Modes - promotional

I am working on a piece called "Modes." Here is a video with some visuals for the second part of Modes.

Copyright: GavOnyx, 2021. All rights reserved.

Learn about my albums!

I have a page dedicated to each of my released albums. These pages include the album artwork, a list of the titles of each piece, and my thoughts on each piece as well as the album. And links to the album.

Learn about each of my releases by looking at the pages or checking out these links:

Restructure

Moldies

Oldies

The list is organized with the most recent release first.

Donate if you enjoy my work! Any and every amount helps.

PayPal.me/GavOnyx 

 

* Copyright: GavOnyx 2020 *

Restructure Preview

 Here's a little preview of the album!

* Copyright: GavOnyx 2020 *

Find this preview and more on my telegram channels! t.me/GavOnyxNexus

1 Week away from Restructure

 We are seven days away from the anticipated release of my next album, Restructure!

This album is a great selection of GavOnyx's work from 2018 and 2019. This album marks the point in which GavOnyx begins his journey to becoming a brilliant composer. While his first few albums were mostly getting used to the software and getting the hang of this composing stuff, Restructure features his first real works of art and compositional genius. You'll hear this in pieces like "Ru" and "Cougar Boi." 

Make sure to follow GavOnyx on spotify to hear it when it releases! 

Yoink this Loink: GavOnyx Spotify

or Yoink this: HyperFollow

And anyone who donates will receive an executive producer-ship for the album! Donate here: Paypal.me/GavOnyx

Thanks for all your support!

Donation Link is go!

In this day and age no platform allows musicians to thrive. So I have decided to create a way for my those who enjoy what I create to help me out financially. Here's a simple link anyone can visit to give me a boost. 

paypal.me/GavOnyx

Any amount helps. Consider giving what you think the music is worth to you.

 I have opted to go with paypal rather than patreon because paypal is more direct and doesn't take as much as patreon. 

I decided to do this because no platform out there is sufficient. YouTube doesn't give artists money unless they have a certain amount of subscribers and even then the amount is pitiful. Spotify is also a let down in many ways. And don't get me started with soundcloud. And even if I become a hit, the only way I would make any real money is from concerts, but that isn't likely to happen any time soon.

I am going to set up a telegram channel to essentially mirror these posts and also one to hold my youtube videos. 

As always, you can visit my telegram channel t.me/AuxyMusic to get access to mine and MattC's music before it releases on digital platforms like spotify. If you do frequent this channel I highly recommend sharing and donating.

I recently set up another channel, t.me/GavOnyxNexus, as the main way to access all my other channels. This includes channels dedicated to videos, images, and stickers that I create and produce.

Thank you for your support! 

Note: Anyone who donates $25.00 or more will be thanked personally by me and may have their name listed on my various sites (like this one) as an 'Executive Producer' for the album in the works. Just contact me either through a note on paypal or via telegram: t.me/GavOnyx

Note: My next album to be released is the anticipated "Restructure" set to release November 17th. For this album, I will award any and all donors with the title of "Executive Producer."

Again, Thank you.

RESTRUCTURE - the New album is coming soon!

 I've got some new music coming to all your favorite streaming/music services next month!

This album is worth a listen to when it comes out. The last piece in the album –Ru– is certainly the best piece in all my currently released albums.

Check out this Loink: GavOnyx - HyperFollow 

Loink to Spotify: GavOnyx - spoopfiy

 

* Copyright: GavOnyx 2020 *

Scout Trooper Helmet Finished!

 I finally completed my project to make a scout trooper helmet. It took over 45 hours of printing time (printing at .3 mm layer height) and over 10 hours of sanding/painting/other work. It ended up costing around $55 as well. But it's finally finished! (and to boot, because it covers my mouth and nose it counts as a "facial covering" so I can wear that in stores instead of a normal mask like all the pleeebs).

The process and materials I used to make it are using modelling acrylic to fix any major issues; sanding it down, gradually getting to 400 grit sandpaper; using 2 in one primer/spray paint; painting the details with not-spray-paint; using thick foam weather stripping to add comfort and support; and using window tinting as a visor.

         

         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the window tint blurs lines a bit. Makes it hard to read but its good enough.

Now, as cool as it is, it's not perfect. There are a lot of things I would do differently if/when I make another. Mostly, I would copy the process of the youtuber 'Galactic Armory.' He makes these things for a living and has got the process down to get the speed and ease and quality he wants. Here's a quick rundown.
Use Bondo putty to hide the layer lines
Sand the bondo carefully using a powered sanding tool
use filler/primer to fill any thing missed by the bondo and to prime the surface
buy actual helmet pads rather than using weather stripping
buy a tinted face shield rather than window tint so I can see more easily

All in all, it turned out really well. It's comfy, it didn't cost too much, and it looks flipping awesome.

Here's a Loink to galactic armory: The Big Baby

Loink to video where he covers his process: Mando helmet

Here's the Money shots:

(the first two pictures are before the paint job and visor were added)

*Copyright: GavOnyx 2020. All Rights Reserved*

Large 3D Print Project

 I've had a 3d printer for a while now (the FLSUN QQS). Ever since I got it I've wanted to make something big and useful. So I decided to try to print the helmet of a Scout Trooper from Star Wars ep 6.

I of course did a few test prints to work dial in the settings. I was using Cura and doing these tests on a new full roll of white PLA. The manufacturer was Overture and boy oh boy, it sucked! Under extrusion galore. I went looking around online to find out why and I came across an old reddit thread explaining that the user was also experiencing under extrusion with Overture PLA. The user decided to weigh the Overture PLA against a higher quality PLA brand and found out that the Overture stuff weighed less! Apparently this stuff is less dense than other PLA brands. Yuck!
I also tried printing it at .4 mm layer height but it never seems to work. I ended up printing the whole thing at .3 mm layer height and just doing that immediately helped. I turned up the Flow rate to 110% and the extruder temp to 220 C for good measure (the upper rating for overture pla).

After doing the test prints I was ready to print all the parts. I decided to try to print the thing in 4 sections. The Top half of the helmet, the bottom half, the mask and the visor. I cut the helmet in half using blender and removed the built in water marks (the link to the guy who made the model down below). I also cut a small concave area for my ears using the boolean modifier. 

Each of these 4 pieces took more than 8 hours to print. The mask was the fastest at 8 & 1/2. The visor took 9 hours, and the two halves of the helmet took 11 hours each! I had the speed at 60 mm per second for inner walls and infill, 30 mm for outer walls, and the infill as cubic and 12% density. I even scaled the models down by 5% to fit my head better. I knew it was gonna be a long print time but I guess I wasn't expecting 10 hours average per part!

At this point all the big stuff has been printed and I only need to print the details. I'm in the process of sanding and painting all the big stuff right now. Enjoy some pictures!

Yoink this guys Loink: Biker Scout Helmet (Scout Trooper) By SurfinBird132

These pictures are not exactly in order.

*Copyright: GavOnyx 2020. All Rights Reserved*

More Telegram Stickers!

 I have a few sticker packs for telegram that I'm making. I have one of the Earl of Lemongrab from the TV show Adventure Time. One of various characters from a couple youtube videos. And my latest project is making a sticker pack of the character GiR from the movie "Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus." 

I like them all but the newest GiR sticker pack is by far the best looking and most consistent.
I also have a reaaaaly old sticker pack of various Invader Zim characters from the TV show. This sticker pack somehow got out (I can see the stats because I made the pack) and became very popular (even tho the quality is poor).
I of course used GIMP to make all of these stickers.

Feel free to download and share any or all of these Telegram sticker packs!


Here's the lionks to get em.

The NEW GiR Sticker Pack:  Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus - GiR

The MaxMoeFoe Animated Youtube Vid Sticker Pack:  Cas Van de Pol - Animated MaxMoeFoe

The Earl Of Lemongrab Sticker Pack:  The Earl of Lemongrab

The Invader Zim Sticker Pack:  Invader Zim Characters

*Copyright: GavOnyx 2020, all rights reserved*

Second Album Incoming: Moldies! (sep 20)

My second Album, Moldies, is coming to all the places on Sep 20!  It's the "B side" to my first album. In my personal opinion most of the pieces on Moldies aren't as good as Oldies, but if you enjoyed Oldies, Moldies will give you that same vibe.
I have a link to it that works for spotify users,
 

 Loink to Moldies: Hyper Moldies

UPDATE: It's here!

Yoink this loink to listen on spotify: Moldies

*Copyright: GavOnyx 2020. All Rights Reserved*

My first Album on Spotify!

Finally after years of having these things lying around I finally got em on spotify. I would recommend listening to a few but bare in mind they are my first ever compositions. At that time I had no (or at least very little) musical training so they pretty much suck.
simply looking up the name "GavOnyx" will get to my page in spotify
Album title: Oldies

Loink to list of places to follow: Hyper Follow

Loink to Spoopify: GavOnyx

*Copyright: GavOnyx 2020. All Rights Reserved*

Rap-bear poo - what even do Raspberry Pi?

I recently got my hands on a raspberry pi 3 B. It's the first time I've really interacted with a raspberry pi so I have no idea of its capabilities nor exactly how to use it. I started to do some research but I'm not sure where to start.
I also have a 3-d Printer so I decided to take my Pi and use it as a remote way to control my printer using a thing called Octo-Print.
Basically the pi acts as file storage and as a printer monitor. So you can send the files you want to print over wifi and then start printer, monitor the print, and even tweak settings. Pretty neat.

Loink to Oicto Proint: Octo Print Doody-doo howchoo

Improving your Speaking Voice

I have taken multiple public speaking courses and consider myself pretty good at formulating speeches and then presenting them. But one of the aspects of speaking that was never addressed in the courses I took was about the tone of your voice and certain aspects of the melody of your voice.

Recently I was listening to the Art of Manliness podcast and the host brought on a Mr. Roger Love –which is where I learned about these things.

It's a very informative and practical episode that I highly recommend everyone listen to.

Here's the Loink to Yoink: Improve your speaking voice

Yoink this Loink to listen on Overcast: Improve your voice –Overcast link

Overcast is an excellent podcast app. would recommend.

Savage Worlds -mechanics

As promised, here are links to another video I made about fundamental mechanics in the Savage Worlds RPG system.

Loink to YT: Important mechanics in 5 minutes

Loink to Toogles: important mechanics - toogles

- Copyright: GavOnyx 2020. All rights reserved -

Savage Worlds -creating a character

I enjoy Role Playing Games and systems. I've played DnD, pathfinder, Star frontiers, and the og star wars system. But by far my favorite is Savage Worlds.

It's a terrible name, but a fantastic system. It's generic, so it works with any setting, and the great thing is you can add more rules to make a setting that much better. You wanna have a JoJo campaign? Easy. How bout Star wars? Yep. You want the players to be dragons? Not a problem. The game has a "race creation" section to make your own race archetypes that others can use to guide character creation.
The biggest difference between this system and others is that instead of a d20 system like DnD or a d6 system like the OG star wars, Savage worlds uses every die type except d20. Your character could have a d4 in Agility and a d10 in strength for example. Same deal for weapons. Daggers are d4 (+ the str die), guns are usually 2d6 or 2d8. You get the idea.

Anyways, I really love it. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in RPGs especially if the same is starting to explore more systems.

The only issue with savage worlds has to do with youtube. YouTube tutorials are always over 20 minutes long (an hour or more even) and the people making these videos seem to have no idea how to make even a half decent video. So, I set out to make a video that explains how to create a character in 5 minutes or less. Then I set out to explain various important mechanics with a similar time constraint. Success again!
You can find both on youtube but I'll have both the loink and the actual file for easy access. I'll post the second video in another post.

NOTE: In the video I explain that if you do not have the fighting skill your parry score is 4. That is incorrect!! your parry score is 2 if you lack the fighting skill.


Yoink this Loink for youtube vid: How to make a character in 4 minutes

Yoink this one for Toogles: How to make a character in 4 minutes – Toogles

Video File:

– Copyright: GavOnyx 2020. All rights reserved. –
the video quality is low, I know, but it doesn't need to be high so... eh

Smash BRUHs

I play the game Super Smash Bros Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch. It's a pretty great game and the team they have working on balances is really committed and on top of things. One interesting aspect about the game is something that Nintendo really touted as being a prime reason to play. There are so many characters and each one is so different that there is a play style out there for everyone.
They're right. There is a character who's kit and moves align with the general way a person goes about doing things. The annoying thing is that there are some just butt dumb ways people solve problems and there are characters who reflect that.

Take Incineroar for example. All you need to play him well is use side-B when a character is close, Use Down-B when about to get hit and then immediately use side b, and use up b whenever the crap you want to if your opponent is in the strike zone.
It's a little more complex than that of course but just knowing that is enough to give a beginner the edge in battle.
A character that requires a little more knowledge and skill is Lucario –my main. Lets look at what to do when an opponent is close, vs far, vs if there's a move you can use in any situation.
Close: Grab your opponent. Unless you're at a high percent. If you're at a high percent, it's different.
Far: use movement options especially B reversing to close the gap and use grab or nair. but if you're at a high percent, don't be so eager to approach and use aura sphere to keep your opponent at bay.
Any situation: . . . yeah OK, you got me there's no move to cover too many situations. Nair maybe?

So, I'm overplaying it a little bit because I do not know how to play incineroar. But my point should be clear. Some characters require a lot more knowledge about the character to play them effectively.
Let's compare some more.
    Lucario side B: it's a command grab if you're close enough but if you aren't close then it's technically a projectile.
    Incin side B: it's a command grab that makes you move.
    Lucario Up B: A recovery with no hit box till the very end. You can go in any direction and can swerve if you're good enough but the controls are very touchy.
    Incin up B: You go up and then down. and you go boom when you go down.
    Lucario Neutral B: A projectile you can charge. it deals damage as it charges and sets up for many options including grabs, aerials, up smashes, and shooting the projectile. Lucario's kit revolves around using this projectile and the charging hit box as well as using B reversing as some advanced and necessary movement options or kill set ups.
    Incin Neutral B: Haha me go spin spin

So I'm not saying that Incineroar is bad. But it seems to me like there maybe is a lower skill ceiling with this character than certain other characters. Maybe?

Really I'm not mad at Incineroar or other simple characters. I'm moreso upset that lucario is just freaking hard to play. I'm pretty darn sure that lucario is the most advanced character in the whole roster. You have to know how his famous aura affects him, you have to keep in mind your opponents percent and your own when pulling off combos, many of his combos are DI dependent, you have to have complete control over the movement options, most of his combos are frame perfect, etc.

Smash bros is a hard enough game as it is. It's suuuuper frustrating to deal with Lucario and his oddities and all the jank he's got. The worst part about it is absolutely no one has any guides on how to play him beyond the very basic stuff. Like, for other characters there are definite answers for what to do in certain situations. For lucario, there are usually no definite answers and no one that plays him well makes videos or posts on the topic. There's a good chance no one plays him because no one has any well presented and knowledgeable information on him. so its a crappy situation for Lucario Mains out there.

There's some hope however. I have some skills in the video editing and audio recording. I've taken public speaking classes. And I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about smash bros and lucario so I plan on making some videos on how to play him. Rant over.

First Albums on fartcloud

In an older post I mentioned that I had 6 albums in the works. That's true, but I haven't technically released any of them on to monetized platforms. In other words I have some of my music on the worst platform of them all, sound cloud.
My first 2 albums are there along with a few other goodies. Sound cloud is the worst because every good feature is behind a pay wall (spotlighting tracks, getting featured, no limit to uploads, etc). Beyond that they don't pay you one cent even if they have ads all over your music. I'm sure they get away with it because of some legal loopholes with the user agreement.
Anyways, I most certainly wont put any more music on that. But of course my early stuff is on there. Like way way early. Most of it is pretty bad –gonna be honest. But hey, if you're interested take a listen.

Yoink this Loink: GavOnyx on trashcloud

p.s. oldies is better than moldies

Telegram Goodies

Telegram is fantastic. I could go on and on but I don't want this to sound like an advert for em. Just go check out the FAQ.
Anywho, telegram makes stickers and sticker packs but they give the freedom to create custom sticker packs to all users. They're really easy to make and they've got a bot that take you through the process.
I've created a few sticker packs now but I am most proud of one created with the 'Earl of Lemongrab' from the tv show "Adventure Time." I've got a loink to it down below. I created the sticker pack by taking screenshots of the show, removing the background and cleaning them up, and then editing certain aspects of some of them to make the stickers really quite good. I did all the editing using GIMP, so I suppose I'll leave a loink for that as well.
I'm currently working on a sticker pack using the characters from a youtube animator called "Cas van de Pol." Specifically the character Maxmoefoe, the goblin, and Grömpie.

Telegram FAQ: start at telegram basics for features

Sticker Bot: Custom stickers, baby!

Lemongrab Stickers: LEMONY JUICES

MaxMoeFoe/Cas Stickers: Ik ben het Grömpie!

GIMP, Open Source Photo Editor: GIMP

Tantacrul's look at Shostakovich

As I became interested in learning more music theory and exploring more music in general, I stumbled on a video by a youtuber with the handle "Tantacrul." The video was about the life and works of the russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich.
The video discusses how "Shosty" (as tantacrul playfully refers to him) was able to weave double meaning into his music during a time when the arts were oppressed and put under intense scrutiny during Joseph Stalin's regime.
As I later explored shosty's works, I really have come to appreciate the ways shosty was able to put modern aspects (or at least, non traditional aspects and tonalities) into his music during a time when the russian overlords wanted artists to return to romanticism and traditional styles. Not to mention shosty walked this tightrope when going to far would mean an end to his life and eradication of his work.

Anyways, here's the loink to the video: How to Compose Music Despite [ R E D A C T E D ]

Social media pretty much sucks . . .

I said in my very first post that I was fed up with social media. Now, I didn't really use social media in the first place. I used reddit for memes mostly, and youtube for entertainment and research. Beyond that I did not use twitter, no instagram, no snapchat, nothing. Just the reddit and youtube.
I was discussing this with a friend of mine and he said he didn't really think of reddit and youtube as social media. He's got a point. Snapchat is all about people posting videos for friends to see. Seems pretty social media-ey. Same story with instagram –but with more pictures, less video. Twitter is an obvious one. It's got the likes, the retweets, the peoples posting every kind of file type out there. Reddit, for the most part, isn't about the people because of the way it's set up. It's more about the categories than person to person interaction. Similarly with youtube, it isn't very social oriented because it's mostly an entertainment platform.
At least on the surface.

For the average reddit user who never posts, reddit is not really a social media site because the only interaction you have with others is up/downvoting (likes and dislikes). Reddit transforms into a social media site when users start posting and commenting. Once you click on a post rather than just up/downvoting it you start using the platform as social media. On the surface, reddit isn't very social but once you poke your head down there you find out it is.

Similarly with youtube, 99% of the content is the videos –mostly entertainment, but some educational or interesting stuff. Not incredibly social. But interestingly, the social aspect is much more prevalent than one would think at first glance. Under every video is a like/dislike button. And then below that of course the comment section where most person to person interaction happens. In many videos the creator says "make sure to like and subscribe and hit that notification bell!! leave a comment about this in the comment section below!" Of course those aspects of like/disliking and following/subscribing and commenting are exactly what makes social media social.
Of course reddit has all of these as wells. Following users/communities, posting and commenting, like/disliking posts and comments, and sharing/crossposting.

So in short: yes, reddit and youtube are full on social media sites even if it's not completely obvious.

There are many studies showing that social media is in fact bad for you and that it causes depression and all that jazz. So of course it seems obvious that one should avoid social media completely. But part of the problem is that we think that because it is "social media" that is can replace normal social interaction.

So there are 2 main reasons why social media is bad for you (as I understand it). First has to do with the way our brain experiences happiness. When we interact socially, the chemical serotonin is released. Like with any drug/chemical, we become desensitized to it when it is released often and the more it is released, the less effect it has.
Using social media releases that chemical, making us happy but desensitizing us. But the interesting thing is that our brain can tell the difference between social media and in person communication. So serotonin may be released, but it leaves us unsatisfied.
This is the problem. We use social media expecting our social needs to be fulfilled but they aren't. So after a while of using it, we go and try interacting the normal way –face to face. But because we are desensitized to serotonin, the real interaction doesn't release enough serotonin to make us as happy as we want. This inability to satisfy, and the inability to be happy, causes us to question ourselves and become confused and concerned and start the spiral into depression.

I do not want any part of that.
So I'm moving away from social media. The problem is that places like youtube can be pretty valuable resources. You wouldn't think it, but there are solutions to these problems. There is a site out there called Toogles that is a way to view youtube videos without comments and without the like buttons and without the subscribe button. It gives you the videos without the social media garbage.
Now, for memes and whatnot, that's a little bit harder. There is a solution however. The RSS feed. Using an rss feed you can get memes, news, and all that jazz. It's kinda like creating your own home feed like on reddit or twitter without the social media aspects. As to set an RSS feed up, I have no idea but I am looking into it and will post a summary on the blog here when I do.

There are some gripes I have with toogles. The main one is that the only categories you can access are the trending categories which all suck. There is a light/dark mode switch, which is great, but it covers up the very bottom left of the screen, obscuring a button. And I've had a bit of trouble using it on my mobile phone. It works for the first search but for the second it doesn't. But beyond that, toogles is great. There's no bullcrap social media garbage.

Anywho, I appreciate the whole idea of blogging because I would, on most certainly not be able to post this much information on other sites like twitter. Plus, there's no searching for users or anything. If someone wants to view the blog I don't have to say "oh yeah, look up my user name . . . oh, there's 35 other people with that username? yeah, im that one . . ." etc. It's all here, with searchable posts, and an easy to remember link.
Rant over.


Loink to Toogles:  Toogles - Browse