#I had to remember how to use masks in photoshop

[ms-demeanor]

Why reblog machine-generated art?

When I was ten years old I took a photography class where we developed black and white photos by projecting light on papers bathed in chemicals. If we wanted to change something in the image, we had to go through a gradual, arduous process called dodging and burning.

When I was fifteen years old I used photoshop for the first time, and I remember clicking on the clone tool or the blur tool and feeling like I was cheating.

When I was twenty eight I got my first smartphone. The phone could edit photos. A few taps with my thumb were enough to apply filters and change contrast and even spot correct. I was holding in my hand something more powerful than the huge light machines I'd first used to edit images.

When I was thirty six, just a few weeks ago, I took a photo class that used Lightroom Classic and again, it felt like cheating. It made me really understand how much the color profiles of popular web images I'd been seeing for years had been pumped and tweaked and layered with local edits to make something that, to my eyes, didn't much resemble photography. To me, photography is light on paper. It's what you capture in the lens. It's not automatic skin smoothing and a local filter to boost the sky. This reminded me a lot more of the photomanipulations my friend used to make on deviantart; layered things with unnatural colors that put wings on buildings or turned an eye into a swimming pool. It didn't remake the images to that extent, obviously, but it tipped into the uncanny valley. More real than real, more saturated more sharp and more present than the actual world my lens saw. And that was before I found the AI assisted filters and the tool that would identify the whole sky for you, picking pieces of it out from between leaves.

You know, it's funny, when people talk about artists who might lose their jobs to AI they don't talk about the people who have already had to move on from their photo editing work because of technology. You used to be able to get paid for basic photo manipulation, you know? If you were quick with a lasso or skilled with masks you could get a pretty decent chunk of change by pulling subjects out of backgrounds for family holiday cards or isolating the pies on the menu for a mom and pop. Not a lot, but enough to help. But, of course, you can just do that on your phone now. There's no need to pay a human for it, even if they might do a better job or be more considerate toward the aesthetic of an image.

And they certainly don't talk about all the development labs that went away, or the way that you could have trained to be a studio photographer if you wanted to take good photos of your family to hang on the walls and that digital photography allowed in a parade of amateurs who can make dozens of iterations of the same bad photo until they hit on a good one by sheer volume and luck; if you want to be a good photographer everyone can do that why didn't you train for it and spend a long time taking photos on film and being okay with bad photography don't you know that digital photography drove thousands of people out of their jobs.

My dad told me that he plays with AI the other day. He hosts a movie podcast and he puts up thumbnails for the downloads. In the past, he'd just take a screengrab from the film. Now he tells the Bing AI to make him little vignettes. A cowboy running away from a rhino, a dragon arm-wrestling a teddy bear. That kind of thing. Usually based on a joke that was made on the show, or about the subject of the film and an interest of the guest.

People talk about "well AI art doesn't allow people to create things, people were already able to create things, if they wanted to create things they should learn to create things." Not everyone wants to make good art that's creative. Even fewer people want to put the effort into making bad art for something that they aren't passionate about. Some people want filler to go on the cover of their youtube video. My dad isn't going to learn to draw, and as the person who he used to ask to photoshop him as Ant-Man because he certainly couldn't pay anyone for that kind of thing, I think this is a great use case for AI art. This senior citizen isn't going to start cartooning and at two recordings a week with a one-day editing turnaround he doesn't even really have the time for something like a Fiverr commission. This is a great use of AI art, actually.

I also know an artist who is going Hog Fucking Wild creating AI art of their blorbos. They're genuinely an incredibly talented artist who happens to want to see their niche interest represented visually without having to draw it all themself. They're posting the funny and good results to a small circle of mutuals on socials with clear information about the source of the images; they aren't trying to sell any of the images, they're basically using them as inserts for custom memes. Who is harmed by this person saying "i would like to see my blorbo lasciviously eating an ice cream cone in the is this a pigeon meme"?

The way I use machine-generated art, as an artist, is to proof things. Can I get an explosion to look like this. What would a wall of dead computer monitors look like. Would a ballerina leaping over the grand canyon look cool? Sometimes I use AI art to generate copyright free objects that I can snip for a collage. A lot of the time I use it to generate ideas. I start naming random things and seeing what it shows me and I start getting inspired. I can ask CrAIon for pose reference, I can ask it to show me the interior of spaces from a specific angle.

I profoundly dislike the antipathy that tumblr has for AI art. I understand if people don't want their art used in training pools. I understand if people don't want AI trained on their art to mimic their style. You should absolutely use those tools that poison datasets if you don't want your art included in AI training. I think that's an incredibly appropriate action to take as an artist who doesn't want AI learning from your work.

However I'm pretty fucking aggressively opposed to copyright and most of the "solid" arguments against AI art come down to "the AIs viewed and learned from people's copyrighted artwork and therefore AI is theft rather than fair use" and that's a losing argument for me. In. Like. A lot of ways. Primarily because it is saying that not only is copying someone's art theft, it is saying that looking at and learning from someone's art can be defined as theft rather than fair use.

Also because it's just patently untrue.

But that doesn't really answer your question. Why reblog machine-generated art? Because I liked that piece of art.

It was made by a machine that had looked at billions of images - some copyrighted, some not, some new, some old, some interesting, many boring - and guided by a human and I liked it. It was pretty. It communicated something to me. I looked at an image a machine made - an artificial picture, a total construct, something with no intrinsic meaning - and I felt a sense of quiet and loss and nostalgia. I looked at a collection of automatically arranged pixels and tasted salt and smelled the humidity in the air.

I liked it.

I don't think that all AI art is ugly. I don't think that AI art is all soulless (i actually think that 'having soul' is a bizarre descriptor for art and that lacking soul is an equally bizarre criticism). I don't think that AI art is bad for artists. I think the problem that people have with AI art is capitalism and I don't think that's a problem that can really be laid at the feet of people curating an aesthetic AI art blog on tumblr.

Machine learning isn't the fucking problem the problem is massive corporations have been trying hard not to pay artists for as long as massive corporations have existed (isn't that a b-plot in the shape of water? the neighbor who draws ads gets pushed out of his job by product photography? did you know that as recently as ten years ago NewEgg had in-house photographers who would take pictures of the products so users wouldn't have to rely on the manufacturer photos? I want you to guess what killed that job and I'll give you a hint: it wasn't AI)

Am I putting a human out of a job because I reblogged an AI-generated "photo" of curtains waving in the pale green waters of an imaginary beach? Who would have taken this photo of a place that doesn't exist? Who would have painted this hypersurrealistic image? What meaning would it have had if they had painted it or would it have just been for the aesthetic? Would someone have paid for it or would it be like so many of the things that artists on this site have spent dozens of hours on only to get no attention or value for their work?

My worst ratio of hours to notes is an 8-page hand-drawn detailed ink comic about getting assaulted at a concert and the complicated feelings that evoked that took me weeks of daily drawing after work with something like 54 notes after 8 years; should I be offended if something generated from a prompt has more notes than me? What does that actually get the blogger? Clout? I believe someone said that popularity on tumblr gets you one thing and that is yelled at.

What do you get out of this? Are you helping artists right now? You're helping me, and I'm an artist. I've wanted to unload this opinion for a while because I'm sick of the argument that all Real Artists think AI is bullshit. I'm a Real Artist. I've been paid for Real Art. I've been commissioned as an artist.

And I find a hell of a lot of AI art a lot more interesting than I find human-generated corporate art or Thomas Kincaid (but then, I repeat myself).

There are plenty of people who don't like AI art and don't want to interact with it. I am not one of those people. I thought the gay sex cats were funny and looked good and that shitposting is the ideal use of a machine image generation: to make uncopyrightable images to laugh at.

I think that tumblr has decided to take a principled stand against something that most people making the argument don't understand. I think tumblr's loathing for AI has, generally speaking, thrown weight behind a bunch of ideas that I think are going to be incredibly harmful *to artists specifically* in the long run.

Anyway. If you hate AI art and you don't want to interact with people who interact with it, block me.

[uzlolzu]

Hi uzlolzu! Your art is so unique and captivating you've been my favourite artist since I was a teenager! I've recently graduated uni now and have done some freelance jobs here and there and I'm wondering how someone goes about building a stable freelance career as an illustrator. Can you share how you started?

Hello and thank you! That’s flattering and I’m very happy to hear it.

I can! Or I will try. It’s a pretty tricky question to answer, because my path into this has been organic and, in a way, one of least resistance.

In short: I was born into it.

Not in an “I’m the chosen one” way, of course, but in that my parents are artists and designers. Both currently work as graphic designers and have worked with illustration in the past. My mum is also a tailor and my dad is a wood carver (my sister does wonderful ceramics and has an education in tailoring too). Art and design, and working in those fields, is a core pillar of my family life.

All of this was pretty convenient for me regarding pursuing a career in illustration; I’ve always had access to all digital and traditional materials I’ve ever needed to draw or paint or do any craft (my first tablet was a 1999 Wacom Intuos 1), I grew up in an environment that was encouraging even when nothing was said, AND I had my parents’ extensive professional network available to me as soon as I was old enough to work. That last part has probably been more important than my level of skill ever was. I was lucky. I hit the ground running. So I can’t really remember a time where design or art of some sort wasn’t already my “career” (in my mind, I had an art career when I was four). It took quite a few years before I understood that I could technically have other jobs.

That said, my first paid jobs were photo editing ones that I got through my parents, not illustration. They were touch-ups, extending, cropping, resizing, masking… Those things that Photoshop often can do on its own now (or at least streamline) but couldn’t when I started almost 20 years ago (though PS and I have been friends for almost 30). Eventually, I got to do small illustrations for the same publications I had edited photos for, as well as some others. These kinds of illustrations still constitute a large part of my work hours, though in greater numbers and larger batches. They aren’t the flashiest, but they pay well. I also still work with my parents often. We’re all self-employed, but it’s really a family business setup at the core.

Moving outside of my inherited network…: I got my table top RPG-jobs by becoming part of the Swedish indie and semi-indie TTRPG scenes, which aren’t very big. It was straightforward to be visible enough and many people had their own (often tiny) projects that needed illustrations. Some of them contacted me. I think a not insignificant portion of the Swedish TTRPG game designers know who I am now, but I started small. Role-playing is one of my biggest hobbies, so networking came naturally. In my experience, these are flashier pictures to make, but rarely pay well (with some glorious exceptions). Anyway: If you have a specific field you want to work in, get involved in that field. There’ll probably be more people who want illustrations than people who illustrate in it.

Then there’s the concept art. I worked as a concept artists for Ubisoft Massive for a few years, and got this job partly through the game developer school (The Game Assembly) that I went to and partly because of my skills, I guess. But TGA and its proximity to Massive was instrumental. Game art is the only profession I have a formal education in.

So, when I started “officially”, I was already in a pretty good situation for it. Another important factor in my case, I think, is that I’m comfortable with many illustrator-adjacent disciplines as well, since the “packaging” or context of an illustration has always interested me. I use Adobe Illustrator and InDesign every week. Sometimes I do design work (layouts, logotypes, powerpoint presentations, annual reports, diagrams…), and I often do the in-betweens (infographics. Icons, patterns, other kinds of logotypes…). I prefer illustration and the in-betweens, but being open to branching out has given me more clients and, as a result, the ability to choose more freely which jobs I accept.

Either way. It’s really helped me to know a little something about all parts of a project, planning phase to phinished product. It makes it easier to talk to everyone involved, whatever their position and profession – programmer or printer. I know how to make a book from start to finish. It’s neat.

And, as you can see, there’s a lot of luck involved here and even if I know when I started getting paid, I can’t really say when I started developing the skills and the network I needed. That’s been a life-long process. And, of the two, I think the network has been more important for landing jobs than the depth of any particular skill of mine (though the variety of them might have helped). The more people who know you, the easier it’ll be, and that number of people will grow with the number of jobs you do. And I might as well add that physical meetings have worked better for me than just online contact. It’s easier to remember someone you’ve met, even if it was just for a few seconds.

And to finish off, I’ll add a few work samples that differ from what I generally post on Tumblr, since the ability to work in many styles has also benefitted me:

(Don’t let the text in the yellow box fool you. It’s Swedish lorem ipsum.)

[blkkizzat]

Quick question, how did you do the animated banner for your account? I had no idea it was even possible so I'm kinda confused and surprised.

Hey nonny! lol that is not a quick answer tho afihdfkadh.

I'm not gonna give a whole tutorial on it just because working with custom highly animated gifs in Photoshop is a big manual process, very finicky and something i know is much more easily done in after effects (i just havent had the time to begin to teach myself that lol).

I will give some tips to get started though.

the basic structure of the animation in my pinned is an image layer (tmz layout), duplicated into multiple frames, then pasting gifs (toji looking back and mouse click) onto various frames via overlay that are playing at different speeds per action.

the click effect was me editing an existing gif of a mouse frame by frame resizing certain frames and recoloring the play button on certain frames. (lol i spent so much time doing this but this was before I knew about keyframes in the video timeline lol).

you need to learn about frame animations, the relationship between frames and layers, layer grouping, clipping masks, clipping masks onto layer groups, converting to video timeline for keyframes and smart objects to sharpen your gifs (the converting back to frame animation).

A good gif resource for creation is this directory which is a bunch of tumblr tutorials on gif making in photoshop. Honestly, this is great for beginners. I don't always do things exactly the way they do it in those tutorials and sometimes I use capcut to animate things to then important into photoshop but multiple ways to get to the same result tbh.

(remember if you are a student you can get a year of adobe creative suite for like $22 a month or you can pirate/torrent a copy of photoshop but make sure you have a VERY good antivirus and that it either comes cracked or has a keygen tool with it).

[bronx-aro]

One thing i think is really interesting with both the Undertale and Deltarune fandom is that even though the characters are quite developped, everyone i see seems to have the felt the same way when they experienced the story. (Alphys and Berdly seems to be the exeption to that for each game, but i will get into that later).

And while it's really cool to see everyone share their feelings and how much they love these stories, i never actually see discuss the way it made them feels outside of in the moment let's play, and maybe a joke about photoshop flowey, the genocide run/snowgrave and killing toriel.

So, and bear with me here, because i'm going to rant a bit about how my experience with both IT and deltarune chapter 2 seem to differ from most people's.

I DID NOT LIKE PAPYRUS AND QUEEN WHEN FIRST PLAYING.

Queen especially, Papyrus i like better now but he's still probably at the bottom of the list of my favorite "main" characters for UT now.

Okay, before you bring out the pitchforks for the Papyrus slander, i want to explain a few things.

When i first played UT, the only thing i knew about it was the "wanna have a bad time" meme, Sans apparence and the fact their was multiple routes deoending on your actions.

So i played a bit, killed toriel, felt really bad and reset because there was no way this was part of whatever "good" route i knew existed. Flowey gave me an existantial crisis so bad it made me reconsider my entire life choices and made me aware to my core that everything here actually mattered, that what i did mattered, if not to them, then to me.

Needless to say that was ingrained in me whenever i played UT and afterward DR.

So here i was, freaked out, and then immediatly introduced to the squelbros. I knew there was more to Sans that met the eye but his demeanor was so chill i knew he was a companion i would enjoy to have along.

Do any of you remember meeting Papyrus for the first time? Because it was with him having been described as a human hunting fanatic.

Not a good start to my already nervous ass. To say i was apprehensive was an understatment. Because even if he seemed aloof, you dont need to be smart and collected to hurt someone. Even if it became obvious quite quickly he wabted to capture me and not kill me, it took me until i fought with him to realise that he actually wouldnt hurt me even by accident.

I DID enjoy all the puzzles and interractions before snowdin, but i probably wouldnt have been as relaxed playing it if Sans wasnt out there keeping an eyesocket out for me.

So! First impression of Papyrus? A bit nerve wacking, but it was still funny so it can only go up from there? Right?

Right?

...

Okay, let's go about the date.

I didnt want to be there. At all. I purposfully didnt flirt with him the whole fight because the entire idea made me uncomfortable to my core. I was SO relieved at the end it. The actual date was alright, i guess, but it made me feel bad more than it made me have a fun time.

Okay, a rough patch. What's next?

Him introducing us to Undyne!

And that was when i realised why didnt like him all that much. Yeah, he's good hearted and all, but... He just pulls me everywhere assuming that this fine. He kept projecting his own wants onto me, and everyone around him, and never took the rejection well. Sans being a sentry? Hil and Undyne's whole thing? Clear exemple of that.

And yeah, they might have went along with it because they cared, but the game didnt give me that choice, either. And even outside of that, he clearly had trouble considering other peoples points of view and accepting them.

All of that, combined with the mask of the great papyrus he puts on making it hard to know what is true, exageration, or something he might have deluded himself into thinking was true, made it pretty hard to connect with him.

...

So! That's it with Papyrus! It's a perspective i have wanted to share for a while but seeing how the fandom could fall into the whole "if anyone says anything bad about this character ever i would murder them" thing i wasnt really comfortable doing it unless in longpost format.

...

So now, let's talk about Queen!

Unlike with Papyrus, i was actually really freaking surprised to see that seemingly nobody felt the same way about her than i did. Like, i was downright gobsmacked. So, unlike with UT, i will begin this by the end of the stories: me interracting, ith the fandom after i played.

I started with the classic route of watching let's plays. After switching between a few different people's first episode, i thought the reason why thay didnt seem to take her seriously in any kind of way was because they were, well, youtubers. It is their job to both play games and entertain. Of course they would focus on the jokes if the hundred game they played this year, it made sense.

So i switched to analysis/commentary videos and hanging around on tumblr. And realised that, no, actually i was the outlier here. It felt like getting punched in the gut.

So! Here i was, watching the while fandom proclaim how much they loved queen, how funny she was, ect. As if her entire personnality was just to make bad computer jokes and race tracks.

Because that was NOT what i saw.

I saw an unstable person (who kept drinking so i also assumed drunk/alcoholic) that had kidnapped and was stalking a kid. I saw someone out of touch with reality that could go from being happy and playing a game to trying to kill you. I saw an obsessive, looming figure that was always around the corner.

I saw someone who saw proceeded to, depending on the character, try and entice them by promising them all they wanted, ignore them completly even when they wanted nothing more than a shred of attention, and just generally took advantage of what she perceived to be other peoples emotionnal weakness to try and have them do what she wanted to. Wether that was creating a dark fountain, being her minion or stopping their attempts at stopping her.

She was one of the most menacing villain i ever met. Manipulative, Obsessive, Unpredictable and otherwise seemingly Unstable. Each of her apparenced filled me with dread.

The only time i saw someone acknowledging any of this was a video essay about how she could represent a different kind of mother to each of the charaters (absent, overbearing, negligent, love bombing...). It made me feel SO much better about my experience with it.

...

So yeah, i really wanted to share my perspective on these characters since most of the UT/DR dont seem to have shared that particular kind of analysis before.

Also, since i mentionned in the intro: I feel like Alphys and Berdly suffered from the fact that geekt people are seem as annoying. Like, i saw SO many people get angry/annoyed at seeing Berdly when they only saw less than 10 pieces of dialogue before. He's such a fun character but get immediatly cast asside because he can be a bit prickly. He's ridiculous and over the top, but so are so many characters. He's just a kid who is bad at social interractions and thinks being better than everyone means he will get more love/attention. I wish more people would actually give him a chance instead of writing him off right away.

As for Alphys, a lot of the people who feel negatively about her do so after playing the pacifist ending and being angry at her actions. But i feel like even before people got to that point, the whole "texting everywhere" in hot land made some people annoyed enough that they disliked her for it. I wasnt in that case and actually quite liked the whole thing but i get where people are coming from. It's honesly the only section i can think off where i saw the fandom being really split in how they felt about the her when first encountering her.

If anyone wants to share their own experiences and how it affected them while playing, PLEASE do so! Especially if you feel like it's not a commun one!

[niamh-sims]

Get to know you- Sims Style

@clouseplayssims tagged me. I only play TS2 (never played TS1, only briefly played TS3 and only played TS4 for about 5 mins), so all answers pertain to TS2!

What’s your favorite Sims death?

Death by Old age. I live my Sims to live a long and fulfilled life. But, playing medieval, my more common deaths are 'death by childbirth' (mod), 'death by starvation', and 'death by fire'!

Alpha CC or Maxis Match?

In my medieval game, I use alpha CC. All Maxis items are hidden, so my game is pretty much 100% CC.

Do you cheat your sims weight?

No. My sims start off either 'average' or 'overweight', and how they change is up to them in game. (Can weight even be cheated in TS2?)

Do you move objects?

All the time!

Favorite Mod?

So many! But my absolute faves are the @sunmoon-starfactory suite of sets. They add so much to historical game play, and I would never be happy playing without them!

First Expansion/Game Pack/Stuff Pack?

I purchased TS2 discs going back to 2006.... I can't even remember the first EP/SP I purchased. I do remember hanging out for the release of Seasons though, and rushing to the shop to buy it after uni classes finished for the day!

Do you pronounce live mode like aLIVE or LIVing?

Live like aLIVE. However, the arguments for live like LIVing are pretty persuasive. You build in build move, and live in live mode!

Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made?

I love the Sims I'm making for my Elder Scrolls 'hood. Current fave would have to be Wylandriah, a Bosmer elder!

Have you made a simself?

Never. I'm still on the fence about that one. I do find it a little weird putting other Simselves in my game.

Which is your favorite EA hair color?

Red. I'm partial to gingers IRL. I do use Pooklet colours though, and my fave Pooklet reds are Explosive & Pyrotechnic.

Favorite EA hair?

None of them?! They are all hidden in my game and I use CC.

Favorite life stage?

I am really partial to toddlers and children.

Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay?

Both! I love neighborhood decorating, building lots, worldbuilding, and playing. Currently still rebuilding my DL folder, and can't wait to get back to building and then playing my Elder Scrolls neighborhood!

Are you a CC creator?

Not at all. I have done a few basic recolours, and I can edit objects very primitively in SimPE. I would love to learn, but lack the time and patience!

Do you have any Simblr friends or a Sim Squad?

Not really. There are quite a few Simmers I chat to, either via email, Tumblr DM's or Discords.

Do you have any sims merch?

No.

Do you have a YouTube for sims?

No.

How has your “Sims style” changed throughout your years of playing?

I started with a mish-mash of CC I found on the exchange. Then, started on LJ and fell in with An_nas and Penny Sims, and became very Maxis Match. Then, drifted toward grunge (I miss my grungified Baskerville, it was spectacular!). Then, I took a few years away from Simming and came back fully committed to historical gameplay. My Elder Scrolls 'hood is my 'anything goes' hood, with supernaturals. I also plan an Anglo-Saxon 'hood set in the 800's, and an Anglo-Norman 'hood set in the 1300's. They will both be more 'historically accurate' within the confines of the game.

Who’s your favorite CC creator?

@sunmoon-starfactory, followed by Almighty Hat. there are so many others I love though!

How long have you had Simblr?

My first post was on 26th October 2015!

How do you edit your pictures?

I use Photoshop... Crop, unsharp mask, add border, occasionally add lens flare. I might use a filter if I can find one I like.

What expansion/ gamepack is your favorite?

Seasons.

Tagging @helene2troie, @12raben, @simbury (If you want to do it!)

[nardaviel]

oc wants meme

I'm just gonna do this for Sora and Sam, my main guys. Listen, it's a bad pain day and talking about my OCs cheers me up

Sora Yumura

His faceclaim is Miura Haruma, when he had longer hair. The first pic is The Sora pic. My Photoshop skills aren't that good but that's as good as they're going to get, and I think it gets the idea of what he looks like across. But the second one is an extremely Sora facial expression.

Description: Tall, a little too skinny, but well-dressed and strikingly attractive, with wavy green hair and observant grey eyes in a clever face. A lot of poise, a lot of charisma, witty but respectful. All of that is a mask and he is really hoping you're taken in by his facade of functionality, but it is convincing as hell. Even dazzling, at times, if he needs to really turn on the bright lights. So almost everyone falls for it, in the end. His (rich) parents died when he was young and he was raised by his (incredibly rich) aunt and uncle, who were emotionally abusive, although he would say that that's an exaggeration. His little cousin is like a brother to him, and he protected him from his aunt and uncle as best he could, but that didn't stop him from getting the fuck out of Japan entirely as soon as he could leave for university. (There were other reasons and other traumas behind that too, but this isn't Sora's entire life story lol.)

What do they say they want? (i.e., what are the desires they put out into the world and have no trouble admitting)

Sora wants the top job. He won't be crass enough to actually say that to you, but his ambition is clear enough if you're in a position to look at his education and employment choices. He wants what's best for his loved ones, of course, which will always include his little cousin Ibushi, and depending on time period may also include Sam and his children, if he has any in the AU in question. He is likely to downplay how serious he is about that, however, and he won't mention his small circle of close friends, whose safety and well-being he is just as intense about. (But if their well-being is actually at issue, you may find yourself surprised by his complete 180 from charming and diplomatic to grim and uncompromising and ruthless.)

In all honesty, Sora isn't very open with most people about how he feels or what he wants. Aside from really surface-level stuff ("I'd kill for a coffee"), this is about all you're going to get.

What do they think they want? (i.e., what are the desires they keep hidden and only admit to their closest loved ones)

He wants to keep his loved ones safe and happy, and to them he'll admit that he'll do a whole lot to make that happen. He wants to believe his parents would be proud of him. He wants to be able to use his power to make a positive difference, but also to advance his personal interests, and he doesn't feel particularly bad about the second one. He wants to crush all his competition and see the looks on their pathetic faces when they realize he's beaten them, but he wants no one else to even notice anything has happened, because it's more satisfying that way. He wants to raise his children differently from how he was raised.

What do they actually want? (i.e., what is something they subconsciously need, but either do not realize or cannot admit)

Sora wants to feel safe. He hasn't felt safe since his parents died and he went to live with his aunt and uncle, which means in most AUs he doesn't remember ever feeling that way, and in the others it's a faint, hazy memory and he kind of suspects he made it up. He doesn't think in those terms, though, which is a shame because it's behind a lot of his decision-making. As time passes, he will start to experience transient moments of safety with Sam, and as he gets older, the omnipresent sense of danger will decrease some. That's about the best he's gonna get, but he'll still be grateful for it, without being able to name what it is.

Sam Quinn

He doesn't have a picture. :C I'm sorry, Sam. He is also @vashtijoy's OC as much as he is mine but I am writing about him nonetheless.

Description: Very tall giant man, with fluffy golden hair and hazel eyes that are quick to brighten with amusement. Otherwise, they're calm and thoughtful. Sensual lips, either a skinny nerd frame or an intimidatingly muscled frame depending on which AU he comes from. He's the middle child of a normal and loving middle-class family in London (unless the AU dictates that he is a medieval peasant instead, but he remains the middle child of a loving family). His curiosity and cleverness have often gotten him into Oxford, but also often gotten him into trouble. I wish you could be less interested in explosions, Sam.

What do they say they want? (i.e., what are the desires they put out into the world and have no trouble admitting)

Sam wants to learn things! He wants to study, read books, go to interesting places, and build his professional life around learning and discovery. He often ends up as an academic, and sometimes a teacher. He is often grabbed by a new interest and gets sucked into it for a bit, and he will definitely tell you everything he hopes to find out about it. He wants to be able to help his siblings take care of his parents when they get old. He wants to do good and help the less fortunate, especially once he marries into Soras $100mil+ family (which is only a family once he marries into it; it was just Sora until that point, alone with his parents' inheritance).

What do they think they want? (i.e., what are the desires they keep hidden and only admit to their closest loved ones)

He wants a family. He's always the reason they have kids. Sora loves their children and is a devoted father once they have them, but he only agrees to adopt (or find a surrogate, or use whatever magical gay-parent baby method is available) because having children means so much to Sam.

He also wants to be open about their relationship, when being closeted is often important to Sora's career, and so Sora has to make a decision about what to prioritize. (The answer is Sam. He chooses Sam. But it's genuinely difficult for him.) Sam doesn't ever ask him to make that choice, but when Sora pushes, he will admit that being closeted makes him sad.

You might be getting the impression that Sam is less of a complicated tangle of needs and wants and impulses than Sora. You're right! Sora is *gestures* like he is, and Sam is not like that.

What do they actually want? (i.e., what is something they subconsciously need, but either do not realize or cannot admit)

He wants a community. A family with Sora and children is probably the best way to make this happen, but in other AUs it's been Sora and a few friends they often see and trade with. He just needs a little group of people around him. Like Sora, he isn't really aware of this innermost need. He just thinks he wants kids because he wants to be a dad, which is also true.

Sam just doesnt thrive when he's alone, even if he's in the middle of a city. That's not a community; he needs something tight-knit, where he's respected for who he is as a person and what he can contribute. (In some AUs, that's another answer to this question. He wants someone to see him and think he's not broken just because he's curious and asks questions.) ...Gotta say, though, all of this causes a lot fewer problems than Sora's constant the-alarm-is-broken sense of being in danger does.

Sora does poorly when he's alone as well, although he doesn't need a community in the same way. He needs people who are his, and who he belongs to in turn. The best way to make him feel safe is to make him feel protected. So although their wants are different, they harmonize, inasmuch as Sora's desperate, clawing, wailing sense of danger can harmonize with anything.

[katieqnmr]

february and everything after

Post-production for me consisted of colour grading, finding a piece of music for Peer to use diagetically (because I wanted to) and creating a title card/credits.

Colour grading: the longest process - I am not a colour grader. I am lucky I know how to use photoshop because I would honestly be lost without that knowledge! I did the absolute best I could. I’ve talked with Eva about how we probably need much more attention out on how to colour grade, or it should possibly be done out of house altogether. The idea that I could ruin the shots I’ve carefully prepared and lit just by not knowing what I’m doing is very scary! During shooting, Eva, Alex and I noticed a weird red tint on some of the shots, particularly when we stacked ND filters. I assured myself that I could fix this in post, because there really wasn't anything else we could do. We tried to offset it in camera, but generally it wouldn't leave! I found that doing a Node Tree where the 1st node was for Lift Gamma and Gain (as Paul thankfully advised me!) which I labelled LGG was a really good first step. Once the levels were correct (and I had ensured I was working in the correct colour space), I was able to start correcting issues, namely the red tint. I think in almost all the scenes I was able to eliminate it or work around it, especially scene 8 I think worked well. For scene 8 I layered various tints, making a 2nd node for a greener Lift, and the creating a 3rd node to bring the warmth back in the Gamma and Gain. This went a long way to adding depth and removing the dreaded red tint. I also did some selective masking for example on Harry’s jacket which had partly turned maroon. But I was able to make it blue/black again with the colour dropper mask and some blurring. I did this for any issue that had specific areas to change, another one was the white plastic bag in the loch. (Though that is the one I’m least happy with). Generally I kept up this process of LGG node and then multiple layers pushing green and then yellows and reds in layers until the shots had much more depth to them.

But in scene 11 (the last one) the red tint made the shore look distinctly meat-like, while the Jo's skin (especially) was also reddish-pink, so I couldn't change it. I tried to mask it but it looked even more obvious that something strange was happening. I managed to mask the reverse shot on Phoebe thankfully, but alas the whole thing is more pink than I wanted.

Generally I think I did well. I have to say I am curious about what a professional colour-grader would be able to do with it!

Song for Scene 4

We needed a different piece of music from scene 3 to 4, to show a change of time, and perhaps mood. Arina Brovanova (angel) had scored just one diagetic song to be used for this, so we needed another! (Though hers was great and is in scene 3). I had been thinking about how sometimes the most tense/best atmosphere creation with music comes from juxtaposition and the irony of using a happy song whilst such a tense scene was unfolding seemed like it might work really well. I remembered a song I had helped my friend Charis produce (that she wrote and composed, and I did harmonies for her and our friend Ben did some guitar on) called 'in your arms', which was a very feel-good song about vulnerability and happiness within that. It's a very sweet song but in this scene it ramps up the tension and I think it works really well! Peer and Orla happily agreed :)

Title card

I have been making film titles since 1st year, and all throughout my time at Napier. I love animation and typography, so I always opt to make titles when I can. For Saint Catherines, Orla and I thought combining the wave sounds you hear at the end with a water animation might be nice, so I animated a wave washing the title away (thanks Orla!).

[heavnlytears]

Hi! I purchased the always connected full bundle. How exactly do I edit with it?

Hello ! First of all: thank you for purchasing my psd, I hope you enjoy using it as much as I enjoyed making it !

I also hope that it's ok that I'm posting your ask for everyone to see, I was going to answer it privately but I thought this could be a great way of posting a mini tutorial in case someone else has the same question ( let me know if you want me to delete this and i will ).

Below the read more, you can find an in-depth explanation on how to edit the "always connected" full bundle !

This is what the screen looks like as soon as you open the psd on photoshop:

On the screen, you can see a note and the rules. The original layers are divided in the group layer, the main graphic group layer and the pop-ups group layer.

The first thing you should do, is to toggle off the visibility of the first group layer. You'll be left with what I call the main graphic ( images below ).

The main graphic has a lot of parts and possible iterations, so let me know if you want a more in-depth tutorial on how to edit them. But as you can see, I have some "optional" group layers, which means they can be used to substitute each other. That way, you can have the reminders aspect of the graphic, the notes aspects of the graphic or another photo, see below for the other two options:

After you figured out which of the two options you want, you can start editing each individual group layer. All of them are formatted so you can just clip the photo to their respected shape and it'll work. ( to clip, the photo needs to be in a layer directly above the shape you want to clip them to and you can either use ctrl + alt + g on windows or right click the layer of the photo you want to add and select "create clipping mask" )

Now, onto the pop-ups. This is what you see as soon as you click the pop-ups group layer:

I made it so all of the elements in the main graphic had a customizable pop-up. That means you'll have to remember to edit the "widget notifications" to match the original graphic, but I think it looks cute when it's done. I also formatted all of them to work with clipping masks, so all you have to do is to go through the ones you want to use and clip the photos to the correct shapes.

I, once again, can go through a more in-depth tutorial about all of those group layers if you want, just let me know !

All of the colors and fonts are also fully customizable, so here's how to edit them to the palette you want/fits you the best:

First of all, I like to enable "properties". To do that, all you have to do is to open the windows menu and select properties. The tab below will open and you can choose where you want to leave it ( i like to add it to the collapsible menu next to the fixed one on the right of the screen )

As you can see, "properties" allows me to see the sizes of the shapes, their colors and so many other aspects of the shape selected. To change their color, all i do is select the shape I want, open "properties" and scroll down to "appearance". Most of the shapes only have "fill" enabled, so I click on the current color and choose a new one.

Let me know if you have any more questions and I'll be happy to help !

[khaotungthanawat]

hiiiii i really love ur gifs so much !!!!! im trying out some effects recently and i really like the third gif here : https://www.tumblr.com/khaotunqs/732573928879472640/i-cant-live-without-you-sand-me-neither?source=share how did u make this!!!! <3 (if its ok for u to share)

hello!!! thank you so much! 💖💖💖

here is the set anon is referring to!

here's me being way too long-winded about how i made that gif:

note: this assumes you use photoshop, and that you already know how to make gifs. i work primarily in timeline, so everything i talk about is specific to that method.

this wasn't super complicated, i don't think? i used @cal-kestis's tutorial on motion blur transitions with timeline to get that shift effect. i didn't make any adjustments of my own, since i liked the end result.

i made the two gifs that i wanted to shift between, and then clipped and blurred according to nik's tutorial. this is what my timeline looks like once i had my clips chunked:

once i had the two gifs in the motion blur transition, i wanted to add something to give it a 'shining' quality, if that makes sense? i used this light leaks video on yt to make that happen!

since the video is an .mp4, i was able to open it up directly in ps, which i always do when i can, since it means to don't have to take screencaps of it. it automatically opens as a smart object and i can get the entire clip so i can move it around in timeline to get a segment that i like over the gif.

i set the video group to 'screen' and added a gradient map with my focus colors (green and yellow) on top of that. i created a clipping mask to clip the gradient map layer to the video group so the gradient map would only be applied to that specific layer. i set the gradient map layer to multiply (i found 'screen' made the whole gif too light).

so there's the gif part (i think i remembered everything?). now on to typography!

'you think i want you as my' and 'of course not' are in quicksand, bold, 10.5pt. 'boyfriend' is a font called pinch my ride, regular, 60pt. i changed the case for 'b', 'r', and 'd' from lower to uppercase bc i just thought it looked better!

in blending options, i added a gradient overlay in my focus colors and set the angle to -90 as i wanted a even lined gradient. i set that gradient overlay to 'hard light' and then set the layer to 'difference'. then (i'm sorry this is so long) i copied that text layer. went into blending options again, deselected the gradient overlay and drop shadow, selected 'stroke' and went with a 1px white stroke set to 'outside'. back in the layers, i set the fill to 0% so only the stroke was visible. once i had the stroke, i shifted that layer down and to the right (five cursor strokes each).

i converted my timeline back to frames (god bless @anyataylorjoy's action for this step) and tadaaaa:

i am truly terrible at tutorials, so i really hope this made some kind of sense! you can always send me another ask <3 thank you for asking, and happy giffing!

[mimiatmidnight]

Have you seen this https://twitter.com/ellievhall/status/1648356273887256577?s=20

I have. I chose not to reblog it because the image is so violently and outrageously and unambiguously racist, to a level I don't believe I have seen before in all my years of following Meghan's saga. I didn't want to spread that kind of disturbing imagery, but I'm glad some big names on Twitter were discussing it and bringing attention to the absolute mask-off display these lunatics are now comfortable engaging in.

I do have one thing to say though: There are monarchists in the replies of Ellie's tweet bringing up "KKKate" and similar squad memes, I guess in an attempt of the most pathetic, paper-thin whataboutism in history. The two examples are self-evidently nowhere near comparable. However, I will say ONE thing as an aside: I personally find it extremely upsetting to see the images some Sussex stans photoshop of W&K with burning crosses or swastikas or KKK hoods. I couldn't care less about those two, but the weight that those symbols hold are unspeakably heavy, and I think people need to remember they are invoking the memory of REAL genocide when they're sharing their silly lil twitter memes for a giggle.

HOWEVER . . . There is also a real phenomenon we have all observed over the years of the Waleses explicitly courting colonialist and white supremacist imagery. So in that sense, one could argue that the KKK memes are an astute criticism of how W&K really do behave. A necessary point of sociopolitical commentary. And you know what, I would agree. The thesis behind those memes is hardly coming out of nowhere. I guess I would just say . . . please at least tag your memes of the royals, like, making literal fucking Nazi salutes, with content warnings so that people who don't want to see that shit won't.

Once again, though, the two fandom behaviors are of course, OF COURSE, not at all equally "bad." The anti-Meghan discourse, like the image you linked, is the violent work of the most depraved people I've ever had the misfortune to know. Anybody trying to compare the two is not fooling ANYONE serious.

(I'm going to link the content this anon shared because that is my general practice, but please, PLEASE use caution opening it if you haven't seen the cartoon yet. However bad you think it is, I promise you it's worse.)

https://twitter.com/ellievhall/status/1648356273887256577?s=20

[kaiowut99]

GX Finalized-Subs!90 (WIP): The State of GeneX Medal Play [UPDATE!]

Spent the past week getting work on finalized 89 and 90 going, and since I only had one quick animation fix to work on for 89, I'm onto prepping 90--as part of that, I'm getting to redo one of my first on-screen translation edits, done way back in 2012-ish when I first subbed 90 using only Sony Vegas and Aegisub, iirc. It's neat to take another crack at it using Photoshop, though I also necessarily had to redo it due to the differences in video quality (I did also use a DVDRip back then, but it was a more manual encode from a different source, iirc, hence the black bars on the side) and the fact that somehow I thought to encode a hardsub into the raw clip... which I wouldn't have done now, lol.

So, this is Samejima's computer screen as he looks over GeneX's progression with our main crew early into the episode; in Photoshop, I first stitched together the screen he scrolls through (on the left), then worked to blank it, painting over the Japanese for most of it. When it came to the DA circle in the middle with the dorm names, I tried to apply a render off DeviantArt, but between the border on each letter and the text not quite matching up, I opted to instead redo some of the letters (mainly the "ISK" in "Obelisk," done with Times New Roman, and painting over the bottom of the "B" in Blue, while I copy/pasted part of the "R" in "Ra" over the "R" in "Osiris" to cover up the end of the "count" kanji). Got it fully blank by about Wednesday night.

Then, yesterday, I started adding in the English text and got that knocked out easily (final product on the right, with my last go at it in the middle for comparison); I don't have the original sub file I used for the text here way back (thanks, failing drive in October), but I did remember using the Corbel font for the header there, then also used it for the "Duel Count," "Medals Won," and "Primary Cards Used" text, while I used Arial here for the names. I also lengthened the boxes under the latter to fit "Monster/Magic/Trap Cards" to match the original text. Applied a light blur and some noise on the text, as well as a light drop shadow, and voila. Overall, I think it looks much cleaner than the 2012 attempt, though I wish I could figure out how to make the drop shadow a smidge less blurry, but it'll do.

So, next steps for this is to throw it into Sony Vegas and redo the scrolling, while applying a light screen flicker (which I'll do using a solid blue every couple frames with a screen blend).

The kicker is trying to make this work in the follow-up scene after the OP with Samejima on top as he scrolls from Misawa to Saiou (which I managed to; see the update reblog linked above!]:

I was originally thinking of also stitching together the scrolling here, then redrawing Samejima as needed on top of the text I'm covering up, and I did stitch it together, but I'm realizing I'll have to make the edits frame-by-frame to account for him and three of his lip-flap frames that I can just loop as needed once it stops on Saiou.

So--and thinking out loud--I'm thinking I'd redraw more of Samejima and then save and mask him out to use later and keep him looking consistent, while I use that stitch I've done to redraw the screen to just leave the text, recycling the text edits for the Duel Count/Medals Won/Primary Cards sections from earlier on Saiou's side; once I redo the text, I'll put Samejima back and make him more transparent where he's on top of the new text. Then, when I throw the frames back into Sony Vegas, I'll take the original video and mask Samejima back on to the parts without text in each. I think... that'd work... Hmm. (EDIT: Funny, that's exactly how it went; see the update link above to my reblog, lol.)

Seems I did go frame-by-frame in my last try too, though not as clean as I'd have liked now:

I can see why 4Kids opted to just cut the Misawa-scrolling part of this scene and just keep the Saiou part for the dub (though I would've thought they'd have access to the files used for this at least lol)

[pranilozabcufashion]

Lookbook - Front and Back Page

To start off creating this lookbook, I remember being told that we were allowed to rename the trend so after a bit of brainstorming I had decided to rename ”Grunge Romance” to “ Blood is a new Black” shortened to BITNB, as it is a spin-off of the phrase “____  is the New Black” meaning whatever word somebody starts off the phrase with it means it is the new chic or it is currently fashionable. I like this new name as it is memorable catchy and rolls off the tongue. 

I had also decided I had needed to find a font that appropriately represent this trend, so after looking online I had found a serif font called “Gothicus” In Adobe's own font library.  I like this font as it is obviously quite representative of the gothic subculture that is known for using Blackletter style/Old English script in calligraphy, and as Grunge Romance/ Blood is the New Black does take inspiration from the gothic subculture I thought this font would be great for this trend. 

After using the text tool on Photoshop  and selecting the gothicus font I had dragged out where I wanted my text to be and type out the trend name. I had also wanted an appropriate background As the front page of the lookbook would set the tone for the rest of the other pages, the front page of the lookbook should show the reader exactly what the trend is visually before they even start reading. I had gone online and found this fabric image, coincedentelly also called Grunge romance And how to use this as the background for my front and back page .

I had gone online and tried to find noise / grain details That would make the background more rugged and messy, as if it was quite old, As well as using the levels tool to change the darkness and lightness of the background enhancing certain details.  

Next, as the name of the trend is “Blood is a new Black” I had an idea where I wanted to add a blood-dripping effect to the text, this had taken quite a while as I had not found any short solution to this and had involved me turning the text into a PNG image, although eventually I had figured out and had achieved the result I was looking for. I had decided I had only wanted the blood dripping effect to be only on the word ”blood”  as it seemed right and it'd be more impactful and eye-catching for the front page of the lookbook. Next, I had wanted the rest of the text to stand out from the background so I had gone into the effects section of the text and added a drop shadow to the text so that the title doesn't seem flat against the background.

Going back to the blood dripping effect I had gone into the effects section,  and added a pattern overlay of water,  to make the blood seem more realistic in a way, I'd wanted this to be a subtle detail as if I had decreased the opacity the effect would show too much and the attention would be brought solely towards the word blood and ruin the rest of the page in my opinion.

My next step was to add some images of models that would represent the trend appropriately I'd found some on the WGSN website, under the Grunge Romance trend, as well as other sites. I had used the selection tool to highlight the model and use the vector mask tool to get rid of the background therefore only showing what I had selected with the selection tool, cleaned up any parts of the background that would shown by selecting the paintbrush, selecting the black colour, and selecting the vector mask and going over what parts I had wanted to be hidden. I plan to do this for all images and models that I want to use for the rest of this lookbook as it makes it easier to show/hide any parts of an image instead of selecting parts and deleting it, because if I had made a mistake and spotted it later, I would have to go back using the history section, therefore getting rid of any work I might have done after. After removing the background I had moved about and placed the images that I thought looked nice.

I had also used the Levels adjustment tool to change the mid-tones and undertones of the models as well to fit the theme of the trend which would be darker and sort of grittier as the original images were quite bright.

Before adding more images of models I had wanted to add something in the background so that it wasn't just a shade of red, so I had gone online and found a low-angle image of a church which I'd looked quite ominous and thought this would be perfect, so I had again used the vector mask tool and hid in the background of the image, lowered the opacity as to still show the details of the red fabric and placed it on one half of the double page spread, duplicated it and put it on the other side of the DPS so that it has a mirroring effect. I also decided to organise all my images into folders as to make finding certain images so that if I'd want to change anything in the future it wou;d be much easier and I'm not having to move about layers and getting confused about what goes where.

I found more images of models and clothing that I thought reflected the trend quite well, I used the levels tool for each image and made them each slightly darker but still made them stand out. I had again moved about and experimented with where I had wanted each image. Something that I had found quite useful while manipulating these images was while having the levels layer above an image that I'd wanted to change the brightness of, and selecting the Levels adjustment layer and pushing ALT In-between the levels and the image it would make it so that adjustment tool only affects that specific image, this would allow me to independently change the brightness of each image freely, which was extremely useful.

[iron-touch]

Author's Notes: Chapter 38 (Don't Talk to Strangers)

Alright, let's not waste any time and get right into it.

You know, it really should've been a full moon rather than a half moon to set the mood for this chapter, but that wouldn't have been historically accurate! This chapter takes place on May 31st, and the moon on May 31st, 2009 was a half moon (or a "First Quarter moon," same thing). I've been keeping a detailed timeline of events for the fic since day one just in case these little issues come up, so it's nice to finally be able to flex it. Chapter 30 also opens with a mention of the moon, but uses no specific phase in the prose because the pre-Chicago IX Boney chapters are a little more iffy with their timeline placement by virtue of being added after the timeline was finished (remember, all of this sprung up because of Depeche).

Originally, I wanted this chapter to open up on an extended scene of Cascada out on the water along with a crush/girlfriend, who I kinda regret cutting because I was really fond of her. Her name would've been Miki (after Miki Matsubara) and her Stand would've been named Shinedown, which had the ability to change the brightness of any object (not just making them brighter, but also "darker" too, kind of like the brightness slider in Photoshop). Shinedown's appearance would've been based off of a Ryūtō, a yokai that takes the form of a light dragon. Miki and Cascada would've been out stargazing together, with Miki being an astronomy nerd, and Cascada would've talked to her about no longer wanting to be an assassin rather than internalizing it like we see in the final chapter. I got rid of her both because I felt like her presence hurt the pacing of the chapter and I didn't really know what else to do with her after her introduction. I didn't want her to get masked or end up being Boney's victim because I felt like that'd come off as fridging. In the end I cut her, but she's still canon in my heart. I'd like to imagine she's somewhere at the resort.

Ever since I first read Stone Ocean I've had the headcanon that Rikiel is Midler's son solely based off of their similar hair colors (at least going by Midler's HFTF design) and because I think that's way more interesting than Dio just knocking up some random Floridian woman. That's why Midler mentions him never getting his license; Rikiel didn't get his either. But I get that this is a BIG headcanon to accept if you're not on board with it, and I don't want anyone to feel like I'm coming off as any more self indulgent than I already am, so that bit is intentionally left a little vague.

Originally, Midler was going to be the one who decapitated Boney with the chainsaw rather than Moon River. Once I got to writing the scene, though, I didn't like that it just kept making Cascada a sitting duck, so I changed it to have her kill him instead.

In retrospect I wish I introduced Finger Eleven a little earlier than I did because I feel like that'd make this whole chapter have a little bit more impact, like having him chastise Sara for pickpocketing or something small like that. Oh well. Shoulda woulda coulda.

Speaking of impact: the part of the chapter where Bad to the Bone activates had the single most intensive editing/beta reading of the entire fic. A close second might be the Aces High arc, where I notoriously changed the ending of it many times over, but that was more of a chapter's structure than of any one bit of prose. And that's all on me. I feel like this, more than him turning up naked in a bathroom or stabbing a kid with a spoon or whatever, this is the scene that needs to cement Boney's menace as a main villain. If this scene didn't work, then neither would the rest of the fic. So I insisted we review this part very closely until I feel like I got it right. Sentence by sentence, word by word. Honestly, shout out to @simpingforcreamsoda in particular for helping out with the editing process. I'm happy with how it turned out! I hope it gives you nightmares.

Speaking of which, I've written a short essay on how to write main villain abilities in stories like JoJo. I will post it shortly.

So, about the slur. I have no idea if this is something that'll cause drama or people will just forget about by tomorrow, so I will preemptively justify my usage of it here. First of all, I'm bisexual. I can say it. Second of all, I'm also not opposed to using slurs in media depending on the tone/context of the scene and the character that says it. Back in the author's notes for Chapter 22, I alluded to the fact that Fergie was originally going to say one as she beats up the homeless guy. I won't say which one it was going to be here, but let's just say it fit with her being named after one of the Black Eyed Peas. I changed it after the beta readers expressed some discomfort with the word and the last thing I wanted was to leave a bad taste in people's mouths over one random word that could easily be changed. This chapter was a little different. Like I said earlier, Midler was originally going to kill Boney, not Cascada, so he would've ran up to her and said "you worthless old hag!" When it came time to rewrite that line after I changed Boney's killer, the first thing that came to mind was what you see in the fic now. I put a pin in it and decided to revisit it later when I was doing my own personal revisions of the chapter before I shared it with beta readers, but try as I might...I couldn't think of any alternative! Nothing came to mind that felt more natural and less vulgar. So I showed it to the beta readers and, weirdly enough, their response was...positive? Don't get me wrong, they didn't react in a "yeah we hate lesbians" kind of a way, it was more like how Sonic fans will cheer upon seeing Maria die or how Mario fans got excited when Vivian's sisters were more explicitly transphobic to her in the Thousand-Year Door remake. I feel like that's at least partially because I told them in advance that I had a slur in the chapter, so they knew it was coming. That ended created this sort of ironic hype, a mock excitement for it. Like I said, it reminded me of Sonic fans cheering when Maria gets shot. So I figured if I just put a little warning for it in the author's notes on AO3, it'd be fine.

Holy shit I cannot believe that this is the chapter where Bad to the Bone gets revealed and I've spent like half the author's notes talking about one word that has nothing to do with the transformation scene.

"I am deathless. I am immortal." Hmm. Why does that sound so familiar?

This chapter was originally going to be much longer, even ignoring the Miki stuff, with more scenes at the end. These scenes were cut and moved to the next chapter. Unlike basically every other time this has happened, this wasn't because the chapter was getting too long—of all the chapters in the fic to have an insanely high word count, this felt like the best fit. No, I just genuinely thought that this was a better place to end it (actually I originally wanted to end it on "Boo!" but my beta readers suggested we at least keep in Boney explaining how Bad to the Bone works, which was definitely the better play), and because by starting the next chapter at this particular cutoff point, I can do a fun narrative parallel with a previous chapter :P

Music references:

The chapter is named after a Dio song of the same name.

Finger Eleven is named after a Canadian rock band of the same name. I am honestly shocked this name survived the beta reading process because I literally only chose it because of Quagmire Toilet. Surprisingly, kid named finger was not a factor, but also fits very well.

Gloomy Sunday is named after a song written by Hungarian pianist Rezső Seress and made famous (at least in the USA) by Billie Holiday. The song is also occasionally called "The Hungarian Suicide Song" because of an urban legend that people would kill themselves after listening to the song. Guess how Boney got out of the void.

Warpig, the Stand user briefly mentioned by Midler at the start of the chapter, is named after the song War Pigs by Black Sabbath.

[cgoodin]

Short cut

For the second volume of the Dasher series, Short cut , A.K.A. Brenda Aiuchi, will be the anti-hero who will become Dasher super powered stalker. I plan for her to be the anti-hero who wants to do the right thing, but doesn't have the mental ability to stick to her sanity.

Short cut is a Japanese samurai with the power to create portals that help her go anywhere.

I started building the character from scratch using Adobe Photoshop to design the samurai suit for her based on my research on samurai ninjas. The colours of her suit reflect on the colour of her powers. I thought about giving her a mask, or maybe use face paint to protect her real identity.

I started out designing the portal first before I went into designing the character. Then I thought about designing the samurai sword too.

Bio: Brenda was born and raised in Blackpool by her family, who run a Japanese takeaway named after the city Hiroshima to keep the memory of the people there alive in their hearts. Brenda’s mother, Hini Aiuchi, ran the takeaway. At the same time, her father, Kenji Aiuchi, practices teaching his daughter the art of samurai training. The samurai teachings were passed down as their family heritage to remember their ancestors' origins. She was raised to be a strong and capable girl who knew how to fight her battles. Her years of learning the ways of the samurai warriors and being home-schooled made her skilled and independent. But it has also isolated Brenda from the world and live a normal life. Brenda’s family has always forbidden her to attend a regular school, as the teachers don’t understand the traditions of the Aiuchi family. She would secretly watch romcoms and romances to get the taste of an everyday normal life. Her years of isolation had driven her to become obsessed with wanting friends. But her life had taken a massive turn after she was affected by “the shock”.

After “the shock,” Brenda gained the power to create wormholes that would take her anywhere she desired. This ability earned her the name “Shortcut.” In secret, she would use her powers to escape her home to explore the world, visiting the incredible sights she always wanted to visit. For a while, as she watched Dasher save lives on the news, his actions only inspired her to use her powers and samurai skills to do the same thing. For a month, she had stopped crime in Blackpool and every other place on the planet, but she was not yet publicized as everyone continued to stare in the direction of Blackpool’s guardian angel. As Brenda continued watching the news about Dasher, her inspiration for him transformed into a crush, and she realized she was in love with the blue-speeding hero. But her heart sinks after Brenda sees another girl kiss Dasher on the cheek outside of the victim's home. Her obsession with Dasher grew, and she was determined to do everything she could to win the hero’s heart, even if it meant killing anyone who got in her way. She was not going to stay trapped in a life of isolation ever again.

[docodo]

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskPhotography/comments/125114x/how_do_photographers_create_this_saturated_soft/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=20&utm_content=share_button

This was a surprise to see pop up on my feed - I can tell you exactly how these were made, as I'm the photographer who shot them. Few different techniques going on depending on which image you're talking about so I'll try to go through them.From the start: All the images were shot digitally. Images 1 & 4 I had a 1-stop green resin filter on the camera (in order to get more intensity out of the reds and yellows), the rest were unfiltered.

Lighting:

Image 1: Was flash: Large Westcott umbrella coming from behind camera to balance against the sunlight. From memory might have had an assistant with a bounce on camera right too, just to wrap the light a touch.Image 2 & 5: Mix of daylight and tungsten continuous light. As I remember it, I had a HMI through a 12x12' silk to camera right, a Aputure Lantern at a 45 degree above the model, a ARRI Redhead on a dimmer w/ diffusion that I used more-or-less intensely depending on the shot to add warmth and shape the light on her, and then lots of black polyboards camera left to deepen the shadows.Image 3: All daylight continuous. Aputure Lantern was the key light, think I had a small softbox on his lower body just to raise exposure. Medium softbox as a back/background light (spilling on both). Then black polyboards on right side to deepen shadows.Image 4: Daylight with a bit of bounce camera right

Processing:

This is the biggest element for the "look" you're talking about. There's a lot of adjustments and very specific choices I make that go into the general feeling of them, so it's difficult to talk about them all. Broadly speaking, I like deep shadows, crushed highlights, bold reds and strong contrast. Blues, greens and skin tones I do more on a case-by-case basis. I use Capture One for the initial grading and export (which takes the image about 40% of the way there), then Photoshop to complete the rest of it. Almost all of my adjustments are made using "Curves", "Selective Colour" or "Hue/Saturation" and either masking it across the photo, or using "Colour Range" to apply whatever the adjustment is selectively.

Printing:

Images 1/3/4 are also printed/rescanned/re-edited on. I find straight digital can feel a bit sterile at times, so I'll often print my photographs in order to soften them down and add a bit of texture. Spent years using a cheap printer and simple paper, these days I've got a more expensive one and better papers but I'm unconvinced it's objectively better - Just different. Process goes export digitally > retouch in photoshop > print > rescan > re-edit in photoshop, as the printing process moves around colours and tones, and so requires adjusting back to being "correct".

Mindset:

One more thing that I think is worth talking about, that often isn't mentioned very much in online discussions of photographic practice, is that all these decisions don't come from a place of "trying to achieve a certain look" - They come from a place of taste and opinion that I've built up through thinking about the kind of feeling I want to create, and the sort of story I want to tell. I've always liked the organic nature of paintings, so I started printing in order to take the images from pixels to ink. My processing is often quite chaotic, where I'll have dozens of adjustments (Image 1 had 19 in digital, and then 20 more in the print) that all do subtle different things, which I'll then "paint" across the photo, similar to how a painter might build up tones using layers of paint across areas of the canvas. Almost never do I think about my own "style" - I just think "Does this look right or wrong?", and by the time it looks "right", its invariably fallen in line with everything else I shoot... and that only comes about from making a lot of photographs.Anyway hope this helps and glad you liked the images.

Happy to answer more questions if you've got any too.

[owlixx]

CoD Notes: BO1 Finished

I had been worried that Black Ops 1 would unfairly feel like a step backwards for me since I decided to do MW1/2/3 back to back and MW3 came out a year later. This was not the case. Black Ops feels like such a revelation to the franchise. The story isn’t high art, but it feels so much more involved than anything else in the franchise up to this point. The voice cast is far more stacked than ever before. Alex Mason as a protagonist is far more interesting than any previous protagonist. I think his largest competition is Soap, who only gets to be more than silent player avatar in MW2/3 and even then isn’t as interesting as Mason.

I mean, this one game has so many more memorable characters than any other Call of Duty. Ed Harris’s Hudson, Ice Cube’s Bowman, Gary Oldman’s Reznov, Woods all stand out but even Weaver, Dragovich, Steiner, that one scientist guy in Kowloon, are all so much more vivid than the tryhard wannabe NPC’s of something like Ghosts (oops, I beat many games in a row without taking notes).

The plot twist alone elevates this game from “stupid annual release” to video game hall of fame. I’d argue that video games are the best medium for plot twists. It’s no Bioshock, but the Reznov twist is so fun and so well executed. I remember it blowing my mind as a kid and it was a ton of fun to see all the little hints as I went through this time. But I’ve already talked about the game at large twice. Let’s get into the last few missions.

Crashed plane assault mission was fine. I noticed the radio shout out a “Sergeant Blundell” which I recognized as Jason Blundell, the main Black Ops guy, this time. Also very funny and on the nose to have a section set to Sympathy for the Devil.

Snowy mountain assault was just okay. The top-down tactical part was clearly a stepping stone to the Strike Team missions of Black Ops 2. Didn’t love that section. But it was kind of funny to get to play as Hudson. This series seems to have some sort of quota to meet on having multiple playable characters. I did struggle really hard on one checkpoint in this level.

Then is the Vietnam mission where you get to fly a helicopter. I remember liking that part as a kid and it’s fine now. I’ll admit that these ‘Nam levels blend together for me.

But then we’ve got the Rebirth Island assault where you sneak around as Mason and do a gas-mask armored strike as Hudson. It’s pretty cool to get to see the same moment from two perspectives, a rare good use for having multiple playable characters. I will admit that Hudson’s breakable gas mask ended my life many times though.

Then the big plot twist as a cutscene mission, which is very fun.

Then finally the big boat assault and underwater base. Nothing too special gameplay wise, but generally a nice capper on the game.

And I love the implication that Mason killed JFK. I mean, it’s a very strong implication, but I suppose they never outright confirm it was him who pulled the trigger. I half expected the final scene of zooming in on Mason photoshopped into the background of a JFK pic to turn into a “JFK assassination simulator” for a second, but instead it transitions directly into the opening cutscene for Five, which is such a treat.

I did manage to get to round, like, 9, I wanna say, on Five. Sadly died right I before I could PaP because I forgot how the weapon thief mechanic worked and ended up double buying a gun. The voice lines in this map are even funnier to me as an adult who has more context on this era.

Overall, I think this game is peak CoD as far as campaigns go. First, set out to tell a story that would work even outside of this series, then drench it in a particular era and add a bunch of fun weapons and setpieces.

In the rankings so far, I think this is going at the top.