Gaia 9 Action News: June, 2010

[Pervy-Shinigami]

thats good news biggrin

i hope to see it soon <3

[RAPsody in Pink]

Awesome newsletter! biggrin And great new Airshark for Ocean Party ^_^
Can't wait to do the Achievements officially 3nodding

[Sapphire_God]

Derlaine is hot and sexy yaaaaa~! xd So is her "crew" heart

[Amanda the Panda Queen]

wahmbulance wahmbulance yar, airshark rox heart BUT!!! i think yew shuld make da exp to gaia gold permanent. 2 many things on gaia are in millions and if yer not a gaia-adicted person who constantly buys cash cards then we cant get much, and da ocean party exp. got meh sum nice items! wahmbulance wahmbulance

[baby_kitty_258]

Thanks for the AirShark...Awesome Newsletter....Is the party going to be a regular for Gaia, because that would be even more awesome.. smile )

[ohnobaozi]

Weeeeeee.

[The Hell Tutor]

Now here's a good newsletter.
I'm particularly interested in thelast segment about the programmer made artist.
... and why she's between three gay men.
Actually, no I don't want to know the reason behind the last one.

[MimikaiXIII]

scream cool

[Fawflux has FURY]

Cool. Except for the fact that all my fish have died!

I thought it said that your fish would not die anymore. That and what the heck is facebook??? You cannot receive the airshark unless you have an account there and if I sign up for any more forums I will lose my mind.

The achievemnts do intrigue me though.

[FoxieMama F]

[NPC] Cindy Donovinh

Meet The Staff: Derlaine Moves to Art!

As a member of Gaia's development team, Derlaine has worked on countless projects and helped code many of the features you use every day. All the while, she's been moonlighting as an artist-- you may have seen some of her work during events or in CI announcements, or maybe you happened to see her Gaia Art Walk thread.





Laine enjoys the company of some fancy gentleman friends.


Recently, she made big career move: she's been ruthlessly stolen by Gaia's creative team, where she can devote her full-time attention to painting instead of programming. Action News correspondent Cashmere Cactus sat down for a quick interview:





So are you an artist that got into coding, or a programmer who got into art? How'd you come to be both?


I'm an artist who got into coding; drawing has been a constant for most of my life whereas the computer came later. When we were in middle school, my older brother convinced my family to get a computer and I started messing around with HTML. Eventually it came time to choose a college major, it seemed natural to pick Computer Science. Art wasn't even on the table; the concept of doing art for a living was something beyond my understanding because I come from a small place where there isn't a big entertainment industry.

I have to thank the internet for keeping the art pursuits alive; it literally opened up a new world to me. Having a community to share your art with, posting in forums and talking to other artists really opened up a new world for me! I'm glad that spirit is alive today in Gaia, and it's great to see so many young artists develop here.


Programming and art sound like pretty different mental pursuits. Do they have anything in common?


Good practice for both of them is you start from the general and work into the details for both of them. For programming you start building from the general blueprints and rules of how the system should work before getting into the nitty-gritty line by line stuff. For art you start from things like concept and composition before you get to work on painting highlights in the eye. I suspect it is like that for a lot of disciplines.






I'm mad at you because you're good at two things. Any advice for people like me, who aren't really good at anything?


A good ninja must have a strong mind, strong heart and strong body!

On a more practical note, if one truly is at the bottom then the only direction you can go is up, right? We have exactly one ride on this rock; if you like doing something, just do it and enjoy the process! =D


Any features you've worked on as a developer that you're particularly proud of?


Inventory Reader, because it is used all over the site and somehow still chugging along. Whenever you look at your inventory, whenever anything needs to check what is in your inventory, it goes through that class. Sometimes I can't believe it is still working lol.


How'd you make the leap to full-time artist?


I'd been helping the art team with a lot of illustrations and concepts over the years, but I would always do it after work because it's not my full time job. So I would code for 8 hours, then I'd go home and go straight to Photoshop until I slept. Some days I would literally be working from the moment I woke up till the moment I slept :O. This is not a scalable model LOL, so I decided I had to choose one. I've already been coding for a few years already so I thought I'd try out art full time and see how it goes. I still keep my programmer account, to do the occasional bug fixes and patching.


What are you looking forward to most about working full-time on the art team?


Being able to come in every day and create in one of the most creatively free environments, great teammates, it's a privilege I am thankful for!

I may be new to gaia but I love the artwork

the pics that have been showing while changing from one area to another in
zOMG are really great as well

I cant draw but I know what I like when I see it

Keep up the good work

[DiCryn]

Awesome

[Youk0]

Awesome newsletter 3nodding

[Soda Dreamer -xoxo]

the third one is my favorite <3 amazing!!

[Xx_Vampirexkitten_xX]

cool biggrin

[WideEyed]

Gratz to Derlaine on the new career!
If the three samples in the newsletter are indicative of your work, we're going to be seeing some beautiful new additions in Gaia! smile