Personal Log: Sorry I haven't posted in a while (June of 2019 Edition)... [Editorial/Personal]

Personal Log, Stardate 201906.6 [I have no idea how that works heh]:


Just a quick Personal Note to say that I apologize to my dear readers for not posting much for the past few months... I seemed to have acquired a nice version of Influenza around Christmastime - and it has been a faithful and caring companion ever since...

This version of The Flu was quite kind actually, not having the usual can-do-nothing-but-lay-in-bed, produce-wonderful-amounts-of-phlegm-and-mucus, generally being messy and oddly smelly all the time. No this version was more of a sleep-at-crazy-times, be-more-sore (all over), not-sure-if-its-here-or-not version of Influenza. Each day I wondered if it was 'gone' - until the lovely symptoms hit me once again. This went on for the last few months... It was kind of like what I assume being haunted feels like..("is it gone?", "oh it's back!", "what happened?", "is that a body?")...

As I'm sure many of you know, from past posts explaining why I 'haven't been able to Post anything in a while', getting "Extra Sick" [that is, above and beyond my own ongoing illness of awesomeness] is a huge burden on this body - where "A Cold", which usually takes the average healthy person a day or few to get over - takes me weeks to get through... weeks. Where was I? [Losing your train of thought of part of this condition too..]. Oh yes... and-this-is-not-totally-copy-pasted-from-a-past-Personal-Log-just-because-it-happens-to-perfectly-fit-again-this-time:


As always, I have many Project 'irons I have in the fire', but have not been able to work on them much and/or Post about them much lately... Thankfully, I have been able to sit up and play games - mainly playing Fallout 4 [getting distracted from the Main Questline and having too much fun building up Settlements and doing Side Missions, heh]. I have also been helping out fellow/new players of Fallout 4 on the Steam Forums 'if I may' say so, which I enjoy doing... Hopefully I've given some helpful advice to some of you reading this here.

Don't worry, I'll be back to posting again, Soon™...

I might also try posting more small, 'Quick Tip' posts (as I have the last couple of posts down there..). Things that I am finding in games that might help others out - an idea mainly coming from reading questions I see in Forums. I will continue to work on the Longer Postings in the Background - the ones with a lot of information/data - but by doing these short ones as well, Posts can be short [easier for me to do due to my illness] and I can get Tips out there about Games that I have been playing, to help others - what I wanted this entire Blog to be about!


Overall, I will try to 'get back into it' here as I am slowly recovering now, Posting about games I am playing and Tips I am finding, as well as little Clips and Screenshots here and there (The Blog has a YouTube Account and an Imgur Account already, I also opened a Flickr Account and some GIF website accounts a while back..). Again, I am sorry that I haven't been able to keep up with [any kind of] Posting of late, I have also had some heart trouble - nothing serious, but irregular heartrate changes, that are currently being investigated [wow Specialist investigations take a while!].

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For those wondering, the italicized text below is a 'pasted-and-lightly-updated' portion of a 'Personal Log' posting I made back in 2016, explaining my illness and what it is - it is the same as the post from then for the most part though, so if you already read it, just skip this next italicized section if you already know about my personal illness. If you are curious to know what's wrong with me (other than mentally), then go ahead and check out the slanted section below:


< Potentially Sad Talking About Sicknesses Follows, In Case Of Feels, Stop Reading, Play Game >


I've mentioned what I have or what I go through before, in an earlier Personal Log posting a couple of years ago, since starting this Blog in 2011.. I didn't really want to trouble people or put those thoughts/feelings on them, but I have had a few people ask me personally what it was - and I was looking something up recently about my condition (it's a condition I (and Doctors as well) are constantly having to learn about) and I read quite a bit about other similar stories, where other suffers were in much worse condition than me... They were literally bed-ridden... And while I was also like that for the first couple of years, I have improved slowly over time to the point where I can sit up, and even play games, and on good days work on an article and do things around the house as well...

My condition is medically termed Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, which is an infection of the brain and spinal column, which gives components of Chronic Fatigue [getting tired easily with a slow recovery rate (as in days) if I go to the store, etc] and Fibromyalgia [inflammation and pain in all areas of the body, like - you know when you get a 'flu' and are sore all over, how it feels like 'the pain is coming from deep inside of you'? it's that, all the time...heck, many of your Aunts or Mothers may have Fibromyalgia, so you may have heard about it..]. It is not a well-known disorder, despite millions of Americans having it.

Every year I learn something new about it or studies that have found out something new about it; but nothing is ever concrete on 'how to get rid of it', unfortunately. The only good part about that is, is that all Doctors I have seen have concluded that it is "something that goes away on it's own, but noone knows when"... Some people have it for a year or so and some have it the remainder of their lives. I am in my 10th year now as I write this, but as I have said in the past, I try to always see the positive in things and I have been slowly improving overall, slowly over the years...

I don't want to make anyone feel sad, I am sorry if this information does... I merely wanted to inform my readers that I may not be able to post some of the larger things I have been working on for a while longer... although I will try to bring back the "Can You Guess Where The Screenshot Below Is From" Contest - I still have many games in the old Steam Inventory and unused Keys at HumbleBundle to giveaway! [But if I do continue the Contest, I will have to do it off of the Monthly Schedule and on to a 'whenever I can' schedule (but which may be multiple times in one month, if I feel good enough!)] and of course there are even more projects that I don't want to mention yet - to keep them a 'surprise', heh.

I do enjoy writing my articles and posts here, helping others with the information I have figured out, found or collected, doing testing, giving tips of games and even Video Editing and showing effects of settings, including creating the Headers and graphics utilized here (they are all done by me)… I plan to continue doing this for a long time to come... I just realized there has not been much the past while and wanted to let you all know there may not be some yet for just a little bit longer ('recovering' from 'catching things', with this illness, everything takes far longer..).

.

Once again - thank you for your patience, my wonderful readers - and I hope that I can contribute helpful information again for you soon, in the near future and for some time to come...
[Until then, I will still try to pop into places like Steam Discussions and other Game Forums, sharing images when I can on Imgur, Gfycat, Flickr and more; as well as continue to work on postings here at The Blog]
Thank You for stopping by - and Take Care.


Sincerely,

~Troy from The Game Tips And More Blog

Personal Log: Sorry I haven't posted in a while... [Editorial/Personal]

Personal Log, Stardate 201809.9 [I have no idea how that works heh]:


Just a quick Personal Note to say that I apologize to my dear readers for not posting much for the past couple months... I have been experiencing a slight worsening of my bodily symptoms - but this happens once in a while, and it all may go back down as it seems to be once again, slowly (back to "sick normal", heh). As always, I have many Project 'irons I have in the fire', but have not been able to work on them much and/or Post about them much lately... Thankfully, I have been able to sit up and play games - mainly playing Fallout 4 (getting distracted from the Main Questline and having too much fun building up Settlements and doing Side Missions, heh). I have also been helping out fellow/new players of Fallout 4 on the Steam Forums "if I may" say so, which I enjoy doing... Hopefully I've given some helpful advice to some of you.

Don't worry, I'll be back to posting again Soon™... but I think I may have to change a couple of things at The Blog here.
Nothing 'big' I don't think, but for one, I can't keep up with the Monthly "Can You Guess Where The Screenshot Below Is From" (where I post a Screenshot and my dear readers can guess what game it is from, to win Gifted Games from me). I have literally over 50,000 Screenshots and really want to share/edit most of them, but I can't seem to get around to it often (due to illness/tiredness).
So, I've decided to not make it a 'monthly' thing - but instead have it 'whenever I can' heh - which might result in it happening multiple times in one month, then not again for a few months, etc. This will also allow me to post Multiple Screenshots for the game, sharing more of my many collection, and giving my dear readers more chances to win a Free Game! heh

I might also try posting smaller, 'Tip' posts. Things that I am finding in games that might help others out - an idea mainly coming from repeating questions I see in Forums. I will continue to work on the Longer Postings in the Background - the ones with a lot of information/data, don't worry - but by doing this as well, Posts can be short (easier for me to do due to my illness) and I can get Tips out there about Games that I have been playing, to help others - what I wanted this entire Blog to be about!

I also plan on ZIPping up my Wallpapers and Windows Icons I've been creating for Games over the last few years, and sharing those, too. The Wallpapers I'll put up here and/or at Flickr [which has been 'bought out' I think?] at maybe at Imgur, since that seems to have become a popular/larger place over the years. I've also made my own Windows Icons, which I will show examples of in "MyDesktop" Screenshots I'll post once in a while (my Desktop changes often, with different Wallpaper and Icons, so I'll post what it looks like and share Icons and take Requests for Icons seen, as well).

I have started a couple of Twitter Accounts, one for The Blog here, and one for General Help and questions people can ask - but I haven't been able to get on the one about Help since, so I may let that one lay still for a while longer (until my personal illness can improve some).

Overall though, I will try to 'get back into it' here, Posting about games I am playing and Tips I am finding, as well as little Clips and Screenshots here and there (The Blog has a YouTube Account and an Imgur Account already..). Again, I am sorry that I haven't been able to keep up with Posting of late, other than a slight worsening of the body pain portion of my illness, I have also had some heart trouble - nothing serious, but irregular heartrate changes, that are currently being investigated (to make sure they aren't 'serious').

For those wondering, below is a 'pasted-and-lightly-updated' portion of the 'Personal Log' posting I made back in 2016 - explaining my illness and what it is - it is the same as the post from then for the most part, so if you already read it, just skip that section if you already know about my personal illness, heh:


< Potentially Sad Talking About Sicknesses Follows, In Case Of Feels, Stop Reading, Play Game >


I've mentioned what I have or what I go through once before, in an earlier Personal Log posting a couple of years ago, since starting this Blog five years ago.. I didn't really want to trouble people or put those thoughts/feelings on them, but I have had a few people ask me personally what it was - and I was looking something up recently about my condition (it's a condition I (and Doctors as well) are constantly having to learn about) and I read quite a bit about other similar stories, where other suffers were in much worse condition than me... They were literally bed-ridden... And while I was also like that for the first couple of years, I have improved slowly over time to the point where I can sit up, and sometimes even play games, and on good days work on an article and do things around the house...

My condition is Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, which is an infection of the brain and spinal column, which gives components of Chronic Fatigue (getting tired easily with a slow recovery rate (as in days) if I go to the store, etc) and Fibromyalgia (inflammation and pain in all areas of the body, like - you know when you get a 'flu' and are sore all over, how it feels like 'the pain is coming from deep inside of you'? it's that, all the time...heck, many of your Aunts or Mothers may have Fibromyalgia, so you may have heard about it..). It is not a well-known disorder, despite millions of Americans having it.

Every year I learn something new about it or studies that have found out something new about it; but nothing is ever concrete on 'how to get rid of it', unfortunately. The only good part about that is, is that all Doctors I have seen have concluded that it is "something that goes away on it's own, but noone knows when"... Some people have it for a year or so and some have it the remainder of their lives. I am in my 10th year now, but as I have said in the past, I try to always see the positive in things and I have been slowly improving overall, slowly over the years...

I don't want to make anyone feel sad, I am sorry if this information does... I merely wanted to inform my readers that I may not be able to post some of the larger things I have been working on for a while longer... Some of the things I was working on are: more/newer GPU-Accelerated Game Recorder Comparisons (Playclaw, Bandicam, Mirillis Action, D3Dgear, NVIDIA's SHARE, AMD's ReLive, Plays.tv and more), First Impressions of some games that I started work on already (The Elder Scrolls Legends Closed Beta, Dropzone Closed Beta, A Return To The Elder Scrolls Online (I was in the Beta for it), Battlefield V Closed Beta and others), bringing back the "Can You Guess Where The Screenshot Below Is From" [but off of the Monthly Schedule and on to a 'whenever I can' (but which may be multiple times in one month)] and even more projects that I don't want to mention yet - to keep them a 'surprise', heh.

I enjoy writing my articles and posts here, helping others with the information I have figured out, found or collected, doing testing, giving tips of games and even Video Editing and showing effects of settings in both, including also creating the Headers and graphics utilized here (they are all done by me)…
I plan to continue doing this for a long time to come... I just realized there has not been much the past little while and wanted to let you all know there may not be some yet for just a little bit longer ('recovering' from a Cold or "doing too much" takes about a week or more each time I do something or get a cold, to get back to where I was, with this illness, everything takes far longer..).

Once again - thank you for your patience, my wonderful readers - and I hope that I can contribute helpful information again for you soon, in the near future and for some time to come...

Sincerely,

~Troy from The Game Tips And More Blog

Personal Log: Might not be able to post for a bit longer still... [Editorial/Personal]

Personal Log, Stardate 20160901 [I have no idea how that works heh]: 

Just a quick Personal Note to say that I apologize to my dear readers for not posting anything for a while, and that I may not be able to post for a while longer yet... I have been experiencing a worsening of my ongoing symptoms... I may be okay in about week or so and finish up some Project irons I have in the fire; but I don't know, it may take longer than that to get back up to the point where I can play and finish testing some recording programs I was working on, and post about it all...

< Potentially Sad Talking About Sicknesses Follows, In Case Of Feels, Stop Reading, Play Game >

I've never really mentioned what I have or what I go through before, since starting this Blog five years ago.. I didn't really want to trouble people or put those thoughts/feelings on them, but I have had a few people ask me personally what it was - and I was looking something up recently about my condition (it's a condition I (and Doctors as well) are constantly having to learn about) and I read quite a bit about other similar stories, where other suffers were in much worse condition than me... They were literally bed-ridden... And while I was also like that for the first couple of years, I have improved slowly over time to the point where I can sit up, and sometimes even play games, and on good days work on an article and do things around the house... 

My condition is Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, which is an infection of the brain and spinal column, which gives components of Chronic Fatigue (getting tired easily with a slow recovery rate (as in days) if I go to the store, etc) and Fibromyalgia (inflammation and pain in all areas of the body, like - you know when you get a 'flu' and are sore all over, how it feels like 'the pain is coming from deep inside of you'? it's that, all the time...heck, many of your Aunts or Mothers may have Fibromyalgia, so you may have heard about it..). It is not a well-known disorder, despite millions of Americans having it.

Every year I learn something new about it or studies that have found out something new about it; but nothing is ever concrete on 'how to get rid of it', unfortunately. The only good part about that is, is that all Doctors I have seen have concluded that it is "something that goes away on it's own, but noone knows when"... Some people have it for a year or so and some have it the remainder of their lives. I am in my 10th year now, but as I have said in the past, I try to always see the positive in things and I have been slowly improving overall, slowly over the years...

I don't want to make anyone feel sad, I am sorry if this information does... I merely wanted to inform my readers that I may not be able to post things I have been working on for a while longer... Some of the things I was working on are: GPU-Accelerated Game Recorder Comparisons (Playclaw, Bandicam, Mirillis Action, D3Dgear, and more), First Impressions of some games that I started work on already (The Elder Scrolls Legends Closed Beta, Dropzone Closed Beta, A Return To The Elder Scrolls Online (I was in the Beta for it) and others), bringing back the "Can You Guess Where The Screenshot Below Is From" (there have been no winners so far and I have some Giftable Games a-waiting on Steam and GamersGate) and even more projects that I don't want to mention yet - to keep them a 'surprise', heh).

I enjoy writing my articles and posts here, helping others with the information I have figured out, found or collected, doing testing, giving tips of games and even Video Editing and showing effects of settings in both, including also creating the Headers and graphics utilized here (they are all done by me)...
I plan to continue doing this for a long time to come... I just realized there has not been much the past little while and wanted to let you all know there may not be some yet for just a little bit longer ('recovering' from a Cold or "doing too much" takes about a week or more each time I do something or get a cold, to get back to where I was, with this illness, everything takes far longer..).
Thank you for your patience, my wonderful readers, and I hope that I can contribute helpful information again for you, in the near future.

Sincerely,

~Troy from The Game Tips And More Blog

And More: In Search Of The Long Exposure Shot (Simulated From Game Material) - Part I [Personal Project]

[Short Disclaimer/Note: These posts ("Personal Projects") contain some 'Editorial' material; that is, some wording and subject matter that is more personal in nature and may contain viewpoints of The Editor/Author, which does not reflect the opinions or viewpoints of this blog in its entirety, the hosting site (Blogspot), its affiliates (Google), or any other associated entity or product mentioned or utilized herein. These "Personal Project" postings will be of a 'personal journal' or 'diary' nature and approach. While they still contain many helpful tips and edifying experiences, avoid these postings if this approach does not appeal to you]

This little 'Personal Project' is one that I only recently started working on, in earnest, anyway. Starting a few years ago, I began recording what I called "Envirogamescapes" [my coin, a working title], where I record a nice long period of time of something naturally beautiful or remarkable in a game, a serene scene or a well-constructed area of a city, et cetera - to use for relaxing or working on something - and to share with others to enjoy, of course!

While experimenting with an efficient way to do this (resolution, codec, etc) I began experimenting with "Time Lapse" recording, as well. This was, where I would record one constant session of one scene/area for literally, hours on end (8+ hours) and then speed-up the material, playing it back at anywhere from 400% up to 2000%, for a nice 'montage' showing the passage of time and how it is displayed/handled by a specific game/engine.

GIF conversion of a Time Lapse recording I did last year in the game Planetside 2 ("Dome at Day and Night")
[Logos added and GIF resized from original recording resolution for smaller upload]

I thought this would be a great thing to share for others to enjoy too - and I have collected many, many recordings (Terabytes of them!) - but as always, I am far better at 'Collecting' than I am at 'Organizing', so these little Projects have been amassing virtual dust on my hard drive(s) for the past number of years... until now.

Just last week, I began to attempt to focus on these Projects, 'processing' and 'finalizing' them, creating logos and experimenting with effects and various software (graphic editing and video editing applications), to try and bring these years-old aspirations to some kind of fruition.

[/Begin Personal Drama Rant]

Hopefully, within a reasonable period of time, I can 'finish' some of these videos - if my own personal tendencies don't get in the way - "thanks, A.D.D. for not letting me focus on one thing too long!", "thanks, ongoing illness, for making me too tired to work on one thing too long!", "thanks, O.C.D for making me feel guilty about 'dropping' projects!"... great stuff, all around, way to go brain and body!

I also tend to have Perfectionistic tendencies - which, while it sounds 'like a good thing' or even perhaps that I am 'bragging', it is not really 'a good thing' - it often leads to never finishing many personal projects or never reaching many goals that I set for myself - as somewhere along the way, I feel that "if it isn't Done Really Really Well, then there is no point (on going further, or submitting it, etc)" - I cannot count the number of times I didn't hand in Homework on time, or at all, in the past because of this - thanks again, brain!

So, as part of my own Personal Psychotherapy perhaps - and as part of a personal yearning to share some great gaming material/scenes/beauty with others, I am going to try to 'focus' and 'buckle down' and other phrases that only make half-sense to me, to Finally Finish some of these - and I will not only share them here (and on YouTube/etc), I will attempt to journal some of that ...journey, here as well.

I am not sure how long it will take, as I know every video, every graphic, will feel [because it has in the past] "never quite finished"; but I gain some strength in beginning this endeavour from a quote I recently came across, by a fellow perfectionist, the great Leonardo Da Vinci, who stated: "To an Artist, a Work is never Finished, it is only Abandoned..".

[/End Personal Drama Rant]

The Long Exposure Shot

While I will still be working on those other Projects that I began years ago (Time Lapse videos and "Envirogamescapes"), I want to focus here [in these articles, for now] on the journey for what I am calling a 'Simulated Long Exposure Shot' - that is, a game capture (screenshots/video) that looks as though it was taken In Real Life as a Long Exposure photographic image.

Even if you are not a Photographer, I'm sure you have come across such photos before - created In Real Life simply by setting any camera to a longer/slower shutter speed, exposing the film (or the detectors/sensors in digital cameras) to the material/medium/scene for a much longer time, allowing the incoming Light to develop/collect the image over time, creating the effect of the moving parts/areas of the photo being Blurred, but the static or lesser-moving parts/areas of the photo to remain more clear/crisp (hence the phrase I am using, 'Long Exposure'). Here is a Stock Photo example of this effect:

In beginning this journey, I played with some effects that were 'built-in' to a few graphic editing programs I like to use [this is just a short list of the 'main' ones that I use]:

• The GIMP
  The Graphic Image Manipulation Program (now called simply GIMP), a powerful Open Source image editor with an interface loosely based on Photoshop
• Corel's Paint Shop Pro
  Formerly JASC's Paint Shop, a full-featured graphic editing program
• Inkscape
  A great Open Source image editing program, geared mainly towards editing Vector-based material

Not really finding what I was attempting to accomplish via the Automated Tools of these programs - that is, the 'trails' of lights in traffic being the first effect I was going for - I quickly shifted to looking up some Videos on the subject and querying some Experts in the field [of Photography]. I quickly found two sources of information, among many; a video (that seemed to produce the effect I was looking for, but with clouds) and a helpful forum (with experienced Photographers and Editors). Here is one of the many Videos I found on the subject, the first one I came across showing an example of the effect I am trying to achieve [although he performs it with 'clouds' versus my 'traffic lights' goal]:

Video was found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqqI32Aw1J0 , created by DDPPhotoTips

Along with many other videos and examples of potential ways to approach this - although they all dealt with Real Life photography, as opposed to my Video Game Capture approach - I also found in my searching, a very helpful group of people in the Corel User Support Forums, where I received many ideas about how to 'blend' or 'blur' the images in a way that could potentially emulate the effect [of 'lines of light, coming from the traffic'] - and again, although they were experienced and giving possible approaches to the emulation of the effect from the realm of Real Life photography sources, the concepts could [I felt] carry over into my goal, simulating the effect using purely Digital Material (ie. game captures). To read that Discussion Thread, it is located at the Corel Forums, here.

To start off, I tested out some of the ideas that these knowledgeable helpers were positing, using PaintShop Pro. Each contributor had their own 'off the top of their head' approach, this effect or that one, layering it this way, using these filters - I thought it was great to hear it all! I did a few quick compilations of the tests - and here's what came of them:

Various effects and filters quickly tested, most from PaintShop Pro
(This example compilation will be repeated in the following four paragraphs)
Click to see Full Size

There was quite a difference in some of the effects and approaches, as shown above. In the first one, a user suggested to try the built-in Photo Blend, an automated utility that would essentially take a number of photos and 'blend' them together, amassing all the differences between them, into one image. You can also tweak what 'you want to keep' and what 'you want to get rid of', as well, in the process. As seen, the Photo Blend utility worked well with combining the differences between the images - but it did not add a 'streak of light' effect at all. Still, a useful utility that I will have to remember to return to, someday.

As seen above, in the second section, a 'layering' approach by another helpful user actually produced a result very similar to the Photo Blend utility, as 'ghost images' of cars from one image blended into another image where there were no cars in those places.  While I don't fully understand how the 'Lighten' layering setting works (technically/mathematically), it appears to simply keep the lighter-coloured areas of the images, as it blends them together; the lighter a pixel is, the more it is 'kept', it seems.

In the third section above, the result can be seen of a suggestion from another knowledgeable user, which was to add a Motion Blur to the images (Motion Blur is essentially a 'blur that has a direction'), blending the layers together in the end with the Screen setting. The little of what I know about the Screen layer blending effect, is that it accentuates the lighter areas between the images, where middle-of-the-road tones get some blending as well, while darker areas are not carried through very much at all (ignored). The result is an overall brightened image, where the lightest areas are maintained well. While this layering approach wonderfully gave the 'streaks of light' effect I was looking for, it also 'blurred' the entire image - whereas the end goal I am searching to emulate has the more 'static areas' of the image (ie. non-moving) maintained crisp and clear - seen more in the first two sections of the Example Compilation above.

The fourth and last section of the Example Compilation is actually the result of a quick test in VideoStudio Pro, a video editing application also from Corel. In it, I tried the NewBlue Motion Blur effect, with the 'angle of blurring' set to match the direction of the roadway. The result seems promising - the light sources are 'stretched' and the buildings are left crisp and would perhaps would more detailed if I played with the Blending settings more (I also had to Blend each image as Overlays in the Overlay Tracks of the Timeline (as this is a video editing application)). For a quick test though, I think it showed potential for emulating this effect.

[Note From The Editor/Author: I am not affiliated in any way, nor do I receive anything, from Corel (or any other of these companies in this post) for mentioning their products, in any form - I am merely an enthusiastic user of these products and I use other, similar editors just as much (such as CyberLink's PowerDirector, Sony's Vegas Movie Studio (now belonging to MAGIX), Open Source programs, such as GIMP and Inkscape, and many more). I switch often between them, using each for their offerings and capabilities and switching back again when one offers features that another does not. I state this so that you, dear reader, know that I am not influenced by these companies to write or say what I express in these posts]

The next thing I did [on my own now] was play around a bit with PaintShop Pro's Push and Smudge Tools, dragging a point from the car lights outward in a line:

Testing out the Push and Smudge Tools, to emulate a Long Exposure effect (the goal of this Personal Project)

As seen above, it gave me a nice 'light line', similar to what I am aiming for - but it was hard to make a straight line (holding SHIFT, normally used to make straight lines, did not seem to work with these Tools) - and I'm not quite sure yet if I want to do this potentially many, many times when blending together multiple traffic shots to compile a finished Simulated Long Exposure Image - but I do think these Tools showed potential, especially after using a concept suggested from a Corel Forum User (known as "Flagpole") to combine the edited layers with a 'Lighten' filter [I assume, to keep the darker areas dark and 'carry over' the lighter pixels from one layer to the next]. While this overall did create the 'streaks of light' I desired, it does not seem viable (at this point) as the main approach I would take for simulating the effect.

[For now, I'm getting tired and must stop here...]

Coming in Part II

Simulating the desired "Long Exposure" effect completely within a Video Editing Program - more automated perhaps - but will it work better than a true Image Editing Application..?

The Answer to that question - and more steps taken towards progress in this Personal Project - next time! When? I have no idea! "Soon™"....


See You Then!

AFK: I haven't posted in a while... so here are some things I have been slowly working on as I can [Personal Log]

I realize I haven't posted anything here for a while [and I have always been sporadic with posts due to my ongoing illness] so I wanted to just give a quick Update on some things that I am working on, off an on lately - lots of 'irons in the fire' - but still getting over some rough cold/flu symptoms (on top of my surgery, which I am still recovering from), so I have no idea of a timeframe of completion of these posts... Still, here are some topics that I have been working on the past months, posted here both to encourage myself and to let others know some material to look for in the future:

» A QualityTest of the Plays.TV client, looking a bit at the interface but mainly the Quality of output, comparing the different settings and what results can be expected, with examples [I was in the Beta for Plays.TV and have been testing out various settings at The Blog's Plays.TV page (http://plays.tv/u/GameTipsAndMore ) collecting material for this QualityTest/Review]. The data and material is going to be a part of a future 'Versus' article, comparing a few Game Recording Clients that all have GPU-Accelerated capability…

» A Playclaw 5 FirstImpressions/Review, looking at the interface and output that can be expected from it, with a few settings and examples of the effect they have. I have been giving some Feedback to the Developer of this software, testing out recent Beta versions, after Santa felt fit to give this non-free software to The Blog for an Xmas gift and it is also going to be a part of the future 'Versus' article, comparing a few Game Recording Clients that have GPU-Accelerated capability…

» An ACTION! FirstImpressions/Review, looking at the interface and output that can be expected from it, with a few examples of the various functions. Santa also gave The Blog this one for Xmas, and it too, is going to be a part of the future 'Versus' article, comparing some Game Recording Clients that have GPU-Accelerated capability…

» 'The Battlefield Series of Games and how to take screenshots in them' (BF3 to BFH). I have been seeing a lot of people asking this over the years, in the Official Forums and many other places. It is continually asked (new players, etc) how to do this in these games, so I want to make one post covering all of them…

» A QuickTip on GTAV (Grand Theft Auto Five) and the problem with Activation. I received this game for Xmas and had some trouble Activating it. I figured it out, but I saw a lot of people online asking how to fix it or what to do (with no answer given). I want to help people with this, so I will post exactly what I did and how to get it to work...

» “How To Tell Where The Bottleneck Is”, when looking at a system and what to possibly Upgrade in it (or if there is no need to). This is a common question that gets asked a lot, anytime, on Gaming Forums, Technical Forums and Support Forums everywhere. As a Certified Computer Technician, I want to give my input on what to look for and how to test for this, to help keep your system performing the best it can, for your gaming adventures…

» And More… Off the Topic of Gaming, I have a few short posts I have jotted down, ready to 'polish-and-publish' when I can.. For one of them, I took some time to analyze it and I think I have figured out 'The Answer' to that everlasting and infinite query: “In A Movie Theatre, Which Armrest Is Yours?” (the idea came via Philosoraptor, credit will be given in the post). I believe the result could actually be a contributing factor to finally bringing about World Peace...

I guess I could say these topics are 'some things to look for in the coming year', heh. When I can finally get around to finishing them, I hope you enjoy them all.

Until then... See You In The Game!