Author: FoxFire

Rising Sun Collage

A animated GIF collage of several photos of a sunrise.
Taken in November 2019, in Colorado, USA.

This was somewhat of an experiment and an early attempt at animation. Back in November, I took a photo of a sunrise. The sun kept rising and it kept being beautiful, so I took more photos.

Fast forward to today, where I put the photos together into a little GIF collage, using the animation program Krita. For the record, I really dislike Krita. Some of the tools don’t do what you expect them to (particularly copy-paste), and you have to download a separate hacky program to render animations into GIF files specifically. Still, I’m told it’s better than GIMP, and it’s completely free, so for now it’s what I use.

Unfortunately, this collage isn’t perfect, either. The original photos were of several sizes and several angles, and even re-cutting them didn’t quite get rid of the discrepancies. It creates a bit of a wobble to the picture, which I’m not sure if I like, as in a certain light, it makes it look more 3-D. The resolution of a couple of the frames are another casualty to the re-sizing process, however, which I can’t quite get rid of.

2019 Update

Is it just me, or is each news update incorporating longer and longer time frames?

No, I’m afraid I must conclude it’s not just me! What started as a monthly update turned into a seasonal update, and now, apparently, a yearly update. Such is life.

Summary of 2019

Another good title for this article might be “2019 In Review”. In January of 2019, this blog was opened to start holding my pieces of novels and homeless write-ups for roleplay sessions, in the hopes for a little more exposure and audience to my writing.

Whether or not this worked is up for debate, but February saw a contract signed with a publisher for my first book, which, after negotiations, became the sourcebook for Talmenor, a new and up-and-coming high fantasy universe built for Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder campaigns. Some teasers of this world have already made it onto my blog, as you can see from the link above. Though promised to be finished and put up for sale by the end of the year, we have run into issues getting together professional-quality art for the book, and I instead must liberally set the release date for sometime in 2020 instead. Sadness.

February also saw the bulk of my writing for the Elder Scrolls III:Morrowind mod, Tamriel Rebuilt, being cross-posted to this blog site. Later in the year, I was part of two streaming sessions with Zharic Zhakaron regarding Tamriel Rebuilt, and have begun trying my hand at some concept art for the mod as well…though none of these I am quite pleased with enough yet to link to directly in this news article, ha ha.

In March, I received a drawing tablet for my birthday, and began to brush up on my art skills again, including with some of the aforementioned concept art.

Then, not even a week later, my raid members began doing some really silly things, and I have immortalized them in the comic series “Gentlemen Assassins”. After that guild’s raid leader retired, and after I picked up raid leading myself for a few months, I have now settled into a new guild called Resurgence. As I’m considering restructuring my blog site (more on that later), I am pondering retiring the name “Gentlemen Assassins” to mean comics done in 2019, while new 2020 comics will henceforth be known under the name “Resurgence”. Seeing as how this may require me to find new raid guilds every year to keep up the pattern, I’m not certain this is the best route forward. (And “Gentlemen Assassins” is such a lovely name! …and still a guild I love and am a part of, even if we’re no longer raiding!)

Finally, in December, I have opened up this blog to other writers and their shorts. The first of these was written by someone we will call Alelsa while he writes for FoxFireFiction (but may be known around the internet as someone else of note…), and is a fun little scene set in the dictatorial city of First Bastion.

And the Future Holds…?

There are more snippets of fanfiction and novels coming, I’m certain. There are also more comics coming. (Though I’m not sure my guildies believe me, I have quite the backlog of ideas, numbering in the tens and twenties by now.)

Work on Tamriel Rebuilt also continues, and some of my escapades in that modding team will continue to find their way here.

The sourcebook of Talmenor is coming, hopefully before summer, but as I have learned in 2019, it’s not too uncommon for release dates to stretch and stretch, so I will just leave this one at “2020” and hope I will not have to eat my words again next year at this time!

More shorts from other writers, including up and coming writers, are hopefully on their way, but as this is still a very new venture, I am keeping quiet about it until I can structure the back-end to my liking.

Speaking of structuring, as mentioned before, the structuring of this website my change. It is to incorporate some of the above writers coming in, but also to incorporate some new web games that I am developing for practice as I continue schooling for the creative field.

Finally, Hottest Day of the Year is coming, I swear! As my most recent submission was made over a year ago and still is without news, I’ve marked that publisher off the list. On the bright side, I’m now currently in negotiations with the same publisher as above for them to pick up this novel, shine it up a bit, and put it on the market. Aside from the sourcebook, it would be my very first book for sale, which is a very exciting prospect for me.

Shiny Things: Gormball Championship

Ah, a blast to the past. I used to be fairly large presence on the online pet game of Neopets… When I was a child, I dreamed of creating a comic series based on two of my Original Characters: Kevaar and Azzir. Or rather…Kevaar and Azzir as they would be if they were Neopets. Ha ha. In the Elder Scrolls universe, they are two Dunmeri. (In Talmenor, two degonti…but more on Talmenor later!)

But why am I telling you this and revealing my childish nerdy side? Well, to further improve my comic-drawing, I indulged myself and finally finished some of those old comics. Unfortunately the originals are lost to the depths of my paper drawer, so this first one I had to redo by memory.

A Darigan Eyrie paint a Gormball a silver color, so that a blue gelert is tricked into holding it too long and losing the Gormball Championship.

Multiplayer Tour with Zaric Zhakaron

To celebrate our latest release (19.12, also known as Aanthirin), Tamriel Rebuilt has put on another stream with Zaric Zhakaron! Though the stream has already come and gone by the time of this posting, below you can find the finished video.

Proper link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM-ELVReLMQ

For the latest Tamriel Rebuilt news, be sure to check out our website: https://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/

For information on how to download and install Tamriel Rebuilt, please check out our Installation Guide. You will need a copy of Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, complete with the Tribunal and Bloodmoon expansions, to be able to play.

How to Attend Public Roleplay Events As a Shy Nerd

The first and most obvious step, that somehow people still miss: if a roleplay event sounds interesting and is stated to be open to the public, than go see what it’s about! Don’t let your shy nerdiness stop you.

Hello, readers! Though you may have seen this post first on Wowhead and then on the official forums, I decided it was well past time to include it on my official blog. Continue reading “How to Attend Public Roleplay Events As a Shy Nerd”

Quick and Dirty Guide: FAILures and How to Become EPIC Instead

Don’t view skill as a talent–“you either have it or you don’t” mentality–but as a journey and a challenge.

It’s an unfortunately all-too-common conversation when you’re a raid leader–or leader of any kind of content, including Mythic dungeons and PvP–and it often starts something like this… Continue reading “Quick and Dirty Guide: FAILures and How to Become EPIC Instead”

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A Quick and Dirty Guide: Talent Builds

For an introduction to this series as well as a quick reminder about the dangers of min-maxing, check out my previous two guides: Endgame Gearing and Endgame Gearing, Part 2. Otherwise, read on for some tips about choosing the best talents for your World of Warcraft character! Continue reading “A Quick and Dirty Guide: Talent Builds”

A Quick and Dirty Guide: Endgame Gearing, Part 2

About this series: so I kept finding myself giving the same old tips over and over to new members incoming to my raid or Mythic+ teams in World of Warcraft, all to do with getting the best gear or which class specialization (spec) to choose for endgame content. I finally figured I might as well just compile all that advice here on my blog, if only to reduce my workload down to just throwing them a link instead of giving a dissertation every single time someone asks me in Discord!

So behold: Yotingo’s quick and dirty guide for getting into the PvE (Player vs. Environment) scene in World of Warcraft. This installment covers some of the specifics of choosing gear. If you find yourself under-performing, there is a good chance that your gear is bad, so here are some ways to narrow in on the issue and fix it! Continue reading “A Quick and Dirty Guide: Endgame Gearing, Part 2”