FOSA Preamble

[Bella]

@Kiso: Hmmmm....how about a compromise between a futuristic hologram microwave and a command-line oven?

@C-Chan: Nice job on the plant. I might detail the oven/microwave if I have the chance. Somehow I want to put FCL-tan's hat in that oven @___@

I also sorta wanna draw a -tan. As a different document, of course, and maybe I'll do a simple outline of where she could go....

But I don't wanna forget...

Keep It Simple!

@Techno: I can't wait to see the AbraEggs! I wonder what would hatch out of 'em...

*thinks of Abra/FCL lovechild...or would that be lovechick*

*passes out cold*

And, yes, some of our forum members have posted to Nijura (or is that ++? I always get the two mixed up...)

For shame, cause Shiba Inus are the best dogs in the world!!! ^v^

Them fightin' words when told to a Tibetan breeds fan

Shih tzus are especially beloved by me. For small dogs they certainly don't have the kind of neurotic attitude that is often associated with the Toy group.

.....

That is, if your definition of a dog is actually a "Cat-Dog", cause that's what my beloved Shiba is. Intelligent and cunning, fast and agile, strong-willed and independent, graceful and elegant, proud and a fine gourmand. She don't need no stinking humans to survive, but her Highness does concede to allow me to be her Royal Scratcher and provider of provisions. She considers anything smaller than her edible, and is the terror of mice, squirrels and insects. Like the old saying, she rarely barks, but has a wolf's bite. ^____^

The fact that she's Japanese also helps blend well with my Anime collection. ^v^
(in fact, I name her after my favorite Japanese Singer,... won't say who it is, though... ^.^)

Here's a fantastic website (funny as hell too):

http://www.bravewolf.ca/shibainu.html

That site is funny...! Though Shiba's seem a bit to high-energy for me, I'd never be able to keep up with one

Cat-dog, eh? That sounds like one of my dogs (right down to the hating water and aloof attitude)...though my other girl is a lot more cuddly and people-oriented, and is outdoorsy and water-loving to boot (she's a sporting dog in a small, furry body)

[Kiso]

@Foxytech (Techno the Fox): Yes people... I know who that pig is based off. An fan can really be considered an actual anime/manga fan until they watch Ranma 1/2... no matter how many of the Dragon Ball series you have seen.

Oh and thank you Foxy for the avatar comment.

@Bella: Uhm... making the difference in technologies be more apparent than how it would be? That could work, I mean... if you think about it, DOS is to GUI what an oven is to a microwave oven... obvious evolution of technology.

@CC: Uhm, pattern along... wha...? You mean the plant, right? If so, it was a rather nice thing to make, more organic.

Mushy Stuff...
Hmm... you got a point... even though I still dislike it, I seem to tolerate.

Avatar Matters
Okay, I guess I'll follow your suggestion be hitting the resize factory soon... and maybe even the animation factory as well. But I guess I'll be getting to that by tomorrow, today I am too tired to be messing with raster images.

Pun Characters
Actually, that you say is object-based punning. What I meant was to make actual characters to pun on people. I hate Toshiaki... his existence is worth nothing in my eyes... and creating actual people (even if just for our projects) would give a different taste to the OS-tan world... even though not exactly the thing that would be called as influential, or even acceptable. I just thought of making something different than what people usually see, know what I mean?

OS-Tan Anime
Hmm... I think we can make an anime without getting out asses sued for it. How? Simple answers really, all you need to do is:

--| Copyrights: One's Greatest Ally and Enemy
Copyright your stuff without claiming full ownership of anything. You can do this by simply adding disclaimers. I guess that's what people do when they make parodies in Robot Chicken (aired Cartoon Network's Adult Swim segment).

Now, one might also want to reach out further and look towards copyrights of stuff already owned by someone else. You can take a lok at the rights they have and find out whether or not they allow use of stuff and even may give hints as to what can be done.

--| Credits: A Powerful Friend
Give credit where credit is due. If one doesn't claim full ownership of the characters, we might as well give credit to all sources that inspired the creation of the character (Microsoft, Apple, Nijiura, and any other places where designs may have been taken from).

--| Fincance: The (Double) Agent
Never use the art with commercial intentions. If we don't fully own it or have licenses that allow us to make commercial use of all the stuff that appears on the anime, this one is the important thing to do.  Sure, we can ask for donations in order to maintain a site or a hosting service to keep the thing available. And we can even pay people to work for us in making the anime. But that's about as much as we can do in terms of finance, asking for money to allow people to view the anime will make us easy target practice for the big company lawyers as well as any other people who get in to simply add up busing on us.

"How do you know this again Kiso?"
I actually am not sure about anything, but if people haven't been sued for making OS-tan fan-art (or even doujins) by now, I don't think there is much that would affect us if we tried making an actual anime. After all, anime is just another form of fan-art... one that's more complex and/or elaborate. We can simply call this out as a anime doujin if we commit to do it... even though most things except character names and some already made designs probably would be actually original stuff. But still, it is likely that we will not be attacked for making such stuff.

To even up the playing field, one can even include ads in the anime to allow commercialization of products in order to compensate for making use of their copyrighted stuff.

Whoever said "two wrongs don't make a right" was crazy... or... never came across meeting me. Heh-heh-heh-heh.

Funny thing how I happen to be that "Jack of all Trades" kind of guy, I guess I just happened to be in the right place at the right time... now I have the ability to test out how good I really can be at animating... even more because now I can make complex stuff.

@Everyone: Man... this is tough, I still have yet to finish up my suggestion stuff on standards for the FOSA project. But I promise that I will not let this go past tomorrow because we need to discuss this before we go official.

[C-Chan]

Hmmm, the question is...If I pour cold water on you will you turn into a human of some sort?
Heheh

Not...... quite......
But......
What happens when I get doused with cold water.... is classified.  ^___^;

But really, Abraxas Brand eggs are A-go I shall start drawing soon!

Awesome blossom!  ^__^
Coupled with Bella-sama's FCL hat roast, and we have the lovely pair together in the same picture again (in spirit, anyway).

I was also thinking of putting Akuma-chan on the back of a milk carton.
Well, have you seen her recently? I haven't or mabye I'm just not looking in the right places. The only board on Nijiura that I actually know what it is, is the one that has "OS-tan" in the name.
But if she comes out of whatever hole she's fallen into, does that mean I get an extra month of winter?

Akuma who?  ^____^'

Speaking from experience, Google's translator doesn't work on Nijiura or 2chan.

I use a translation service called Nifty to do most of my translation at ++.  Used to be Bestiland, but not they don't seem to work much anywhere.  ;'__';

@Kiso: Hmmmm....how about a compromise between a futuristic hologram microwave and a command-line oven?

You mean like Compiz Fusion?  ^_____________^

*drum roll*

*laughs at own silly geek joke*

@C-Chan: Nice job on the plant. I might detail the oven/microwave if I have the chance. Somehow I want to put FCL-tan's hat in that oven @___@

That I can't wait for.  ^v^
BTW, want me to detail how Pattern Along Paths work?
It takes a bit getting used to, but it produces very interesting results (and besides, I think it's improved a lot in version 0.46).  They describe it a little here in the 0.45 screenshots:

http://inkscape.org/screenshots/gallery/inkscape-0.45-patternalongpath.png

I also sorta wanna draw a -tan. As a different document, of course, and maybe I'll do a simple outline of where she could go....

But I don't wanna forget...

Keep It Simple!

Speaking of which, because the Source Art is already past the 1MB file upload limit, we might have to separate some things (such as objects) into a separate document, or at least agree that the main source file be kept in ZIP format for the time being.  Both are only temporary solutions, though, as it won't be long before even the ZIP grows too heavy to post.  Will need additional technical expertise from the admins on this.  ^___^

In the meantime, try to create standalone patches as much as possible (overhang plant #2 will be standalone, for example).

But I don't wanna forget...

Keep It Simple!

I think we're having plenty of fun decorating the bare kitchen for now -- it could even be used as a backdrop for another image in the future in case we switch to another project during the Grand Opening.  Certainly if we do work on an OS-tan, it'd probably be easier to have it as a standalone character.  Even easier if it's already half-vectorized, but otherwise unfinished.

@Techno: I can't wait to see the AbraEggs! I wonder what would hatch out of 'em...

Well of course, "CadabraEggs"!  `v'

*thinks of Abra/FCL lovechild...or would that be lovechick*

*passes out cold*

*C-chan tosses self over Bella and faints*  ^______^

And, yes, some of our forum members have posted to Nijura (or is that ++? I always get the two mixed up...)

*points to Alfamille-san*

That site is funny...! Though Shiba's seem a bit to high-energy for me, I'd never be able to keep up with one

Oh believe you and me,... if you're not eccentric enough for a very eccentric dog, better leaving them be.  My Shiba is obsessively clean, non-destructive, and very low maintenance in many areas, but by GAWD she's high maintenance when it comes to other animals, dogs, cats, children, people she doesn't seem to like.  If she were human, she'd be considered chemically unbalanced.  ^__________^;

Cat-dog, eh? That sounds like one of my dogs (right down to the hating water and aloof attitude)...though my other girl is a lot more cuddly and people-oriented, and is outdoorsy and water-loving to boot (she's a sporting dog in a small, furry body)

*squeals with delight*

SISTER!!!!!!!  ^V^

*leaps to hug Bella*

Seriously, we could OT the thread to the ground with so many lovable stories about cute cuddly cat-dogs (although my Shiba also qualifies as a viscious huntress trapped inside a teddy bear's body).

@CC: Uhm, pattern along... wha...? You mean the plant, right? If so, it was a rather nice thing to make, more organic.

But top-heavy, no?  Might go back in there tomorrow to shave off unnecessary nodes (not now, though Friday night after a hard week calls for much fun!).  ^___^

Check the pic above for guidelines on how to use Path Along Pattern (I'll call it "PAP").

Actually, that you say is object-based punning. What I meant was to make actual characters to pun on people. I hate Toshiaki... his existence is worth nothing in my eyes... and creating actual people (even if just for our projects) would give a different taste to the OS-tan world... even though not exactly the thing that would be called as influential, or even acceptable. I just thought of making something different than what people usually see, know what I mean?

You checked out Thurosis' OS-tan Collections Comic yet?  ^_____________^

Plus I hate Toshiaki too, except in the Mac Manga and Aurora's Zerosanity comic.  There he's actually funny/useful.  ^v^

Hmm... I think we can make an anime without getting out asses sued for it. How? Simple answers really, all you need to do is:

[list of reasons]

Course simpler still is to just avoid the hassle and base a complete original anime on completely free and different OSes that the Windows-centric world might not know exist, or realize they're actually quite cool.  Certainly would help bring more expore to our counterpart, FOSS.  ^.^

Admittedly. none of my ideas for mangas/dream animes are without at least some cameo of a proprietary OS-tan (such as a Windows-tan, a Mac-tan, or even my beloved Amiga).  In that respect, all I can say is that we might as well just go for it.  The reason no one's been sued (by a major company at least, although there has been infighting among OS-tan artists before) is because all the projects have been of relatively low scale.  It's probably more humble to assume that our own would-be anime would be of a similarly small scale as well, not unlike Infinity Zero-san's music video:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSNy1aoyBtw

*squeals with joy at Amiga-sama's cameo*  ^___^

One thing I'm definitely against would be commercialization-anything.  I think there's more than enough ads circling all about our everyday lives.  Today my favorite stand vendor was using bags with an airline commercial, for crying out loud!  `v'

The only ads I wouldn't mind (and in fact, help pay for this forum) are for FOSS projects.  You'll often see them above, sprinkled amongst those infernal Google Ads.  ^___^
Speaking of which, may be time to scrounge scrounge around for a banner ad for Inkscape....  -v-

*starts searching*

[Tsubashi]

Oh... goodness....
This thread certainly took of quick, ne? It's going to take me a while to fully comprehend everything; I only just finished quick-reading the thread. ^v^;

Gomen, I don't have much time, since I'm sorta mooching WiFi off our corporate office here in NY, but I just wanted to say good job everyone! In all honesty, I think FOSA is the most brilliant idea I have ever seen put into action, and is working far better, far quicker than I had ever expected. Way to be!!!

Again, I'm really sorry if it seems I'm not responding to a lot. Quick answer: I'm not. If I have my way, I'll write a very long post when I fly home. Gomen nasai! ^.^

--| Copyrights: One's Greatest Ally and Enemy
Copyright your stuff without claiming full ownership of anything. You can do this by simply adding disclaimers. I guess that's what people do when they make parodies in Robot Chicken (aired Cartoon Network's Adult Swim segment).

No, technically Senpai is entirely right. Due to the nature of the Windows -tan's design I fear that any inclusion of them in an anime would violate copyright laws, as the "Use of Microsoft Copyrighted Content" documents points out:

Microsoft does not allow the use of its icons in advertising, in books and other printed matter, on clothing or other promotional items, in online and Internet locations, in software applications, in television programs, in commercials, in movies, or on videotape. Icons are not to be used as "artwork" or design elements.

Icon being "the thumbnail-size images [that] indicate a Microsoft product"

The Apple girls... maybe... Apple's legal documents leave a little more wiggle room, but given their previous overreactions to seemingly minor things, I wouldn't push the limits too much ^.^

[Kami-Tux]

I would like to be active here, but I have lots of things to do in real life...

[Kiso]

Hmm... good points you have there CC and Tsu-Tsu... copyright infringement is one b****h to watch out for. However, we can always create the characters and make designs changes so that we don't get sued for stuff. If it isn't copyrighted, branded, trademarked or anything like that, they can't sue.

[C-Chan]

Tsubashi:  YES!!!  His made his debut, and showers the project with TsuTsu goodness and wisdom and so forth.  ^___^

Penguin God:  Well as long as you pop in every once in a while, we'll count that as participation.

Kissu:  Patent laws are worse, but yeah would be nice if we didn't have so much stuff potentially stifling innovation.  However, if it ever comes down to making a Doors XP, or a Pear OSX, I'd rather keep them as secondary characters and make the free OS-tans the main ones.  ^.^

ALL;  Sorry, a bit late so I have to rush through all my posting tonight.  Couldn't work on the kitchen today, so I figured I'd sauce something I worked on for a previous project.  Consider it a little shameless self-promotion.... ^.^

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Kiso]

*comes in a skipping-ly playful walk*

“...robu, robu, robu no sei na no yo…”

*coughs*

Uhm... sorry peeps, that song is actually catchy...

After like 12,039,458,720,349,568,235,098,375 times of watching that video I came to realize that it would actually make for an awesome ending sequence to an OS-tan anime if one was ever made... it's so darn cute.

Also CC, how I see it... Amiga would be more of a minor character rather than being one to have a cameo appearance. I mean, she had a good a mount of screen time. And also, if you pay attention, she appears in that group of people of 16 people at the last short scene. Being among the “top 16” from about 30 characters that appeared, I would say that she at least has significance.

---  ---  ---   ---   ---

@CC: Well, that is a mighty good point there that you have, but it still makes use of stuff. But we can simply call them by their "code" names instead (Visbou, Chiivis-tan, Saseko, Homeko, Moseko, 2k-chan, etc.). All we need to make sure of is not making literal reference to copyrighted stuff.

But then again... can't we simply ask permission to use their copyrighted material? It's not like we're something to gain money out of it. And... it's just for "parody" purposes. I'm sure people can be considerable enough to allow us use of their copyrighted stuff... and it would be good publicity for them also.

But who knows? Guess the only exact way is to simply ask permission of use of the material.

---  ---  ---   ---   ---

Anyways, I made research on how to save space on our work. It turns out that compressed SVG file formats do work correctly, and they reduce file size quite significantly. However, none of them are viewable from a web browser so you might need to open them with Inkview in order to see the image.

These formats are:
Compressed Inkscape SVG (*.svgz)
Compressed Plain SVG (*.svgz)
Compressed Inkscape SVG With Media (*.zip)

Other formats I have yet to test, but I doubt their sizes will be low.

---  ---  ---   ---   ---

Note: The following is just a list of suggested standards for the project, and thus will contain stuff that may already be in use by people or may have already been stated. None the less, these are the things that I consider should be used as standards, not only to make it look “professional”, but to also improve the quality and productivity of our work.

[FILE NAMES]
Here I will explain what the standards for filenames should be. This is to keep track of the project’s development progress. That way, no one members of the FOSA team will have a version of the source art that is missing an addition or have a different feature.

Source Files
Source art should be named as “FOSA_<N>-<S>.<V>.<P>-<U>”.
Example: FOSA_Kitchen-0.2.1-CC

This Means What:
N = Name of the project.
Example: FOSA_Kitchen-X.X.X-KS

S = Status of the project’s progress, mainly to tell if the project is completed or not. This is represented by a number, and if this number is set higher than “0” (zero), it means the project is to be considered as finished. Every number would mean that the project has a variant and should not be considered equal or an improvement to the previous completed project.
Example: FOSA_Kitchen-1.X.X-KS and FOSA_Kitchen-2.X.X-KS would be two separate sets of the “FOSA_Kitchen” project.

V = Version of the project. The number given defines the level of detail or expansion that the project has gone under; the higher it is, the more complex and/or detailed the project is. Note that versions can go higher than “9” (nine)... as in... 10, 11, 12, and so on without limit. Also, this does not influence the status number unless the team decides otherwise.
Example: FOSA_Kitchen-X.167.X-KS

P = Patch level of the project. This is represented by a number, and the higher it goes, the closer to a new version it is. Very ten patches could be considered as a new version, but standards can be set to a higher number in order to set a better quality level.
Example: FOSA_Kitchen-X.X.8-KS

U = Updater of the project... as in the person that made the last patch of the project. This is represented by two or three letters to tell one person apart from another and should be kept quite short.
Example: FOSA_Kitchen-X.X.X-KS[/c]

Patch Files
Independent patches should be named as “FOSA-Patch_<Name>”.
Example: FOSA-Patch_Oven

This Means What:
<Name> = Name of the project. This would be represented by the thing as is being added or updated by this patch into the source art. You can also add numbers

[PROJECT FORMATTING]
Here I will explain the standards of how the project should be dealt with. This is to help keep the productivity and quality of the project at a high leveled standard.

File Format
As a common standard for this project, I suggest that we make use of any of the compressed file formats that the software provides. I recommend making use of the “Compressed Inkscape SVG” format; it doesn’t bring the file size to an absolute minimum, but it actually reaches very close to it. This way we will not waste anytime between download and edition by having to take extra steps to save the file in the computer’s memory and then decompress it in order to be able to edit it, and at the same time one can save the “Inkscape Quality” of the SVG file.

Layering:
All projects should have the following layers: Concept, Characters, Objects, Scenery, Background, among others that may be added as preference and/or need for them come. This would help reduce the amount of material that is place under one given layer and creates a user-friendly environment to work under.

This Means What:
Concept - Here we can simply tell both in words and imagery what is wanted, needed, suggested for change in the project. This is a top-level layer and may to be under any other layer. A requirement for this layer is for it to have an opacity level (a.k.a. transparency) of 75% at the least. That ways it will not cover up stuff.

Characters â€" All characters will be placed in these layers (understatement). Any character layers would require being on top of scenery and object layers to avoid conflicts. However, they can also be under other scenery and object layers as needed... because characters aren’t always fully visible.

Objects â€" Here is where any objects that the character may interact with will be placed. If the character is going to take the object or make a complex interaction with the object and can’t be done under the current conditions, then it might then be moved to the character layer.

Scenery â€" Here all stuff that will be left untouched or for some reason can’t be interacted with in any other way than simply it being in there for the character to look at, step/sit on.

Background â€" This is the bottom most layer always, and here is where anything that the character can’t touch or interact with in any way at all except maybe looking at it. Examples may be a far away mountain, the star-filled night sky, the sun and the moon... just to say a few.

Patches:
There are a few things that I think would help when it comes to patching the source art.

Modifying the Source â€" If people want to make an addition or modification of the source file, state it before hand, that way people can be away that there may be something different in the source art, also to avoid people doing the same job as the person who intended to do it in the first place. Also, when uploading the patched source art, make sure to tell the filename of the last source art so that others know for sure what might be in the file and what might not. This is to avoid loss of content and having to work over changes again.

Miscellaneous Additions â€" If people want to make additions such as cameos, things for characters to use, or anything that may hold no exact significance to the overall goal of the project, then these should be brought up separately and be kept in a separate file until they come of use to the rest of the project. This project file would be called something like “FOSA_Misc-Objects” or something to reflect on it being a storage file and let people know what is in it.

Improving Techniques
We need to improve our techniques in order to increase the initial quality of the concept work done as well as reduce the amount of work being done in order to fix errors. Among these things we can include:

Using The Grid â€" If you clink on “View” on the file menu, you will note that there is the word “Grid” in the dropdown menu that will appear. If you click on it, gridlines will appear on the project. This would significantly help people when making perfectly vertical and horizontal lines as default file settings are set so that nodes (That’s the name of the dots, right?) stick to the many grid intersections that there are. Angles will be easily maintained this way also, given the person knows how angles are found (horizon and vanishing point... anyone?). In general, this is the thing you need if you want to make any kind of architecture or engineering stuff (rooms, boxes, tables, chairs, plates, tiles… list goes on) and believe me, it does become indispensable once you realize the full potential it has.
((Note: So far, I have not used the grid for the FOSA project. However, I have used it for other stuff on Inkscape, though mainly just to mess around with it.))

Defining The Angle â€" If we make guides to define the camera angle we can help increase the chances Remember me mentioning “vanishing point” and “horizon” just now? Well, that is used to define angles. If one is set up, people will have much trouble with making stuff “miss-angled”. I am sure that most of you know how to do this, but if you don’ I guess I might end up having to make a guide for it or link you to guides on how to properly define angle view via horizon and vanishing point.

So... what you guys think about that?

[C-Chan]

*C-chan's brain explodes*  GAAAH!!  Either you guys are on earlier time zones, or I'm not the only one staying this late.  T___T;

Sorry you caught me sleep-deprived.  I'll return later to answer all that.  ^.^

*flops on keyboard*

[Kiso]

Actually CC... I am sleep deprived also. But I wanted to keep my word on not letting this get past from yesterday, even though I did due to me messing with lots of stuff.

[Bella]

@Kiso and Tsubashi: An OS-tan anime has always been the impossible dream as it were; Besides the rabid corporate lawyer teams, spectacular amounts of work it would take, etc., I don't think I could just focus on one group (IE, the Windozez, Linuxes, or Vintage-tans). When you look at the entire OS-tan world picture, I think it would be far too complex to let "everyone have a piece of the pie"....

@ C-Chan:

Ooooh, an EeePC

Oh believe you and me,... if you're not eccentric enough for a very eccentric dog, better leaving them be. My Shiba is obsessively clean, non-destructive, and very low maintenance in many areas, but by GAWD she's high maintenance when it comes to other animals, dogs, cats, children, people she doesn't seem to like. If she were human, she'd be considered chemically unbalanced. ^__________^;

Heehee....I guess my dogs are like me in that 80% of the time they're calm and sensible, and the other part of the time they're crazy XD

[C-Chan]

FYI,... after my responses here and in one remaining thread, I'll work on getting Plant #2 added, but that's about all for the day.  I have to prioritize Operation "Bella Boost", and get it done before month's end.  ^___^

Oh... goodness....
This thread certainly took of quick, ne? It's going to take me a while to fully comprehend everything; I only just finished quick-reading the thread. ^v^;

Believe-you-and-me, TsuTsu-dono (that's catchy!  ^^), we've accumulated so much writing on this thread, that pretty soon the FOSA initiation will be like a breath of fresh air.  ^____^

In all honesty, I think FOSA is the most brilliant idea I have ever seen put into action, and is working far better, far quicker than I had ever expected. Way to be!!!

Thank you, TsuTsu-dono.  ^^
I certainly was impressed myself, although given the Pilot Run aspect of the FOSA kitchen, I'm not surprised if seeding has tapered off a bit in the last few days.  Our first project upon FOSA deployment will undoubtedly be something with a more definable goal -- such as an OS-tan character with a definable shape that people can work towards.

*comes in a skipping-ly playful walk*

“...robu, robu, robu no sei na no yo…”

*coughs*

Uhm... sorry peeps, that song is actually catchy...

After like 12,039,458,720,349,568,235,098,375 times of watching that video I came to realize that it would actually make for an awesome ending sequence to an OS-tan anime if one was ever made... it's so darn cute.

Plus the characters just seem to work, don't they?  ^___^
It's sad that their legendary popularity achieved here in OSC did not translate at all in the Western imageboards,... in my opinion, I think their cookie-cutter simplicity is what gives them their charm, and that the true originality is in how Infinity-san EMPLOYED them.  Beauty more in the delivery than the actual details.  ^.^

BTW, if you want to try your hand at Infinity-style minis, you do know I made some cheap-knockoffs available for people to work with.... ^.^

http://ostan-collections.net/downloads.php?view=detail&id=90
http://ostan-collections.net/downloads.php?view=detail&id=94

Also CC, how I see it... Amiga would be more of a minor character rather than being one to have a cameo appearance. I mean, she had a good a mount of screen time. And also, if you pay attention, she appears in that group of people of 16 people at the last short scene. Being among the “top 16” from about 30 characters that appeared, I would say that she at least has significance.

Fufu... dontcha think?  ^__^
Actually, Amiga-chan even had her own entry in the List of OS-tans Wikipedia article for a while,... that is, before they destroyed it.  But I'm definitely grateful for Infinity-san to have immortalized her in the video.  ^.^

BTW, quick trivia question:  you do know why I'm especially fond of Amiga-san, no?  ^____^

@CC: Well, that is a mighty good point there that you have, but it still makes use of stuff. But we can simply call them by their "code" names instead (Visbou, Chiivis-tan, Saseko, Homeko, Moseko, 2k-chan, etc.). All we need to make sure of is not making literal reference to copyrighted stuff.

But then again... can't we simply ask permission to use their copyrighted material? It's not like we're something to gain money out of it. And... it's just for "parody" purposes. I'm sure people can be considerable enough to allow us use of their copyrighted stuff... and it would be good publicity for them also.

But who knows? Guess the only exact way is to simply ask permission of use of the material.

Well,.... i believe the last time someone "asked" GAINAX to do something of hardly-questionable legality, that ended up rocking the boat so to speak.  ^^;

Sure, you seem invigorated to ask those people for X,Y and Z, and by all means, if at the time you feel this is unwarranted, I'll always encourage you to do the most lawful thing.

But what I'm trying to get at it is simple:  Is there any incentive to go through all that trouble?

Should I (and others who think like me) forfeit my heard-earned valuable time -- and bend over backwards to comply with their greedy laws to boot -- just to give more free promotion to some company that already rakes in BILLIONS of US dollars a year?  And is a convicted monopolist?  And has encouraged a culture of terrible e-Waste?  And destroys many startup companies that so much as smell like they would be a threat?  And steals the work of volunteer FOSS developers, patents them as their own, and then turns around and intimidates the original developer community with them?  AND is actively destroying attempts for people to self-service and expand their horizons beyond just knowledge of Word, Excel and 3D games?  AND ultimately strives to control everything I do, and not allow me the luxury of owning anything (not even the copy of Windows XP I think I own)?  

Or....

Would I rather spend it teaching people about other choices they may not be aware of?  If, for example, I made a charming manga about an Inkscape-tan that proves mildly popular, that would not only encourage more people to realize that there's more out there besides Adobe Illustrator, but it could ultimately infuse the Inkscape community with more badly-needed exposure and developers and testers and language translators and etc, etc, etc.  And maybe the resulting extra competition would also force Adobe to shape up (=stop bloating up their latest software) or ship out.

A true win-win situation for everyone, and best of all.... 100% legal and altruistic AND original (which means no one could accuse us of being Deja Vu, either).  ^^

Like I said, it's up to you where you want to devote your time and energy to.  But speaking only for myself, I chose my path long ago and love it too much to reconsider.  ^___^

Anyways, I made research on how to save space on our work. It turns out that compressed SVG file formats do work correctly, and they reduce file size quite significantly. However, none of them are viewable from a web browser so you might need to open them with Inkview in order to see the image.

These formats are:
Compressed Inkscape SVG (*.svgz)
Compressed Plain SVG (*.svgz)
Compressed Inkscape SVG With Media (*.zip)

Other formats I have yet to test, but I doubt their sizes will be low.

Good work!  ^^

I think the best one would be Compressed Inkscape SVG With Media.  Not just because of the familiarity, but also because the forum would have to be modified again to accept ".svgz" files as upload options.  ^^

*keeps typing*

Added after 6 minutes:

[FILE NAMES]
Here I will explain what the standards for filenames should be. This is to keep track of the project’s development progress. That way, no one members of the FOSA team will have a version of the source art that is missing an addition or have a different feature.

I definitely love the naming scheme, if only because it strikes a good compromise between what you wrote earlier and Nejin-san's proosals.  

so you can bet that has my C-chan Seal of Approval!  ^__^

In theory, then, I should call my EeePC file "FOSA-Patch_EeePC".

Added after 15 minutes:

[PROJECT FORMATTING]
Here I will explain the standards of how the project should be dealt with. This is to help keep the productivity and quality of the project at a high leveled standard.

On second thought, you're right the Inkscape ZIP feature doesn't seem to compress anything.  O___o

But then we're right back to the problem of uploading compressed svgs.  This may not be an issue in the future, based on work by TsuTsu-dono.  ^___^

In the meantime, we may have no choice but to either use manual zip files (if "svgz" doesn't work) or have the artwork broken up between two different source files.

Layering scheme I agree with.  And we already have that halfway setup in the FOSA_kitchen anyway, so we'll consider it a natural evolutionary trend of FOSA.  ^___^

Patches:
There are a few things that I think would help when it comes to patching the source art.

Again, it's possible that we'll have a new system in place specifically designed to better keep track of version numbers and stuff.  That, I'm sure, would be monumentally clearer than sifting through dozens of forum pages.  ^.^;

Improving Techniques
We need to improve our techniques in order to increase the initial quality of the concept work done as well as reduce the amount of work being done in order to fix errors. Among these things we can include:

Technique improvement will come naturally, believe me.  But I think that when you make suggestions like the ones you posed, they help in creating an equally-important learning environment.  In much the same way I posted an explanation of Pattern Along Path in the "Concepts" layer, so too could you post up mock guide angles and vanishing points for others after you to base themselves with.

Remember, in FOSA, all user input counts, so definitely feel free to make your voice heard.  ^___^

Added after 5 minutes:

An OS-tan anime has always been the impossible dream as it were; Besides the rabid corporate lawyer teams, spectacular amounts of work it would take, etc., I don't think I could just focus on one group (IE, the Windozez, Linuxes, or Vintage-tans). When you look at the entire OS-tan world picture, I think it would be far too complex to let "everyone have a piece of the pie"....

That's another reason why I've lately leaned more towards comic development then in the animation projects I had hoped to work on, such as this long-forgotten thing:

http://ostan-collections.net/viewtopic.php?p=9745&search_id=518134248#9745

The infrastructure to create a full-length Anime is daunting and potentially self-depleting, but a Manga work can achieve the same story impact and still be at least 500% more feasible to the average person.

@ C-Chan:

Ooooh, an EeePC

Told you it was shameless self-promotion.  ^^

Added after 2 hours 3 minutes:

Okay, plant #2 ready.  Cut down on a lot of needless shapes, although it's still pretty large.  

Aw well, such is the cost of buying "organic".  ^_________^

*laughs at own bad joke*

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Kiso]

Well,.... i believe the last time someone "asked" GAINAX to do something of hardly-questionable legality, that ended up rocking the boat so to speak. ^^;

Sure, you seem invigorated to ask those people for X,Y and Z, and by all means, if at the time you feel this is unwarranted, I'll always encourage you to do the most lawful thing.

But what I'm trying to get at it is simple: Is there any incentive to go through all that trouble?

Should I (and others who think like me) forfeit my heard-earned valuable time -- and bend over backwards to comply with their greedy laws to boot -- just to give more free promotion to some company that already rakes in BILLIONS of US dollars a year? And is a convicted monopolist? And has encouraged a culture of terrible e-Waste? And destroys many startup companies that so much as smell like they would be a threat? And steals the work of volunteer FOSS developers, patents them as their own, and then turns around and intimidates the original developer community with them? AND is actively destroying attempts for people to self-service and expand their horizons beyond just knowledge of Word, Excel and 3D games? AND ultimately strives to control everything I do, and not allow me the luxury of owning anything (not even the copy of Windows XP I think I own)?

Or....

Would I rather spend it teaching people about other choices they may not be aware of? If, for example, I made a charming manga about an Inkscape-tan that proves mildly popular, that would not only encourage more people to realize that there's more out there besides Adobe Illustrator, but it could ultimately infuse the Inkscape community with more badly-needed exposure and developers and testers and language translators and etc, etc, etc. And maybe the resulting extra competition would also force Adobe to shape up (=stop bloating up their latest software) or ship out.

A true win-win situation for everyone, and best of all.... 100% legal and altruistic AND original (which means no one could accuse us of being Deja Vu, either). ^^

Like I said, it's up to you where you want to devote your time and energy to. But speaking only for myself, I chose my path long ago and love it too much to reconsider. ^___^

Well, one can always go either (legal, illegal, or questionable) way. However, the true factor in all of this (personification of software/hardware/whatever) is acceptance... if there is no acceptance, it never grows popular. Then there's also that thing of not being advertised enough to grow wildly popular (this translates to an average person in the real or OS-tan world, usually being looked down upon by the more popular people at the top of the mountain) which keeps them as told of the smart searchers or the casual referred people. And yes, I know Gimp may be an exception to this, and maybe a few others that have been given given advertisement from major companies.

Oh and I hear ya' on that one thing... originality and legality would be the great thing... being "Deja Vu" is not going to work well... nor as one would prefer.

As for my path... I don't really have a path... I'm indifferent that way.

- - - - - - - - -

As for the proposal made... I guess if it's all good with you there is not much to be done except that of simply have it for implementation.

Before I forget, remember that definitions thing you made in the first page... you should put that in the first post so that it isn't missed by people who read the thread for the first time... just saying though.

- - - - - - - - -

Hmm... woah... that plant sure takes in size as much as XP-tan takes in food into her.

[C-Chan]

Fufu....

There's another artist on this board with a fascination for Windows 3.1-sama.  During our first and last collaborative project, we ended up disagreeing about a lot of things.  But one thing that we did agree on was to do artwork well (or in my case, fast), and not feel pressured to try and enter our creations in some weird popularity contest.  

First off, the fact that we're not Japanese artists already relegates us to a "niche" market of sorts.  Secondly, the nature of the people attracted to temporary internet memes may not offer much in the way of staying power.  When the Windows XP startup YouTube video appeared, we had a flood of about 200 people signing up to this board asking one of two things:

A)  Where can they download the startup program [despite that it didn't exist]?
B)  Where are the boobs?

Not finding the first one, and not caring to post enough to get the second, they left and forced poor TsuTsu-dono to eventually purge about 200 or more inactive accounts.  

But most importantly of all,... I don't know about you, but I find an awful lot wrong with how we conduct ourselves in this world, and I feel I'd lose my right to complain about it if I don't do my small part to put a stop to it.

Believe me, companies are experts in acceptance, popularity and advertisement.  They have entire marketing and PR divisions at their disposal to find out which combination of product elements or marketing decisions will sell a product fast and furiously.  They can make talentless-hacks into pop stars, wooden actors into movie stars, and corrosive cleaning fluid into a soft drink.  By the time people get bored with one product (which is happening quicker and quicker), they'll switch to something else.  But the end goal ultimately is not just to make a quick profit, but to lock in the consumers to ensure a continuous revenue stream of some kind -- and this involves a certain level of conditioning.  When they teach people, through repetition and suggestive advertising, to salivate at a triple-decker hamburger, feel the unconditional urge to replace their car each year, or pay illegal taxes, they start essentially fabricating their own popularity and acceptance.  Couple this with a simultaneous campaign to ridicule, villify, or ostracize people who chose to think outside the box, and the consumer is essentially stripped of the ability to think freely.

That's why I can't possibly trust levels of popularity until I have checked and rechecked if the popularity is well-deserved, and in most cases it's not.  So why keep propping up this dream, when I can take root, and start something original and empowering to the user/viewer?  Sure, I won't get the same massive popularity, but in return for my time investment I do get to have 3 very important things:

1)  Education -- because contrary to popular opinion, learning is cool, and sharing that with others is even cooler.
2)  Choice -- because monopolies won't disappear, and despair won't end, until people realize that choices exist.
3)  Peace -- both moral, and also physical.  Do you know how tiring it would be to churn out all those Vistan drawings each week?  I doubt I'd last more than a month....  ^_____^;

I pursued this in OSC, and did in fact help establish a small but strong community that dares to be different, creates new and original OS-tans, and researches high and low about computer history among many other things.  We've had people share drawing skills, perform teamwork, learn japanese, offer technical support, draft professionally-written proposals to improve FOSA...

*stares at you*

...We've had people ousted from the more mainstream imageboards come here, and offer appreciation for having their voices be heard, even if it meant just proposing alternative Vistan designs.  We've even had Japanese artists offer their appreciation for some of the works we created, despite the admonishment of our western counterparts.  And of course, we've had at least the beginnings of a coordinated and revolutionary team effort, which would be impossible under a more mainstream paradigm.

Now I think you know where the CC is coming from, and why I absolutely must insist you dig even harder and deeper if you really want to do something that no one's ever done before.  In creating something that's new -- and above all free from the influences of our everyday lives -- I think that helps enrich anyone's soul further.  When you help out other people struggling to do the same, I think it helps chip away at a system set in place to take that away from us.  And keep in mind that that doesn't apply just to art, but to writing, music, farming, engineering, crafts, hobbies, etc -- all the things that really make life worth living, and that a lot of people have brushed off for very reasons not all their own.  ^__^

As for the proposal made... I guess if it's all good with you there is not much to be done except that of simply have it for implementation.

Before I forget, remember that definitions thing you made in the first page... you should put that in the first post so that it isn't missed by people who read the thread for the first time... just saying though.

Actually, I haven't put my guidelines on the first post either, but not sure if I will do it for the Preamble -- probably for the initiation instead.

My impression so far about FOSA is that it does work, but that forum threads are completely ill-suited to hold something this large.  I'm therefore calling an end to the Pilot Run now,... not because it failed (on the contary, it succeeded beyond my wildest dreams), but because we physically can't continue due to current technical limitations and a major text bottleneck that's formed.  

Feel free to keep adding to it if you want to practice with Inkscape -- I will still be around to answer questions.

But officially, I want to hold off until we can reconvene again in February, hopefully in a specialized page if possible.

Hmm... woah... that plant sure takes in size as much as XP-tan takes in food into her.

In the end, pattern fills are the most efficient way to mimic organic objects -- but clearly, Pattern Along Path is the most realistic.  I'd say that particular experiment was a success.  ^^

[Techno the fox]

Akuma who? ^____^'

Akuma Gaoru of course.



I may have more of her, I'll have to dig around in my computer some.

As to this whole Copyright thing, none of the current Os-tans' design is really copyright infringing. They could easily pass as ordinary girls, 2K's shirt, 95's bow, and Emuii's badge come dangerously close though.
The problem I really see is their names, obviously we can't make an anime with "Windows ME-tan" and expect it to make it to the mainstream media without getting our @$$es sued.
A possible way to go around this is to just call them by their nicknames Emuii, 2K, Hacchan, Saba, Ect. But still, I'd rather not take any chances.

We could ask microsoft permission, but C-chan you do have a good point there.

My opinion is this:

When I first saw "Free and Open Sourced Anime" I thought it was an anime with the open sourced OS-tans being the main characters.
And that's perhaps the best Idea yet, the windows-tans have had several comics from Nijiura, 2chan, Deja Vu, and various other places based on them, I think they've gotten enough attention already.

By making the main characters  Open Sourced Oses, we won't run any risk of a lawsuit, and mabye we may just bring a few Open Sourced Oses into the light. Educate people about these Oses, and yes, there is more out there than Apple and Micro$oft.


With the number of people around here who use Inkscape, I'm really surprised no one's made an Inkscape-tan yet.

With all that being said, someone needs to pick a few Open Sourced Oses to be the main characters.