#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.

[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

[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 (miles_crow)

Gender: Fluid!

Pronouns: He/She

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

What you can expect here: hard to say! I'm multifandom (Lackadaisy, Marvel [X-men!], musical theatre, especially Cats the Musical, Oz, Dead Boy Detectives, Good Omens, etc.). Plus I have a bunch of original characters that I'll eventually introduce you to!

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!

[silvertsundere]

Silver Talks AniManga (22/12/24)

Couple days late, cause my routine last week was all outta whack, but it's finally here. TONS of stuff end this week which didnd't help either. At least next week will be a lot lighter since so much ended and a lot of stuff will be on break as well

Blue - Finale/Completed

Anime

Mecha-Ude Ep12 (Finale)

That was certainly alright. I had the show as a 7 early on but as it kept going I decided it would prob be a 6. Went into the finale with that mindset but the first half was actually a lot better than what I expected, so I almost raised it but in the end it wasn't enough to make up for rest

It's very much a budget trigger show, I mean, it even has a Sawano ost lmao. Even the basis of the plot is the same as KLK, sentient alien species that fuses with humans to unleash their true powers come to earth with their own agenda 🤔 Ofc, even outside of that the animation style they went for and even the humour was very reminiscent of trigger but they unquestionably lacked the sauce and the polish. I said ep 1 was very impressive, even if they didn't have any mind blowing sakuga, and the first half of the finale was the same. However, through the rest of the show that wasn't the case and while some of the fights had some creative camera work, the animation itself wasn't anything special

Also, it apparently was supposed to be a 2 cour show, which makes a lot of sense and I can absolutely believe. There were a buncha charas in the op that barely got screentime, despite clearly having being meant to and they got introduced rapid fire in the last few episodes just to not let their designs go to waste, I guess. They also introduced a whole new faction and even showed the mcs going into the mecha world in the credits so.. The show would've been a lot better if it was allowed to be 2 cour as well, but despite that I think they did a decent enough job with what they had. Starting to ramble so I'll stop here but TL;DR is: Not something I'd recommend but certainly not a bad watch. Being a "budget trigger show" already makes it a lot better than a lot of the stuff that comes out every season

Dandadan Ep12 (Finale)

The anime designs never did grow on me but at the end of the day this was basically as good as an adaptation as we could've gotten. The sakuga scenes we got were amazing but even the general animation was really great and on point, like with the Okarun and Momo bickering scenes. That, combined with the great seiyuu performances really elevated it above being a serviceable adaptation. The original content they added like the can can scene in ep 5(?) and most of ep 8 was great as well. Makes you wonder why they decided to end the season where they did instead of making original content for the second half of the finale but oh well. Which, speaking of, there's been a S2 confirmed for july next year already so that's fun

But yeah, this is like, one of those situations where it's so good I don't have much to say other than, they cooked. The music, voice performances, character acting, animation, aesthetic, directing, it was all great. They really did cook (tho I will say those green filter scenes during the nessie fight were absolutely murdering my eyes argh)

The Idolmaster Shiny Colours S2 Ep12 (Finale)

After S1 I wasn't expecting much but this turned out a lot better (gave it a 7 instead of 6). I felt like the CG improved quite a bit but even outside of that, not having to introduce so many girls meant they had more time to explore other stuff which gave us those dramatic episodes with each of the unites. I feel like noctchil didn't have enough screentime but that might just be my bias talking

Surprisingly, there was no S3 announced. Before S1 was even over, the second had already been announced so that's weird. There's 2 more units in the game that weren't in the anime at all, but there was no tease or anything in the finale and there've been no news otherwise so... I could totally understand them not doing another season if these 2 didn't do well (I wouldn't know cause I haven't been paying attention to that) but if they do end up doing it, I will certainly be there to support my girlies

Magilumiere Co. Ltd. Ep12 (Finale)

I was going back and forth between a 6 and 7 for a while but ended up going with the lower score for the lackluster animation. I should've expected it when I saw JC Staff, but the pvs looked good so I, foolishly, had hope... It was a serviceable adaptation, which is the problem. It was serviceable and nothing else. While the art was good (Akane's eyes really stood out to me), the animation was the barest of minimums and they stuck to the source material pretty closely. Seeing some of the extra chaps and even vol bonus after the ED was a fun little bonus tho. They actually had one bit of original content, right on the finale with the kaii mutating into that giant monster that wasn't in the manga whatsoever. I'm p sure it was only done as a way to pad out the finale a bit more to reach a better ending point tho

Now, as you can see below, it got a second season announced. I would've never guessed this was going to happen so I was very surprised to see it. I doubt it'll be any better than this season, but as long as they keep the same quality I won't complain too much. The manga is ending soon too so it makes me curious as to if they'll adapt the whole thing, but they'd need at least 2 more cours, if not 3, after S2 so I really doubt it

You are Ms. Servant Ep12 (Finale)

I decided to watch this show just cause it had two things I like a lot which is maids and kuuderes, or so I thought at first. It did have a maid and she was indeed kuu but she slowly melted over the show, as I should've expected from a slice of life like this. I don't have much to say about it really. I was going back and forth between 6 and 7 and decided that the finale would help me choose. When I saw that scene below I was like "damn ok that's a ballsy move, it deserves the 7 now" and then the scene right after nullifies it so that's how we ended up here The show wasn't bad but there was also not much to write home about. The art was very pretty at times and the animation was what you'd expect from a slice of life comedy like this (or maybe a bit above average). I wish Yuki didn't become so goofy so fast but that's just personal preference. The voice performances were good (ueda reina really was in a lot of my shows this season huh), but without any stand out ones I'd like to say that I recommend the show if you likes maids, but starting from ep 3 she starts going to school too, which was a total necessity or they'd run out of stuff to do I know, so she isn't in maid mode for a lot of the show tbh

Blue Exorcist: Beyond the Snow Arc Ep12 (Finale)

Same old, same old. There isn't much to say really. Animation continues to be solid despite not being nearly as good as it used to be. The Shura arc was a lot shorter than I expected tho. I knew there were a lot of lore drops coming this season and was looking forward to them and they certainly didn't disappoint. It is crazy how much Yukio has fallen tho, but I'm sure he'll get back on track. It's kinda annoying that these are treated as different seasons, when it's not even split cour, but oh well. I'll be looking forward to seeing/learning more about the mom next month 👍

Manga

Tokyo Underworld Ch97 (Finale)

Honestly I don't have a lot to say about this. It wasn't good enough to warrant me talking about this or that but also not bad enough for me to bitch about like some other series. It was just unimpressive from start to finish

I went in thinking it was gonna be a death game like DR but I was wrong. The idea with the enemies being "historical figures" with specific death triggers was cool but never explored too much. The art was unimpressive and the paneling was weak. The story was very convoluted and felt rushed at the end, prob cause they told them to wrap it up after the battle royale arc I assume. Again, I just don't have a lot to say really so I'll leave it at that

Shuumatsu no Valkyrie Ch95

This fight is finally over and like the kids say, it's peak. Okita fighting was the thing I was looking forward to the most since the names were revealed at the start of the series and they certainly didn't disappoint. Considering the score at the start of the fight I predicted that Okita would win just to not make the plot too predictable afterwards. However I changed my mind during the fight, they introduced another plot by teasing some stuff with Odin and Siegfried, and with how balanced the fight was I thought that there would be the chance for a tie, which wouldn't change the current score and therefore pigeonhole the rest of the story Spoilers: Just like I predicted Okita did end up winning, and the score is now tied once again leaving the result for the next fight up in the air completely. However, considering how the fight went I still think it'll be a "tie" with Okita dying at some point, despite winning the fight itself

Also it's been a pain being so behind with the english TLs, yeah I could read it in other languages but it'd feel weird considering I've been doing it in en for years, hopefully they manage to do the next one after but this is what you have to put with with fanlations

[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!)

[apollorobin]

Sonia for ask?

SONIA MY BABYGIRL!!!!! oh my goodness i am in love with her <3 one of my favourite girls of the whole danganronpa series, what a sweetheart!! answering all of my opinions on her was so fun i loved it

favourite thing about them: i love how strong she is, like, how much she can stand up for herself!! she is confident and wonderful and strong, and her design is very polished in my opinion, her dress suits her so well and i love the colours (and also she is very pretty) (i would like to kiss her) (she is also very beautiful) (did i mention how pretty she is)

least favourite thing about them: hmmm, to be honest, in general i don't like when characters exist as a big reference to something else. if you didn't know, sonia is based on the band nirvana: novoselic is the surname of someone in the band, nevermind is one of their albums, and in utero (written on her uniform) is another album. i love sonia so much, and it's just a shame she's based on something i have no interest in, yknow? however i love to ignore all of that lol because nevermind and novoselic are pretty and european sounding anyway so they fit her nicely, so it's not a big deal. just wish the words had been come up with a different way really. but YEAH i love her design regardless :) my silly little gal

favourite line: i am not some woman with flexible legs!! that makes me giggle a lot :) in general i love her weird little semi broken english phrases and slang, she's so silly

brotp: i like her being friends with fuyuhiko!! my silly lil blondes :) also like her with all of the girls except hiyoko to be honest (she can get in the trash)

otp: bit of a rare pair from what ive seen buuut soniaki!!! her and chiaki are so cute together :) so sweet and fluffy, i love imagining/writing/drawing them! also it works really well with soudam in my opinion so that's a plus :)

notp: i know it's a very popular one, but i cannot stand sondham :( i get why other people like it though, so no judgement or hate at all if you like them!! i just very strongly see her and gundham as best best best friends, and it makes me feel gross to think of them romantically together. they are both just so gay to me!!!! the gayest bffs of all time. and i love imagining them help each other out with their individual relationship issues and crushes :)

random headcanon: she is a hopeless romantic, she loves to talk about crushes, and valentine's day is definitely her favourite holiday! she wants her and her friends to all have wonderful happy fairy tale endings

unpopular opinion: i've seen people say she was useless in the games before and that the plot would be basically the same if she wasn't there, but that's not true in my opinion! she saw hiyoko in ch3, her and gundham at the end of ch4 is impactful, and in ch5 she's suspicious when she's looking through the military stuff etc and if i remember correctly she tries to take the blame off of chiaki in the trial, right? and probably other stuff im too empty-brained to remember right now lol. and besides, her interactions with kaz and gundham add comic relief so! :) she is very important to me and the game would not be the same without her

a song i associate with them: this question is so hard omg, but im doing my best. here's a song that makes me think of sonia and chiaki together! just a generic love song really, nothing specific to them but it makes me think of them <3

favourite picture of them: she's so PRETTY i could literally say any oh my goodness. for sprites i'll say the one where she's holding her bicep like💪 lol then for pictures i'll say these :)

also love the one of her on the ch4 roller coaster though and as with kaz, i like all of those anime screenshot things like the picnic and there's one of her, kaz and gundham by the fountain under a rainbow, etc

thank you for asking about her!!! <3<3 and if anyone else would like to send in another character then please feel free!! this is fun :)

[mynailsart]

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