This Blog is Moving!

Take note, friends. This blog is moving!

Also, this is an update of the original post about the blog moving. (August 26, 2015)

First, the important information! Head over to Jonathan Fesmire's Blog, now hosted directly on my website.

Why the change?

My site, Jonathan Fesmire, Author, is hosted at Wix. Back in May, I discovered that Wix has its own excellent blog platform, which allowed me to start blogging there. The one thing it didn't have was a way to import the contents of this blog. So, it simply continues where this left off.

I have also added quite a bit to it. I've been interviewing steampunk cosplayers, and plan to interview makers, authors, artists, and others involved in the genre. As always, I discuss the development of Bodsious Creed and many things related to steampunk, writing, and fantasy.

If you want even more content, you can subscribe to my newsletter! Each contains something extra not found in the blog. Simply click over to the blog and subscribe.

Again, the continuation of this blog now lives here!

I know you're not dumb! I just wanted to make that eye-catching.

Thanks for reading, and please check out and bookmark the new link!

Fantastic "Game of Thrones" Bluegrass Cover

I count myself lucky that I found this link via a Facebook posting today.

Samuraiguitarist on YouTube takes the theme song from Game of Thrones and makes it so incredibly Wild West, so incredibly Steampunk, that how could I not share it here? I started listening and just heard Bodacious Creed all over it. I may have to listen to this as I write, make it part of a playlist, to continually inspire me. I'm almost sorry that Game of Thrones already has this awesome theme. (Not really. I love Game of Thrones. I've read all the books and seen every episode.)

So, here it is! I hope it gets samuraiguitarist a ton of new subscribers!

3D Printing: Not Exact Science

I'm glad people enjoyed my El Tiburon digital sculpture that I shared in the last blog! I posted the image to several Steampunk groups and a Western group on Facebook and received lots of likes and some nice comments.

Yesterday, I did my best to 3D print it on my Cube 3 printer. I had the software itself generate the supports. In 3D extrusion printing, the print nozzles lay down one thin layer of plastic at a time, and each layer builds on the last. Thanks to gravity, everything has to be supported, especially objects that have nothing underneath them, hence the removable supports.

Everything went great until it got to his hands, which mysteriously had no supports, so they came out as ugly strings of plastic.

For reference, here's the character sheet of the digital model, from Zbrush.

Here's how the print turned out, with most of the supports removed. (Note that I printed the figure in blue, and the supports in neon green, so it would be easier to see what needed to be removed.)

Aside from the missing hands, it was coming out well. Even the sarape was thick enough to print nicely.

I'm not sure that my printer will be able to do this model, but I'm working on it.

Autodesk MeshMixer is free software that can fix minor problems in 3D print files, and adds outstanding supports. MeshMixer supports don't rise straight up from the print base, but branch out from parts of the model to support other parts. In fact, they look like branches. Here's what the digital model looks like with MeshMixer supports.

The branches are a bit tricky to snap off, but in my experience they can come off without damaging the model.

Now, the trick is going to be to get all the software cooperating. So far, the Cubify software has rejected two versions of this file. I'm hopeful though that I can get it to work, and if I do, I'll have an El Tiburon sculpture to share in the next few days.

El Tiburon: Bounty Hunter

I had forgotten how fun 3D sculpting is! With all the job hunting, freelance work, and school work I've been doing, I haven't had a lot of time to just sculpt in Zbrush. I did work on a World of Warcraft style orc when I was planning on applying to Blizzard, but I made this new figure entirely to be a sculpture rather than an animated figure and it was just really fun.

So, I present the new figure, El Tiburon!

Here's the real-world history of this character.

When I ran the Bodacious Creed Kickstarter, I wanted to do something special, so I made it possible for high-level backers to create characters for the story. The highest backer wanted a character based entirely on him, basically a Creedverse version of himself as a bounty hunter. Since I had only the basics of the story planned, I was able to plot the book with him as a major character. I do use his real name in the novel, and you'll have to wait to find out who he is, but many call him El Tiburon.

The only really clear steampunk element in this image is the metal ball on his back. I'm not giving away what that is, either. It's in the novel. The gun on his left hip is holstered, so you can't really tell what it is, but it's a steampunk technology weapon.

The next step is to try to 3D print this model. I've already created a base that the figure is standing on, and will have to use supports on my printer to make this work. I've set it at 5.2" tall, so hopefully there will be no material thickness issues.

Oh, this gentleman also helped my son and me move last year, and this sculpture is my thank-you to him. Hopefully the print will go well so I can send it to him!

If you want to easily stay abreast of information on Bodacious Creed, like the Bodacious Creed Fan Page on Facebook! You can also check out the Bodacious Creed Website.

Back to Writing, Almost

For now, I have a long break from school, and am basically concentrating on getting other aspects of my life in place. For instance, I'm looking for a good day job, as freelancing is just not cutting it.

Taking a break from school also means that I'll be able to move forward on Bodacious Creed again! I'm back to doing research and some detailed planning, though I have most of the next half of the novel figured out.

Just for fun, I modeled this 3D print showing part of the fictional Santa Cruz where Bodacious Creed takes place. Okay, I didn't really "model" anything. I don't have time for that and everything else. I used Cityscape: Western Town, then imported the model to my printer. So, it's also not terribly accurate, but it does have The House of Amber Dove's and a couple other landmarks in an important area of town.

The next thing I need to finish is a model of one of the characters, which I promised a friend who helped my son and me move last year. I'll be sharing that as well.