UStream FAQ
Contents
About the show
What is fredarting?
Fredarting is the UStream broadcast of Fred Gallagher. Fred is an artist in Michigan, USA. He is the writer and artist for the webcomic MegaTokyo. Most of his live drawing sessions on UStream involve pages for this comic.
What does Fred use to broadcast his desktop?
Fred uses CamTwist for the video. He uses GarageBand, iTunes, and Soundflower for the audio.
When will the comic be posted?
When it's ready. Even when all the artwork is done (or mostly done), he still must work out the dialogue, which sometimes takes a while. The RSS and Twitter feeds will give notice when the next comic is up.
Is there a schedule?
No. Generally Fred will alert people via his Twitter when he's broadcasting, but this doesn't always happen.
Is there audio?
Fred likes to listen to music while he draws and usually will include it in the video stream. Some of it is kind of strange, so consider yourself warned. You can see what's listening to here.
When he wants to make sure he's not playing any restrictively licensed music, he'll play Creative Commons licensed music. Thinner Netlabel is a particular favorite.
Occasionally he narrates and answers questions using his mic, but not always. Sounds effects have also been known to occur.
Is this live?
Yes, subject to a bit of lag.
Can I view older drawing sessions?
Sometimes Fred records parts of the video cast, these are found further down on the UStream page.
What's with the ads?
The ads are from UStream, not us. We don't have much control over them.
What's all this about a ducky?
About the comic-making process
What does Fred use for drawing?
Fred uses a Cintiq 21UX. Drawing is done in Photoshop CS3. Frame layout and lettering is done in Illustrator CS3.
What kind of computer does Fred use?
It's a Mac.
What are Fred's Photoshop settings?
Take a look: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. These have been tweaked by Fred to best simulate the pencilwork he did before transitioning to the Cintiq.
How is the comic laid out?
Each frame is set up as its own masked area. The gray underlayer is so Fred can see what he has framed out. The red dotted line is the standard frame boundary. The thinner dotted line is the 'safe' zone to keep text inside for the books. The green line is the cut line for the webcomic version. The outer edge is a 1/8” bleed for the books.
Chatroom rules
What are the rules?
- No spam.
- No bots.
- No porn.
- This is not the place to be flaming, trolling, or making other personal attacks.
- If you hate Megatokyo, that's okay, but don't be disruptive about it.
- Keep things PG-13. If it's NSFW, it's not safe for the channel.
- No warez or anime/manga download links. This includes fansubs and fanscans.
- You should never discuss religion or politics in polite company. Try to avoid these subjects in the channel also.
- Listen to the ops (people with @ before their nicknames). They run this place.
Are there any topics that are off-limits?
As a rule of thumb, if you have to ask then you probably shouldn't bring it up. If in doubt, ask an op privately.
Using the chat service
How do I access the chat outside the UStream web interface?
UStream chats use IRC to power their chat rooms. As such, you can use any IRC client to connect to the channel.
- Server name: c.ustream.tv
- Channel name: #fredarting
For details on how to configure your IRC client, see your client's documentation. If you don't know what IRC is, Wikipedia has a list of IRC clients.
Common IRC commands
- Change your nickname:
/nick newnick
- Perform an action in-channel:
/me action
How do I register my IRC nickname?
Your UStream username is your IRC nickname and your UStream password is your IRC password. User names can be registered through the UStream web interface.
Note that for some silly reason, your UStream password is recorded by UStream as a server password rather than a nickname password managed by NickServ. As such, you need to use /pass to authenticate your nick. This fact should also be kept in mind when configuring auto-connect in your IRC client.
How do I shut off the UStream web interface and still watch the stream?
The UStream page doesn't provide that ability, but you can view the stream by itself here.