Jacob’s Escalator

As I have said in a previous entry, Digital Artwork is fancy longhand for “sprites”, in general. There may be others - “graphics” - but those are more rare. This post will focus on sprites but will give a general overview of what graphics are, too.

Sprites have nothing to do with lemon-lime sodas or little tiny faeries. It’s a term used in game programming - mostly only in very old games, but they’re still used sometimes - to describe a series of images that represent an object and its motions or animations. That’s the weird, jargon-filled technical definition. I’ll break it down for you into some simpler terms.

Let us say we have Mario.

Do you all remember the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System, for you who are confused) Mario game? That one that came with “Duck Hunt”? It runs off of sprites, for the most part. So, let’s say we have a picture of that horribly low-quality Mario guy, taken directly from a game. That’s a sprite. Any other pictures of Mario doing anything - jumping, dying, running, swimming and climbing are the only ones I know of - are also sprites. All the pictures of Mario in one game are assembled into what is called a sprite sheet. A game can pick appropriate sprites from the sheet depending on what Mario is doing.

When Mario swims, there is a small animation that occurs whenever you try to paddle, isn’t there? That is simply two sprites switching back and forth (if I remember correctly). When Mario’s just floating, it stays on one sprite (once it’s in the game, or otherwise animated, I call them “frames”) until you tap the A button. Then it switches to the second frame for a moment, then back to the first. This gives the illusion that Mario is actually swimming. All of Mario’s running, jumping and climbing animations are made in the same manner. So are the animations of all the enemies and their movements.

However, I work with far more intricate sprites than old NES Mario. My own version of NES Mario would take only a few minutes to create a full sheet from scratch, but I work at a much higher resolution, so my sprites are of much better quality. Pretty much exclusively I take sprites from Megaman Battle Network and edit them to suit my needs and desires. This produces a tolerable profile and distance shot of whatever being I wish to create.

That’s a basic explanation of sprites.

Graphics are something else entirely. A “graphic”, in the foruming internet world, is an image of some kind that is assembled using renders, effects, and other various goodies. Skilled graphics artists make very pleasing images with interesting and sometimes abstract effects. The banner of this blog is a good example of a simple graphic - it contains a stock/render - the picture of me on the escalator - and a simple lighting effect.

Note that graphics are not neccesarily the children of Photoshop splicing (that is, taking two pictures and using Photoshop to put them together).

“The Celebration of the Initiation of the Activation of the Emancipation Proclamation” - Eric Claybrook

I didn’t have the heart to explain that the Emancipation Proclamation came several decades prior to MLKjr’s civil rights movement.

With this post I introduce a new category, In the Thunderlight, where I shed a little bit of light on my interests that most of you don’t know much about. What I’ll try to cover are the kinds of things I might reference often; please feel free to ask questions, if you have them.

My first Thunderlight examination shall be MegaMan Battle Network. MMBN, as I shall now refer to it, is a series of Gameboy Advance video games based off of the MegaMan phenomonon I’m sure pretty much none of you konw about. In MMBN, the premise is that society has advanced to a network-reliant stage, where nearly everything is electronic and connected to the Internet. Everyone also has a wonderful PDA-like device called a PErsonal Terminal or a PET. Almost everyone has a brilliant programming wonder called a NetNavigator - Navi for short.

Navis are incredibly complex AIs that have the ability to think and feel, with the capacity for personality and moral knowledge. They are as good as humans, only they exist on the Cyber plane, whereas their human operators exist in the “Real World”. Navis are used to make PET functions automatic - they’ll open your email and read it to you, take your phone calls, remind you of things you need to remember, and all sorts of things - as well as their primary use, an Internet surfing program that can delete attacking viruses and interact with other programs.

It’s easiest, however, to think of a Navi as a Cyber-human.

The main characters are Lan Hikari and MegaMan, his Navi, who (spoilers) is actually a Navi created from the DNA of Lan’s dead twin brother, Hub (end spoilers). I will not waste my time and kindness trying to say Lan is “not that bright”: he’s incredibly dense and downright idiotic at times. MegaMan is often much more relaxed and intelligent.

Some other important characters are Mayl/Roll, Chaud/Protoman, Baryl/Colonel, Bass/Forte, and my own personal creations, Kayle and CommandoMan.

Mayl is Lan’s “best friend” who is, at the end of all six games, consistently trying to make him understand she wants to be his girlfriend. (I cannot possibly imagine why.) Her Navi is Roll. Neither of them are all that brave or powerful, but they’re bright, and good friends.

Chaud is an Official, which is like a member of the government. He is actually a bit younger than Lan (by a year, so in MMBN6, he’s 14 or so), but is far more mature, cool, and calculating than Lan ever could be. Chaud is also rather cold and introverted, but opens up after MMBN5 when he and Lan end up working together for an extended time, and they finish the series good friends rather than bitter rivals. Chaud’s Navi, Protoman, is one of my favorite Navis in the entire series. ProtoMan is all business, deadly serious, focused on his work and all but emotionless. He is a speed and sword master, and recognized as one of the most powerful Navis known to the world. If you’re a criminal and you hear ProtoMan is after you, you should first be honored, then run like hell.

Baryl is a mysterious Netopian man (that’s a foreign country - in the original Japanese version, the country’s name is Amerioupe, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence), who has a military background. He is also a cool, calculating tactician, who is single-minded in his mission, whatever that may be. He only shows up late in the series. His Navi, Colonel, is a bit like ProtoMan - slower, more tactical, but also bears a powerful sword arm, with the addition of a cannon and some excellent versatility power.

Bass is the English/American name of the next character, but the Japanese name, Forte, is far cooler. (Bass is not pronounced like the fish. I wish it was, that would be tolerable.)
Forte is a mysterious Navi who hails from the beginning of the great network society, when the internet became mysteriously self-aware and destroyed all appliances connected to it. Forte was mistakenly blamed and nearly deleted by his human creators. From that incident he gained an extreme hatred of the human race, and seeks every opportunity to destroy them. Forte does not appear in the MMBN main storyline much, but he is in every game nonetheless, as a secret boss. In battle, his trademark weapon is his busters, which have the power to obliterate quite a mass of enemies; his other attacks change game-to-game, but Earth Break - a burst of energy that has more power than the entire Net exploding - and Darkness Overload - similar to Earth Break, only in a wider area - are common.
Forte is apparently given such a high role because of his history in the earlier MegaMan series.

Kayle is my own personal addition to the MMBN world. He’s like Chaud’s kinder counterpart, which is in turn a lot like me - quiet, reserved, but not particularly cold or unfriendly. CommandoMan is, likewise, an edit of ProtoMan. He’s not restricted to the sword; he has various other weapons to choose from as well. Versatility, the ability to have no weakness, is his business. He has pretty much no emotion save humor and remains quiet most of the time, willing to keep to himself and do as he is told. Because everyone creates a being that is better than everyone else’s, I tend to put CommandoMan’s power level somewhere near Forte’s… but you probably don’t care about that so much anyway.

The Thunderlight is fading but lightning does have echoes. If you’ve got questions, leave ‘em, and I might come along to answer.

Today is the fourth of January, 2008. I wish to extend a belated welcome into the new year. I have high hopes about this one, if only because it is a multiple of four and therefore a new president will be due.

My sight, while it is quite far when I look down at the escalator’s lower reaches, is limited when I look up. Clouds and choice platforms obscure my vision. However, I’ve studied the stars and plotted a bit of my course, so I can give you a little insight into what the year holds, for me and for this site.

Those very close to me - most notably, my parents - are aware of my short-lived desire to write a story based on Rush’s song 2112 Overture. Now that I have a good place to release my writing, I have decided to take up the pen and the MP3 player and once more see what can be made from someone else’s story. The length and completion date of this mini-saga I am not sure about, but I know it’ll take a lot longer than the 20:37 it takes to listen to the song itself.

Very few of you readers know all that much about the things I know a lot about - Pokemon, perhaps, is the most memorable of these. Pokemon has held my interest since I was about seven (or something) and the first game came out for the ancient Gameboy. However, it’s a concept extremely difficult to grasp for most of the adult family, for two reasons;

1. Its extremely large scope. Pokemon Red was strange enough; Diamond, one of the newest, is thrice as complex. It would be hard for anyone to fully understand at first.

2. The fact that my mouth is disabled, in a way. Stupid ADHD.

However, Pokemon is definitely not the only interest of mine that could use a bit of explanation for you. Therefore I hope to soon introduce a new category of posts, where I describe to you in my own thoughts something that interests me. Once you’ve learned a bit about something that interests me, some of the pictures and posts I might write about that something will make more sense to you.

Which leads me, finally, to the Digital Artwork category, which I hope to begin publishing works in. Digital Artwork is fancy longhand for “Sprites”. Before I post any of these “sprites”, I will write an introductory post that explains them and their usage. They are a bit too unwieldy to be described here.

As for my new year, I have so far only made one resolution - one that I think I can keep, realistically. That resolution is to practice guitar once a day, every day, for at least an hour. I think that between this blog, a few interactive stories, work, school, school work at home, work work at home, the friends and the family, I can spare a whole hour each day. Don’t you?

(Please read the Prologue)

After some time of sitting on the stair, digging through the backpack, I finally stood and cast my eyes about. The wind had died since I’d gotten aboard, although the cold made the air nearly tangible. Far, far below, the earth glowed a soft white color, decorated with shadows that were the marks of rolling hills and valleys. This was on the left side of the stair; to the right, mountains were much more clearly defined, and they held an almost blue shade, with their bottoms and tops covered with snow.

I looked back down at the backpack. Whose was it, I wondered. How did it get lost on the Platform of 16? Was it abandoned intentionally, or is someone looking for it? I reached down and took the notebook from it, flipping through its pages. Nothing - not even a page torn out. It was totally unused. I reached down and grabbed the pencils, and I saw they too were sharpened to a point - but completely unmarked.

A sudden fervor came over me and I sat down again, holding the side of the escalator against my back. I flipped open to the first page and began to write.

It’s been a while since I got on this particular escalator… the view hasn’t improved much, which disappointed me. Indeed, my life seems to be getting… well, worse isn’t the word. It’s actually wonderful. Fuller, perhaps? The long hours I used to have to myself are fading away. I hope I get used to that. I’m not sure if I ever will, but I certainly hope I do.

But I look around at myself, and things are indeed wonderful. School is going well. It’s no longer a breeze! Huzzah! Something to occupy myself with - now if only I could actually occupy myself with it. And friends, I’ve been out a lot more and enjoying the company of others, and that’s… actually much better than I imagined. I must do that more often. And I have a good, palpable talent now - I can play guitar! Well, sort of… but I’m working on that. I keep dreaming of going big, and then I have to keep knocking myself down because surprise is a much better emotion than bitter disappointment. But I know I’ll at least try. Once. Twice, as many times as it takes…

I frowned. I was wandering around with this paper. Where was my topic? My theme? My point? The answer was simple: there was none. And did there have to be? Maybe not, not now. I looked around again, this time looking up and not down. The sky was filled with papers and objects and pictures, flying hither and thither, cast about by people and various other escalators. I grabbed one as it flew near; a message from my Father, to “all readers”, with a vast collection of beautiful snowflakes he himself had made out of paper. I smiled at it, stuffed it in the back of the Notebook, and quickly returned to writing.

In any event, I will try to dedicate some of my fading free minutes to this Notebook I have come across upon the Escalator. My life might not interest you - none of me might, in fact - but I’ll write all the same. (I pause, willing more appropriate words to come.) I hope that you’ll enjoy reading the works of my eyes and imagination.

Until there is more to write about - happy living!

I smile. “That’s enough for now, I think.” I tore the paper from the notebook; to my amazement, the words have copied onto the next page, saved to be seen again, later. I stood and held the paper out over the side of the escalator; the net of winds caught it and whipped it about before I even let go. When I did let go it was whirled about and seemed to split into many, flying through the skies to be seen by the masses.

I sit back down and begin to think, smiling. What to write about next…?