12
votes
What creative projects have you been working on?
This topic is part of a series. It is meant to be a place for users to discuss creative projects they have been working on.
Projects can be personal, professional, physical, digital, or even just ideas.
If you have any creative projects that you have been working on or want to eventually work on, this is a place for discussing those.
A list of all previous topics in this series can be found here.
I'm working on a new song, some kind of doom-jazz (à la Bohren & der Club of Gore) with some noise elements. I'm thinking about buying a new guitar too, my cheap Yamaha one is quite fucked up, it's not easy to pick a model though, too many choices.
Shopping for other people is one of my favorite things, especially when it comes to gear! If you let me know what your budget is looking like, I'll inundate you with recommendations. :)
Alright, I don't have a super defined budget but I'd say $1000 max. From what I saw the Taylor Academy 10e looked pretty nice. I'm still a bit of a beginner (played for about 3 years), I mostly play in my bedroom (so I don't need the most beautiful sound) and I don't care about pretty looks. I completely destroyed my Yamaha (cracked the neck, the bridge isn't looking good, ...) so sturdy is a plus. Since I'm producing music a built-in electronics would be nice too.
I'll be honest, acoustic guitars are a tad outside my wheel-house (I'm more of an electric player), so take my suggestions with a grain of salt.
That Taylor looks pretty good! In the same price range, I'd also look at Martin's and Seagull's. Seagull guitars, in particular, are very good for the money (if you can get past the slightly odd headstock design). Canadian-made with solid tops. I have a Seagull Coastline Folk, myself, and I'm pretty happy with it.
Acoustic guitars, much much more than electrics, benefit from better woods, so spending a bit more for an all solid wood construction guitar would benefit you in the long run, as solid wood tends to age really well. But, I believe, a solid top guitar will get you 90% of the way there and may be less susceptible to humidity-related issues than an all solid guitar.
For slightly more, you might wanna give the Taylor 110e series a look. Also, around the same price range, is the Seagull Maritime SWS SG, which is an all solid guitar. You won't find many all solid guitars in that price range. For a bit less, I'd look at this Seagull Coastline CH Momentum HG. I really dig that concert hall body-shape and, hell, if I had some spare cash I might pick that one up for myself. And the Martin's in that price range ought to be quite decent, too!
Ultimately, you'd have to test them out in-person to really find the one that resonates with you. But, those are my picks! Oh, and I'd advise you to check the used market for even more price savings. :)
Thanks, I'll check the Seagulls at my local music store.
Mostly been working on Frontiers and the associated RPG system.
One of the things I find exciting about the world of Frontiers – a postapocalyptic but not entirely destroyed lands of the former United States – is the Dragon State. While I haven't worked out the details, I want to make a dictatorship led by a technocrat who's studied the political sciences of the past rather well. A charismatic personality, the technocrat has united a handful of local settlements into a power to be reckoned with, using wits, careful planning, and the available hypertechnology.
To ensure the long-term survival of the state, the technocrat hired a couple of linguists to develop the language to be spoken exclusively within the borders of the new country. Given that at the time Dragon State was far more prosperous and promised far more than any of the local opportunities, the new citizens bought the idea. American – the American English to survive 200+ years of communicational isolation – became second language, and eventually the first generation was born to speak Dragon Language as their native tongue.
This – along with quite a bit of subtle propaganda – was meant to ensure that the citizens of the state would remain with the state. Prosperity was attractive, but it was the notion of belonging, of one's own tribe, that, the technocrat thought, would seal the deal in the long term. Considering that the US has not existed for centuries by that point, Dragon State was meant to invoke the same sort of grand national spirit that would lead its followers to assume an identity.
Building a society in meritocratic manner, the technocrat put the promise of Old Tech – the hyperadvanced technology with all sorts of fantastic applications – as a reward for those who would seek to perform and rise in the ranks. At the same time, people were kept in check with careful surreptitious evaluations and identity manipulation, so that no one would dare get drunk with power and seek to overthrow the permanent government.
In short, Dragon State was known to be a harsh, highly-advanced, well-educated, and somewhat-enigmatic nation with a very capable army that won mostly through careful observation and outmaneuvering their opponents, strategically and politically. When it started to fall apart due to internal tensions – after 60-some years of relative prosperity – the technocrat quietly disappeared from the nation, never to be seen again. The State eventually fell, its citizens left to their own devices to build communities of their own, using what little high tech and the high education they had left.
This is but one element of the world, in but one part of the world, but I'd like to see it grow and become as glorious in description as it was meant to be in flesh.
I've been designing a 3D-printable model of a rocket (not a model rocket; this is just a mostly-accurate detailed replica, not a flyable model rocket.) One of my goals is to make the entire model 3D-printable with a consumer-grade 3D printer, so anybody can build one at home. This leads to some inevitable parts where realism just can't be maintained (as the resolution of consumer FDM printers isn't high enough to allow for a perfect replica.) So I'm ending up spending a lot of time trying to keep the model as realistic as possible, while making sure it's still printable on normal 3D printers.
It's a fun challenge, and I love the fast iteration time 3D printers can deliver: ~two hours from a CAD model to holding it in your hands.
I purchased a wooden box shaped like a book that I'm currently lining with felt an faux leather, with small dividers to hold dice, pens, mini figs and tokens that will help track spells and such for when I play DnD.
the outside I plan on covering with random runes and will use the whole thing as another prop for my characters story.
I am personally working on a "draw this in your style" (dtiys) drawing. A dtiys is when an artist makes a piece and has their followers or whoever draw it themselves. It's a way to promote smaller artists and just kinda fun over all too!
I'm making it a full body and detailed drawing/semi digital painting. I'm super happy with how the line work turned out and I put down the flats so all that's left is to color in the details and figure out how I'm going to semi paint it? I'd like to try using masking layers and play with that for the lighting especially. I have ideas for what I want to do for the background as well.
Im hoping it'll go well but we'll see. I'm sure I'll get frustrated with the background and the painting process as that's where I'm the weakest artistically. I'd much rather line all day than color aha. That's something I'd like to work on in general this year as well.
Edit : smol clarification but I'm participating in one and not making one for others to draw. Unfortunately, if you're an artist with a small following you probs won't be getting any interest in that kind of thing so it's usually bigger artists who make them aha.
That's a really neat idea, and I hope that once you're done you share it (and any artwork you get in response) here so we can see the results. :)
Well thank you! I should have clarified that I'm participating in a dtiys and not making one (my bad!!). I am personally too small of an artist to have any real kind of engagement for that kind of thing. It'd be a dream to be able to make one one day and have people participate!
Gotcha... would still love to see your work when you finish though! :)
Thank you!! I'll definitely post it when it's finished! Hoping to get it done by the end of March :D
In the editing phase for the first book in a series. It's going slooooooow because of some minor rewrites, the addition of dialogue, and cleaning up crap that wasn't needed. I miss ACTUALLY writing but am getting a bit of it in for the next book on my commute.
Practicing jazz guitar, mostly. Working on some chord-melody stuff, specifically.
At some point I'd like to make a web app that consolidates my practice routine. Of course, just thinking about how to structure it overwhelms me. There are a lot of guitar-fretboard-visualizer-web-app-things out there, but I'd like to try my hand at it!
Going to enter a contest: https://m.webtoons.com/en/challenge/contest/us-contest-2020?webtoon-platform-redirect=true
Me and my brothers hashed out the premise of an AI that is intended to sit on a bridge and talk to people who may be at risk for jumping. The AI is training for real humans with other AIs, and they start to develop personalities emulating conversations with one another.