Creativity of the day

[Silk]

Edit: Removed obsolete information.

[vampireshark]

Wait, you're naming settlements and such after forumites? Nifty! I think I'll do that to some extent in Avarun.

Da, of course. Again, I need inspiration.

Do I have a place name somewhere?

Not yet... I mostly picked memorable people who probably wouldn't have minded too much, and I wasn't sure on your end. Want one?

And what would my name be mangled into?

Telèmor: (if what my mental pronunciation your name is correct) Lihoco Leați [liˈho.ko ˈlæ.t͡si], or, if one word, Lihocoleați
Ilian: Lihokóluzi [ˈlɨ.hɔ.kɔːˌlɯ.t͡sɨ]

[Jipí]

What I've been doing recently when I should be doing my homework (PDF warning yadda yadda)

The upper one I'm just reworking, the lower one I'm drawing completely from scratch. And if I've drawn everything I need to figure out Graphite again. And kerning (that will be a nightmare). And although the letters are constructed in a pretty strict way and I get the outlines from just tracing along a path in the middle, it's a heck of a lot of work. However, the rigorously geometric construction makes it very easy to group characters into classes according to their width (0.5×; 1.0×; 1.5×; 2×), so that calculating the attachment points for diacritics is also pretty easy.

[Lyhoko Leaci]

And what would my name be mangled into?

Telèmor: (if what my mental pronunciation your name is correct) Lihoco Leați [liˈho.ko ˈlæ.t͡si], or, if one word, Lihocoleați
Ilian: Lihokóluzi [ˈlɨ.hɔ.kɔːˌlɯ.t͡sɨ]

[ˈɾjoːko ˈlɛʔaʧɪ] or [ˈljoːko ˈlɛʔaʧɪ], the h marks the long vowel. Half Zukish, half Zukishified Japanese. Or for half Japanese, half Japanesified Zukish: 涼子 レアチ (or レアチ 涼子 following Japanese name orders...)

[vampireshark]

And what would my name be mangled into?

Telèmor: (if what my mental pronunciation your name is correct) Lihoco Leați [liˈho.ko ˈlæ.t͡si], or, if one word, Lihocoleați
Ilian: Lihokóluzi [ˈlɨ.hɔ.kɔːˌlɯ.t͡sɨ]

[ˈɾjoːko ˈlɛʔaʧɪ] or [ˈljoːko ˈlɛʔaʧɪ], the h marks the long vowel. Half Zukish, half Zukishified Japanese. Or for half Japanese, half Japanesified Zukish: 涼子 レアチ (or レアチ 涼子 following Japanese name orders...)

Fair enough, then.
Telèmor: Lioco Leiac̦i [ˈlʲo.ko lejˈa.t͡ʃi]
Ilian: Rjókoluoqi [ˈɾjɔː.kɔˌlɯ.ɔ.t͡ʃɨ]

EDIT: Also, I've revamped and edited a few things.

Telèmor Visa Application

Visa Fee Leaflet
(Yes, they're a bit... high.)

[Pinetree]

Would it be possible to mangle my name into something unrecognizable as English?

[Rui]

Visa Fee Leaflet
(Yes, they're a bit... high.)

Are they based on the whole reciprocity thing (i.e. "we'll charge you what you charge us")? I dropped $100 on a tourist visa for Tanzania last April, which I thought was pretty bad.

Speaking of which, what about fees for African countries? Are they similar to these? I see you mentioned the reciprocity thing under "General"--is that where all unmentioned countries fall? What's the EEA?

[Nortaneous]

Hmm. Maybe I should start grabbing usernames as toponyms also, instead of having them all derive from the Arve going fuck-shit-whore whenever they need to name a settlement. Except they'd all be unrecognizable, because that's how Arve rolls: Torco would come out as [ˈtʰuə̯χʊw] Torko, and Lyhowhatever would be [ˌjøkʊˈleə̯cɪj] Ljokulähki. (Although Kett would be a bit better: using Continental, that'd be [tóʂko] and [ljóko ljǎːtʃi].)

[vampireshark]

Are they based on the whole reciprocity thing (i.e. "we'll charge you what you charge us")? I dropped $100 on a tourist visa for Tanzania last April, which I thought was pretty bad.

Speaking of which, what about fees for African countries? Are they similar to these? I see you mentioned the reciprocity thing under "General"--is that where all unmentioned countries fall? What's the EEA?

They are, indeed. The overriding rule is that, if the fee's quite a bit higher than that set by the Telemor government, then the reciprocity kicks in according to the country. "General" refers to all passport holders who are not explicitly mentioned (ex. South Africa, China, Japan, New Zealand...), so they pay the regular rates.

EEA refers to European Economic Area; in this case, it includes most of the European countries that are parties to the Schengen Agreement (so Italy, Spain, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, etc.). EU would exclude Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein, and Iceland, all of whom are members of Schengen but not the EU. Likewise, this includes Cyprus, Romania, and Bulgaria who are not yet Schengen participants but have harmonized the visa categories and fees.

Tanzania originally set it as reciprocity for the $100 fee, but they haven't matched the three US visa fee increases since then. Countries like China, Brazil, and Russia, however, do match the fees for US citizens (and Argentina and Chile match the fee in a sneaky way). And Russia makes it worse because you'd be dropping about $200 or so with all their added fees for a single-entry tourist visa... which is part of the reason why I haven't gone yet even though I really would like to.

Would it be possible to mangle my name into something unrecognizable as English?

Perhaps an Ilian xjebrysynkalkjabyl [ˈçe.brisˌin.kal.ca.bil] would be sufficient.

Hmm. Maybe I should start grabbing usernames as toponyms also, instead of having them all derive from the Arve going fuck-shit-whore whenever they need to name a settlement.

Why not? That's pretty much what I did for most of the one map: toponyms come from some of the places I've visited and names of people, just "slightly" altered. Though Arve does look like it has a nicely chaotic orthography, so maybe too much change orthographically wouldn't be needed.

[Pinetree]

Would it be possible to mangle my name into something unrecognizable as English?

Perhaps an Ilian xjebrysynkalkjabyl [ˈçe.brisˌin.kal.ca.bil] would be sufficient.

Cool.

By the way, are type I visas for those whose (for example) flights go through Telemor? Or are they for people who are travelling through Telemor?

Either way, I'm glad I'll never have to pay that one*, but the other fees seem a little steep for my current budget.

*Canada

[vampireshark]

Would it be possible to mangle my name into something unrecognizable as English?

Perhaps an Ilian xjebrysynkalkjabyl [ˈçe.brisˌin.kal.ca.bil] would be sufficient.

Cool.

By the way, are type I visas for those whose (for example) flights go through Telemor? Or are they for people who are travelling through Telemor?

Either way, I'm glad I'll never have to pay that one*, but the other fees seem a little steep for my current budget.

*Canada

Sweet.

As for your question, transit visas are obligatory for all passengers who are entering Telemor. The Fotèssa-Ionesco Airport and Violèta-Abervon International Airport have airside transit facilities, allowing passengers who pass through for a short stay and who already have a confirmed flight booking through to their next destination and whose luggage is already checked through to the final destination; thus, if those three things are satisfied, then one can transit without needing a visa. Unfortunately, the designs of these airports make these two the only airports to have such a facility; if you even transit through another airport (other major ones being Fèrehedia, Gardemõra, and Fotèssa-Hirãt), a visa is required because all arriving international passengers have to go through immigration controls. However, unlike the Schengen area and Ilia, there is no distinct airside transit visa and regular transit visa.

Me being a US Citizen, I'd fall under the rather... high category. But, hey, that's reciprocity.

[Skomakar'n]

More spritework.

[Torco]

I don't like the contrast between the bold, hard cartoon edges of most of it and the smooth shading that lines the glyphs

otherwise, that's pretty nais!

[Nortaneous]

Hmm. Maybe I should start grabbing usernames as toponyms also, instead of having them all derive from the Arve going fuck-shit-whore whenever they need to name a settlement.

Why not? That's pretty much what I did for most of the one map: toponyms come from some of the places I've visited and names of people, just "slightly" altered. Though Arve does look like it has a nicely chaotic orthography, so maybe too much change orthographically wouldn't be needed.

Most of my toponyms so far are either generic descriptors from a naming language (i.e. batshit phonology dump), like Cerráis <- ʰtser 'valley' + áʃ 'city' and Vähkattön <- vaʰkɔ (name) + tǿn 'domain', or a result of the strange sense of humor of the Kett settlers, like Váitu 'fuckertown', Falláb 'whore-shit', and Ḩiaceffál 'dogs shit here'.

And yes, Arve has an... interesting orthography. Vähkattön, the only Arve toponym up there, is [ˌⱱeə̯gɪˈtʰʊi̯n] in the average Midland dialect, and better yet, [ˌbeː.əˈθɨ̃ː] in Southern. (Northern and Standard are boring: [ˌvekɪˈtʙ̥in] and [ˌⱱɛa̯kɪˈtʰʊi̯n].) And the language name is [ˈhɛu̯wɪj].

[Dewrad]

Blogging in my conlang. At length.

[vampireshark]

(Still looking for victims willing to appear on three banknotes: two high-valued; one intermediate-valued.)

[Skomakar'n]

Awesome as always, vampireshark.

I don't like the contrast between the bold, hard cartoon edges of most of it and the smooth shading that lines the glyphs

otherwise, that's pretty nais!

Yeah, I don't know. I just didn't feel I had enough pixels to work with in that area to make the characters fairly visible and add a thick border.

Thanks~

Blogging in my conlang. At length.

Can't say much, obviously, but I like the look of your orthography. What's the relation of the language to other Romance ones?

[Mr. Z]

Randomly mapped again. This is a rough amateur sketch of Sherlock Holmes's apartment in RMVX Ace.

[Colonel Cathcart]

In a rare attempt at visual art, I designed a simple logo for Icastria's public broadcaster, IRT (Ikaistari rádio ais televísi).



When the logo shows up on TV, in bumpers or when introducing original programming or whatever, the pinwheels spin in opposite directions before coming to a stop in the position above.

I think there are two Icastrias existing in two parallel universes. Icastria 1 is an imperial superpower in a 1920s-ish dieselpunk alt-earth where there are no Indo-Europeans; it spans from the British Isles across Normandy and the Low Countries to Denmark and southern Sweden. Icastria 2 is a concountry in the world here and now, a shiny little social democracy on an Ireland-sized archipelago west of Scotland and south of Iceland. They speak the same conlang, though Icastrian 2 has Indo-European loan words where Icastrian 1 would have derivations and neologisms, and Icastrian 2 uses the Latin alphabet where Icastrian 1 has its own alphabet. Obviously this logo, and IRT, are for Icastria 2.

[Nannalu]

I need to start writing up New Gothic's morphology. I just don't wanna call it New Gothic though. I've thought of Gothian, Gutan. I like Gutan but Gutans means "Goths". I'm stuck.

[Herr Dunkel]

Gottish?

[Nannalu]

Gottish?

YES! mY SAVioRRR!

[Skomakar'n]

Some sketchy storyboarding for a movie to be made:




Also, a half-finished concept sketch (I've made more than this by now, but I'm too lazy to snap an updated photo at the moment):

[Rik]

Been working on my maps:

0601-01.png

Not yet convinced the mountains are good enough ...

0601-02.png

... but they're kinda okay when some colour is added.

0601-03.png

[Skomakar'n]

I think the mountains are pretty nice!

----

Together with one of the intended actors for the aforementioned movie (the guy depicted to the far left in the last picture) I went out to scout some recording locations yesterday. We (or at least I) couldn't resist shooting some stuff at random through pure improvisation and no proper script and make a little movie while we were there anyway. I've been editing some and cutting most of it tonight. Here's some stuff:





As for the scouting success, we found a goldmine! Nice forest paths, a good place to set up a fire to sit around, and even a pitfall and a scary tree. Many things crucial to the real movie all gathered in one place! Here are some pictures, only linked to, since they are huge:

http://i375.photobucket.com/albums/oo19 ... G_0383.jpg
http://i375.photobucket.com/albums/oo19 ... G_0385.jpg
http://i375.photobucket.com/albums/oo19 ... G_0384.jpg
http://i375.photobucket.com/albums/oo19 ... G_0392.jpg
http://i375.photobucket.com/albums/oo19 ... G_1653.jpg
http://i375.photobucket.com/albums/oo19 ... G_0388.jpg
http://i375.photobucket.com/albums/oo19 ... G_1695.jpg