The Ikros Scrolls

Technical difficulties

2006-05-16T16:13:00.000-07:00

As you may or may not have noticed, my site is pretty much broken, and very few pages work. The server on which my site is hosted died, and the hard drive wiped.

Needless to say I will have to reload the site, which I have a copy of, but this will take time. Please bare with me till I'm finished...

The Sorrow of Garadaine

2006-04-22T23:46:00.000-07:00

I've been sitting on a prologue that was written by my good friend Leonard Hoffman for the better part of three years now. Lenny one day contacted me, after reading the bio of the character Garadaine, and decided his background was simply too important and intriquing not to expand. We had grand ideas of illustrating it, but between everything that never materialized.

But as a story, what Lenny wrote was astounding, and I just couldn't sit on in any longer. So please, feel free to stop on by and read the official prologue to The Chronicles of Ikros: Chaos Skies - The Sorrow of Garadaine.

Some new (old) stuff

2006-02-18T21:49:00.000-08:00

I've just added some old stuff to the Chaos Skies MOCs page. Check out Halcyon Castle, version two, and the pride of my building career - Ulmaris Castle.

I'll build actual pages for them later.

A little heads up

2005-12-07T09:35:00.000-08:00

As I work on writing Chapter 10, I just wanted to send out a little heads up about it. This new chapter will be another one of those chapters that doesn't follow our hero, Garadaine; but hopefully it'll prove to be fun anyway.

The Process

2005-11-13T21:57:00.000-08:00

I've been asked frequently just what the process is in creating a chapter, and just why it takes so long. Well my answer to that last point is because I have a life outside of the net, and it frequently takes me away from being able to produce the next chapter.

But when I do have time, here's how it works:

When I start a story, I write up a master outline that lays out the major plot devices. It's very simplistic, but it helps me get the story hashed out.

Then I go to whatever chapter that needs writing. Obviously if I've just created the outline, this would be chapter 1, currently I'm looking at chapter 10. I sit down and I write the chapter, surrounding the major plot points. Why don't I write the whole thing out at once? I don't know, it just works this way for me.

After that, I build whatever MOCs or sets I need for the chapter. Sometimes I change the chapter to suit the MOC, but most of the time the MOC is built for the chapter. Building sets usually only takes a day, but building a fully detailed building usually takes anywhere from a day to a month, maybe longer.

Then I print out the finalized chapter and mark out where I plan to take each picture. My current scheme is to have a chapter with 9 pages with 33 - 39 pictures.

Of course, next I take the pictures. I pose the figs the way I need them to be and I take the shot. Typically I take four or five shots per scheduled picture, making sure to get the right pic, or at the very least, the best pic I can given my lighting conditions and hardware.

Then comes post production. I need to at least crop and re-size the pictures, if not add special effects. Chapter 9 had very few special effects, whereas chapter 8 had many. Post-production for Chapter 9 only took a few hours.

Finally, all that's left is building the HTML pages for the chapter pages, typically 11 or 12, and uploading them to the site.

Hopefully, that'll give you some idea as to what it takes to produce a single chapter of my story, and just why it takes so long.

The Name Change

2005-11-10T19:35:00.000-08:00

I've had it scheduled for a while, but I've finally implemented it. My two stories, The Chronicles of Ikros and Ikros: Chaos Skies have been renamed under the larger title "The Chronicles of Ikros."

Ikros: Chaos Skies will be now known as 'The Chronicles of Ikros: Chaos Skies,' or more simply "Chaos Skies."

The original Chronicles of Ikros will now be known as 'The Chronicles of Ikros: The Immortal War,' or more simply "The Immortal War."

Chapter 9 - Online!

2005-11-10T14:26:00.000-08:00

I've recently finished Chapter 9 of Chaos Skies, the sequel to my epic tale of Ikros, The Immortal War. Want to check it out? Click HERE.

And of course, if you need to catch up on the first story, you can always go HERE.

Welcome to the Ikros Scrolls!

2005-11-10T14:06:00.000-08:00

Howdy! Welcome to the Ikros Scrolls, the news blog for my website, www.ikros.net. Look here for all updates, announcements and other Ikros related material.