I have not been writing much here lately. The reason I’ve been MIA is that I’ve been Martened, Tarted and Torqued. About six weeks ago, I brought home a tiny, new orange-striped kitten named Marten. This occurred at about the same time that I began to occasionally contribute to the ezine Sequential Tart. At the same time, I began to teach myself how to use and script the Torque Game Engine. It’s hard to write much in your blog when you’re Martened, Torqued and Tarted at the same time. My long-term vision for Squirrel Tao has not changed, but it’s going to be slow going for Squirrel Tao to evolve into the blog I want it to be. I work full-time, and it doesn’t take much to disrupt my free time in the evenings and on the week-ends. People would laugh at me if they knew the impact that one little kitten has had on my life recently.

Martened

I picked Marten up at the local pet shop, which sometimes adopts kittens out on Saturdays. There were two cages full of kittens. All of them were asleep except for Marten. He came up to the cage wall and rubbed the side of his face against my finger. Then he swiped at it. As soon as I brought him home, I realized that I must have been chosen by the hyperactive kitten of the litter. But I knew I made the right choice when I saw that he never gets upset by the way that my husband plays with him. He’s dauntless even in the face of the Godzilla impression and the kitty machine gun routine.

Tarted

Just before I brought Marten home, I responded to a call for Sequential Tart writers. Sequential Tart is an ezine that is meant to provide a platform for the voices of women comic readers. The philosophy is that there is no such thing as a women’s comic. Women are all different, and they like what they like, from Wolverine to the Fantastic Four to The Preacher to Neil Gaiman to Osamu Tezuka. The group of women behind it is a very bright and fun bunch of women to be associated with. I never realized what I was missing in not having been a part of the independent, warm and lively community of people who love comics. When I first got a connection to the internet, one of the very first things I wanted to do was to start or join a virtual salon of sorts. At the time, I envisioned it as a literary salon - a place for writers and readers of literature. I tried to find it and to create it several times over the years, but it never quite gelled, somehow. I had more or less given up on it. I have come to appreciate that the community of people who create and love comics is something very unique, even if the bubble of investing in comics has burst some time back. When you think about it, this community is different than anything else. The ideas that are explored in plots and themes, for some reason, are more wildly imaginative than those explored in works of pure text. It seems easier for sombody to get published and gain an audience as a comic creator than as a traditional author. One or two people can do something wonderful, unlike in film and television, areas where it takes a whole crew and a big budget. There’s nothing else like it.

Torqued

I have written quite a few blog entries about 3D programming, mostly focusing upon doing it in Flash. I still maintain an interest in Sandy, since it is the best thing going right now, in terms of real-time 3D on the web. The future of Shockwave 3D is unknown, the Flash player has nearly 100% penetration, most people like Flash better than Java applets, and there are issues with the Java Virtual Machine, thanks to Microsoft. Sandy is an excellent 3D engine, but I need a physics engine, too. Recently, I took it as a sign that I could be on the right track, when I experienced a moment of either luck or synchronicity. I googled for the term “torque” and brought up a hit for the Torque Game Engine. Torque had been my main sticking point in trying to extend Flade to 3D. Even if I had got torque working, it would not have been a mature and reliable physics engine without a lot of time and community participation. I doubt if I could have done it alone.

Now I’m knee-deep in the Game Programmer’s Guide to Torque. After everything I’ve been through, I’m not intimidated by learning to use a game engine. On the contrary, learning Torque is just one more baby-step away from the point where I had arrived after trying all kinds of things, one at at time. I won’t be able to put my Torque creation on the web, so I’m hoping to learn some things that I can possibly apply to APE. If it is in the future, it will be a year or two out. By that time, maybe Shockwave 3D will have been merged with Adobe Atmosphere, and I will be able to do what I want with that product. Maybe somebody else will have created a physics engine for Sandy. Maybe APE will have been extended to 3D. A lot can happen in a year or two. In the area of software and technology, good things really can come to those who wait. One way or another, by hook or crook, I will do everything I want to do in this area, eventually.

So what do I want to do? I want to create a combination of a simulation and a puzzle game. I also want, eventually, to create interactive stories. I won’t say anymore about either of these goals now, because I’ve learned that as soon as I announce what I’m going to do, my plans change, and I look foolish. I won’t announce anything until after I’ve already done it. (Not that the world is waiting breathlessly or anything.)

Other Posts Categorized as 3D Programming:

• Aegia Physics Code Samples in Director 11 - April 5th, 2008
• WOW 3D Physics Engine for Flash - January 30th, 2008
• Creating a Simple Hinge in Shockwave 3D Using the Havok Xtra - April 11th, 2007
• Director, I Missed You - February 9th, 2007
• Going Around in Circles - Back to Shockwave 3D Now - February 4th, 2007
• Sandy 1.0 Beta Released - June 24th, 2006
• Stuck on Rotation with Verlet Integration - June 17th, 2006
• A Good Tutorial on Basic 3D Math - June 7th, 2006
• A Trigonometry Tutorial - June 4th, 2006
• 3D Models of Seemingly Impossible M.C. Escher Drawings - May 2nd, 2006

Other Posts Categorized as Comics:

• March Issue of Sequential Tart - March 1st, 2007
• What Came True in V for Vendetta? - February 25th, 2007
• Review of Oz/Wonderland Chronicles #1 - January 1st, 2007
• January Issue of Sequential Tart - January 1st, 2007
• SuicideGirls Interviews Lost Girls Artist Melinda Gebbie - July 26th, 2006
• Webcomics Examiner Interviews Scott McCloud - July 2nd, 2006
• Lost Girls, Art and Pornography - May 7th, 2006
• Zak Smith's Illustrations For Each Page of Gravity's Rainbow - March 20th, 2006
• Science of Superheroes Exhibition - March 19th, 2006
• Timing (in Comics) by Joanna Estep - February 28th, 2006

Other Posts Categorized as Personal:

• So It's Not Always This Difficult - I Have a High Need Baby - April 5th, 2008
• Wyatt's Birth Story - February 29th, 2008
• What I Did on My Summer Vacation - September 14th, 2007
• Getting Caught Up on My Online Novel Writing Class - July 4th, 2007
• Getting Used to Feeling Productive - January 7th, 2007
• My First Home-made Smoked Turkey - December 23rd, 2006
• Can the Simple Potato Candy Recipe Be Improved? - December 5th, 2006
• Summer - August 15th, 2006