#Here's me redrawing the same picture like 4 times the exact same way over a couple years as is the standard for my me

[goleb]

Trying to remember how to draw again so I drew my boy son. again.

[viovire]

ang0mang0′s “copycat” claims

I didn’t want to have to make another post about this, but since people on sonicfan799 / thatAnge / @ang0mang0′s Tumblr profile are getting riled up about this ridiculous drama that should have died ages ago, I figured I’d defend myself. Some people who are trying to support me have been saying incorrect things too, so I also wanted to clear that up. This crap has been going on for months, everyone is sick of it by now. Instead of being brief like I did for other social medias, I’ll be as detailed as possible this time.

[1] “she’s copying/imitating/heavily referencing from my art style!!!”

Like people have said a million times, no I’m not. And nor is anyone else. Just because someone draws the Sonic characters in a similar style to you does not automatically mean they took, copied or “stole” those ideas from you. You don’t own the concept of buff, fluffy bodies or chubby muzzles. COINCIDENCE, as much as you hopelessly deny it, is very much a possible thing- even in crazy situations such as this. There are several other artists who have similar art styles by mere coincidence. IT IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE. As examples, these Instagram artists have similar styles: @ azulytoons and @ indigonite0 / @ magenta_mel and @ zer0finix / @ himemikal and @ natirix. NONE of these artists are “stealing” or referencing from each other- they just have similar art styles, and that is perfectly okay! They draw completely different things with completely different mindsets. The world does not revolve around you, ang0. Not everyone knows who you are, so some people who use the same traits that we do don’t even know we exist.

Also, to anyone unaware, an art STYLE is not merely how one chooses to portray a character. An art STYLE is also what brushes you use, how you sketch, how you line, how you colour, how you shade, how you choose to portray certain objects or ideas- basically your entire fucking understanding of how something’s supposed to look and how you LIKE it to look. It’s not just “chubby faces, poofy curly hair, buff bodies”. It’s everything in a piece AND that.

[2] “she’s tracing my art/ redrawing my ideas!”

Literally no. People have constantly asked you to provide evidence and you refused to. All you did was scream “but it’s so obvious, just look at it!” or “are you dumb? use your eyes!” and several other insults. If you want to prove a point or make someone see something, GIVE. EVIDENCE. The only person who actually provided “proof” was pin_kpeach, your ever so loyal whiteknight, but her “proof” only backfired and proved that the both of you are extremely delusional. In the drawings of ours that she layered over each other, next to NONE of the lines lined up. It looked like a clustered mess of scrap, and the reason for that is because IT WASN’T TRACED. In the one or two drawings where ONE. SINGLE. PIECE. actually lined up was entirely zoomed in to make it seem as though the whole thing was traced. No, honey, that’s not how you provide proof. That’s how you pull a muscle by reaching so desperately to lie about me. The rest of the drawings in those pictures didn’t line up at all, and one- or I believe both- needed to be titled to line them up in the first place. You could say that some people trace things and resize or rotate them, but if I were as dumb as you persist to say, then I wouldn’t have done something like that. Either way, one aspect of a drawing lining up is a common thing for people who have similar styles because- well, I just said it. THEY HAVE SIMILAR STYLES. If they draw something the same way, well fucking duh, it’ll match someone else’s drawing almost exactly sometimes.

[3] “she’s too petty and too much of a liar to credit me! saying the art isn’t hers will hurt her oversized ego!”

Ahaha no. The only one here with an inflated ego is you, ang0. You call me the egotistical one yet you act as though your life is falling apart just because someone else draws like you on the internet. Stop acting like a special snowflake, you are not the only one on this planet with an art style of that nature. I don’t credit you because crediting you makes no damn sense. Why should I credit someone who’s had absolutely no impact on my work whatsoever? What in the hell did you do for my drawings that makes you deserve so much credit? Did you sketch it? No. Did you line it? Nope. Did you colour or shade it? Not a chance. Just because I came up with a design for the characters that happens to look like yours does not mean I owe you jack shit. You cannot. own. a style. Get over it.

[4] “she worsened my depression and is the reason I can’t draw anymore! I have no motivation when there’s some idiot copycat stealing all my art!”

I don’t want to sound like that kind of person, but you worsened your own depression. You painted this false picture in your head and continue to hang onto that belief like your life depends on it. I haven’t done ANYthing to you. You came to ME with these stupid claims back when my art looked LESS like yours, before I even knew who you were. You’re making yourself feel horrible because you, for some paranormal reason, refuse to believe that you’re not the only one with that kind of style. This is why people call you childish, you’re like a whiny baby that can’t accept another child having a toy similar to yours. I can’t even decide whether I should say “grow up” because you’re older than me- not to mention you’re an ADULT.

[5]”she constantly sends her whiteknights to attack me, harass me and send me threatening messages!”

I’ve said several times to my followers NOT to harass you or your followers or anyone against me in this mess at all. I do not send anyone after you. People say things to you out of their own free will and with their own words. I can’t magically know when this happens, why they decide to and I especially can’t control anyone. I’m sorry that my friend Koro sent you all those DMs and horrible messages wishing a lot of very bad things onto you and your family- I asked her several times before and after not to do that, but I didn’t have a clue she did it until after the fact. Either way, don’t go around assuming that I put people up to this or I intentionally ask people to do these things to you. Why in the hell would I do that? What good does that do? All I wanted to do was talk things out but at this point, you don’t even take me seriously, so I can’t even try anymore. The few times we did talk you refuse to see my point of view and just see me as a liar. What the hell am I supposed to do then?

[6]”all vio does is lie, she’s so fake all the time, lying for her petty ego”

I’m not even sure how to respond to this but I thought I might as well bring it up. No matter what I do or say, ang0 sees me as nothing but some retarded liar that can’t help but lie their way around everything, even though I’ve been nothing but genuine all this time. It’s why I can’t even communicate with her anymore, because “shut up, stop lying you copycat” is all I get in response basically.

[7] her insane hypocrisy

Ange and pin_kpeach have said numerous times that I’m rude or insult her, and there have been times where I’ve been mean out of anger, but I know for a fact I apologized for it in DMs. Ange apologized too. I don’t remember ever insulting her after that, but ang0 doesn’t ever stop ridiculing and insulting me with almost every comment she makes on the drama. If she really was sorry, she wouldn’t have done it again, but I guess she said “fuck it” and just continued anyway. Pin_kpeach likes to say I’M the hypocrite for saying Ange is harassing me yet being rude to her a couple times, yet they do they exact same thing, but even worse?? I try my best to be as civil as possible, but ang0 and pink don’t waste a second calling me and my supporters all sorts of colourful names just because they don’t agree with her claims. In fact, here’s a list of every single thing ang0’s ever called me:

retarded, retard, stupid, idiot, dumb, low IQ, mentally ill, crazy, talentless, skill-less, copycat, art thief, (dumb) cow, fuckhole, asshole, bitch, wanna-be artist, unreasonable, clown, fake, liar, hypocrite, delusional, dick, stalker, bittershitter, dumbass, immature

There’s probably more than that, but that’s as much as I can remember. Not hard to forget when she repeats them almost all the time.

[8] gatekeeping ideas

Ange and pink act as if two people drawing a character in the same outfit automatically equals “du bist kopying mein style!!”. I can’t even begin to imagine the mental gymnastics you need to do in order to believe a thought process like that is logical. She thinks that anyone who draws Amy in a dress with a white under-skirt or white ruffles underneath is nothing but a copied idea from her. She thinks that me drawing Amy in a green tank top, blue backwards cap and blue sports shorts is copying her drawing of Amy in a green unidentifiable top (you could only see her back, she didn’t seem to have straps) and blue sports shorts with a slightly different design is automatically copied from her. The poses, shading, angle and idea behind the drawing were COMPLETELY different- but nonono, “this is stolen because the outfit is the same!” They also use the excuse of the whole chubby faces, curly hair, blah blah blah- see point [1] as to why that’s BS.

[9] her perception of my followers/supporters

Aside from Koro, I don’t know if anyone has seriously threatened or harassed her. Her followers comment on my posts, my followers only comment when she brings up the drama or whines about it. She insults my supporters when they don’t agree with her and act like they’re a bunch of immature brats who are wrong while she’s the high and mighty mature one seeing through non-existent lies. I’m used to her making fun of me, but I’m sick and tired of her insulting people who have nothing to do with the drama just because they don’t agree with her. Like, seriously? You call everyone immature and stupid yet you’re the one insulting people non-stop just because they realize how ridiculous and childish you’re acting. That’s why “childish” has become a popular adjective for you, ang0. BECAUSE YOU’RE BEING CHILDISH. CONSTANTLY. You get pissy, insult others and put people down but whine and cry the next minute because you constantly like to play the victim. Speaking of which...

[10] the victim card

I have absolutely no idea what ang0 goes through in real life, but there is no excuse for how she’s behaved during this drama AT ALL. Ange constantly defames her own artwork, calling it shit, calling it every bad name in the book, but doesn’t hesitate for a minute to gatekeep her style as if it was the best thing in the world. She says it’s because she “worked her ass off” and doesn’t want people just stealing her hard work. Okay, but you do realize that other people put just as much work into their own art, no matter if it looks like yours or not, right? She demands that people change their style to stop looking like hers, acting as if that can be done in a matter of minutes, because people having similar styles makes her uncomfortable. Well, surprise motherfucker- welcome to the internet. No one is original and everyone is original at the same time. People are bound to come up with similar ideas and you’re just going to have to deal with it. But despite the similarities, people are still original in their own right. If you believe that people can change a style so easily, why not just change your OWN style? Because you worked your ass off? Well, THEY WORKED THEIR ASS OFF TOO. So don’t act like you’re the only one who’s put effort into their craft. Art is hard, and that applies to EVERYONE- even professionals.

You blame me and other “copycats” for all your problems, blaming us for worsening your depression, ruining your passion for art- when you’re the only one who does this to yourself. Yes, there have been genuine art thieves in your life, and people who have stolen your art- but what I’m talking about are the people like me who DON’T steal your art or are merely inspired by you. People who say “you should be happy they’re inspired!” aren’t saying “you should be happy they’re copying!”. They’re saying that you should be glad that your work is so inspiring that people create their own unique ideas based off your own. Inspiration doesn’t require credit unless they’re purposefully taking a massive part of the original. But being inspired by a hair style or even a pose isn’t stealing. It’s inspiration, that’s it. I’m not inspired by you at all, but I can at least appreciate your art- even if you think I’m just being fake.

[11] ang0mang0′s history and why this shit doesn’t even make sense

Ange has said publicly and to me in detail about how she’s been accused of the same “art style theft” in the past. From what I’ve gathered or heard, people used to accuse her of copying a popular artist called myly14 who’s Sonic art is pretty much everywhere. Whether it be in edits, MVs or whatever else.  Looking at her old art when she went under the name sonicfan799, her art does look similar to myly’s, but ang0 insisted that she didn’t copy myly and didn’t even know who she was. She legit said “it’s not my fault my art looks like someone else’s”, so basically- it was coincidence. She said she changed her art style because she “isn’t an asshole and didn’t want to make the other artist uncomfortable”, even though art style theft isn’t a thing and no one needs to be forced out of a style just because someone else already draws that way. I have no idea what myly’s stance on that situation was, but the fact that it happened just proves how stupid her current claims are.

Ange says that her style is “too complex” to be coincidentally similar to someone else’s, even though the fact that it’s happened 30 times (according to her) just proves that no, ang0, no it fucking isn’t. Your style isn’t complicated at all. Detailed sure, but no style is too complicated to be similar to another’s. Being complex doesn’t make something any less likely to be identical to another complex style.If you didn’t copy myly14 in the past, what right do you have to accuse me of the same damn thing? If I really am copying you, then you have to admit to copying myly, because you can’t just lie about your past and then shit on me for doing the same thing. So it’s either you stop this nonsense or you drag this drama down with you to your grave and admit you copied myly14.

Another thing, myly14 didn’t even have a “simple” style. The fact that her art was almost instantly recognizable and popular meant that she had a signature style that stood out. Yes, she used a lot of the original Sonic style’s anatomy, but her stylization of said anatomy, her shading and the way she composed her pieces gave her a signature style. The most stylized thing I could see was how she drew muzzles, and guess who drew muzzles in a similar way as well? You did. People saw how your way of drawing faces and some parts of the body and thought it looked liked myly’s. The similarities in your anatomy, and not your shading or colouring, was what made people think you copied her. That exact same thing is happening between me and you. My shading, colouring and composition is entirely different from yours, but some parts of the anatomy are similar.

If you really didn’t copy myly14, you have absolutely no. fucking. excuse. to accuse me of the EXACT. SAME. SHIT. that happened to you.

You never needed or deserved to be pressured out of your old style just because people thought it looked similar to someone else’s, and that’s why I refuse to change my style now. Because it isn’t. fucking. fair. To ANYONE.

[12] how I feel (this is copied over from my DeviantART)

At this point I've grown used to what she has to say, but it still hurts. She thinks that I'm some kind of cartoon villain maniacally laughing behind a computer screen every time I post something because she's so deep into her belief that I really copy everything she draws and that nothing I've never posted has any true effort put into it. She genuinely believes she owns all my art and that I devote my entire gallery into recreating her image or some crazy shit like that. It sounds really dumb, but from what I've read from her poorly constructed comments and rants, that's basically what she believes.

She thinks I don't care at all about how all this affects her or anyone at all, but I do. It doesn't just hurt me in the sense that she makes me feel awful with all her insults, but I just feel so bad for her. I feel guilty in the sense that I couldn't do anything at all to help her, not that "shes prolly feeling guilty and made that april fools joke to let out some guilt!!". (If you don’t know, on April Fools Day, I changed my Instagram bio to say “clown” and call myself “the ultimate copycat” as a joke.) That was a really stupid reaction from her by the way... who the hell comes up with that? Now that she's going away for a month, I feel even worse because all I wanted to do was try to make her come to her senses and end this mess. I thought I could talk some sense into her- that didn't work. Her delusions are so strong, she's like a brick wall. I thought I could ignore the drama- that didn't work. She "clowns" and talks about it so annoyingly often. Not to mention people do things on their own to stir shit up. I thought I could support her regardless and maybe try making her feel better about her art- that didn't work. She thinks I'm fake and that everything I say is a lie. Because of me, she probably doesn't believe other people too- and that makes me feel even more terrible.

No matter what I do, I'm automatically the villain and she's the tortured, helpless artist that everyone is against because "everyone is dumb, supporting a copycat" and she's just "used to it, because she's dealt with so much shit already!". It's so ridiculous. If she would just try to actually better herself or the situation, she wouldn't feel so horrible all the time. Like... for god's sake, she relied on a video game to make her happy- that's not healthy, and just like I suspected, it didn't fucking work.

more of how I feel

Because of ang0, I just feel like garbage. My self esteem and confidence in my art was already low. Thanks to her, I don’t feel original (or as original) anymore- and I’m afraid to show many of my new or old ideas because she or her whiteknight pin_kpeach may spring out and say “copycat! stolen! you’re not original!” and a plethora of other insults. I can barely sketch or draw Sonic content without panicking and feeling worthless because all I have is her words and her opinions stuck in my head. She blames me for her demotivation and shit like that when she’s done the same thing to me. She thinks I don’t care about her or her art, when I do, but when I say that, she calls me fake. In reality, ang0 couldn’t give a damn about me and I’m pretty sure she’d be happy if I were dead. She has said before that she doesn’t care if I killed myself soo... there’s that. Anyway lemme not drag my feelings out too long, I just thought I’d say it to anyone willing to listen since her immediate response would’ve been “fake, liar” etc, etc. I really don’t want anyone to feel bad for me or anything like that, I just want people to listen and understand. That’s all.

a final note

I’m really thankful- like, REALLY thankful- for everyone who’s been on my side throughout this. I don’t like picking sides, and I’d hate to make people do so, but there doesn’t seem to be any in between to this at all. It’s either you believe I’m copying her or you don’t.  Most people don’t- thank goodness for that- but some do. And there’s nothing I can do about it. At this point, whatever man.

Please please PLEASE do not harass ang0. Don’t threaten her, don’t insult her, don’t do anything rash or fucking illegal. It’s all fair game if you want to POLITELY SPEAK to her, or try to start a discussion, but please don’t do anything stupid. And especially don’t do things in my name. If you want to debate with me or her, do research first- don’t just jump to conclusions or make assumptions.If you want nothing to do with this drama, then simply don’t say anything- just be aware of what’s going on, that’s all I ask. So nobody gets the wrong idea on either side.

Sorry for this being so long, I think I’m done for now.

Thank you if you read the whole thing.

[9.4.2020]

[isaacfigueroap]

What you don’t see about the Canadian dollar and what nobody will tell you!

Summary

The US dollar index is in a bounce mode to the upside; I expect another 3% appreciation in the US dollar index before it falls by at least around 7%. This should help to buy an underpriced Canadian dollar (short the USDCAD pair). We are not there yet.

Long term, I am bullish in the Canadian dollar (bearish in the USDCAD pair); however, in the short term, the USDCAD pair may close at 1.33. Right now, it is trading at 1.2970.

I expect the USDCAD pair will trade between 1.25 and 1.33 for a long time. However, in the future, once the 1.25 is broken to the downside, I see 1.17 as the next floor.

While it is always good to know about the news that impacts the Canadian dollar, such as changes in the NAFTA, the recent weakness in oil, the low Canadian central bank interest rates, or the likely overvaluation of Canadian real estate, it should only be used as a reference, but not acted upon. By the time you read the news, it will already be old news for the “smart money”.

The truth is that it is better to pay attention to upcoming events instead of reading the news. The fx rate always reflects the latest news. We are heading into next week’s Bank of Canada interest rate announcement on May 30th, followed by the first-quarter Gross Domestic Product figures on Thursday, May 31st. Mark these types of events in your calendar, because they are more worthy of your consideration, given the likely surprises, instead of the old news that is already reflected in the fx rate.

Technical Analysis approach: focus on price

If I had to pick one approach to analyze what can happen to the Canadian dollar in the short and long term, I would pick technical analysis because it allows me to create good risk reward trade setups with a long term perspective. Additionally, it allows for the use of a classical and simple chart with only price and price levels with neither indicators nor oscillators.

The forex market is bigger than the bond or equity market, so it makes more sense to assume that fundamentals quickly catch up with price in fx markets. This may be why there are smart value investors that do well managing equity portfolios by only using fundamentals, but it is not that simple with fx. For starters, fx doesn’t move like stocks from a risk reward perspective; fx is better traded in a mean reversion style that uses longer time frame charts and a momentum or trend style for shorter time frames.

Having said that, here are the monthly and weekly charts of the loonie.

Monthly chart

In this monthly chart, you see the Fibonacci levels drawn from a high in 2002 to a low in 2008. Pay attention to the 0.618 and 0.382 Fibonacci levels, which are around 1.33 and 1.17. This means that the USDCAD can get stuck between the two levels for a long time. For this monthly chart, once we have a breakout above 1.33 or a breakout below 1.17 that is driven by fundamentals or global events, we will be able to see the loonie going to different levels. However, until then, we are stuck between 1.17 - 1.33. Also, remember that the longer we stay within these levels, the larger the potential breakout. Additionally, if we break outside of these levels soon, it might not last and it might come back to the same range as a failed breakout, which normally has the opposite effect. For the near term (next few days/weeks), I am planning to swing trade on the short side of the USDCAD only if we are in the yellow area of the chart above. However, I would not touch the USDCAD if we are in the red area of the chart above. In general, the green area can be a profit taking area or opening for new short trades in case we are below the declining resistance. It all depends on the timing of when we are in those areas and the magnitude of the news and market sentiment.

The 1.25 level is an important level as well, which should be used as a pivot point. Apart from 1.25 level, the psychological level of 1.30 is also important (we are only 25 pips below!). Of course as you can see in the chart above, the 1.30 is an approximate level because there is a declining resistance as of this month at around 1.31, which means the longer we stay below 1.30, the lower the declining resistance. So, this might be a topping pattern, but once the declining resistance is broken to the upside, there is a risk of the resistance breaking out of 1.33ish (0.618 Fibonacci level). If this happens, all the fundamental excuses in the media will also take place, such as the FED further tightening their monetary policy, or the Bank of Canada keeping lighter monetary policies for a longer time. However, remember that Fibonacci levels (with support and resistance coincidences) are inflection points; traders expect some type of price action, either a break or a rejection.

Weekly chart

In the weekly chart, we don't use Fibonacci (I did not find that the Fibonacci levels coincided with the support and resistance levels). However, we do see a beautiful pattern that started in 2015 and ended in September 2017. Yes, it was a head and shoulder pattern, which even though is completed, as of today, is showing lower highs and lower lows. This means that the loonie can get stronger in the long term (USDCAD would go lower), which aligns with my bullish long term view of commodities. The weekly chart above shows that there is likely a “bear flag” in the USDCAD pair - the bear flag is the red area in the chart above (bullish in the Canadian dollar)!

Mean reversion and trend following trading of the loonie

In addition to the monthly and weekly charts, it is important to recognize changes in trends and to go with the trend before opening a trade, which means being a momentum trader in shorter time frame charts and having the big picture of mean reversion for longer time frame charts. These setups are the best risk reward trades. Never solely rely on mean reversion trading, because you can get burnt if you use it for all of the time frames. I.e. don't be a hero and go against the trend, especially in shorter time frames. However, for longer time frames, it is good to go against the herd with mean reversion strategies.

It is important to wait for an event like a Bank of Canada policy interest rate announcement and wait for the right set up...but how? See the daily chart below and use the lines drawn as inflection points (Fibonacci and pivots).

Again, just to clarify, technical analysis for the loonie, or for any other fx pair, is the best way to go because everything (fundamentals, opinions, and hidden large trades) is reflected in the price. The chart above is what I am mostly going to use over the following few days or weeks to swing trade the loonie.

Canadian dollar and intermarket analysis

By looking at the US dollar index in the following monthly chart, we see that it would be a bit risky to go against the US dollar or against the USDCAD as of now. So, be careful to be bullish in the loonie if the US dollar index is getting strong. I will explain why. The US dollar index has recently been moving with strength to the upside and we just ended the week at 94.25, within a range of around 90 and 102. This range is clearly seen using two important Fibonacci levels for the US dollar index (0.618 = 101ish and 0.382 = 89ish). This is why intermarket analysis is important, and it would be perfect to have the USDCAD close to 1.33 and the US dollar index close to 102 to go long in the loonie, that would be the perfect scenario.

Monthly chart of the US dollar index

By having a closer look at the US dollar index again and by redrawing Fibonacci levels from different points, the monthly chart of the US dollar index below showed the end of a Fibonacci extension of 1.618 on January 2017, which had a price around 103ish. This means that we might have a strong ceiling around the 1.382 Fibonacci level, representing a price between 96 and 97. Additionally, there might be another 3% appreciation to the upside in the US dollar index. In conclusion, I would take my chances to have a bearish view of the US dollar once the expected appreciation of 3% takes place (but not yet).

Taking the 2008 lows (70ish) and 2009 highs (close to 90) as Fibonacci extensions allows for the perfect long term set up to go bearish in the US dollar index at around 96–97 (1.382 Fibonacci) and to have a first target price of 90 (the old high in 2009). I expect that USDCAD can go lower (strong loonie) with the latest bullish leg of commodities that I think will continue over the following months, no matter where and when the FED continues to push its US rate.

Monthly chart of the US dollar index with Fibonacci extensions

The price of crude also has some influence on the loonie. Oil WTI has completed the Fibonacci extension to 1.618, getting close to US$ 73, and it is now going to at least US$ 66ish in the form of a healthy correction, as shown in the chart below.

Weekly chart of OIL WTI

We might have a period of consolidation in crude WTI between 66ish and 73ish, with a worst case scenario of it going to 60ish. This can help my view of having the extra 3% of weakness in the loonie.

Why is Fibonacci important? Please read the following Investopedia link about Fibonacci. Are you not convinced? Are those just a bunch of numbers? Well, I thought the same thing many years ago, but I like to use Fibonacci only when I see it coincide with real support and resistance levels after I draw a Fibonacci retracement or projection. It doesn’t have to be exact, but when they coincide, I am certain that it is important to use Fibonacci. And, guess what? I have found many fx pairs that coincide with Fibonacci in both long and short time frames, which doesn’t really happen that often with stocks. In my opinion, Fibonacci levels work the best for fx. You also can read about the statistical importance of Fibonacci (within technical analysis) in the following IFTA article (page 4–9).

Remember that, for long term trading, if simplicity is used well, it is better than trying to understand macroeconomic complexity. We don’t need to embrace complexity in order to find the best timing to buy or sell fx rates. Isaac Newton once said:

“Truth is ever to be found in the simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.”

If you are a Canadian exporter, the risk of receiving US dollars in the future is that you might have to receive less Canadian dollars if the loonie appreciates along with commodities, which I believe will happen after the US dollar ends its recent bounce to the upside.

[benpluck]

My Text

Here is my finish text that I will use for my book.

Living a perfect Facebook life isn’t worth the real-world stress

Social networks let us put our best face forward, letting us be someone we're not when offline – but faking it comes with a cost

ON THE internet, nobody knows you’re a dog. It’s a joke that’s almost as old as the web itself – but one that perfectly captures the prevailing idea that you can be whoever you want to be online.

However, it turns out that faking it may be causing us problems. Rachel Grieve and Jarrah Watkinson at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, Australia, have found that when your self-presentation diverges too much from who you really are it can lead to stress and feelings of social disconnection (Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.

Understanding our internet persona is important to researchers, advertisers and governments alike, keen to mine insights from our online activities. But it is often not clear how our real-life identity maps to the version of ourselves we present on social networks. Previous research suggested that we tailor our online interactions to hide aspects of our personality we don’t like – or don’t want to share. In other words, we curate our digital selves to highlight only the best bits.

But that picture may need redrawing. Recent work suggests that our true colours just can’t help shining through. For example, several studies found that Facebook behaviours are an accurate reflection of our personality. For instance, constant updates about our gym habits reveal a genuine narcissistic streak.

 The Obsession of creating a picture-perfect life on social media

Nowadays people seem to be obsessed with showing their lives on social media so the whole world will know they live a perfect happy life. The 30 beautiful pictures of the “new dress” is more likely for a new Facebook profile photo rather than the actual event. If you receive beautiful flowers from someone, everyone on Facebook ore Instagram needs to know about it.

What’s the point of being happy if you’re not going to post it?

if you’re going somewhere interesting, you’re required to post a photo online as an evidence of your awesome experience or else the world will think it didn’t happen. Not to mention, the grand announcement on Facebook seems to be more important than the actual event.

Frist dates must be announced with pictures of the great-looking partner. Photos taken during the date are more important to show your friends how cute was your date, instead of focusing on the quality and personality of the person you dated with. And when out for the night, selfies are a must or it didn’t happen. Single people begin resent seeing romantic couples on their newsfeeds because it serves a constant reminder that they haven’t found someone yet while everyone on Facebook are having the perfect relationships. It’s quite easy to forget that people only post their best moments.

If they want to take pictures to show the world they are having such a good time with friends. Maybe you haven’t noticed this but the truth is, brag cultural has made us so obsessed in narrating our lives online that we sometimes forget how to enjoy every second of it. Believe me, interesting memories doesn’t begin with “Hey, remember that time we took 50 photos in your car…...?

Sad to say, life is now a popularity contest measured by how many followers you have and how many likes you receive when online and prefer to hide away the worst ones.

It seems the success of any relationship is measured by how many pictures you post with your special someone. How sweet you ae in those photos. How romantic your words in the description, and those never post photos with their significant other are quickly assumed to be in a miserable relationship, living unfulfilled lives. Sad to say, for most couples these days, being in love is not enough and a relationship isn’t considered truly successful until every declaration of love is shared on Facebook.

Sometimes, I wonder if people arrange meet ups and get together with friends because they miss being with them or they jusyou share pictures. We easily judge other people’s lives based on what we see on their profile. Just because they didn’t upload travel photos, delicious foods and nights outs. We quickly assumed their lives must be boring.

Don’t let social media fool you. There are so many people who hardly have likes on their pictures, but they still have lots of friends in real life. There are couple who seldom upload romantic photos, the rarely post sweet nothings to declare their love on their statuses, but they are actually happier than the ones you see in your newsfeeds.

There are people who does not brag online about their new gadgets and other expensive little stuff. But they already have their own house, they got fat bank accounts, and they have more achievements in life compared to those who constantly brag on Instagram about their seemingly perfect life of travel and pleasure. This is why you shouldn’t believe everything you see in social media. Everyone’s life is not quite as perfect as they attempt to show online, and appearances can be very deceiving.  

 What do you do whenever everyone else’s life seems perfect and yours doesn’t? I have a close friend who has hit one of life’s many speed bumps in her marriage and family. She recently sent us a note to say one of the reasons she takes breaks from social media is because it literally makes her depressed to see other people’s accomplishments, happy families, and happy lives online. Then she stated if she posted anything at all it would say... “well today I accomplished getting out of the bed and facing the day!” She went on to say that she’s slowly learning to not compare her life to others nor be competitive, but like most of us, it’s a work in progress. 

My first reaction was PLEASE DO NOT believe anything you are reading on social media, at least not in its entirety. But who am I kidding! My life may not have hit a speedbump like hers, at least not today, but as a single 30-something entrepreneur, where society tells me I’m supposed to be married with two kids by now, I do the SAME thing! A great day of business wins, good times with the girls, and a little me time can quickly turn into “what’s wrong with me?” if I don’t catch my thoughts after a few minutes of scrolling through my timeline of today’s most recent announcements.

The truth of the matter is how often do we post what’s “really” going on in our lives? Never. The majority of time we all simply post our highlight reel but never the days where our insecurities have gotten the best of us or we really wanted to throw the spouse we brag on everyday out of the window. Instead we opt to post the cute date night picture from the night before with the hashtag #aboutlastnight.

So just in case you find yourself starting to quickly spiral downhill after reading about and listening to your girlfriends seemingly perfect lives online, many of whom you probably haven’t talked to since high school anyway, here are: 

5 Ways to Get Over Your Facebook Friend’s Perfect Life!

1. Be Realistic Yes, others in your network may have something you desire in life right now, a spouse, a baby, a new contract, a new promotion or are just returning from a great vacation, but at the end of day despite what it looks like, no one’s life is perfect. Fantasizing about someone else’s life only drains us of the energy we need to change our own. 

2. Be Transparent  While you get frustrated because you can’t seem to keep it all together like the other moms or you’re not going out on your second date for the week, the other 75 percent of the world would much rather relate to your transparency of what life is really like than they would your portrait of perfection like most share. 

3. Be Thankful  We can so often concentrate on the things that we don’t have or that we desire to be different in our lives that eventually that is all we see. What we focus and meditate on is what we get. Make a conscious decision to practice gratitude every day, especially when you want to focus on the imperfections in your life. 

4. Take a Break Do like my friend did above and take a break! Take a break from the thing that is magnifying the seemingly imperfections in your life! Whether it’s social media, tv, or even friends, create space in your day and calendar to focus on and do the things that bring you energy. 

5. Take Control of Your Life  Make sure that before you go into your next spiral of, “Why not me? Why not now?” you assess, “Am I doing everything I can to change what I’m about to complain about? What do I own in this situation?” 

Lastly remember, the same life we sometimes get frustrated with is absolutely perfect to someone else who desires the same exact things that you already have! The person with the perfect life is the one who has learned to enjoy the life that she already has!

[sickchickenstudios-blog]

Guard Duty: A Development Retrospective - Devblog #4

The Art of Guard Duty - Pixel Practices

Howdy. Today I would like to take some time to talk to you about my process when creating art for Guard Duty. I’m going to be focussing on pixel art and practices you need to be mindful of when creating your art. Hopefully this will give you a bit of an insight into my process for creating the many pixel packed locations in Guard Duty.

Let’s start with a few basic things you’ll need to keep in mind when working with pixels. My advice here is geared around creating pixel art in Photoshop, but most of the rules will apply to other art packages.

First thing’s first - Decide upon a resolution and stick to it.

The problem I see a lot of people run into when starting in pixel art is in consistency of resolution, that is they often mix different resolutions within the image (or game). Mostly called ‘mixed resolution’, it is a where pixels in the image are not all of a consistent size, often leading to an undesirable look. Traditional pixel art is based on the foundation of a grid, where each pixel acts like a grid square. The pixels are unable to be placed outside of these grid squares, therefore keeping a consistency throughout the image. The hardware used to render pixel art in it’s heyday was unable to handle high resolutions, meaning that each pixel had to be carefully placed to make up the intended image.

See this graphic for example, the image on the left is using a consistent pixel density whereas the one on the right is using a different density between the character sprite and the background (mixed resolution).

You see the difference? The larger pixels on the right-hand image look messy compared to it’s counterpart, this not only looks a bit strange but does not keep with the traditions of creating pixel art. You want to stick to the resolution you started with. There are some examples of modern games which used mixed resolution pixel art successfully, but these are normally used sparingly and are scaled in-engine, mostly to benefit gameplay.

Platformers often use sub-pixel movement to make gameplay smoother, which can lead to character sprites not lining up correctly with background assets. Sprites however are very rarely scaled in engine as this is far more jarring to look at.

Either way, you will save yourself a lot of hassle if you decide on your game’s resolution at the start and stick to this resolution throughout. Guard Duty uses a similar resolution to many of the early LucasArts and Sierra titles using a 4:3 ratio of 320 x 240px. It might not sound like much but that’s 76,800 pixels you’re going to have to wrangle. More than enough for me!

Moving on - Do not use anti aliased tools

Another problem I see that newcomers often run into is the temptation to use tools designed for high resolution artwork, things like the brush tool, smudge, burn/dodge and gradient fill are all inherently anti-aliased and will give you a heap of extra clean-up work. These tools create way too many pixels, with a massive array of shades and colours. You’ll find that tweaking your artwork becomes increasingly harder when using these tools. So just forget them, resist temptation to smudge your wall texture, or use your neat grass brush, It’s really not worth it if you want to create pixel art. The easiest way to keep track of anti-aliasing is to use (almost exclusively) the pencil tool, the pencil tool can be found by click-holding the brush in the toolbar and selecting the pencil from the drop-down menu.

I also recommend turning off the anti-alias setting on the marquee selection tool, transform tool, paint bucket tool and magic wand tool. All of these can be used in pixel art, but with the anti-alias checkbox active you will find that they create a lot of different coloured pixels around the edge of your selection, again causing issues when flood filling areas, or otherwise editing the image.

So as a general rule, make sure each pixel that is going onto your canvas is intentional. Photoshop isn’t really geared towards creating pixel art and you want to make sure it doesn’t do anything without your permission. Bad Photoshop! Behave!

Try to avoid scaling your pixel art

This is similar to my first point, but can often catch you off guard. Once you’ve drawn something on the pixel grid you may find that it doesn’t fit in a scene you’ve created previously, despite both images having the same resolution. You’ve drawn the sprite too small and although the pixels are consistently sized, it just looks tiny in the scene. Well, you’re probably going to have to redraw it, somewhat.

When you scale pixel art Photoshop will try to scale the pixels to match the resolution’s pixel grid, anything under a 200% scale will result in only some of the pixels being larger than others (some will become rectangular) and at 200% the pixels will be twice as big, but still fit into the grid. This is because Photoshop has to keep to the bounds of the canvas resolution and doesn’t know what to do with the new space between pixels.

You can see from the image that some of Tondbert’s upscaled pixels have stayed 1px wide/tall whilst others are now 2px wide or tall. His eyes, nose and left shoulder have suffered the most. Poor Tondbert. This is because Photoshop doesn’t know what to do with the pixels, at the chosen scaling it only has ‘small’ (1px) or ‘big’ (2px).

Anyway, to combat these issues you should always draw your pixel art with other assets in mind. When working on a game you don’t want to have to be scaling the character sprites differently between locations, so you should paste your character sprite into the blank canvas for the new location, so you’ve got something to reference the size. If you stick to a consistent resolution with all your art and be mindful of other assets you’re intending to use together you shouldn’t run into any of these problems.

When scaling pixel art, always use Nearest Neighbour interpolation and scale in multiples

Pixel art is kinda small and most modern computers are displaying a 1920x1080 resolution or higher. This means when showing off your pixel art on a website, it can often look reeeeeally tiny. So, you want to be aware of your image resize settings. You need to make sure the image is scaled in exact multiples of itself, 2x bigger 3x bigger etc. So if your canvas is 320 pixels wide and 240 pixels tall, the upscaled image would need to be 640 pixels wide and 480 pixels tall. To keep it simple scale the image to either 200%, 300% or 400% depending on how big you want it, but never 250% or 225%.

There is also a setting at the bottom of the ‘Image size’ box in Photoshop that has a drop down list of interpolation types, next to the ‘Resample Image’ checkbox. Set this to drop down to Nearest Neighbour(preserve hard edges). It will make sure that your pixels always stay crisp when resizing.

There is a similar drop down box when using the transform controls which you will also need to change, if you do not your sprites will become blurred.

Note the amount of pixels Photoshop has added when trying to smooth out the sprite to 121%, this would make the sprite near impossible to modify beyond this point. Using the Nearest Neighbour interpolation solves this issue.

Stick to a limited palette

When starting out with an image I try to keep the colour count to a minimum, this way you won’t get bogged down with tweaking the finer details and can focus on the bigger picture. It also makes tolerance selecting bits of the image a lot easier. Try to keep to three or four colours per texture, dark, mid and highlight colours. You can add extra colours later if needed but removing colours is a bit of a pain.

Now we’ve gone over the basics, let’s get started on a creating a scene.

Start with a basic thumbnail sketch

This technique applies to both sprite and background creation, but for the purpose of this post we’re going to work with a background.

I like to sketch out a few different compositions for the scene before committing to one. I usually find I get something decent by the third sketch but it may take longer, just stick with it. Each sketch shouldn’t take more than a minute or two, we’re just establishing where the shapes in the scene are going to sit. I use a black 1px brush for this stage but the colour is mostly irrelevant (we will be changing that later). I liked the composition in the second sketch and decided to make the opening more central, adding a fallen tree to the left similar to the first sketch.

Develop the thumbnail sketch

I was pretty happy with this so decided to roll with it. The next image shows how I developed the detail in the image, sticking to the sketchy black lines for now. I occasionally use a dark grey colour to show objects that are further back in the frame.

Establish clean 1px outlines

In the next step I set my sketch layer to semi-transparent (20-40%), lock it and create a new layer then begin to outline each of the individual elements. Remember to use a 1px brush and the pencil tool. About 80% of the time I’m holding shift whilst click two points on the canvas to draw a 1px line between the two points. This saves a lot of time and really helps when drawing straight lines, or long curved ones. At this point in the process you want to keep your pixels as clean as possible, avoiding ‘double pixels’ where the line becomes more than 1 pixel wide.

For the time being I’m using a different colour for each of the elements in the scene, this will make it easier to colour them in the next step and helps to cut down on having lots of layers at this early stage. It’s not necessary, but if you’re drawing everything on the same layer I would recommend it. Plus this is probably the only time you’ll get to use bright pink, vomit green and orange in the same scene!

Separate the outlines and block in the colours

Once I’ve outlined the each of the elements in the scene I pick one and start detailing! I don’t worry about the finer details, I just aim to block out the main shapes and colours. What I have done below is use the magic wand tool (anti-alias turned off) with the tolerance set to 0 and contiguous turned off. This way it will select just that colour from the scene. I cut out the element and paste it into a new layer.

I decide upon a highlight colour and start blocking out the parts of the trunk that are raised, drawing these on the same layer as the trunk outline. Underneath on a new layer I am able to fill in the darker base colour of the trunk, as seen in the third image. This leaves the outline and highlights intact and allows me to use a larger brush size to block in the colour underneath.

You can see where I’ve added some trees and foliage from another background in the top right of the image, this is to get a feel for the colours used in those backgrounds, to help consistency between scenes and because I’m too lazy to draw new trees.

Apologies for the slightly blurry images, they were pulled from the timelapse video.

Add definition with shadows and fine highlights

This is the fun part, giving the object volume. First you want to add another layer above both of your previous layers. Then by carefully placing your shadow colour you can add heaps of definition to the shape. Here I’ve used it to bring out the cracks in the wood, as well as help the branches stand out against whatever will be behind them.

Thanks to having the colours on separate layers I am then able to tweak the balance between the three colours, ready for adding an extra fourth colour for fine highlights.

After adding the fourth colour we’re about done, the object has a nice shape to it with a decent amount of detail. You could work on it further from this point, maybe adding a second dark colour for shadows but I tend to leave it here. Remember, every step of this process was done with the pencil tool and a 1px brush, the only exception was the use of a 10 pixel brush for blocking in the colour. You can use this technique for everything in your scene, I like to merge the layers once I’m finished on each object but that’s personal preference. If you do decide to merge them you have the option of using a Brightness/Contrast or Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to tweak the contrast between the highlights and midtones etc, this won’t affect the pixels or add any anti-aliasing.

Okay! That’s about it. There’s nothing particularly fancy going on once you’ve setup Photoshop to handle pixels appropriately, you just need to follow the process I’ve laid out above and you’ll be creating rad pixel art in no time. If you’ve got any questions feel free to drop me a line on one of our social links or email me on the contact form @ www.sickchicken.com.

Here’s the finished image:

You can watch a timelapse of the process on Youtube here:

For a bit of additional learning, I highly recommend watching the ‘8bit & 8bit-ish’ Graphics GDC talk by Mark Ferrari:

Cheers!

-Nath