#I'll polish their anime designs one day.

[reginalusus]

Ok. *Puts them in a corny, 90s anime romance scene in which Bruce helps Harvey come down from a rough dissociation/derealization episode by using sensory grounding.*

[justin-chapmanswers]

hi Justin! just want to say I ADORE ii and it's one of my favourite shows out there; actually inspired me to start my own!

which is a lame segue into my question- do you have any advice for someone wanting to make their own show?

That's so exciting!! Art makes art!

Oh golly uhhhh. There's so so much to say in so many different departments. So. I'll keep it broad and of course anyone can ask more specific questions haha.

My go-to advice tends to be for creators to start as small as possible early on. Even if you aspire to create projects that are huge-in-scale down the line. So much about becoming a great artist involves moving through the stages of your art (whatever type it may be!) from start-to-finish, every step of the process, over and over and over again. So say in show creation, idk if you plan to be hands-on in every department or if you have a lot of help, but that could mean breaking down stories and outlining, writing, recording, constructing audio scenes and boarding, character and prop and background design, animating, music assembly, mixing, finalizing and editing, etc, over and over again. Obviously not every step may be involved in your project depending on what your goal is, but whatever it is that you do, do it sooooooooo many times.

While there's nothing inherently wrong with jumping in and making your first project something say, movie-length, or something immensely complex in scope, I do find it can, for many (not all) be limiting when it comes to learning a lot of fundamental building-blocks in craft. As well, I see a lot of people get lost in an overwhelming project, trying to focus on quality>quantity right out of the gate. But spending the majority of your time just on adding some extra polish as opposed to running through the whole process again and again can only do so much for you. Obviously, a mentality of quality>quantity is great once you have a strong baseline understanding of production. But again, I think it's a huge plus to work on shorts and teeny-projects to start.

Since the above is pretty dry, I'll add an additional fun one. I've found that a lot of newer artists will toss away the concepts that make them joyous in hopes that they can instead create something that fits an objective perception of "professional." Nothing wrong with that, but I strongly advise artists of all levels of experience to toss everything they've love about the world and other media into their work. Their favorite genres and tropes, the stupid inside jokes that make them light up with their friends that they can invite the audience in-on, adaptations of stories that have made them cry. Create the things YOU love to experience. It's fine to let go of what you think the audience wants. Cause that's not easily guessable. But what YOU enjoy is something certain to you. It's sorta like how they say, it's better to go to the gym and do an suboptimal-but-fun workout that keeps you coming every day than a perfect workout that leads you to quitting. Share your joy with the world, and someone will resonate!

Be silly, be cringe, have fun!

[therobotmonster]

What do you get when the 6 Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman decide to pull a Brady Bunch and a Johnny Quest at the same time?

You Get the Bionic Six.

Impossible to find streaming in high quality anyplace, but a bunch of eps in pretty decent quality hit archive.org.

Decent animation, an earworm themesong that I am so frightened of I muted it while taking its screenshots. The Bionic Six is a lost 80s gem. Not like, a diamond or a sapphire, but like, at the very least a citrine, or a really nice tiger eye that's all polished up in a riverbed? Anyhow...

I joke about the premise. It's not Steve Austin, it's Jack Bennett. It's not Jaime Sommers, it's Helen Bennett. It was a serial number filing but it absolutely is someone's 6MDM and Bionic Woman fanfic where they got married and both had and adopted a bunch of bionic kids.

The story, however, involves Jack (already bionic) and his family getting irradiated by an alien spaceship (the 80s was a hell of a drug) in the Himalayas, with the family going comatose except for Jack, thus requiring the family's upgrades.

This explains why a bunch of children would be turned into cyborgs, but it does not explain why those upgrades came with superpowers. That seems to be down to the grandpa-figure of the group, Professor Dr. Amadeus Sharp Ph.D, which, I gotta say, that's a chef's kiss cartoon character name right there.

Putting both Professor and Doctor in front of your name is exactly what I'd expect from a guy that's like "these children are comatose... I think I'll give that one the magnetic repulsors..."

As for the family proper, you've got Bionic-1/Jack Bennet, the literal team dad who suspiciously has all the bionic powers you'd expect from Steve Austin, with a touch of Reed Richards gray on the temples.

You have, ahem, Mother-1/Helen Bennett, who doesn't have the Bionic woman's powers because they'd be redundant. But she is a lady in an 80s team cartoon so she's got... say it with me folks... psychic abilities!

Also, if I had a nickel for every brunette be-bobcuted supermilf in a red jumpsuit named Helen I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it does lead to some obvious crossover concepts that the r34 community have thus far failed to provide. I'd commission something but, as established, I've only got the two nickels.

She also stands out by having a codename that is calculated to make villains deeply uncomfortable with using it, thus putting them on the back-foot. Just takes every deathtrap situation to a weird place.

Their (at least initially) biological children, Sport-1/Eric Bennett and Rock-1/Meg Bennett establish the pattern of there being a bionic kid for every interest. Sport-1 has magnetic attraction-repulsion powers, and uses lamposts like baseball bats all day, every day.

Rock-1 was literally designed to be cartoon Cyndi Lauper and has speakers built into her shoulders for sonic attacks. She is also super-speed runs the fastest.

IQ/J.D. Corey is adopted, and doesn't do the normal naming convention. He's an unusual character in 80s toon terms, as he's both the smartest member of the team (per the codename) but also has the most powerful super-strength. You don't get the smart AND strong combo that often, and you'd expect the Sport-1 to be physically strongest but it seems he's more the Mario of the team.

Karate-1/Bunjiro "Bunji" Tsukahara is a foster kid who got dragged into all of this, and has both the most greatly enhanced super-agility and also actually knows how to fight without powers.

They also have a robot ape named F.L.U.F.F.I. who wasn't in every episode.

The story structure is an 80s toyvertoon take on Johnny Quest, with the whole family having toyetic super-powers and vehicles, and instead of a cavalcade of one-off baddies, you get a recurrent cast lead by Dr. Scarab, who is Sharp's brother, and is after Sharp's superior bionic knowledge.

Mad science, not even once.

I have vague memories of Scarab's pursuit of 'trionic' technology, which assumed both that the 'bi' in bionic was for 'two' (reasonably understandable assumption) and that that if two was good, three was logically better, while never really establishing what third thing was being mixed in (baffling even to my childhood self).

On top of his drone robots, called "Cyphrons" (not Cylons, Battlestar Galactica Lawyers, cyphrons), Scarab had a host of modified goons, most of whom where combinations of dumb, strong, and ugly.

The main stand out being Madame-O, who is a cartoon femme fatale of the classic variety, who punctuates her sentences with 'Darling', uses a harp to shoot energy blasts, and can disguise herself as other people, because why be good at one thing when you can be confusing at several?

The animation is pretty good for the time period (It was a TMS animated show!) and it has that weird mix of self-aware and totally earnest that makes 80s cartoons fun.

It was, like most of them, an advertisement for action figures. In this case from LJN, the gimmick of which was they were G.I.Joes that were mostly made of die cast metal. A lot of the characters were pretty chunky, to the point that a FLUFFI could be bring down an assailant if you chucked it at 'em just right.

Oh, and the whole family could join hands to pull of Deus Ex Machina bullshit. It's a trip.

Go watch ya some cartoons.

[not-quite-normal]

could you take us through what a day of work typically looks like as an animator? and also how many hours a day you spend at work?

sure!

as an animator at sony imageworks, your day is fairly simple. most days are just work days, and you can listen in to rounds even if you don't have anything to show yet. it's helpful to listen to the kinds of notes that other people are given because it helps you to learn the show style and how to handle different characters for future shots. if you're starting fresh on a new shot, assigned to you by your lead (you can sometimes request shots, depending on what's available and who your lead is), the first thing i do is look at it in the context of the sequence. from there i'll gather or shoot any reference as needed, or maybe sketch thumbnails. depending on the shot, i'll just show the reference to get feedback on that, or rough in some basic poses as a "layout plus" pass to get a more specific kickoff on what my lead/supervisor/director thinks the shot needs to be

there are a few levels of feedback that your shot goes through:

your lead: the anim crew gets separated into teams, each one led by a lead animator. this is your go-to person for most things. they'll be the one to help you with questions, making sure your shot is presentable, small polish, show style, and a whole bunch of other stuff

the head of character animation/supervisor: when your lead gives you the ok to show your shot in rounds, this is where you show the hoca. they're the one in charge of the overall look and feel of the animation and has to keep the whole movie and director notes in mind when critiquing your shot

the director: the hoca will then look at all the shots submitted for director review/shots shown in rounds/shots due for the week and decide whether or not to show them to the director, who will then give more notes. his job is to make sure the shot is doing the best it can to tell the story that it needs to tell, often changing the acting, camera angles, timing, action, or anything else lol

executives: this level is more removed from the day to day of the animator and we usually don't need to worry about this one. but sometimes we get executive notes (usually these come after the shot is approved so it needs to be kicked back to anim)

once your shot gets approved by the director, then it needs hoca approval (for any last big picture notes, or in case the director approved with notes), and then finally lead approval (for small finishing polish work) before you can publish. on spiderverse, we also had a second animation supervisor that had to approve shots too as a design pass. this might seem like a lot, but once you go through the process a couple of times, you get used to it!

the life of a lead is a lot more hectic haha. there are a lot more meetings, you always have to be available when an animator on your team asks for your eyes on their shot or if they have a question, you have to listen in to your team's turn in rounds/director review, scheduling shot due dates with your coordinator, bidding sequences, and... lots of other management and technical stuff. it's hard, but being a lead was some of the most rewarding work that i've done, i'm super proud of the animators that i've been lucky enough to work with

our official work day is 9-6 (one hour off for lunch, we get a food delivery voucher if any meeting goes into lunchtime lol), and we get paid OT after working for 8 hours. for most of the time working on a movie, you need to get special approval to work longer than 8 hours a day, but as a movie starts getting into crunch mode, OT becomes "pre-approved" and animators are free to work as much or as little OT as they want

[color-craz]

AF MidWeek Round-up!

This is just a simple post compiling all of my attacks so far along with some artists notes! Mostly because I found myself much more active this year than last year (Minus these few couple days due to some appointments). I'll be tagging everyone and linking to other socials so you can see these lovely folks. Of course if you want to attack me, I'm ready to fight! Without further ado, here's all the attacks so far :>

@cosmicdenro @stellarknightz - Weekend Date The name of the game for these first few attacks was to get everyone who I was supposed to last year but ran out of time ^^;;. I decided upon Jesse's Zircon over Jesse the character (one in my bookmarks) b/c it seemed like Turquoise Zircon was less drawn this year but was his icon on AF. So easy pick from me :> (Btw doing Sodalite's stripes and copying Zircon's shape language was really fun!!)

@/clawothy (Twitter) - Chill Cat Another attack from last years bookmarks! It was definitely a soft but enjoyable opening into drawing furries since Claw's so human shaped. It was fun drawing his tail and patterns :>. This is just a nice character design all around.

@twidaisi - Speedy Service Twi was also one from my bookmarks, but also a doorway down an ArtFight rabbit hole. Which will become apparent in the next two pieces. For this one, I had a pretty clear pose in mind so I placed it onto O.R.B.I and went from there!! His design is so neat and he seems so cool! The pose was also pretty fun to do as well, just an overall fun art piece (Also this one got a revenge!!! I still really really love thank you so much!!!!!)

@scratchgeist - Escapism Ho! This was a doozy! Twi had Scratch's profile linked so I ended up hitting him with an attack too. Drawing Scratch's mane turned out to be a pleasant experience despite me originally fearing it. This scene idea also came from a prompt of Scratch going outside. I ended up putting Polish on this because all those scratchy "ink like" lines I actually did manually (take a fuzzy brush and then go over it using a sketchbook eraser). It was nice dipping my toes into BatIM again and trying out more animal feature.

@/stylin.art Instagram @/crypticc0rpse Instagram - Pirates in arms One of those two people were linked on Scratch's profile and the person linked also linked to the other person. But I realized that both Stylin and Crypt had some shared characters. So this ended my little rabbit hole of people by attacking these two lovely fellows at the same time. This little crossing swords idea took me a nice minute to come up with but I liked how it ended up anyway. I really did like drawing James together like this (probably helps that I really like pirates in general). Also yes I know her hand is fucked up I noticed way to late to fix it.

@smoresthehalloweenqueen - Listen to the waves Once I finished up with that I moved onto the next bookmark, which was Smores! Originally I was gonna draw Brutus but then I was like "I like his sona it looks like fun!" So I drew them listening to music because why not :>. I struggled on the arms initially but it came out real clean and nice. Honestly might be my best work so far! (Fun fact, I color picked the waves + background from Seafoam's icon.)

@skittisketch - I got it! Mr. Sascachawean himself! I referenced this pose form the classic Objection point because I thought it would fit his personality. This was also a little bit of a test with a style I had only done in sketches (Basically my human style but omitting a neck which somehow shaves off a lot of time). This was a super fun pose to do with a pretty nice background! (Once again, fucked up hand I know I noticed too late again)

@justpainterrobot - Rare Nightly Sight I had this really really clear picture of what I thought up for this attack and I'm happy that I was able to make it a reality. I put the polish tag on this one because I almost got super super detailed of what the junk was below her (Stuff coming down from Elysium n all that) but due to a lack of references I just went with typical metal and wood. Fun fact, the night sky in the background is based on the one from Deponia itself (The first game's scenes with the professor at night). I think this rewrite of Toni was really cool from what I could find about her. Overall a labor of love type of attack.

@coelpts @swan-swanno - Boss Battle I thought to myself "Hm, I see Coelpts around a lot, lets hit him with an attack." and it turns out Ciel's gay married to Swanno's charater Mikhail, who was the last one in my bookmarks from last year. So another double attack for this one! It was a struggle starting this one mostly because I was debating whether or not to draw Ciel's Lord outfit but I ended up doing so because why not :>. It was a fun experience copying Swanno's more angular style, which is a stark departure from my more rounded shapes (As you can see here). Has a nice venture doing the lighting as well, overall a good experience.

@tailsylennon - Sweet Treats Mitchell showed off Tasily's proflie one day and I saw their sona and was I was like "Lemme draw it!" and did! I ended up following another prompt by her because it was their birthday! (By the time I started on this it was 8 pm and I freaked tf out and got to work). Her sona was really cool and I really loved drawing them. Fun fact, each of the set pieces references the Hallows Souls trio. The chair is decorated after Terra, Markus is the table, and Whistle pallet is used for the tea set :>. It was just a pleasant and cozy attack to make overall.

@ceaseless-enemy - Congratulations!!!! I've actually known about Voila for quite awhile now and thought his design n theaming is quite neat! I actually based the pose off of Ai from Oshi No Ko (I think one of her key arts before the anime released, ifykyk). But I skillfully cut out the legs because I can't draw digitigrade legs... Hooray... Otherwise it was quite nice to work on this attack in particular, especially the eyes and the hair :>.

@killbent - Getting Ready This is another one I had a real clear idea of prior to doing this, specifically because Killbent gave a prompt to give Mr Fairchime pink hair, so i thought a "pre-show" set up would look nice :>. The lighting was another new venture for me, because I usually do cool/night time like lighting but I think it turned out nicely for Fairchime. It was also fun doing the accessories and stuff on the vanity as well. Fun Fact, it's a bit hard to see through the watermark + lighting but the face paint and pallet both have the colors of his make up! Overall a pleasant and warm attack for this year.

And that's all of them so far! I picked up some new bookmarks + I gotta get Twi back for drawing Compact!! So those will probably be compiled by the end of AF so about, early August-ish if I keep up the pace. Anyway, thank you so much for reading and gracing me with the opportunity to draw all of these amazing characters!

Until next time!

-Gappy, Witch of the Stars

[meztliel]

Day 4: Rain/Umbrella

For: @dbshipsweek

Pair: Truten

Rated: Teen+

***

Goten and Trunks have shared many things throughout their lifelong history.

Toys and weapons, friends and enemies, laughter and anger… even the same body. An umbrella had not been one of them until today.

“Gotta protect your stupidly expensive suit.” 

Goten, looking ridiculous (and adorable) in a hooded, green waterproof poncho, dutifully holds an umbrella up and over Trunks’s head, exceeding his role as a newly-hired executive assistant to an almost annoying degree. 

“I'll just buy another if it gets ruined,” Trunks says, his blasé tone undermining his appreciation of the chivalrous gesture.

They were coming back from their lunch break at their favorite spot when the trickle happened, lasting just long enough for Goten to pull out his rain gear before the rain really started hitting. 

His best friend, now turned employee, had warned Trunks about the likelihood of rain, despite the skies being blue and the clouds mostly white moments before the downpour. 

His friend has always had a stronger sense of intuition when it comes to all things living and natural. A keen insight of people and animals, of monsters, gods, and aliens. Of nature and, of course, the weather. 

Meanwhile Trunks has, much like his grandfather, relied more on strategy rather than instinct; on finding ways to succeed in both a battle and in business through methodical means over “gut feelings.”

Not that either one of the men is devoid of one quality to make room for the other; Goten doesn't jump into a fight without first assessing the risks and advantages he has over an opponent, and Trunks can read energy –or ki – without needing to hone in using his elevated Saiyan senses. 

They work well together because of their innate, complementary qualities, combining forces to make an almost perfectly balanced whole. His Yin to his Yan. His other half. 

Trunks fists a hand above Goten’s grip on the metallic stem of the umbrella, wrapping the other arm to pull Goten into and under the dome along with him, the patter of raindrops drowning the heartbeat– Goten’s heartbeat– drumming in his ears as they walk shoulder-to-shoulder to the Capsule Corp building looming just up the street. 

They've been physically close numerous times. Besides joining bodies to become one single entity, they've fallen asleep on the couch together, have wrestled on the ground, bathed fully naked in hot springs. But the closeness that was once normal and regular between them has somewhat recently transformed into something that feels more…intimate, more personal. A layer of intimacy that isn't quite tangible, defined. Beyond physical. 

“There's no point in us both being under an umbrella if you’re gonna get wet,” Goten says. Despite his words, he doesn't make an effort to separate from Trunks, his wet poncho cold against the blended material of Trunks's designer suit. 

The two men shake off what wetness remains stuck to them and dry off with towels handed to them by an intern, making their way up the polished steps and matching their pace with one another, appearing more as business partners than an employer and employee. In a way, they are, though their professional relation is only one aspect of a deeper, infinitely more meaningful bond. 

Goten runs his fingers along his dark, damp hair one more time, a simple act of grooming that has Trunks staring in, he realizes, appraisal. He stares even longer as he takes in how Goten's business-appropriate hairstyle has resumed to its natural, tousled and spiky state. Trunks prefers this hairstyle on him, however, in a professional setting, it unfortunately won't do.

Without further thought, Trunks whips out a comb and restyles Goten's thick, incongruously silky spikes to something like a business-casual pompadour, setting it with a salon-grade hair pomade he keeps in his briefcase in case of, well, rainy days. 

“Lookin’ sharp,” Trunks declares, “You're welcome.”

With a roll of his eyes, Goten swipes the comb from his hand and does the same for him, tidying up his parted, indigo hair. Trunks suppresses the urge to contently sigh at the sensation of his scalp being scraped by the teeth of the comb, wishing for an unbidden, fleeting moment that it was Goten's fingers running through his hair instead. 

Lately, he's been craving frequent physical contact from another person, and Trunks thought he could satiate that need by getting a girlfriend he hardly likes but is extremely attracted to. Nice, but ultimately unfulfilling. 

What he really wants is not something he's ready to say out loud, to accept fully and openly, outb of fear it may ruin what they do have, what has always been and has always worked. Over and over he has rationalized that what he really wants will imbalance and disrupt their connection, will create an upheaval he's not prepared to fix and resolve the way he fixes and resolves problems that arise in the company, in battle and in lesser personal relationships. 

“Your hair is getting long. You should let it grow,” Goten says, evaluating his work with a ponderous expression. 

He hasn't given too much thought about his hair. Too busy, all the time. If not with work, with other thoughts. 

“So schedule me an appointment with Ferrer.” Ferrer is the only hairstylist he trusts. Ferrer also hits on him on every visit, but Trunks doesn't mind because Ferrer is also super hot, though their flirtatious exchanges have never crossed professional boundaries. As it should be. 

“You got it, boss,” Goten says with a salute, a minimal amount of sarcasm behind his words and gesture. 

Sometimes it feels weird that he's technically his childhood best friend's boss, but as he often is in other aspects in life, Goten isn't bothered by being second rank to anyone. When your father is the savior of the world, of multiple friggin universes even, and your older brother saved the Earth once when he'd been almost a decade old, then you kind of learn to accept you're not the best of the best, but you're still pretty great on your own. Goten is more than great, really. 

Before they separate to go to their individual offices, Trunks pauses.

“And schedule a training sesh with you for later today.”

The smile that tends to be perpetually stamped on Goten's boyish face widens, bright as the sun parting the clouds.

“Where at? The gravity chamber? A  barren, neighboring planet?”

“Have your dad take us somewhere unexpected. Somewhere it's not raining.” 

Though, Trunks thinks, it could be fun sparring in the rain, their clothes wet and clinging to their bodies, the wet sound of flesh hitting flesh, Goten panting and soaking… removing his top to unburden himself from its weight, his bare chest heaving as rain mixes with his sweat, slickening his taut skin…

“He's gonna want to spar with us and end up kicking our asses as per usual.”

“I'll ask Bulla to ask my dad to keep him busy.” Vegeta only ever listens to his little princess, and occasionally but not always, Bulma, his wife and Trunks's mom. 

“It's a date,” Goten says and, upon catching on to how that could be misinterpreted as something unprofessional to the colleagues around them, he quickly adds, “You know what I mean.”

 ‘It's a date’ … Well, it could be, if Trunks stopped being a coward and closed in on the tension that's been brewing between them in the last couple of years since entering adulthood.

“Actually, Goten,” Trunks calls out from behind him, prompting Goten to halfway turn mid-walk. “Let's train at my place.”

In his family's vast sprawling land. In the rain. 

[kindlykolorful]

Ask and ye shall recieve: MORE PIRATE AU BABY!!

-Cellbit has a golden spider on him at all times, rain or shine it is there; Earring? Custom made with a web-like chain attachment. Broach? Designed to fit his outfit of the day.

-Roier actively goes out of his way to hunt anyone that vaguely makes Cellbit uncomfortable; Too may sex jokes? Fed to several different animals. Flirting/getting touchy? Body parts put on pikes as your family watches.

-They are both fucking freaks(we love). Like, they will go out of their way to stare at you from across the resturant while eating just to fuck with you, befire going back to lounging in the chair like it was a sofa.

Yeeeeees, i totally see it! He keeps the golden spiders always polished and shiny despite not taking that good care of his other items. He doesn't like dangling acessories - like earrings - because it bothers him too much when he is solving maps or fighting, buuuut he wears them in social events (the ones they 99% of the time are there for stealing purposes shh).

2. He is hyper protective with Cellbit! I like to picture them a little too unhinged in this au. Quesadilla never happened here, so they met in that period after alcatraz/chafaland. This Roier still has a little of that c!Roier vibes so he get's the maniac type of agressive when people mess with him or his husband. He WILL do crazy stuff and nobody can stop him. Cellbit too has a little of f!Cell in him so he sees it as Roier being loving and caring, he does not contradict Roier's decisions no matter how absurd it seems.

"Qué chingados did you just say about mi gatinho?!"

3. I LOVE THAT OMG. Their crew is sooo done with them already, they arrive at places just wanting to relax and have a good time and then they turn around and see them ominously staring at strangers on the corners scaring them off. They often get kicked off places because they scare all the customers.

I've also have been writing some lore on their story, i'll bring it bit by bit with some arts soon!

[miles-crow]

Introduction post!

Hello! My name is Miles, but you can also call me Gryzipiórek or Gryzi. Here's some info about me:

Other socials: Twitter (@/miles_crow_) & Discord (ask)

Gender: Fluid!

Pronouns: He/She (eventually they, but unless you do it on purpose I am not going to roar at you for misgendering me :3).

Languages: fluent in English & Polish, can hold conversation in German or Italian

What you can expect here: Lackadaisy & Cats the Musical (mainly), original characters & other fandoms (Dead Boy Detectives, Good Omens, etc.)

Beside drawing I'm also interested in writing (fanfiction and my own stories), reading (detective & fantasy stories), playing instruments and... Animating! That's my dream job, which brings us to...

What's 'Cats! Animated'?

Glad you asked! It's a personal non-profit fan passion project. It's focused on trying to transfer the world created by T. S. Elliot ( 'Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats') and Andrew Lloyd Webber ('Cats the Musical') to the medium of animation. I strongly believe that 'Cats' would work great as an animated series. At this moment, 'Cats! Animated' is an exercise in creating character designs, scripts, storyboards and unique locations. Right now I'm still learning, but hopefully one day I'll be able to fully animate something for all 'Cats' fans out there!

[beetlegoose01]

Ran from Hell, burned from life

[David Saw 0.5 one shot]

David was never meant to be targeted by Jigsaw. It happened by cruel fate that he was mistaken for his twin brother, and as such, had to face the consequences.

read on AO3!

Tick. Tick. Tick. 

David was convinced he would go insane from the repetition of the wall clock's obnoxious tapping. Its crooked hands' restless noise was enough to make any normal person lose their senses. It might as well be a ticking time bomb, since any moment it would seal his fate in the dreary gray room he was forced into. It was bland and cramped with a sloping ceiling and painted chipped walls. Clearly it was never meant to be seen by any respectable interior designer, however it did leave him feeling like a prisoner. The handcuffs certainly didn't help. 

He had yet to properly meet the gaze of the man sitting across from him. Detective...whatever his name was. He was a balding middle aged white man of no particular discernible personality aside from intimidating glares and a permanent scowl. He had introduced himself curtly, only for David to promptly forget his name. Already the man was treating him as though he was dangerous, handcuffing him to the table for extra precautions. Like he was a wild animal ready to attack at any moment. The shackles already made his wrists feel raw, but at least he had the freedom to keep a cigarette between his fingertips. It helped him from shaking, stopped his anxiety from going haywire. 

The detective cleared his throat. "Coffee?" He offered. 

David grimaced and shook his head. Judging from the way the detective's own paper cup filled with lukewarm coffee and no creamer he decided to pass. No use getting poisoned. Water sounded nice though, but he was scared to ask for some. 

"Very well. Let's start from the top."

He took a long drag of his cigarette. "Don't wanna talk anymore about it."

"David, I still need to ask you a few more questions about what happened." 

He stubbornly met the man's piercing eyes, amused when the detective's scowl darkened. 

"I understand you've been through a traumatic experience..." David loudly scoffed. "And I sympathize with you."

"Doesn't sound like it." 

"But," He clenched his jaw. "I need answers on what happened and so far you've been less than helpful." 

"I'm not trying to be helpful." He exhaled, the smoke swirling towards the other man's face, who simply waved it away with disinterest. 

"David."

"I just...I can't, OK? I- I can't talk about it." 

"The sooner you do, the sooner you can leave. Do you understand?" 

He flinched at the harsh tone biting him, but chose to arch his shoulders back, his eyes fierce. 

“Unless you'd rather spend the night in a cell.”

David refused to take the bait

 "I said---"

"I know what you said." he growled. "...Fine. I'll tell you what happened. Everything." 

The detective nodded firmly. "Go on."

The scarred man took a shaky breath, looking down on his painted black nails, most of the polish chewed and ruined. "I was at work." He began.

David hated his job. 

He wasn't ashamed to admit that. In fact, he would proudly tell it to anyone who bothered to listen. He always wanted to help people, but he was too dumb and easily distracted to be a doctor or nurse, so he was stuck being an orderly. Day after day, week after week, he grew accustomed to cleaning up the worst bodily fluids imaginable. Shit, piss, blood, vomit, he was familiar with it all. The smell didn't even phase him anymore. He was used to getting down and dirty, hating his life as he scrubbed like fucking Cinderella while patients berated him. 

It wasn't his fault he had terrible bedside manners. He couldn't help that he smoked in the hallways and blasted his music through his walkman instead of changing bandages. He just didn't give two shits about these people, work or otherwise. They were all blurs, nameless faces that he was forced to interact with. The only bonus was the healthcare benefits and even that wasn't worth it. 

Oftentimes his fellow orderlies would comment on how he set a bad example for the hospital. He was lazy, had terrible eating habits, didn't care about his health and took so many smoke breaks that all the doctors were convinced his lungs must be fully black and shriveled up by now from all the nicotine he inhaled. It was as though he was planning on dying young. But if he was honest, he wouldn't mind that. He didn't expect to live to see thirty, let alone to be an old man.

Living is overrated anyway. 

He just didn't expect to be tested with that careless phrase as soon as he did. 

It was the middle of the night by the time his shift ended. His head was aching from the long, odd hours of work and the lack of sleep, the only thing that kept him awake was the pounding music in his ears and a can of Red Bull he had a few hours earlier. His eyes drooped, yawning as he fumbled for his car keys, blasted Green Day too loudly in his ears as he made his way to reach his car. But eventually his exhaustion caught up to him, and his keys flew out of his hands and landed on the pavement. 

He groaned, pulling his headphones out and reaching for them. He clicked the keys, and somewhere in the distance he heard his car. 

And that was when he heard an entirely different noise. 

Turning around with his back facing a nearby pillar, he kept himself alert for anything suspicious. He swore he heard something moving behind him. Some footsteps approaching his general direction. Moving from the stairs, maybe.  But all he saw now was a floating plastic bag dancing in the chilly breeze. Nobody was here. There couldn't be. He was the last orderly in staff that was supposed to leave at this time. 

"Hello?" He called out. "Anyone there?"  His voice echoed from the deepest stretch of the basement. Then silence. He breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank God. Yeah, you better stay back. I took one muay thai class, so I could easily beat you. Whoever you are." He couldn't help but laugh at his own joke. But his laughter faded in his throat seconds later. 

The footsteps returned, faster this time. They were getting closer now. Too close. Whether he saw some movement or not, he wasn't risking his life to find out what it was. 

At last, he saw it. Someone was standing there, watching him. They were dressed in some kind of black cloak, and most notably had a grotesque pig mask. David couldn't tell if the skin was real or not. He didn't want to find out. He let out a scream. 

"Fuckfuckfuck- FUCK! HELP!" With one last burst of adrenaline, and without any further thoughts, he bolted towards the end of the lot. He didn't care if it was all in his head, he was out of there. His heart raced erratically in his chest, he really wished in that moment he paid attention in gym class more. Cardio was not exactly his strong suit. "Oh fuck me."

At last, he saw his beacon of hope. His holy grail. His car. He was almost there. He just had to ignore the stitch in his side and keep running. Keep running. Keep running. Don't stop. The footsteps continued to chase after him. And they were fast. 

He couldn't give up now. Not when he was so close to escaping. 

He swerved around, gasping as he caught a glimpse of whomever was after him, and to check if they were catching up. But that split second of checking proved to be his downfall, as he crashed into the nearest pillar and landed to the floor with a pathetic thud. 

The last thing he saw was the face of a pig, before he was hit with complete darkness. 

Blood and metal. That was what he tasted when he finally woke up, alongside a  pounding headache from being smacked around. His eyes rolled around, scanning the area despite everything around him seeming blurry, and dizziness prevented him from focusing. After blinking for several seconds, at last his vision finally adjusted and he realized he had been placed in some kind of abandoned warehouse. 

"Mmfh..." a groan escaped his lips, muffled. 

His eyes went wide with panic as he came to a more terrifying revelation. There was something around his head, a metal contraption covering his mouth and jaw. If he had a choice of getting kidnapped, he would have preferred a regular gag...not some stupid helmet from the industrial revolution. 

He tried to steady his breathing, focusing on why he had been taken. Ransom seemed unlikely, considering he had no money and no one would actually pay to save him. Which could only mean he was here for a more terrifying reason. 

David squirmed desperately against his restraints, finding it harder and harder not to lose control and freak out. He could hear the twisting of gears against his ears, rattling around till it hit his skull. 

"Rise and shine Adam." 

He jolted forward, attempting to find where the voice was coming from, and less why it had called him Adam. It was deep and distorted, something out of an old recording. It was only then that he saw a video player to his left, and on the screen was what appeared to be a clown-skeleton puppet. 

"You don't know me, but I know you." 

'Do you?' David thought to himself. 

"I want to play a game. Here's what happens if you lose. The device you are wearing is hooked into your upper and lower jaw. When the timer in the back goes off, your mouth will be permanently ripped open. Think of it as a reverse bear trap. Why don't I show you a demonstration of what it's capable of?" 

David struggled against his bounds once more, panic rising as he saw a mannequin head appear on screen and promptly explode. It was impossible not to hyperventilate. His breaths started in short, shallow gasps before rapidly increasing towards the feeling of pure suffocation. All in vain to fight against the erratic hammering heart in his ribcage. 

"There is only one key to open the device. It's in the stomach of your dead cell mate. Look around, Adam. Better hurry up."

The recording switched off, and was replaced with the ticking of a timer. The second he was released from the chair, he started to pull at the device, and seeing if he could remove it manually. With a few muffled shrieks and whimpers, he came to the conclusion that it was sealed tight. Not that his sweaty palms could even attempt to open it either way. 

'It's in the stomach of your dead cellmate.' 

There was a way out. Right smack in front of him, in the corner of the room was a body. And when he crawled over, he spotted the knife, the tracing of where he was supposed to carve. It was disgusting, but doable. He had even seen doctors perform this before. How hard could it be? 

But when he reached for the knife, preparing for the incision, he discovered something horrifying.

The man was breathing. 

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. 

His time was running out. 

He squeezed his eyes shut, praying for the wall clock to shut up. 

Tick. Tick. Tick. 

"David..." The detective said cautiously. "Do you need a break?" 

"No." 

"What happened next?" 

"What do you think happened next? I fucking...I tore into the guy. Didn't even hesitate. Ripped him open like a fish, found the key and got out. There was..." He swallowed back a sob. "So much blood. Blood splattered everywhere. An' the organs and...God." 

"And you knew the man was alive."

He nodded weakly. 

"You saw him breathing."

"Ye- yeah."

"Disemboweled him, knowing he was alive."

David broke down, collapsing into the desk. "Yes." He whimpered. 

"David!" The detective snarled. "You realize you've just confessed to a murder, don't you?" 

"I- I didn't mean to, I panicked, I was gonna fucking die man!" 

 "It doesn't matter, you still did it."

"What else was I supposed to do? If I didn't, the maniac was gonna kill me! I had to do it to survive. I was gonna be ripped to shreds!" 

"You can make up all the excuses you want but it doesn't change the fact that you're a murderer."

"What would you have done?"

"What?" 

"If you were in my place. What would you have done? You can pretend to be, I dunno, high and mighty but you would have done the same thing."

The detective was astonished, unable to come up with a response. 

"Do you have any more questions or can I leave now?" 

"N- No. A court hearing will take place, I'm sure you understand. But for now, you're free to go." 

With his handcuffs removed, David slowly slinked away from the table. It wasn't until he was at the door, that the detective decided to speak up again. 

"Wait. You mentioned that the...puppet called you Adam." 

He didn't turn to face the man. "It did."

"Why?" 

"I wasn't thinking at the time, obviously," He admitted. "Until recently I put it together that they were after my brother Adam, not me. We're twins."

"Identical, I assume?" 

"Mm. Except he has a mole on his---"

"I think I understand. And why do you think he was targeted?" 

David could think of a million different reasons why. But instead he said, "I don't know, I haven't spoken to him in years...well, until now."

"Are you worried he will be targeted again?" 

David chewed his lip. "I called him recently, and he's staying with me for the time being. He hates the arrangement and so do I but he should be safe. So long as your guys do their job." 

Truth be told, he knew Adam hated him. Resented him even, and he didn't appreciate the favor at all. He was stubborn like that. But David was stubborn too. 

With one hand on the door knob, he did a half hearted salute. "See ya around." 

At last he made his way out of the station. He rolled down his sweater to keep his hands warm, though it didn't prevent him from trembling slightly. A few people stopped by, recognizing him from the news and gave him some pitying looks. He ignored them. It was late and he wanted to go home. 

With one last look at the police station, he turned a corner. The area was quiet and empty. Which was why he didn't expect to be grabbed again. 

This time he didn't resist when a hand covered his mouth and dragged him into the alley. Instead he felt rather annoyed. He shoved the hand away from his mouth and glared furiously. 

"Don't do that again." David warned. "Nearly scared the shit outta me. And let go, for Christ's sake, Hoffman you're such a dick---"

Mark Hoffman huffed out a laugh, tightening his grip. Meanwhile the other figure, Amanda stared at him intently. 

"You didn't squeal, did you?" 

"Of course not, I'm a man of my word."

"Good." Hoffman released him, but kept his body angled so both he and Amanda were blocking him from any potential exit. "You're not as stupid as you look then."

David glowered, hating them. "Don't forget our deal." 

"We spoke to John and he agreed not to take Adam. We'll find someone else for the game." Softening, she said firmer. "I swear."

He was wary, but he had no choice but to trust her. "Thanks."

"But don't forget our end of the bargain." Her lips twisted into a smirk, throwing an object at him, which he caught. He traced out the worn out pig mask, hating how much it felt so close to flesh instead of fabric. In contrast, the hair didn't feel like hair, just long black tendrils. But it would have to do.

For now at least. 

"You have my word."

[mizukidevlog]

Devlog 25

Hello guys and girls! This has been one heck of a week for game development! (In a good way)

The bit of work that I am most proud of this week is some updated and polished combat-related sprites! They went from being short boring animations with hardly any movement to an attack sequence that just makes pummeling the nearest spirit or guard really fun! (The enemies got polished animations too, but Mizuki is the focus. She is the main character after all.)

If you watch the whole video, you'll also notice that there is a sign! (Bonus points if you know what the kanji on it means). I'll be placing signs throughout the game, not to serve as the tutorial, but just for helpful information.

I've also worked on stage design, adding new stage hazards, and refining plans for development and marketing. I'm learning more and more about just how much goes into game development.

I also almost lost my game files...so that was fun. I installed a Gamemaker Studio 2 update today and it completely messed up how some of my code worked. Thankfully I had backed-up my code earlier that day, otherwise you would be hearing from a very depressed Me.

Hope you enjoyed reading! I'd love to hear from anyone who reads this, so drop a note or something if you feel inclined. Have a great week!

[Slowed-down attack animations for your enjoyment] (The transparency did not translate to .gif very well)

[Loading a game from an older build on a new update does weird stuff. Can you find Mizuki?]

If you made it this far, this is for you: <3

[animatedjen]

I have a question about the scenes from different angles! I often wonder why they seem to...jolt or maybe stutter (for lack of better words) and yet the actual finished scene presented in the game seems so much more fluid.

I was thinking of this with the one with Kata boosting herself up and settling herself on the couch you just posted but I've wondered about this before. I know that other examples, like BD jumping into Cal's arms makes a little more sense since BD doesn't actually exist and is added separate where they definitely need to change the angles to make it more seamless but it's fascinating how the raw product (again, lack of better words!) reveals just how much those angles and panning in (not so much out) matter.

Or is this just a technical thing that has an easy explanation and I'm making it far more complicated? LOL

Good question! I'm not a game dev and my animation days were a long time ago, but there's probably a few things at play:

Every cutscene in the game would be designed, polished, and optimized specifically for the end visual. Disconnecting from the intended camera always look worse when the entire scene is built around a specific POV.

Sometimes animators will "cheat" a movement if it ends up looking better from the camera's perspective. Or if a character's hand or face isn't visible to camera, there's no need to fully animate it. My guess is: here Cal's hand "snaps" to BD-1 as the animation transitions from PCAP (performance capture) data to locking onto BD's character model. We don't see it in the final cutscene, so it doesn't need to be polished.

Kata's hands/legs aren't seen in the actual cutscene, so any animation left there is to better serve the in-camera visuals-- could also be the PCAP moving her character rig. Or the animator selected two finger controls while adjusting torso movement, idk for sure. But her face is cute :') Don't ask me about Merrin's leg though.

Notice how the camera is shifting too! That changes how we perceive movement. I'm also very new at capturing game footage and may not be using the ideal framerate/settings to best showcase the visuals, which could definitely add some stutter.

The alt-angle cutscenes are fun to explore (Twitter found one of them and it got a little crazy hah) and it's WILD to "re-film" a scene after it's been created, which is something I can't do in live-action or 2D animation. Outside of VR, most things aren't designed for 360 viewing! And I'll always, always uphold Respawn's decisions with its visual narrative and how they wanted to present it.

TLDR; cutscenes are designed around the camera, animation is super time consuming so prioritizes in-camera visuals, and Jen is still learning how to capture game footage

[kozachenko]

Big Touhou Anime idea that has been marinating in my brain for a while

Alright, so I just wanted to compile my ideas for a potential Touhou anime I had here because I just needed to get them out. This is also going to be a very long post, so get comfortable

So I would like to call this hypothetical Touhou anime "Touhou Project Definitive Edition." So what I mean by a definitive edition is that it goes through all of the Touhou games from 1-19 as well as some of the side material (this part is optional) and polishes them up. This would be fixing some plot holes, establishing parts of Gensokyo's world earlier on (mainly in the form of foreshadowing until the story actually gets to those places), and re-writing pre-existing material if there are any glaring problems or inconsistencies that are present in the original material. This also can help tie together the PC-98 games and windows era games together in a nicer way and can further solidify Gensokyos world and cosmology. This option is also pretty newcomer friendly if handled correctly. This option could also help expand on Reimu and Marisa's personalities, the plot potentially following them as they grow up together, the PC-98 games following them throughout their childhood a potential in between arc to more smoothly transition into the Windows era as well as adapting the Vampire Incident before EoSD, and from then on they would probably be in their mid to late teens.

Now of course this idea is very unrealistic and could go very wrong pacing-wise if not handled correctly, but I do think it could work. In regards to the pacing problem, some arcs could be lengthened or cut down depending on how long the events of the games are, with some taking longer than others. Of course, there's also the issue of the anime falling into the same traps that Memories of Phantasm, where the episodes become very formulaic very quick. Now this relates to an issue with the translation between mediums. If you were to directly, one-for-one, adapt the games, it would end up formulaic because the actual games all follow the same 6 stage format with an extra stage. The pacing of the plots in these games work best in their original 6-7 stage format because that's what they were designed for in the first place, not TV-Anime episodes. I feel like a better way of adapting the Touhou games would be to treat the events of the games as the latter half of a larger arc out depending on the game's story.

I'll use EoSD as an example of how you could do this, but remember, I'm not a professional writer so there will be flaws in this approach.

So, this potential EoSD arc would probably start out more as a mystery, with a mysterious red mist going from a weird, once in a blue moon weather phenomenon to a daily occurrence. We also see it go from just light tints of red on a misty day to a blinding scarlet. Reimu and Marisa take notice of this and start asking around the human village and witnessing the effects the mist is having on some of the humans. Normal people are starting to become lifeless husks depending on how much of the mist they've been exposed to. Reimu and Marisa have been lucky enough to not live in places where the mist is most prevalent as well as not being normal people (Reimu has the benefits of being a Hakurei shrine maiden and Marisa is just used to weird shit like this in general due to living in the forest of magic, so she's basically developed a strong immunity to it. The village nurse, Rin Satsuki, has been trying her best to help the villagers as much as she can. As the mist gets worse and worse, some people just start disappearing, eye witnesses saying that they last saw the victims walk towards the strange lake by the Youkai mountain. Some grizzly murders even begin to pop up. When asked, the villagers state that they could never hear any sign of a struggle. Rin, who is also handling the autopsies, notices that the bodies of the victims have been precisely dismembered and disemboweled, the organs producing the most amount of blood being suspiciously missing. At this point, Reimu and Marisa have been slowly connecting the dots between this and the vampire incident, now finally getting the last piece they need to connect the two together. This is when we finally get to the events of EoSD and learn that the villagers killed ended up being made into food for Remillia and Flandre. Of course, we also learn that Sakuya was the one doing the killings.

The set-up phase (as I'm calling it for now), would of course be different depending on the games and it can take as long as it needs to, even overlapping with other arcs as it slowly builds up overtime. This is how I imagine the Moriya Shrine conspiracy arc plays out, we slowly start to hear about some things in passing (i.e. background characters mentioning some stuff casually) and then once the anime can get to those games it can actually expand on some of that stuff, you get the gist it's kinda hard for me to explain. Now of course, this can still get very formulaic if handled incorrectly, but this can be avoided by shortening the length of this setup phase depending on the game the anime gets to as some games in the series don't really need it to be super long (i.e. Imperishable Night, Mountain of Faith, and Unconnected Marketeers). You could also tackle this issue by having some anime original episodes in between arcs, and by this I don't mean filler episodes like Naruto or One Piece, but more of what Hunter X Hunter 1999 did in it's adaptation. Taking some more time to expand on the characters personalities and setting up some individual character arcs as well that can be later resolved within certain games. Individual arcs for the actual games themselves can also differ in length depending on the game too.

Overall, this idea for a Touhou adaptation would probably not have a big overarching plot, but be more like a long form anthology series, where we just get glimpses into the strange world of Gensokyo. However, if it were to have an overarching plot or theme, it would probably be about the importance of connection and relationships, and by that I mean any kind of relationship whether it be romantic, platonic, or in some cases antagonistic. If you wanted to have all of this build up to something, I have another very long post about a scenario where Marisa becomes a Youkai that could very well work as an ending to this hypothetical Touhou anime.

As I mentioned before, this idea is very very unrealistic and would take a heck of a long time to make, not even accounting the other hurdles this would have to face in order for this to happen, but let me know what you guys think of this idea because I often play around with this potential adaptation in my brain. Again, don't think this could ever really happen and if it does it would probably be very different from what I described, so please tell me what you think, if there are any potential problems that could happen or any alternative ways a Touhou anime could happen.

[ajcgames]

Polishing here, polishing there

'Flow' and 'feel' are two important metrics that I like to consider when I building out interactions in the game.

Here's an updated video of the current UI, tasks view and other bits, showing what it's like following tasks to get your science generation up and running:

Flow is mostly about how easy it is for the player to move between different kinds of interactions - placing things in the level, to opening up their info pop ups or accessing other game screens, and how many steps you put between the player between their current activity and what they're now trying to do.

Feel is mostly about whether or not a given game interaction is fluid and frictionless. Considerations here include speed of UI presentation, layout of important data or values, and whether the physical interactions (such as clicking on things) is responsive and tactile.

I've spent a great deal of my time over the last 20 years as a developer trying to make nice-looking and nice 'feeling' UI designs. Not always successfully, and often times far too rigidly adherant to trends or within comfortable design paradigms.

I didn't want to rewrite the book on UI design for this game, nor did I want to break accepted conventions for this type of game (management / automation). You expect a certain degree of information dialogs and button clicking in games like this, but the manner and presentation of these is definitely something that can be open to interpretation and personal style.

I always try and incorporate some form of animation into my UI, even if just some tasteful fading here and there. Making things a little more kinetic can help draw the eye, or change an otherwise jarring transition into something more fluid and pleasant. Hopefully some of my efforts one this front come across in the video (they naturally look best running at 60+ fps, since most embedded videos seem to fail to replay them at this!).

Perhaps I spend too much time worrying about those things? It's a possibility. The more time I spend fussing over the presentation of a UI element could be time better spent on actual development. But I suppose I did say from the outset that this is a game I'd like to play for myself, so I guess it's a really just a bonus if other folks enjoy it as much as I do. It makes it feel worth the effort.

The weekend is here, and so are the jobs!

Yes, as I mentioned a couple of days ago, I'm planning on some big developments for the game this weekend. I'll probably outline these in a follow-up blog post to this one so as not to clutter today's thoughts with those for the coming days. There are some interesting things I've got planned, and I'd like to see whether I can figure out some interesting programming challenges that they'll raise.

I'll talk about these soon, so you can probably expect another post to follow this one within the hour!

Thanks for swinging by and taking the time to reach here! If I'm lucky I'll see you again in the next one too!

Have a great weekend! 😊

[chattercap]

October 2023 Development Log!

Hello everyone! Happy October~ Time for a monthly progress update!

I'll start off with the big stuff: I started migrating game engines, from Unity to Godot. You can read the rationale behind my decision here.

GAME ENGINE MIGRATION HELL…OR NOT?

Overall, the migration is going fairly smoothly! Godot has pretty robust C# support at the moment, so I was able to migrate/translate a fair amount of my basic C# codebase from Unity to Godot without issues. Visual novels are pretty lightweight games, so apart from some issues with mobile builds, I think it will go well, and I will continue working with Godot for the time being.

After I spent a few days experimenting with the systems, I programmed in my story parsing logic and finished a basic game loop. Currently, the text handling is complete, with all of the functions that I initially coded in (branching paths, nested choices, conditionals, etc.) Auto and fast forward are also functional, and I also worked in the saving/loading. In addition, I added a few additional functions: sections (the ability to parse the same text file into different scenes), checkpoints (the ability to easily navigate back to a specific line), and "unsticky choices" (the ability to make choices "disappear" if you've seen them once).

I also programmed in a NVL mode. For anyone that's not familiar with VN lingo, the standard format of sprites on top with the text box below is called "ADV" mode, whereas "NVL" mode features text overlaying the entire screen (usually with some kind of darkened background for visibility - like above). NVL mode is less common in VNs nowadays, but it's useful for long monologues or narration (whereas ADV is best for dialogues). I also coded in the ability to swap freely between NVL and ADV mode.

In addition, I implemented customizable text. Basically this is text that can be adapted based on user input. For anyone who has played games with customizable protagonists, this is useful for adding things such as pronouns.

I also worked on a few simple "polish/quality of life functions" (that existed in my Unity build, but required new code and a bit of fenegling to work in Godot):

-A typewriting effect so that text fades in instead of being shown all at once.

-Text boxes that dynamically size based on the text inside.

-Making buttons scale as you hover over them.

I also designed some new basic GUI. While I'm not sure I'll actually use this GUI unaltered in any game, this is a good "base framework" with all the necessary elements.

The updated save screen now has 100 save slots (I'll see how large the save files get and adjust accordingly), and it saves a screenshot of the current game screen in addition to the current line. (I was pretty proud of myself for this one!)

Lastly, I started working on a rollback function. If you're familiar with Ren'py games, you know that when you scroll up on the mousewheel, it basically "reverses" the game so that you can easily go back and reread text or play different choices. I didn't implement this when I first made my framework in Unity because it is a bit complex; there are a lot of variables and edge cases that you need to take into account, and it basically requires me to "double" the amount of code, as I need to account for both a story running forwards and a story running in reverse.

Since I'm basically rebuilding my framework from the ground up, I thought it would be a good opportunity to try to implement a rollback, as I can code it in pieces as the codebase is being built. Currently, rollback is functional!

EVERYTHING THAT'S NOT CODING HELL

My focus this month was The Deepwater Witch! The sprites for the leads are fully rendered, with two variations for each, and now they just need to be animated. Around a third of the CGs have been storyboarded, and I also took reference photos for the backgrounds. The script is up to 26,281 words.

I also worked a bit on character designs for Hanasu, the Karamu sequel.

PLANS FOR THIS MONTH

For coding, I will start implementing basic visuals - sprites, CGs, and backgrounds - before moving on to audio, visual effects, and other advanced visuals (animated panels, etc.)

For everything else, since Once Upon a Time VN Jam has officially started, I will continue focusing on The Deepwater Witch until the first draft of the script is complete, and all of the CGs and BGs have been storyboarded. After that, I will start working on my other projects with less immediate deadlines.

Thank you to everyone who's keeping up with my development shenanigans! If you want to hear from me more often, I post most of my major announcements here and on Twitter​. I also post almost daily on my Patreon​ with sketches, writing snippets, sneak peeks, high resolution art, and weekly devlogs.

[canmom]

Animation Night 160: Calarts student films, 2023

Good evening friends! Today is a crazy busy day so the introduction will be very minimal (I'm writing this on my phone on a train lol), but I still wanna run Animation Night, so here's the plan.

First up though! In a week's time I'm going to the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, which takes place in the town of Annecy, next to Annecy Lake, in the southeast of France near the Swiss border. Two years ago, during the height of the pandemic, Annecy ran a partly-online version of the film festival and I had a great time watching all their short films; now I've finally been able to save up enough to go for real! It's crazy exciting and a little scary, I haven't been to anything even resembling a film festival since the nine worlds convention nearly a decade ago now ^^'

So, I don't know whether it will be practical to run Animation Night from my hotel, it would be good if I could but it may have to be the first week we miss in more than three years T_T. But, if you're by any chance also coming to Annecy and would like to hang out, I would love to have some people to meet there ^^ And you can bet I'll be writing all about it on here.

Anyway... As you know unless you're a space alien (in which case, hi!), every year animation students go to animation schools to learn this ridiculous art form. One of the most effective ways to learn to make animated films is to... make animated films, going through the whole process from planning to finishing. The schools thus dedicate a large portion of each year to having their students make a short film, typically a few minutes long.

Different schools handle this process in different ways. At Gobelins in France, the students form small teams and work on a film together, and given how consistent and polished their films tend to be, I assume they're quite closely supervised. This is not true elsewhere...

CalArts, near LA, is another one of the most prestigious schools, and a lot of renowned animators both in the states and even internationally (e.g. sakuga stars like Weilin Zhang and Curie Lu) went there - which leads to design trends in American animation (notably the 'bean head') sometimes getting spuriously attributed to a CalArts house style, rather than studio execs being very conservative in what they'll approve.

Compared to Gobelins, it seems that CalArts students tend to make their films largely solo, or at least in much smaller groups, and they're also made every year rather than just for graduation. The results tend to be wildly varied in both style and content, depending on what the students bring. They might be a lot more raw, but that also gives the possibility of really unique and unexpected stuff, and equally I find it interesting to see people at an earlier stage on the road...

So. A year ago on AN109 we watched through the playlist, and saw some real delights like Operago. Tonight I think it would be fun to check out this year's offerings. Unlike Gobelins, which releases everything on its official channel, CalArts students tend to put their films up on personal channels which means finding them can be a bit fiddly. But for a preview, check out this list someone made; at 35 films it's probably very incomplete so I'll be searching for more that are missing. Besides the Gobelins, I have a few other short films to show so we should have plenty to watch.

I'll be starting late, probably around midnight UK time, which is about 4pm in California; apologies that it just isn't possible to start earlier ^^' The place will be twitch.tv/canmom as ever, hope to see you there!

(And if you'd like something else to watch in the meantime, my vtuber friend Yuri Heart is gonna be on tonight too starting around 10:30, and I know she'd also appreciate some company!)

[first-blight]

because i can do whatever i want forever, i did it again. tagged by myself ‼️

OCs as obscure associations: Iska (they/she)

Animal: bull, wolf, harpy eagle

Colours: forest green, silver, gold

Month: january

Songs:

destroyer - of monsters and men [you better run, boy, run, but be afraid / cry, boy, cry, don't play the game / gravity holds me down / and it's taking over / i call everywhere, oh, i cry out, / you're my destroyer]

altar - written by wolves [what you've built is just designed to betray and i know / maybe i had thought of running away, and i know / i gotta let go / i can't be part of what you've built here and i know / now i know / i won't kneel at your altar / i'm not your soldier, it's over]

sun bleached flies - ethel cain [god loves you, but not enough to save you / so, babygirl, good luck taking care of yourself / so i said fine, 'cause that's how my daddy raised me / if they strike once, then you just hit 'em twice as hard]

the wolf - phildel [i'll never be more than a wolf at your door for dinner / and if i see you 'round like a ghost in my town, you liar / i'll leave with your head, oh i'll leave you for dead, sire]

Number: 100

Plants: moss, ivy, tree roots

Smells: cold winter air, blood, flower bouquets, forest air

Gemstone: moldavite

Time of Day: high noon

Season: winter

Weather: strong winds, hail, snowstorm

Sky: dark grey, overcast

Places: deep in the woods; resting under a tree; a clearing in the forest; an altar

Food: briám, dolma

Drinks: cinnamon whiskey, ginger tea

Seasonings: pepper, chili, parsley

Element: earth, fire

Astrological Signs: Libra, Aries

Magical Power: smiting

Weapons: greatsword

Social Media: none. whispering to the trees, wind and birds chiming back

Makeup Product: does nail polish count? black nail polish

Candy: jawbreaker

Method of long distance travel: teleportation, flying (by whatever method available)

Art Style: sketchy, lines-only

Fear: failure, letting loved ones down

Mythological Creature: Seraph (lol, a little on the nose), Fenrir

Piece of Stationery: well-used eraser

Three Emojis: 💢🗡🪽

Celestial Body:

specifically "the interloper" from outer wilds (don't google that if you plan on experiencing the game yourself, it's major spoiler territory!)

red hypergiant ("the term red hypergiant is sometimes used for the most extended and unstable red supergiants like VY Canis Majoris and NML Cygni"; [x] all red supergiants will "undergo core-collapse resulting in a supernova" [x] )