Topics

[Software I use]

So I thought I'd ask the good people of pkmn for some laptop advice (again)!

So basically I've finished uni now but I don't really know what the next few years will bring! I need something that will ideally last another 3-4 years.
I would class myself as a designer but not Pro yet I guess? By that I mean I don't need some bleeding edge thing with eye watering specs and pricing to match lmao.
While at uni I used it for design work, so graphic design stuff on illustrator, a little video editing, prototyping etc. My needs haven't changed /that/ much but still need something Powerful.

My current one is showing its age now but it served me well at college and uni. It's a 15.6' 2013 Samsung with i5 and 6gb of ram. It ran all of the stuff I needed to but could get quite slow when processing huge files.

So I've looked a few things up but just not that sure in what to go for. I'm not too fussed if it's Mac or Windows. Mac would be nice as it integrates with my iPad Pro but it's a lot more money. I've been looking into the 2015 pro but wondering is it worth buying a 2 year old machine at this point?
Windows is what I'm used to but getting frustrated with it now (although that's prob down to my laptop lmao). A lot of Windows seem to be 2in1s - I use my iPad for art now and I've heard the styluses aren't as great on some of them. Was looking into Wacom cintiqs but I think a traditional laptop would be better for me tbh.

Software I use:
[bold equals use a lot/italics occasionally]

• Illustrator
• InDesign
• Premiere Pro (nothing too extreme, like I can't see myself making 4K)
• After Effects (same as above but I'd like to do a little more)
• Ms Office (mostly Word/PowerPoint)
• Unity (want to do more in it)
• Paint tool sai
• Steam (very easy to run games lmao)
• Arduino and Processing

Requirements

• I'm a little bit of an #aesthetic person so I'd like something that looks nice too. I'm sure gaming laptops would be fine but some just look too Edgy etc so I'd like something that looks Nice.
• Nothing too bulky
• I don't really want a 2in1 or a desktop either - lack of space for the latter just now.
• It needs ports!! USB/SD/HDMI are what I use most
• 15' screen - preferably a nice resolution etc. I'm open to 13' models with the possibility of getting a monitor later on.
• Something that runs the above comfortably.

So I have a couple of questions as well:
1- Am I better off going for an i7 processor over an i5? Would I notice a difference even if I picked a current gen i5?

2- So with RAM is this where I should spend a little bit more? Like would it be silly to have an i5 and 16gb? Or should I be going as powerful as I can afford?

~

Thanks for reading my rambles, if anyone has suggestions/advice it would be much appreciated!

So now SuMo have been released today for the rest of the world (i.e europe) I thought i'd make a little thread. Post your team, where you're at, etc etc.

I've been avoiding spoilers on a lot of the stuff, I've yet to even look at the world map so it's been fun so far not knowing what's next! So if you've beaten the game already then it would be nice to keep this spoiler free as possible for the time being lmao.

I'm just at Hau'oli City currently, suited and booted with a new hairdo and contact lenses. Just about to fight team skull after some grinding.

My team as of now is:
Rowan - Rowlet lvl 11
Dippy - Slowpoke lvl 9
Spike - Yungoos lvl 8
Mitzi - Meowth lvl 7

No idea what my planned team is going to be tbh.

I'm looking for laptop advice (again lmao).

I've been debating for a while about buying a new one, I just have no clue what route to go down!

Basically I'm in my last year at uni and honestly have no idea what the next couple years will bring, whether I stay in design or jump ship and go down another route.

I need something that's going to last and will be future proof I guess?? (I did consider a desktop but like I said I have no idea what I'm doing, so would rather something portable for the time being.)

My current laptop has a second gen i5 2.6ghz processor and 6gb of ram, running windows 10. Like it's fine when it works but even sometimes saving stuff on illustrator can take an age as has booting up these days.

The main use of my laptop is for design with other usual stuff.
+ I mainly use illustrator and InDesign.
+ Occasionally photoshop.
+ I do video edits very very occasionally on Premiere and After Effects, but I can't honestly see myself going into that route.
+ Ms office suite: word and PowerPoint.
+ Paint tool Sai
+ I do the odd bit of work with processing and arduino but I'm interested in learning more coding??
- Not big on 3D CAD stuff (although see above lol)
- Very rarely game on my laptop either
+ Then usual web browsing etc

So I really like the idea of some of the 2 in 1 hybrids (e.g. Surface Book) but I also wouldn't mind to move away from windows at the same time lmao. I did think of getting an iPad Pro and pimping it up but idk. Then I think I could just get a better tablet etc etc

Like basically I'm not sure /how/ much power I'm going to need for stuff? I could go crazy and just get max specs for everything but like I say it could end up being overkill!

My other requirements are pretty much:
- 15 inch screen (could go 13 if I got a monitor)
- Storage at least 250gb SSD
- Nothing too bulky/heavy
- Aesthetic (see above, no Alienware stuff)
- Not crazy expensive
- Don't mind buying refurb/secondhand

I'm not going to be getting anything asap but just really looking for some suggestions? Throw stuff at me. What's good and what's bad.

Thank you!! 

uni is killing me slowly and this is a thinly veiled attempt at procrastination

Since it's a new month and all that jazz i'm going to attempt to post daily (hopefully?) and take little (emphasis on little) requests from you guys. I haven't drawn properly in a good while so I may be slightly rusty. 

Request wise I want stuff that's fun/silly/etc and something that won't take ages, so nice simple stuff like Pokemon or whatever.
So yeah don't expect a huge piece with 400 OCs and a BG etc (if you want that i need £££ lmao), it'll most likely be something like this: http://66.media.tumblr.com/6e6131f02ccbe535403492ee70289f94/tumblr_obj9ydqHva1uxjnv4o1_1280.png

So yeah request now while i still have motivation for it!!

Just an fyi :
[spoiler]I can be quite scatty and uni may ramp up towards the end of the month so if you've requested something and I've not done it then feel free to send me a PM or post here to get my attention.[/spoiler]

I'm finally getting around to finishing oras and I need to evolve my Seadra into a Kingdra! I have a dragon scale just can't trade it lmao

If one of you lovely members would be so kind to help me on my quest, it'd be much appreciated! I don't really have anything to trade in return besides from some Head Smash Aron I caught today. I could do you a little drawing or pixel for your sig though instead (or just have my eternal love and thankfulness).

My FC is: 1375-8550-1401

thank you!!

(also I'm in the UK, so I use GMT as a heads up)

(I'm aware I'm like 5 years late to the party but w/e.)
My little brother doesn't play his anymore cause he's got a ps4 lmao. Obviously it'll be really cheap now to get some games! Only problem is I've got no idea where to start haha. I've downloaded a few old nostalgic ps1 games and I'm in the process of downloading dragon age origins, it was only £3, so I thought why not.

Kinds of games I like are mostly adventure and RPG/jrpg games. I'd prefer ones with a good single player element first and foremost and then a good online mode will be a bonus! I'm not as keen on games that really really gory or violent lmao. I like games with a bit of challenge but don't want it to be a proper slog through either.

but basically I've not played a good majority of last gen games (non Nintendo ones) so I'm open to most suggestions! Leaning towards the bigger titles rather than indie stuff but again if there's any amazing ones then I'm down.

Do you have any little odd traditions/quirks you have to do when you play through a game?

Since Gold I've always evolved my starter into its final evo with a rare candy. I remember this the most from route 119 in RSE. Speaking of that route I always have my secret base in the big bush on the right just before Fortree. Another place I liked was the tree in the middle of the sea beside Mauville Town.

So yeah, what are yours?

So for the past while my laptop has been playing up. It's the one I bought after getting advice on here actually but it's mostly been pretty solid, I'll give it its dues!
It's incredibly slow when it comes to opening certain programs. Like with Sai for example (I'm assuming it's a pretty lightweight program), I can click on the icon on the taskbar and it just doesn't do anything. Even trying to run task manager can take an age sometimes. Other times this doesn't happen and it'll be completely fine, like a few weeks back I had a 40 page document on InDesign open, plus illustrator, and a few tabs on chrome.
I'm still running Windows 8.1 (been meaning to get 10 but just don't have my hdd with me at uni) and my antivirus is Avast. It's updated to the latest version. The laptop itself is roughly 3 years old. Had a few niggles with it but nothing major.
I don't know if I might have a virus of some sort or not? I haven't been on anything dodgy recently though lol and I think the last thing I downloaded was rollercoaster tycoon 2 from steam so I doubt that's the problem lmao. Only other thing I can think of is that the wifi both in my flat (uni halls) and at uni is unsecured. Due to my flat wifi being a piece of crap I tend to only have it on my laptop when I need to upload assignments or whatever, tend to keep it turned off while at uni unless I need it.

It's getting pretty irritating tbh. I have been debating to save up and get a Mac and if I can't sort this then this will probably be the last straw. Hopefully it won't come to that though aha.

So yeah does anyone have any suggestions/help/advice? Thank you!

I'm doing requests! i've not drawn solidly since like last year and i finally got a new tablet. The pic in my sig was drawn today so I guess that's as recent an example as you'll get lmao.

I'd prefer nice fun requests because if they're complicated I'm less likely to do them. Nothing really weird that's going to take ages to do either, i'm willing to draw most things though, obv within the rules so no extreme gore/nudity etc. I'm very rusty with most things atm so yeah bear that in mind?

(if anyone is keen then i wouldn't mind doing an art trade either!)

I haven't drawn anything in about 3 months and I'm finally done with college so I thought why not open up some requests!

I'm willing to draw most things as long as it isn't too complex or weird. Nothing nsfw, gory etc. Some of these may be different to my usual style (?) as I want to experiment a little more. If you're wanting a specific character or whatever then describe or link it.

I'll take 3 spots for now, I'll aim to have these done by next week if not sooner!

This game is released in a few days here, so I thought I'd make a topic to discuss it!

Personally I never got to play this the first time around, my only experience was on the special GameCube disc that came with wind waker. I'm pretty excited to play it though, oot for 3ds was so much fun (again never played it first time around aha). I've heard that it's a lot darker than all of the other games in the series, I enjoyed twilight princess though so I'm hoping I'll like it!

Is anyone else getting it? For those of you that played it before do you think that it'll be as well done as oot?

I haven't done any non college art since like October, so it'd be nice to blow off some steam and draw stuff for fun!

these were some of the last things i drew so yeah
http://th02.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2014/267/4/e/magma_admin__courtney_by_extrasupervery-d80cbjx.png
http://th09.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2014/236/0/b/mega_camerupt_by_extrasupervery-d7wja6j.png
http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/236/e/0/boo__by_extrasupervery-d7wi5ge.png

all pokeyman related but i'm willing to draw pretty much anything as long as it isn't nsfw/gory/etc.

I don't really want anything too complex or time consuming, like I said just stuff that's fun! obviously I'm still going to put effort into it but nothing like 'all 700 pokemon at once' lmao.
Christmas stuff would be cool too i guess?

I'll take 3 requests for now~

(I know most of you Americans will have finished the game already but still! )

So what's your team just now?

I'm currently in rustboro, training a little for the gym.
Lilli - Treeko lvl 12
Poe - Surskit lvl 9
Alice - Ralts lvl 10
Ava - Taillow lvl 10

Not sure if I'm going to copy my old sapphire team or just make a new one, undecided yet.

As pretty much everyone guessed, Rayquaza gets a mega evoloution!
Unlike Groudon and Kyogre it doesn't get a primal evolution but it will be revealed as to why it did not gain one.
It has a new ability called 'Delta Stream'. While Mega Rayquaza is in battle weather is nullified and any moves that are super effective against flying types just do normal damage. Like Groudon and Kyogre it learns a new stab move called 'Dragon Ascent'.

I think it looks pretty cool, although i don't like the huge part around its mouth. It detracts from the design a little but yeah it definitely looks like a Mega.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPQg3lSvWc4

I've been itching to play some games on a tv rather than on my 3DS.
I've been considering a Wii u for a while now. There's plenty games I want to play on it: hyrule warriors, smash bros, Mario kart 8, wind waker, xenoblade and virtual console games like shovel knight, earthbound and the gba games. So finding something to play wouldn't be a problem! I've also got all of my last gen Wii games too.

I don't know it feels like if I got a Wii u I'd be missing out but then again I'm not a fan of fps games. I know the ps4 has some titles I'd be interested in like kingdom hearts, the last of us, little big planet and psn store games. I am considering a ps4 instead but I'd feel right now I'd get more value for money with a Wii u rather than a ps4 (and no I'm not considering an Xbox one/pc).

So Wii u owners are you happy with it? I'm just wondering if it can be a primary games console. Obviously I cannot afford to get both, the Wii u is a good £100 cheaper. I'd most likely get a bundle with each.

I haven't sprited in a loooooong time and I'm sort of keen to do it again? Idk.

Anyways, the things I can do:
- recolours (I can recolour any 5th gen sprite as a 6th gen one but not vice versa.)
- mixes (using 5th gen sprites only, I can maybe scratch in some 6th gen parts as long as it isn't complex I guess?? 2 pokemon only for the moment)
- revamps (R/B/Y or G/S/C sprites)
- small scratch sprites (again no complex pokemon and no I'm not designing a fakemon for you)
-meta style pixel overs (100x100px, trading card images or anime screenshots, no one else's art unless you have their permission. I'm not hunting for you bc I'm lazy now)

As per all images will be transparent and include a little tag. If you want to use these then that's great as long as you give credit somewhere in your profile!

So yeah 1 request per person and gogogogo~

[The list of words]

After a discussion on IRC i thought it'd be a cool idea to make one of these for here.
If you've never done/heard of an accent challenge you record yourself saying a list of words and answering some random questions.
Obviously if you're not comfortable doing this then don't, it can be a little weird recording yourself! If not you can listen to how everyone else sounds and laugh at us.
You can make a youtube video of yourself or use http://vocaroo.com/. I used my phones voice recorder but you can use your computers/laptops mic too. Whatever is easiest.

The list of words:

Pokemon, Pikachu, Aunt, Roof, Route, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Anime, Caramel, Fire, Water, New Orleans, Pecan, Flabébé, Both, Again, Probably, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Rattata, Mayonnaise, Pajamas, Caught, Naturally, Aluminium, GIF, PKMN.NET, Doorknob, Envelope.

(fyi for those of you who haven't played/cared about gen 6 flabebe is a pokemon)

The questions:

What is your name and username?
Where are you from?
What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
What is a bubbly carbonated drink called?
What do you call gym shoes?
What do you call your grandparents?
What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
What is the thing you change the TV channel with?
Choose a book and read a passage from it.
Do you think you have an accent?
Would you rather be a wizard or a vampire?
What Pokemon would you own irl?
End this audio post by saying any THREE words you want.

It's up to you if you want to do the questions or words first.

So yeah thought this would be a fun little thing to do so we can all hear what we sound like lmao.

I've had my wacom bamboo for about 3 years now, it still works but it's a little battle worn. I've noticed fairly frequently when I go to use it the pen pressure goes whack, even when I'm in the middle of drawing so I have to restart which gets very tedious. I couldn't even get the original drivers for it after I got my laptop last year so I had to download ones at random to see if they worked -_-

I'm just wondering if it is worth upgrading to an intous (the next step up). Confusingly there are two kinds of intuos now, the intuos seem to be the old bamboos and the intuos pro are the old intuos 5.
I am fairly serious about my digital art after doing it for 3 years now. Once college starts again I'll be using it pretty much daily so it won't go to waste!
A few other things:
- is it worth upgrading in size? my tablet is a small and I'm finding it too small now but the medium could seem too big I guess?
- are the current intuos better than the original bamboo or am I better upgrading to an intuos pro?
- A small pro is £200 and a medium pen and Touch is £170, is paying the extra £30 worth it?

So yeah any help or advice is appreciated~

Just read this online, from Pokemon.com:

Enjoy a night at the symphony with Pokémon: Symphonic Evolutions, a live orchestral concert going on tour this year. Pokémon: Symphonic Evolutions will showcase memorable music from throughout the world of Pokémon, featuring all-new musical arrangements that will entertain not just Pokémon fans but all music lovers. Look forward to a wonderful symphonic experience that covers nearly 20 years of Pokémon entertainment around the world.

Pokémon: Symphonic Evolutions will premiere in Washington, DC, on Friday, August 15, 2014. The 2014 Pokémon World Championships will also be held in the nation's capital that weekend, August 16–17.

August 15 – Washington, DC
Warner Theater
Ticket Information

September 19 – Philadelphia, PA
Mann Center for the Performing Arts
Ticket Information

More dates, locations, and ticket information for the concert series will be announced soon!

All I have to say is holy crap?!? I was gutted I missed the Zelda one but as a music nerd and a pokemon fan this is like a dream come true!
I hope it comes to the UK, maybe next year as its the 20th anniversary?
So yeah, thoughts, would you go?

I've not had a gallery thread on here for a long time, so I'd thought I'd show some art off and maybe take a few requests!  (Feel less awkward now there's more awesome people posting again too aha)

One of my pokemon 30 day challenge drawings:


Mega feraligatr


Link and Irene from albw


My most recent drawing, a spyro hexafusion, with Hunter as a thief.


Messing around with colours


annnd finally Noivern and pumpkaboo my gen 6 favs :3


I decided to open this too because I'm pretty much finished with college for the summer so I can start doing art again :3 anyway I hope you like it, c&c always much appreciated~

(sorry my last challenge died so suddenly!)

Due to the release of OR/AS I'm really excited about Pokemon again. So I thought I'd do a challenge on Pokemon Emerald.
Basically what I'm going to do is randomly selecting my team. I'm going to generate 6 numbers between 1 and 202, those numbers will correspond to each Pokemon's pokedex number.
I am not allowed to catch any other Pokemon except the ones in my team, unless I am in desperate need of a HM slave.

So without further ado this was the first set of 6 numbers I generated:
(i rounded up to get the nearest evolution)

37  105   163   42  106   50
Vigoroth
Torkoal
Xatu
Ninjask
Muk
Seaking

So, my team will be:







I hope you'll all enjoy this, never really used many of these Pokemon before so it should be fun! Expect the first post up tonight :3

3rd gen was probably my favourite gen that added on fun stuff you for you to do.

I'm hoping they bring back secret bases like so so much. Make them bigger (I think the limit was 16 items iirc) and add more personalisation and new items. Add in street pass or something like bravely defaults update friend data (where for a short period of time random monsters visit your town that you can battle), so you have a random real trainer appear in your base, level appropriate.

I'm looking forward to contests too, I hated gen 4 where you had to dress them up, just back to basics and maybe more anime styled?

I hope they'll keep the battle frontier as awesome as it was and actually implement day/night cycle this time!

So yeah what features do you hope they'll add in?

[This will affect Wii games and games released for the DS not current Wii u or 3DS games]

As of the 20th of May this year in all regions (Europe, US, Japan and Australia) Nintendo's WiFi connection servers are shutting down.
The server has been used from the days of the original DS, with Mario Kart DS being one of the first games to use wireless online play on the DS.
This means you will no longer be able to access the gts or any other online features on any pre gen 6 pokemon game! Other games affected are SSBB, Animal crossing wild world and city folk. For a list of affected Nintendo games click here

Personally I'm sad about this, had lots of great memories playing online. It sucks though that pokemon players will no longer be able to battle or trade online with 4th and 5th gen games.

This will affect Wii games and games released for the DS not current Wii u or 3DS games

What are your thoughts?

[Plot]

She stared up at the sky, admiring the stars. She was dreaming again. No chance of seeing stars where she lived, the sprawling tower blocks obscured them. Oddly she knew she was dreaming, it was what you might call a lucid dream.
Her dreams had always been a place where she had sought out peace from her hectic life. Sighing, she wriggled her hands on the tufts of grass and plucked a blade out. This place she dreamed of every night was vast. She'd always be in the same place, atop a small grassy hill where she could see in every direction. Occasionally she saw strange animals; they looked like nothing she had ever seen before.
Folding the grass along her small nails she put it to her mouth and began to buzz a tune. This was going to be a good dream, she could tell. No worries or anything.
Cassie could hear a strange yet familiar noise in the distance. She listened carefully. A loud drum beat echoed and then a guitar riff started playing. It was her alarm. She began to panic; usually she could wake up when she heard it but not this time. Screaming she willed herself to wake up. She couldn't.
Cassie was trapped.
"Maybe it's just a dream within another dream or something," she reasoned. She could hear her parents shouting at her to get up. Waiting she heard the panicked screams of her mother, "She's not waking up, call an ambulance!"
"I-I must've slipped into a coma somehow." Cassie was usually very calm but she began to cry.
Getting up she walked around. She spotted a small egg nestled in the bushes. It was red with purple stripes on it. Tentatively she walked over to it and picked it up. It began to crack open. Out came a small animal with large rabbit like ears, huge brown eyes and wispy fur. "What are you?"
It opened its eyes. "My name is Puffmon. You're my partner!"
"Partner?"
"Yes! I've been waiting for you to get here, c'mon lets go meet the others." Puffmon smiled.
"It is sort of cute, maybe I can wake up if I go with him."
~

"We're here! Puffmon shouted. Puffmon had lead her to a dense forest. She could hear footsteps. There were others here.

I've been on a Digimon fix lately so yeah, here is a Digimon RP!

Plot
For a long while now you've been having the same dream, just appearing in a vast land. It's always in one specific place it never changes. One night though you don't wake up. Frantic you have no idea what is going on, are you in a coma or worse, dead?
Nope. You are trapped in the Digital World.
You find a small egg and it hatches, revealing an odd animal of some sort. It declares that it is your partner. Unsure where to go you follow it and end up in a forest. There are other people there.
Obviously you are here for a reason.

Digimon
So as this is a Digimon rp obviously you need a Digimon!
(I'm assuming you've heard of the series at some point and know the basics, if not feel free to join anyway.)

I've used this site to choose what Digimon I want: http://dma.wtw-x.net/. There's lots of Digimon wikis so you won't be stuck for information.

I'm pretty lax about what Digimon you pick but anything past Rookie needs to be able to Digivolve normally rather than through dna digivolving etc. The good thing is you can go as canon or uncanon as you want! You could just have plain old Gatomon into Angewomon or Gatomon into LadyDevimon, as long as the Digimon are on the lists of each other. So you can't have Palmon evolving into Seadramon!

Fresh - Mega will be needed.

Crests
Pick which one bests suits your characters positive trait:

Courage
Friendship
Love
Sincerity
Reliability me
Knowledge
Hope
Light
Kindness

put the crest in colour to show you've read this far!

Code Select Expand

[b]Form[/b]

Human
[b]Name[/b] Nothing too Japanese :u
[b]Age[/b] 10 - 20
[b]Gender[/b]
[b]Personality[/b] No marysues etc 4 lines+
[b]Appearance[/b] 4 lines + you may use an image but only if you've drawn it yourself.
[b]Crest[/b]
[b]Digivice colour[/b] These will be D3's (used in the second series).
[b]Other[/b] Anything else?

Digimon
[b]Fresh[/b] *link to image if you wish*
[b]In Training[/b]
[b]Rookie[/b]
[b]Champion[/b]
[b]Ultimate[/b]
[b]Mega[/b]

[b]Personality[/b]
[b]Other[/b] Anything special, slight appearance changes etc?

Rules
- All PKMN.NET rules apply.
- No godmodding, limelighting etc
- No one line posts
- Use ((for ooc))
- You can put your Digimon's speech in a colour if you wish.
- You can't Digivolve at will! I will introduce it gradually as the RP progresses.
- If you need to leave then drop me a PM.
- Have fun!

I think I've covered everything.
I've not rp'd in ages so I'm really looking forwards to this c:

Basically when I'm on the internet (using chrome) some pages will load with weird layouts and the text will be in times New Roman. All of the buttons etc are gone and certain images don't appear.
When I'm on images only a few will load and then it stops. If I refresh it goes back to the previous image I searched for. I've tried clearing my cache and cookies but it's not helping.
Anyone know what's causing this? My internet speed is fine, on my phone pages load really quickly it just seems to be my laptop.
I'm running Windows 8 (not downloaded 8.1 yet) and my laptop is new. Extension wise I have ad block and tumblr saviour installed.

Any help is much appreciated c: