Application to join the team

I am, foremost, a relatively experienced texture artist. I have produced textures for a great number of modification projects, generally for personal use but also as part of teams, for various games such as KSP, HoI3, EU3, CK2, Vic2, WT, etc. I am capable of producing, editing- and if needed finding- graphical assets, particularly for use as interface elements but also as tileable textures and textures for use with 3d models. I am a practiced cartographer, using both traditional and digital methods, referenced and referenceless. I have a great deal of knowledge in several related fields, meaning that I could, for example, predict and map the changes in the course of a river which straddles a fault line over the course of several millennia, including the effects of local flora in the formation or lack thereof of a delta. I know a few obscure programming languages, such as that used by the Clausewitz Engine, and I am able and willing to learn others if needed. I have above the average share of knowledge about both speculative and actual biology and evolution, hence my interest here, but I am certainly no expert. Perhaps relevantly, I am a practiced neographer and conlinguist- if constructed languages or scripts are needed, I can provide. Perhaps, with the help of a programmer, I could even allow for the systematic creation and perhaps even evolution of either of those. Finally, I have the assets to produce music. I know a fair amount of musical theory, I have access to a MIDI editor, and I have a large catalogue of royalty-free music if the easy way out is desired. My microphone is fairly high quality if voicework or recorded nonstock sound effects are required, and there is a local recording studio if truly quality stuff is needed- I am good mates with the proprietor. PS: I also have above average 'googling skills' (I prefer Яндекс, actually.) if research is needed, as well as a small library of historical atlases and other literature.

In essence, I am an graphical and musical artist, a conlinguist and neographer, a cartographer, and I am flexible enough to undertake other roles.

I have a busy life, so the time I can invest in thus project may not be the greatest. However, I am no stranger to all-nighters. Further, I can and will invest effort every day if required. I am capable of working on schedules or with deadlines if required.

Hi

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interface elements

There's work to do on UI right now if you're interested (and if we ever decide on what it will look like...).

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for use with 3d models

Do you also do skinning? If so (and also if not, but especially if so), you could be really useful making models for organelles right now.

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practiced cartographer ... of a delta

Practical experience with terrain generation and all that will come in handy once we get to tuning planet-generation algorithms, for sure.

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learn others if needed

Understanding the flavors of XML we use and having a passing understanding of Lua will come in handy down the road, so if you decide to stick around you'll pick up at least a smattering of each.

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neographer and conlinguist

We'll need many more like you eventually.

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with the help of a programmer

I'm game. Sometimes I wish I could just skip ahead in development so I can work on stuff like this, but the time will come eventually at least.

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produce music

Musicians are always nice -- feel free to head over to the music team and compose something. From what I know, we're currently pretty much set for microbe stage, but we'll always welcome more music.

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microphone ... recorded nonstock sound effects ... local recording studio

I'll be Belgiumed, it never occurred to me that we could be using stock sound effects instead of making Oliveriver slave over synthesizing some that'll meet his standards. Since we probably want them made in-house though, then your good mic will come in handy.

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busy life ... no stranger to all-nighters ... effort every day ... schedules ... deadlines

Dependable? I like you. We're very forgiving of team members who disappear often (like me), and we don't really hold people much to their promises of delivering. So don't worry about your busy life ruining your standing in the team. As work speeds up and we start getting serious about schedules, it'll be good to have more people who, like you, will be able to work under deadlines. So far, however, we don't have enough people like that, covering all the bases necessary, to really push forward with everything quickly. And with the slowdown caused by heavy discussion, I'm not sure it'll be enough. Anyway, I'm getting off-topic and just complaining about random things.

Welcome to the team.

First of all, welcome to the team!
I see that you have very diverse and useful skills, thats great.

Oneven wrote:

Finally, I have the assets to produce music. I know a fair amount of musical theory, I have access to a MIDI editor, and I have a large catalogue of royalty-free music if the easy way out is desired.

I'd like to listen what you already have composed, and what are your most typical genres.

Oneven wrote:

My microphone is fairly high quality if voicework or recorded nonstock sound effects are required...

Aaaah! You're so lucky to have a high quality studio microphone... I want one.  :(

Finally, one question:
Do you have experience or knowledge in sound design?

Madero wrote:

First of all, welcome to the team!
I see that you have very diverse and useful skills, thats great.

moopli wrote:

Welcome to the team.

Thank you, glad to be here.

Madero wrote:

I'd like to listen what you already have composed, and what are your most typical genres.

As you will. Unfortunately, I have recently suffered a hard-drive failure, which lost me some important pieces of software and music. I probably still have some somewhere, in which case I'll upload something. If not, I'll do a piece soon enough. Mind, both my USB piano and traditional upright are going to be unavailable for a week or two. Genre-wise? Generally, those which could be called old fashioned- not electronic, rock, hip-hop, et all. Marching music, broader orchestral pieces, simplistic one person piano melodies... more my style. I imagine I'll mostly be useful in the Awakening, Society, and Industrial stages, since I haven't really played with the more atmospheric, 'natural' themes which are likely suitable for the early stages or the futuristic stuff the latter stages would most likely have. I need to clarify though: The aforementioned catalogue is of pieces done by other people, not by me. I don't think I have previously released anything on the internet.

Madero wrote:

Finally, one question:
Do you have experience or knowledge in sound design?

Meaning? If you mean digital music as apposed to traditional, yes. If you mean other elements of aural design, such as atmospheric sounds, no. I could learn, though. If you are following another definition, please enlighten me.

moopli wrote:

There's work to do on UI right now if you're interested (and if we ever decide on what it will look like...).

I tried to parse the mess in the relevant threads and failed. Any further explanation or links would be nice. I have a concept in mind for a loading bar, though, if that's helpful in any way.

moopli wrote:

Do you also do skinning? If so (and also if not, but especially if so), you could be really useful making models for organelles right now.

I haven't done anything of the sort previously, other then making use of existent templates. As for applying textures via a 3d modeling program? No, and neither do I have any such program.

Welcome to Thrive Oneven!

It's spectacular to see all the skills you have to offer. Moopli and madero pretty much covered all the bases of anything I was going to say, so if you have any questions don't be afraid to ask.

EDIT: However I would like to reemphasize that at the moment you're GUI skills I think would be the most useful.

NickTheNick wrote:

Welcome to Thrive Oneven!

It's spectacular to see all the skills you have to offer. Moopli and madero pretty much covered all the bases of anything I was going to say, so if you have any questions don't be afraid to ask.

EDIT: However I would like to reemphasize that at the moment you're GUI skills I think would be the most useful.

Your will be done. I must reiterate, though: any links to relevant threads available? I'm slightly lost regards the various GUI/Menu/&c threads. The music related ones, however, seem well organized and accessible, which will be useful in future.

--As an aside, is my avatar alright? I didn't see any rules against political imagery around, but you never know. I made it in about 30 minutes, just now, by taking a low quality picture of the clutter on one of my tat shelves and then editing it in a rush. For the knowledgeable, I guess it's a digital Dembel Cockade? No idea. Before anyone asks, yes the text says Oneven; the typeset is Sütterlinschrift.

Hey and welcome Oneven!

Oneven wrote:

any links to relevant threads available?

GUI's currently discussed here and here on GitHub. 

Oneven wrote:

--As an aside, is my avatar alright? I didn't see any rules against political imagery around, but you never know

I don't believe there's any problem with it, though we haven't had a discussion about it as you could see.

Welcome!  :D 

Oneven wrote:

Finally, I have the assets to produce music. I know a fair amount of musical theory, I have access to a MIDI editor, and I have a large catalogue of royalty-free music if the easy way out is desired. My microphone is fairly high quality if voicework or recorded nonstock sound effects are required, and there is a local recording studio if truly quality stuff is needed- I am good mates with the proprietor.

Great, although referring to your music creation software as a MIDI editor does give me some doubts - could you elaborate on the exact program? MIDIs, while useful for scoring and composing, don't have the instrument sound quality we'd be looking for on the soundtrack. However, if you're referring to a DAW  such as Cubase, Logic or FL Studio (as they work with MIDIs but don't output them) then you can ignore this paragraph.

Using music from other sources has been discussed before, but for the time being we've decided to stick with our own composers' efforts. Working with sound effects is something on the agenda at the moment, and as of yet no one here has the ability to actually record anything, only synthesize from other sounds, so high quality recording equipment would be extremely useful as long as we can decide on what we want to record.

Incidentally, the GUI thread is here. I'll admit it is quite a mess compared to the music threads, but that's because it's been difficult to work out how we should go about creating it.

EDIT: Ninja'd by Cheese, so that last paragraph is now obsolete.  :) 

Oliveriver wrote:

Great, although referring to your music creation software as a MIDI editor does give me some doubts - could you elaborate on the exact program? MIDIs, while useful for scoring and composing, don't have the instrument sound quality we'd be looking for on the soundtrack. However, if you're referring to a DAW  such as Cubase, Logic or FL Studio (as they work with MIDIs but don't output them) then you can ignore this paragraph.

I will note regards making music that I am essentially self taught; I was writing notation using my own system before I ever knew the modern standard notation, and I still don't know it well enough to, say, use it to participate in an orchestra. I am essentially self-taught in the world of digital music too. Regarding software, I currently only have Audacity due to the aforementioned drive failure, and obviously that's not enough to do anything. I'll be reacquiring the rest of my kit soon enough, which includes a fair number of NI products. Yes, including Cubase.

Huh, well that makes two self-taught musicians. While I have actually learnt theory and notation in a more conventional manner, I've had no formal lessons on piano and nothing in the way of digital music tuition, so I can see where you're coming from. If you can get Cubase working at some point soon, it'd be great. :) 

Oliveriver wrote:

Huh, well that makes two self-taught musicians.

That makes 3 then =)