音時雨 ～Regentropfen～

Why I only use a male character in souls-like games?
Because FROM isn't GUST.

↓ I said I'm not going to give it up!

Another long-term piece. The initial draft was out as early as November 20, 2017 (according to the draft jpg's property), when I was for the first time playing (and in love with) such a hardcore action game. Though, I can't recall exactly the reason for an Ornstein cosplay (and sorry I've removed the lion-head helmet), but I do remember the Four-Kings' winged grey outfit can be a pretty dress.
But since then, I barely had any motivation to get it finished until the second half of last year. Even though, after doing Ornstein's shining armour, I again got bored and couldn't follow my previous plan, that to get it done before this year.
And thus it's more delayed until yesterday, with a little surprise that the background was processed rather quick (less than 1 week). (；´∀｀)

FoodOther ornaments omitted (at the draft stage):
- Onion Bro
- Mrs Eryngii

Things added/modified (at the outline stage):
- pet Kalameet. -w-
- great scythe replaced by Gargoyle's halberd (the latter has a better appearance IMO, always with an enchanted infuse)

Two new findings:
- Using the "watercolour" brush makes the perfect hair texture I want. (!important)
- Piling up random "dry gouache" and "pointillism" strokes with various "blend" methods and pattern overlays make appropriate bark and earth.

However, there's no much to say on background design as it's simply a reproduction.

実はね、昨年はフロムの女性キャラ（ボス）をモチーフにする絵を考えていたけど、これを終わらせるところもうアレを触れたくない。実際にできればすごく面白いけど、再現がムズくて萎えるわ、流石に。(;´д｀)ﾄﾎﾎ…

Since the week (~2 weeks ago) when the weather dropped down to -30 °C, I decided to write a calendar script like MyO (for a nostalgic reason, probably), which then led myself into another code update (the config with JQuery wasn't a pleasant one).
A thing I've been struggled a lot was how to use perl to send POST info to PHP, but I haven't made anything work as I expected. When I was about to give up completely, I noticed the fantastic `` quote that can ask PHP to fetch Perl's printed results. It was exactly what I wanted, but eventually I didn't use it as I changed my plan. Yet, I'm mentioning this trick (or maybe not) here as a reminder for the uncertain future.

The renovated CSS went very fun. I this time again combined frame.css and colour.css together as it's more consistent. I've forgotten the reason of choosing "il mare dei suoni", but it surely happened after I restyled most blocks to have less rounded corners and used the pretty #16358c as the universal background. Maybe it's an implication that I shall remake my previous piece (I haven't decided what to paint next but at least this isn't under planning right now).
Also, through this huge layout rewrite I finally said goodbye to the "cherry cream soda" font, and integrated the less "comic" looking "Milonga". Although I wished to use something interesting as the default font, it probably won't be decent in terms of loading time so I'm stick to Yu Gothic.

Surface Duo looks cute and I'm looking forward to create a Gehrman in Nioh 2! (>ω<)

Perhaps in my source xml file, the <date> field isn't really serving as a reference for myself at all, rather it brings much trouble in terms of typing, especially in January. (I'll keep it anyhow since I'm not motivated to remove all such tags from more than 10 xml files.)
Alternatively, as the year increases, in terms of managing all files it might be a good idea to put all text into one single file. They're not large, just a few MB altogether, I just tried. But the merged version will cause a little lag if as type more into. So this plan was impractical and immediately dropped.

Due to the lack of kilobytes in previous files, although I'm not expecting much along with a new year, I do want to start with some changes, to "type" more, electronically. (Yet I've already got a two-week span of nothing.)
Regardless, I'm not a fan of keeping an analogue notebook for this purpose any more, even though that format is sometimes quicker to save flashing-by thoughts, I know I won't be able to organise them in an eligible fashion. Also, honestly, I'm not the type who will enjoy reading past posts at all. But just in case, I write them, if there're things worth writing.

In brief, this season's challenge (for me) is getting it smooth while switching between arco mode and pizz mode, which I've never practiced before.

Fortunately or unfortunately, they appear in all pieces as:
- in Bizet:

- in Hardiman:

- and in Tchaikovsky:

Good luck on this! Since my index usually lost and land outside of the fingerboard. ~_~
Still overall, I'm super happy with Tchaikovsky, would be even better if it's the whole piece.

The motivation hasn't returned, so no progress in the completion of cute souls, nor being able to predict it.
Nonetheless, I can't let it sitting still forever, so how shall I resume it since this weekend and give it a rush to the end?
I should have known that "souls" can't be tuned to the level of cuteness as imagined, at least for the current visual arrangement.

As far as I've read, there's no "i++" nor "i--" in python, what a shame!
In addition, there's no ";" (though legal) nor "{}" (sadly illegal). Since no other languages I'm using complain between tab and space, the restriction in space-based indentation remains as my top one hatred of python. Agree with me or not, the $@% signs in perl are cute.
Though it may be easier to read, I want to clarify here, that I decided to learn it because of its popularity, not of my inner interest.
Also I don't like how they differentiate between tuples and arrays, sounds tedious, even they say there's a historical reason.

The last thought:
Perl has $, PHP has $, C doesn't, and Python doesn't...
IntEreStINg.

So the progress of Cute Souls has been on hold for a while, after I finished brushing the golden shining dragonslayer armour. My motivation has been much emptied after this and would like a small break.
I'll try to finish it soon anyways though the probability seems small, especially the background.

Meanwhile, I (really) just found the awesome function in ClipStudio Paint about the 3D design model. Found it while I was looking for some texture for brass. Played with that for just a short moment and I was immediately willing to throw away the stiff 3D mode that I bought with ~$13.
I've been looking for a more proper/flexible/realistic human mode for long while without spending a lot. But there was never a conclusion. I'm glad I found this by (such a good) accident. Though it takes some time to get used to, the virtual model is so versatile. Not only it can be posed to any that a real human can do, it also allows you to change light source and even customise head-to-body ratio! Exactly what I'm looking for and perfect for anime-like illustration!

With a personal trigger a few days ago I decided to pick up on python again (I once read the "mouse" book about 3 years ago but eventually gave up). Since most people recommend python 3 and listed many differences between python 2 and 3, I thus checked the differences between perl 5 and 6.
Although didn't read, I've seen perl 6 books, they are mostly much thinner than counterpoints for 5. Some say that's still under development, which I'm not aware of and don't really care. However, I do want to know if it can be of any benefit to my own use.
While the answer is obvious. While the syntax has been changed all over those I commonly use, it's appealing in the ability of giving non ASCII variable names, built-in "use strict/warnings", less hassle for Data::Dumper and GetOpt, and the most important, the default utf8 usage.
I'm a bit motivated. Maybe I shall take a closer look after python (hope I can read to the last page this time!).

Being a sound mixer is fun, but not as fun as actually making the sound.
Or maybe my opinion would change with a better software.
Whatever, two traces of apparently-less-than-40-hours-per-day practice for Shikata Akiko's insane Do-Re-Mi songs, on Dec-8 [Hajimari no Oto] and Dec-14 [PF alpha] respectively.
They were taken in between of changing to a new rosin cake, which does look yummy.

Regardless my intonation, these two songs would be good examples for a chicken-derived rearrangement, though just by thinking on a bunch of chickens making these pitches I'll laugh...
Plus I don't have a chicken, and currently have no intention to buy one. Unless there's some instruction on how to play them properly.

↑I have to include this picture here as I spent 40 minutes on it.. ^^;