What's the Story is an app designed for literacy students and tutors at the Galway Adult Basic Education Service. Users complete pieces of text that have gaps. There are hints and links to the Dolch List and an online dictionary. The app is designed to reinforce the language learned in class. Students' own texts can also be uploaded and used. Click here for the web-based version
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SketchBlock
SketchBlock is designed to help get your creative juices flowing when you can't think of a subject for a drawing or a topic for a piece of writing. It produces random, often wacky, phrases of between 1 and 6 words that can be useful in sparking an idea. Available on Google Play Store
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StreetFinder Galway
The idea for StreetFinder Galway is to provide an offline map of the city. Each location has directions based on nearby landmarks.
I have been involved in a range of projects with a variety of groups and individuals over the years. Below are some examples of the designs on which I have worked.
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Animation
Animation has always fascinated me, both traditional drawn animation and computer-modelled. Below are some commercial and personal projects on which I have worked.
Click on the images to start and stop the animations
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Drawings
Sketching and drawing are some of my favourite activities. They form the basis of much of my work in other areas.
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- Additional Information -
About
Hi, my name is Nico. I really enjoy drawing and animation and I like to use Blender for 3D designs. I'm very fond of Krita for sketching and painting (and now traditional animation!), Gimp for image manipulation, Synfig for shape animation and Inkscape for SVG designs. As you may have noticed, I'm a big fan of FOSS.
Recently, I bought a Ugee pen display to replace the old el-cheapo graphics tablet I used for years. It's no Wacom, but it does the job and helps me to be more productive when I'm working on a project. For everyday sketching on the go, reading and communications, I use a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition.
Gaming
I got into gaming when I got my first PC in 1999. I'm currently spending most of my gaming time on War Thunder ground forces arcade battles. I'm modelling the big lighthouse in Westkapelle as part of a WW2 map of Walcheren Island I'm building for ARMA3. I plan to use it with the Faces of War mod. When Bare Mettle Entertainment brought Sui Generis to Kickstarter I backed it. I'm impressed with Exanima, but I'm not very good at playing it. I enjoy Mount and Blade and Call of Duty World at War with the Pezbot addon. On the strategy side, I play Medieval 2 Total War but overall I prefer FPS.
Model Aircraft
Making aircraft models - especially WW2 planes - has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. I've built models of plastic, wood, aluminium cans and card and combinations of all of these. I'm currently working on a card(board) model of a FW190A-5.
Kayak
Over the course of three summers, I built a skin-on-frame kayak based on Tom Yost's 13ft "Sea Bee" plans. The yostwerks.com site is no longer live but is accessible through the Internet Archive "Wayback Machine" site. Lots of learning (and swearing) later, I have completed the build. It's not the lightest kayak ever built but it floats.
Coding
My go-to application for web design is Notepad++ and I use CodeBlocks for C++ development. AndroidStudio is what I use for Android application development most of the time and I use Xcode on a virtual Mac for iOS development.
Privacy Policy
The Nico's Creative Side website and the apps I create neither collect nor store personal data of any kind about the users of this site or users of the apps.
