#Foreground Road

[malfnction-54]

I don't even know where I was when I took this but I think I was drunk in an uber HAHA. anyways the long exposure was accidental and a result of using iphone live photos

[jgnico]

Is someone gonna talk about the use of signage in yesterday's episode? Do I have to be the one to talk about the use of signage in yesterday's episode?

I know we all saw the billboard beside Choso displaying the abilities of his technique in tandem with the narrator, but there were so many more great uses of the signs in the background to convey information.

The first sign (and also one of the first shots) that we see in the episode is a Pedestrian Do Not Cross sign overlaid by the sound of Yuuji running, followed by Yuuji's shadow itself taking up the position of the pedestrian on the sign. You can read this as the sign telling Yuuji not to proceed to where he's going or as an indication of how the upcoming fight will end for the viewer.

The next sign that we get is one telling us to Go Left, which doesn't really seem important, but I promise you, it is. We'll see a lot of arrows pointing left throughout the episode and every single one of them is pointing away from danger. Go Left to avoid danger, essentially.

These two signs are arguably the most important in the episode, but they aren't the coolest use of visual symbolism that we got, so lets keep going.

The third sign that we see focused on in the episode is a No Running sign that Yuuji passes that says "Do Not Rush. It Is Dangerous." Yuuji, of course, runs past it on his way toward the escalators that lead (for him) to Gojo and (for the viewer) to Choso.

Once he does get to the bottom of the escalators, Yuuji is attacked by Choso immediately and Choso's opening move (Convergence), once Yuuji moves his arms up and away from his face, slices up through the subway cieling and the road above to cut the Pedestrian Do Not Cross sign that we saw at the beginning of the episode in half.

We also get out first big Left Arrow, placed immediately in the foreground of the shot and pointing toward the aforementioned sign that's been cut in half (this will be important later), but in a another view, it also points away from station itself. Again, go left to avoid danger.

Our next Left Arrow is on the ceiling between Yuuji, indicating that he should go away from Choso. Interestingly enough, it also points toward the bathrooms that Yuuji will go into later once his fight with Choso in the hallway becomes too dangerous.

That same arrow falls to the floor between them once Choso gets mad after Yuuji tells him about Eso and Kechizu crying, this time pointing directly away from Choso.

Another Left Arrow, this time in a more urgent red. We see this once Yuuji realizes that he's in serious danger, that he'll loose if he continues to fight Choso in the hallway. It's also pointing away from the bathrooms and toward the escalators from Yuuji's point of view beside the bathrooms, indicating that he needs to leave the area entirely.

The previous arrow pointing toward the bathrooms as a safe option has been destroyed and Yuuji has taken some serious damage by the time he moves toward them. The bathrooms are no longer safe. Yuuji needs to leave.

This is followed up by the only Right Arrows that we see focused on in the epsiode, but unlike the Left Arrows, they aren't used to convey how to get away from danger, but rather what is dangerous. Not only do these arrows all point toward Choso outside of the shot, they also have each of his techniques displayed below them.

Once the bathroom fight is over and Yuuji is on death's door, we get a zoomed out shot of his body framed by (two) people cut in half. This sign is shown right before Sukuna makes his only appearance in the episode, where we hear the sound of electricity flickering.

We heard this exact sound earlier from the Left Arrow telling Yuuji to get away from Choso at the beginning of the fight, but I like to interpret it as an audio indicator of Yuuji's life and/or control of Sukuna flickering in and out, becoming weaker.

Side Note: In the previous shot of Yuuji that we get before this one, we see a blade of light cutting Yuuji in half, the same way Convergence cut the Pedestrian Do Not Cross sign in half earlier in the episode. This will come into play later in the post, but keep it in mind.

The next time we see these bisected bathroom signs is when Mimiko and Nanako approach Yuuji to awaken Sukuna. Two people framing Yuuji/Sukuna that have been cut, while those same signs are whole in the hallway to the left. Go left to avoid danger applies to the girls here as well.

Our next important set of signs are actually the same sign, a large green arrow in the foreground that points away from where Yuuji's body is. While Choso stumbles away from it (away from Yuuji/Sukuna) the girls walk toward it.

This is also the first Left Arrow that we see point toward Choso, unlike the one pointing away from him at the beginning of his and Yuuji's fight. Choso, at this moment and onward, is no longer a source of danger to Yuuji or to us, the viewer.

And finally, the final shot of the entire episode, our old friend, the Pedestrian Do Not Cross sign. Yuuji has lost to Choso, the girls have found him to awaken Sukuna, and we get a focus shot of the Pedestrian that previously represented Yuuji cut in half and covered in blood.

I mentioned earlier that we get another shot of Yuuji cut in half by a ray of light in the bathroom.

Here is that shot, and the way that I interpret it is as a reminder that Yuuji shares his body. Yuuji's control of his body has been cut off in the same way that the Pedestrian representing Yuuji has had part of it cut away. What's left is the part that Yuuji can't control, the Pedestrian covered in blood.

Additionally, repeated use of a sign showing pedestrians cut in half and bloody can also represent the civilians in Shibuya, especially now that Yuuji no longer has control of his body.

[beelze0-0]

You wake me up, you say it’s time to ride

In the dead of night

Strange canyon road, strange look in your eyes

You shut them as we fly, as we fly

(ID: sequential art

image 1: the silhouette of Blackbeard standing in an illuminated doorway with glowing eyes.

image 2: Izzy Hands in the foreground, looking towards Blackbeard standing on the deck of a ship at night.

image 3: Izzy Hands, dressed in an unlaced shirt looking in concern out of frame, it is night and there is a flock of birds in the background.

end ID)

[70sscifiart]

Hello! I don’t know if you have a 60s scifi art equivalent or not, but do you know anything about the cover of D-99 by HB Fyfe? It was published in 1962, my friend and I found a copy of it in a second hand shop and literally have never been able to stop thinking about it ever since. Thank you!

I see why it stuck with you, it's very striking! haha

According to ISFDB, the artist is Ralph Brillhart, which makes sense. I like Brillhart! You can see some of his other covers over here, and they're almost all from the early 1960s, with another handful done in 1981-'82.

Like most 60s artists, his work doesn't have the finer detail or realistic perspectives that you tend to get with 1970s artists. But he has some great concepts, and I think he picks really interesting compositions - in my opinion, the cover here is unsettling entirely because that one wide-eyed alien in the foreground has stuck his face right up against the viewer. Very confrontational!

I bet Brillhart knew that, too, because he pulled the same trick for this 1965 cover:

Here's my favorite Brillhart cover, used for Martian Time-Slip by Philip K. Dick, 1964. I love the odd color choices, like the pink sky.

Here's a later one that Brillhart did in 1981, for The Ends of the Circle, by Paul O. Williams. He's using another bold perspective choice, with the perfectly straight road cutting down the center of the image, and it totally works for me!

Anyway, he's a good artist! You can see a fairly complete list of his covers here. They're not all winners, admittedly, but it's a bit of a shame he wasn't more well-known or prolific.

Edit: Oh, also I have an art book that you should check out if you liked this post! No Brillhart, sadly.

[eris-abomination]

Because I think everyone should know this today:

✨ How To Spot Generative AI Slop: Save Your Media Literacy! ✨

For AI images:

- Zoom in as close as you possibly can to background details. AI can make decently cohesive foregrounds but struggles with complex backgrounds.

- Keep an eye on patterns. Are they wobbly, inconsistent, fading out in weird places, or fusing into other parts of the image? That’s probably AI.

- AI tends to “stylize” images in weird ways that are meant to mimic staging or strong lighting, but it usually ends up giving it a weird reflective, airbrushed, or “plasticky” shine. Even if there are multiple textures in one image, they’ll usually end up looking nearly identical.

- Watch for “objects” in the image that look like nothing at all (blobs, deformed items, and general objects that you can’t even tell what they’re supposed to be) or “artifacting” in otherwise polished images.

- Symmetry is usually nonexistent, especially in architectural images.

- Text and numbers will usually be misspelled, inconsistent, or out of order.

- Mechanical images are usually a dead giveaway if you look close; none of the components or mechanisms will even appear to be functional or make sense in terms of construction.

For AI videos:

- As with AI images, check the backgrounds and you’ll see some absurdly nonsensical stuff.

- AI can’t generate convincing longform video, so keep an eye out for videos that “compile” or abruptly cut and splice different clips every 10 seconds or so.

- The movement in AI videos is not convincing at all, especially with human movement. Figures will all move at roughly the same pace, in partial slow-mo, or with a “floaty” or gliding quality to them.

- Keep an eye out for general logical errors; crowds of people tend to blend into each other or move strangely, cars will drive the wrong way on roads, etc.

- Faces won’t emote accurately (or at all), especially in eye and mouth movement. Emoting will make the entire face warp strangely. If a video relies a lot on facial movement, the figure and background will often be completely static.

For AI text/ChatGPT:

- Watch for unnecessarily long blocks of text where a short sentence or two would be preferred.

- ChatGPT relies heavily on descriptors and adjectives that fill out the writing but add nothing at all to the content. Be mindful of long descriptions and “explanations” that actually say nothing at all.

- AI can’t distinguish its “voice” or tone, so a lot of ChatGPT writing is unnecessarily verbose or formal. Even if the AI is initially trying to generate a casual voice, it can abruptly change into formal language.

- Keep an eye out for repetition of words, phrases, or concepts in general. AI can’t tell when it’s repeating itself, especially in longer passages, and you’ll typically notice one specific phrase or descriptor constantly being used.

- If attempting to write in an informational or “how-to” tone, ChatGPT won’t actually include any details or elaboration; any information it does give out will be overly general or vague.

- When AI generated information is fake, it’s usually egregiously fake. If you find a factual error that no person would have made, especially in a format that would have required an editor to put out, it’s likely ChatGPT generated.

For AI voices:

- The typical tone of voice will usually be flat and lack any emotion, even when trying to imitate it. AI voices tend to speak as if they’re reading off an essay, which is especially noticeable if they try to read a colloquial script.

- Listen for distortions or inconsistencies in the voice. Some AI voices constantly have an unnatural or synthesized tone or will slur when trying to read an unfamiliar word, repeating characters, or different languages.

- AI voices will sometimes pronounce the same word completely differently if read in the same sentence or audio clip.

- AI doesn’t know how to properly read sentence structures, so AI voices will sometimes read off scripts in stilted or grammatically incorrect ways. Pay attention to random pauses, bad pacing, or weird inflections on words.

[lmlknn]

Big Brother

Pairing: Sano Brothers (More Izana) x Male! Big brother! reader

Warnings: Angst, Death, violence, I don't know if it counts as a warning but mention of cigarettes.

Summary: You are the older brother, what happens when Shinichiro dies and you were unfortunately in the foreground?

English is not my first language, any spelling or grammar mistakes please let me know!

You could consider yourself a lucky person; although your first memories had not been the nicest, you could still say that you were satisfied with the direction your life had taken.

You were the oldest of four siblings, but you only lived with three of them. You loved them all; you loved the moments when you would leave work early to run to Shinichiro's workshop and be able to talk about the course of the day.

Izana was a little more difficult; he was distrustful, but he was happy to have two great older brothers. You enjoyed the afternoons when you went out, and there were sometimes when you invited Kakucho, Izana's best friend.

Also, when you got paid, you would go to the convenience store and buy several doriyakis for Manjiro, or Mikey, as he wanted everyone to call him since Emma came into their lives.

Oh, Emma, you loved the times when your little sister would come and ask for help to comb her hair.

But if there was one thing you loved more than all of this, it was when everyone (except Izana) would get together to watch some silly movie on TV.

It didn't matter what movie he chose; you were happy seeing the soft smiles your brothers had on their faces.

Mikey had a group of friends that he often met at the park in what they called "gang meetings."

You knew Keisuke from before thanks to your grandfather's dojo, as his mother had insisted on putting him in some activity in the afternoon to control her hyperactive son.

Sometimes, you helped him study, as he was easily distracted and didn't understand things later.

With a smile, you left work; today was one of those days where your schedule allowed you to leave earlier than usual.

You got on the bus bound for Shinichiro's motorcycle shop; you had the idea of being able to plan Mikey's party well, since his birthday was tomorrow.

You were lucky because you found a place to sit on the bus, watching the road with the smile still plastered on your face.

However, throughout the day you felt a sense of discomfort; you didn't know exactly what it was due to; it was more like a feeling that something bad was going to happen, but you ignored the feeling.

Nothing could go wrong now, not with your younger brother's birthday so close, nor with your boss promising you a well-deserved promotion.

Minutes later, you arrived at your destination, changed a bit, and found your brother fixing another motorcycle with a cigarette between his lips.

"Hello, hello, how's everything going, Shin?" You announced your arrival in a soft voice. It was rare for Shinichiro to be alone; normally he was accompanied by Takeomi, but now it wasn't important.

Shinichiro stopped his movements so he could take the cigarette out of his mouth and answer you. "Hello, Nii-san, everything was fine around here. How was work today?" You moved to the counter, setting down your belongings gently.

"Everything was fine today, Shin" you replied with a smile. You sat next to Shinichiro, looking closely at the motorcycle your brother was fixing.

“You’re doing a good job,” you praised him while putting a hand on his hair. Something your brothers shared was the eternal love they had for your pats on the head; they didn’t understand it, but it felt different than when someone else gave them one.

“Nii-san, do you know what you’re going to give Mikey?” Shinichiro asked, changing the subject of the quiet conversation they had shared.

“Well, I’m sure of one thing: surpassing your gift is going to be very difficult, Shin,” you joked lightly.

Both of them got up from the somewhat uncomfortable position; the motorcycle Shinichiro was fixing was Mikey’s next CB250.

It was already late; they were going to put away all the tools they had used. Although Shinichiro’s original idea was to throw away all the tools and go back home, you didn’t allow him to do such an atrocity. How could you let your brother leave the room in total disarray?

Reluctantly, both of you stayed to tidy up the place until the sound of something breaking alerted you.

You were going to leave first, but Shinichiro got there first. The store was already dark since they were already leaving.

—Is that you, Keisuke?

—Kazutora, no!

It was the last thing you heard before a loud bang. You ran out, scared by what had happened with your brother and the one who seemed to be Keisuke.

With horror, you watched the scene unfolding in front of you. A metal bar hung from Kazutora's arm; horror was reflected on Baji's face, and, as if that weren't enough, a pool of blood surrounded Shinichiro's prone body.

"Shinichiro!" you screamed, full of terror. You no longer remember well what happened next; you know they called an ambulance, the police also arrived, and soon a crowd had formed.

You were still in shock; Shinichiro's blood painted your hands and clothes. You left at the same time that the police handcuffed Keisuke and Kazutora.

Baji cried and asked for your forgiveness, but Kazutora repeated like a mantra, "It's Mikey's fault."

You remember hearing Manjiro's screams asking for an explanation, but you were not in a condition to give him an adequate answer.

They took you to the police because your testimony was essential to know what sentence would be given to Kazutora.

But you could not say much; you only remembered the image of Shinichiro bathed in his own blood, lying without moving a single muscle.

How had all this happened? At what point had your paradise become this?

You just wanted your brother back. You wanted to wake up from this horrible nightmare, open your eyes, and find your siblings in the dining room, probably arguing about what breakfast they were going to make.

You wanted to go back to those good times…

After that fateful night, nothing was ever the same for the once-joyful Sano family. You became more distant, your life revolving around continuing to work, and after that fateful night, nothing was ever the same for the once joyful Sano family. You became more distant, your life revolving around continuing to work, and soon the activities of your siblings took a backseat.

It was painful for your two remaining brothers, as you had also distanced yourself from Izana.

In a single night, the Sano family hadIn just one night, the Sano family had lost two of its pillars…

[ms-demeanor]

I also forget that photography is a skill that requires extensive experience and training except I’m on the other end of the spectrum. I have no real experience or education but I bought a NikonD3300 from eBay a while back thinking how hard could it be? And now every time I try to use it I’m like oh right I have no idea what I’m doing lol

(If you have any tricks you can share for capturing a good sunset or perhaps the jungle critters in golden hour I’d be eternally grateful btw)

Sunsets:

What are you actually taking a photo of?

Sunsets are very pretty but just a flat plane with a sun dipping below the horizon can be kind of boring. What are you trying to photograph? Are there clouds? Is there a particular gradient to the sky? Do you have a focal point in the foreground of the image?

Considering these questions can help you take better photos of sunsets.

This is a photo of a sunset. It is also a photo of traffic.

This is a photo of a sunset. It is also a photo of a salt evaporation pond.

This is a photo of a sunset. It is also a photo of a road trip.

This is a photo of a sunset. It is also a photo of someone taking a photo of a sunset.

This is a photo of a sunset. It is also a photo of a pier.

I enjoy taking sunset photos that feature backlit elements that interest me. I tend to take these photos at high speed and many of these were taken with an ISO that's higher than I would use these days. Remember, if you're taking photos of a sunset you're taking photos of the *sun* - even if it's getting dark outside, you're still taking photos of the ultimate light source and you should set your camera with respect to that.

Both animal photography and golden hour photography are exercises in planning and patience. To shoot at golden hour, you have to show up before golden hour and wait for it. This is exactly the same thing that you have to do to shoot wildlife, so combining the two is twice as complicated. If you know someplace that has jungle critters, I'd say go there and try to figure out the behaviors they have and how you have to behave to capture those behaviors. You're probably going to need a really, really expensive lens to get good photos of wild animals in low light, so instead practice getting good photos of wild animals in bright light. While you're doing that regularly, you can also do regular golden hour photography to practice getting a sense of the settings you want to use in those kinds of lighting conditions. Practice this by bringing your own subjects - take photos of people and cars and objects at golden hour before you decide to spend a lot of time sitting and waiting for some critters to wander by.

Luckily, shooting golden hour means you're going to get a lot of practice shooting sunsets. These two interests will probably be fun to merge together.

Good luck!

[thehouzekat]

Not sure if anyone else has done this yet, but I wanted to try to recreate Lane’s paintings based on the descriptions given in the the Lake House FBC document.

RL-3-42 Black Circular Shape Among Yellow lines. An uneven circle painted in dark black in the foreground. With jagged yellow/brown lines behind it. Lines sometimes overlap with each other and/or bleed into the black circle.

RL- 1-169 Lone Tree at Night? A dark green tree(pine?) standing in a dark landscape, presumably night.

RL-1-170 Empty Road in Forest? Dark grey streak across a dark green landscape, presumably forest at night. The grey streak is likely to be a road due to its location, color, and the way its width reduces in line with the perspective. A small white shape in the road could be a page.

RL-5-24 Yellow crescent Shape on Blank Canvas

A curved yellow shape in a roughly crescent shape painted onto an otherwise empty canvas. Crescent Moon or banana, unfinished?

RL-2-24 Red, Yellow and Green circle

Three uneven circles, red, yellow, and one green roughly arranged in a vertical line. Background is black/grey, with dark red streaks along the border of the canvas. Possibly a traffic light?

RL-1-171 Cityscape with Blue-Grey Sky

Grey vertical shapes, likely the skyline of a city, in the bottom third of the canvas with a vivid blue-grey sky. Geometric shapes painted in thin white lines can barely be made out among the colors of the sky.

Rl-3-44 Black void

A deep black void covering the entire canvas, with a few small specks of dark or light grey able to be seen on close inspection

RL-3-45

A large number of rough spirals painted in black, ranging in size from that of a quarter to that of a basketball. Though the canvas appears quite covered, it is blank aside from the spirals.

Rl-2-25 Brown Shape with Horns

A brown shape, vaguely triangular, with what are presumably horns extending from the shape. Likely an animal head, possibly a deer or elk. Black background

[writers-potion]

Plotting Tips for Romantasy 𓆩🖤𓆪

Check out my masterpost for more tips :)

Okay, What IS romantasy?

Generally speaking, romantasy is a commercial subgenere that provides equal weightage to romance and fantasy.

If you can remove one side of the plot and still have a complete story, you may not be fulfilling genre expectations.

To summerize:

Romantic Fantasy = Fantasy + Romantic subplot

Fantasy ROmance = Romance + Fantasy subplot

Romantasy = Romance + Fantasy

Balancing Romance and Fantasy Elements

Combine two or more tropes from each genre.

Romantasy is all about an interesting mix-and-match. Think of your favorite romance/fantasy tropes, then marry them:

Enemies to Lovers discover a Portal to Faerieland in their Contemporary Office setting.

Grumpy and Sunshine accidentally anger a Troupe of vengeful witches while on a Road Trip

a Second Chance Couple is thrown into a Forced Proximity in order to plant hunt, and she must keep her Botanical Magical Powers a super-secret from him.

2. Integrate the two plots into one another.

The best way to juggle with two different plots is to integrate them into one another. For example,

Romance as a prerequisite for using magic: e.g. only when a witch meets her soulmate will se be able to use her wand.

Love between characters threatens the fantasy world. e.g. forbidden love between two magical species has now become a full-blown war.

Romance between non-human characters. The key is to remind your readers of the fantasy elemnts by giving the characters nonhuman conflicts, personalisties and values.

Common Genre Tropes for Romantasy

A female lens: The readership is largely made up of women - they want to read narratives that foreground women and their stories. Where the heroine loves the hero, the love interest should be likable.

Strong heroine who saves the day: Most common in books by women for women this includes fewer damsels in distress and plenty of dames doing the saving.

Enemies-to-lovers: This trope has plenty of scope for inter-species prejudices and love across (literal) battle lines, which is a common must in fantasy.

Friendship and found family: Portraying relationships from a romantics AND fantasy point of view is important. The hero who begins as the cool, aloof longer must eventually become part of a collective even if that's only through their partner.

Elemental magic: Who wouldn't want to be able to hurl fireballs or lightening bolts? It would be useful in a lovers' fight, too.

Popular Romantasy Books 📚

The best way to understand the genre norms is to read it for yourself!

A Court of Throns and Roses (Sarah J. Maas)

Fourth Wing (Rebecca Yarros)

Stardust (Neil Gaiman)

The Paper Magician (Charlie Holmberg)

A Promise of Fire (Amanda Bouchet)

The Paper Magician (Charlie Holmberg)

If you like my blog, buy me a coffee☕ and find me on instagram! 📸

[romanceyourdemons]

halloween (1978) is of course a genre-defining piece of slasher horror, but its theme that fascinates me more than the standard sex and gender discourse is that of suburbia. cars and telephones are major motifs in the film; in the broad-lawned world of haddonfield, neighbors shut their blinds on fleeing final girls, and it is only with cars and phones that the characters can seek connection and help. cars in this film represent agency and place in society. the sheriff’s power is written on the hood of his lawfully issued car. the girls are granted limited agency and a caveated place in society when their parents allow them to borrow their cars; they are in a tenuous position where they must hide their adult behavior—smoking in the car, or having sex—lest their parents remove their conditional agency and place in society by no longer letting them borrow the car. the film’s huge emphasis on how little credence, freedom, and power children are given in suburban society raises the stakes of these teenagers potentially being socially reduced to children. and, finally, michael myers drives a stolen car with driving lessons he acquired in secret: he takes agency despite never having been granted it. michael’s motivations are an ultra-simplified rehash of norman bates’s; what he wants or does is not important, but it is important that he is able to do it without being granted agency or a place in society. he is a blank slate who has never existed in the world as an adult, and yet he is able to drive without permission, enter homes without permission, punch through doors as though they are not there. he approaches through the blurred background of shots, rather than appearing in the foreground like other characters do. the horror of michael myers is that he resists the rules and categorization suburban society lives and dies by, and so it is appropriate that he is only weakened enough to be chased away when first his father and later laurie pull off his mask, revealing his face and making him vulnerable to naming, categorization, and personalization. although most of the themes of halloween (1978) are extremely popular and well-trodden roads in the film world, its presentation of american suburbia and the horror it is weak to is well-conceived and well-executed

[epione-xx]

LOVER <3

Just a cute little fluff about a boy, a girl and a Mercedes in the night listening to Taylor swift and day dreaming

——————————————————————————

His hand laid on your plush and warm thigh, the city’s street lights casting shadows over various items but when Damian drove past them, you could see his tiny smile, how his eyes glistened and how they shined like emeralds.

Taylor swifts ‘lover’ was playing in the foreground as he drove, no words were spoken as a comfortable smile silence fell over you both. He squeezed your thigh again and turned the corner.

Drives like this had no purpose, you guys had no where to go- in fact you should have been tucked into bed long ago, but when your boyfriend calls and offers to take you out in his cool car, you accept.

The car in question was a Mercedes AMG E63, in a midnight black colour and with the street lights shining on it, it almost looking like a galaxy had enveloped the car. The interior was all leather- “easier to clean” Damian would claim but you knew he never really bothered to clean his seats unless well, unless something…else, had happened.

Your side was prettied up too, well kind of. He had put in a better mirror and you had all your little sweets in the glove box along with spare womanly panties- yknow, just in case…things…happened.

You were in a trance, your head pulled to the side a little as day dreams flooded into your mind of him, suddenly you felt another though squeeze and a soft “beloved?”

You snapped out of your trance again and blinked awake “shit, sorry…was I in a trance again?” Your eyes squint as you looked at him in the dark and notice the lines of his crinkled nose as he smiles

“Yeah, you were” he smiles and you could only smile back as she slowly laced your fingers together, still on top of your thigh.

“I love you Damian” you say finally after a nice moment of silence.

“And I you, beloved.”

Your stomach was warm and tingly, your heart full as you pulled Damian’s hands to your lips and then let it lay back down on your thigh, the back of his hand touched your thigh and you traced over his palm.

Each line and scar told a story, you could remember going to the palm reader with him once, remember how she said that “he would live a long and happy life with the love of his life” and you could remember that being a key moment in your relationship, the moment where Damian let his walls come down around you. The moment he trusted you with his heart.

You remember when his couldn’t hold anything for weeks because of when his hand got slashed by a villains knife, how you had to do everything for him and walk on his left side- which he hates because you were closer to the road, and how he panicked about any little car that passed you both because what if it was some maniac who could have hit you?!

The song changed, the one upbeat and happy song now turned into a low strum of a bass as arctic monkeys played- a Damian pick surprisingly.

He chuckles a little as he looked over at you “remember the last time this song played?” He asks with a raised brow as his hand crawled up your thigh.

You flushed thinking about it and coughed a little “yeah, that was a good time” you said as he nods and stroked the inside of your thigh.

You pinched his hand lightly and he gave you the biggest hurt puppy eyes, because even if he was a superhero, his dear beloved hurting him? It was his greatest weakness!

You rolled your eyes and stuck your tongue out just as Damian reached a red light.

“Don’t do that beloved” his husky voice said. The light still red and reflecting in his iris, he leaned forward and kissed you, biting your tongue lightly as you let out a soft moan, feeling his hands go high and high and then-

Green.

You cursed traffic control, the light itself for even working! How dare they do this to you! He smirked at your reaction but pulled away as he pressed on the gas again and drove off.

You pout, brushing his warm hand against your own heat so that he would begin again, but he didn’t, only smirked knowing that you would get him back when you got home and send him some pictures in that pretty little white set you owned that made you looked like an angel.

After all, if it was 40 minutes or 7 hours, Damian would always be at your door ready for you, using his rich boy privilege to give you the best life he ever could.

The ring box in his pocket was only another promise of that vowel he made to himself.

[leonaquitaine]

Virtual Photography Guide: Composition

One of the in-game activities I enjoy the most is trying to replicate real-life photography techniques in gpose, and it’s surprising how much can be achieved. So today, let’s play around with composition!

Leading Lines

Leading lines can help guide the viewer's eye through an image. They’re visual elements that form lines, like buildings or roads, or even an area with high contrast, like the horizon line. So by aligning convergent lines to create these ‘focal zones’ you build a sense of depth and lead the viewer's gaze toward it.

Framing

You can use elements within the scene to enclose or surround your main subject. These elements could be natural, like branches or foliage, or architectural, like doorways or windows. This adds depth and context, and helps the viewers immerse themselves in the scene:

Symmetry

Symmetry creates a pleasing sense of order and balance in an image. You can do this by dividing your frame equally and positioning similar elements on either side:

Depth and Layering

Adding depth to your virtual photographs enhances the sense of immersion. By placing objects of interest in the foreground, middle ground, and background, you can create a layered effect that adds depth and dimension to your composition. DoF (Depth of Field) shaders are particularly well suited for cases like these:

Point of View

Experimenting with different and unusual camera angles and perspectives can yield surprisingly dynamic and engaging shots. For example, positioning the camera at a low angle and looking up at the character can create a very impactful composition:

On the other hand, top-down pictures can not only give the viewer a sensation of being ‘in the scene’ but also help put elements together that would otherwise be scattered around in a horizontal shot:

Negative Space

Negative space refers to the empty or minimalistic areas in your composition. It provides breathing room for your main subject and can evoke emotions, or create a sense of balance and calmness.

And let’s not forget the most important rule of all:

Break the rules

These principles serve more as guidelines than anything. Sometimes trying to force a composition into one of those categories can detract from an unusual yet powerful shot, so trust your eye and aesthetic sense.

I'll cover more composition techniques like the Rule of Thirds, Rule of Odds, Rule of Space, Golden Ratio, and others in part 2. Enjoy!

[copperbadge]

@altorogue mentioned to me that there was a great bakery near where I'm staying, Yeast Nashville, that did Czech kolachis like you get in Texas. I didn't have a breakfast joint lined up for today so I walked down the road, dropped some postcards in a local postbox, and stepped into Yeast Nashville to see what they had. I will say this for Nashville, when they do food right they REALLY do food right.

This is well more food than I can eat in a sitting especially when I'm getting on the road in about half an hour, but I had most of the cherry, about half of the sausage, and enough of the Oreo to enjoy the flavor. A nice farewell meal!

I don't normally get savory because usually there's too much sausage for me, but they split the sausage and broil it with cheese on top before baking it in dough, which is the perfect bread to sausage ratio. Also, the cherry kolachi is fairly self-evident but that other one? Cream cheese OREO kolachi. Normally I don't eat Oreos (like the flavor, hate the cookies sticking in my teeth) but I had to get one to try. It's pretty good -- like a cheese Danish with some chocolate crumb topping basically.

[ID: a large plate on which sit three pastries. What looks like an elongated dinner roll at the back is a sausage-cheddar kolachi, and in the foreground are two square pastries topped with "filling", one with rows of sweet cherries in jam, the other with what looks like chocolate crumb in a sweet cheese filling.]

[analogtoonz]

DUDEFLUX

-> Dudeflux refers to an individual who finds that they have a connection to POSTAL’s protagonist ‘The Dude’, but their connection to certain versions of The Dude changes at any given time, regardless if that is based on the gameplay itself or other factors, such as The Dude’s design or voice actors.

id: a rectangular flag with 7 horizontal stripes. from top to bottom the stripes are coloured black, dark purple, red, orange, red, dark purple and black. in the foreground, at the very centre, is yellow road sign symbol with the image of a person running with a pair of scissors in their right hand. Around the person are multiple circular bullet holes. /end id

[tossawary]

So, the Jackson "The Hobbit" movies get rid of the dwarves having musical instruments, rather adding a very atmospheric humming to the "Over the Misty Mountains" song. And I like this adaptational choice just fine, I think it sounds good, and because the question of "What happens to the instruments? Are they taking clarinets and a harp and etc. on the quest?! Are the musical instruments magical?" has bugged me for years. And I do think this choice suits the general *waves hand vaguely* more "serious / grim / lower high fantasy" aesthetic cultivated by the previous Jackson "Lord of the Rings" films.

But I do like the mental image of the Company being a very literal band going on a quest, because I think it's funny and delightful and unique. If I was doing an animated movie in particular, I would not like to be rid of the musical instruments during that scene. The vibe is very magical. Very whimsical. And whimsy does not have to be wholly separate from very serious subject matters! I think it would be very cool if the dwarves had more casually magical tools generally, which would do some easy additional worldbuilding for the level of craftsmanship in this world, and could fit in perfectly well alongside hidden doors and invisibility rings and mithril shirts and glowing swords and jewelry that never comes accidentally undone.

If someone did a version where all the dwarves are carrying musical instruments throughout most of the quest in this way and the creator really leaned into the music generally and audio-visual relationship in film specifically, I would absolutely watch it. That sounds amazing. It wouldn't necessarily have to be a musical or an opera as well, though that would also be extremely cool. (Personally, I would even also watch a "Fantasia" version of "The Hobbit" FOR SURE. I am an artsy dork like that. Though it might not be my first choice in my ideal creative project.)

I think you could could do some great, whimsical scenes with the dwarves singing at various points on the road, the musical instruments breaking at certain emotional points, the dwarves trying to do little musical spells at various points, and so on. A lot of this stuff could even just be other members of the Company fussing around with these things in the background (trying to play a musical spell to light a fire) while Bilbo has a foreground conversation with Thorin or Gandalf or something. I LOVE in animated (and live) movies when you can see supporting characters bickering or getting into hijinks in the background of a scene. (Also, this world was sung into being in a way, wasn't it? Why not have more magical music?)

(OHHH, the way that Smaug could be done in a more audio- and music-focused version of "The Hobbit" would be SO COOL.)

Alternatively, generally, I've also imagined that there are other dwarves with wagons nearby to take the musical instruments away again (let's say the instruments are not magical in any way and taking them along would therefore largely just be impractical), and that the night at Bilbo's house was actually also a RITUAL meal/meeting for the members of a long journey. You're going on a quest? You seclude yourself with your company, eat, drink, talk, plan, and sing a little to bond as an exclusive group the night before heading off together. Normally, this would have been done back at their own home or something, but they had to get their burglar first.

I think this would be a cool way to slip in characters like Dis and Gimli even just in the background, as family members come to see everyone off, seen fixing Kili's hair or hugging Gloin as the Company prepares to leave Hobbiton that last morning. Thorin and Balin could be exchanging a couple quick lines about how Bilbo hasn't shown up yet, and in the background, we could see Dis hugging Fili (the true purpose of a well-done adaptation of "The Hobbit" is to break my fucking heart) and Gloin's wife drawing off with a wagon full of musical instruments while young Gimli waves tearfully! You wouldn't even have to have them say anything to slip them in!

Just... I'm listening to the Andy Serkis audiobook of "The Hobbit" right now and I want to see some gloriously artsy visual adaptations of this world.

[spockandawe]

Straw marquetry, mark three!!!! Okay. So. I did two projects where i pasted my material directly onto a backing and then adjusted the edges. And I still haven't done any where I build tiles and assemble them on the backing later. But first I wanted to swerve off the road into something slightly more the realm of traditional wood marquetry, because I wanted to see if I could cut pieces out of a sheet of material, and fill it with something else.

The answer: pretty much!! There's still room for improvement here, I've done VERY little with cutting out Shapes at all, and not all wood veneer techniques map to straw (if i sanded this surface down, I would cry). And I also picked out all circle shapes because ??? I hate myself I guess. But I've been sitting on this GORGEOUS red straw and the perfect frame, and my self-control finally snapped

So, I plotted out a series of overlapping circles, sized very scientifically (based on four bowls in my kitchen) and traced them out onto my primary backing sheet. I wanted to cover with straw up over those lines, but not to waste unnecessary material.

Then I used my bowls as guides to cut out the first few circles and worked to fill them! In traditional marquetry, the advice is to work from background to foreground, so that's what I did here! And i traced out the size of the holes to determine the area i needed to cover for the inset pieces. The lumpiness of the circle below is to account for the overlap from the next piece to follow, making sure there's a clean surface to cut for that window.

I also did some VERY light color sorting, to try to pull out dark red for the biggest circles, pink red for the midsize ones, and orange for the smallest. The orange worked, the others are a bit more ambiguous! Part of the issue is that color variation within a single stalk can be extreme, and I didn't want to get lost in the weeds of subdivisions. The other is that this craft is positively ALLERGIC to overhead lights, as you can probably guess from many of my photos, which meant a lot of my sorting calls were wide open for second-guessing later.

Now, unlike wood, I wasn't really able to glue these to each other. That might change if I step up the backing to a thicker board, but here we were basically working on cardstock. Something to explore later! So for now, I attached my circles using masking tape, but I did experience a SMIDGE of damage to my finish here and there, so I'll drop to a lower tack tape next time. Once everything was assembled, I glued it all to another piece of red paper, squared it up to fit the frame, pressed it overnight, glued it to a piece of foam board, then pressed again.

And then I framed it! This was delightful, and I'm in love with the way the smallest circles pop. And I finally figured out that the trick to photographing these things lying flat is to turn OFF the overhead walls, lmao. I'm extremely pleased with how this came out and looking forward to future projects! This one is so striking, I really look forward to finding more ways to continue escalating, ahahaha