AI Assisted Art - MidJourney

This AI art thing is the current fad and controversy of the internet. I kicked in and started playing around myself for inspiration. I’m using it to generate some images for use in a little gaming / world building. So far I’m digging it. MidJourrney works as a plug-in to a Discord server. I currently have one set up for personal use and potentially some online DnD or other table top roleplaying. I’ll drop a couple of examples here and post more as the actual descriptions and items start to come forth.

Resin Printing Brain Dump Incoming.


I originally posted this in response to a friends question on Facebook asking for advice in preparation for the arrival of his newly purchased resin printer.

I use the Elegoo water washable resins for most of my prints. It keeps odor down on both the resin and the cleaning.

Get a silicon funnel and some extra filters just in case. Makes draining the tank much easier.

Have lots of paper towels on hand. Mess will happen.

Save at least one or two of the empty bottles you can pour the small left over resin all into one bottle and mix it up if color doesn't matter (parts that will be painted).

You'll need a metal scraper, but I assume the printer will come with that.
Get a set of plastic ones too. I use the plastic ones to stir the resin that has been sitting in the tank for a couple of days. A plastic one can also lightly scrape little bits off the fep sheet in a pinch. Must be careful with this.

Buy a set of plastic lunchroom dining trays I line one with paper towels and do all my work in between steps on it to keep any mess contained. Can also set the printer in one just incase the fep fails and resin escapes. (this has not happened to me, but better safe than sorry).

Keep at least one of the support rafts from a print handy to use when you clean the fep sheet by using whatever your manufacturer calls the tank clean function. This exposes a full edge to edge layer of resin which will collect any settled debris floating around in the resin. You set the raft on the bottom of the tank, then run the clean function which embeds the raft in the exposed layer and lets you lift it right out. I do this once in a while, depending on whether I have had a failed print or not.

Keep some isopropyl alcohol around just in case, comes in handy.

Gloves are a must.

I also keep alcohol based hand sanitizer close by. Good for both cleaning my hands after messing with the prints and cleaning paint off my hands too.

Get a bottle of UV Resin (Hard) and a UV Flashlight for sticking parts together. It works wonderfully. I find it works better than super glue for me. I weld the part(it is thicker) using the resin(it is thicker than regular resin) and flashlight, then put it in the cure station for another round to finish it off.

For Some Strange Reason - OSR

For some of the blame, see my post below about my YouTube problem. I’ve long been feeling the itch to get back into some gaming. This itch has been somewhat driven by a couple of friends who still play but mainly as a possible thing to do with my girlfriend and her daughter. We will see if they enjoy it.

At first I considered it a good excuse to pick up with 5th edition DnD and saw the starter set on Amazon for a whopping $8. Grabbed it and have done a little looking. Then I fell down the OSR (Old School Renaissance) rabbit hole on YouTube and a few sites. Since I know my friends have 1st and 2nd edition books and I have plenty of resources I am now pretty sure that is the route we are going to take.

I went on a huge purge a couple of years ago and sold off the bulk of my collection. It was just sitting in boxes and taking up space. Now the majority of those things are available as PDF’s via DriveThrough RPG. So I’ve picked up a couple of the mainstays of what I used to reference for starting off a campaign. The real treasures on DriveThrough RPG to me are all of the new things from the OSR community. Just searching “OSR” is going to result in over 9000 items, some free or pay what you want. Some of these are available in really high quality print editions too if you just have to hold it in your hands.

An excellent OSR resource on YouTube is QuestingBeast. He has been churning out content for 4 years and reviews a bunch of the games and supplements supporting OSR rules. It is worth mentioning that OSR is not limited to fantasy or DnD clones. There are quite a few science fiction and more specific subgenres as well.

I’ll follow up this post with some resources I find useful and may just blog my whole process of spinning up and relating the events of the ongoing campaign. I’ll also post some photos of some of my good old gaming resources I just couldn’t bring myself to unload.

Amazing Movies I Never Need to See a Second Time

There are some really amazing, powerful movies that you really never need to see more than once. We all know the classics you can watch over and over. Most are action or comedy. They aren’t universally accepted generally but they do all have a huge following.

This isn’t that. I’m talking about amazing movies that suck you in, kick the emotions up, and really impact you. Sometimes for days after viewing it. Rarely even for years.

I made a post to Facebook setting out the criteria as clearly as I could and got a few really good suggestions and there was a definite consensus on one movie. There were of course a few suggestions that did not hit the criteria (folks just misunderstood the post)

I’m going to just list the movies here to hang on to it in no particular order other than the big one. The most mentioned was Requiem for a Dream. You can’t deny it is powerful and that you really don’t want to see it again. I’m also only listing movies I’ve seen. As I see some of the suggestions I am lacking, I’ll add those as well if I agree.

  • Requiem for a Dream

  • The Master

  • Nightcrawler

  • What Dreams May Come

  • Prisoners (2013)

  • Schindler’s List

  • The Passion of the Christ

  • Elephant Man

I Have a YouTube Problem

My problem with YouTube is that I spend a lot of time watching videos about how to do things without actually doing the thing I’m watching.

Examples include photography, miniature painting, photoshop, 3d printing, 3d modeling, woodworking, and the list goes on. So to help pull you, dear reader, into the pit with me I’ll present some of my favorite distractions. Now these choices all are what I’d consider top quality in the topics described, but they do have the risk of burning hours of your time.

Photography

  • Kyle McDougal I primarily watch this channel for his thoughts on film photography. Dedicated film photographers can get quite meticulous about film and scanning, but he seems to understand this and just rolls with it.

  • Nick Carver Another film photographer, another good time suck. He shoots similar stuff to Kyle, but also has a completely different aesthetic to his shots. A nice counterpoint.

  • fototripper Funny, entertaining, quality shots and he drops some knowledge as well.

  • Sean Tucker Another low key, no nonsense channel. One of the things I really enjoy about Sean’s channel is he doesn’t feel obligated to fling content just to put something up. He uploads consistent quality when it is ready.

Miniature Painting

  • 52 Miniatures A Swedish bloke who’s humor, delivery, and just general pleasant demeaner is infectious while walking us through his brain as he talks about his return to miniature painting in Stockholm.

  • Zatcaskagoon Miniatures Promoting a particular style of painting that appeals to my taste quite well, this channel just got on my radar and I am working my way through. At first blush it looks pretty advanced, but there are some great nuggets here for everyone.

3d Printing

  • CHEP Straight forward quality 3d Printing info. No bells and whistles, just essential raw info. This helped quite a bit when I was new to the 3d printing world.

  • ModBot Good quality content, sometimes he rambles a bit but the information is useful for sure.

  • Uncle Jessy This channel leans heavily toward resin printing and fandom. A lot of Star Wars and comic book related content. He does offer some good printer reviews, tips and recommendations. Worth watching if you are into resin printing for sure.

3d Modeling

  • Ponte Ryuurui A Blender 3D channel with some pretty advanced information. The deliver is a little fast and hard to follow at times, but the information is top notch and worth going over multiple times to get a handle on it.

Woodworking (general making)

  • Alexandre Chappel This guy makes all sorts of things from wood, metal, and 3d printing. High energy at almost all times while he is explaining why and how he’s doing something and he has a website with plans for most of his creations.

  • TheCrafsMan SteadyCraftin I’m not sure what to say about this channel other than please go watch a video or two. Your day will be so much brighter for the time spent.

Whats Happening was Doomed to Happen

I love David Fincher’s movies. While Alien 3 was weak on story within the context of what had come before, it is a strong piece of film making. Even if Fincher himself hates it. I also prefer the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, even though visually his remake is gorgeous. Again there are story elements that fall short.

He’s made truly iconic movies. Seven and Fight Club are stunners. Can’t get enough of them.

  • 1992 - Alien 3

  • 1995 - Seven

  • 1997 - The Game

  • 1099 - Fight Club

  • 2002 - Panic Room

  • 2007 - Zodiac

  • 2008 - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

  • 2010 - The Social Network

  • 2011 - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

  • 2014 - Gone Girl

  • 2020 - Mank (October of 2020)

These are not all perfect films, but all are easily a re-watchable, except maybe Gone Girl. I just find no character in that movie to even remotely identify with. Worth one watch for sure.

Like many film makers, he got he got a start or notice directing music videos. After watching them all back to back, I notice the soft filter is PRONOUNCED in all of them and it really dates them.

  • 1989 - “Janie’s Got a Gun” - Aerosmith

  • 1990 - “Freedom ‘90” - George Michael

  • 1990 - “Vogue” - Madonna

  • 1993 - “Who is it?” - Michael Jackson

I really can’t say anything that hasn’t been said before about his movies, so here are a couple of really good commentaries on his work from some of my favorite channels on film.

This next video kicks in starting with Fincher’s commercial work for Nike in 2008 and is a bit more long form on the movies that followed.

Fincher really is a master and I look forward to where he goes from here with both film and “TV” .

The 3D Printer Use I Did Not Expect

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I know, I know. This blog is just as dead as it used to be. However I have a follow up post concerning my 3D printer. I have been having quite a bit of fun with it. Printing skull models, modifications for the printer itself to help it run smoother, cameras, and a few other semi useful things like pots for my attempt at keeping cactus alive. However with the Covid 19 virus attacking us and putting a strain on everything, particularly hospitals, the 3D printing community has stepped up and started printing various things the medical community needs desperately. For me it started with seeing a video from Smarter Every Day 2 which it looks like he took down to be replaced by this video on his main channel, Smarter Every Day.

Once I downloaded the files from Prusa I started in printing. The first drop off happened last Thursday and you can see it happen via time lapse in the video (I pull through around minute 16 of the video) . So the short of it is. I bought this thing for fun and some usefulness including printing some cameras and camera parts and now I am doing a small bit for my whole Huntsville and North Alabama community to stem the tide of the damn plague.

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I Finally Took the Plunge

I’ve been watching 3D printing options for years. I backed a Kickstarter for models of skulls way back in 2014 from 3DK Toys, then going by 3D Kit Bash. I knew I would eventually buy one, but I just couldn’t decide what I was going to get and wanted to make sure I was going to have some things to do with it besides print a few things and put it in the corner.

Naturally the first thing I had to try after printing a calibration cube was a couple of the smaller models from that Kickstarter. So far so good. Now it’s time to start printing modifications to the printer itself. These are some of the most recommended modifications from friends and YouTube channels related to 3D printing. (Links to follow)

Once I feel confident with the quality I’m getting from the printer I am going to move on to printing a camera, which is what finally convinced me to take the plunge. Check out Goodman Lab, also be sure to see the eye candy on Instagram. Now, while this is a functional camera, it is just the body, it does not include the lens or the film back, there is also some metal hardware needed to complete it. But the thing looks amazing and should be fun to shoot with.

Also, expect some spiders, gargoyles, and more skulls of course. I’ll eventually get to some designs of my own, but those will require me dusting off my 3D skills.

Links to useful resources…

  • I’ll continue to add videos to this playlist on YouTube as a find them 3D Printing.

  • 3DKToys has some really nice calibration models and other fun things.

  • The Ender 3 printer I purchased from Creality.

  • Cura Slicer software for converting 3D models into the code the printer understands.

  • Random video of a converted 3D printing skeptic.

  • More models (most are paid sculpts) here at Cults.

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Envious Grumpy Old Men

Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola are wonderful film makers. They are also both grumpy envious old men who have lost the joy of the medium they work in. Just like the curmudgeons who dug their nails into film photography and then DSLR’s when camera phones became a thing.

A couple of articles for reference.

Scorsese - Coppola

Look I love their movies, but Scorsese couldn’t have made his most recent film WITHOUT the Marvel / DC movies. The underlying technology he relied on to make De Niro young again in his latest flick wouldn’t be where it is without the money behind blockbuster hero flicks. I’m not sure what they are complaining about. Well I am but we all get old and have regrets. Arguably Scorsese has been making superhero (idolized gangsters) for nearly his entire career. Then we have Coppola with the Godfather trilogy and let us not forget Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Essentially the two old bastards have lost the joy of movies and have their heads so far up their own asses they can’t see how pitiful they are making themselves look. It is sad as I really love most of their respective bodies of work. That does not give them the right to try to piss on other peoples success. Just make your work and let it stand on it’s own merits. Scorsese could have done that with his latest film. Coppola has struggled for a couple of decades but could potentially pull one out if he can get with it.

80% - Brilliantly Articulated

People trying to get something done smash up against brick walls all the time. I do it, frequently. Starting is a bitch, over preparation = is a vial, insidious precursor to procrastination.

And then there is finishing. This is about that. Also you should be subscribing to these brothers YouTube channels. The various streams of content are GREAT.


Things That Annoy

So I must be tired, or stressed, or just thin skinned enough today to pop off on a few things that annoy me. If it is enough to get me to post, something must be up.

!st on the list today is the phrase “living my best life”. The urge to reply to that with “fuck right off” is usually pretty strong. Those 4 words generally encapsulate a desire for some combination of bragging and self pity with a cry for attention. It is almost always preceded by some life event that caused discomfort or “struggle”. Now said person has found a new hobby, job, significant other, or they spent a weekend at the beach. Great, good for you, have a cookie. Welcome to real life, now STFU.

2nd would be people who respond to statements with advice or comments that counter something you’ve told them when it has no bearing really on your situation. Example: I mentioned to a friend I need some sort of supplemental freezer as I am attempting to eat more things at home than go out nearly every night. I’m buying more frozen foods and I have a tiny freezer in the fridge. Their response was “fresh is better”. Yeah thanks. However, I hate going to the grocery store, I can’t exactly whip up a fresh meal for lunch while I am working from home, and I already know I wont bother cooking fresh stuff. Did not ask for you to tell me I was wrong, was just sharing a decision I had made. The correct thing to do if you wanted to contribute was to offer freezer suggestions if anything.

3rd and last for this rant today, not answering straight forward questions. I had a conversation with a friend who had gone out for drinks and I assumed food recently. I asked them how it was. They asked food or companions. I replied both. They just told me who they went with and the type of food they ate. My response to that was, great, that doesn’t really answer any of my questions, thanks for nothing.