Rob Stenzinger

Polytechnicast - Moving Away from Google App Engine

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:10:44 -0600

In this episode of the Polytechnicast I share an overview of why I moved my comic to Google App Engine and how things evolved to considering moving away from that platform. I’m leaning toward moving to S3 or GitHub, using a static generated blog styled as a web comic approach. Then again, Tumblr is a pretty tempting option!

Along the way I give an overview of why I chose a cloud computing platform, my initial move from Wordpress and shared hosting.

I haven’t made my final choice, feel free to tweet, email, or comment your recommendations!

Links Mentioned and Related Links

Follow Rob on Twitter or his blog at Interactive-Storyteller.com and workshops at Lean Into Art

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The entire graphic novel The Front! Plus there’s a new The...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:38:01 -0600

The entire graphic novel The Front! Plus there’s a new The Front series coming “Petty Dreadful”, can’t wait!

Polytechnicast - Hunting for and Interviewing with Clients

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:00:08 -0600

In this episode of the Polytechnicast I share thoughts on seeking a job doing what I love, serving a community I care about, using tools and methods I believe in, to engage in a fair and sustainable trade.

Along the way I share observations on the process of job/contract hunting and some of the tools I find helpful.

Links Mentioned

Comic - Independent Voice (the first place I published my “do what I love mantra”)
My Illustration Portfolio
My Interactive/UI/UX/Game Design Portfolio
Prezi - a good tool to rapidly create interesting looking portfolios for online and print.
Prezi Portfolio of Sample Work Products (available on request)
Rob’s Video Application to Lullabot on Vimeo
Search tools:
- Combine Google with Glassdoor
- Break out of your search bubble via Duck Duck Go
Tools I use to manage reusable email sections and templates:
- NvALT
- TextExpander

Follow Rob on Twitter or his blog at Interactive-Storyteller.com and workshops at Lean Into Art

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Posted via email from Art Geek Zoo Polytechnicast

Polytechnicast - Preparing and Topic Potpourri

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:34:28 -0600

In this episode of the Polytechnicast I have “preparing” on the mind. Working on a few projects simultaneously I find myself in the cycle of preparing, making, and finding useful connections between my projects quite often.

In addition to “preparing”, this episode is also a bit of Topic Potpourri!

Links Mentioned and Links That Came to Mind While Writing These Show Notes

Oxford Notecard Pocket
Notecards
Hipster PDA
Moleskine Plain Reporter
Web Comic Alliance
Ira Glass on the Creative Process
Ann Arbor District Library Comic Artist Forum
Mac Power Users Podcast - Automating
Sikuli - open source/free deskop automation via screen capture
Rube Goldberg

Follow Rob on Twitter or his blog at Interactive-Storyteller.com and workshops at Lean Into Art

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Principles of Perception, Design, and Comics

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:43:30 -0600

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

Filling in the gaps. Bobby McFerrin didn’t ask everyone to guess a sound - he started a pattern with one sound, then another, and another. The relationship between those sounds is design (the Pentatonic Scale), the audience participating to fill in the gaps demonstrates the Closure principle of perception.

I came across this video while preparing for a special series of the Lean Into Art Cast centered on the topic of Design. Andy Rutlege’s blog is a fantastic resource on Design. A great place to start exploring his writing is his 5 part Gestalt Principles of Perception series.

Worth noting: both Uniform Connectedness/Good Continuation and Closure have extra strong ties to the underlying mechanisms of comics as a highly participatory form of communication.

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joamette: Princess Mononoke, Studio Ghibli (1997) Favorite...

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:46:38 -0600

joamette:

Princess Mononoke, Studio Ghibli (1997)

Favorite movie.

Just realized I’ve misplaced my making-of Princess Mononoke book. The art and process were fascinating though the highlight of the book for me is the poetry Miyazaki wrote to capture the essence of the characters. I recall Yakul’s as being especially awesome.

Gohan sketch card. Both DBZ sketches due to my recent...

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:09:34 -0600

Gohan sketch card. Both DBZ sketches due to my recent re-watching of the Garlic Jr. Saga.

Piccolo sketch card.

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:05:14 -0600

Piccolo sketch card.

The Ice King Approaches #adventutretime #sketchcard

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:22:56 -0600

The Ice King Approaches #adventutretime #sketchcard

Polytechnicast - Service of a Game

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:00:25 -0600

In this episode of the Polytechnicast, I delve into some behind the scenes planning and development I do to support Guitar Fretter.

Recently I received an email from an Android user who is rather good at the game. On her Android device once she gets past level 12 or so the game has problems. I share details on how I’ll tackle that issue, ponder the complexities of the Android market, future updates for Guitar Fretter and behind the scenes thoughts on Guitar Fretter’s game design.

Links Mentioned and Links That Came to Mind While Writing These Show Notes

Follow Rob on Twitter or his blog at Interactive-Storyteller.com

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Lean Into Art Cast - Skill Set Overlap

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:12:27 -0600

I call it an “emergent topic”. We started with the intent to mention my recent talk for the Comic Artist’s Forum at the Ann Arbor District Library and the topic took a life of its own. Jerzy and I went with it to explore how building an audience for your creative work is similar to both event planning and connecting with your local art scene.

Download MP3

Show Notes

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Great episode (http://5by5.tv/webahead/13) in a great podcast...

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:57:30 -0600

Great episode (http://5by5.tv/webahead/13) in a great podcast series. If you’re not already excited about learning and using current web site craft… “you will be… heh…heh… you will be”.

"But over the past few months the conversations often distilled: His frustration with the social..."

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:49:56 -0600

“But over the past few months the conversations often distilled: His frustration with the social media space, gamification, the superficial Bay Area startup culture and all its behaviors. He was enduring the stress of becoming better-known for what he stood against than for what he stood for. And it quickly became clear to me that Cow Clicker was the receptacle for his aggression.”

- “The Life-Changing Rightward-Facing $20 Cow,” Leigh Alexander, Kotaku. Wonderful #longread about Ian Bogost, the creator of Cow Clicker, a game which satirizes Facebook games like Farmville. I’m fascinated by what I think of as protest programming. (via lifeandcode)

Polytechnicast - Jumping into Clojure with Special Guest Craig Andera

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 22:45:05 -0600

In this episode of the Polytechnicast I’m joined by special guest Craig Andera for a totally unscripted tutorial session on programming Clojure. Clojure happens to be Craig’s programming language of choice.

Clojure is a very different coding experience for someone like me who’s into Lua, Python, JavaScript, and ActionScript. Before this podcast I hadn’t written a single line of Clojure - now I feel I have a grasp on the basics.

This is an episode I hope will be interesting whether you’re curious about getting into coding, familiar with coding and are wondering about Clojure, or curious to see how I explore an unfamiliar coding language.

Links Mentioned

Clojure - a Lisp-like programming language
Craig Andera on Twitter
Craig’s Blog
Think Relevance Blog and Podcast
Try Clojure - used this for the demo
4 Clojure - almost used this for the demo, requires signup
Craig’s Clojure Tutorial (available for free from Pluralsight)

Follow Rob on Twitter or his blog at Interactive-Storyteller.com

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Interactive Empathy as a Design Concern

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 01:06:48 -0600

Considering how interactions flow - whether in-person or in an app/web system with empathy as a focal concern.

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TurboGrafx Cameo w/Game Design Workshop Notecards

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:12:34 -0600

Notecards are part of my iterative process. These notecards are from whittling and playing with the topics I’ll be covering in my upcoming game design workshop at Lean Into Art. It’ll cover part of what’s outlined here - enough to design and build a basic game in HTML5 and JavaScript. More news to come.

As to the TurboGrafx (actually the portable TurboExpress in this case) it’s been back on my desk the last few days for fun and research… wow does it eat batteries.

The TurboGraphix 16 (w/CD-ROM) is my overall favorite 16 bit era game system due to games like Devil’s Crush, Bomberman 93, and Y’s Book I and II.

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I know I’m biased (as co-dean of Lean Into Art). However,...

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 14:50:10 -0600

I know I’m biased (as co-dean of Lean Into Art). However, it’s worth mentioning: Jerzy is so leveled up on word balloons and comic sound effects he can make them appear in the physical world.

Not that he would - he saves every one for use in actual comics.

jerzydrozd:

Less than a week to sign up for my online interactive workshop where we’ll get deep and nerdy into comics sound design principles, followed by hands-on assignments to put the ideas into practice in your own comics.

Check out the details and register here!

Polytechnicast - Making Comics in Adobe Illustrator w/guest Javen Ackerman

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 22:18:14 -0600

(#comics, #adobe illustrator, #art process, #making comics)

In this audio+video episode of the Polytechnicast I’m joined by special guest Javen Ackerman, creator of the comics The Winchcombe and Q Burger! In recent years, Javen has made Adobe Illustrator the main tool he uses to produce comics. We chat about his process and in the video you’ll see him demonstrate his techniques and get a glimpse of how he takes full advantage of Adobe Illustrator to work quickly and efficiently.

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Links Mentioned

Follow Rob on Twitter or his blog at Interactive-Storyteller.com

Posted via email from Art Geek Zoo Polytechnicast

LIA Cast 16 - Cheating!

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 21:22:54 -0600

jerzydrozd:

New Lean Into Art Cast, where Rob Stenzinger and I share some of our favorite art cheats!

You can download and subscribe to the audio podcast here.

Awesome post by Kevin Cross pointing out how Iron Maiden is...

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:25:35 -0600

Awesome post by Kevin Cross pointing out how Iron Maiden is indeed good for children.

How could you not learn good lessons and gain ideas from a group of highly accomplished multi-disciplined artists. They fly around the world like a band of Metal superheroes in a jet with Eddie’s face on it called “Ed Force One”, flown by their lead singer Bruce Dickinson.

totallydad:

I wanna talk about IRON MAIDEN…

I first became aware of Iron Maiden when I was in fifth grade when they released the now classic Number of the Beast album in 1982. As soon as I saw their video for “Run to the Hills” on a fledgling television station called MTV, I was hooked! All through junior high, I claimed Iron Maiden as my favorite band. I still love them to this day!

During those bleak early years of the Reagan administration, I was often told how awful Iron Maiden was for me. I was told they were going to send me down into a pit of drug abuse and Satanic occultism that I’d never escape. Puh-lease!

Contrary to all the dirty looks I got from the squares for wearing their t-shirts, calls to my mother from a certain minister’s wife about my perceived involvement in Satanism because of my Iron Maiden fandom, and getting kicked out of school/church for showing up in an Iron Maiden “Purgatory” t-shirt, Iron Maiden was important for my development. Their album covers were a big influence that helped foster my love of art. I’m a professional illustrator today in some part due to Iron Maiden. Iron Maiden was the band that made me want to learn how to play guitar. Without them I may never have gotten to put out records and tour, with my bands, to different cities and experience things and people outside of my suburban origins. Iron Maiden’s lyrical content fueled my imagination which has fostered a love for writing comic book/ children’s book stories.

Its refreshing to see that parents in my generation understand the benefits that a good band like Iron Maiden can provide to children. In the video below, look at how happy that baby is when he hears Iron Maiden. He is moved to dance and get some of that exercise that is oh so important for growing minds and bodies.

In this next video, look at the sheer jubilation this young boy experiences as soon as he hears the uplifting sounds of Iron Maiden.

The kids of Watville Primary School sure seem to be having fun singing an Iron Maiden song together. Just look at them…getting exercise, singing, and building strong social skills by participating in this together. Also, did I mention they were doing this for a charitable cause? Take note, Republicans.

Based on my life and what I’ve seen here in these videos, I can only conclude that Iron Maiden is good for children! I will certainly be playing them for my daughter. As a matter of fact, I’m going to go play some for my daughter still in the womb right now. I think I’ll play her the first song that introduced me to Iron Maiden… RUN TO THE HILLS!