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volume 1, issue 22

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Thinking Outside the Box:
Walking the Walk

By Paul "Villam" Steed

Anything I say comes from me and represents my personal opinions, views and subtle plans for influencing society. Read, ruminate over and remember at your own risk. If I teach you something and it helps, teach someone else.

hanks for all the indulgence for my lack of an issue last week and my string of rants the weeks prior. For those of you who followed my plans and [ahem] minor skirmishes with that little company down the road currently under intense OBSERVATION, the rantage was probably nostalgic. For those of you newer post-plan readers then I guess I should assure you I really am quite sane and happy and somewhat free of any social retardation or general misanthropic tendencies. If you’re interested in the sordid history of my internet adventures the year before last, read the first installment of TOTB in the archives.

So, since the Plan Wars of ’97 I’ve tried to shun my darker Muse for the more intellectual thoughtful one. However, it did feel rather good to flex the more critical side of my brain and vent some accumulated angst. Hoped you at least got a chuckle or two. I even have a good reason to believe a certain editor in chief at a certain magazine caught a corporate boot up his large posterior, timely enough, soon after I did a little flambe of his editorial potency back in December.

Geez, that last sentence sounded like something you’d read on BitchX.

Okay, I’ve heard from several people that Johnny Wilson got canned at CGW. There. If it’s true then I guess someone somewhere else at least felt the same way I did about his…abilities of late. Also if it’s true I sincerely wish old JW the best of luck in his new gig. If not then, well…check the TOTB archives again for how I really feel.

Now. Since you’ve all been so kind to indulge me I’m rewarding you with another appearance of Shauna and a change of direction for the tutorials (and TOTB for that matter). Since we’re starting to heat things up with the little project we got going at work (Quake 3: Arena), my time has been impinged upon to actually…work. So I have to do an article every two weeks now instead of every week. Once I get out of the production hell known as ‘crunch time’ woods I’ll go back t a weekly update. Another change is the combination of editorial WITH tutorial. No more modeling, either. From now on tutorials will be on animation instead of modeling (felt kinda tapped there, anyway).

So to christen this new format I’m going to give you a run through on making a decent walk animation (pun intended) starring our lovely Ms. Shauna. Before we do that though I have to share something with you. Over the past year I’ve exchanged a couple e-mails with this dude, Steve Garofalo. Nice enough guy and I think we started our penpalmanship with him turning me onto this hot chica vinyl model kit website, www.gremlins.com/azimuth_design/. So when I get an e-mail from him I’ll scan down and hit it like I do the knowns over the unknowns first. Couple of weeks ago here’s what he writes:

> I see the picture of your model Shauna for Q3 off a link from Scarys. Dude..thats my x-girlfriend you used for the source. And no Im not bullshitting you. Her real name is Jill, and she has made appearances in Penthouse mag. Going by the name of Heather. I went out with her for 4 years. Ill have to tell her she is making an appearance in Q3. She lives up the street from me.

> Steve

Of course I wrote him back saying, ‘prove it’. Uh…he did. Even knew I was going to say that back. Here’s the pics he sent:

So natch I do some examination of the photos. First I never mentioned where I got the pictures for Shauna’s face (one was from the back of an issue of Penthouse, the other from Sports Illustrated – Latitia Casta. See TOTB back issue number 4). So the fact that he mentioned Penthouse made me raise an eyebrow. Looking at the pics some more I cropped and flipped the glamour shot pic and did a little side by side comparison (magazines often flip pics if they feel they look better). Check out the comparison:

Same chick? Think so? Don’t think so?

It is.

It’s the nose. Trust me I know my faces. Especially pretty ones from fondling…er, modeling them and intense scrutiny of a ton of photographic reference. Compare the cute little noses from both pics. Same chick. Compare the eyebrows. Even though the Penthouse pic has tighter, more plucked versions, the brows are the same. Hence…same chick.

All I have to say is:

1. Definitely small world, and…

2. Steve, YOU DA MAN! WOOHOO!

I’d also add, "why the ‘ex’ status attached to girlfriend, Dude?" But, unfortunately I know the deal when it comes to that quirky relationship thing (and even stranger addiction/affliction called ‘love’) and can only pat him on the back for his four years of companionship with Jill/Heather the Hotty.

Steve’s quite the better-than-decent artist as well. Here’s a sample he sent me:

Again, the fact that I picked an ex-girlfriend’s pic as part of a reference used on a texture for a model I used for a tutorial in TOTB is just simply amazing. So, without further ado here’s the useful part of this issue of TOTB – making Shauna/Jill ‘walk the walk’.

(Continued on next page)

Credits: Thinking Outside the Box logo illustrated and is © 1999 Dan Zalkus. Thinking Outside the Box is © 1999 Paul Steed. All other content is © 1999 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited, so don't even try it. We've got really big guns, and we're ripped, baby.