May 2020 – Evolution Theory

May 19, 2020 admin1 Comment

New Tricks!

Tutorial by Kitten

A trick! A tip!

With photoshop, we all love our filters. Go to any design event where there’s parameters put in place and one is telling the designer they cannot use any filters, and you’re gonna hear bitching and moaning.

Photoshop is always updating, and with the most recent updates, some of our filters from the older versions don’t work on the newer version. One in particular, EdgesFX, was a cool filter that allowed you to create an edging within the avatar. You could choose different colors and work with that, but the most popular was a white thin line to give an almost pop/ethereal look.

Sadly, the newer version of PS doesn’t accept it as the filter hasn’t been updated. Well here is a tip/trick for those interested in recreating that look:

Once your av is set for the filtering process, you’re going to combine all the layers into one layer (create a new blank layer on top, have that layer selected and on your keyboard press together alt+ctrl+shift and E). You’ll see this combines them all to that one layer but leaves you the individual layers below (that gives you a chance if you don’t like the end result to delete the combined and work on the other layers).

Duplicate that combined layer (you can right click and select ‘duplicate image’ or on your keyboard ctrl+j). This creates of course a duplicate of the combined image and this is what you’ll be working on for this effect.

Go to Filter—>Stylize—>Find Edges and select. Your image is gonna look all funky, don’t worry!

Now you’re going to want to do this no matter if the image is already b&w or not. Image—>Adjustments—>Desaturate.

Next again go to Image—>Adjustments—>Invert. That will as you can see, invert the image so the lines are white.

The last step is to go to your layers window and set the image to ‘soft light’ or ‘overlay’ depending on how much you want the lines to “pop” and adjust the opacity in the range of 20 – 30%.

And there you have it! Just complete all your filtering/colorings and font after with the other combined layer, keeping our duplicated/edges one on top!

If there’s any other tricks or tips you’d like to learn, I have tutorials posted on DCD and will continue contributing to Evolution Theory!

May 18, 2020 admin1 Comment

That’s Just British…

Wit and Wisdom from Across the Pond…

Written by Russ

So sadly I had big plans for the next blog. I was all set to take part in the cheese roll this month. But Corona put pay to that, so that’s a blog for next year, so this is an emergency blog looking at another idea i have of talking about British myths and folklore. Let me know what you think, or if there are any myths etc you’d like me to talk about!

St George’s Day

I love a good myth. The UK is full of them. I was addicted to Robin Hood and fascinated by the nights of the Round Table. But perhaps the most iconic myth in the UK, is that of St George. It was St George’s day on the 23rd April and it’s not the same as Saint Patricks day. It is now pretty contentious a day due to the Nationalistic Jingo, using it to champion being British. Given most of us our descended from Saxons who invaded the country, I love the absurdity in all of this. I’m also descended from French and Irish Ancestry, so the sort of prick the Nationalist would love. It’s all a bit Harry Potter and Prueblood/mudblood. But I like a myth, so lets break it down.

So little is know of George, other than it is believe he was a Roman Officer who died in AD 303. He was tortured to deny his faith in Christ and his refusal to do so lead to him losing his head and as a result being made a Saint, Britain is one of a few Countries along with Georgia to claim him as our Patron Saint.

So his most famous story, I’m sad to say is bollocks. And not just because he slayed a dragon, I’d love Dragons to be real. No the biggest problem is its historically unlikely he ever visited Britain. He was know in Britain though. The dragon in medieval times represented the devil. Anyway from about the 12th Century a story started to develop that:

He was made the Patron Saint by King Edward III when the order of the Garter (stop sniggering back there) was formed and then Shakespeare immortalized him with the line “Cry God for Harry, England and St George” in Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt.

So the story is basically thus:

A town was being terrorized by a dragon. George heard of this and travelled to Libya (the story got retconned to be in Uffington Berkshire…) Where he was told by a old man that the dragon demanded the sacrifice of a beautiful maiden and it seemed much like toilet paper now, they were becoming hard to come by. Only the Kings daughter was left and was due for sacrifice the next day. George set out, persuaded the Princess to turn back from her journey to the Dragon.

From there a battle took place, George hurled his spear at the Dragon but it was no match for the sheer scales of the Dragon and Shattered. Falling from his horse he landed under a Enchanted Orange tree which protected him from the Dragons venomous breath. Finally he found a weak point and drove his sword under the wing of the Dragon which fell dead.

So there you have it, something to me that seems very British, A saint who never visited this country. It’s still a bizarre day here now, not really celebrated without feeling awkward about it, unlike the Irish who most of us seem to pretend to be on there saints day! In fact this is a pretty dull story to build you nationalism on, plenty of plot holes, cliches and a dull narrative. But parts of Britain take it really seriously.

I’m no expert but the point of a blog is to toss out an opinion isn’t it so lets give this myth 5/10 but bump it to 7/10 for its elevated status in the UK. If people like this idea, I might toss up a Blog on another Myth next time. IF not Give me dumb British stuff you want to hear about.

May 17, 2020 admin

Quarter-Circle Forward

Gaming reviews by Grey

My Friend Pedro Review

How do I even begin to review My Friend Pedro?

Well, I suppose by describing it. The game is a stylish side-scrolling shooter, with a weird sense of humor and an intense focus on style, and looking good killing dudes as much as the killing itself. You begin on a slab, with amnesia and apparently about to be chopped up for meat. Escape, turns into revenge, and in no time you’re on your way, shooting a bloody swathe through rooftops and city streets, to construction sites, to sewers, the depths of your own insane mind, and..somehow, some way, into the internet itself…?

Your nameless protagonist (You aren’t Pedro. Pedro is a talking banana. Yes that’s all the context I’m giving you.) is given many techniques with which to stylishly dispatch of those in his way, from dual-wielding pistols or submachine guns, which can be used to independently target multiple enemies, to sliding on ziplines, swinging across chasms, and dodging bullets the whole way. After each level you’ll be graded on performance and skill, and the game will even pull a clip of your best for showoff purposes. You’re encouraged to retry, to do better, to score higher. Maybe you could have pulled off that one part better, swinging on a cable upside down shooting 2 guys below, before crashing through a window, dodging the next guy’s fire, shotgunning him in the face while still flipping through the air. There’s always room for improvement, right?

There are a total of 40 levels over 5 chapters, not a lengthy game by any means. I completed the story over the course of a single evening, but I did find myself replaying at least a few levels that stood out to me as favorites, and as I said, with the incentive to improve and perform better, some may get a bit of replay value out of it, but it’s not exactly something you’ll come back to over and over again for weeks. It’s fun, challenging, and hilarious. I got it as part of a bundle, and probably wouldn’t spend the full price of $20 on it, given the overall lack of content, but when the steam sales roll around, If the price is right though, I’d say it’s worth grabbing and banging through on a slow afternoon.

I now leave you with images presented without context.

View post on imgur.com