And I will include the video as a frontpage post, along with the new version of troisnyx.co.uk, when it is all ready.

For now, enjoy these piccies:

The people in the shots are friends from Soundskills, the place I participate in musically and otherwise. Together with my fiancé Seán and myself, we formed a team of seven.

I look forward to sharing the finished product with all of you, and thank you for your support. <3

Some updates:

The first, obviously, being about the Mio/Homura music video. I mentioned in previous posts that the recording date for it is set for 20 July, which is this coming Thursday. Less than a week to go! I'm so excited! Anyway...

We have just a bit of last-minute prep to do, mainly with gathering flowers, preserving them, and using their petals on the actual day. One more bit of clothing left to get as well, and this should be good. If all the people I invited to the filming of Mio/Homura turn up on Thursday, there will be a SEVEN-PERSON CREW! Seven people! I never would have believed it possible when I originally composed Mio/Homura some five years ago.

We have a dress, we have a drum and tambourine, I have the dance moves (sort-of, and all unrehearsed), we have shoes, we have leatherwork for the drum strap, we have makeup, we have a wonderful crew, and we have a wild Troisnyx.

So much of this week's energies is going to go to this project. I wonder how we're all gonna get there, and carry our cameras, flowers, props, and the like. But I suppose that'll be a question for another day...

Now let us all hope and pray and good-vibe that the weather on the 20th, and leading up to it, is ACTUALLY GOOD. Sun and wind will be ideal!

Second on the agenda is an animation by @Wondermeow, not telling you what it is. I'm scoring that. I may dedicate some time within the week to score this, if I'm not already swamped with Mio/Homura prep. If not, it'll have to be after the 20th.

I mentioned on my Twitter that I had external hard drive troubles. No, the actual hard drive itself is fine. The superspeed USB 3.0 cable connecting it went absolutely fucking kaput (thanks, Seán). But we've got a replacement (thanks, Seán ^_^). Now to see if the cable actually fucking fits. Reason why it got delayed due to hard drive troubles is that ALL my samples, bar FL defaults, come from the external hard drive.

Third on the agenda -- yes, this had to be pushed back to third -- is that Kingdom Hearts cover, that YouTube-exclusive, that I was talking about with some of you, called O City That Was Not. This has had to be pushed back for the same reasons as the animation scoring above. I cannot load the project without the external hard drive samples, which means I cannot play any physical instruments along to it either for the time being.

Lastly, and most important to all on Newgrounds, is that the NG Audio Portal 15th Anniversary Collab is under way, and is no longer accepting join requests. Scriptwriting is under way right now, and is being discussed by the respective members associated with it. I was expecting this thread to start say, on 30 July, but we really made quick work of the Logistics Thread. Thanks to all who participated in it, and I'm looking forward to working with the lot of you.

I signed up as a musician, lyricist and vocalist, and have been made Music Director for the project. Scriptwriting director @SourJovis is at his work at the moment. We all report to @Whirlguy, who led the Newgrounds 20th Anniversary Collab back in the day. The cornerstone of this entire project is the scriptwriting, so it's only after this that us musicians and lyricists can start work. I have a month, maybe more, to worry about this, so I'm glad that it means I can take a little bit of a break before this starts.

As soon as Mio/Homura, @Wondermeow's animation and O City That Was Not are all finished, I'm going to take a break from big projects. There may be little submissions in the meantime, or there may be none at all. But when the scriptwriting is finished, I'm back into work mode. Back into the swing of things.

Moderating goes on as per normal. Songs to remove, drama to regulate, users to ban. Same old, same old. I may release an Audio Mod Meepcast soon. Meep. There is a LOT to talk about.

Ooooo, what could the end result be, ooooooohh?

Three days after it was originally meant to be uploaded, after several human and technological fucking hissy fits, here is Part Two of The Making Of: Mio/Homura, below.

The video features my fiancé Seán, who is recording most of the footage, and friends Daryll, Ashley and Louise from Soundskills, where I offer my musical services on some days. It is Louise who applies most of the facepaint on me. I remember mentioning in the last post that I wondered if the makeup was a bit OTT (over the top), but that's a question for another day.

With that, I have an announcement to make. Weather permitting, we have a date set for the recording of the music video: 20 July 2017!

With it being the start of July, we have two weeks and a bit to gear up for that. There are still a few loose ends to be tied up and such. I'm going to need to rehearse my dance for the video, too. Gonna build up even more endurance as well, in the meantime. To the friends who are part of the Mio/Homura crew: let's make it work! To the rest -- hope you enjoy what you see, and I'll come back with more news after 20 July.

In the evening tomorrow, will be editing and uploading the Mio/Homura makeup test video, and giving a filming date for the actual music video which should hopefully be stuck to, weather permitting. Here, have an image, from the inside of Soundskills, taken yesterday.

The facepaint was partly applied by me, but mostly applied by a friend of mine. And this, of course, was based on this previous picture that I had used on my profile at one point:

So as you can see, the makeup above needs quite a bit of fine-tuning. But it's looking... alright, I guess. There are still questions that play in my head like, does this need just a single colour? Is brown/gold a decent combination or will some people get different ideas? With a white dress and a flower crown is this thing even going to work?

At any rate, it's leaving me quite excited. I have something very big and beautiful to look forward to.

Tomorrow afternoon, if all goes well, will be my makeup test for the Mio/Homura music video. Yes, we had to reschedule it. If it does happen on the day, then I can finally say that we are moving forward at last. Wonder how long a production like tihs needs to take when it's a community / collaborative project that doesn't involve everyone being in the same company, or whatevs.

I am working on a cover, a Kingdom Hearts cover, called O City That Was Not. Those of you who are wondering what piece of music it's based on, it's this one.

Some of you may have heard previews on Instaudio by this point; regardless: I have finished sequencing the notes, but not tempo and volume envelopes. Considering I don't know the permissions for this, from what I've heard, the safest bet is for it to go on YouTube with some nice visuals. The idea is that I disable revenue on that video -- and the revenue should automatically go to the people who made it or the people who have permissions, in this case, Yoko Shimomura.

@Phyrnna and @EDM364 have offered to help with the lyrics video, and I am very much looking forward to seeing what's ahead. Speaking of which, EDM, I'm waiting to see your meepy effects! ^_^ Anyway:

Considering that I don't know of the permissions about this song, this is going to be a YouTube-exclusive cover. I'm not risking putting it up on Newgrounds unless, say, it's an animation and we're all getting zero revenue from it, but even then I still don't know how it works, admittedly.

The Home Office has allowed me to perform music publicly while sticking to the condition that I do not accept payment (given my situation). Even that is a sliver of liberty for me, to be able to go out and make a name for myself.

If you are in Preston or nearby, expect to see me at the various pubs accompanying a ragtag bunch of friends, singing, and possibly playing any instrument that I take in my hands (mainly drums). See what happens!

Lastly, I want to draw your attention to this playlist: COMPILATION/Troisnyx Remixed. It's a playlist which, as you can imagine, has remixes of my stuff from other users here on NG. It's slowly expanding, of course.

Lately, I've released the stems of one of my short loops, Can You See the Clouds Divide, into the public domain. I'd written a thread about this but at this point, I'm not bothered to source it; what I mentioned there and what I'm mentioning here is exactly the same. If you feel that you'd like to do something with it, you can download the stems here. I'd love to see what you make of it!

So naturally, that playlist is going to have more remixes of that song than of any other. But if you want to remix anything of mine, kindly ask me and if I have the stems, I will pass them along to you. (Some of them may have been permanently lost with the failure of triplicate backups that I'd tried to make some years back.)

On the note of COMPILATION/Troisnyx Remixed, I'd once suggested that if the indie game associated with a certain track of mine ever gets completed, I'd hold a remix contest. The song in question is Nightfall, and the game is still in development hell. So obviously, no contest is going to be held, until further notice.

But if people ask me, if I were to theoretically hold such a contest, what rewards I would give? The only thing I can think of, along the lines of the various game-related art contests on NG, would be Steam keys, a full copy of the OST and Supporter. I'm not sure if there's anything to include in a prize bundle beyond that, but I suppose time will tell. I've had no contact from Arpeggio Games lately, which indicates to me that they really are struggling. Oi @Hoeloe, you still around?

Several years later...

No, but in all seriousness, I don't know what came into me yesterday. Whereas previously the pain of holding down the strings deterred me because my skin doesn't soften, yesterday afternoon was different. I wanted a guitar to experiment with over at Soundskills, and one of my friends, also one of the permanent volunteers there, gave me one to play around with. And I practised a set of chords all afternoon. I'm still practising it today. And for the first time ever, I was willing to work through the pain.

What got into me?

But the result is staggering. It feels like I've played for a while. :O

The plus side now is that I can not only write songs with the guitar eventually if I keep at this -- I'll be finally able to 1) write parts for guitar, and 2) actually realistically sequence one, even if I'll soon not have the need for it if I'm going to be plugging in a guitar to record for songs. But it'll take me a while. I'm able to play some chords in G major, and I've started by rehearsing only a section of one of my songs, one which you all haven't heard yet.

It feels so surreal. But now, I no longer have the excuse of "being able to play everything but brasses, reeds and guitar." I now can only reduce this to brasses and reeds.

To begin, I had a slight spot of annoyance because the actual charger that came with my PC is now completely knackered. My meepy Seán managed to salvage a cable for me, from (presumably) an older Acer computer, and it seems to be working fine apart from some power fluctuations. It is.... mmmh.... okay for now.

Talking about computers brings me to video editing, a subject to be touched upon heavily with the upcoming music video for Mio/Homura... if it is upcoming at this rate. It has been a month and two days since the track got released. Since then, I've managed to get the dress and shoes, a little bit of the leatherwork, and we managed to scout the area for the recording, and that's about it. We haven't had a makeup test yet because things always fucking get in the way, you know what they're like, and we haven't had particularly good weather either. So that's where it's currently at. Watch this space.

It's been a thankless ride, one with little to no support and one with no breakthroughs whatsoever. Fuck this shit.

Level 99, Final Form Sora was my last hurrah, and I think it should stay the way it is.

So, today, we officially began prep for the Mio/Homura music video. Those of you who haven't already heard the track, kindly click here.

My fiancé Seán and I went walking through some woods that he was very familiar with. Having grown up around Fulwood, he knew the area around Midgery and Fernyhalgh quite well. There are some woods there, and a brook, and some open meadows. All the ingredients which we felt necessary to express the sentiments behind Mio/Homura in visuals!

So we took some footage of our exploration, some nine minutes and a bit of meep. We explored, imagined footage, and I beat my drum a bit.

It was just beautiful, being with him, and preparing to bring another massive creative project to birth.

Part 2 should be on Monday; I'm going to be meeting a couple friends at Soundskills to test that facepaint idea, the one that is my profile picture on Newgrounds, the face with the henna-like designs. Seán's gonna be there to observe and record what he can. It's kinda ironic that in spite of him having a neurological condition which causes him to shake, his camera footage was a lot steadier than mine. I suck at cameras. XD

I intend to have the flowers in my hair on the actual recording day, but we'll see what happens. Like with everything else that I've been doing so far, video is going to be nonprofit.