Further Integration

The decision was finally made.

I’ve always been bothered that certain creative content (especially that of Material Studies) was never available on my personal site. This was mostly due to not knowing where best to fit them into the existing layout, but also because Moggie’s Proclamations lacked integration with the site in any meaningful way. While it has always been available via a social media icon it isn’t necessarily present elsewhere. Which is more or less what the recent updates to the site have aimed to rectify, as they’re now inescapably linked. I’ve even removed the WordPress social media icon from the site. Opting instead for a text link.

Which, hopefully, is just as identifiable as the social media icon.

The Instagram social media icon is still there, though. The solitary social media site that I actually frequent. Not that I’ve been nearly as active there as I would’ve liked, but that’s the only reasonable outcome when the flow of creative content stops almost entirely and you’ve shared nothing new in over a year. That said, I’m still working on things.

Hence the recent focus on Moggie’s Proclamations. I’ve taken the time to update both the Creative and Gaming pages, which resulted in a new layout and improved categorisation that better reflects the diversity of content available on the blog. I’m eager to start writing posts more regularly again, too. Not that we’ve been short of content in September. But none of that is creative content. Which is the (for lack of a better word) problem, but that extends further than just the blog to myself. I need to make the time for my creative pursuits. I need to have the ideas and the motivation for them. I’ve been taking some time out purposefully as, due to certain things that happened last year, I lost my way, but I’m ready to find my way again.

I’ll upload a new piece any day now. Just you wait.

As with all of the updates I’ve ever made they’re not entirely finished. They’ll never be entirely finished. As both the site and Moggie’s Proclamations are perpetual works in progress, and will change as I change. But this is the happiest I’ve ever been with everything that I do. It’s also the best and most accurate representation of what I do that I’ve ever had. Which, when you consider how long the site has been in existence, and the number of iterations it has been through, it’s not really surprising. If you keep changing things you’ll eventually happen upon the layout, design, or content that best represents your intentions.

I’ve also been updating some of the older content on the blog.

As before these updates are simply alterations to presentation and the original content remains (mostly) intact. It’s staggering to think that there are nearly three-hundred posts on Moggie’s Proclamations now, which illustrates the amount of content there is to work through and why these updates are implemented over several weeks.

It would take me a few days to read through all of the content available on the blog. Let alone update it. But I’ve grown accustomed to this process, and I’ll often be updating something without being entirely aware that I’m doing it. Editing a few tags or categories here or there certainly helps to eventually standardise them all. Adding new posts to pages eventually builds a comprehensive library. I guess that’s the funny thing about Moggie’s Proclamations. I’ve always enjoyed working on it, which means it’s never felt particularly laborious posting new (or updating older) content. With that said, if you notice that anything looks different, or isn’t where you remembered it was, I probably tweaked something for some reason or another.

Have a nice week, all!

Moggie

Season of Change

It’s better than a The Times They Are A-Changin’ pun, right?

I’ve spent some time updating my personal website recently! You should head on over to David Wilkshire.co.uk and check it out. I promise it’s pretty neat. If this surprises you- it surprises me, too! I wasn’t expecting to work on that particular element of this (increasingly complex) formula. Especially when you reflect on my ill fated attempts at trying to update the thumbnails for the umpteenth time, however therein lies the reason that I finally decided to change the site around in the way that I did.

While the thumbnails remain the same not much else does.

You’ll probably notice that the sections have changed drastically and that we’re a few shy of the number we used to have. I decided that it would probably be best to remove any which leaned on certain materials, as I may not be using those materials as much (if at all) in the future. It didn’t seem to make as much sense as it once did. Not that I disagree with the original idea, either.

It was a pretty good idea. I broke everything up into sections based on their particular materials, which does have merit and does help you find the particular things you’re looking for but it’s also rather convoluted. As, if you like my pencil illustrations, it’s reasonable to suggest that you’d enjoy my ink illustrations. Or marker illustrations. Or even digital illustrations. So it didn’t really seem to fit, both for the outdated concepts and the fact that I’m not going to be the one to use this site to find my work. You are. If I want to find various things I’ve done I’ve got myriad directories to explore. It’s also built a little more around HTML and CSS than around graphical elements now.

Pretty neat, no?

There’s no particular reason for that change, though. I just felt it would be nice to be able to create the same thing but without having to rely on a singular large graphic to do it. Now I get a relatively similar effect- but this one is built from many different things. I’ve also got a thing for horizontal rules, now. Damn those sexy lines. That said, it’s quite an extensive change and now I’ve got the task of updating various links in various places. Thankfully these updates only need to happen for the two sections I’ve removed.

The other two are pretty much as they were.

Actually changing a link can be done in a matter of seconds- it’s just finding the sneaky buggers. Once this post has been published most of the major links on Moggie’s Proclamations will already have been changed, but I will be updating more over the course of the next week or so. But, in case I do miss the odd one here or there, I’ll be leaving the old directories up for a while.

So I doubt that things will break too badly. If at all. I’ll admit- it’s a pretty ambitious change. But it’s one that I felt was necessary for the betterment of the site and my content as a whole, which hopefully will not only mean it’s better presented but easier to find in the future. Apologies for not sharing more creative content recently. I’m still working through a good few things and it might be a little while longer before I’m able to share things. That said, if you’re interested in a recent creative effort or something I dug out of my archives you should head on over to Twitter. I’m always sharing various bits and pieces over there. In any case, I hope you like the changes and that the new site is not too confusing.

Have a nice weekend, all!

Moggie

Art, design, and the like found herein (unless otherwise specified) is drawn and owned by David Wilkshire (also credited as Moggie) from 2006 to present date.

New Approaches

Every day the list gets longer.

I’ve spent the last three months (on and off) working on various updates for the collection of sites. This started as a small project to improve the quality of older posts for Moggie’s Proclamations, that led to developing new teaser images for art posts, updating my personal site, working on a new social media site, and is a list that gets longer with every passing day. Every time I start to work on one thing I think of other improvements I’d like to implement!

The good news is that I’m ready to share these updates. First and foremost I’d like to unveil my new Google+ page which filters through updates from Moggie’s Proclamations, as well as tailored updates, and (some) posts from Twitter. It also features a collection entirely focused on my creative efforts. You can follow one (or both) if you’d like to get updates via Google+, too.

I’ve been slowly adding updates and content to my Google+ page since late last year.

You’ll also find a link to the Google+ page on both my personal site and in the sidebar to right. Additionally I’ve been making some changes to Moggie’s Proclamations in the form of new teaser images for the art posts over here. You’ll find all but the oldest content (from 2012) have new thumbnails, updated layouts, and other minor changes. I’ve been working through many of the older posts trying to keep the quality and formatting as consistent as I can. For the most part the content has been left as was and you’ll still be able to go back a few years, browse old posts, and observe how my writing style and/or approach has changed in that time.

You’ll also find that both the Gaming and Creative pages are now updated with some newly discovered posts that slipped through my initial sweep of published content. These are now closer to being concise, well organised, high quality lists of previously published content that you can use to find anything (and/or everything) that I’ve got to offer. My personal site has also seen a few small changes to heighten the level of quality you’ll find over there, too.

Twitter has seen a lot more activity recently and some of those updates will now be mirrored to Google+ which should allow a much higher level of exposure for certain things. Best of all this allows people who may not use Twitter but use Google+, or vice versa, to access the content if they want to. I’m pretty pleased with how these two sites are currently progressing.

This doesn’t conclude the range of updates, though.

I’ve still got a few things that I’d like to update for Moggie’s Proclamations along with a few ideas for my personal site. But, for the most part, I’m quite happy with how much work has gone into- and how much difference it has made to- the various sites. Besides the aforementioned changes I’m actually at a loss as to what I’d like to work on next. Obviously either creative or video game content is always a welcome addition, which, if you’ve been following recent posts, you’ll know there’s already something nearing completion there. I’d like to do a post or two about Grim Dawn (and likely a full review) when that fully releases this month as well.

I apologise for having a few text heavy, explanatory, less interesting posts recently but I hope you’ll agree the updates were worth it.

Have a nice weekend, all!

Moggie

Collected Pieces

You might have noticed that I’m fond of organising things.

That’s not because I need to organise things or have any specific compulsion to do so, but I do think it’s easier to find things after you’ve organised them. Which is why I’ve finally taken the time to work on a Creative page to mirror the Gaming page that I created last year. I figured that it was time to have a singular location on Moggie’s Proclamations where you could access my various works in progress, finished pieces, and other creative content quickly and easily. I’m hoping that these pages will make content (both new and old) more accessible regardless of when it was originally posted. Or what it was regarding.

I’ve also made a slight (but critical) change to my personal site. When uploading a new piece to the site I’ll often provide a link back to the related Moggie’s Proclamations post, however, until now, it hadn’t occurred to me to actually provide a direct link from the front page to the page for that specific piece. Before this update you’d need to select the category and then select the piece. Which means it’s now more convenient accessing the newest pieces. It also somewhat encourages the viewing of other pieces as each page for a specific piece has a link back to the category it’s in. These are the little quality of life changes that are simple enough to implement and can make a big difference.

As I’ve always been committed to making everything that I do more accessible to anyone that wishes to see it.

Have a nice week, all!

Moggie

Giving it a Go

You know those times when people said you could do anything if you put your mind to it?

Those are the times I should have closed my ears (or filled them with noise cancelling ear plugs) and whistled innocently. For anyone who follows me regularly here on WordPress (and for that I thank you) you’ll know that over the last few months there have been many a new thing popping up- streaming, videos, developing with Unity, and much more. Recently I covered all of my streaming efforts and how they’re going, Developing with Unity had the first development video post, and there has even been new art to discuss and enjoy.

There is more to come, too! There’s new art, a review, and all sorts scheduled and ready to deploy on WordPress.

I’m also branching out from the streaming side of things and trying something new over on YouTube with some, well, I guess you could call it episodic content. Think of it as a Let’s Play but without commentary. The videos run for between 25-40 minutes each and they cover the game from the start.

Whether or not I’ll continue until the game is complete is open to several different interpretations. At the moment it’s merely an alternative to streaming. I’m not entirely sure if I want to keep doing the streaming thing yet (or more accurately if I want to keep streaming regularly), and this is a way to try something different. At worst it will be a collection of say three-four videos per game to give them a bit of an introduction and so that you can enjoy the gameplay. However, it is entirely possible, and a thing I want to do, that you’ll get the whole game from start to finish. Commentary is as yet optional as I don’t really see this as a Let’s Play just yet.

Seriously, the people who do Let’s Plays, regardless of whether it’s their livelihood, are insane. That’s a lot of work. An awful lot of work. Especially when they do it every day and post several videos a day. Sure, it’s only 3-4hrs of finished video- but that probably takes a lot lot longer to actually produce.

If nothing else, if it does replace streaming, then there will be three episodes average per game which adds up to roughly the length of one stream.

This does mean that I’ll be dropping the XCOM: Enemy Within series of streams. Not for any reason other than, at least for the next few weeks, streaming is on hold and I don’t really see the need to keep holding onto that game until/if I pick up again. But there’s nothing saying there won’t be some content behind that, too! Anything is possible. For those curious as to why I’m holding off on streaming for a while, well, I don’t really know if it’s for me. I have always wanted to do some kind of video thing and I’ve always enjoyed watching people stream. However, at the same time it’s something that takes a lot of work and that I don’t always have time for.

I don’t want to cut the streams up and do little less than an hour streams but I don’t always have the time to do 1hr 30m-2hr of streaming. While, the other night, at whatever time of night it was, I was able to put together two videos and upload them individually. At whatever date. Which suits me better as I can create it and upload it easier.

Have a nice week, all!

Moggie

“So, I fell off of the Earth.”

That’s what you get for wearing anti-gravity boots in the shower before floating helplessly out of the window and then into space. But, hey- I was the first naked man in space.

In truth, the time since I last posted has been a lot more normal than the above scenario. Though, while I’m not sure what benefits anti-gravity boots would give you in the shower, I’m almost certain it would be pretty cool floating around with all the bubbles and soap suds. Like an advertisement for cheap shampoo. Where we talk about all the flavours of the rainforest (which is allegedly very flavoursome) while slow jazz plays in the background.

I’m lying. I’m no authority on shampoo advertisements.

So, back to reality, there will be a new piece on here pretty soon. It’s a spiritual successor (of sorts) to an older piece that didn’t really work out how I expected it would. The original- not the new one. If it didn’t work out as I had expected why would I upload it? It’s an experimental piece, which ended up smaller than expected, but was focused on a new style and the drive to get back into using my markers as more than a colourful centrepiece on my desk. I think I’ve struck a good balance with this new approach but only further results and more time will tell.

There’s a sense of calm in not having as many new pieces- nor the pressures associated with them- recently. But there’s also a sense of loss. As I would like to be doing more than I currently am but things are just not working out that way at the moment. That said, I’m rather hoping that this new approach and future efforts will get the creative ball rolling again.

It’s also been an issue of time recently.

I’ve had a few other, more pressing, more important things to do and while I enjoy doing creative things it’s harder to find the time for it at the moment. It’s not all grim, though. Things have been balancing out fairly nicely between the pleasant and not so. I’m just not sure if I can promise anything for Moggie’s Proclamations in the coming months. Or, at least, until I can find a better way to do these things. I almost wish there was a way to set up a list of posts and automate their publication.

Have a nice week, all!

Moggie.