Quick entry here. This past week our kids started school. We thought to do a strip to commemorate this, but since in the BMW world only a couple of months have passed, it wouldn’t work well in the timeline. Anyhow, Jim came up with the Helpdesk joke, which is so surreal it’s funny. Sad thing is, I have talked to a lot of helpline people, and this joke is not as far-fetched as you think. As for the Mr. Smiley joke, this is actually a strip Jim thought up in the very early days when we just came up with the idea for the comic. Funny that a year and a half later we are just getting an opportunity to use it. Other than being a very funny joke, it certainly tells us a lot about Mr. Smiley.

And before everyone gets really upset about the comic being late, note that we have not been idle on the site. Jim has been working hard on finally getting our Wiki together this past week. Since we have enough content, we think we can finally open it. So, stay tuned for its premier at the next Booyah.

Today’s comic is a slice-of-life on 2 levels. First of all, it’s a small dedication to our dog, Angel. If you read the news, a week ago she was clipped by a car (thankfully not hit dead-on, but sideswiped). She ended up with a few broken bones in her pelvis, but nothing serious. Painful, but nothing that will affect her lifelong. The worst the vet said would happen is that she may walk with a limp, but she has a good chance of a full recovery. She is such a trooper and it already trying to run around. We’re making sure she is not over-doing it, but it is so encouraging to see this little dog’s spirit and spunk! A thanks for the well-wishes from several of our fans.

Our dog is such a bright spot in our family, and there are times when the people just cannot console a child, but one of our animals can. We have cats too, but there is nothing quite like a dog to warm the heart of a child. Our kids call Angel their “little sister,” so that tells you how they feel about her. This past week was particularly hard in our house as the kids grappled with the thought of losing their dog. Even though she was not critically injured, it was a scary time, and our kids needed a bit more TLC to deal with it. Having the kids want the dog next to them to go to sleep is a regular occurrence in our house, and we wanted to showcase that in the strip.

Mike is pretty cranky in this issue, and his behavior is very much like our youngest, Violet. Our 2 year old has a fierce temper, and when she is tired, watch out! Nothing will console her, yet she just feels like she needs something. It can be frustrating as she screams “no” and slaps away all of our offerings of comfort. The dog will work to calm her on occasion, but honestly there are often moments nothing works. Usually she will simply find a place to lay down and go to sleep on her own–she is one of those children who really needs to be left alone in order to relax enough to take a nap.

On a side note, I have to admit that our 2 most explosive personalities kids-wise are Monty and Violet. I have to wonder if there is something to the fact that they both were born on the 4th of July (yes, both kids were born on 7/4, 4 years apart).

I do want to note, just in case anyone gets upset, I am not an advocate of “cry it out.” That is the method of putting a kid in their bed to go to sleep and leaving them alone in their room until they do. I know people who use it and swear by it, and I respect that. We are more inclined to have baby in our room with us, or sit with our kids until they go to sleep. Despite common fears that such method will not teach your kids to go to sleep on their own, I can safely reassure that our older ones have no issues with falling to sleep by themselves. We tried CIO years ago with our first and didn’t have the heart to do it. Anyhow, I do believe there is a time, though, that kids are just so overtired, they need a few minutes alone to relax. With Violet, typically she is in the same room as us and we simply ignore her. She usually comes around and calms down on her own, or she falls asleep. I don’t have any problems leaving a kid for 5-10 minutes to get a break. However, any longer and I usually have to go in and try something else. Okay, end of explanation.

Well, as is pretty typical with us, things just happened this week, throwing us into a tailspin. We had a hack on one of our other sites, and then a very sick baby who kept us up all night…and slowed our work on the computer. We actually had the Booyah ready on time, but then at the last minute forgot one of the items! We had done the WiiMiis nearly a month ago. When we were gathering the pieces for the Booyah, we stumbled upon the images and did one of these:

And that meant a lot of running around, trying to get it together for the Booyah. The thing that stymied us the most is that Jim really wanted to get screenshots of the actual Check Mii Out Channel. Problem is, while you can download certain content onto a memory card from the Wii, you can’t save WiiMiis. To do so, you need to patch in a DVD Recorder into your television. Well, we have a DVD recorder we had never set up, so Jim decided to use that. Now, if you have ever read about any “easy” project we embark on, you can totally guess what happened next. This comic pretty much sums it up. Getting the images to pipe into the DVD player was not the problem, it was getting the player to write to the disc properly. Quite seriously, it took 3 hours and a half dozen discs, and it STILL didn’t write right correctly. It saved the data, but not a menu, so we couldn’t access the pictures. So, that meant Jim spending several more hours on the internet, trying to find software that could repair and/or read the disc. After that, there was the matter of ripping the screen, creating graphics, putting together the tutorial, and… Well, you get the idea. Anyhow, the neat thing is if you are a fan of the site and have a Wii, you can use Bitmap World characters in your games! How cool is that?

I am also super excited about the Comment graphics. There are over 100 different graphics. Literally, this took me a huge amount of time to do. If you are familiar with doing glitter graphics, you know that to make one, you need to create 3 different images, then merge/animate them. So, literally I had to create over 300 images. It was a challenge. But the good thing is that during the process I learned a TON about Paint Shop Pro, as well as getting some techniques that will help me considerably in doing the comic. In fact, some of the shortcuts I used for the current strips, and they went a lot faster than those I did even a week ago!

Oh, and speaking of the Comments, we reported earlier that the Booyah was initially delayed a bit because of some programming. That was actually for the comment graphics. I did not want to hardcode pages with the graphics and the links–it would have taken me days. We did consider going with some fancy gallery program to display them, but that turned out to be overkill. Eventually we found a so-so program that we could drop into the directory and it would list the graphics. Jim modified it so it would automatically generate the link codes. It worked up great! Took time, but hey, it will help us loads in the future.

I’ll let everyone get into all the goodies of the Booyah. At the current rate, it looks like we’ll be tying up the current storyline on Tuesday. I’ll post another blog entry there with my comments on the most recent strips.

I have been using a different paint program to do the last few comics. Not really a new program, but a “new” version. I have to admit to being an old-timer, in the fact that I was very comfortable using Paint Shop Pro 6. When it came out, I bought Version 7, and then got Version 8 free with one of the computers we bought. But, I could never really get into the newer versions. So, I plugged along with 6. Oddly enough, the reason I have finally moved to the newer versions was not Bitmap World, but the fact that I have been doing a lot of animated gifs and glitter graphics. Some of the plug-in and effects I wanted to accomplish, I could not do in Version 6. So…

I actually use 7 the most. I have often read that Version 7 was most people’s favorite version. And I have to agree. I need Version 8 to do some higher level effects, but the navigation and layout of 7 is much easier for me to use. That said, there are still things I can simply do faster in Version 6. So, I now have all 3 installed on my machine and go back and forth. It’s kinda funny.

Oh, and if anyone wants to know why I don’t use Photoshop, I’ll simply say this: Money. Don’t have the money, and since PSP can do 90% of what Photoshop can, I really can’t justify spending 6 times as much for that software. I mean $100 as opposed to $700 is a big thing. Also, I know that many people recommend GIMP as a free alternative to PS, but I have some serious issues with the interfaces and controls. So, I’ll stay with my PSP, thank you.

All of that said, using PSP7 has been great, but there is a re-learning curve. Strips are taking a tad bit longer to do, but overall I’m happy and think that in the long run it will help things speed along a little better.

I do want to note that Jim’s program of preference is still Windows Paint.  Though, he does do a lot more in PSP now. Perhaps he’ll finally cross over once and for all…though I doubt it.

More pop-culture references in this strip (Issue 180).  Had fun with the nods in the the last issue.  This strip I pay a little homage to one of my all-time favorite fantasy movies.  In fact, I got all so nostaglic doing this strip, I’m gonna have to brush off the DVD this weekend and watch it.  Post in the comments or in the forum if you know what movie it is!

Oh goodness. Issue 179. This strip took FOR-EVER! 4 hours!!! That’s like the old days when I first started this strip. Ugh. Of course, doing the interior of the pub was a huge endeavor. Since this is not really traditional art, the technique is a bit different. I talk about building “sets” and that is what it is. I have to admit, so much of my days in theater comes into play with Bitmap World. You build the set, which is essentially a panel with a background. Then you get the props–many of which need to be drawn from scratch. Then you put in the people. I did manage to snatch some of the art, but a lot of it needed to be heavily modified. Granted, not nearly as time consuming as drawing it from scratch, but particularly since the size-ratio was off, I needed to remaster everything anyway.

That said, the set is built, and I did work ahead on the next few strips. I’m proud of how it looks. Am also pretty proud of the jokes in there…a good number which were Jim’s! See you on Tuesday.

Well, this one (Issue 178) was done BEFORE midnight, but I wanted to do a blog so it will be up just a wee bit afterwards. Though, Jim argued it is still Tuesday on the West Coast, so he is putting a Tuesday date on the front page!

Of course, this one has new art. The Cosmic Dungeon scenery are mostly from pre-existing video game backgrounds (though they are moderately to heavily modified by me), but the Inn is all new and original. It took me forever to decide what style I wanted to do the building. We always knew we wanted the big sign on the top, but actually putting it up there, with the neon arrow was a bit tricky. Anyhow, I spent a good deal of a day looking at tons of medieval inn and pub pictures, and finally decided that I wanted to use this one. When I finally showed it to Jim, he thought it was a pretty good pixelation! What do you think?

The Inn would not prove my greatest challenge. Instead it would be the wording on the sign. Reason being is that there are TONS of gothic and medieval fonts available on the Web, but very FEW that are pixel/bitmap. The difference between a bitmap and regular font is that bitmap fonts are created to be legible at very small sizes. Most regular fonts degrade badly and are illegible at small point sizes. Considering the fonts in Bitmap World range from 10 to 6 points, I was having a very difficult time finding a gothic font that would look good. Most needed to be 12 to 14 points, and we didn’t have enough room in the panel–which I learned the hard way after spending the time to do 2 different signs in 2 different fonts, to have both be a bust. Ugh! I probably Googled about 50 different combinations of keywords trying to narrow down a “gothic pixel font” or “medieval bitmap font” or…you get the idea. I was actually getting pretty desperate and considered drawing my own font, but I had already taken so much time with this! What I eventually ended up doing is hitting bitmap fonts sites and just manually going through their whole catalog until I found something.

And I did! Hours and hours later. But, I am very happy to say that the font in the last panel is a pixel font called HeinzHeinrich, and it’s awesome. And I think it looks awesome too. I do love the gag on the sign. I meant is to be more of a play on words, but thinking about it, it really does seem to be a sign of our times as we have more businesses sharing space to save money.

I am very hopeful Friday’s comic will be a tad easier, even though I have to do the inside of the pub.

Yes, lately we’ve been doing the slice-of-life strips.  You know the old saying, “write what you know.”  Today’s strip is actually one that hits home for me. I have to admit, one of my worst pet peeves is when my kids run around the house saying they are starving to death, asking every 2 minutes when dinner will be done, then when it’s time to eat, I have to yell and scream for them to come to the table!  I mean, if you are truly wasting away, I shouldn’t have to call you 3 times to come to the dinner!  So, I instituted a rule that if the kids don’t come in, I’m not chasing them.  Everyone who comes will eat, and the rest will just have to wait.  Granted, I haven’t resorted to PB&Js for the kids yet, but they do have to eat alone after everyone else.  And if it’s so late the leftovers are put up, they have to go and make their own plate.  Since I made that rule, the kids are much better at coming to dinner right away–though on occasion I’ve had the straggler come in after the fact, upset they were left out. Another true-life element is how the kids pass the buck all the way down when telling the other to tell the others it’s dinnertime. Including telling the baby. That is so how it is in our house.

I want to go back and talk a little about the previous strip.  I’ve gotten a lot of nice compliments about the fireworks.  I really wanted to do a 4th of July strip, but realized that holiday may not translate well to the inhabitants of a computer server.  Not that that stopped us from celebrating Halloween, Christmas, and Easter, mind you, but I figured this one might be a bit too America-only.  Anyhow, I liked the challenge of interpreting that holiday within the confines of that universe, and I was pleased when I came up with this.  As for the fireworks…major work!  There are over 20 cells in that animated gif, and it took me well over an hour just to do the fireworks part. But we are happy with how it looks, so it’s worth it.  Another thing to note, another reason I went with this is because I have been doing animated graphics for another non-BMW project.  Since I was already messing around with Animation Shop, I figured another “moving” Bitmapworld strip would be fun to do.

We got a dog about the same time (real-life time) as the Pixels did. The Pixels’ dog looks a lot like ours, too. The breed is a “Puggle” — half Pug, half Beagle. They’re pack dogs, which is good considering our house. She likes to be with other people, even at night. She’ll go to bed with me and Michelle, and she’ll be with us in the morning, so we always assumed she spent the night in our bed. Until one morning we had to get up extremely early, and discovered the dog would make her rounds — she would sleep for a while next to each of the children.

So, this is another cute slice-of-life comic we couldn’t resist doing.

Remember I mentioned trying to fit in some reference to Jim cleaning out that house? Well, today’s comic Issue 173 was it. Well, to a degree. This comic is one of those true-slice-of-our-lives strips. When Jim was cleaning out that house, the woman’s pantry was filled with daddy long legs. In his own words: “I didn’t know they could get so big!” Most of our kids hate bugs and totally freak at the sight. That is, except Paige. She’s Paige the fearless, and will stomp bugs, go into a dark room alone to turn on the light, and a myriad of other “brave” things. It’s a bit comical to see our 12 year old run into room to grab Paige so she can squish a bug somewhere else in the house. I have to admit, even though I have to roll my eyes at my older ones being such “babies”, it’s quite hysterical to see this little 4-year old go to town on a bug. Paige (effectionatly called Ram-Paige at times because of her ability to trash a clean room in 10 second)–the courageous vanquisher of spiders and all things ick!

The comic (Issue 172) was late because Jim spent all of yesterday cleaning the house of a dead woman so her family can sell it.  Yes, I know that sounds pretty crazy, but it’s true.  We’re just trying to find a way to work it in the comic.

Oh, and between the time we last posted a comic, my computer has been hit with a worm, which required a frantic backup and export of the data and speedy reformat of the hard drive.  I am working at half mast not having any of my stuff!  Oh…and I lost all my favorites.  Then, just today, I ended up infected with Antivirus XP 2008!  Thankfully, some good malware software cleaned me up.  *sigh*  Truly, my computer jinx is still around.  Trying to think of ways to write that into the comic too!

Either way, today’s comic was totally Jim’s show.  We just got off of the Rasterman storyline and we decided we need a few stand-alone “filler” strips to kinda space things out before jumping into the next plotline.  Since we left off with Harry at the office, I wanted to do a trouble ticket strip.  Jim came up with this idea, and after a bit of hashing out, we came up with this.  In fact, we came up with 2 jokes, and will be doing the other one in the future. 

Barring any major emergencies–and you never know with us–Friday should be up on time.

Oh, and just to be clever, three points to the first one who comments here in the blog with the correct answer to the question posed in the strip.