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<td height="70" align="left" valign="bottom"><h2> Web Resources</h2></td>
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<h3>PCK extras</h3>
Extras just for the Planet Construction Kit:
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<li><a href="http://www.zompist.com/pckclimate.html">Climate maps in color</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.zompist.com/pck-timeline.html">Interactive technological timeline</a></li>
<li><a href="../nearstars.html">The nearest stars— a resource for sf writers</a>
<li><a href="http://www.zompist.com/pck-femwar.html">A list of female warriors</a></li>
<li>The <a href="http://www.zompist.com/howto2.htm">map tutorial</a> in color and better resolution.
<li><A href="../blender.html"><b>Blender</b> for Conworlders</a>: A more up-to-date and powerful 3-D modeling progrm than the ones in the book
</ul>
<h3>The Conlanger's Lexipedia</h3>
My new book, <a href="../lexipedia.html">The Conlanger's Lexipedia</a>, is all about creating words. This means knowing a lot about many different real-world fields, from kinship terms to law to physics to biology, so it serves as a supplement to the PCK as well.
<h3>More from Zompist.com</h3>
You can meet other conlang enthusiasts— and get help when you're stuck— at <a href="httphttp://www.incatena.org"><strong>the zompist bboard</strong></a>.
<p>You can browse a couple dozen <a href="http://www.zompist.com/amercult.html"><strong>culture tests </strong>here</a>.
<p>About everything you'd like to know about Almea is at <a href="http://www.zompist.com/virtuver.htm"><b>Virtual Verduria</b></a>; or go direct to the <a href="http://www.almeopedia.com/"><b>Almeopedia</b></a>. These are also ongoing models for how you might present information about your world.
<p>For a far future that attempts to stay within known physics, see <a href="../incatena.html">the Incatena</a>, the setting for <a href="../apaf.html">my novel <i>Against Peace and Freedom</i></a>.
<p>Forget nations, it's all about the <strong>cities</strong>. Read <a href="http://www.zompist.com/jacobs.html">more about Jane Jacobs here</a>.
<p>For <b>language creation</b>, read the online <strong><a href="http://www.zompist.com/kit.html">Language Construction Kit</a> </strong> or better yet, <a href="../pck.html">buy the book</a>. There is now a sequel, <a href="../lck2.html"><b>Advanced Language Construction</b></a>.
<p>This <a href="http://www.zompist.com/versci.htm">guide to <b>chemistry</b></a> may be of use in working out tech timelines.
<p>There's also <a href="http://zompist.wordpress.com/"><b>my blog</b></a>, which often covers things relevant to conworlding (which you may recall from the book is: nearly anything).
<h3>Science</h3>
Here's <a href="http://www.geosc.psu.edu/~kasting/PersonalPage/ResInt2.htm">more stuff on habitable zones</a>.
<p>Chris Wayan creates <a href="http://www.worlddreambank.org/P/PLANETS.HTM">a series of alternate Earths here</a> and rigorously works out their climates. Interesting to see the dramatic effect of a mere changes in axes, and good practice for thinking in climate zones.
<p><a href="http://www.antipope.org/charlie/"><b>Charlie Stross</b>'s blog</a> often dives into great s.f. analysis, such as <A href="http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2007/06/the-high-frontier-redux.html">why space colonization is unlikely</a> and <a href="http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/11/designing_society_for_posterit.html">the tricky problem of how to design a society for a generation ship</a>.
<p>Need a smart calculator? Try <a href="http://www.wolframalpha.com/">Wolfram Alpha<a>. If you have to use the same formula over and over, it's way easier than a calculator, and sometimes it can even find the formula for you— e.g. enter "distance from Alpha Centauri to Sirius".
<h3>Wikis</h3>
Almeopedia uses <b>MediaWiki</b> software... in my opinion a greater gift to the world than Wikipedia itself. Here's <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Installation">instructions on installing it to create your own wiki</a>.
<h3>Drawing</h3>
Timed studies of actual figures (nude or clothed) turns out to be a <a href="http://zompist.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/quick-sketches/">great exercise</a>. Try <a href="http://www.pixelovely.com/gesture/figuredrawing.php">this site</a> or <a href="http://www.lovecastle.org/draw/">this one</a>.
<p>If you're interested in drawing, you should follow <a href="http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/"><b>John K Stuff</b></a>, written by John Kricfalusi, creator of <i>Ren & Stimpy</i>. John K turns out to extremely knowledgeable and punctilious about cartooning, and many of his tips apply to more realistic drawing as well.
<h3>3-D Modeling</h3>
The Valve Developer Community website is the place to start with <b>Hammer</b>. Here's <a href="http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Category:Level_Design">the main page for level creation</a>. You can now create movies within a Hammer map, using <a href="http://sourcefilmmaker.com">Source Filmmaker</a>. Other games have good editors too, such as the <a href="http://www.creationkit.com">Skyrim Creation Kit</a>.
<p>If you want to build in <b>Second Life</b>, here is <a href="http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Creation_Portal">the Creation Portal</a>.
<p>Autodesk Softimage <b>Mod Tool</b> is apparently dead.
<p><b>Blender</b> can be <a href="http://www.blender.org/">found here</a>. Since writing the PCK I've gotten into Blender; the learning curve is steep, but once you can do what you want it's great. Watch a video tutorial or two first; then, once you're stuck (and you will be), Google "Blender" plus your problem, like "Blender how to rig a skeleton".
<p>Here's a great <a href="http://www.mayang.com/textures/">free textures library</a>. They're non-tiling but still a great place to start.
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