Mezzo - 07 - They All Die Young
Pairing: mshenko | Rating: M
Tags: Canon-typical violence, trauma, dealing with your problems poorly, body autonomy struggles
Summary: The twists and turns of ME2, through the eyes of everyone but Commander Shepard.
Chapter Summary: Hannah Shepard, Jack, and Mordin, Oh My! AKA, Swaps wrote Mordin’s POV for the first time and she’s being so brave about it.
Chapter 7: They All Die Young | Read on Ao3
14 November 2185, Arcturus Stream, Arcturus, SSV Everest
Hannah Shepard sits at the conference table in room 2B on the Everest, eyes on the door that Admiral Hackett better walk through any damn minute. The Orizaba docked on Arcturus an hour ago, and she’s been waiting in this tiny room for half of that.
She replays the Freedom’s Progress security footage, staring at the face she had known since he took his first breath, even if she’d never really known the person behind it.
One minute he’d been a child chasing the stars, the next he’d had a spec ops designation, on his way to becoming the first human Spectre. Everything in between is just snapshots, still moments in time.
She’d last seen him about a year before his death, when she’d pinned him for making Staff Commander right before his transfer to the Normandy. The Spectre induction ceremony had happened without her. She’d watched from a terminal on the Kilimanjaro out in Gemini Sigma, wondering if the black chain on his dress uniform was Daniel’s. Giving it to him was supposed to have helped create some connection between them.
She always miscalculated when it came to Sam.
But Sam had been so difficult to get to know. Even Daniel had struggled when he was a kid. Anderson was the only person he didn’t keep at arm’s length. Or so she’d thought, until she’d invited Lieutenant – Commander, now – Alenko to dinner after his memorial.
(I’m sorry you didn’t know him the way I did. I think you would have liked him.)
It was…a relief, in some way, that someone would be able to remember him in the ways that she could not.
Sam was so much like Daniel. Burned bright and fierce and left so little behind. Idly, she wonders what became of the black chain. One of the only pieces she’d had left of Daniel, and she’d given it to Sam. Now she has neither.
They all die young. Or so she’d believed.
The conference room door opens, and Admiral Hackett walks in brusque, all business, acknowledging her salute with a curt nod and gesturing for her to keep her seat.
“Captain. Thank you for coming.”
“What is the meaning of the Freedom’s Progress security footage?”
He settles into his chair. A yeoman appears from a side door and offers them both water. Hannah waves him off, not taking her eyes off of Hackett.
“We don’t know yet,” he replies, looking her right in the eye.
“That’s my son, Steven. What do we know?”
He draws in a reluctant breath. “Several months ago we became aware that in the aftermath of Alchera, Cerberus managed to recover Sam Shepard’s body.”
Cold sweeps through her. “They found a body.”
She’s always imagined what those words would sound like.
Read from the beginning | Read the rest on Ao3 | The Mezzo Playlist
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literally how in the world is your art that good it literally makes my brain buffer!!
got any tips?
thank you so much mac! honestly a huge range of tips i could cover haha but i’ll see if i can give you some of my favourite tips that were the catalyst for my own improvement!
one of the biggest steps i made with painting realistically is after discovering a technique used to blend colours using gaussian blur. i dont use it as often but its still extremely useful for achieving a fast dreamy blended colour. but first i’ll explain how i use it. i’ll have my layer with my painting of say, my subjects face, duplicate the layer, set the upper layer to a lower percentage of opacity (around 50% at first but i often find that turns out too low of a %) and then i’ll go to the lower layer and add the filter gaussian blur and play around with the area to blur (often end up settling around the 20.00s) and after ive readjusted the upper layers opacity to maintain the structure of the painting the result ends up extremely dynamic with a nice blended look to it.
this was helpful for me when i started using a textured brush for quickly laying down colours without having to overly fuss about blending. because before using the textured brush i use now i used to use a soft brush to carefully blend while laying down colours and it was an Extremely slow and tedious way to paint. (oh and btw using my textured brush which is called ‘analog anabelle’ its a clip studio paint brush, adds a nice texture to just about everything, looks great for skin and for clothing, but has mixed effects for hair admittedly. i use a different textured brush i downloaded from the site called SU-Cream Pencil for fine details of hair).
it’s hard to explain in a way that doesnt reduce gaussian blur to a shortcut and a trick because the result of using the gaussian blur for the first time flicked a switch in my understanding of painting as well as speeding up my process an extreme amount. and now i dont rely on it to blend my colours anymore because its trained my eye and i can achieve a nicer blend by my own hand. i did use it recently on my house art as a finishing effect to his jacket though! a before and after image:
and it also helps for making lighting more dreamy, it came in handy for edges of wilsons face, making the rim lighting seem to bleed into the pinks of his face:
part of why this trained my eye was it helped me embrace trusting the process as well as using colours i deemed “ugly”, really it was about the idea of colours being contextual which ive known about for years but had been rejecting and winding up with paintings flooded with too many reds and pinks.
(picture of a page of hans p bacher & sanatan suryavanshis vision: color and composition for film)
the thing about thinking of colours contextually too is that it gave me a better understanding of achieving realistic effects with painting those trickier areas like eyes, which are a lot of subtle shifts in colour but sans eye makeup and/or deep wrinkles there arent really any hard lines. eyes and clothes wrinkles are all about the illusion of hard lines. (i only started really improving my art when i phased out line art which started with phasing out lines in clothes because the hard lines of the line art were competing with my subtly painted illusory hard lines) heres an example of when i was first phasing out of lines vs where i think my progress in understanding has taken effect in subtly painting illusory hard lines in clothing is most clear:
see how despite the fact i was still using line art in the left image the inside of the clothing has hardly any inner lines defining folds. but in the right image i have no line art at all and yet the folds look more structured and solid.
one more thing that was an important discovery to me is something i call overpainting. this may or may not help everyone but i keep different parts of my painting on separate layers, like a shirt layer, body layer, hair layer etc etc. and i used to have difficulties with the edges where the layers separated bc id be left with a lot of ugly sharp transitions between the body and the shirt.
an example:
but what helped me was creating a folder above all my layers and painting on an unlocked transparent pixel layer over the top and softening the transition between those layers. it also helps with making my subjects edges blend into the background heres what my edgar art looks like with and without the overpainting:
you can see the edge of his left sleeve is almost completely blurred into the colour of the stone bench, and you can see how i use the overpainting to blend hair into the background
these are all of my most recent discoveries that have helped me sorry if theyre of no use but i apply all of these in all my art to gain a more realistic effect! and if you have any further questions or need for clarification feel free to ask!
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Videoguys Quick Hits: PTZOptics Move SE PTZ Camera, NETGEAR M4250 Netw - Videoguys
New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/videoguys-quick-hits-ptzoptics-move-se-ptz-camera-netgear-m4250-netw-videoguys/
Videoguys Quick Hits: PTZOptics Move SE PTZ Camera, NETGEAR M4250 Netw - Videoguys
On today’s episode of Videoguys Live, James talks about 3 products that can help elevate your live streaming production! First the PTZoptics Move SE 1080 60p PTZ camera. Next he will talk about Kiloviews E3 Dual Channel Encoder. Lastly, he will talk about the NETGEAR M4250 Pro AV network switches and which one we recommend for a multi camera shoot!
PTZOptics Move SE
Ideal for live streaming and video production, the Move SE offers high-quality video with a resolution of 1080p at 60fps at a fraction of the cost. With the Move SE’s auto-tracking features, users can easily control their production.
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4th generation HD PTZ camera
5 year warranty!
SONY Optics deliver up to 1080p60
Total Connectivity: HDMI, 3G-SDI, USB & IP Output. Plus POE!
Built-In Auto-Tracking
Available in Gray or White
NDI HX2 Now included with Latest Firmware!
PTZOptics Hive Studio
Access your cameras from anywhere, anytime.
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Introducing the simplest way to control all of your cameras from anywhere in the world.
Experience our innovative studio interface that grants control across your entire camera lineup, all for an affordable price.
Kiloview E3
Dual-Channel 4K HDMI & 3G-SDI HEVC Video Encoder
Flexible, Powerful, Professional: A New Generation of Video Encoder
Up to UHD 4K30 via HDMI
Supports Multiple Streaming Protocols
H.265 and H.264 Support
Streams to up to 16 Platforms
Built-In LCD Screen
Low <100ms Latency
PoE Support
Encoding Both Video Inputs of HDMI & 3G-SDI
E3 allows encoding video sources from either port of 3G-SDI or HDMI, mixing both video sources into one output in PIP or PBP mode or even encoding video sources into up to 1080p60 from both ports of HDMI and 3G-SDI simultaneously for high-quality live streaming.
Flexible Formats Selection
For all IP-based video transmission processes, E3 supports the high efficiency video codec HEVC as well as H.264.
With support of HEVC, E3 can maintain video image quality with lower bitrate, saving more than 50% of your bandwidth.
Compatible with All Protocols
For broad applications, E3 supports a complete range of streaming protocols including NDI HX3/NDI HX2/SRT/RTMP/RTMPS/HLS/TS over UDP/RTP*/RTSP/Onvif*
It can be used for live production with NDI HX, remote production with SRT, live streaming with RTMP or HLS, or any transmission with all different protocols.
Powerful Streaming Capabilities
The E3 input can be up to 4Kp30 from its HDMI port and up to 1080p60 from its 3G-SDI port
With its powerful output capabilities, E3 can go live to up to 4 different platforms simultaneously, max bitrate can be up to 120Mbps.
Built-in LCD Screen and Touch Button
E3 is equipped with a 1.14-inch LCD screen with touch buttons for a better user experience
With the built-in LCD screen, you can easily check the connectivity, IP address, CPU usage, memory usage, resolution and tally status in real-time
The LCD Screen is also a big-sized Tally* to display the preview/program status.
NETGEAR M4250 GSM4212PX100NAS
8-port 10/100/1000BASE-T (RJ45) PoE+ with 240W PoE budget
2-port 10/100/1000BASE-T (RJ45)
2-port 1000/10GBASE-X (SFP+)
60 Gbps non-blocking fabric across 12 ports
Out-of-band 1G Ethernet management port
USB-C and RJ45 RS232 console ports and USB-A storage port
Terms to Learn:
PoE – Power of Ethernet
PoE – 15.4 Watts
PoE+ – 30 Watts
PoE++ – 60-100 Watts depending on version
TPD – Total Power Delivery – The maximum power a switch can deliver
Why Do We Recommend NETGEAR M4250?
Engineered for AV over IP
Netgear is committed to ProAV
Easy to Configure (GUI)
Presets for NDI HX & NDI 5
Recommended by all of our partners: PTZOptics, Vizrt, Birddog etc
What Switch Do We Recommend For A Multi-Camera Shoot?
8x1G PoE+
TPD 220W
2xSFP+
8x1G PoE+
TPD 240W
2x1G
2xSFP
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