#Build Prop Commercials

[2dmax]

2dmax commissions info spring 2024

last updated april 12th

to place an order for a commission, you may PM me; if you prefer, you can also fill out this form or commission me through fiverr.

text and additional info below the readmore.

thanks for reblogging, even if you aren't interest right now!

Packages

These are excellent starting off points for most common commission types. Additional specificity and complexity can be purchased. All basic packages are artist's medium of choice, include simple backgrounds, minimal/no props. All include full color, fully finished works.

Standard Illustration - $80

Artistic and expressive "full body" illustration (roughly 75-100% of figure).

Mini Illustration - $50

Chibi, portrait, half body, icons, and the like.

Couple's Illustration - $100

A duo version of the above styles. Doesn't have to be romantic couples - friends, enemies, family, pet & owner, or other pairs and duos OK.

Multipose, Reference, and Group Lineups - $120+

For commissions that require either multiple poses of the same character, groups, more than two characters generally. Reference pages can include close-ups and detailed shots.

Experimental Commissions

18"x24" Handmade Poster - $200

artist’s choice of medium only. typically acrylic/mixed media. always on extra large poster sized paper. great way to celebrate your favorite OCs or canon characters!

paper clay figurine - $100

chibi humanoids/animals/ferals/anthros only. between 2"-3" cubed, give or take. armature wire, paper clay, paint, and varnish. these are delicate art items, not toys; not suitable for children. includes a photoset at no additional cost.

standalone comics page - $200

2-5 panels, 1-2 characters, 1 location. artist’s choice of medium only. can be OCs or canon characters.

wildcard commission - $???

submit your request and your budget; results are up to the artist.

pay what you want means get what you get!

here’s what to expect when you order:

Send me a PM with basic info; what you would like me to draw, your budget, and if you have a deadline.

I will ask a few questions to be able to build up the concept. I will also give you my e-mail, where you can send me further info and any references you’d like to share!

Your sketch is typically ready within a week; I’ll always update you on my progress. After we agree on the sketch, payment will be due. After it’s paid, I will give you an estimate for when I will be finished with your piece.

Your finished artwork will be e-mailed to you. I am also happy to mail physical art at cost!

terms and conditions:

Your commission is for personal use; icons, roleplaying, in your blog theme, as a wallpaper, or to print out and tape to your fridge. Commercial use can be negotiated.

You must credit me on the platform used if reposted. Always OK to post to ToyHouse; my username is 2dmax there. On instagram and all other platforms where I don’t have an account, please credit my instagram @/maximumgroove.

You may not use my art to promote anything hateful or illegal. You may not claim it as anyone else’s creation. You may not use it for commercial uses, or to edit, adapt, trace, or directly reference, without getting permission. I may use my art in my own promotional material.

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[desidov]

The Structure of a Successful Game Changer pt. 1 - Make Some Noise

An analysis of the stages comprising an entertaining and innovative Game Changer episode, explained by breaking down the episode Make Some Noise.

Stage 1: Our contestants have no idea

With prompt "cow," Josh responds "cow." Sam replies, "I'm sorry, that is not the answer I was looking for."

Often only a turn or two, this first stage is comprised of the players identifying the core mechanic of the episode—getting a basic understanding of what each question will ask of them and how they might earn points or advance further. Other examples: the first forays into navigating the Jeopardy board, or Sam’s opening instructions for “Sam Says” demonstrating an instruction not preceded by “Sam says” should not be followed.

Stage 2: You all understand

With prompt "duck," Zac responds "quack quack" and receives a point. Josh comments "Okay I see, I see what this is about, okay."

Here the players realize the structure of each question, and witness some behaviors receiving points while others do not (excluding non-point-earning episodes.) Sometimes, this is all the players need to understand the fundamental premise (mimic the sound produced by the prompt) while sometimes unraveling the mystery of the premise is the overall conceit of the episode (tell us about yourself, yes or no.)

Stage 3: Escalation of Rules

After Zac's response to "frog," Sam says "I'm gonna toss it up to the other two contestants [to steal the point.] Brennan, give me your best frog."

An expansion to the initial rules is revealed, allowing players to further advance/gain points beyond the initial bounds of the premise. Here, the escalation is that players may steal prompts from each other—others include incorporated phrase bonus points from The Official Cast Recording and the hidden immunity loop-de-loops from Survivor.

Stage π: Departure

Sam says "We are now headed into our first mini game." Each player attempts to recreate a melody on an otamatone.

This optional stage, typically presented as a “mini game,” is thematically connected to the premise but operates on its own rules. Make Some Noise iterations typically include a mini game where contestants are provided a prop and must mimic a given sound with that prop—no spoken entries qualify. Similarly, A Sponsored Episode and its continuations feature a mini game of providing commercial voice-overs for stock footage (where non-commercial interpretations are not rewarded,) and a mini game of identifying brand taglines/logos.

Stage 4: Escalation of Concept

Sam introduces the next prompt, "Your word is jack hammer." Josh makes a jack hammer sound, bouncing with a hand above his head and explaining "that's him keeping the hat on."

While Stage 3 adds on to the rules of the episode, Stage 4 applies the same rules to something new—here transitioning from animal calls to all manner of sound effects. Escalation of concept can be clearly demarcated, as this example is, or more gradual, like the escalations from common animal calls to obscure animal calls or from physical prompts to intangible prompts like “anguish.” What matters is that escalations continue to push the format to new heights and prevent the conceit from stagnating.

Stage 5: Expansion of Concept

The prompt is a stock photo of a smiling young adult white man. Brennan roleplays the man arrogantly describing his improv group, ending with "This date's going well."

Though similar to Stage 4, I characterize this stage as a dramatic alteration to the format of prompts—here from text prompts to image prompts. This can be for several turns, as it is for MSN, or just one, such as “go” from Sam Says or the cockroach union from “Do I hear $1?” This builds a finale that presses the bounds of the format to their limits, capping off the episode.

[referrix]

I'm currently working on trying to find locations for some of the known rooms and things inside Alfea, (at the moment specifically, I'm working on the kitchen and dining hall) before I put myself through floor plans again. So I thought I'd share what some of my working out looks like behind the scenes.

And why it might be a problem that Season 8 turned these flat topped towers:

Into these much shorter flat topped towers:

Because I'm currently fairly certain that was the dining hall in that upper half.

Trying to figure out where the dining hall is, isn't a one room tracking operation, because we know there's a kitchen, we've seen it, we've seen the Winx Club set fire to it with their negligence. You don't typically put a food making place far from the eating place, so tracking one, should help track the other.

We first see the kitchen in episode 105, when the girls are on dinner duty (or making a spell with potato peels and a magical back-flip if you're a 4kids truther), and during dinner prep they head back to their dorm to help Stella pick an outfit.

From their dorm, they're able to smell the smoke and react, racing to the kitchen before even the chef and Griselda arrive, though not by much in Griselda's case. (Also, Bloom uses the same spell Griselda does a few episodes later back on Earth in her house while cooking with Vanessa. Just saying.)

This means, or at least suggests that the kitchens are not only in the same building as their dorm, but reasonably close by.

When we return to the kitchen in episode 115 we actually have a little zoom around the rear tower and focus in on a spot above/behind the rear most dorm balcony on the building before phasing inside to the girls walking along a hall to the kitchen.

While the hallway is different between the two episodes, background continuity is not Winx Club's feature, but it does double down on the idea that the kitchen is in that building.

(In 105 the girls turn a corner into a short hallway, while in 115 it appears to be a long straight hallway with windows all along it. Though later in the episode the looking out view does look kindamuch the same as 105?)

(props to Alfea for having non-magical fire extinguishers for added safety)

Or at least one of the kitchens is in that building, I wouldn't be surprised to find out there are two. Or at least a smaller communal kitchen for the other mirrored building, so the girls don't have to go across campus for a midnight snack.

Further, although the exterior and interiors of the school don't always match up exactly, in several shots of the dining hall, we can see the six bays of tall windows. Now there is a chance they could just be windows from the middle floor, one of the balconied window sets, but the shape and compactness matches much more closely with the tower's rear facing window wall, the one that leads out onto the flat balcony.

The number of windows/bay divisions don't match up perfectly, but again, internal-external logic consistency isn't 100% at Alfea,

Additionally, in these shots from season two, we can see some smaller windows lining the upper sections of the wall opposite the window wall, which match up loosely with the windows on the rear towers, where they meet the roof of the dorm section.

We should also talk about sizes and room dimensions.

Based on the door below the smaller windows, the windows are at least three maybe four meters off the floor. The tables run about 5 meters.

Estimating for girls behind pillars, the most packed side holds 16 students, while the least packed has space for 13.

A quick bit of research into bench tables brought me some numbers.

The longest commercial tables I could find that came with suggested sizing by seat number suggested that for a 10 person table (4 on each long and 1 per end cap, so realistically for out count and 8 person table) would range between 2.2m, 2.6m, or 2.8m depending on how comfy or squished the seating is expected to be. Doubling those numbers to get tables to seat 16 max per side, we end up with tables ranging 4.4m, 5.2m, and 5.6m.

Doing a quick eyeball and stamp measurement, and given that the room isn't perfectly circular, but there is at least one (suspiciously straight) hallway outside it, I'd be okay saying that we're looking at a space with a rough diameter between 9 and 15 meters.

Finally, there's the thing that might be a door opposite the teachers' dais, which I think might match up with the external door on the tower that leads up a protruding staircase to a spiral staircase that leads to the observation platform on the top of the tower.

Or at least an elevator or internal spiral staircase up to the external door, or even a door across a corridor to the external door, depending on how big the overall dining hall really is in relation to the tower it's sitting in.

Why don't I think it leads to the kitchens?

Well, let's look at the kitchen: it looks roughly square, or at least not a whole lot longer one way than the other, so we're looking at a squarer sort of rectangle at most, and with that we can do a few quick calculations based on what's in the kitchen.

First, my research tells me that in a commercial kitchen, like for a restaurant, recommended kitchen size is .5m² per seat. The count of the students at the table (estimated 16+14+14+13=57 plus three teachers) give us around 60 seats, which makes our estimated kitchen around 30m².

(That's a fridge in the left corner as far as I can tell, though I did for a short time assume it was stairs. Gosh darn pattern on the door, fooling me.)

Further, commercial fridges, double ovens and cupboards give me widths of 610cm for a fridge, 60.96-68.58-76.2cm for double ovens, and 1200cm for a cupboard. recommended ventilation distance between ovens is a suggested minimum of 15.24cm, and there are four ovens along one wall with the fridge and the free standing cupboard. Using the largest width for ovens, we're looking at a room of at least 5.62m across.

It's important I note here, that the room isn't actually square, while the main body of it looks that way, there's also a little alcove attached along that wall.

Now there is a bit more space between the ovens than is recommended, enough for Musa to hide between them comfortably, but this gives us a starting base.

Even if the dining hall is 15ms across on the outside, that's still enough room to fit the kitchen in the tower given some of my other calculations which have the width of the mirrored buildings at 24-30m across, which should translate to the width of the flat topped towers.

But again, there's that zoom in, and the fact the girls come in from the side and turn left into the kitchen. I think we're looking at a kitchen position that's a little something like this:

Although I am hoping that despite the lack of any doors in the alcove, there's actually a walk in fridge/freezer behind the back wall, because there's plenty of cooking spaces, but there doesn't seem to be much in the way of food storage outside the free standing fridge in the corner, the pantry by the alcove, and the alcove.

Maybe there's more in the various short cupboards, but at least a portion of those would be for cooking utensils, crockery, cutlery, and I don't see any that are different enough to indicate cold storage vs long-life/shelf.

[puppetwoman17]

Ladies and gents, my first Billy Batson-centric fic! It’s called: The Batson Family Soap Opera: Ft. The Justice League

Here’s a snippet of the first chapter, already released on AO3 under the name SunShade878

In Study Room #1, Billy propped himself up on a chair and opened his laptop. The screen lit up the room, showing a half-finished Whiz Radio broadcast script. On another tab, Billy pulled up a bullet point list of topics to cover, and got to work.

He took bites out of the sandwich he got from the cafeteria as he worked. Looking from tab to tab, Billy paraphrased some of his talking points and left slots open throughout the script for a few brief questions.

He tapped a nail against the table when he paused after a commercial break slot and glanced at the time.

“Five minutes ‘til monitor duty,” he muttered. “Better close off for now.”

Not to say Billy was satisfied with his work, but he was proud of his clean punctuality record from his time with the League. It also translated to his reporter work, so that was a nice bonus. Now that he thought about it, Morris told him he could give Billy a small bonus if he turned everything in today…

Nope! He shook his head. Monitor duty now, Whiz work later.

Billy quickly packed his things and slotted his laptop in a cubby before making his way toward the monitor station. He checked the time on his watch, sighing in relief when he saw he was two minutes from the beginning of his two hour shift.

Okay, good.

He quickened his pace toward the familiar room, dutifully ignoring the concerned and curious looks on several familiar faces.

I swear, you’d think I was catatonic with the way these people look at me.

The monitor room had a large, imposing window that showed the expanse of space. It was something Billy could never get over, no matter how long he stared at it. Multiple screens were lit, showing various cities with superheroes of their own, helping children out of burning buildings and stopping robberies in progress.

A transparent hologram of Earth spun around slowly in the middle of the room. Graph lines went over and across each section of land and sea. Several small, red dots blinked green, and Billy smiled in satisfaction that they were doing good. He was doing good.

“Hey, Little B!”

Billy rolled his eyes. “Hey, Hal.”

Billy doesn’t have to turn around to see the Green Lantern’s cheeky grin as he sauntered into the room, power ring glowing emerald. “Ya seem tense, little man.” The grin faltered, revealing what Billy knew to be truer than the smile. “You okay?”

Now, you remember what Billy said about loving how protective the League was, right? And the thing is, he didn’t lie. He didn’t blame them for it, and he understood the need to protect people younger than you. Hell, he was well known enough in Fawcett for the younger street kids to know him by name. For them to know he knew all the best hiding spots and hoarding spots around the Cobbler District.

But sometimes it could just be so. Damn. Annoying.

“Oh, it’s just some last minute revisions for my broadcast tomorrow. Nothing major.”

“You remembered to eat, yeah?

Don’t roll your eyes, he’s not being condescending. “Took a sandwich from the canteen.”

“Cool, cool.”

Yeah, this was definitely one of those times where he felt coddled instead of protected. Now, maybe seven year old Billy, who’d just learned that he was now responsible for the wellbeing of an entire community and subcommunities of ethereal-infused life, would’ve loved the worry on Hal’s face.

Fourteen year old Billy, on the other hand, couldn’t help the queasy feeling in his stomach.

“Anyway, we should get started, huh?”

The whites of Hal’s domino mask widened. “Uh, yeah. Let’s.”

Billy mustered a small smile as he propped himself on one of the two chairs facing the screens. Hal flopped unceremoniously onto the other one, the smile on his face more prominent. Weird. Before, the smile seemed…dim, somehow.

Now, though, with the two of them looking through screens and chatting quietly as the hours ticked by, Hal’s nervousness and tenseness was chipped away, revealing the bumbling idiot Billy knew and cared for. The easy way with which they communicated was something Billy was thankful for. If anything, his identity reveal only strengthened their relationship.

It sort of felt like he was the reason for Hal’s better mood. But that was silly.

Right?

Tell me what you think on AO3!

[candywife333]

One of the guys

pairing: OT7? alphas X chubby wingwoman HYBE employee Y/N (omega in hiding)

NEW MINISERIES (almost resembles a series of just dribbles)

Summary: She's the man. No literally. She totally is. At least in the perception of everyone at HYBE. She hangs out with the guys like a pro , strategizes with them to get them any girl of their choice, gets rid of their one night stands with ease, convinces their FWBs to leave them alone, provides constructive criticism about their sexual techniques, and even counsels them when they are having mental breakdowns. In essence, she makes MEN out of boys. Is that her job description? Not exactly. But she does it anyway. Because Y/N just happens to be one of the guys.

Warning: cursing, crude language, eventual smut

PART 1

"Y/N, does this outfit look good for the date tonight?!!!", Taehyung paced around in a panicked fashion, worried about being late for his date.

Y/N turned around slowly in her revolving chair nursing a freshly baked croissant in her hand, quizzical expression on her face, right eyebrow propped up in a strong arch. She calmly advised, "Lose the ugly plaid shirt and replace it with a plain black turtle neck. Get rid of that thirsty look on your face and wipe the sweat on the nape of your neck. You don't want to look like you just ran a marathon. As much as old spice commercials try to convince guys that women like sweaty men, we don't like guys looking like drowning rats on first dates".

Taehyung opened his mouth open in shock and disbelief at her cutting words. Y/N questioned nonchalantly as she propped her sweat pant clad right leg on the coffee table, munching on her crispy treat, " Have I ever mislead you boi? Till now, have you not bagged a chick under my guidance"? Taehyung winced, because he very well knew that not only him, but all the other members never lost when Y/N advised them with regards to the workings of women. Especially in regards to the mindset of omegas.

They were all alphas and any girl, or omega for that matter that they chose to pursue, they got. Mainly because of Y/N. You could call her a lifestyle manager or a counselor. The words were not apt enough to describe her position completely. She was all encompassing in her role. Nobody would be able to replace her.

Y/N was originally one of their junior managers, till they slowly realized that she was worth more than just that job role. Taehyung remembered the day they had met her. When Jungkook had been bemoaning his lack of p***y at the time, Y/n had remained in her usual uniform of black sweatpants and baggy black shirt with a smirking expression on her quiet face. Side note: None of them knew how y/N even looked like under those baggy clothes, she never changed her clothes, ever. Under any circumstances.

She had taken one look at Jungkook's pitiful, pathetic little face propped up like Orphan Annie on a blue loveseat, and remarked in her usual quietly cutting manner, "You need to wash that BO off your armpits boy. Brush your teeth. Use some salicylic acid on that face. And learn what weights are. Girls don't like oily spaghetti. We like it in our mouth when we eat it, but we don't like f**king it". They had all been startled at the time.

But she had resolutely continued her tirade, "You can take the advice or leave it. But I guarantee that if you fix what I said, you will have girls falling all over themselves for you, like flies over lasagna". After her curt statement, she walked away, a baggy legend , without even a glance backwards.

Over the years, since their debut, she remained in the background, mostly staying in HYBE's main building, acting as a mix between manager, mental health counselor, life coach and sex therapist. If anyone had questions that they couldn't get figured out anywhere else, they came to Y/N. Cause she was just that good. New idols swore by her, even giving up time off some times, just to have appointments with her biweekly.

She was too good, to the point that even the jade rock statue that was Yoongi, would consult her when he was struggling. And he never even consulted his parents, so that was saying a lot. It was even more hilarious that their head of PR and sometimes even Bang PD were found creeping into her office. She was a magician and a queen and she knew it.

Taehyung nodded at her suggestions, not questioning her and got ready to head out the door as Y/N made her way out of his dressing room. She rarely did much strenuous activity, so she had this habit where she calculated her steps daily and would be found randomly pacing around the HYBE building with her tablet in hand.

As Y/N left his room, Jungkook walked in, smiling at y/n in glee, making grabby hands to try to hug her. She swatted him away with a smirk and walked away as he entered the room. He grunted, " Looking good Tae. Off to bag Ashley I see. You are pulling all the stops for this one". Taehyung shrugged , "No choice dude. She is super selective about who she dates. Which is why Y/N told me to go for a basic but chic look. And she told me to keep some gum on me, in case my breath stank. Because apparently classy girls hate garlic".

Jungkook nodded absently, clearly not interested in girls like Ashley, the daughter of a makeup corporation's CEO. He motioned for Taehyung to come closer, as if what he were about to say were a top secret, "Do you ever wonder what Y/n ACTUALLY looks like"? Taehyung, bopped him on his coconut head with his right hand. "The hell do you mean, what she actually looks like. Not like she is lying to us. The girl doesn't even wear makeup". Jungkook shook his head frantically, "That isn't what I mean. I mean, we don't even know her shape, she dresses so baggy she looks like a blob. And her face is obscured by her thick black specs that honestly look more like sunglasses because of the tinting. And her hair is always pulled up into a bun, so we don't even know the texture of her hair".

Taehyung pondered these sentiments. For sure, Y/N was very bland when it came to appearance. The only distinctive thing about her was her ocean breeze fragrance. Otherwise she blended into the background. "Why are you suddenly so curious Jungkook? She's worked for so long at HYBE. Why does it matter"? Jungkook looked uneasy as he proclaimed after a pregnant pause and gathered Taehyung even closer as if to divulge some national security threat, "I have a suspicion that she has a........please don't tell anyone my conjectures........big ........ASS".

Dumbfounded at his outlandish statement, Taehyung exclaimed in disbelief, "You mean a BADUNKADUNK, A G WAGON, A DUMP TRUCK? OUR Y/N"?!! He nervously tittered, "no way man, no way". Jungkook winced as he continued, "Well I am sort of curious, because you see...", he twiddled his thumbs with trepidation, "I sort of was looking when she bent over to pick up a pen...and her shirt sort of slid up and I saw something that looked massive. You know, of global proportions". He paused as if in deep concentration, finger on his head, "Worldwide, if I had to put it in the simplest terms. And the stranger thing, is that her scent smelled like strawberry cheesecake for all of 2 seconds till it switched back to her usual fragrance".

Both of them stood there, puzzled in a quandary. This may not seem like a big deal. But it definitely was. Because if Y/N was pretending to be someone else entirely, their world view and perception of life, may have just shifted drastically.

[zeldahime]

I did math on David Tennant's hands (so you don't have to)

EDITED WITH MORE ACCURATE PHONE INFORMATION AND A DIFFERENT CONCLUSION.

I swear all I wanted to know was what kind of phone Crowley has in season 1.

See, I have an iPhone, and one of my gigs shares a building with an Apple Store. I was taking a screenshot of his contact picture for Aziraphale, and noticed that the camera on the back of his phone is laid out horizontal. Most iPhones aren't! So, I fell into this rabbit hole: what phone does Anthony J. Crowley have?

(The bit where you can see the cameras, immediately before the cool heart-in-flames picture he has for Aziraphale's contact, is basically impossible to screenshot; the phone moves very fast and reflects the environment. But his contact photo for his angel is so neat and I love it ❤️‍🔥)

I figured out very quickly the only iPhone with that camera layout is the iPhone SE series, but there have been only three generations: 2016, 2020, and 2023. Season 1 of Good Omens was released in 2019. The iPhone SE first generation was also Apple's "budget" phone. It just didn't make sense to me that Crowley would have an old budget phone, but the new SE wasn't commercially available so it also didn't make sense to me that the prop department could have given him a new phone.

The main visual differences between gen 1 and gen 2 are threefold: gen 1 didn't come in black; gen 2 has slightly more beveling; and they are different sizes. The first two visual differences are basically meaningless, because it's trivial for a props department to turn a white phone black and the beveling difference only is obvious in comparison. So I had to figure out what size Crowley's phone was.

We see Crowley's phone in s1e4 and s1e5, but the only thing in its environment we can really measure to get an accurate read on its size is... Well. David Tennant.

More specifically, we get a fairly good shot of the phone in his hands, held level with the screen, and thumb easily available to use as a reference.

But if anyone has done David Tennant Hand Math before, they weren't on page 1 of Google and therefore may as well not exist. So I took up this quest myself.

So first, I had to find a picture of David Tennant holding something of known dimensions. I am, first and foremost, a Doctor Who nerd. There's only one answer to that.

Another Doctor Who nerd on the internet went and figured out 10th Doctor's sonic screwdriver was about 160 mm and the head of the sonic from tip to the joint with the middle section was about 40 mm.

I then got out my actual goddamn fabric tape and measured this man's fingers on my computer screen. After converting the measurements back to scale, first to second knuckle on his middle finger was 54.55 mm.

Then to figure out how long his thumb is, I needed a photo of his hands. This one is courtesy of the GO Reference Server:

His thumb came out to being approximately 68mm long. (My thumb came out to 55mm long. Not relevant, I just got curious while I was doing all this measuring.)

Finally, the data necessary to the main event: the goddamn phone.

Using the thumb as a reference, the phone came out to 136mm in length.

The iPhone SE Gen 1 was 123.8 mm long; the Gen 2 was 138.4 mm long.

Given that I rounded quite a bit during my calculations to keep things at 2 digits or less, I'm very comfortable saying: Crowley had an iPhone SE (second generation) during the events of Good Omens Season 1, a phone that would not become commercially available until April 2020.

I don't know how the props people got their hands a phone that wouldn't be released for a full year and change after filming, but they did that for us. It's a character note that practically nobody noticed, for a prop that gets barely a full minute of screentime. They could easily have used an iPhone XR or iPhone XS Max, which were the newest iPhones actually on the market at that time and which people would have recognized when the episode aired, but they knew Crowley would have the newest iPhone before anybody else had the newest iPhone and by Jove, he did.

After I posted this in Discord, @giveintomay pointed out that the iPhone SE second generation used the same build as the iPhones 7 and 8, which came out in 2016 and 2017 respectively. So, he most likely had an iPhone 8, which would have been the latest generation while filming (as generation 10 became commercially available over the summer and fall).

[shadeops21]

MWII Cosplay - Ghost "Urban Ops" WIP - "The Haunted" Chimera prop

[CW/TW: Pictured below is a gel blaster replica firearm. This is NOT a fully functional firearm.]

I have been working over six months now to work on replicating the same rifle that Ghost wields during the opening mission, as well as Alone & Ghost Team.

It's available in MWII Multiplayer through the blueprint known as "The Haunted", and I have managed to create a near-1:1 match of the build with a Honey Badger gel blaster.

I did have to compromise on some parts and details, and there are a couple of details that I've yet to add on but they're very minor.

Pictures below the cut!

Here's the blueprint taken from in-game:

And here is my build:

So, first things first: the handguard is a 3D printed adaptation of the in-game model. The actual handguard isn't commercially available as I don't think it exists. Discussions with a friend have concluded that it is a hybridized form that incorporates the factory handguard produced by Q and elements from the Geissele SMR handguards.

Compromises:

Game textures have it painted black and a dull green-grey colour, however I was unable to obtain a matching colour. Seeing the model in-game under lighting had it show more as a tan however, so I have opted for tan.

Front foregrip I've used is an H&K Assault Grip, as my KAC VFG is on another build of mine, and this was the closest I have to the grip used in-game (again, a fictionalised design to my knowledge). Still searching for a match however I'm coming up empty.

I've used a clone Aimpoint CompM2 instead of an Aimpoint PRO. PROs are hard to find clones of, especially in Australia. Same basic shape and silhouette though. I don't have the lens covers for it though. Same with the mount, not the exact same type unfortunately but close enough.

In-game, it's equipped with a laser aiming device. I've swapped that out for a replica Surefire Mini Scout M300C because if/when I do use this on a field, I want to be able to light up my target and see it.

I'm struggling to source black rubber bands to add around the stock's adjustment button, so I may get different colour ones or ditch them entirely.

I've gotta source pens in the right colours so I can add the "07"/"B07" marks on either side of the receiver.

May omit the strip of velcro with the little UK flag on the left upper receiver.

Either way, I'm very pleased with how this has turned out!

Let me know what you all think in the notes/reblogs!

I'm a week and a half from taking this to Supanova Brisbane!

[carefulfears]

What do you think of the episodes Gillian and David wrote/directed and which one is your fav ?

i love gillian and david's episodes, i always think of this post about how they write each other's characters as they were at the beginning, as they are at the core underneath everything that builds up. david's scully as bright and joyful and curious. gillian's mulder as rash and authentic and gentle. david's msr is flirty and lighthearted and introspective; gillian's is combative and devoted, she writes love as an action, dedication as a decision.

they love these characters, and they love to explore together, and seeing them through their eyes is special.

i also really love how metaphorical and foreign david's writing is. the unique unreliable narration of the unnatural, the way that the present day setting starts to shift to question the tale that's being told. characters weave in and out of the past, the props get older, the details get fuzzier. the moral of the story is bookended, "life on this planet" being understood and sought out.

the last temptation of amor fati, choices offered that are rooted only in true purpose, in commitment to something both larger and smaller. the internal struggle to not lose sight of that.

his dancing zombies at the end of hollywood a.d., dead and forgotten, happy and in love; just like mulder and scully holding hands before them.

my favorite of them all is hollywood a.d., i just love it. i smile to think of it. it's iconic and reflective and goofy. it has practically no plot whatsoever. it has more quintessential and referenced lines than any other episode. it just got the characters, it's all about the small moments in the face of commercialized imitation. it somehow tied together jesus/judas, dostoyevsky, and ed wood. it is absurdist fluff written by someone with most of a phd in english and i adore it.

[abandonedaccount1234]

MY THOUGHTS ON EPISODE 7X08

First off: RIP RICO PRIEM. There needs to be better safety precautions and LAWS put into place, not just contract negotiations, to ensure the safety of all cast and especially crew. No one should have to die to see our favorite show get made. We can week a few weeks/months between episodes if that is what it will take. Our little weewoo show is not more important than people getting home safe.

-honestly, tell him how it is Amir. Bobby affected more lives than just the 148 he took. As much as I love his growth and how he’s healed, the trauma extends past his victims into generational trauma that will probably be felt for several generations.

-it’s so emotionally jarring sometimes to see fun loving bobby who’s worked hard to piece his life back together. and then also remember, he’s the cause of 148 lives being taken. like....how does the man have a job? he would not experience the same treatment of the freedom he’s been allowed post apartment fire if he was a man of color.

-i love how the characters are flawed and not perfect people.

-MAY GRANT where you been my baby

-Athena/Bobby goals 🥰

-so bobby comes from a long line of abusive alcoholics and has been a people pleasing emotional therapist for most of his life, good to know. good. to. know.

-i haven’t personally been too fond of the whole amir’s gonna burn the building down because it kind of plays into stereotypes of black men being violent and unable to work through their emotions in a healthy way.

-i do think race aside, it’s a possibility but after tonight’s episode, it’s not something i wanna be dead set on or right about because fighting fire with fire is not good for anyone involved, no matter how much gut wrenching pain they’ve caused you.

-i mean the cartel is a storyline they haven’t touched on before. i wonder what’s next? bridge collapse? plague outbreak? eddie being demisexual?

-side note: that guy’s flowing long hair is actually so pretty

-his mother should have stepped in more

“you can keep your amends, i didn’t ask for it. it doesn’t mean a damn thing to me.”-oh damn damn DAMN they got me crying on bridgerton day AGAIN

-oh please don’t tell me bobby learned how to cook out of trauma of almost burning his house down because he had to take on the role of his mother after she left his alcoholic father

-Bobby Nash? Nah. Bobby BURNT.

-Get up Amir! Don’t die! You’ve come too far! (in the wise words of my father: a black man can’t ever catch a break, can he?)

-is he actually a ranch worker? don’t trust a man with a truck you don’t know kids. DONT DRINK THE WATER. ITS GONNA KNOCK YOU OUT.

-of course the guy with the car WAS HIS GRANDSON

-did i not just tell you to not take candy from a strange man you just men in the middle of nowhere?

-BOBBY NASH DOES HIS OWN STUNTS

-ommercial break mantra to calm myself: athena will always find you, don’t worry. do what you gotta do to survive guys.

-back to bobby/amir: i think it’s important for bobby to meet someone who can’t forgive him for what he’s done, who no matter how much he’s grown, will never be able to see him apart from the trauma and pain he inflicted. it’s more realistic.

-Who Can It Be Now? Song by Men at Work

-Bobby’s dad dies in an alcoholic accident after he verbally assaulted him for being a kid who was left on his own to figure things out is INSANE TIM MINEAR SHIT.

-i don’t think he’s alive anymore bro...

-is bobby can drop to his knees and pray or something?

-welp he dropped to his knees

-poor little bobby

-NOT HIM BLEEDING ALL OVER THE SCRAPBOOK WHAT IN THE WORSE THAN EVAN BUCKLEY TRAUMA IS THIS SHIT WTF THAT’S UNCALLED FOR NO WONDER HE BECAME AN ALCOHOLIC JESUS CHRIST

-stay alive by matt alder

-I hope Amir sticks around. I like him. He keeps things emotionally interesting. I needed a good cry.

-commercial break thoughts: where tf is charlie now? i didn’t realize how much older he was supposed to be

-BIG PROPS to the makeup team

-i like this new girl, hope we see her again. her hair is flawless.

-acting pro peter krause

-“i live my life just trying not to make anything worse”

-michael jamal warner. incredible work tonight my man.

-what in the offbrand huge hulk loke tommy/buck/eddie are those firefighter dudes

-DONT DO IT LITTLE BOBBY YOU ARE A CHILD WHY DID THEY LEAVE HIM ALONE

-I WAS RIGHT THEY TRY TO BURN BOBBY’S HOUSE DOWN WTF I WAS RIGHT I BET ITS THE DAMN CARTEL

[disco-elysium-via-polls]

🎵 Whirling in Rags, 8 pm

GARTE, THE CAFETERIA MANAGER - "Can I help you?" He arches an eyebrow.

3. "Garte, I saw another *thing* at the Whirling..."

GARTE, THE CAFETERIA MANAGER - "Another thing -- great. I love those."

"Klaasje. In Room #3. She nicked the phone line."

GARTE, THE CAFETERIA MANAGER - "Why?" He stops himself. "No. Fuck it. I don't wanna know. I don't want to know why these degenerates do what they do. I thought we had *one* good guest in the building..."

SUGGESTION [Easy: Success] - He really doesn't like it being Klaasje.

"Yeah, I bet you didn't want it to be her."

"Well, anyway, mystery solved. I don't like loose ends."

"You have Lena. Lena is a good customer."

GARTE, THE CAFETERIA MANAGER - "What's that supposed to mean? Fuck you, buddy -- she's not my taste. Good thing she pays for her stuff on time, I'll forward her the bill and be done with it."

+5 XP

VOLITION [Easy: Success] - Hmm... wow. She really isn't his taste. Her spell hasn't spread here.

GARTE, THE CAFETERIA MANAGER - "Now was there anything else? I have, like, four thousand coasters to stack and then I need to wash dishes because it turns out I have to do that too now."

3. "There's something else I want to ask about."

GARTE, THE CAFETERIA MANAGER - "Yes?"

4. "Garte, I need to sing karaoke now."

GARTE, THE CAFETERIA MANAGER - "No, you *don't*. It's not happening."

COMPOSURE [Medium: Success] - He tries not to look at you -- it's dangerous to *acknowledge* the karaoke man.

"Yeah, but..." (Look him in the eye) "Johnny Law is about to tear it up sad-style."

"Why do you even have the PA system if no one's going to use it?"

"It's part of my quest of self-discovery. Help me."

"This is my way of apologizing for the trouble I've caused. Please let me say I'm sorry."

"You're right, it's not the right time yet."

GARTE, THE CAFETERIA MANAGER - "The Whirling doesn't need more *sad style*. That's one of the styles it can do without right now."

3. "It's part of my quest of self-discovery. Help me."

GARTE, THE CAFETERIA MANAGER - "The Whirling's not a charity or a musical therapy clinic, it's a commercial establishment. You're going to scare away the customers."

2. "Why do you even have the PA system if no one's going to use it?"

GARTE, THE CAFETERIA MANAGER - "It's for the..." He begins confidently, but then stumbles on his own words. "It's for no one. It's a prop. I'm not letting anyone use it after the Great Karaoke Catastrophe of '44."

"What happened in '44?"

"It's not a prop. It's for your clients. I know it's used."

"When was the last time you had a band play here?"

GARTE, THE CAFETERIA MANAGER - "A lot of people got killed because some asshole wanted to sing karaoke."

"It's not a prop. It's for your clients. I know it's used."

GARTE, THE CAFETERIA MANAGER - "Okay, yes, it's for *some* clients," he admits reluctantly.

"I'm a real client, I've paid my bills and I have the right to use the karaoke machine."

"Okay, *fuck* me then! Just FUCK me!"

GARTE, THE CAFETERIA MANAGER - "Hah! Well!" He comes up with a counterargument. "We don't have any tapes. They all got stolen."

DRAMA [Challenging: Success] - He's lying. But whatever, you don't really *need* his lame tracks.

"It's all right, I have my own song with me." (Give him the tape for "Smallest Church in Saint-Saëns".)

GARTE, THE CAFETERIA MANAGER - The man in the vest and the violet shirt stares at the tape you've just given him. He begins to frown. Hard.

AUTHORITY [Easy: Success] - This is the look of a man who's *defeated*. He knows he's out of excuses.

GARTE, THE CAFETERIA MANAGER - "Fine. Fine. Climb on that stage and do your thing, just get out of my hair." He shakes the tape at you. "I'll plug it in for you. Damn this karaoke machine..."

PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Medium: Success] - "I'm having it uninstalled," he mumbles to himself.

INLAND EMPIRE [Easy: Success] - Oh yeah. Time to do the damage.

And we still have half an hour before the evening ends. Nice.

KARAOKE STAND - The stage is all set up for your performance. Feels... silent. You can hear the pellets creak under your feet.

SAVOIR FAIRE [Easy: Success] - You feel a little dizzy. A little *unsteady*, suddenly.

GARTE, THE CAFETERIA MANAGER - "So, are you ready for your... *thing* now? Let me know when I should turn on the karaoke carousel."

"Look, Kim, I'm going to sing karaoke!"

Put your lips against the microphone -- test it.

Look around the room first.

[Drama - Formidable 13] "I'm ready, Garte. Hit play."

[Leave.]

KIM KITSURAGI - "I can see that." The lieutenant steps away from the stage, ready for your performance.

2. Put your lips against the microphone -- test it.

KARAOKE STAND - Immediately a loud feedback noise startles the room. You feel like an amateur. How are you supposed to hold the mic? Should you just *sing* into it? Where should you stand?

3. Look around the room first.

KARAOKE STAND - The bar is full and buzzing with chatter. No one is paying you any attention, but still you feel your knees turn to noodles. Okay, now a couple is looking at you! Even worse...

INLAND EMPIRE [Easy: Success] - They are going to hate you.

4. [Drama - Formidable 13] "I'm ready, Garte. Hit play."

-1 Too close to the mic. +1 Superstar cop.

We could have gotten way more modifiers to this check.

DRAMA [Formidable: Success] - The air is thick with anticipation.

Someone dims the lights as the music starts... Okay. Here we go...

ANCIENT REPTILIAN BRAIN - "I would often go there. To the tiny church there. The smallest church in Saint-Saëns -- though it once was larger.

How the rill may rest there. Down through the mist there. Toward the seven sisters -- toward those pale cliffs there

I would often stay there. In the tiny yard there. I have been so glad here -- looking forward to the past here

But now you are alone. None of this matters at all."

DRAMA - A lazy applause fills the room. You feel your hands shake as awareness of your body returns to you.

Thank you, Ancient Reptilian Brain.

"I want dedicate this song to whoever wrote me that fucking letter. I still love you. Thank you very much, asshole."

"I'd like to dedicate this song to my partner, Kim Kitsuragi." (Nod to the lieutenant.)

"I'd like to dedicate this song to Garte for letting me sing it. It's all shit, Garte."

"I don't want to dedicate this song to anyone. I performed it for myself."

DRAMA - This guy really carried you.

[2dmax]

PAY WHAT YOU WANT, GET WHAT YOU GET

Minimum charge is $50. I make my art traditionally and digitally with a variety of media, but primarily nib pens & ink, alcohol marker, gouache, colored pencils, crayon, and oil pastel, and the program Clip Studio Paint.

The lower your price, the more creative control I ask to retain. Higher prices net you more figures and poses in higher detail to higher degrees of your specification, with more revisions allowed.

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Here’s what to expect:

Send me a PM with basic info; what you would like me to draw, your budget, and if you have a deadline.

I will ask a few questions to be able to build up the concept. I will also give you my e-mail, where you can send me further info and any references you'd like to share!

Your sketch is typically ready within a week; I’ll always update you on my progress. After we agree on the sketch, payment will be due. After it’s paid, I will give you an estimate for when I will be finished with your piece.

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[briochebrioche]

MegaCon 2022 !!! ( I'm Batman )

The most recent convention that I’ve been to was MegaCon (2022) in Orlando. It was more comic book based, but there were many different fandoms and genres present. The venue was a really massive building that had multiple rooms for showings, small parties, and interactive areas. I’m pretty sure there was a small Vocaloid concert in one of the rooms as well. The main attraction of course was the main room where all the booths were set up. As I walked through the convention, I was able to appreciate just how much these fans had elevated the media to more than just entertainment.

First, there’s the place itself. The giant open hall was divide into multiple sections, such as the retail area, the artist alley, the celebrity booths, and the food courts. The retail area was mostly people selling props like ninja blades or things of the sort, body pillows, masks, shirts, cards, etc. It was a lot of merch for a variety of mediums including comics, anime, games, and movies. The other main attraction for me was the artist alley. It was just a very large area lined up with booths and booths of independent artists. It ranged from their own personal art to art of characters from beloved series. It was not just a commercial thing, but also a display of the huge variety in artistic styles. I saw spray paintings, watercolor on paper, acrylic accessories, metal pins, stickers, hand drawings, sculptures, and so much more. Personally, I got a My Hero Academia sticker of my favorite character (lemillion), a watercolor ghostface poster, and a metal pin of Calcifer (from Howl’s Moving Castle) for a friend that couldn’t be there. I think it’s really amazing how all of these fans are able to produce so much due to their love for these franchises. Sure, it has become a huge business that can earn someone a living. However, it’s the way that fans are able to physically possess this fiction that is so cool to me. The characters come to life in a way, jumping out of their source material to be presented by us in the real world in unique ways. It adds an interactive layer to the entertainment we all love. Relating to this extra layer, I didn’t even talk about the cosplaying and voice acting yet.

Walking around the con, I saw so many different cosplays that I recognized. Spiderman characters, DC villains like the Riddler and joker, Tanjiro from Demon Slayer and others from the series, Five Nights at Freddy’s characters, and so much more. I went dressed as Batman (the Robert Pattinson version) and had a blast. So many people came up to me to take pictures and tell me how cool my costume looked, and some even treated me as if I was the real batman and roleplayed a little. My favorite part was when a little boy (probably 10) came up to me in his own batman costume and took a picture with me. It was just very wonderful to see how the community was so positive and having fun. It really felt like a space where everyone could express themselves however they wanted and be encouraged instead of judged. It was also cool to learn about how people put together their cosplays, as a lot of them were hand-made or modified. One more thing that was awesome was the fact that there were a lot of voice actors and popular cosplayers that showed up. The most notable of these, for me, was Kevin Conroy (the iconic voice of batman in the animated series and the games). Being able to meet the person who voiced one of your favorite characters, as well as seeing all the cosplays around you, really makes you feel like the fiction has come to life. It’s also very validating to see other people enjoy these characters and shows as much as you do. Overall, it was an amazing experience that I will definitely do again.

[alolanroy]

2023 Media Thread Pt3

Sharkula: Finding out that this director cranks out like 8 of these a year makes so much sense. The editing and effects are bafflingly amateur, and by that I mean I don't know how you can make something this inept in good faith. The casting is...concerning. I'm not referring to the 'college students' that look like weekend warriors, I mean that a certain character clearly had some sort of disorder, and it felt pretty exploitative. Funny bad in a pathetic sort of way. -6/10

Sharkenstein: We wanted to see more, but it turns out that instead of a fountain of infine fun-bad, it was just bad. At east the Franken-shark was a Nazi also somehow -3/10

Ronin Mecha 3: Space Warrior: This is the kind of incoherent bootleg movie that makes you feel drunk and delirious from laughing too much. Literally nothing from this poster appears, but I did have an episode when I saw a Scope Dogg. -7/10

Mighty Lady Sparkle: I admire the passion for tokusatsu but I don't admire the ecchi. It's the kind of movie where you start the movie proposing drinking games over its quirks but 20 minutes in you feel uncomfortable. -2/10

Boneworks: It took a bit for it to click for me, but Stress Level Zero made a really impressive standard for VR gunplay and exploration. That being said, some of the physics takes a bit to get used to and if you don't have good VR legs, this game would be borderline unplayable. The physics puzzles and level design aren't quite up to the valve standard they are trying to live up to, the former being groan worthy at times, but the gun handling is fun enough that I was interested in playing some of the alternate game modes. The confused and underwhelming ending left it on an odd note, but I had a blast/ 7.5/10

Netflix One Piece: Sometimes the performances just don't work and the dialogue doesn't quite hit the mark. However it made me understand the appeal of One Piece and I gotta give props to the costuming, makeup and the few actors that understood the assignment. 7.5/10

The Amazing Digital Circuis Pilot: There is a distinction between marketable and appealing. Content can be made with the intent of being white noise. Nice rendering I guess. These are ideas that can coexist. 2/10

Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger 20th: The Unforgivable Abare: I was initially afraid that this would be 'abaranger vs the woke mob' I was pleasantly surprised by humor and some out of left field GL. Can't complain 6/10

X-Files Revival: I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. While a few of the comedic episodes were absolute gold, This was pretty sad. Its attempts to stay topical somehow make it more dated than the 90s seasons did. Unfortunately trying to be hip left me with a toothless 16 episodes made mostly of mythology episodes that are clearly supposed to go a whole lotta nowhere. 4/10

Gundam Build Metaverse: Never before has a 10th anniversary season made me feel so old and hopeless. The first episode left me hopeful when it delivered a premise I could see blossoming into a good 15-ish episode show with the occasional cameo and a laid-back Hawaiian attitude to my favorite hobby. The OP and ED promised a good balance of modeling, character cameos, and original drama. Then the last two episodes dropped at once after a two-week gap. That was it. It introduced its antagonist as quickly as she was resolved. Most cameos were still images if they appeared. No one is the right age. The new toys are dispatched so quickly it fails as a toy commercial. This had to have gone through development troubles because of the botched 'metaverse' spawned by the Japanese grants they were handing out...right? I huffed the copium and just got a confusing meh. 5/10

DOA Dead or Alive: Finally, a fighting game movie adaptation that understands the assignment! It's dumb! It's campy! It's exploitative and oggling but in a way that respects its subjects more than most 2000's movies in this genre. It almost loops around to being oddly empowering, an opinion seconded by my girlfriends hooting and hollering at the movie. While one performance was funny bad, any martial arts movie with a ladder fight is great in my book. 8/10

The Last Witch Hunter: Rarely does a vanity projects with someones D&D characters end up this fun. It ranks highly for me in the subgenre of modern-day supernatural hunter movies in an urban setting. Rock solid movie. 7.5/10

Analog Horror Grab Bag: What if a VHS was spoooooooky. Look buddy, mashing MarbleHornets and Exploding Varmits together gets less novel the longer you watch 4/10

Haunting in Venice: I'm not familiar with the original story, but this was a fun and spooky watch. 7/10

Godzilla vs Megalon (2023): I enjoyed the moments of Shin Godzilla cinematography, but mixed with showa-era goofy moves and shonen combat, this short didn't work for me. The chunky soup didn't benefit from an art style that created my least favorite Godzilla design. 5/10

Fest Godzilla 4: Operation Jet Jaguar: RETURN OF DA KING BABYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE SHOWA IS BACK IN A BIG WAY 7/10

Pistol Whip: Maybe it was the triggers on my controllers but the timing just felt weirdly off. Trying to deliberately juke the timing killed the rhythm game magic and made me feel more like I was waiting for permission to get the bad guys. The John Wick fantasy this is clearly built for wasn't lost on me though, but without that immersion, I just felt bad. Totally subjectively a 3.5/10

Ultraman Netflix Final Season: I don't really get the appeal of public opinion narratives the way anime seems to make them. Similarly, I don't like when noir stories depend on all of the protagonist's friends requiring zero evidence to turn on them at the drop of a hat. Especially when neither party really attempts to talk it out. Its bad writing and a dub with all of the industries bad habits held up by A really hot alien and a funny magical girl transformation that one time. 4/10

Gundam Trilogy Rewatch: Watched this with two friends who were seeing them for the first time. God these things hold up, especially the 3rd one. Incredible stuff. I and II are a 7/10 for me for good content with weird pacing and III is a 9/10 for great writing and drama. Reanimated sections weren't anything to scoff at either

Skyrim 2nd playthrough: I'll say a playthrough where I know what I'm doing and isn't as sidetracked was better at letting me enjoy the setpieces, I think that without the interstitial wanderlust from the feeling of adventuring a new land, something didn't hit the same. However bringing Sarana(SDA), Lydia(IFD) and a few other talking followers added a certain spice to it. An observation I missed the first time was how hard it pushes you interact with some of the factions in a way I think kinda cheapens their organic introductions.

Armored Trooper Votoms: I reductively pitched this show to someone as the midpoint between Gundam and 40K. There's a lot to love with this series: Gorgeous visuals, concise episodes, and the confidence to change its setting periodically to fun locales like Arakis or Vietnam. Chiricho is a unique protagonist who pulls off the Sigma Male archetype with depth and soul. I was pretty enamored with this from an aesthetic standpoint, but I'm not blind to its flaws. The society is a weak antagonist once they are revealed and the pacing drags as it repeats itself to buy time. While ATs are iconic, they aren't always used with the variety they deserve. While maybe only half the series lives up to this score: 8/10

Knights of the Zodiac 2023: I think this might actually be worst live action anime adaptation to date. Never before have I seen any less interest in adapting the source material than this. I can usually find something to like in a bad movie, but for this I have nothing. Maybe I felt something when we all laughed at the Jump Force cutscenes they used as fight scenes. There's just nothing here. 0/10

Oblivion Override Demo: Ever play Dead Cells? it sure is that with vector graphics. My weakness for this type of robot design puts in most of the work here. movement feels a bit off. 4/10

Half Life 2: VR Mod

-As a way to replay half Life 2: Yep, this is still one of the most important games ever. However, I think that the vehicle sections go on a bit too long and subsequent entries did a lot to improve the visual sameness of a lot of the game 9/10

-As a VR game: Gun handling is excellent. Accessibility options like laser sights for all weapons were fantastic, and they let me help smooth out my own learning curve with the weapons. I will say that weapon selection and two handed aiming was a little cumbersome at times, but weapon reloading was the perfect amount of cumbersome to be satisfying. Even though the game itself didn't get rebalanced to accommodate for VR, it all meshed for a really fun and challenging experience. However vehicle controls were kinda weird and not that great standing. 8/10

Votoms: The Last Red Shoulder: I've come to the conclusion that the real enemy of Votoms wasn't Wiseman, it was the 24 minute episode format. more breathing room meant better pacing and time to really drink in the kino.7.5/10

Cade: The Tortured Crossing: In an incredible stroke of luck I was able to see a Niel Breen film in theaters and I will not lie: it was amazing. The audience was a riot and I nearly passed out from laughter a few times. The editing was surreal and I could see how this was probably stretched from an hour and a half to two hours in the edit. I will not regret giving it an -10/10

Kengan Ashura S2 (???): The real villain is Netflix's release structure. This is one season of anime I saw at a convention like 4 years ago. Its pretty alright. It's competent 6/10

The Mummy 2017: This movie has been a punching bag, both because of the presumptuous launch of the 'dark universe' and also that one trailer that was posted with unfinished sound. Unfortunately, the movie itself is pretty alright and I would like to see more. Plus one point for American Werewolf in London but I take that point away again for another mischaracterization of Dr.Jekyl. 6/10

Votoms Big Battle: Neat stuff. real standout is the fun character design and animation. I also liked the touch of the filter over the villains voice. It kinda hints at how much of a machine he is at that point. 7.5/10

Attack on Titan Final Season part 3: I don't think the ending was bad for the reasons a lot of people say, but I can tell it beefs it in the final chapter. Everything up to that is incredible, Especially the bit with the baseball. Sadly I think the sour note with Mikasa and the tree was an interesting choice that really didn't work out and spoiled it for me a bit. 7.5/10

Attack on titan as a whole... It took a decade. The times weren't always great, but they sure were had. It is politically dense enough that everyone has a half-baked opinion. When it hits, it hits HARD. I think an 8/10. I don't think I was ever bored for a minute.

Godzilla Minus One: I often find myself drawn to the mood of the original Godzilla. Sometimes I wonder if the constraints of its time allows the mind to fill in the gaps. This movie provides us no quarter to do so. It replicates this horror without leaving any to chance. I think this because more than any other in this series, the stakes feel truely desperate and personal. This felt like watching one of those truelly classic films for the first time (oddly enough I was reminded of Jaws...) I'm not sure if it surpasses Shin or the 1954 original yet, but I give this movie a 10/10 with no hesitation.

Knights of Sidonia (Manga): I'll be honest, the first few chapters did a lot to turn me away the first time I tried this, but this series is certainly not the collection of anime tropes I expected. The art is amazing once Tsutomu Nihei hits his stride. The intricate detailing and compositions have to be seen to be believed. I will applaud it for leaving a lot of room to breathe. Most wouldn't resist overexplaining the aliens. The interpersonal story is pretty gutsy, especially considering the resolution to the romantic angle and some surprisingly not weird treatment of characters with fluid genders. However, I think a lot of characters fell through the cracks in favor of the harem angle that was starting to develop (typified by the robot tsundere who felt really unnecessary). 7.5/10

Furi Demake: I get that this is just a little fun proof of concept, ut the Game Bakers kinda under-prooved a few important parts. Namely, the music is generic and the hit hit detection for parrying was wonky. EX: a ground slam you are supposed to parry from right below confused the directional inputs since it can't figure out which way you are facing. 6/10 but I would play a full version of this concept.

Jetborne Racing and Star Trek Bridge Crew: Early VR games with a predominant online component, slow gameplay and wonky controls? in 2023? Yeah Jetborne is unplayable since there's no one online and Bridge Crew is just unintuitive to play. Instead of space mysteries the gameplay consists of figuring out how to undo your space-parking brake 2/10

[thirdtidemouse]

okay about the art school au

tell me if you have any bright sparkling ideas for this au bc god knows i would eat them up. like i said before i know johanna is a graphic designer now but she has roots in illustration theyre like siblings. she leans towards children's books, making up stories and weird wonderful characters out of thin air. her work is also very botanical - her doodles in the show are full of winding plants and flowers. she could fill a page with dense undergrowth.

gerda is a student too but she's like that one teacher that just LOVES fonts. she is graphic design, product design, interior design, going back and forth between the computer room and the workshop to lasercut something or to build a weird chair. she could probably run a company marketing department at 18.

i also said kaisa is an analogue photography girl. she doesn't really care for most commercial photography she's like a man ray superfan and probably gets snotty about using digital cameras sometimes but loves to mess around with unconventional and cameraless methods. she might smell like chemicals. she doesn't want anyone close enough to be able to tell. she has always been an academic nerd and it shines in her artist research, drawing from the most conceptual artworks and fascinating herself with what there is to discover about them. she would love mike nelson.

edmund is perpetually covered in ink, of all colours, on his hands and his face. he's constantly workshopping prints of all kinds, one of his final pieces being a gigantic woodcut relief print depicting mythical creatures with lots of iconographic detail (think luke pearson's norse-inspired patterns o_<). he takes print room safety VERY seriously. do not put your hands or hair anywhere near the roller on the press. he will get you.

ive got like an outline idea for 6-8 chapters depending on whether i do it as a comic or writing? comics take so much effort for comparatively less story coverage so it would be a big endeavor but i would really love to have it all in visuals (also i'm not a superstar writer?) it's so difficult because some things i want to describe like in written word but some things i want to have visual 😭 artwork between paragraphs could be good but idk how cohesive it would be and it might be a bit jarring to suddenly be reading what you were looking at and vice versa.. that kind of thing works really well for a memoir like alison bechdel's fun home but not so much straightforward fictional story idkkkk... i can like see some panels in my head but i also want to do long descriptions and idrk if i want to mash them together. if i really do this it's going to take some PLANNING

victoria is still crazy but in a much more creative way. she loves to discuss everyone's work with them, she loves weird and experimental stuff. she likes to make elaborate and unconventional sets, props, and costumes for her colourful multi-media short films. she loves any art that moves, and makes great use of audio, sampling heavy thunderstorms pretty often.

AND! if i included the creatures (as people) then tontu would be a fashion & textiles tutor. i shan't be taking questions.

also thank you for the inspiring tags @the-hilda-librarians-wife 😭 your hospital au was so awesome i might find myself doing footnotes like you did, describing techniques and stuff where it would be out of place to just straight up write it down in the story.. bc i am gonna get SCIENTIFIC with the photography

(if it was a comic i'm thinking about the fun I'd have with speech bubbles especially in a classroom/studio - one of my hugest ever inspirations is anatola howard and this comic is so spectacular for speech bubbles lol)

[ingravinoveritas]

A certain sexy and mischievous welsh man and a particular skinny scottish pretty man have tricked us all! Perhaps David wasnt fibbing when he said that Michael just wont get out of his house. ;) Cant wait for staged season 3. They literally can't go 5 minutes without working together now and I blooming love it.

Hello, Anons! Yes indeed, this was a heck of a thing to wake up to, for so many reasons...

So first of all, there are full details of the show (which airs on November 24th) here, as well as info about a new behind-the-scenes special that will also be released.

Of course, I absolutely love that Michael and David cannot stay away from each other and will quite literally take any opportunity to work/be together. (I now suspect this is why Michael was in London for a full week after seeing David in Good, and preceding the Comic Con he recently did.) They clearly adore each other, and now that this is taking place in person instead of over Zoom, I am positively tingly at the thought of the unadulterated bicker-flirting that awaits us.

I also completely understand folks having mixed feelings about this news, as I do as well. I’ve written previously on my blog about my thoughts regarding a third season of Staged, so I won’t rehash too much of what’s already been said.

What I will say, however, is that what I want more than anything is for Michael and David to be in something that enhances their chemistry, that gives it room to thrive and flourish, rather than their chemistry being the thing that props the show up entirely.

I felt like this was the case especially in the second season of Staged, which was cluttered up with far too many guest stars whose presence ultimately took away from Michael and David. They need a vehicle for their chemistry, something to give it some sort of structure and  framework that both Michael and David can work from and build on, and another season of Staged just doesn’t seem to be that.

With all of that in mind, it does make it seem like Staged 3 is something of a money grab--not even on the part of Michael and David, who have been very booked and blessed since the end of lockdown, but on the part of Simon, who seems to have not done much since the last season. And while I’m sure Georgia will do at least a serviceable job and fit in to the show, it just seems like an excuse to add another acting credit to AL’s résumé, despite the fact that she’s shown that she has difficulty acting even as herself.

(I’m also perplexed as to why this is airing on BritBox instead of the BBC, which is where the previous incarnations of Staged aired. I don’t know how many people are willing to sign up for another streaming service, and it seems like this third season is going to get a lot less traction as a result...)

I do find the marketing for the show really interesting, though, as the promo photos in the first two seasons were a mix of the respective “couples” (Michael/AL, David/Georgia) and edits of Michael/David, but the tweets on the Britbox Twitter show photos only of Michael/David and AL/Georgia. Might we be getting more of an emphasis on Michael/David as a couple? God, I hope so. Anon #2, your comment in particular made me think of an old Calvin Klein jeans commercial with Brooke Shields, where she said “You want to know what comes in between me and my Calvins? Nothing.”

And where the first two seasons were like safe sex--with the computer screens acting as a sort of digital condom between Michael and David--season 3 will be Michael and David raw. Skin to skin, possibly in every sense of the phrase (especially since now there is a good chance Michael was staying with David while in London, and they were spending all that time together...👀).

But yes...Simon has previously said that Staged is a love story. Will we now finally get that “kiss in the snow in Central Park” between Michael and David? (Or a similar park in London?) This season seems to have a holiday theme, so really...anything is possible. I hope it is, anyway. And I hope that Michael and David will find other projects to work on together, because their chemistry is too gorgeous and perfect to not go beyond Staged.

So those are my thoughts on today’s big news. I will definitely also write a full review of S3 once I’ve gotten to see all of the episodes. Fingers crossed and hoping for the best...  

[jules-has-notes]

The Sing-Off, s.4 ep.7 — Finale

And then there were three. But in the spirit of the holiday season, the show brought back all ten groups for one last hurrah. Most of this episode feels more like an old school variety show than a competition, but the individual performances from the three finalists are all excellent.

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Group opener

It can be easy in the modern world to discount the impact that art has on people's lives. But in times of difficulty, we often turn to music for comfort and inspiration. If this version of Michael Jackson's classic anthem doesn't stir something inside you, I don't know what else to say.

Details:

title: Man in the Mirror

original performer: Michael Jackson

written by: Glen Ballard & Siedah Garrett

arranged by: The Sing-Off arrangers

air date: 23 December 2013

My favorite bits:

the gradual layering and building of complexity throughout the arrangement

featuring a few more soloists than previous opening numbers

the eliminated groups entering the upper stage-side boxes and from the audience aisles just in time for the big key change

alternating Emoni's gorgeous riffs and Austin's high "woo"s over the full chorus

ending the season as it began, with everyone together, and a well deserved standing ovation

Trivia:

Austin from Home Free was sick in the final days of the competition, and ended up whistling his vocal parts during rehearsals to preserve his singing voice for filming.

VoicePlay recorded their own version of this song eight years later, which ended up being their send-off video for J.None.

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Order of performances

Nick Lachey & Jewel — "It Had To Be You"

AcoUstiKats — "Jingle Bell Rock" bumper

Ten & Shawn Stockman — "Joyful, Joyful" from Sister Act 2

Street Corner Renaissance — "White Christmas" bumper

The Filharmonic — "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" bumper

Pentatonix — "I Need Your Love" by Calvin Harris, feat. Ellie Goulding

Calle Sol — "Feliz Navidad" bumper

Home Free — "I Want Crazy" by Hunter Hayes

98 Degrees — "I'll Be Home For Christmas" by Bing Crosby

Princeton Footnotes — "Deck the Halls" bumper

Vocal Rush & Ben Folds — "Peace on Earth / Little Drummer Boy" by David Bowie & Bing Crosby

Element — "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" bumper

VoicePlay — "Jingle Bells" bumper

Ten — "Love On Top" by Beyoncé

Home Free & Jewel — "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" from Meet Me In St. Louis

a cappella 101 tutorial

five eliminated groups with Pat Benetar & Neil Giraldo — "We Belong"

Vocal Rush — "Roar" by Katy Perry

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VoicePlay performance

[h/t to voiceplay_randomnness on IG for archiving this clip]

Give these guys forty seconds and a chance to riff on a classic song, and they'll give you three different musical genres that will all have you grooving in your seat.

Details:

title: Jingle Bells (commercial bumper)

original song: traditional American carol, first published as "The One Horse Open Sleigh" (1857)

written by: James Lord Pierpont

arranged by: VoicePlay

air date: 23 December 2013

My favorite bits:

staying true to their name by playing with the beats and harmonies

their outfits — The wardrobe department clearly had so much fun dressing them for every episode, and this is no exception.

Trivia:

VoicePlay have never recorded a traditional version of this song, but they've done two mashups that include it – "Bollywood Jingle Bells" on their 2012 holiday album "Peppermint Winter", and "Mission: Jingle Bells" as a promotional tie-in for the home media release of "Mission Impossible: Fallout" in 2018.

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A Cappella 101 segment

Nick and the other judges may have poked fun at Ben for his vocabulary, but music does have a lot of specific technical terminology and jargon. (Props to Chris Rupp for actually offering one serious answer among the jokes.) A little wordplay never hurt anybody, though.

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Tour announcement

I couldn't find a clip from the broadcast episode, but this promo video seems pretty legitimate.

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Group performance

If there was one consistent theme for the whole season, it could be expressed by one line from this song: "We belong together." Dozens of talented singers coming together to create beautiful harmonies and rhythms are sure to brighten someone's day. This performance certainly puts a smile on my face.

Details:

title: We Belong

original performer: Pat Benetar

written by: David Eric Lowen & Dan Navarro

arranged by: The Sing-Off arrangers

air date: 23 December 2013

My favorite bits:

all five groups starting with traditional a cappella phonations that replicate instrumental sounds

building to a powerful backing chorus

the percussive stomping and clapping in the final section

everybody leaning in for hugs at the end

Trivia:

VoicePlay were a little starstruck performing with one of the biggest pop stars of their childhoods.

Several of the competitors joked on social media during the broadcast about Neil Giraldo bringing an instrument into an explicitly a cappella show.

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And the winner is…

Congratulations, Home Free!

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With VoicePlay mostly being in the boxes or in the middle of big groups for this episode, we didn't get a great look at their full outfits, which is a shame. Luckily, they uploaded a bunch of backstage photos to their Facebook page.

VoicePlay's stalwart sound guy Paul and his mom were in the audience for the finale.

Vocal Rush's videographer shot some wandering videos of the post-finale party with competitors and crew members, as well as some friends and family. VoicePlay can be seen mostly in the background of the second video.