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- How do you create the strip?
- Each panel is seperate image created in QPaint on my Visor PDA. A screenshot of each one is taken in sequence. When I sync the visor it converts the screenshots to GIFs and puts them in a network share. I then run a script on the server which:
- Copies the original frames into a backup directory
- Appends them into a single image
- Erases the QPaint controls left over from the screenshot
- Adds the title and copyright text
- Converts it to PNG
- Moves the file into the directory for queued comics
- Adds a new record to the database, with 'Visible' set to 'no'
- Removes the GIFs from the network share
This allows many comics to be queued which are released one per day. A cronjob at 03:14 PST runs the release script which:
- Moves the queued comic into the comics directory
- Updates the record with the release time and sets 'Visible' to 'yes'
- What does the name mean?
- Camera obscura is latin for 'dark room'. Back when optics were still new and nifty, room sized pinhole cameras were popular and this is what they were called.
I wanted an old photographic term to emphasize the crude nature of the comics. I originally thought to call the comic 'Dageurrotype' but decided that was too unwieldy. Other rejected names: tintype, heliograph.
- How can I contact you?
Send me mail at cameraobscura@cyphertext.net. Sorry, was getting too much spam, and the comic ended 4 years ago. If you really want to contact me, I bet you can find a way.
- Are you really a proponent of anarcho-capitalism/socialism/lathes?
- I love lathes. The other concepts I just find mildly amusing and sadly underused these days. Check out Ken MacLeod for great modern SF set in both. Other good portrayals of anarcho-capitalist societies: The Ungoverned, by Vernor Vinge, Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein.
- Have you really made boozecicles?
- Yes.
They're not very good and very, very cold.
- Where did the cast come from?
- William, Maxwell and Denise are characters in Now Be Dragons, a short film I was working on. There is no connection between Now Be Dragons and Camera Obscura; I'm just lazy and re-used the names.
- Are you William?
- Not anymore. But I do project onto him more often than onto Maxwell.
- Are you Maxwell?
- Dear god, no. But part of me wants to be.
- Did you make up all these questions?
- All the previous ones, yes.
- Have you really licked a lathe?
- No. I'd remember that, I think. I hope.
Updated:
Now that I have a lathe, it has been licked by several people. But not me.
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