'm excited about vector bevels, I made the blog's logo entirely in vector (excluding the metal texture). The background colors are also darker since I blended in some of my free backgrounds. Also, the Falzar Beast artwork has been replaced with my high-quality rip. I wish I had know how to get rid of the awful grain before making it a PNG because it looked bad. At least it didn't show up scaled down. Also, Blogger apparently allows the uploading of a Blog Icon now, so there's no point in using an HTML trick to get it. It doesn't seem to be working though.
Anyways, I will make the tutorial on the weekend. It's far too important to me.

Another MMSF3 save post

2011-06-14T20:14:00.000-07:00

I very recently put up a Megaman Star Force 3 save yet here is another one. I had to spread apart the releases so they would be noticeable. Anyways, you can download the save where the game is just recently completed. I'm obviously much farther than that now, but my current progress isn't worth posting. I won't post another one until I get all the icons on the second file. That means a couple months at best.

But here, game complete.
http://www.mediafire.com/?7akrojxxkxc75vf
I must say, Hard Mode has been really fun. I don't trust that its difficulty is legitimate however, and I doubt the difficulty of enemies. So, the electric dragon viruses are silly-fast. There's no way anyone would purposely make an enemy that fast. In other words, they could have been made more difficult in other ways. The mummy viruses are also stupidly overpowered. Yes, I know it's supposed to be hard, but there should be no way a single enemy should be able to kill you with an endless combo. It's not a feature - it's a bug and it's annoying as hell. The only reason I didn't make a cheat was because it's only happened once and they're rarely alone, which is when they kill. As soon as I defeat Sirius in the game, I'm taking the cheat off since it's nearly impossible to win anything past that point (did I mention Apollo Flame is also completely broken and unwinnable?) Almost!

Scary local crime

2011-06-14T12:16:00.000-07:00

I don't normally say this, but shit just got real. Biggest news yesterday was that a student from the Junior High I used to go to got stabbed to death across the street. That's some scary stuff. Thankfully nobody ever died when I went to school, and that goes for High School. It seems it was a result of gang warfare. I've always detested the prominent gang influence around these parts and now it's claimed a victim. He was only 12 years old. It's just tragic to watch. I never knew him, of course, but it's devastating and I'm still shocked to hear about it. I'm also concerned over the bad publicity this will get the school. Like being called "ghetto" and "cheap". I turned out all right. I had no control over everything else.

It's been all over the local news. Here some news posts with the developments from today.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/06/fatal-stabbing-of-12-year-old-may-be-linked-to-tagging-crew-rivalry.html
http://www.ocregister.com/news/police-304380-stabbing-sycamore.html

Upcoming Adobe Illustrator tutorial

2011-06-13T22:41:00.000-07:00

A couple months ago I said I would write an Illustrator tutorial. Well I've finally figured out how to make shiny vector bevels in illustrator. They look quite nice as you can see.

It's kinda small (click to see the full version), but it's a specialized bevel that many fancy vector logos use, especially on games. No Photoshop tricks here. Getting a precise, gradating bevel is possible in Illustrator and I will write the tutorial soon.

Next MMSF3 savegame post

2011-06-11T16:41:00.000-07:00

I was going to post this save before all the things from a couple weeks ago got out of hand. Anyways, I made a backup of my game's save when I got to the part before the Rogue minigame. So now both minigames can be accessed with the saves I provided. Also, remember this is my hard mode run.Weak enemies move as fast as their difficult counterpart and they have lots of HP. The HP part for viruses makes sense since I can't even imagine how pathetically weak they were before. The bump in difficulty makes the game much more enjoyable, especially at that part of the game.

Well here is the gamesave.
http://www.mediafire.com/?vootl01d5zimtd7

It's already a .SAV so it discards comments from the original Gameshark format. I forget exactly what save is what, so I may be mistaken.

My body is ready

2011-06-07T11:25:00.001-07:00

I'm about to watch the Nintendo conference. My body is ready!!

Pumped for today!

2011-06-07T07:40:00.000-07:00

E3 Day 1 was interesting, but I can't wait for today. I'm at school right now so I can't see the Nintendo conference live until I get home when it's over. I just know it's going to be very awesome. These things just have a feeling of greatness to them that I have to watch and see to understand. Then later today I can enjoy the new Rise Against songs that will came out on Rock Band DLC.
And then if I have time, I'll do some sort of homework. Today will just be too much fun.

Moving on...

2011-06-06T20:17:00.000-07:00

I'm not leaving, but I also don't feel like leaving this blog closed forever. I regret everything I did, but it's time to move on now.

Quick MMSF3 save post

2011-05-24T21:16:00.000-07:00

I'm really enjoying my Megaman Star Force 3 playthrough. I'm glad my first Noise was Cygnus because a complete lack of formed brotherbands puts me in a position I would rather not take.

Anyways, here is my save up to this point. It's after the first WAZA minigame but before the second. Maybe some neat hacks can come from that. When the game was released, I actually hoped the game had some debug options leftover which would activate this minigame at your own will. Unfortunately there is nothing left, but at least this save exists now!

Hey, download it now!
http://www.mediafire.com/?bvtywxr8i9dexuy

Finally Replaying MMSF3

2011-05-22T18:15:00.000-07:00

After months of little interest in starting the second file in my Megaman Star Force game, I finally found my DS and set everything up. Prof. 9 made a hard mode cheat months ago and insisted I try it out. So I finally got around to doing that and now I can play the game on a much harder difficulty. It's refreshing since I haven't played in months and it's just at the right difficulty for me.

This gives me ideas for my MMBN6 hard mode patch, which I will work on mostly during my break. Basically, the hard mode cheat speeds up all the enemies and gives them more HP. Very early in the game, it doesn't make that much of a difference except that you can't one-shot all the enemies anymore. I was unfortunate enough to encounter Taurus Fire Omega early in the game only shortly after the first chapter when I had about 200HP. Died in one hit because the attacks are just crazy fast. Speaking of fast, when I encountered the Wibbledee viruses (the Wide Wave attack) in the second area, I was quickly annoyed. The hard mode cheat speeds everything up in a way that breaks the Wibbledee virus. Its invincibility time becomes almost infinite and therefore becomes quite an annoyance to deal with. After the third 5-minute battle I decided to make a cheat that kills only the Wibbledee virus in battle.

94000130 FFFB0000
921C82A2 00000008
121C836C 00000000
D2000000 00000000

94000130 FFFB0000
921C80FA 00000008
121C81C4 00000000
D2000000 00000000

94000130 FFFB0000
921C7F52 00000008
121C801C 00000000
D2000000 00000000

Not to seem like a cheater, but it was getting really annoying and relied only on luck. Basically my code checks if Select and Down are pushed and if the virus is the Wibbledee class. If the conditions are true, its HP becomes 0. It's been a lifesaver since I've been using it.

Speaking of cheats, the cheats file Prof. 9 sent me also had a code that turns off edge-marking and enables anti-aliasing. The game looks great this way. If you see in the screenshot below, this is how the game normally looks like.

I think the outlines are distracting since they're a dark gray and appear very sharp and blocky against the background. The outlines also stop at the screens border which is unusual. With the cheat on, the outlines are removed and the shapes blend with the background. The graphics look much better this way. Too bad the emulators won't render the effect properly. The main thing I'm getting out of this playthrough so far is how big a difference a speed and HP increase makes. I can't wait to play MMBN6 on a harder difficulty after all these years.

New cell phones!

2011-05-18T08:29:00.000-07:00

Well this is interesting. After a couple hours of confusion, my dad finished setting up new phones for the entire family. This is really great since I finally got to try a new cell phone and now I can call anyone in my family. Finally it's starting to feel like 2011, not 2001. Unfortunately, I didn't get to pick my cell phone. The original plan was a big mess. I ended up picking a red LG Neon II. I know I'm always kind of behind on the cell phone trends. My old phone was a flip phone from 2006. I used it for about a year and now I have a slide phone. It's still in great condition since I always take care of my things. Which will only make my next phone transition much harder. Obviously my next phone will be a smartphone with a real operating system and tons of features. But until then, I really gotta find a job...

Hard Mode Patch discussion topic

2011-05-16T08:16:00.000-07:00

I have not yet given up on my Hard Mode patch. In fact, I'm planning on how I will finish it this summer. My summer break begins mid-June and I'm excited to work on this project again.
I've made a topic at TREZ so people can discuss what I should change about my Hard Mode patch. I will also play Prof. 9's Megaman Star Force 3 hard mode hack using a cheat he made. That way I can get a feel for the increased difficulty, especially after a long break from gaming in general.

Incomplete sprite in that new Ace Attorney game

2011-05-12T07:45:00.000-07:00

So GM wanted to rip sprites from Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. It was a tricky process with almost no documentation to help. He made a tool that ripped the backgrounds and character sprites. But I noticed something on Edgeworth's sprite.

It's the last frame in one of his walking frames. It seems they left in a previous version of the completed sprite in their. If you zoom in, you can see how they went from an outline with basic coloring, to the finished product. The head is already detailed since they just paste it on and work on the rest of the body. Shapes like the fluff in his shirt are crudely blocked in as a solid shape, then carefully shaded. Hands get shaded in. His left arm gets noticeable and proper anti-aliasing. It's an interesting find since I've been looking at spriting tutorial websites to help spriters on TREZ. I was correct for the most part, but this incomplete sprite sort of confirms what they were saying. Just outline the parts that need to change first. Then fill in the colors, and shade consistently. Seems like a lot of work, especially considering his sheet is about 6000px long and each line of animation is 88 pixels long and 256 pixels wide.

The sprite rip topic is at The Spriters Resource.
http://www.spriters-resource.com/community/showthread.php?tid=17344&pid=374907#pid374907

Today was a festive day, apparently

2011-05-07T22:34:00.000-07:00

So I've had to think about what I'm going to write about for this essay I have due next Friday. I'm supposed to write about 10 things that I take for granted, culturally. It's kind of hard to make comparisons when almost everyone in the neighborhood is of Hispanic origin. But today made me think about it more since it seemed more festive than usual, and I'm not sure if it's a coincidence. On one side, there was a jumper and obnoxiously loud music. Obviously some sort of party. In another part, I noticed lots of cars parked where there aren't usually many cars parked. A nearby neighbor had some people over that I hadn't seen, and they looked similar. I'm guessing they had relatives over. I also went to a first communion of another relative, so there were a lot of people there, too.
All this in one day seems kind of hard to believe, but maybe there is something I can use from there if it's unusual enough.

Also today, I made the most expensive impulsive buy ever. Just yesterday, I was looking at the selection of Rock Band 3 instruments. I had my eye on the keyboard, but it was close to $100. Today I find the same one at Best Buy for $71 and I buy it on the spot! That was fast and expensive, but it feels like it's worth it. Instantly, there is another side to the game that has lots of other things to offer. It's easy to miss out on the other instruments, but they are lots of fun. Especially if you're considering playing the real thing, which I'm not. But on the topic of Rock Band, on Tuesday they're finally adding the song "Rope" by Foo Fighters. I've been waiting for it since its announcement was leaked about a month ago and I've never been this excited for a release. Maybe because I think the song is awesome and ever since I started driving (about a year ago), I've started to enjoy music more and this is something I'm looking forward to. I'm not even that great at the game! Still, it should be fun.

One more thing, only this time it's about monitors and stuff. On Friday, the class I was in has a projector that is the absolute worst I've seen. I decided to do something about it and the instructor ended up calling a tech guy over because I was complaining about the terrible color output. It turns out all he did was change some default mode from "presentation" to "sRGB". Now, I've heard about this sRGB stuff. My photo instructor said that all the monitors at school are calibrated to sRGB, and the colors on all the screens are very decent. I remembered that my monitor had that option as well and decided to try it out. Apparently I had to raise the brightness to get it to look decent. Now my monitor is on sRGB and everything looks great. Still can't seem to pass the white saturation test, but everything is fine. The colors are still much better than when I plugged in the monitor for the first time using the VGA cable. I remember colors being oddly oversaturated (such that MMBN6 on the emulator looked very unusual). So if your monitor has an sRGB option, I suggest you try and set it up properly under that setting. Everything could look better, I guess.

Too much homework

2011-05-03T21:01:00.000-07:00

This is kind of difficult to work with. This quarter has been really difficult and I'm very busy with homework. It stacks up and it's a lot of lengthy work. Certainly all this will help me later in life when this is more common-place. See, this all fits with the rants I made a couple months ago about "easy" and "hard" modes in life. Well, it's probably really obvious but life gets more difficult as you get older. But it's much more stimulating for the mind. Imagine how mind-numbingly boring it would be to go back to first grade?

So a lot of difficult things are coming up. I need to find a job. I'm 19 and I've never worked a day in my life. It's really not looking well and working only gives me less time to do other things. Plus, I need the job for the money. I'm not giving up on this computer build I'm planning which is very important to me. It brings me to another thing that bothers me right now. I want to hate Apple's Macs, but I have to work with them. I've tasted fast computers for too long and now I feel I must make a stronger computer for the sakes of making a statement. It baffles me how many people at school willingly chose MacBooks as their personal notebook computers. They're stupidly overpriced and always seem terribly slow (since they presumably know little about their own computer). It's like owning an Apple computer is a mask for the real reason they continue to support Apple: either they're computer-illiterate and failed at understanding Windows like the rest of the world, or they have a lot of money, even to the point where they are simply overspending for something they think they need.

I need more time to think and balance things out.

MMBN6 PvP match!

2011-04-29T21:04:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I played Greiga Master over my local network to a couple of rounds of MMBN6 battles. I was winning most of them but I lost the one we dual-recorded. I recorded my side of the match and he recorded his. It was a very fun experience!

Battle Network Nyan cat

2011-04-28T21:55:00.000-07:00

How did I forget to drop this here? This funny, notable video by Greiga Master was uploaded a couple days ago. It features popular internet meme characters in a random Megaman Battle Network 6 hack. Funny stuff.

Megaman Legends 3 Japanese flash site stuff

2011-04-22T09:39:00.000-07:00

So the Japanese site went live yesterday and I've managed to snatch the goodies. It was a lot more difficult than before, but I got all the images worth noting. You can download an archive of images and sounds I ripped.
http://www.mediafire.com/?om7q5f5w9w0p547

Here are some images worth noting. All the backgrounds and images are very clean and high-res.

Megaman Legends 3 videos appear

2011-04-21T19:45:00.000-07:00

So a bunch of Megaman Legends 3 videos appeared today. Looks like the game is coming along great. The game is visually impressive. Kinda puts away the shoddy, blocky graphics of the N64/PS1. Clearly the game was envisioned to look this stunning, and futuristic. Really, if they made a Battle Network game this impressive, it would definitely be a day 1 for me. The vision of the game designer can truly be created with the powerful technology found in the 3DS.

Also, this Wii successor rumor stuff has started to make more sense. The rumors are more realistic and if there is going to be an official announcement soon, I can't wait to see what is real. This next generation of console games will be amazing. I can tell.

Animating Rank Tutorial

2011-04-19T13:45:00.000-07:00

Due to the sheer popularity of the Rank style I made for TREZ, I've made a tutorial explaining how to make the text shine. It's fairly technical, but correct. This isn't the tutorial I was talking about before either. I still want to make an Illustrator tutorial soon though.

See the tutorial from the link below.
http://s6.zetaboards.com/The_Rockman_EXE_Zone/single/?p=8164362&t=8730392

Animate like a boss! ;)

MMBN:OCW scans

2011-04-13T19:56:00.000-07:00

Hey, scans form the book finally surfaced. ;)
http://s6.zetaboards.com/The_Rockman_EXE_Zone/topic/8721490/3/

I could get more pages. It just gets kind of difficult.

Mega Rock Patch quickfix

2011-04-11T20:49:00.000-07:00

Well thanks to the good people at SomethingAwful, their LP turned up an unintentional bug in my patch. Apparently the regular version of Bass was acting like Bass BX. There were some errors in the way the AI was setup. Thanks to Prof. 9, the problem has been quickly resolved and it's a rather quick fix.

If you want to quickly fix it yourself, simply apply the change yourself.
08827ABD: D0 -> D1

I have also updated the patch in general, this time adding alternate colors for non-chips on the custom screen. V3.04 of the patch can be downloaded now.
http://www.mediafire.com/?b42esbtcsi4dhs8

I really want to thank Prof. 9 and the people doing the LP. I would personally present them with this patch but alas, paying for registration is absolute lunacy - especially on no income. Still, I encourage them to encourage me as they have done before. ;)

Also, 300th post!

It's my birthday

2011-04-10T08:28:00.001-07:00

I am 19 as of today. :)

Break is over

2011-04-03T16:45:00.000-07:00

Well my week-long break is over. I start school again on Monday and I think I only get a couple days for Easter off and that's it. My next schedule isn't too good either. I have class from 12:30pm - 4:30pm on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Thursday is my day off and I have class in the morning on Tuesday. I anticipate very little free time with this schedule and barely enough time to do homework so that will certainly affect my online activity.

It seems I didn't accomplish my goals for the break either. This Hard Mode patch might never get finished at this rate. It's all because of a bad pattern of waiting and procrastinating. If someone is willing to help me develop it, that could speed things up. I would need someone who is still experienced at MMBN6 hacking and has enough free time to get some things done. I hope that by doing this, enough of the patch will be completed so that when the tools are finished, the patch will be complete then.

In the meantime, I'm still working on graphics for TREZ. In the long run, this is more useful for me so I'm frequently going back to this and working with the community.

Also my birthday is next Sunday, as regular readers will know. I don't expect some celebration online on April 10th. I'll probably just have a laid back, not-so-crowded party at my house like always.

Megaman Battle Network Official Complete Works is here!

2011-03-30T21:22:00.000-07:00

I finally got my copy of MMBN OCW in the mail today. It's so awesome. I never expected to own a Battle Network book so incredibly detailed. And the cover is holographic. That was a nice surprise. All the pages are very glossy and finely printed which was probably really expensive to print. I read the entire book today and here are my trivial observations.

There is a typo on some page where Chinese candles or lights are mentioned. "Heating" is misspelled.
On Duo's official art page, the alternate Duo chip image still has a Japanese label.
The "BassAnly" chip is called "Bass Anomoly" in the book several times.
On Topman's artwork page, his chip is also shown translate. It reads "Grrr" as opposed to Japanese characters.
Shadowman's special chip is called "Image Slash" in the book when it is called "Split Up" in the game.
The book admits that "Spoutman" was an error in localization. In MMBN6, it should have been "Aquaman", "Aqua Cross", and "Aqua Beast". Eraseman's localized name remains unchanged.
Some of the comments are actually much more aggressive than anything that appeared in the game such as Gyroman's operator, Charlie telling Mayl that he'll meet her in 10 years and Tora calling Lan a "smart ass".

It was fun reading about the design process. I got the impression that the design team was always rushed, yet seemed professional and enthusiastic. I liked hearing about the connection to the pixel artists. It's a lot of work for them and I felt they should have gotten more recognition. I wonder how much more content and detail the game would have had if they were given more time. Hearing that specific chips couldn't appear as detailed as they should have been left me thinking.

Overall, the book is brilliant. I learned and relearned things I was forgetting. I will treasure this book for as long as I can. It is a tome of indispensable artwork and information I desire.

More Battle Network logo stuff

2011-03-29T21:56:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I'm still learning design stuff and I decided to revisit this whole Megaman Battle Network logo thing. I understand it differently now and I was able to recreate the Megaman Battle Network 1 logo. Yeah, it's quite awful. Here's my version made entirely in vector and edited in Photoshop, as the official one was clearly made in.

The first Megaman Battle Network logo (recreated by me).

I don't think it's great. It seems lazy and unprofessional unlike the Japanese one. The outline turned out blocky which seems unintended. "Battle Network" is written in what was probably their first and only font choice. It turns out the font is Helvetica Rounded Condensed Bold Oblique, just as I suspected. The roundness doesn't really fit in my opinion and the kerning is bad. Then there's a distracting blue sphere in the middle for some reason. Later titles put the emblem in there. The actual emblem feels reversed. There shouldn't be any blue and it contrasts oddly. The yellow ring should have been larger and it isn't. The purple is consistent with the Japanese logo, at least. The entire thing is overdone in generic Photoshop effects - some which don't really help.

But anyways, I thought it could be remade to be truer to the Japanese logo, yet preserve some of the elements that are consistent in the localization of the Megaman series. Here is my attempt.

A redesigned version of the MMBN logo.

The green color is there and the emblem has a notable yellow ring around it. I ditched the rounded font for a squarer font. I like the notable spikes in the outlines around "Megaman" a lot more than the round ones. It doesn't feel as bleak and cheap as the original one and I think I can use the vector outlines I used to make this on future projects. I'm always taking fangame logo requests - or rather, I request my services. It's a shame to see the old, shoddy logo from the first game come up almost every time a fangame is being made. It just feels 2001.

Oh, and here are the source files. Maybe people can make their own logos more easily now.

Download Source Files

BN6 AI Hacking

2011-03-25T20:36:00.000-07:00

It's looking good. Prof. 9 has been working on a new hack that allows the user to change the order attacks are used in. It even allows bosses to use chips! Awesome stuff here that I'm sure will open lots of possibilities. I'm hoping to use it creatively in the Hard Mode patch so bosses won't have to be unnaturally buffed.

Great, right? It has also been brought to my attention that I actually have a very committed fanbase when it comes to my Hard Mode patch. Had I know that, I probably would have put more time in the patch all this time. I want to finish the Hard Mode patch but I don't know when that will happen. But I'm sure it will be a treat for those replaying the game.

Winter Quarter complete!

2011-03-24T22:44:00.000-07:00

Today I finished my Winter Quarter of 2011 at The Art Institute. It was quite a stressful schedule and last few days, but I've complete. This last project, especially. Apparently if a calender is going to be paginated it needs 13 months. That was completely unobvious.

Now that I get a week off, I can start working on personal and side-projects of mine. I don't usually have enough time to do these things, but here is what I'm hoping to get done in the following week:

Try out new BN6 hack
Attempt to finish Hard Mode patch
Finish designs
Write Illustrator tutorial

Prof. 9 has been working on a new BN6 hack that I'm eager to use. The game may be old but this could be fun, you know. Hopefully after that turns out all right, I could try to finish the Hard Mode patch. There's still a lot of stuff to change and the lack of interest from the last patch sort of makes me want to lower its priority. There could also be more unexpected problems.

I have a logo request at TREZ that I want to do first. After that, I could finally start working on the button redesign. There's not much to fix but the best thing that could happen now is if they are created in a consistent style. After the buttons, I can start on the banners which have really been pushed back since the first time I announced it.

Finally, if I have time, I want to write an Adobe Illustrator tutorial. I haven't written one before and I'm much better at it now. It could be interesting for those waiting for more design tutorials from me.

Calender Final Project

2011-03-22T17:13:00.000-07:00

So I think I've finished my last final for the quarter. In my InDesign class, the final was to create a fully functioning calender. Well I've finished it now even if I chose an easy topic.

I made a calender about chocolate. I've finished the digital part. Now I have to print it and assemble it, which is something I've never done. I hope it works out. Here are some previews.

Once that's outta the way, I just have to finish some tedious Algebra homework I'm not too thrilled about and finish class on Thursday. I have next week off to hopefully do something interesting. New BN6 hacks coming for sure.

10th Anniversary of Battle Network

2011-03-20T18:17:00.000-07:00

The TREZ logo is based on Megaman's head
from the Megaman 25th Anniversary labels.

I couldn't forget this date. Battle Network turns 10 today, which is a long time if you think about it. That means I would have been 8 when the first game came out which means it 2 years before I even owned my first handheld. I don't feel like telling my whole story again, but I'll just mention the basics.

I didn't start following the Battle Network games until around 2004. By then, marketing was in full swing and it caught my attention. I'm kind of sure Battle Network 3 was the first Megaman game I played. I had seen stuff on Megaman X in emulators before but I didn't start playing those games until after I became interested in Battle Network. The series had a nice run and I really enjoyed the series's second half of life. I always get on board with these things a little late. I never really purchased any merchandise. The only Battle Network games I owned was Battle Network 6 and Battle Network 5DS. The other stuff I own, I won at Comic Con '06 which includes a Magnetman toy, those shiny Japanese promo stickers and the Megaman X pogs. A friend also gave me a Protoman Battle Chip and I bought an Energy Bomb Battle Chip at the swap meet, which I now carry on my keychain. That's about it, I guess.

I missed out, sure, but I made up for it. Despite not having every piece of merchandise or game, I still managed to make it out on top. I know pretty much everything about the entire series, excluding the anime. I helped create the most popular Battle Network fansite out there. And after all this, I'm actually fairly influential. So yeah, the Battle Network series did have a nice run. I just hope some more Battle Network-related things come out in the future. Perhaps like a much-needed graphical enhancement on the 3DS...

Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there - with free music.

2011-03-18T22:00:00.000-07:00

Isn't it neat? I got a card in the mail from State Farm as an early birthday present. They're giving me free music for having car insurance with them. I'm usually not very good at getting high-quality music for free on the Internet. Plus, it's not that the right thing to do. But since in California I'm legally obligated to have car insurance and it's almost like I'm legally supposed to download these songs! It was quick and easy.
They gave me 10 free songs and now I have higher-quality versions of some of my favorite songs and more! Now I just have to redeem the free songs that came with my SD card and I'll have more songs! I bought that SD card so I could fit more Rock Band 3 DLC on it. I'm really having a lot of fun playing all my favorite songs in one game and listening to them later!

Advanced IM final project

2011-03-14T15:14:00.000-07:00

Maybe it's too early to call it, but I think I finished my final project for my Advanced Image Manipulation class. A+ work, perhaps?

Yeah, it's a Nintendo 3DS product showcase. 1 Final project down, 2 more to go.

Free backgrounds

2011-03-13T14:30:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a project for school, so I've made more stock backgrounds to work with. It's all generally the same with the "burst-portal-warp-thingy" concept. Sometimes they're more fun to make than the actual project.

Tsunami warning for nearby beaches

2011-03-11T08:31:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I woke up today hearing warnings about tsunami waves hitting the nearby beaches. Apparently an 8.9 earthquake hit Japan around midnight and it was IMMENSE. The waves were supposed to hit soon. Even my school's page had a warning about the tsunami since they are kind of close to the beach. I know something will likely not happen where I am but it worries me about earthquakes. First Chile, then Japan. I think Haiti got hit twice. It just feels like California is next - big one or not.

Battle Network Official Complete Works is official!

2011-03-10T21:48:00.000-08:00

So today Udon finally uploaded the preview pages for both Official Complete works titles. I am very excited to see the book nearing completion. I am placing my order tomorrow and I hope to be reading the book by next week. The release for the Battle Network book has been set as next Wednesday and I hope it's true this time, which it likely is. I think the comments are neat and the quality of the artwork is amazing. It will totally be worth the purchase.

Also, I mentioned that there are preview pages. Just as I predicted, the preview pages featured artwork which before had only been ripped from blurry scans. I ripped the page with the BN3 bosses and I think they came out great. A little small, but clean.

Bubbleman (BN3)

Desertman (BN3)

Kingman (BN3)

Metalman (BN3)

Metalman (EXE4.5)

Punk (BN3)

Everything else has already been seen before or it's too small to be useful. Still, these are neat. I'm looking forward to the book.

The Mac users

2011-03-09T20:53:00.000-08:00

In the past, I've posted a couple times about my encounters with the Mac computer. Sure, they're shiny, expensive computers, but that's the thing: they're expensive. I already mentioned how they completely overprice their parts. In the end, all you're really getting is a regular computer with a $25 operating system. It bothers me how due to historical reasons, designers have to be seen designing on Macs. I mean sure, that mattered...20 years ago when computers were chunky and slow. Macs had a different game and somehow designers preferred using them over Windows computers. But today, it doesn't really matter. Both Windows and Mac computers use almost identical parts and run nearly the same software.

It really just comes down to preference. I could understand why my instructors prefer using Macs. They're professionals in their field. They've been designing since the early 1990s and I think they used Macs exclusively. It's a different case for me since the first time I used a computer was around 2002 and I didn't know the difference between operating systems. The first computer I owned was a discarded Windows 95 which was later upgraded to a Windows 98 around 2002. I ended up learning Windows and never considered anything else for a while. It's just a game.

See, you learn Windows. Windows is like the "Medium Difficulty". Kind of a steep curve, but the more tech-savvy you get, the easier it becomes. I hear people complaining about how Windows always has problems and all I can imagine is people who don't really know their computers. I encountered some problems in my first years with a computer, but I learned. I don't think I've ever had to contact any form of customer support for my problems. Instead of taking the easy way out and switching to a Mac, I stuck it out and became pro. Yeah, pro.

Back to Mac, it's like the "Easy Difficulty". The system is made to be locked down and idiot-proof. Maybe it was designed this way because the majority of their users aren't and don't want to become tech-savvy. This does seem to be true as I have observed how my instructors use Macs. I don't think they know how things work. I could even say I already know more about their systems than they do. It never ceases to amuse me how quickly they resort to resetting the system to fix a problem. The computers are on Deep Freeze, there's little that resetting would do to fix anything. I can't quite describe it but it seems like they treat their computers like appliances. Expecting buttons to always do something as opposed to knowing why the buttons do what they do. Yeah, it's kind of tough to explain. They also don't seem to work as fast as I expected, and I've seen them working without a projector where explanations aren't necessary.

The entire system is oversimplified discouraging their users to get to know their system more. Perhaps a bit too oversimplified to the point where their hardware is impractical. During the summer, the Mac labs were using Apple's "Magic Mouse". It was absolutely horrible. I know they want to look shiny and nice, but it's just not fit for human hands. There is a reason today's mice curve up towards the back and that is because it's ergonomically comfortable. It fits the human hand more naturally and guides the fingers to the two buttons. The Magic Mouse is a symmetrical oval with a pathetically useless scrollball and invisible buttons. Yes, it has buttons despite looking like it has one button. Even if you set it up for two buttons, it's still very uncomfortable to use. Buttons don't work and I find myself holding it from the sides because it lacks grip. There are also buttons on the side which end up being pushed as a result of bad grip. The scrollball is even worse. Again, there is a reason scroll wheels are designed the way they are. If it's long, your finger can turn it easily allowing greater control. The ball on the Magic Mouse is nearly impossible to move because it's too small and stiff. That is just bad design.

The keyboard is another minor problem. I had a hard time learning the shortcut keys because the labeling is inconsistent. The bottom-left is the most troublesome. On a standard Windows keyboard, you have Control (Ctrl), Windows, and Alt. On the Mac keyboard, you have: a "control key", the Option key, and the key with the squiggly shape. The "control" key is the most ridiculous. For those who got used to one-button mice, that acts as their right-click. Why push two keys to do the effect of one? Stupid. It's also the only way to switch between tabs in Firefox. This particular shortcut isn't the same as in Windows since you need to push Ctrl+Page Up/Down to do the same. The drop-down key doesn't reflect any Windows key. The option key sounds redundant, but it acts like the Alt key on Windows. The key is also labeled "Alt", so I never get that one confused. The last key is the most confusing of all. I've heard it called the Apply key and the Command key. Both are completely unobvious. See, the Mac has a bad habit of using strange, indescribable symbols to represent keys on their keyboard. They don't always appear on their keyboard either. Windows does this right by having symbols used in the system match the keyboard. It just seems like it's more complicated than it should be.

I mentioned hardware before. Computers all really use the same internal hardware nowadays. So if I'm gonna be paying $2000 for a computer, I better get a damn high-end computer that will be futureproof for at least 5 years. It's ridiculous how a Mac computer with last-gen processors still got for upwards of $1000! I heard someone in class boldly proclaiming how he's a Mac person. That's quite rare considering not many people are rich enough to afford those computers. I don't think I'll ever really be a Mac person. I can use them, but I can have a better computer for the same price their mid-range computers go. I don't have bottomless amounts of money to spend on overpriced computers. And it's not like I had a good foundation either for being rich, either. My parents grew up on a mountainside in Mexico. There's no way I would ever have the luxury of owning a Mac computer. I guess it's up to your own personal choice. It's amusing to watch people fumbling with their slow, cluttered MacBook Pros. I'm sure paying $1500 for a computer still using Intel Core 2 Duo was well worth it now lol.

There is one thing I like about the Mac and that is the F3 key. That's the one that floats all the windows. I like being organized and I find it really annoying that about 10% of the screen is wasted as a Program Files preview. I like minimizing the windows I'm not using and those get stuffed on the far-right corner. The F3 function is useful because all the windows become visible and I can simply select the one I want to go to. It's kind of neat because it's very visual and it makes up for their poor minimizing. Obviously some people don't mind. I've seen ALL of my instructors simply shove windows aside! I could never put myself to do that. I almost always full-screen my windows and shoving windows aside just feels clumsy and unorganized. Watching them dig for windows they want is even more amusing. If they're going to work this messily, at least use F3 to find your windows. And there's plenty of room on the 2560x1600 monitors, so it's not like windows should be getting lost.

The software is where all historical basis is pointless. Windows and Mac can run the Adobe suite just fine. Maybe the Windows on campus could run it better if they weren't still using 4-year-old processors and graphics cards. I think some people are still under the impression that only Mac computers can design. So how does that explain how a majority of the tutorials online are Windows users teaching Mac users new tricks. It must have something to do with generations. I have no reason to believe the two systems are very different. They are actually very much the same when you observe the things that really matter. There are few things that vary between the Windows and Mac versions of Adobe programs. The Mac version opens the program to a transparent window, which I find annoying. It's easy to click through to the desktop and have to find the program again. On the Windows version, there is a gray screen and the program can be minimized. Opening a document, the Mac version opens a separate window. If this window is maximized, it still has its visible controls at the top. This ends up wasting a lot of room. Fortunately, I found out you can enable "Application Frame" which compacts it similar to Windows. The maximized version is more organized this way and there is less wasted room. The Windows version comes this way and I have no problem. There are no holes to the desktop on maximized mode.

After observing the Adobe programs, I can actually conclude that the Mac version is actually worse than the Windows version. I've always considered them equal but apparently, only on the Mac version of Photoshop CS5, when running in 64-bit mode the Lighting Effects filter can't be used. Ha! That's crazy. Another time, while I was working on something in Photoshop CS5, a layer went missing and the graphics corrupted. Some of the letters I had in the document were showing an error message. I can't confirm if it's exclusive to the Mac version, though. They still haven't fixed the Create Layers glitch in either version as well. That's when you make a 2-color Outer Glow effect and right-click on the layer and select "Create Layers". I also just recently discovered another crazy glitch in InDesign CS5. After I created a table and continuously linked text frames on a Master Page, Command+Shift clicking the object instantly crashed the program. I was amazed that I could repeatedly crash the program after opening the file again. Seems like a very critical error on Adobe's part. I've never found a bug this...repeatable from such a reputable company. I haven't tried it on Windows, either so I don't know if it's exclusive.

That's enough. The conclusion is that it depends on what you're used to. I find that generally the older users are more loyal to Mac. There are even a few rich kids that tend to favor it. Preferring the Mac based solely on historical basis is pure crap. There is no reason one system will do the same job better than the other. You either spend more to idiot-proof your system, or you spend less and go pro. I find that people that learn their system often work better and faster than someone using their system as a statement or using it based on a bias.

I just can't wait until I encounter someone who will be trying to put me down for using a Windows computer to design. It has the same programs, stupid!

New images added to the TREZ Gallery

2011-03-09T10:24:00.000-08:00

Due to the increase in image discovery, I've decided to upload more images to the TREZ Gallery. It's nothing I haven't posted here before, but it should give you an archive that makes searching easy.

You can find the gallery by clicking on the link in the links section on the right, or here.

Youtube-Google account linking

2011-03-08T22:22:00.000-08:00

Today Youtube finally forced me to link my Youtube account to my Google account. It's kind of annoying. I was very lucky that I had it registered with my Inbox.com email. I will never forget how I lost my account the second time. They were recently suggesting users link their Youtube and Google accounts and I decided to link. Unfortunately, I lost my account the first time using my ISP Yahoo email. Upon linking, I didn't realize the Google account was using the banned email. As a result, linking accounts got me banned and those bastards never unbanned me. Fortunately that isn't the case now. I linked, but I don't really see the benefit. I consider my Inbox.com email to be disposable. I am using a fake name on it anyways. Maybe someday I'll open a permanent Gmail account under my real name that I will protect. Right now, my school gave me Gmail, but it's only temporary. It's kind of nice, too.