My Voxel Vehicles

Back at it with MagciaVoxel. This time, I want to share to share some more voxel assets I've created. It was a great accomplishment when I made my first car in MagicaVoxel. I later practiced making more automobiles. I actually took two of my models to make two different automobiles. Just recently, I created my first-ever motorcycle. What you are about to see are some of my vehicle assets. I hope you enjoy this blog post here on "John's Creative Space!"

About the Label: "Vehicles"

Blog posts under this label feature various vehicles I've created as part of my collection of artwork. These vehicles can include cars, trucks, motorcycles, watercraft, aircraft, and more.

--- My Vehicle Assets: Story ---

Let me bring you up to speed in my creation of automobiles using MagicaVoxel. That is what I intend to do with this section.

On Facebook and Twitter on November 21, 2014; I shared this picture:


^ I designed this voxel formula race car from scratch.

As a car lover, it was great I finally was able to create a car in MagicaVoxel. I didn't exactly design it to any proper specifications, but I did base my designs on a number of different formula racing machines. I was very pleased making this first car because I felt I was finally able to make something as complex as a car in something like MagicaVoxel.

I know I've made habits lately of continually talking about MagicaVoxel. However, I made some cars before in Qubicle Constructor before my MagicaVoxel work. Some of the cars I created in Qubicle were rather large. I didn't make too many in Qubicle. I was still pretty pleased making that formula race car in MagicaVoxel.

Influence From Another Designer.

I didn't feel too comfortable trying to adjust all of my models to my regular scale models. So I ended up wanting to design smaller-scale items. The models I wanted to create will almost exclusively compliment my mini models. This was a point where I began mostly making smaller-scale material. I would meet one of those driving forces (so to speak) from one MagicaVoxel user who basically got me attracted to wanting to make small scale assets for my media work.

This person I came across Twitter was a fellow named Mike Judge. No- not the Mike Judge of "Beavis and Butthead" fame, but the Mike Judge who is a Seattle-based software engineer. He creates a bunch of renders with MagicaVoxel as part of his "Mini Mike's Metro Minis" package. This consists of various scenes and renders primarily meant for use in creating scenes in cities and such. If you'd like to learn more about his Mini Mike's Metro Minis collection, please visit Mike Judge's MMMM (Mini Mike's Metro Minis) GitHub page.

There were moments when I took Mike's vehicles and studied them. I thought about perspective, design, and getting a feel for making realistic material for my mini-scale characters to use. I actually even studied Mike's mini models to make my own mini characters. The combination of the Mini Mike's Metro Minis assets as well as the vehicles got me to think- "how do I make vehicles to compliment my mini characters?"

The first thing I did was take one of Mike's vehicle models and study its design. Rather than take it and edit it to make my own model, I instead used it as a base for building my own car. So I basically took a huge amount of space and put in one of Mike's vehicles while also making a completely new car from scratch. I ended up creating a luxury SUV (which you will see later in this post) with give-or-take the same dimensions as the vehicle I used to base my designs on. Because this was a mini-scale item, it meant I had to work with fewer details. My main challenge was to make as much detail as possible using such confined space. I even tried a few tricks to try to get as much detail as possible to make my vehicles not only believable, but also useful for possible media projects.

So what was the end result? Five cars I designed. Read the next section to get to know the five cars I created.

--- My Vehicle Assets: Five Voxel Cars of Mine ---

I created a luxury SUV for practice. Then, I made four other cars to expand my range of machines and even practice different designs. Check this out:


^ These are the five cars I've created since making my first car.

I felt so pleased making cars with MagicaVoxel. Even more so considering I can use these in possible media projects and renders. I chose to design items with realism. As a detail touch, I decided to make the side windows open so the driver and passenger(s) can be visible. Even after making these automobiles, I edited them little-by-little to make them even more appealing while also practicing my car-making skills. After designing these cars, I used some of Mike Judge's scenes to place my cars into for comparison with the other models in the area. I felt like I made some gorgeous machines that mini-scale voxel models can interact with and see. A missing detail from my cars is the gas cap. I decided to make everything one color for easy editing.

My Vehicle Models.

Let me introduce you to the cars I created. The machines will be featured from left to right based on the image I shown you of the five automobiles. They are noted by what they are. Here is my chance to show I am an amateur car salesman. :)

• Green Luxury SUV
The green SUV on the far left in my picture is an American luxury SUV. This machine was the first car besides my formula racing car that I created. It was created from scratch by taking cues from one of Mike Judge's vehicle models. Initially, it was a pastel blue SUV. I since changed it to a dark green SUV.

It is an SUV powered by a turbo V6 making about 280 horsepower. Visual cues were sort of taken from Land Rover and the Cadillac SRX. The interior has wood grain. It has only two rows of seating. The second row could be folded over for more storage space. A bit more space can be had by folding down both the second row and the front-row passenger seat. This SUV has four-wheel drive, but rear-wheel drive is also offered.


• Red Mid-Engine Sports Car
This is a peppy Italian sports car. I tried to design something smaller than my luxury SUV. What I ended up doing is create a machine that isn't as long. I wanted to give this car a unique touch design-wise. So what I did was create a scoop that would feed air into the mid-mounted engine. I got this idea from a car from "Ridge Racer Type 4." I gave this car side-scoops to feed the engine more air.

It looks more powerful than it really is. This is a mid-engined sports car that packs about 240 horsepower. This car is mainly a bargain sports car with tremendous performance. It would give the owner a quality sports car. Its exotic image will make any owner of this car feel like he/she spent lots of money to own a fabulous sports car.

• Pale Blue Pickup Truck
Believe it or not, this American truck was created using my red sports car! I thought about something my mom said when I shown her my voxel model cars. She questioned if I made a car or a truck. I then thought about its design and used the red sports car as a base to make this truck. It was actually the same length as the red sports car at first. But later, I decided to stretch out its length and make it a bit higher off the ground. The biggest influence in the design of this truck are the RAM Trucks. What was confusing to me was whether to make this a light duty truck or make it a full-size truck. I didn't want to make this a quad cab truck or anything.

This pickup truck makes about 300 horsepower, and it is primarily meant to be a road performance truck. It is possible, though, to make this a proper off-road truck. Four-wheel drive is standard for this pickup truck. The truck comes with gray seats with red details.


• Neon Green Subcompact
This is a Japanese subcompact car. I used the red sports car to create something more compact than that sports car. The car I created eventually used to be a light purple color. I actually wanted this to be an electric subcompact. I eventually just made this a simple subcompact with some flashy character. I tried to find a good neon color for it using MagicaVoxel's default palette.

This is a front-wheel drive subcompact that makes about 170 horsepower. Impressive fuel economy and nimble handling are its strongest points. This is a compact coupe with no second row to speak of. The passenger seat can be folded down for some extra space.

NOTE: The rear view of the subcompact actually is supposed to have the rear muffler on the RIGHT side.


• Dark Gray/Grey Luxury SUV
As its foreign contender to the American SUV market, this luxury SUV is the flagship SUV of a heralded British company. I took my American luxury SUV and simply... well, made it bigger. I wanted to make this British SUV as much a flagship machine as possible. I tried to make this SUV to be different from the other SUV despite the fact this machine is based on that green SUV. There is much more chrome to this SUV than with the green SUV. Even the side mirrors are chrome compared to the plastic side mirrors of the green SUV. I had even intended to make this a three-row SUV, but ultimately decided to keep it a two-row SUV. The biggest inspiration for this SUV is the Infiniti QX56, which is nowadays the Infiniti QX80. While I don't have proper names for each of the vehicles, this is the only one that I've named so far. I call it the "Amistad."

Seen more as a status symbol rather than a quality automobile, this is a British SUV that delivers elegance and status unlike any other automobile. People have praised it for providing so much elegance. Many others, however, simply call this an SUV that is just big and impractical. It is an SUV powered by either a normally-aspirated V8 with 355 horsepower or a supercharged V8 making 470 horsepower. Only four-wheel drive is offered, and it is not meant to be any kind of off-roader. It is strictly a road-going machine.

Are More in the Works?

Absolutely! I am trying to create as many different voxel cars as possible.

Uses for Voxel Cars.

I may simply use them for scenes and media projects. Part of me wants to develop a game featuring these cars. That was actually one plan of mine in making these cars.


Now you have an idea on the cars I created.

--- My Vehicle Assets: My First Motorcycle ---

I always wanted to make motorcycles in addition to my cars. The trouble I had was that I didn't know how to design a motorcycle. I wanted to make a model to suit my mini models but didn't know how exactly to make a realistic one. Remember I talked about Mini Mike's Metro Minis? Well, none of the vehicles he created was a motorcycle. So I was on my own to make my own motorcycle. I did a lot of practice by taking certain visual cues from Google Images results of sport bikes. Once I confidently could design a motorcycle, I designed one along with giving my mini-scale character a unique riding stance. The end result was this:


^ My first motorcycle made with MagicaVoxel.

I actually like sport bikes and sporty bikes more than I do scooters or cruisers. I tried to infuse as many different cues as possible to make my bike unique. I looked to the beautiful Ducati Desmosedici RR for inspiration for the headlights. I added some turn signals to the front. The yellow front suspension was added. I made this a bike with two swingarms. A lot of motorcycles have two swingarms, but some machines- such as the MV Augusta F4- have only one swingarm. This bike has two rear mufflers. One other thing I considered in designing my first motorcycle was the possibility of making this bike realistic in the ability to have a two-up riding style. For those not as educated on motorcycles, two-up is basically one rider taking the controls while another rider latches onto the main rider, thus making it possible to have two people riding one bike. I even lengthened the bike a little bit to make the two-up look realistic.

After I made this first motorcycle, I edited it and made a racing version of the bike. I may share that in a future post here on "John's Creative Space." Basically, I removed the side mirrors, the lights, replaced the tail light with a muffler design, and got rid of the main mufflers to the bike. And instead of a dark red, I painted it blue.

Testing the New Machines.

I later took my motorcycle designs and put them into Mike Judge's scenes to see how they would fit into a mini-scale scene. I took a scene for my regular-scale characters and tried to scatter the space with my motorcycle model. I was so pleased looking at it because I tried to make a scene where multiple bikes raced against each other. I tried fitting about sixteen of them in a racing setting, and it looked so cool!

--- Special Thanks... ---

I want to give special thanks to Mike Judge for inspiring me not only get into making mini-scale items, but also for being the real force behind me making the voxel vehicles presented in this blog post. If Mike Judge himself is reading this, thank you very much.

To learn more about Mike Judge and his work, visit:
• mikelovesrobots
• Mike Judge's MMMM (Mini Mike's Metro Minis) GitHub page


That concludes this blog post.





What do you think about my designs? You're free to comment. Thank you for reading!

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Top Diva 3: Sydney's Sweetheart

Tournament three of "Top Diva" is highlighted here. The past two tournaments have offered their own insanity as young women from around the world battled to become Grand Champion. This third tournament promises to be deep and intense. A deeper and diverse field was assembled as the prospect of becoming Grand Champion is a goal each of the finalists of Top Diva's 3rd Tournament want to accomplish.

This blog post is a look at the third tournament of my "Top Diva" series.

--- Introducing "Top Diva" ---

In case you don't know about this series, let me share with you the story behind Top Diva before moving onto me introducing you to the 2nd Tournament.

"Top Diva" was a fighting game concept I had inspired mostly by all-female fighting game series such as Asuka 120% and the Variable Geo series. It is a fighting tournament more in the sense of the Street Fighter games more than the ever-popular mixed-martial arts fighting of today. "Top Diva" and its storyline branches out in many different ways.

The concept was to be a set of characters as well as stages made with the very popular PC fighting game engine M.U.G.E.N.. I only went as far as to mostly create some here-and-there bitmaps of certain characters as well as plan out palette combinations. No characters or stages from Top Diva were ever successfully created.

Here are more details about my concept...

Inspirations.

The fighting inspirations come from various all-female fighting games as well as the Street Fighter series. When I came up with this idea, I wasn't thinking of supernatural powers or anything. I instead wanted this to be more straight up punches and kicks. So you could also say that the Virtua Fighter series is an inspiration. The characters themselves aren't based on any real people. Some of the characters wear certain fashions that I just wanted to showcase the diverse array of characters. The concept of an all-female fighting realm is nothing new if you are aware of game series such as the "Asuka 120%" series and the "Variable Geo" series among others.

To add personality and provide something different, I tried to mix up the different personalities. Some people mostly only focused on making the women as seductive as possible or only focus on what many people would consider attractive women. What I did was try to spread around different personalities. Besides slim and slender women, some of the characters may be curvy women or even petites. Some of the women are total girly-girls in looks and personality, and some others are tomboyish in appearance and personality. You can think of it as stirring the pot and offering loads of diversity.

Considering I am a male who came up with a concept of an all-female story, one would probably think I'd appeal to just about every heterosexual male's fantasies about women. However, I mixed things up. The various personalities represent a broad variety of people instead of only focusing on sexy women or what most people would consider attractive.

As of this initial blog post, I did not have a logo in mind. I may feature it in a future edit.

The General Storyline of "Top Diva."

The tournament known as "Top Diva" basically seeks for some of the strongest women in the world. The age threshold was for females to be between the ages of 18 and 30. Tournaments held showcased women from around the world wanting to have a chance at becoming the Grand Champion. Women who competed in this tournament competed hard. Many didn't make the final cut but still enjoyed their experience to the fullest. Some others, however, felt jealous of the finalists and formed certain factions and gangs to attack the eventual finalists of each Top Diva tournament. Everyone who competed in the tournament risked and sacrificed many things to realize the goal of becoming champion of the tournament- including their health, their jobs, their friends and family, and even their relationships and motherhood.

Because this was mostly a game concept, there is no real "winner" of any of the tournaments. It was mostly designed for the player to determine who was the best by picking someone and beating the others in the tournament.

Especially for the first tournament, I had thought of certain boss characters that aided in trying to sabotage the tournaments.


Time now to get into the main stories.

--- Top Diva 3: Sydney's Sweetheart ---

Get to know the Third Tournament finalists:


^ The 12 finalists of Top Diva's Third Tournament are all featured here. Unlike the previous two stories, there is no real primary antagonist to this tournament. NOTE: This image may or may not represent any sort of final product based on these characters.

Voxel models made using MagicaVoxel. My latest posts featuring MagicaVoxel content: "MagicaVoxel" posts on John's Creative Space.

Top Diva 3: Sydney's Sweetheart.

A third Top Diva tournament was established. The field used to be 10. There are now 12 finalists. As the name of this tournament implies, the winner of this tournament gains "unworldly fame" by winning her own mansion in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; and she also acquires many items to make her famous in the fabulous city of Sydney. Every championship round is played out in the fictional Diva City.

Top Diva 3: Characters.

After all the qualifying, these 12 became finalists of the third Top Diva tournament:

• Paradise Chavez - recent High School graduate from Laguna Beach, CA, USA.
• Xiomara Luna - a ballerina and ballet instructor from San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
• Charmaine Wilson - a college student and bakery owner from St. Louis, MO, USA.
• Sayuri Hitomiyo - a geisha from Osaka, Japan.
• Denise Weatherby - the first-ever lesbian Top Diva finalist. Born and raised in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
• Carlotta Castiglione - former party girl and former wild teen from Milan, Italy.
• Annabelle Chavez - recording artist and model from El Paso, TX, USA.
• Kenosha Parker - a college student from Chicago, IL, USA.
• Trisha Taylor - a lounge music recording artist from Trenton, NJ, USA.
• Natalia Müller - an aspiring trance music producer and DJ from Cologne, Germany.
• Daine Eboka - a Tae Kwon Do champion from Nairobi, Kenya.
• Christine Johnson - a college student from Little Rock, Arkansas. Qualified, but retired.


Again, there is no character who emerged and challenged the tournament champion. So consider this a more civilized tournament.




For more posts in the "Top Diva" series, click this link: "Top Diva" posts on "John's Creative Space. Thank you for reading!

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Top Diva 2: The World Champion

The 2nd Tournament of Top Diva builds upon the success (and the insanity) of the first tournament. Becoming Grand Champion now goes international, and a new crop of young women around the world would contest for unworldly fame. This tournament will see the champion stake her claim as World Champion, and she will be treated like royalty. In fact, she will take residence of her own mansion in a locale different from the first tournament... how does Monte Carlo sound?

This blog post continues my Top Diva series with a look at the second tournament.

--- Introducing "Top Diva" ---

In case you don't know about this series, let me share with you the story behind Top Diva before moving onto me introducing you to the 2nd Tournament.

"Top Diva" was a fighting game concept I had inspired mostly by all-female fighting game series such as Asuka 120% and the Variable Geo series. It is a fighting tournament more in the sense of the Street Fighter games more than the ever-popular mixed-martial arts fighting of today. "Top Diva" and its storyline branches out in many different ways.

The concept was to be a set of characters as well as stages made with the very popular PC fighting game engine M.U.G.E.N.. I only went as far as to mostly create some here-and-there bitmaps of certain characters as well as plan out palette combinations. No characters or stages from Top Diva were ever successfully created.

Here are more details about my concept...

Inspirations.

The fighting inspirations come from various all-female fighting games as well as the Street Fighter series. When I came up with this idea, I wasn't thinking of supernatural powers or anything. I instead wanted this to be more straight up punches and kicks. So you could also say that the Virtua Fighter series is an inspiration. The characters themselves aren't based on any real people. Some of the characters wear certain fashions that I just wanted to showcase the diverse array of characters. The concept of an all-female fighting realm is nothing new if you are aware of game series such as the "Asuka 120%" series and the "Variable Geo" series among others.

To add personality and provide something different, I tried to mix up the different personalities. Some people mostly only focused on making the women as seductive as possible or only focus on what many people would consider attractive women. What I did was try to spread around different personalities. Besides slim and slender women, some of the characters may be curvy women or even petites. Some of the women are total girly-girls in looks and personality, and some others are tomboyish in appearance and personality. You can think of it as stirring the pot and offering loads of diversity.

Considering I am a male who came up with a concept of an all-female story, one would probably think I'd appeal to just about every heterosexual male's fantasies about women. However, I mixed things up. The various personalities represent a broad variety of people instead of only focusing on sexy women or what most people would consider attractive.

As of this initial blog post, I did not have a logo in mind. I may feature it in a future edit.

The General Storyline of "Top Diva."

The tournament known as "Top Diva" basically seeks for some of the strongest women in the world. The age threshold was for females to be between the ages of 18 and 30. Tournaments held showcased women from around the world wanting to have a chance at becoming the Grand Champion. Women who competed in this tournament competed hard. Many didn't make the final cut but still enjoyed their experience to the fullest. Some others, however, felt jealous of the finalists and formed certain factions and gangs to attack the eventual finalists of each Top Diva tournament. Everyone who competed in the tournament risked and sacrificed many things to realize the goal of becoming champion of the tournament- including their health, their jobs, their friends and family, and even their relationships and motherhood.

Because this was mostly a game concept, there is no real "winner" of any of the tournaments. It was mostly designed for the player to determine who was the best by picking someone and beating the others in the tournament.

Especially for the first tournament, I had thought of certain boss characters that aided in trying to sabotage the tournaments.


Time now to get into the main stories.

--- Top Diva 2: The World Champion ---

Top Diva: 2nd Tournament. Check it out:


^ Meet the ten finalists that make up the 2nd Tournament of Top Diva. The finalists make up the front and middle rows, and the two villains are in the very back row. NOTE: This image may or may not represent any sort of final product based on these characters.

Voxel models made using MagicaVoxel. My latest posts featuring MagicaVoxel content: "MagicaVoxel" posts on John's Creative Space.

Now for a look at the story of this tournament. Read on, enthused ones...

Top Diva 2 Story.

Upon the success of the first tournament, a second tournament was established. This time, the field would be increased from eight finalists to ten. The same ultimate goal of "unworldly fame" was the grand prize. But this time, the winner would move into a new mansion not in San Francisco, but Monte Carlo, Monaco. She even would become an honorary guest of the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix.

Lost in the midst of this second tournament was all the calamity that ensued outside of the tournament- namely with the violence and the factions. Things became more civilized as the tournament would now be played out in various stops worldwide. There is much less faction violence and faction involvement in this story compared to the previous one. Mostly some unruly young women somewhat tried to involve themselves.

Top Diva 2: Characters.

• Felicia Falls - a recording artist and horse rider from Philadelphia, PA, USA.
• Darlene Espinoza - lawyer turned model from San Antonio, TX, USA.
• Cherry Nguyen - a race car driver and model from Saigon, Vietnam.
• Vivianna Vega - a college student from Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands.
• Bethany Hendricks - an acoustic guitarist from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
• Maria Estrella - a telenovela actress and singer from Mexico City, Mexico.
• Rumiko - a hip-hop dancer from Yokohama, Japan.
• Odessa Hutchins - a country-pop singer from Odessa, TX, USA.
• Gupta Sandahar - a belly dancer and aspiring Bollywood actress from Mumbai, India.
• Violet Ortega - a college student from Richmond, VA, USA.

Two non-finalists from this tournament have their own interest in challenging the eventual tournament champion. Ayanna (nicknamed "Vanilla") and Tanya (nicknamed "Chocolate,") these best friends plan to challenge the champion of Season Two together. The Top Diva 2nd Tournament Champion must defeat BOTH Vanilla and Chocolate to be declared a true champion.

Top Diva 2: Other Characters.

"Top Diva 2" was never really completed. So rather than a proper set of characters, I had a whole bunch of extra characters in mind that I may or may not feature among the various Top Diva 2 set. Even one of the go-go dancers from Candy Love's go-go dancing team was listed as a finalist in the 2nd Tournament. Some of these extra characters are mostly just non-major characters that simply got in the way of some of the various finalists but were mostly inconsequential to the actual storyline.


And that's the Second Tournament of Top Diva.





There are extra storylines to this series, so stay tuned to "John's Creative Space" to check out the latest installments! Don't forget to Subscribe and Follow this blog (and my others) if you enjoy my work. I appreciate your support. Thank you for reading!

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Top Diva

(UPDATED: November 25, 2014)

I am pleased to finally showcase one of my unique ideas or series! A concept I had in mind back in 2008 was called "Top Diva"- an all-female fighting tournament. It was a game concept I had long ago. I had drawn one picture of one character from the series, but other than that, I never formally introduced this concept... until now. What you are about to read here represents this concept I had. I'll share with you characters and some insight on this entire deal.

NOTE: As part of this initial blog post, only information on the storyline and a brief introduction to some of the various characters will be provided. Edits to this post may include more pictures and more content.

Content produced would be (and could be) featured in individual blog posts.

About the Label: "Top Diva"

Posts in this series relate to my "Top Diva" story. This was a fighting game concept I had stemming back to about 2008. The fighting game never materialized. Despite this, there is still a good amount of story to be told with this title. All posts relating to this original series will be featured in posts under the "Top Diva" label.

Basic Information:

Suggested Audience: Teenagers and older
-
Descriptors: Mild Language, Mild Sexual Content, Suggestive Themes, Violence

LATEST UPDATE(S)/REVISION(S)

NOV 25 2014 - added extra insight on the creation of this concept

--- Introducing "Top Diva" ---

Here is a look at this series...

"Top Diva" was a fighting game concept I had inspired mostly by all-female fighting game series such as Asuka 120% and the Variable Geo series. It is a fighting tournament more in the sense of the Street Fighter games more than the ever-popular mixed-martial arts fighting of today. "Top Diva" and its storyline branches out in many different ways.

(edited: November 25, 2014) The concept was to be a set of characters as well as stages made with the very popular PC fighting game engine M.U.G.E.N.. I only went as far as to mostly create some here-and-there bitmaps of certain characters as well as plan out palette combinations. No characters or stages from Top Diva were ever successfully created.

Here are more details about my concept...

Inspirations.

The fighting inspirations come from various all-female fighting games as well as the Street Fighter series. When I came up with this idea, I wasn't thinking of supernatural powers or anything. I instead wanted this to be more straight up punches and kicks. So you could also say that the Virtua Fighter series is an inspiration. The characters themselves aren't based on any real people. Some of the characters wear certain fashions that I just wanted to showcase the diverse array of characters. The concept of an all-female fighting realm is nothing new if you are aware of game series such as the "Asuka 120%" series and the "Variable Geo" series among others.

To add personality and provide something different, I tried to mix up the different personalities. Some people mostly only focused on making the women as seductive as possible or only focus on what many people would consider attractive women. What I did was try to spread around different personalities. Besides slim and slender women, some of the characters may be curvy women or even petites. Some of the women are total girly-girls in looks and personality, and some others are tomboyish in appearance and personality. You can think of it as stirring the pot and offering loads of diversity.

Considering I am a male who came up with a concept of an all-female story, one would probably think I'd appeal to just about every heterosexual male's fantasies about women. However, I mixed things up. The various personalities represent a broad variety of people instead of only focusing on sexy women or what most people would consider attractive.

As of this initial blog post, I did not have a logo in mind. I may feature it in a future edit.

The General Storyline of "Top Diva."

The tournament known as "Top Diva" basically seeks for some of the strongest women in the world. The age threshold was for females to be between the ages of 18 and 30. Tournaments held showcased women from around the world wanting to have a chance at becoming the Grand Champion. Women who competed in this tournament competed hard. Many didn't make the final cut but still enjoyed their experience to the fullest. Some others, however, felt jealous of the finalists and formed certain factions and gangs to attack the eventual finalists of each Top Diva tournament. Everyone who competed in the tournament risked and sacrificed many things to realize the goal of becoming champion of the tournament- including their health, their jobs, their friends and family, and even their relationships and motherhood.

Because this was mostly a game concept, there is no real "winner" of any of the tournaments. It was mostly designed for the player to determine who was the best by picking someone and beating the others in the tournament.

Especially for the first tournament, I had thought of certain boss characters that aided in trying to sabotage the tournaments.


Time now to get into the main stories.

--- Top Diva: Stories and Characters ---

Because I had many different layers of ideas, this garnered a number of different stories. You are now learning the storylines to each concept I thought of. Elements from this blog post may show up in future posts with more detailed content.

Here is a look at the main characters. This is conceptual artwork that may or may not represent any sort of final product or serious product:


^ These are the characters that comprise the first tournament of Top Diva. The front eight characters are the main characters as well as the main protagonists. NOTE: This image may or may not represent any sort of final product based on these characters.

Voxel models made using MagicaVoxel. My latest posts featuring MagicaVoxel content: "MagicaVoxel" posts on John's Creative Space.

Top Diva: Basic Story.

In the Summer of 2008, a new reality TV fighting tournament was created by Tommy Kenny Owens (also known as TKO), a former mixed-martial arts (MMA) champion. Rather than market up-and-coming male fighters, he decided to devote a tournament to female contenders, namely with the success of his sister. The championship would be a fighting showcase while also being a melting pot of various cultures and personalities. Only eight of the most unique women between the ages of 18 and 30 competed among themselves for the honor of "Top Diva." The winner of this tournament would achieve "unworldly fame." This "unworldly fame" comes in the form of a beautiful mansion in San Francisco, CA, USA. She would win over a million dollars, a luxury car and a sports car in her favorite color, and of course... the honor of "Top Diva."

Separate tournaments were held worldwide for various women to qualify for the tournament. Those who qualified successfully would compete in New York City to eventually determine eight finalists. Those eight finalists would be invited to compete in the Top Diva tournament in Los Angeles. The tournament allowed for each finalist to compete against the other finalists. Losing a match didn't exactly signal elimination. Instead, eliminations were based on performance. Those who performed the poorest in their battles would be eliminated. The finale will pit the two finest of the Top Diva contenders until one reigned supreme to become Top Diva.

Top Diva: Finalist Characters.

After all the qualifying, eight finalists emerged as the best of the best:

• A.J. Garcia - a college student from Manhattan, NY, USA.
• Candy Love - a go-go dancer from Houston, TX, USA.
• Lydia Odelia Vasquez Escobar (LOVE) - a rhumba instructor and fitness freak from Sao Paulo, Brazil.
• Suzie LeMarie - a college student and aspiring fashion designer from Paris, France.
• Sandy Gonzales - a lead guitarist and vocalist of an all-girl rock band from Anaheim, CA, USA.
• Tomomi Tsuchiya - a college student and softball player from Tokyo, Japan.
• Keisha "Crazy Legs" Kirkpatrick - a recording artist and dancer from Atlanta, GA, USA.
• Marisol Castillo - a party girl from Ibiza, Spain.

Top Diva: Other Characters.

While the finalists were proud to see their efforts result in being part of this fighting tournament, the non-finalists shared their experiences with friends and family while enjoying their experiences. Many of the women who competed in the qualifiers went back to life as usual; some others felt jealous that they didn't get to be among the eight finalists. An underground movement was established with a series of factions designed specifically to cause enough chaos to intimidate the eight finalists and sabotage the Top Diva tournament. One non-finalist, named Carmel Henderson, became extremely jealous and invested her own interest in going to Los Angeles to sabotage the tournament. Carmel's intentions were to personally challenge the winner of the Top Diva tournament... along with the help of her own faction for backup.

One other non-finalist is aware of the dark plot set up by Carmel Henderson, and she will stop at nothing to bring Carmel to justice and foil her plot. This other non-finalist, Buttercup Bonnet, is a private investigator looking to blow the plot wide open.

When the finalists for Top Diva arrive in Los Angeles to their campus, they are greeted by a woman named Grandmaster Dolores. She teaches the young finalists some lessons in life and in fighting.

Another aspect of the original Top Diva story was in certain boss characters with their own personalities and agendas in sabotaging the Top Diva tournament. Some of the different individual boss-type characters are mostly hired henchwomen of Carmel to aid in sabotaging the tournament.

There were even a few bonus characters that did not play any role in the storyline. I basically came up with a few unique and oddball characters for fun. Maybe they will be featured in the future here in my creative works blog.


In future edits, there will be added material linking you to various aspects of each of the characters. There may also be added pictures to help add to the appeal of this story. That concludes this post on Top Diva.





From the initial blog post, there will be more material regarding this story and this series. That even includes various edits to showcase many of the individual characters. I hope you get to enjoy this deal I've put together. Thank you for reading!

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Precious Cargo

This short story I created involves two teenagers who love each other dearly. For as much as they love each other, one night takes an unusual turn and leads to something that will haunt the two for the rest of their lives- the girl's pregnancy. The lives of two teenagers will change forever thanks to one certain moment where the teen girl is carrying... precious cargo.

Welcome to "John's Creative Space" and my first real attempt at a short story! I am NOT a good formal writer. You are going to see a number of errors in formal writing. Despite this, I will still tell the story as best as I can, to the best of my ability, with the skills I have in story telling.

Information on This Story...

Suggested Audience: Teenagers and older
Concerns: Mild Language, Sexual References

--- Precious Cargo ---

^ "Precious Cargo" - a not-so-nice short story about two teenagers in love... and one bearing precious cargo.

This is a story about two teenagers in love. Both of them are 16 years old and are High School Juniors. The story mostly centers around Alissa Fletcher and her boyfriend Sherman Thorpe. These two have known each other since the Sixth Grade and have been friends for a long time. They have done everything from help each other out in school to having fun at the park and in various other fun settings. It was only recently that the two have really fallen in love to the point of considering marriage. Of course, both Alissa and Sherman would rather go through High School and worry about marriage later in their lives.

Even though they want to get married later in their lives, there was a fateful moment that would change the lives of both Alissa and Sherman. One Saturday night, Sherman and Alissa went on a dinner date. The two had fun with their dinner date. Sherman and Alissa would later go to a bowling alley. At a climax of the two having fun, something psychologically sparked between Alissa and Sherman was triggered to where the two became really close to one another while they were having fun together. In a secluded portion of the bowling alley, Sherman and Alissa became romantically engaged to the point of sex. It began with a kiss... and continued gradually towards intercourse. These two innocent, mild-mannered High School students instantly developed romantic interest in one another. The two tried to be as discreet as possible though they were madly in love. Sherman then drove Alissa back to her house as the two separated to study for their classes.

Three to four weeks have now passed...

Alissa began to feel "funny." One thing she became fearful of is being pregnant. That romantic trigger from that fateful weekend may have led to Alissa becoming pregnant. As much as Alissa loves Sherman, and as much as she wants to eventually spend the rest of her life with him, she feels uneasy and nearly laments giving into having intercourse with Sherman. Should Alissa have said no to sex? Should she have snapped out of that trigger to go no further than that kiss? A by-product of her hiding her potential pregnancy was her grades slipping. Having her mind focused more on her her health instead of her schoolwork has led Alissa to perform poorly. She even couldn't perform certain activities during Physical Education class. Fearing she made the biggest mistake of her young life, Alissa decided not to tell anyone that she might be pregnant. That is... until she eventually went to the school nurse. Once she told her story to the nurse, the school nurse called Alissa's parents to discuss the matter. Alissa's father, Steve, became both concerned and furious. Steve and Alissa had a talk to where he became absolutely furious about how Alissa and Sherman engaged in sex and kept everything as discreet as possible. Alissa's mother, Felicia, later came home and heard Steve shouting violently and went immediately to Alissa's room. Steve later told Felicia about the pregnancy situation. It was now both Steve and Felicia disgusted and angered at their daughter Alissa.

What about Sherman? How is he faring in this situation?

Sherman began to show concern for Alissa once he noted that Alissa has not been herself lately since that awkward night of passion. He initially began feeling good that he and Alissa were able to celebrate their love in a passionate way. He found his soul mate and the one who completes him. However, Sherman was not expecting that he could have possibly fathered an unexpected child. That night of passion- even if it was a completely awkward moment- was enough to distract Sherman from his free spirit. His world really turned upside down when Steve called Sherman's mother and father to have a discussion. Sherman's father, David, was upset over him having sex with Alissa. His mother, Alice, also couldn't believe her son having sex with his girlfriend at such a young age.

The alliance between Alissa's parents and Sherman's parents have resulted in both sides becoming angry at their respective children. Outside of punishment for both Alissa and Sherman, the families have at least agreed to go no further and take no further action until a proper pregnancy test was completed.

Alissa and her family visits her family doctor that weekend. Sherman and his family went to the same doctor's office for the possible life-changing results.

Alissa's family discussed with their family doctor about her possible pregnancy. After being asked a number of questions, Alissa became increasingly nervous after everything she has gone through the past few weeks and days. Alissa even remembered a television documentary she watched with the theme of "babies having babies." When she saw that documentary, she was compelled and stunned at how even young teenagers could have their lives changed forever by introducing a child into the world at such young ages. How ironic must it be for a teenage girl stunned at how it is possible to be pregnant at a young age in giving birth... to now have CONTRIBUTED to a statistic of teen pregnancy instead of avoiding becoming a statistic?

Alissa can only hope she isn't pregnant so that she can return to living to the lives most average 16-year old teenage girls live. The pain would be overbearing if she finds out she is indeed pregnant. All Allisa can do is wait for the results of her pregnancy test. What has crossed her mind were all of the various criticism peers will give her and the further tongue lashing her family will give her. She also feels Sherman is confident enough to become a faithful father if the pregnancy test returns positive... or she at least feels Sherman would love to be a father. She feels in her heart that Sherman will be a loving father and will only bring the two lovebirds even closer if the test results confirm Alissa is pregnant.

Here comes the pregnancy test results...

As the results came in, both Alissa and Sherman's respective parents awaited the news. The doctor came out and looked to Alissa's family and said, "after the test results, we can confirm that Alissa... is pregnant." Both families were stunned to learn that one awkward night together between Alissa and Sherman has led to Sherman fathering a baby. Steve and Felicia felt queasy while David and Alice were equally distraught. Both families seemed to want to kill or savagely attack their respective children over this entire matter. However, they know Alissa and Sherman brought this on themselves and decided to do next to nothing to console and comfort the soon-to-be parents. The doctor saw the pain on the faces of the respective mothers and fathers of Alissa and Sherman and decided to talk with the parents in private. The doctor did everything he could to try to calm down the teens' respective parents and make the parents think more rationally about this situation rather than try to incite violence or further psychologically chew out Alissa and Sherman.

Alissa did not know how to feel. She looked at Sherman with loving interest, but Sherman did not know whether to feel happy or upset. Alissa herself wasn't sure to feel happy to become a mother or upset her life as an average teenage girl has come to an end. All it took was one night to completely change the lives of both Alissa and Sherman. After a little thought, Alissa looked to Sherman and smiled. Sherman looked at Alissa and could not contain himself. Thinking that Sherman would be proud to become a father, Alissa's awkward smile quickly turned into fear when she saw Sherman feeling queasy himself. Neither teen was at greater fault- both of them brought this issue on themselves, and both are paying the price. It was then no wonder that both Alissa and Sherman hugged each other crying. The parents eventually came back into the doctor's room after the parents had their lengthy talk with the doctor. When the parents saw Alissa and Sherman hugging each other crying, they checked to see if Alissa and Sherman were alright. This was a much different tone for the parents of their teenage parents-to-be compared to when the news was first given of Alissa's pregnancy. The doctor later wanted to talk with Alissa and Sherman once the two got their sanity back. It was extended duty for the doctor as he offered his calming advice to both Allisa and Sherman after already offering advice to their parents.

Alissa and Sherman both thought about the entire situation differently since learning of Alissa's pregnancy and after being given some counseling from the family doctor. Sherman began to want to take responsibility in becoming a father. He knows a number of his friends will look at him as "the man" for getting a girl pregnant. However, he knows he now has much greater responsibilities and has to attend to a different calling. Sherman didn't let his fatherhood plans get to his head and eventually grew more mature than he has ever been.

At this point of her life, Alissa has experienced a great deal of pain in one day than she has ever experienced all of her young life. Alissa feels she is at a mid-life crisis at only the age of 16. She is at a crossroads in her life and needs to make a decision. Should she continue to become a mother and live out the extent of her pregnancy, or seek abortion to return to her normal life and not have to deal with bringing life into the world at a fairly young age? Whatever decision she makes will forever change the lives of herself and Sherman. Alissa really needs some help...

The End...?

This story has more than one ending! You decide how this story ends! Click on any of the following text to see the different endings to this story:


So which ending do you want this story to have? Click on either text below to view the ending based on how you think the story ends or how you think the story should end:

Ending: Alissa decides to continue to become a mother...Ending: Alissa decides to continue to become a mother... (click here to hide this ending)
After much deliberation, and after really thinking about her pregnancy, Alissa decided to continue to become a mother. She now knows her life has changed forever and that many of her previous freedoms are now no more. The amount of pain and frustration endured has taken away a lot of her teenage life. She now has even greater responsibility and even more challenges ahead. Alissa's life as she knows it is not over, but her life has taken on a brand new twist.

As Alissa began to chat more with her friends at school, she realizes her pregnancy should be taken as a wake-up call to every teenage girl to think twice before wanting to take part in having sex while still in grade school. Both Alissa and Sherman shrugged off some of the various jokes and gossip regarding these two. In addition to Alissa deciding to continue to be a mother, the parents have stepped up responsibly and financially to help support this new family. Just the feeling that the parents will step up in helping support Alissa's offspring makes Alissa feel better inside. Same goes for Sherman's parents looking to offer their support. Now that the insanity of her pregnancy has come and gone, she made a concerted effort to get her good grades back in order.

Alissa honestly couldn't be more grateful knowing amid chaos, love remains strong among herself and Sherman as well as both families. The offspring Alissa bears will be treated to loving and respectful people once she nurses herself to successfully give birth once her due date arrives. Couples could have awkward moments and awkward days. Despite the insanity, what remains important in the end is staying together and trying to work things out that need to be worked out. Alissa and Sherman suffered serious blows with the whole romantic situation, but this only brought the two closer together and made them stronger. Alissa can not wait for the day when she successfully gives birth and tries to become the best mother she can be. Same goes for Sherman in trying to be as best of a father as possible. The future can only be bright now that all is well among everyone after so much pain in the past.

There is no definitive end to this story. However, thank you for reading and picking this ending!

...or...
Ending: Alissa decides to get an abortion...Ending: Alissa decides to get an abortion... (click here to hide this ending)
There was a lot of pain and a lot of stress in trying to subdue the insanity of the past month. Despite this, Allisa felt she has put herself and her family through so much. The feeling of freedom and innocence felt nonexistent in her life. After giving it some thought, she would want to be a mother... just not now. Just not while she is trying to gain an education and has a chance to better her life for years to home. So she decided to get an abortion.

Some of Alissa's peers have villainized her for being a murderer, because a number of her peers see abortion as murder. She began to lose the respect of her friends even though Alissa just wants to return to being just another teenage girl madly in love with her boyfriend and in having all sorts of girly fun. Some of her friends wanted the child to be born and have a happy life. That now will not be possible as Alissa will give the death blow to her unborn offspring.

Even though Alissa's abortion decision wasn't taken so popularly, she knows she made the right decision to not endure the burden of being a pregnant High School girl and all the nuances it entails. The next time Alissa decides to have sex, it will be a bit later in her life. Or at least... after graduating from High School. Valuable lessons were learned by both Alissa and Sherman. This lesson is something both Alissa and Sherman will remember for the rest of their lives and will teach to others who make or made the same mistakes they made... even if and when both of them have children.

There is no definitive end to this story. However, thank you for reading and picking this ending!



Thank you for reading my story and getting involved!

--- Extra Commentary on "Precious Cargo" ---

My story regarding Alissa and Sherman were mostly inspired by some actual experiences. There were two moments when I saw a girl in High School who was pregnant. One was pregnant in the school I first attended. One other girl already had her child... and was about my age at the time. One of my first true short stories was a bit tough for me to pick out because I don't usually lean towards touchy topics like certain love and sex topics.

Issues Related to This Story.

Teen pregnancy and abortion are two issues mentioned. Many people have their thoughts in regards to both issues. Especially abortion is a hot-button issue. I didn't go into deeper detail in regards to intimacy since I wanted to keep this mostly friendly as possible.

Why the Art to This Story?

I actually intended to make an animation for this story you read, and I was considering trying to make an animation for this story. Maybe in the future, you'll see a video animation of mine acting out some of the key points of this story. You'll see it here in this blog post in an edit if indeed I do create an animation.

Of course... the models were created using MagicaVoxel.




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Beyond the Mirror

"Beyond the Mirror" is a somewhat hip-hop styled song I created using Linux MultiMedia Studio (LMMS). The inspiration for this song is basically about what exists behind peeking through a mirror. It has a hip-hop style to it while not being a proper hip-hop song. You have a chance to check out the latest song of mine I put on YouTube! Here is my latest song I released on YouTube:


^ "Beyond the Mirror"

As I began to think about this song and how I made it, I thought about transforming this track into a more hip-hop oriented version. I often times envision remixes of certain songs and how they would sound if remixed. Some remixes are better than their original songs. If I do come up with a remix of "Beyond the Mirror," I will CERTAINLY share that with all of you.





I will be sure to share more of my musical work when I make more available. You are always free to share your thoughts on my work here on "John's Creative Space." Thank you for reading!

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My 5th Voxel People Set

My 5th set of MagicaVoxel voxel people was recently put together. And unlike the past ones I've shared, I tried some radical new designs and introduced a variation to the main character model- a new wide-bodied version of my main human model. If you've seen my previous posts similar to this topic, then you know what posts like this are all about. If not, then you'll get an idea of the characters I created for fun. Welcome to the creative works space of my blogging universe- "John's Creative Space!"

--- My 5th Character Set ---

Take a look at my latest set of characters:


^ Unlike previous sets, this 5th set of characters consist of a new variation to the

Get to know my new set of characters. Read on.

Creating the Characters.

Unlike the previous four sets I shared prior to this one, there are two main highlights: a new wide-bodied character and the addition of glasses to the faceless heads. This set has a good bit more personality than some of the other character sets I created. I even had a knack of creating a model with a traditional sort of outfit.

As a special note, I had created two extra characters- two children models to this set. However, I decided NOT to feature those children models among my pack of "adult" characters. You may see a set consisting of these shorter models in a future post or in a future set of pictures.

Purpose of the Characters.

The characters all are to populate a number of scenes which I hope to create in the future. Each character I created is just a standard set of voxel assets I created for which to be used in a variety of media projects. None of these characters have any specific names. In fact, I named them according to the order I created them. That same order explains which character appears before another from left to right. So with this said, you can see I created the Goth male first followed by the rest of the characters in this set.

Even though this set of characters is based on the second variation model (the faceless heads), the main model which all of these characters is based on is not included in this set.

Explaining the Characters.

Meet my most recent set of characters:

• 1.) Music Festival Girl
When I created my basic human character, I imagined all sorts of possibilities to customize and create new characters from just one model. One such aspect was in trying a different style of footwear- gladiator sandals. I am NOT fond of gladiator sandals in the least bit. Well... some are forgivable. Anyhow, this blonde model sports a pair of gladiator sandals, some high-waist denim jean short-shorts, and a cropped top. She is a girl who would probably between the ages of 16 and 23.

• 2.) Biker Dude
You only live once, or "YOLO" in today's Internet culture. This guy believes in enjoying life while you're still around. This character is the first character I designed with facial hair. He is at least 40 years old with gray hair on his beard and with his receding hairline. Besides his facial and head features, he wears faded jeans, motorcycle boots, and a leather biker jacket. He also wears a pair of sunglasses.

• 3.) Classy Office Girl
Somewhere 18 years of age or older is this classy-dressed young lady. She wears a black sweater vest over a white blouse. She also wears dark gray dress pants and black pumps.

• 4.) Large and in Charge!
Meet the first wide-bodied character I've created! This person is a wide-bodied ladies man. His head was modified for a more unique look. He wears sunglasses as part of his head features. He wears a mauve sport jacket, a gold watch, a purple button-down shirt, camel dress pants, and brown dress shoes. He's dressed to win the hearts of women.

• 5.) Curvy Cutie
From the first wide-body male character, meet the first wide-body female character. Here is a cute curvy girl somewhere between ages 18 and 25. I experimented on another design element- basic sandals. The flip-flop/thong sandals this girl wears are platforms. She wears a ringer T-shirt, neon bracelets on both wrists, and some dark flare-leg jeans. Her hair has plum highlights up front.

• 6.) Ao Dai
The outfit worn on this young Vietnamese woman is an Ao Dai. This traditional Vietnamese outfit consists of a very long tunic worn over a pair of pants. She wears a light pink Ao Dai with white pants and dark pink pumps.

• 7.) Helpful Male
This character is, for all intents and purposes, a male version of the "Helpful Staff" young woman from the 4th voxel people set.

• 8.) Secret Agent
This male character wears a long red shirt, gray pants, and red shoes. The obvious inspiration for this character is Albatross- the protagonist of the classic NAMCO game "Rolling Thunder."

• 9.) Goth Girl
This young adolescent wears a dress that is black and plum. She also wears a pair of lace-up booties. Those lace-up booties resemble the famous Jeffrey Campbell "Lita" booties many fashionable females love. Just like the Goth Male, this Goth girl has red highlights in her hair up front.


And that explains each of my characters in this new set. Another JCS post is done. Hope you enjoyed this one.





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Urban Dream

"Urban Dream" is a song I made in #LMMS a long time ago, but never released until recently. I created this song sort of like a (for lack of a better term) dreamy setting in an urban locale. Sort of like living the dream in the big city. Either that, or you are envisioning a sweet dream living life in the city. This song is at least a year old and was updated. The song you're about to hear is the updated version of this song I created long ago. I saved a looping portion of the old version of the song that can be a bit hypnotic.

For your listening pleasure, I give you "Urban Dream":


^ "Urban Dream"

Notes About This Song.

When I tried to edit this song, I was trying to set up the sound so that the introduction had the sound pan from the left speaker to the right speaker to start up the song. Since I didn't know how to do that in Linux MultiMedia Studio (LMMS), I kept the sound in the center. Maybe I'll redo the song to include the left and right stereo panning.

The song was first simply called "Dream." I later called it "Urban Dream" because I sort of envisioned this being a cool song for urban-type settings.


I hope you enjoyed my song.





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Creativity With Music

Throughout my life, I've always appreciated music as much as I've appreciated art. Music is a creative outlet to exhibit expression. There are a number of ways to showcase your musical talent ranging from live performances to computer performances. In today's market, the most popular program for which to produce music is FL Studio. Even if you haven't the money to get a more proper experience in making music with FL Studio, you have many different options ranging from commercial programs to competent freeware and open-source programs.

This blog post is a commentary piece regarding creativity with music.

Creative Aspects of Music.

For people who really care about music, each beat and each instrument have meaning to them. Putting every musical element together is quite the balancing act. You want everything to fall into place and be structured properly. Otherwise, you'd have a hot mess of sounds. Songs themselves have to have a sort of collective flow that have both meaning and purpose. I, for one, think life has its own soundtrack; and almost every moment has a song- even if it's silence.

Being creative with music gets a bit more difficult if you are engaged with vocals. Adding your voice to music can either make or break songs. This is where the music made has to be combined seamlessly with the music to make something special.

The Online Factor.

Many people online share their material through a number of different services. Two of the most popular services online are Soundcloud and Bandcamp. I am personally considering Bandcamp to showcase some of my own music while hopefully making some profit for my work. As for sharing music, people usually post their material on sites such as last.fm, CD Baby, and of course- iTunes.

Some of My Own Work.

"John's Creative Space" is my own outlet to showcase my own material. Having said this, I made two sample songs on YouTube using the free program Linux MultiMedia Studio. These are fairly quick and weren't meant to be proper songs. Have a listen to these two loops I created (or click on the below links to view on YouTube):


^ "Sample Hip Hop Loop Using LMMS"


^ "Sample Trance Loop with LMMS"

As of this post, I have made a song a long time ago that I recently released on YouTube. You'll get to hear that here on JCS in the near future. So stay tuned to JCS for that.





Thank you for checking out my blog post regarding creativity in music. I hope you have enjoyed my commentary here. Thank you for reading!

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My 4th Voxel People Set

More MagicaVoxel voxel people were created by me. This is the fourth set of basic characters I've created. I continue to enjoy making these models mostly for fun. They are just basic models for the most part, but they have personalities outside of their blocky appearance. I do posts like this to showcase my content while also having fun telling you about each such character. Welcome to another post here on "John's Creative Space"- the blogging space showcasing my creative works.

--- My 4th Character Set ---

Meet my latest set of characters with three views of my latest voxel people in one picture:


^ This is the fourth set of regular characters I've created.

Let me talk about the characters you've noticed in this post.

Creating the Characters.

There is nothing real special for me to mention about this set of characters.

Purpose of the Characters.

The characters all are to populate a number of scenes which I hope to create in the future. Each character I created is just a standard set of voxel assets I created for which to be used in a variety of media projects. None of these characters have any specific names. In fact, I named them according to the order I created them. That same order explains which character appears before another from left to right. So with this said, you can see I created the Goth male first followed by the rest of the characters in this set.

Even though this set of characters is based on the second variation model (the faceless heads), the main model which all of these characters is based on is not included in this set.

Explaining the Characters.

Now that you've read everything about the creation of these characters, it is now time for me to introduce you to this new set of characters. Each description with each bullet will be a basic introduction of each character I created. The order of each featured character is from left to right. Here is an introduction to each character.

• 1.) Helpful Staff
The young lady here is available to help you when at a store, the bank, or any other such business. When I first featured her in a development picture, she was a blonde. I since changed her to a brunette.

• 2.) Cool Dude
Here is a guy who wears an opened button-down shirt with a T-shirt underneath, a pair of dark jeans, and some black shoes.

• 3.) Country Girl
Here is a girl immaculate in her plaid shirt, a T-shirt, cuffed denim short-shorts, and cowboy boots. She's the kind of girl great for scenes like being in country settings or in desert settings.

• 4.) Va Va Voom!
This is a blonde sporting a sexy chic look. She wears a black bralette, a black high-waist pencil skirt, and red high-heel pumps. She also wears a set of bracelets on both wrists. She is a chic woman who is at least 21 years old.

• 5.) Cool Customer
The first Asian male I've created is this Vietnamese fellow dressed very cool. He wears a simple black T-shirt and a classy pair of gray pants along with some dress shoes.

• 6.) Nobody's Angel
Here is a tough blonde who has tattoos on both of her upper arms. Despite her toughness, she has some girly style. She wears a dark blue camisole, crimson jeans, and some brown work boots.

• 7.) Outdoors Type
Wearing a gray T-shirt and tan cargo shorts, this guy is either a casual fellow enjoying a lazy day or an outdoor sports person. Either way, he is a fairly cool and casual person.

• 8.) Distance Male
As a compliment to the running woman of the previous character set, the fellow here is a sporty male. Primarily, he is a male runner. This guy wears a light blue sleeveless top, some black active shorts, and gray running shoes.

• 9.) Schoolgirl
Here is a girl between the ages of 14 and 25 who wears a school uniform. She wears a blouse, a navy blue sweater vest, a pleated skirt, tall white socks, and some black pumps.


And that explains each of my characters in this new set. In case you want a complete collection of characters I've created so far, I created this picture:


^ All sets of characters I've created in one picture, most recent set up front.


Another JCS post is done. Hope you enjoyed this one.



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My 3rd Voxel People Set

My third set of voxel people with MagicaVoxel will be featured. This all features characters based on the second variation model I shown you previously. I continue to enjoy making these models mostly for fun. They are just models to you, but they have personalities outside of their blocky appearance. That's why I do these posts on these character sets. So if you don't mind me talking about my models, welcome to another post here on "John's Creative Space"- the blogging space showcasing my creative works.

--- My 3rd Character Set ---

Here are three views of my latest voxel people creations in one picture:


^ This third set builds upon the second set's model.

Let me talk about the characters you've noticed in this post.

Creating the Characters.

This set of characters is no different from the 2nd set I introduced you all. I did try to diversify the range of characters and the different clothing and hair styles. There is a bit more personality to this set. I previously had trouble trying to properly root the short dress model in the platform pumps, and I forgot to paint the back of one of my characters who was wearing a jacket. I have since corrected those and properly introduced this set.

Purpose of the Characters.

The characters all are to populate a number of scenes which I hope to create in the future. Each character I created is just a standard set of voxel assets I created for which to be used in a variety of media projects. None of these characters have any specific names. In fact, I named them according to the order I created them. That same order explains which character appears before another from left to right. So with this said, you can see I created the Goth male first followed by the rest of the characters in this set.

Even though this set of characters is based on the second variation model (the faceless heads), the main model which all of these characters is based on is not included in this set.

Explaining the Characters.

Now that you've read everything about the creation of these characters, it is now time for me to introduce you to this new set of characters. Each description with each bullet will be a basic introduction of each character I created. The order of each featured character is from left to right. Here is an introduction to each character.

• 1.) Goth Guy
The first model was my attempt to try to diversify my model types. This one features a Goth-type male who has red highlights in his hair up front. He's probably in the range of 18-25 years of age.

• 2.) Sexy Tough
Nothing says sexy like a short dress. This girl around 21-25 compliments this short dress with a cropped motorcycle jacket and some chic booties.

• 3.) Man in Pink
This male is looking classy wearing a button-down light pink shirt and wearing a rather dark pink vest. He also wears some beige slacks and black dress shoes. He is at least 40 years old.

• 4.) Urban Girl
Here is an urban girl wearing headphones around her neck. The first black female character I've created, she wears a sports bra, a cropped denim jean vest, some pale blue pants, and some high-heel red pumps.

• 5.) Kilted Male
This bloke proudly wears his kilt along with some socks and some shoes. This was my first attempt at making a tartan design. I gave the kilt a tartan design to make it more interesting looking. Otherwise, this would have been just a plain Navy Blue kilt.

• 6.) Sexy in the City
Not only is this my first Asian character, it is also the first experiment in making a character with platform shoes. The skin-tone platform pumps she wears compliments her short clubwear dress. Yes- this female between the ages of 18-25 is nightclub-bound. She boasts some long hair on the sides and even some bold bangs. I actually had a tough time trying to make a unique long hairstyle for her.

• 7.) Class Act
This male is at least 21 years old. He is a handsomely-dressed Black male in a sport coat, a light blue button-down shirt, beige pants, and black dress shoes.

• 8.) Sporty Girl
Immaculate in her sports bra and running shorts, this Latina between the ages of 18-30 is a sporty girl. To make her workouts and runs fun, she sports a pair of neon pink sneakers. Her hair is tied in a sporty ponytail.

• 9.) Game Time
This Black male between the ages of 14-25 is dressed for playing football or basketball. This person is a star athlete ready to go on game day.


And that explains each of my characters in this new set. In case you want a complete collection of characters I've created so far, I created this picture:





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Creativity With Gaming

Gaming is much different today compared to times past. It used to be that you had to work for a major company and have all kinds of programming knowledge to make games. That clearly isn't the case today. It is almost like anyone can make a game these days. Some have the resources and skills to make games; some others don't. Even I had my own gaming concepts. I have no work to share here. Instead, I just want to discuss creativity in regards to gaming. Feel free to offer your thoughts if you want to.

About the Label: "Gaming"

One such creative category is in the realm of gaming. Video games, computer games, and mobile games are what this label entails. This involves various insights and perspectives in regards to expressing creativity in gaming.

--- Creativity With Gaming ---

While I don't have any knowledge or experience in creating games, I certainly am attentive to and mindful of gaming. Any game should be as engaging as a good book or a good movie. What makes gaming fun and engaging is the ability to have the audience engaged in a story or an environment where one's actions dictate the pace. In other words... gaming creativity lies entirely in having the individual engaged and active in trying to engage in a story. You are letting others experience a story rather than being told a story. This lends itself to the joy and fun of gaming.

--- Programs for Gaming ---

There are many different programs these days that allow for inexperienced people to create their own games. In the past, you had only so limited resources to make your own content. Most of that created content was never really as good as what even material by lesser game developers would create. Some games even allowed players to customize content in helping make their own games. Certain game engines help make this possible.

Unity 3D.

Unless you have the money to fully pay for this program in its entirety (some $1.5K US Dollars worth!), you're likely better off getting a subscription or paying for some lesser version of this program. Unity 3D is one of the best game development software going today. You can make 2D games with Unity 3D, so don't let the "3D" in Unity 3D mislead you. Unity involves a lot of different elements to build games with. Even an amateur can create a simple game using Unity and its many different resources. More proper companies and more professional types can make games that could even rival Triple-A game companies and franchises.

GameMaker.

More casual gaming types can enjoy what GameMaker provides. YoYo Games is the creator of the GameMaker program. You can make both 2D and 3D games with GameMaker.


Those are only two of the more popular game-building software you can download or purchase.

--- Creativity With Gaming: Why Bother? ---

If you think about it, there is a reason why games have their appeal. Games tell stories in which the game player is directly involved. Games operate differently from literature in the sense that a game offers a level of immersion and influence that reading literature doesn't really provide. When you play a game (or even reading some kind of literature), you become part of the realm provided by the creator. You become part of a realm outside of our own and must try to exist within this alternate realm. Most games, unlike most forms of literature, give you the control to adversely affect the outcome of whatever story is being told. Many games have an ultimate goal (or sometimes multiple goals) for which the participating player will eventually reach. Some of these goals can come in the form of alternate endings or even bad endings. A gamer obviously wants to be involved in good endings because that is where all the hard work goes towards.

Why did I say "most games" in my description of gaming? The reason why is because not all games have specific goals or elaborate storylines, and not every game has an overall goal to accomplish. Not every game has that definitive final level or that final battle. Some games seem to have an end level or some sort of difficult level, but then loops back to the very first level as you already have a super high score. So not every game has a true "final level" or "final boss."

Creativity With Gaming: Design.

A lot of the games from some of the top gaming companies and developers offer the insight and the passion that fuels our creativity and gets us to play them. After seeing a lot of what a lot of independent (or "indie," because I tend to think of India for some reason when I hear "indie" sometimes) game makers are designing, indie game companies and developers offer more unique experiences with the sort of character and personality most big budget companies are devoid of. A lot of indie developers are progressive thinkers and take on different gaming avenues against the usual standards set by the more mainstream companies. There are cases even where indie games are just as popular- if not more so- than most mainstream titles! Part of the reason is because a lot of indie games are designed with a sort of unique style which seems fairly casual in nature while still making sure to focus on great gameplay. In fact, some may argue indie games are designed with more personality and focus a lot more on gameplay than a lot of other mainstream titles.

--- Creativity With Gaming: Final Thoughts ---

No matter what kind of gamer you are or what you find paramount to gaming, everyone has a certain level of creativity based on many design elements. There is no right way or any proper guidelines on how games should be designed. Everyone designs games based on what they want to offer to players. Only the better developers are able to capture an experience that will be revered and loved by many for a long while.

--- Creativity With Gaming: Indie Game Examples (BONUS SECTION!) ---

I am devoting this entire section to a variety of indie games. You can click on the links below to check out some of various games in case you're interested. I am providing this section to further extend the point about creativity with making games. So take a look and get involved with these titles if they interest you. Each featured game is met with a description. Read the description below each link to get a general idea of what each game is about.

NOTE: Be warned that some of these featured titles may or may no longer be in development. Some games may still just be in Alpha or Beta stages. Some games still in development may NEVER be released. So in other words... I am only providing these links for educational purposes.


• Stonehearth
Stonehearth is a city-building game. Gather resources with your crew and also battle monsters that dare threaten your city and your people.

• Build and Shoot
After "Ace of Spades" was sold off to Jagex, dedicated fans made their own re-imagining of "Ace of Spades." "Build and Shoot" is a voxel first-person shooter built in just about the same vein as the former Ace of Spades.

• Voxatron
Voxatron is third-person shooting game. It is styled somewhat by games like Smash TV. Players can take part in any number of the different levels and challenges offered. Also, players can make their own levels and characters.

• King Voxel
Mostly in the likeness of the very first The Legend of Zelda, King Voxel is an action RPG that will seriously appeal to Zelda fans.

• Blocky Roads
This is a driving game where you must rebuild your farm after a hurricane destroyed everything. You'll have to venture out into the world and rebuild your farm piece-by-piece. The goal is to traverse around the terrain while collecting coins to purchase material. Later with progress in the game, you will be able to make your own machines. You can change skins as well as upgrade vehicles and buy new ones.

• Trove
An action RPG with a Minecraft style to it in survival and in crafting items. Collect resources and build and maintain a city. Loads of monsters roam the colorful world of Trove. So make sure you're equipped to take on these challenges... or die trying!

• Fist Puncher
A beat-em-up in the vein of games like "River City Ransom" and "Double Dragon," with RPG-style customization and upgrading elements.

• Drift Stage
An independent racing game with a style that screams '90s arcade racer. It is purely arcade.

• Space Qube
This is a shoot-em-up styled like the After Burner series but in space.

• Spark Rising
Build and customize ships and take part in battle with this futuristic action game.

• DISCOVERIE
Here is a game where you go through a dungeon and try to survive against the many monsters that inhabit the dungeon.

• Continue?9876543210
As a failed game character, you are part of a world trying to learn about life before you eventually die. It is a 3D voxel game.

• Crisential
This game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. You are trying to survive against a handful of evil people, creatures, and machinery.

• The Kindred
This game is allows you to explore and build cities. There are also elements of exploration and survival as you go about creating your cities and living within this realm. (SPECIAL NOTE: I included this title in respect to one of the people behind this project- Nellie.)


I just wanted to make a notion to these games to help push the point across about creativity through gaming. I'm sure if you are reading this blog and this blog post, and if you represent any of the games I mentioned; then I'm sure you wouldn't mind giving you a shout-out here, right?

A Quick Note...

One thing to note... a lot of the 3D games I made mention to were constructed using Qubicle Constructor. If you want to read my blog post on Qubicle Constructor, visit this post: "Qubicle Constructor" (John's Creative Space).





I hope to expand upon creativity with gaming involved. This post is just a start. Thank you for reading!

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