#actually this goes for every artist's tutorial they all have this vibe

[airbus-a350]

how come every single 'art tutorial' about adding line weight like that... "no line weight? your drawing sucks! try THIS" *draws a slightly thicker line in one place, entirely to the op's taste* "MUCH better!!"

[obstinaterixatrix]

I read all of The Honest Life of a Game Studio and now I am obsessed do you have recs for anything like it.

I wish. I FUCKING WISH. but it’s really one of a kind. higefusa really just wrote mundane slice of life office drama with the level of detail that could only be provided by a gamer who has worked in the industry AND he threw in some life or death stakes as a treat. how often do we get an incredibly normal office worker stuck in time prison??? and it’s ONE ARC??? not often enough.

none of these are gonna be just like game-ya but in terms of romances with attention to detail for industry/niche fields… ok all of these are gonna be kind of weird so bear with me.

double section is a BL about an auditor for an insurance company and an insurance salesman, I wouldn’t necessarily give it a blanket rec but I liked how Passionate the main characters were about audits and workplace regulations. a lot of heated drama for the most normal office setting possible. in the author’s note the artist talks about interviewing health insurance salesmen.

ginmokusei is more of a conventional BL but it’s about a guy who inherited his grandpa’s tailor shop and an ex maître d who shows up and demands to help him before he goes bankrupt. there’s a little bit about branding and marketing and bank loans. what has Always Stayed With Me is when the love interest basically goes like ‘you’re using all these flashy ads and being really pushy with discounts. are you selling beef bowls.’ every time I pass a clothes shop that goes really flashy with the discount banners I think ‘are they selling beef bowls…’

panel x magic. okay I said it was going to be weird. so this yuri is about a recent graduate who applies for office jobs and ends up doing image editing for… I guess a brothel? it doesn’t go into critiques of the sex industry, but I thought it was interesting how it takes a really logistical perspective in terms of marketing, advertising, and image manipulation… one of the chapters has the main character going like ‘oh god I’m trying to edit this risqué photo by making the thighs thinner and giving the face a glow-up but I keep making the model look like a weird alien this looks like something from a photo booth’ and gets advice from her coworkers like ‘hey why don’t you look up makeup tutorials to get a sense of what to touch up.’ hasn’t been translated in a while but it kind of hits that… really in-depth look at the logistics of a job.

I think there’s more I’m not remembering at the moment, at one point I think sundry made a joke about rating office romances by how much office work is shown. there’s a couple ones that *kinda* fit but not really… wait. wait wait wait. WAIT. oh my god it has such a h•rny title. okay. so I’m being 100% sincere when I say that the main story for hammered and pounded is a BL with interesting office politics. it’s also incredibly h•rny, but game-ya gets pretty h•rny so whatever. but yeah there’s a whole subplot where the love interest, who works in sales, has actually always wanted to work in R&D, and it becomes A Whole Thing where the head of R&D is in conflict with the head of sales over whether or not a transfer is gonna happen and there’s no romance involved with the conflict it’s all office politics

and in a similar vein, to your right, you will see my boyfriend is about a guy who’s working as a tour guide in kyoto and at the artist talks about how she used to work as a tour guide. I think it’s fun, though I have my qualms. the main character does do studying about how to be an effective tour guide and goes from being like ‘ugh I’m saying all the facts but no one’s listening’ to ‘haha check out this extremely long name of the temple we’re about to see! make sure to remember it, it’ll be the password for getting off the bus ;D’

I have another category of vaguely similar vibes of genre bending mundane office work + fantastical situations

tokusatsu gagaga is a gen series that’s a BIG fave of mine, the main character is an OL who loves tokusatsu so she imagines a lot of scenarios with that sort of vibe. it’s not diagetic, but it’s really fun when it’s stuff like ‘I’M AT KARAOKE WITH MY COWORKERS BUT I CAN’T OUT MYSELF AS A TOKUSATSU OTAKU THIS IS JUST LIKE BEING ATTACKED BY A KARAOKE-THEMED MONSTER EMERJASON HELP ME!!!!’ the eng tl hasn’t been updated in a while but there’s a live action adaption that’s really good

magilumiere co. ltd. is a gen series that’s basically ‘what if magical girls were like… sanitation workers for monsters’ so it’s a lot of company logistics in a fantastical setting. I don’t think I got that far into it before getting distracted, but it was interesting (though perhaps overly generous/idealistic about start-ups as a concept).

[xemobladechromicles]

Gonna rank them real quick.

1. Riki

I love Riki. He sounds like a chain smoking toddler but then has canonically had more sex than every other character in the series combined. Goes on a quest to save the world to escape debt. Shouts "Riki Sneaky!!" while attacking. Turned himself into a pineapple. Turned himself into a pile of spikes (Riki want hugs!!). Father of Bestest. There to be the emotional support the party (Melia) needs in the most Riki way possible. Wants food. Feed him. Killed God by bludgeoning him to death with a fish. Took Monolith several games to create a Nopon with even a fraction of Riki's success. And that's only because Riku probably could have half as much sex as Riki if he knew what sex is.

2. Reyn

The myth, the legend. Now it's Reyn Time. Alleyoop. Hwah. Can't have a Rainbow without Reyn baby. Only character to manage to annoy Alvis; the supercomputer that is also the very fabric of reality itself. Not, like in a piss him off way, in a "I'm annoyed and will let you know" way. I want to lock Reyn, Riki, and Alvis in a room together for 3.7 hours and then hide in a fallout shelter while observing the consequences. Man rocks that crop top. All of his armor is an eldritch abomination. Never actually learned how to use his kit, but the fact that his weapon is called a Driver is very funny to me after Xenoblade 2's existence happened. And it's even funnier when you consider Xenoblade 3. Man's got a Blade called a Driver. Certainly he is gaming the cosmology of the multiverse. Also I think Alvis made the ocean have salt in it just to spite Reyn.

3. Shulk

I thought his last name was Soss? Xenoblade 3 is out here challenging my most basic assumptions about its story. His run animation looks very funny. I love the part where he wears armor and the artist straight up forgot that Shulk presumably had kneecaps. My man's tastebuds have been slandered nonstop for 13 years. Poor guy was possessed by God and was too damn oblivious to notice the voice in his head telling him to kill everyone and everything. The dichotomy of being too smart and too stupid for this world. Gotta love when God steals his magic laser sword and Shulk goes "fuck you" *makes my own magic laser sword*. Easily the most beginner friendly gameplay out of any Xenoblade protagonist. Simple win conditions. Simple solutions to any wrench the game throws at you. Low customization and thus minimal chance for confusion on what he's supposed to be doing. I give my compliments to the chef. Also gotta give cheers to Adam Howden for shredding his vocal chords for our entertainment.

4. Melia

Toss up between her and Shulk because her character's tragedies are sort of undermined by the story putting so much emphasis on the love triangle. That said, very funny class. I literally didn't know she could use her talent art below full gauge to summon discharge first playthrough (I'm allergic to reading tutorials). Lady can knock over a dinosaur by kicking its shins in and has only recently learned how to not fall on her ass in the process. Definitely the most satisfying character in 1 to learn (I say as tho I have any confidence in my mastery over her kit). I like how she has an ability that reflects enemy damage. Also very funny how her AI sometimes gets caught in a loop of doing literally jack shit *stares at Bunnit intimidatingly.* Which makes her being only AI controlled in 3 a very spicy move from Monolith Soft. Also funny that in both 1 and 3 she has the magical power of breaking the chain attack damage multiplier. I have literally nothing to say about her character writing tho. I neither vibe nor dislike her. I will say that I was very disappointed in "that's not Melia that's a robot" twist in Xenoblade 3 because I was really looking forward to the explanation for why Melia and Nia seemingly betrayed their principals.

5. Fiora

Poor lady's been fucking outclassed by Mio on basically every possible level. As a love interest? Mio's got a better balance between being a love interest and being an actual character. Also Mio's theoretical death being a driving force behind Noah's potential fall to darkness just works a lot better than with Shulk and Fiora. Mio's whole "I'm about to die" thing has way more palpable tension than Fiora's. Mio did the whole "I got possessed by a being with ancient memories and then fused with that being after they died to save me" thing way better than Fiora ever did (I don't think Monolith is emotionally ready to remember Meyneth exists yet). Dual wielding badass, guess what Mio's weapon is. Tho I will say that Fiora was a favorite character initially because I like knives, but that is outclassed by Elma and Mio. Get rekt Fiora lol.

6. Dunban

Man gets tased by the Monado and decides to become left handed because fuck you. The only acceptable naked character (Zeke can have a pass too, but only as a treat, Taion is free to keep trying tho it's mildly amusing). Sadly his gameplay sucks. Not as in he's weak, he's just not fun to play. Which ruins his badassery for me. Also never cared for his wisdom as a mentor figure. Quit agressively shipping Shulk and Fiora, man needs a new hobby.

7. Sharla

Literally useless in both story in gameplay its so sad. Step 0 in Monolith's journey of discovery in "how to make healers fun." We all say "rip Melia" but at least she has a fucking fanbase.

[recurring-polynya]

Does anyone in the world remember Heroes of the Hueco Mundo Invasion – In Love!!, a short and very strange piece of fiction I wrote while high on bad antidepressants because @unohanadaydreams​ told me to? Anyway, I wrote another chapter. I wrote this ages ago and never posted it because I was considering cutting the joke about the bowling shirts in favor of actually having them go bowling eventually. I still haven’t decided, but the bit about the bowling shirts is too good to cut. Why did I write this??? Anyway, it is transcendentally stupid and every single line of it is extremely hilarious to me. I just made a joke about Renji playing the tambourine and remembered this existed, so here you go. Happy Saturday.

🎨   🐱   👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨

“Are you seeing this?” Ichigo exclaimed.

Rukia sighed, cradling her phone between her shoulder and her ear. “Yeah.”

“First of all, since when does Soul Society have YouTube?”

“I don’t know why you keep calling it that, it’s called SoulTube, and how else would we watch cat videos and skateboard tricks?”

“Since when do you have skateboards? And also, what the junk, Chad and Ishida?”

Rukia sighed as Matsumoto narrated the highlights of Chad and Uryuu’s Shinigami Women’s Association-sponsored date.

“Chad and Uryuu decided to each plan half the date to surprise the other!” Matsumoto was trilling. “Tell me, Uryuu, what did Mr. Tall, Dark and Silent have in store for you?”

“Well, the Karakura Art Museum was doing a tribute to Leonora Carrington, who is apparently one of Chad’s favorite artists. He was clearly nervous about it. I mean, her works are a little avant garde, but he said that he wanted to share something about himself and that he felt I would understand. I was honestly really touched by that. I wasn’t exactly surprised that Chad is into magical realism, we all know that 100 Years of Solitude is his favorite book.”

“Do we?” Ichigo echoed. “Do we all know that, Ishida?”

The camera panned to Chad standing in front of a large painting in which some plague doctors appeared to be spray-painting a flamingo. There was close to a minute of silence, punctuated by a bit of zooming in and out, before Chad rumbled “This one is my favorite.”

“For the second half of the date, Uryuu took a bit of a different tack!” Matsumoto explained.

Uryuu was back on camera again. “I mean, I tried to think of things Chad likes. I’m kinda boring, and I felt bad for making him do this. I know I went for the really obvious thing.”

The video switched to the interior of a kitten cafe. Chad was covered in kittens. There were two on his head, one on each shoulder, and at least seven cradled in his massive arms. His face was just one massive grin. It cut over to Uryuu, a single, tiny kitten cradled in the crook of his arm, sipping at a cup of tea, gazing at Chad mistily.

“Awwwww,” Rukia murmured. It was the sixth time she had watched this. It was the sixth time she had involuntarily murmured ‘awwwww’ at this part.

“I am so mad at him,” Ichigo grouched. “I thought Ishida would screw this up royally. I mean, we all knew Chad would do a good job, but look at this! How am I supposed to take Inoue on a date after this?! Why did I agree to this?!”

“Because you were high on painkillers,” Rukia pointed out for the sixth time, as, on her computer screen, Chad and Uryuu fed each other bites of pastry. “What are you all nervous about anyway? Orihime is the kindest person in existence and she thinks the world of you. Aside from accidentally stabbing her-- which, sometimes you do accidentally stab people, so try not to-- there’s really no way to mess this up. Besides, technically, didn’t she ask you out?”

Ichigo let out a big huff, which Rukia assumed was at her, and not at Hisagi’s surreptitious, long-range zoom shot of Uryuu and Chad having a very chaste good-night peck on the lips.

“Askin’ a girl out is very hard, Rukia, and I’ve got this opportunity, and I don’t wanna blow it! I know that Orihime will like anything, and that’s why it’s so hard to figure out the thing that will actually really make her happy!”

“You. She wants to go on a date with you, dude.”

“I mean, would she be impressed if I wore a suit? Or would I just look like a mortician? Maybe she’s into morticians. Should I ask my dad if I can borrow his leather jacket? I mean, it’s super cool, but it’s also my dad’s, so it comes with terrible vibes.”

“She will like whatever you are wearing because she likes you. She has sent me no less than 18 text messages on this topic.”

“And Nanao and Hisagi definitely do not know how human money works, they gave us way too much. Do you think I should take her someplace really upscale? I feel like that’s a dangerous move on my part.”

“You could honestly just walk around with her. She likes you disgustingly much.”

“Is there some ancient disgraced shinigami sealed in a cave we could… y’know… loosen the bindings on…? Orihime loves sealin’ up an undead evil.”

“Dude, you just said this was a big opportunity for you, and b) that’s what we’re doing next week so I can get out of my date.”

Ichigo snorted. “C’mon, you have it so easy. I wish I could go on a date with Renji.”

“Fine. Let’s swap then, and you can.”

“Nooooooooo, because then Orihime would like you better than me, I don’t want that! And besides, that’s not really what I meant.”

“What did you mean?” Rukia asked, her voice dropping down into Sode no Shirayuki territory.

“You guys go on dates all the time, even if you don’t call it that. Keigo was really confused when he found out you two weren’t married.”

“Keigo gets confused by vending machines. And I just take Renji to noble crap because Brother says he is ‘an acceptable escort’ and he’s really good at being tall and making growly faces at gross people who would otherwise be hitting on me.”

“You take him to noble stuff? I didn’t know you took him to noble stuff.”

“I mean, we go drinking, too, but everyone goes drinking, that’s not a date.”

“Sure, drinking in a large group is not a date.”

“It is also not a date to go drinking with just one other person. Sometimes you want to hear what the other person has to say, you know, or you just want to offload about your day with someone who understands you really well!”

“To be honest, Rukia, I was specifically referring to the time we went to karaoke and you two sang ‘The Chain’ by Fleetwood Mac together and maybe also the time we went bowling and you guys had matching shirts, but now that I have further information, I think he might actually be your boyfriend.”

“I sound exactly like Stevie Nicks when I sing!” Rukia protested. “And Brother bought us those shirts. He has one, too.” She sucked her teeth for a moment. “I’m pretty sure if he were my boyfriend, that would have required us to kiss at some point.”

“Oh.” There was a long silence at the other end of the line. “D’you want to? Kiss him, I mean.”

Rukia scratched her head, and backed up to the part where Chad was covered in kittens again. “I dunno. Do you want to kiss Orihime?”

“I kinda do, Rukia. Have you met her?”

“Fair. You should wear a suit and also sunglasses. Wear a tie, but loosen it a bunch and maybe halfway through the date, take it off and stick it in your pocket. Bring flowers. Lounge against a doorway and occasionally stare off into the middle distance before you say something. She’ll flip her shit. I promise.”

“Thanks, Rukia! You’re the best!”

“I’m not,” Rukia grumbled, squinting at the screen, trying to figure out who had initiated the Chad - Uryuu kiss.

“Renji’s pretty hot. I don’t judge you for wanting to kiss him.”

“I-- !” Rukia protested, then closed her mouth. “Thanks, Ichigo.”

“This could be a big opportunity for you, too, y’know.”

“Maybe,” Rukia agreed, and started typing “eye makeup tutorial not look like clown” into the SoulTube search bar.

  🎶   🍨   💖

Renji frowned at the bill of damages in front of him. Apparently, Harribel was in charge of Hueco Mundo now, and she had discovered paperwork. He was supposed to confirm all of the things that he, personally, had destroyed. He didn’t think he should be charged for destroying Rudabone’s skeletons, since the guy just made more of them. Also, 73 Menos Grande seemed excessive. He wondered if Queen Harribel was trying to have one over on them.

“Lieutenant Abarai,” Captain Kuchiki intoned. “I have seen the SoulTube video.”

Renji jumped a foot in the air. “Aw, jeez, Captain, you almost gave me a heart attack!” he gasped. “The one where me and Rikichi do sweet skateboard jumps? Or the one where Hisagi sings ‘Ship to Wreck’ and I play backup on the tambourine?”

His captain glared at him. “The one where the ryouka boys go on a romantic outing."

“Oh,” Renji replied. “Captain, I know what you’re thinking.”

“Do you?” Byakuya intoned, his voice dripping with skepticism.

“And I think a cat cafe could really take off in Soul Society, it would be a great investment opportunity! You should move quick, though, while this video is still so popular.”

“What I was referring to, Abarai,” Byakuya growled, “is that you are scheduled to take my beloved sister on a similar such outing, no?”

“Oh,” Renji said again. “Yeah, I guess.”

“You guess?”

Renji hunched a little. “It’s not a big deal, sir. Hisagi’s really been blowing it all outta proportion. It’s just a cute thing for the newspaper, like the time they printed your recipe for Ambassador Seaweed taiyaki, remember that? You got dressed up in a little apron and hat and stuff and then you got all that fan mail?”

“This is not like that at all, Abarai,” Byakuya informed him. “I knew it would be thus. I shall call Lieutenant Hisagi and tell him to call this wretched exercise off immediately.”

“Uh… why, sir?” Renji asked, his eyes wide.

“You are not taking this seriously, Lieutenant. My sister is the most beautiful and charming woman in Soul Society, and I will not have her affections treated as a publicity stunt.”

“You underestimate me, sir!” Renji barked. “No one has more respect and sincere affection for your sister than me! I swear on my sword, I will show her A Real Good Time!”

Byakuya scrutinized his lieutenant. “You will select an activity that will be both surprising, yet enjoyable to her?”

“Yes, sir!”

“You will compliment her clothes and hairstyle, even if she insists on wearing those horrific Living World combat boots she owns?”

“For sure, sir!” Renji replied. He was a great fan of the combat boots.

“You will return her home by 9pm?”

“That’s a little early, sir, and also, there’s a nonlinear time gap between…”

Byakuya narrowed his eyes. Renji’s numerous Senbonzakura scars were starting to itch.

“No later than 8:45, sir.”

Byakuya nodded. “I am going to trust you on this, Lieutenant, but I shall be waiting up with ice cream and hot fudge, should you disappoint my sister.”

“I thought you didn’t like sweet things,” Renji frowned.

“I make allowances where my sister’s heart is at stake.”

“Well, I’m gonna do my best, sir, and I know her pretty well, so I don’t think you’ll need it.” It occurred to Renji that over the years, Byakuya had turned out to be a pretty decent brother, after all, but he didn’t think it would be particularly helpful to point that out. “Uh, sir?”

“Yes, Abarai?”

“You got any policies on good-night kisses?”

“If I am shown a particularly nice time, I allow myself to be kissed at the end of a date.”

Renji blinked. “I meant, uh, vis-a-vis Rukia.”

“Ah.” Byakuya contemplated this for a moment. “Obviously, your own preferences carry some weight, but my sister is quite a catch. If Rukia wishes to kiss you, I think you should let her.”

Renji nodded curtly. “Will do, sir!”

[muthur9000]

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As part of our creatives series, Wayne Haag answers some questions on Science fiction and fantasy, also giving us some insight into his work.

Clara Fei-Fei: My first encounter with your work was for The Fifth Element (which I LOVE). I always wondered what sort of design requirements did you have to meet for the movie? Did you speak to Luc Besson about what he wanted?

Wayne Haag: As a matte painter I didn’t have to meet any design requirements, that was all taken care of by the concept designers.. who were Jean-Claude Mézières and Moebius, among others. I just had to paint to their designs. Within the scope of the matte painting itself, there are mini design problems or choices and those I discussed with my supervisors and Luc a few times for the various matte painting shots I worked on.

CF: What’s your favourite Scifi movie? 

WH: Alien with Empire Strikes Back a very very close second. I know Star Wars isn’t strictly science fiction, more fantasy but for me, it’s about a sense of wonder and they both have it. I still have every Marvel Star Wars comic btw.

CF: Wow awesome! And who is your favourite character from any Scifi movie/comic/game?

Favourite character… I don’t have a favourite actually… If pushed I’d have to say Luke Skywalker, he’s the archetypal hero we all relate to.

CF: If you could enhance your body using robotics, what abilities would you choose?

WH: Eyes… Mine are going! Visibility into a much larger part of the EM spectrum – IR, UV, X-ray etc, zoom capability, heads-up display – data overlay, distance measurement, image capture…

CF: What inspired you to pursue work in concept art? For anyone wanting to pursue the same line of work, where do you suggest they start?

WH: I had always wanted to be an artist, always wanted to make images. It was never an option to not be an artist. This has encompassed professional photography, matte painting, illustration for publishing, concept art, mural painting, oil painting. Start drawing and painting, nothing more to it than that. Learn what you need to be a competent illustrator and the rest will follow.

CF: Could you give me an idea of what it’s like during production? What sort of guidelines you are given and what’s your average turn around time for the work you have done?

WH: That’s a large question. Every production is different, the vibe is different, some are relaxed some are stressful. It’s why I prefer to work from home mostly. Gigs like Alien you have to be there every day in house which is fine, can’t be a hermit all the time! Guidelines are simple – make this scene/shot look awesome – There’s the script, here’s the director’s brief now paint something that fulfils that brief. Don’t care how you do it, just get there.

Turn around time can vary from several (6 to 8) quick paintings in an afternoon to an evolving painting over several weeks. Not continuous of course, but bigger paintings I might have 3 or 4 days, it may sit around for a bit when you finally get feedback and you jump back onto that painting and off it goes into the cycle again. Some finish quickly and get approved just as quickly and you never see it again. Some hang around like bad smells!

CF: What is your favourite piece you ever created?

WH: One of my oil paintings, titled Sky Burial #2. It encapsulated everything I love about sci-fi, sense of wonder, mystery, story, history, spaceship wrecks, the desert.

SKY BURIAL #2

CF: What variant of the Xenomorph is your favourite? 

WH: The original.. because you didn’t see much of it. It was the implied cold-blooded violence that was scary, not so much the beast itself – which was scary as hell in its own right, I just preferred the implicit horror.

CF: I really loved Daniels cabin in the Covenant, what work did you do on that?

WH: The design for Daniel’s cabin evolved quite a lot for many months. A couple of concept artists had started the process, set designers etc, all working towards the final. My contribution was to bring the design language in from the other interior sets Steve Burg had designed and made it feel more modular like you would find on a ship. Then it was a matter of painting a couple of frames that illustrated the lighting and mood, which is my main area of interest.

  Daniels Cabin on the Covenant

White Room

CF: I read that the white room is inspired by 2001, what aspects of the movie did you consider when creating this set?

WH: Firstly, no one concept artists create ‘the set’, it really is an army of people that have some contribution at some point along the way, from top to bottom. The overall layout was inspired by a physical location in Sydney that they wanted to use but could not, so the decision was made to build the set at Fox. I had plans for the location and built that in 3D to scale. Then as I mentioned above, I paint the scene up for lighting, mood and composition, ie. camera position and lens choice. (which was used by Ridley on the day of the shoot).

No references to 2001 were used, not by me anyway. I approach each painting/set as a real place and try to work out how I would shoot it if I were really there, what kind of lighting situation, time of day, weather, season etc etc. Unless the director specifically references another movie, I go with my own references and ideas that I think to fulfil the script/story.

  Before

After

CF: What work did you do on the mothership in The Crossing and Alien: Covenant? What other aspects of the engineer city did you work on?

WH: I didn’t do any design work on the Mother Juggernaut, that was all Steve Messing. As we all have access to the 3D resources, I used the model he built simply as a prop within the greater scene. Again, setting up composition, lighting, mood. Although I did build the city and surrounds in 3D as one big model to scale so that everyone could see how shots would look if you were standing in the plaza. The 3D allows me to place human figures in the correct relative scale to a known real-world camera and the renders provide a basis with which to paint on.

My model of the plaza was based on Steve Messing’s original plaza layout. As the set designers finalised buildings and sets, I would incorporate them into my huge Maya file, kind of like a master file. Then I’d place 3D cameras around matching pov’s Ridley wanted.

Like all film designs, they grow, evolve and change. The final city you see in the film is quite a bit different from the city I built, so the VFX guys had further developed the city layout as per Ridley’s ongoing massaging.

  Image converted using ifftoany

Image converted using ifftoany

CF: What was the inspiration for the shower scene?

WH: T&A as far as I can tell…

CF: (lol)

CF: Do you have a list of the art pieces you infused into the movie?

WH: Not really, when you���re working on a film you don’t have time to immerse yourself in the art references and meaning, least I don’t anyway. All art choices are Ridley’s, I just create the scene as if it were really there and I shot it with a camera. The decision to not use the Francis Bacon triptych in the white room was solely due to licensing costs, nothing more than that. The Bacon estate wanted too much money. The Bugatti chair was also a licensed design and the prop was to be destroyed in front of lawyers once shooting wrapped.

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CF: What pieces of yours made it the final film? Was there anything that didn’t?

WH: What pieces had an influence you should ask, concept art never makes it into the film per se, it is a tool for solving creative visual, technical, financial problems. How will this set look? How big will it be? How much VFX will be needed for that shot, how will the DP light the set etc?

It’s an internal document that hopefully answers the director’s, art director’s and production designer’s questions. If not, try something else, or remove things from the artwork. For example, I had two statues out front of the Cathedral and was asked to remove them from the piece. If that artwork had been disseminated throughout the production, someone may have assumed those statues were to be made and start spending money making them!

There are several paintings I did that you can see as shots in the film, they aren’t exact, but the overall compositions had been faithfully translated.

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CF: What would you say has been your favourite project to work on?

WH: Fifth Element, The Wolverine, Alien Covenant, three best projects of my career.

CF: What is it like working on a large scale production such as Alien compared to smaller scale ones?

WH: Depends on who you’re working with and answering to directly, i.e. production designer. Some large-scale projects are overly corporate and anal, smaller ones are creatively easy going. It can also be the reverse too! Alien was super creative, very easy going (hard work, long hours but no BS!). Great people all around. Some tv commercial gigs can be a giant PITA, some smaller directors can sometimes want to prove themselves by having too much attitude and want to override your ideas, big directors like Ridley don’t have those insecurities and are therefore great to work with.

CF: Congratulations on winning the award for your work on Alien: Covenant.

WH: Thank you!

CF: Is there anything you are working on currently?

WH: I just finished working on a pitch project for Pixar and as I write this, doing concepts for a Chinese comedy film shot here in Australia.

CF: In future what sort of opportunities would you like to be involved in?

WH: Well I currently work freelance, for the most part, I teach part-time (at Production Art Department PAD http://www.productionartdepartment.com ), I’m starting to put out video tutorials of how to paint etc and I need to get my arse into gear and get back to oil painting my own project. As far as the future is concerned, I’d like more time to paint my own work.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions, I look forward to having you on Yutani Podcast soon.

  Creatives: Wayne Haag As part of our creatives series, Wayne Haag answers some questions on Science fiction and fantasy, also giving us some insight into his work.

[ackackh]

HBO War YouTuber Headcanons

(SO MUCH MORE under the cut)

BAND OF BROTHERS

George Luz George has a review channel He sits at his computer at his desk where his camera is set up A lot of the time, you can see his (big ass) mic in the shot. He doesn’t care. He’s almost always wearing headphones. Either apple-type earbuds with the cord under his shirt, or giant headphones, one covering an ear, one tucked behind his other ear. He’s really onto hi-fi audio tech, it’s where most of his spending money goes. He reviews music, tv shows, movies, books, video games. Anything popular and anything he likes. 

The reviews are always fair and he tends to review things he likes anyway so there aren’t a lot of negative vibes on his channel. He also does some reaction videos. When he’s feeling up to it, he’ll make fun of Trump (and when he does it’s hilarious) but the boy has his limits. He wants his channel to be a reprieve for himself and for others. He has a lot of followers and they all just fawn over him because George has such an animated face and he gets so excited about things he likes. It’s adorable. Too pure. He also produces some original music! It’s mostly beats and he has a SoundCloud and a Patreon. He uses Snapchat and Vine a lot, in tandem with his channel. What’s on his snapchat/vine you ask? Every. Impression. Ever. And George is really good at them! They’re funny and accurate and his viewers really like them! He also has a million videos of him bugging his friends (mostly on vine). His favorite stunt is to see how long he can film Joe without him noticing. Spoiler: it’s not very long. Most of his vines end with him running away from an irritated Joe or with Joe smacking the phone out of his hand. The phone falls to the ground and you can hear George whine “What’d you hafta do that for?” He loves to do Special Guest Episodes! Sometimes the guest is Perco, sometimes it’s Skip, or Don, or even Carwood. He’s a good friend and if they have a channel he’ll plug for them. BUT he gets the most requests for Special Guest Episodes with Joe Toye! Joe will pull up his own desk chair beside Luz and reviews things with him (George will pick things Joe is actually interested in for the video). Joe has a harder time remembering that there's a camera and a mic to perform towards, and he’s quieter than Luz, but he gives his honest opinions which are always well thought out. Plus the viewers dig his voice. People will comment or email Luz, saying how much they love their banter, their chemistry. How they love how earnest Joe is (he’s a naturally charming guy!) Sometimes they get carried away with the “light” flirting, always smiling and always completely focused on what the other has to say. Joe doesn’t always stay for the whole video because he has shit to do, ya know? So he’ll get up and kiss George’s head or squeeze his shoulder and say “later, Georgie” And George will look at the camera and and yell to him “I LOVE YOU, JOE” and you can faintly hear Joe somewhere else in the house say, “love you, too, idiot!” And George giggles and gives the camera a wink.

Carwood Lipton Carwood keeps a video diary! He just films wherever he feels is right. Sometimes the family room, sometimes the office, sometimes the bedroom. The vibe is really chill, relaxed. You can almost think of Michael Aranda’s What I’m Doing Right Now He has a modest following, but he’s really interactive with the community: frequently answering questions, participating in conversations and debates. His vlog is multimedia! He uses twitter and snapchat a lot too, sometimes incorporating them into his videos. He loves to take candid videos and pictures of himself and his friends, with or without their immediate knowledge. (He always gets their permission before he posts anything) Viewers will often times find his video for that day is a mash up of videos of time spent with friends, Ron, Harry, Kitty, Dick, and Lew, on some small adventure. There’s some pleasant, energetic music playing, spliced with audio of the original video when someone says something particularly interesting or funny. His videos are for his followers, but he also keeps in mind that some of his family watches too, so everything is pretty PG. Ron isn’t super interested in YouTube, but he like’s to watch Carwood’s videos. He lives with the guy, and he always sees the bits and pieces as Carwood puts it together, so he likes to see the finished product. Sometimes he’ll come sit and be in a video, just for a little while if Carwood asks him. And of course they’re super in love, and Ron is so taken with Carwood, that the community comments like, “WE LOVE RON, GIVE US MORE RON PLS.” Ron will sometimes sit down with Carwood and answer questions. Either from the viewers or from a top googled list. It becomes a segment, titled something like Everyday Answers with Ron. And people love it because Ron can’t be anything but himself and he’s so oddly charming and adorable with how straightforward he is. he doesn’t quite understand why people like him so much. Carwood’s most viewed and most liked video is the one of the day Ron proposed. Harry, Kitty, and Nix were all in on it and got the whole thing on video and made sure they got footage of the celebrations afterward. He recorded in their bedroom that night, all sleepy and lovey with Ron, who kisses his cheek and thumbs over the band on Carwood’s finger.

Kitty Grogan Welsh Kitty’s channel is full of really fun things! Like stories, adventures in things like baking or hand crafts, personal make up tutorials. And, maybe most surprisingly, video games. So, she doesn’t do the average let’s plays. She’s not actually interested in showing people the game. Instead, she picks a topic, often sent in by fans, and shares her thoughts and ideas on this topic while she plays whatever games she likes. She plays games like, FIFA, Madden, Overwatch, and random platformers. These are her most watched videos. Maybe about once a month she has Husband Episodes where Harry sits and plays with her or watches her play while they discuss whatever topic they’ve decided on. He’s adorable and she spends a good amount of the time teasing him. Upon many, many requests, she has posted both a “My Husband Does My Makeup” video and an “I Do My Husband’s Makeup” video. I can’t reiterate enough how adorable Harry is here.

Joe Liebgott and David Webster Joe and Web don’t share a channel. Because that would be a disaster. But here’s how they know each other: That Prick YouTuber Whose Opinions Are Wrong Joe’s channel is mostly about music. He reviews artists, albums, and singles. AND he records original pieces and post the videos to his channel. He’s really. really. good. His emotions are so raw, he doesn’t even have to be singing for them to come out and it’s frankly… enchanting. A decent chunk of his viewers started watching because Joe is hot AF��� but they stayed because he’s talented and smart as a whip. While Joe does love The Clash and other punk groups, he one thing that speaks to his soul is an angry John Darnielle. That’s right kids: The Mountain Goats. They serve as a lot of inspiration for his original songs. So Joe plays and talks mostly about music, but he also talks about things like art, fashion, and COMIC BOOKS. Listen, he preorders that shit, he has whole videos just about how excited he is for some edition of some comic. So, Web stumbled upon one of his videos, this particular one about an artist, and ugh, everything about this guy just rubs him the wrong way. He falls down a rabbit hole of Joe’s review videos and he decides he basically can’t stand him or any of his very wrong opinions. Don’t ask him why he hit subscribe. Joe finds Web in his Suggested Videos Feed and listens for maybe two minutes to Web talk about his college classes and all the literature he’s reading and all the things he knows now and he’s like, fuck this guy. Joe just thinks he’s so pretentious. He likes The Catcher in the Rye. Like, come on, dude. Most of Web’s videos are about literature. Books and Poetry he’s read and likes/dislikes. He really enjoys the Transcendentalists. He loves the themes of man v nature and the natural imagery and how they talk about what makes up the human soul. Joe fucking hates Transcendentalism. As far as he’s concerned, they were a bunch of rich, white men who pretended to be one with nature or some bullshit but didn’t acknowledge the privilege of their status or even mention the fact that they could go back to their cushy homes whenever they liked! Eventually they bump heads and get into a few times through comments. They can’t stand one another, can’t see anything from the other’s point of view… UNTIL Until Web listens to one of Joe’s original songs. And it’s so raw and personal and the lyrics! He can’t believe how beautiful the lyrics are! They’re simple and effective and they hit him right in the chest. Until Joe listens to some of Web’s spoken word poetry. It’s not his usually style, it’s flow-y and flowery and romantic. But it’s fucking beautiful and it stirs emotions in Joe he’d forgotten about. Joe also listens to Web go on and on about his ideas for the books he wants to write. And he finds it’s almost impossible not to fall in love with Web like this, so animated and happy. Here’s what happens: they meet sometime in real life, maybe at Vidcon, and after arguing for forever, they decide to try and put there heads together and write a song. Joe on the music and Web on the words. And it’s great. Their ideas are different, but they feed off of each other well, and they find a good balance. They record a video of it, Joe performing with his guitar and Web watching him, taking notes, even. And when the music trails off and they fall into each other, the kiss doesn’t make it to the final cut of the video. Neither does the making out on Joe’s hotel bed.

Babe Heffron and John Julian Their videos are just fun and silly shenanigans. They play games (lots of Cards Against Humanity) and do every youtube challenge. ever. Chubby Bunny and the Cinnamon Challenge are two of their most viewed videos. So many stupid dares. So many ER visits, all filmed and all with an angry Guarno grumbling about how fucking stupid these “kids” are. Julian: I am not a kid! Bill: Come talk to me when your foot isn’t in a boot, alright? They have more than one video of them trying to do parkour. I mean, how do you think they ended up in the hospital? The channel is called Orange Julian and their icon/header image is the two of them, wearing only boxer-briefs, completely covered in orange body paint. They’re standing next to each other, purposefully looking a little awkward. Like, it’s almost album art worthy. All of this for a stupid Orange Julius pun that only like 1/3 of their viewers get.

Renee Lemaire Renee has a small channel about her life! It has lots of sweet things in it! Soft, gay vibes!!! Her dog. Her cat. Her good friends, Gene Roe and Ralph Spina. Delicious food and cooking! Crazy/hilarious/gross stories about working in the children’s ward of the hospital. Her experiences in America as a French woman. French history lessons! French language lessons in modern day/interesting/specific vocabulary! Gene and Spina often come on and they have culture clash videos about France and America at large. Sometimes Gene will talk about Cajun culture or stories or food. And Renee and Spina will sit there just bewildered by everything he says. Sometimes Renee and Gene will trail off in French conversations together, leaving Spina to either complain loudly OR look into the camera like he’s on The Office™ Renee can only upload like every other week or so because she’s so busy. But her viewers don’t mind! Her videos are like little presents!

GENERATION KILL

Rudy Reyes Rudy also keeps a diary! It’s called “Fruity Rudy” and the graphic has a cute lil peach on it. He always films in his living room during the day. The video and audio are both super high quality and he even has a nice front light. He looks fucking beautiful, as always. He just talks about his day, his friends and family, whatever subjects he’s been thinking about recently. And his house is always fucking perfect. 9 times out of 10 Pappy is in the kitchen cooking, slightly out of focus, while wearing an apron. He likes to listen to Rudy do his thing while he prepares dinner or w/e (cooking and baking is a big hobby of his). Every once in a while he’ll comment on something Rudy says or talks about, or he’ll poke fun at someone or tell a joke. Usually the mic picks up what he says, but it’s faint and Rudy adds in little subtitles in the bottom of the screen. And he either reacts with a fond smile of some kind of comment or comeback. The viewers love their banter because they’re HELLA MARRIED Like literally. And also figuratively. Like sometimes Rudy will call back to Pappy to ask him questions, sometimes looking for a real answer, sometimes because he knows the kind of sassy reaction he’ll get, and he’ll just roll his eyes at the camera. He gets like a million comments a day telling him that they adore Pappy. “omg u guys are so cute” “I wish pappy was in more videos!!” “is pappy his real name? if not, what is?” When Rudy hits 10,000 subscribers (“wow, that’s insane, thanks you guys!!!”) as a present, he makes this big reveal video of Pappy’s name. “Drum roll please… *drums on his thighs* it’s Larry.” *in the background* “RUDE, WHAT THE FUCK?” *uncontrollable giggles from Rudy* *the camera is lifted from it’s place by ~~someone~~ unseen and a blurry Rudy can be seen half-heartedly protesting before the footage cuts*

Ray Person Ray is basically iDubbbz/h3h3 He’ll get all of his friends to participate in stupid videos. Mostly it’s Walt, Christenson, or sometimes Q-tip or Gabe. But sometimes he’s by himself, it just depends. So we get lots of these types of gems. (x) (x)  Brad hardcore pretends like he doesn’t want to be a part of it but look, he operates the camera for every video, he’s not fooling anyone. It’s hard to mistake his laughter when he’s right next to the mic. Sometimes Ray keeps in the little bits where Brad comments or calls him an idiot and you can see Ray look behind the camera, laughing and smiling or giving it right back. Ray’s channel is nuts!! but every once in a blue moon Ray will upload a video called “Serious Talk #1” (and so on) where he talks about something he really cares about or is really bugging him. And people are like, I knew you were smart, but oh jeez, this is scary.

Nate Fick The videos started out as study tools for his undergrad students but eventually gained a legit following. So, it’s basically an educational channel, but there’s no company or anything funding him. He tries to be as professional looking as possible, though. He talks about history! All types of history! And guess what, this boy is salty about the many, many important peoples and their accomplishments that are always left out of textbooks and shit. And he’s going to do his best to cover them properly. As in, entire episodes dedicated to shit (most) people don’t know. And he was in the military, so he has… lots of feelings about that as well. If he talks about military history or social issues he puts a disclaimer in the beginning of the video like “This is tainted by my feelings, I can’t help it, but this is my channel and I’m gonna say what I like.” He has some crash courses and some videos that go way too in depth. Like, maybe calm down, boy scout. Brad and Mike are his most frequent guests. He’ll do things like quiz them (on shit he knows they don’t know) or ask them for their opinions or direct the whole freaking lesson just to them. Brad and Mike really like picking on him, but he knows they love him. He invited Ray on the channel once. Once. It was… an experience. But Ray surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, has some really well educated and in depth thoughts on certain subjects. He gets lots of comments from girls/boys being like, “Hello, Professor Hottie.” (He gets the same reaction from many of his undergrads, so he’s used to it.) BUT most of his following watches because they’re interested in what he has to say, so don’t worry.

Poke Espera Poke has a channel with no schedule or organization. The video’s care shot from a cheap video camera and he doesn’t have a proper mic. And you know the Channel name is literally just his name. It’s literally all just videos of him from the chest up with titles like: “THOUGHTS ON ALL THE BULLSHIT” and “I’M GONNA KILL ME A WHITE BOY” and “PAUL RYAN CAN SUCK MY THICK LATIN DICK” They’re always in all caps. You knows the type. Yes, he does have a whole video dedicated to the story of the time he saw a dude get killed behind a Tastee-Freez. He has over 2 mil followers and all the boys are like …how? He just has good things to say, yo. People appreciate the cruel honesty.

Q-Tip and Christenson These cute boys have a let’s play channel! It’s pretty straight forward, they just play whatever games they like the best and sometimes play other games on request. It’s got Game Grumps vibes because it’s these two dudes who are BEST FRIENDS and they spend nearly every episode talking about whatever they want. And usually they want to talk about each other. Because they’re hardcore Bros. They get some of their friends to sit with them and play or just talk, depends. But their most requested repeat guest is Ray. Because Ray sure as hell doesn’t need a camera on his face to be animated as fuck. Also There’s lots of singing. Almost too much singing. At least they have excellent taste in music.

The Lady Marine (Whose Name We Unfortunately Don’t Know) She has a youtube channel that she really enjoys putting a lot of creativity into! Like, it’s great quality, for starters, and she also designs her own awesome graphics and animation!! She’s so talented!! Because everything is so damn quality, she only puts out a video every couple of weeks. But they’re pretty lengthy and always SUPER worth it. It’s about her (current) career in the military and focuses on a lot of social justice themes. Not only does she a) have a lot of interesting/enlightening things to say, but b) she also understands her privilege as a white woman and plugs for a lot of other women of color vloggers when she talks about something a little out of her depth or better said by someone who actually experiences it. She has a very complex view of the military and simultaneously knows how it manipulates/harms people and can’t help but love her job. She feels like she was born to do it, honestly. Idiot men come at her in the comments and she gets a lot of harassment. But let me tell you… She takes those motherfuckers out. You thought she was just talking shit? Bitch, she has 8 peer-reviewed scientific studies! She can cite her sources, all 2 dozen of them! She knows her shit, don’t test her. And if that doesn’t satisfy you, she’s always got her M16. One time she slams a dude so hard it goes viral over night and she gets hundreds of new followers, most of them young women looking for some source of empowerment and encouragement. She takes her new role very seriously. She will always, always listen and talk to young girls who are struggling or need an outlet or someone to talk to who won’t get upset with them for thinking X or Y. I love her, she’s my wife.

THE PACIFIC

Bob Leckie Leckie’s channel is called “Dear, Vera.” Each video is an adorable virtual letter to his wife, who he is just crazy smitten with. They started out as literal messages when Leckie was traveling for his first book tour (very proud of him). Like, he would literally just write out letters and then read them to the camera. Of course, Leckie is the most poetic idiot on the planet, and lots of people started following him because his words were honestly so beautiful. Even if he’s extra as heck. The following isn’t huge, but it’s substantial, and he still addresses each video to his wife. So he talks about whatever he likes. It was updates about his life when he was traveling, but when he’s home he likes to get creative about it. And not every episode is so serious. He invites dudes from Team Leckie to come hang all the time! And the boys are always like, “Hi, Vera!” and wave like she’s actually there. (She’s in the next room doing a Sudoku puzzle or something). Every video, he signs of with, “Yours, Robert.” AND AND AND when Vera tells him they’re going to be parents, Leckie gets extra extra. But it’s so cute, like, he makes a single video about it. He opens it with, “To my future child” And he basically goes on this whole teary-eyed kind of schpiel about how he’s so exited to meet them and how he and Vera are going to love them unconditionally and protect them and do their absolute best to keep them happy. He signs off with, “With love, your father.”

Hoosier Smith Hoosier is literally Cr1tiKal

Eugene Sledge Eugene’s channel is about ornithology, botany, and BEES! He loves bees! He uses the channel to geek out over biology things and it has so many cute graphics and jingles. Like, I mean, it’s hella gay. And he’s kind of awkward, but it’s so endearing. Most of his subscribers are girls and mlm and he’s just like, huh *shrug* He has little segments about current scientific events/findings. He has a birb of the week. It’s just… so nerdy. Like, chill out, dude. (Jk pls don’t ever chill out, follow your passions.) Snafu refuses to be in videos but he shouts at him from other rooms in the house, being a dick on purpose, calling him nerd, telling him to shut up. But Eugene is pretty good at coming back at him. He’s known Snafu too long for that kind of shit to actually bother him. And Eugene is like 70% sass, anyway.

Eddie Jones Eddie has a channel entirely dedicated to his original music!!! All his spending money goes to instruments and high quality recording equipment and audio editing software. He’s so good. Like. He’s got this warbling kind of sweet and broken voice. It’s very similar to jpitts, actually. And there’s so much heart in it. Not to mention the songs he writes are amazing and have clever lyrics. And guess what, boys and girls!!! Andy Haldane can sing. But he’s super shy about it. He and Eddie have had so many conversations that are like “Andy, come on, one video” “Nooo…” “Just one!” “Eddie, I caaaan’t” (Andy gets a little whiny when he’s nervous) So Andy won’t sing in a video BUT his soft voice can be heard harmonizing in some official recordings. Eddie loves listening to Andy sing. He’s not perfect or anything, but his voice is pretty and light and Eddie’s head over heels for him, so he can’t help but love it.

So, like I said. Way too long. But I had so much fun thinking up this stuff, so time well spent! I just did the boys (and girls) who came naturally to me when I tried to think of who would have a YouTube Channel. If anyone feels like adding to this monstrosity, go for it!

[cake-faceshawty]

In my last post I mentioned that I had recently gotten the Queen of Hearts Palette by Coloured Raine, and since it did make it to the “Best of 2016” list, clearly I am in love with it. However, I thought I would still do a full review of the palette and show you guys a look I created with it over the holidays.

I have always loved Coloured Raine liquid lipsticks, but I am a newbie to their eyeshadows. If I’m not mistaken, they first debuted their eye shadow singles sometime last year, and while they received rave reviews in the beauty community, I just did not get around to purchasing any. When they revealed pictures of their first palette in November, I was in loveee at first sight. All the warmth and shimmery colours  just looked like perfection to me. And then I saw the swatches and reviews and I was like yassssssss – I need this in my life. So imagine my delight when my bestie gifted me this beauty for Christmas! I actually wore it twice on Christmas day – for Christmas lunch with the family and for a party that night – and I don’t think I’ve put it down since.

The Queen of Hearts palette is limited edition and retails for $50.00. It contains 12 eyeshadows: 6 matte shadows and 6 foil shades, making it perfect for creating both daytime and night-time looks. The shadows come in a sleek, black cardboard packaging. While the black cardboard does show dirt/smudges easily, it can be wiped off in seconds. The star of the show, however, is the sleeve in which the palette is housed: it is black with a gold foil tribal design that is absolutely beautiful. To be honest, I wish the actual palette had that design on it because it really is that gorgeous.

Without flash

With flash

The pigmentation of all the colours gets an A+ from me. The foiled shadows are buttery to the touch, apply smoothly and blend easily. The matte shadows are a bit on the dry side, however, they still applied superbly with or without an eyeshadow primer. Another thing I loved about this palette is how well the shadows went together: the mattes paired perfectly with the foiled shimmers, allowing for the ability to create complete eye looks without delving into another palette. The only thing missing for me was a deeper matte shade for the outer corner of the eye such as a matte deep brown or even a matte black, but missing this alone doesn’t deter from how amazing this palette is. Another plus is that every single shadow in the palette is WOC-friendly – which is often a rarity in eyeshadow palettes. Hats off to Coloured Raine for that!

Without flash (left) & with flash (right)

Crown – “Pearlescent white with gold undertone.” Do not be intimidated by this frosty, white pearl: it is such a beautiful topper on the lid that almost gives the shadow underneath a duochrome vibe. I’ve definitely been using this one – don’t sleep on it y’all.

Royal Highness – “Metallic purple-toned taupe.” Of all the foiled shadows, I’ve been reaching for this one the most! It is super pigmented and looks  beautiful on the lid with minimal fall out. I like to apply it in the centre of the lid with my finger, or with a brush sprayed with some MAC Fix + to get the most out of this metallic purple. “Dark Force” from Urban Decay is very similar, though not as shimmery.

Your Majesty – “Rich metallic copper with gold reflect.” This medium-dark copper will look beautiful on all skin tones, especially my deep chocolate ladies. This shade is perfect for a night out on the town. Shine baby, shine!

Princess – “Matte blushed pink.” I’ve probably reached for this colour the least, but this medium rose shadow makes a great transition colour. I will say though, if you have a deeper skin tone, I suggest using a primer first to get the most colour payoff. Makeup Geek Cupcake and the medium, warm rose from the BH Cosmetics Carli Bybel 14 Color Eyeshadow Palette are very similar.

Empress – “Vibrant matte orange.” Be careful with this one, because the colour payoff is crazyyy – a little goes a very long way. It is a beautiful burnt orange colour, that is great for the crease area, especially on darker skin tones. Red Brick from Mac is very similar.

Queen Mother – “Metallic plum with lavender hues.” I haven’t created a look with this one yet, but I am so ready! This frosty plum is so pretty, it is unreal. I think it will be a great colour for transitioning into Spring/Summer.

Without flash (left) & with flash (right)

  Heir – “Matte peach.” I have to say, this warm, peachy-nude has been such a great colour for a matte brow bone highlight. I also love how buildable, yet blendable this shade was. It’s also great as a lid colour for when you’re creating a neutral, matte eye look. Sandcastle from Sephora is a great dupe.

Noblewoman – “Metallic burgundy with purple undertones.” If this frosty, medium-dark red isn’t the perfect jewel tone for creating a royally perfect eye look, then I don’t know what is! It reminds me of Makeup Geek’s Curtain Call.

Royal Prerogative – “Terracotta.” This is officially my new fave transition colour for almost every and any look. It almost comes off as a flesh tone on my complexion. It’s such a smooth matte that it blends out so easily, to create the most flawless eye look. It’s similar to Swiss Chocolate by MAC as it has a warm, reddish undertone. Anastasia Beverly Hills Raw Sienna is also similar.

Ladyship – “Matte vivid purple.” With its cool toned, berry colour, this shadow is perfect as a crease colour for when you want that berry eye look without looking like you haven’t slept in weeks (like some berry shadows tend to do). I think this will be perfect for a look involving Noblewoman and Queen Mother.

Duchess – “Matte milk chocolate-brown.” This is such a perfect crease colour! It’s super opaque and blends out so easily on the lid. It has a warm, yellow undertone, so it adds some definition without being too dramatic. It’s very similar to ABH’s Fudge.

Dethrone – “Sparkling espresso with gold reflect.” Another beautiful lid colour – this sparkly red-toned brown is versatile enough to be worn both during the day and at night-time. I love to pair it with Royal Highness for a super glam look.

If you can get your hands on this palette, I highly recommend it. For this holiday look below, I attempted to recreate Jackie Aina’s Glam Christmas Makeup Tutorial. The products are listed below:

EYES

Heir on the brow bone.

Royal Prerogative above the crease/transition colour.

Duchess in the crease.

Dethrone all over the lid.

Royal Highness in the centre of the lid.

Crown towards the inner corner and in the inner corner.

Queen Mother on the lower lash line.

*I used “Activist” from the Tarte Tartelette in Bloom palette to deepen the outer corner.

FACE

Artist Couture Diamond Glow Powder in “Conceited”

MAC “Sweet as Cocoa” blush

Tarte x MakeupShayla Tarteist Contour Palette

  LIPS

MAC “Nightmoth” Lip Pencil

Coloured Raine “Raine Fever” Matte Lip Paint

Let me know what you thought of this look, and if you’ve purchased this palette or plan on purchasing it.

Outfit from http://tiaclothesgirl.com/

Please don’t forget to like, comment and subscribe! Follow me on IG at@beatsbytiff_ & @tiffanysamantha_ and on twitter @cakefaceshawty_. And if you aren’t already, be sure to follow me on Snapchat where I sometimes do little tutorials: Tiffsamlaw.

    Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts Palette Review In my last post I mentioned that I had recently gotten the Queen of Hearts Palette by Coloured Raine…

[jamesbyerj]

Modder to Developer - muppetpuppet

Today we have a special treat. We caught up with Tomas Sala, a.k.a. the esteemed Skyrim modder muppetpuppet, about his upcoming game release and his history in modding. For those unfamiliar with his work, muppetpuppet created one of the first "new world" mods for Skyrim back in 2012 - Moonpath to Elsweyr. [b][b]Thank you for joining us for this interview Tomas (aka [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/3232189]muppetpuppet[/url]). [/b]So, going back to the very start, when and how did you first get into gaming?[/b] I actually started straight out of art school in 2001, we started a studio in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. But at that time there was no self-publishing, I think Steam wasn't live yet and iPhones would be years away. So we rolled into educational and advertising work for hire, making games for anyone and everyone, it took many years to progress into entertainment games properly eventually creating PSVR exclusives for Playstation as games for the Wii, Switch and mobile. [b]How long have you been working in the gaming industry and what roles have you taken up during that time?[/b]  I've been working there since 2001 and have always been a multirole person. I'm a 3D artist by trade, but I'm more than handy with a scripting language and nowadays C#. I've also been creative director and game designer over the years. I think that diversity is now coming into its own with The Falconeer. [b] Tomas is the sole developer of the upcoming game "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1135260/The_Falconeer/]The Falconeer[/url]". From the screenshots and gameplay videos, it looks fantastic. For our readers who've not heard of the game, how would you describe it?[/b] Well, it's a throwback to the games I loved as a kid, [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freelancer_(video_game)]Freelancer[/url], [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_TIE_Fighter]Tie Fighter[/url] even [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimson_Skies_(video_game)]Crimson Skies[/url], and - of course - a good dose of open-world love inherited from Skyrim thrown in. So basically, you are a pilot or rider of a giant Falcon and you serve as a mounted warrior for your faction, doing air -combat missions as well as open-world exploration. Someone online described it as "what would happen if Gandalf had ridden into Mordor on a giant eagle..... but with lasers", which is a fair description. The actual combat gameplay is very WWI-WWII style close up dogfighting but with giant falcons, dragons and other fantastical creatures. [center][youtube]3viT_KoZ538[/youtube][/center] [b]It's not just the game itself you created. I've been reading the [url=https://www.thefalconeer.com/world/]extensive lore and set-dressing[/url] you've meticulously written to create a cohesive world for your story to unfold in. What can you tell us about the setting of The Falconeer?[/b] Well, I love lore-heavy worlds, for me, it makes exploring an open world so much better if the setting makes sense and has depth. The world of the Falconeer is called the Ursee and it's a bleak yet beautiful icy ocean world. Mankind has always had a hard time surviving on it, and societies have been founded and collapsing for millennia, leaving the seafloor scattered with wrecks and ancient relics. One major faction steering these societies are the Mancer Order, an organisation that has access to a wide array of technologies hidden away in their massive vaults. They manipulate and organise the other factions by doling out these technologies through permits and grants. If a king has the Mancer's favour he'll get steam engines, if he loses it, he might find his competitor suddenly has machine guns. The Mancer order doesn't involve themselves with the daily politics of factions such as the empire in which most of the game takes place, they have a hidden agenda with a long term goal. Part of the different campaigns you'll participate in, inside this world, is to figure the true goal and history of the Mancer Order, and with it the Ursee. [b]In a [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0VJAaZpkfM]video by Digital Foundry[/url] covering The Falconeer, they mentioned that the entire game is created without using any conventional textures, is that true? If so, what made you choose this approach to game design?[/b]  Indeed, it's better described as no pre-made textures. So I don't work with a painting or material editor or even something like photoshop to create the material expression of my world. Rather I use procedural tricks and fairly abstracted shaders to do the heavy lifting. So, for instance, the snow on objects is a [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perlin_noise]Perlin noise[/url] I generate in the game, and I then also use that for lava and water foam. The same goes for the colouring of the world, It's all done with gradients based on lighting and atmospheric parameters and values. It basically means I can create models and paint them fairly simple and have the game itself add a lot of detail and environmental colouring. I've had comments saying this must be because I'm lazy, and I certainly like an efficient art pipeline. But it isn't 100% the case - the effort I put in to create certain effects would be many times less if I'd simply use a texture. Take the clouds, creating those without textures was a crazy endeavour iterated over months. The same goes for the ocean another very advanced effect, stuff that certainly wouldn't have been possible a generation or so ago. The reason I do it is mostly twofold. One, it forces me to adhere to a very strict esthetic, and it keeps everything I make very, very compatible and unified. Giving the game a very clean and stark look while having radically different objects, buildings, vehicles and so forth in it. I both love how that looks and how "together" it makes everything feel. Secondly, it forces me to find novel and original solutions to visual designs, I cannot use "out of the box" clouds, water or lighting, so I have to take a different path to get there. Both the journey of that as well as the end result are usually novel and interesting, which is what appeals to me. [b]The Falconeer uses Unity at its core. What did you consider when choosing the engine for your game?[/b] I've used Unity through my work, so I was familiar with it, which is a huge boon because knowing what you are capable off is quite a good thing to have, especially alone. You don't always want to dive off the deep end. That said I'm quite attracted by Unreal's blueprints and after the Falconeer is done, I aim to dive into that for a bit as well. [center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1581950089-410859194.jpeg[/img] [img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1581950095-1401396009.jpeg[/img][/center] [b]Some Unity games allow mods (or can be modded with tools like Harmony), will The Falconeer have any scope for user-created content? [/b] It's something under consideration, but modding and even game development are very distinct from enabling the creation of mods for your game. So basically because I'm working by myself it's quite a daunting task, but it is very much on my mind. It's also one of the few aspects I'd consider having external help with, as it's just such a specialisation to create adequate tooling and an open framework from the ground up for your game. [b]In terms of modding, your biggest achievement has to be [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/9782]Moonpath to Elsweyr[/url]. When you released it in 2012, it was one of the only true "new world" mods. That must have been quite an undertaking, considering the Creation Kit had only been out for just over a week at the time. What can you remember about the process of putting it all together?[/b] Well, I remember getting into a bit of a creative frenzy after diving into a few tutorials. At my work, we had just wrapped up a kid-friendly RPG for a local dutch theme park ("[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raveleijn]Raveleijn[/url]"), so there was lots of curiosity on how the big games did certain things. I think there was already a group of people trying to use the existing NIF tools and update them for Skyrim. Being a 3D artist grasping some of the odd quirks and oddities of that format and the tools seemed less of an issue. And within a very short while I had some [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/10312]trees and foliage[/url] imported. I think those were the palm trees and other greeneries uncommon to Skyrim. [center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1581947917-582928013.jpeg[/img] [img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1581947923-1718214276.jpeg[/img][/center] From there I just went crazy, first with adjusting some of the material properties of default Skyrim objects, such as turning the snow into green moss (just fiddling got pretty good results fast). I think I then set about exploring the library of atmospheric fog and light FX and tweaking those to create a tropical vibe. So initially I released a player home really quick, it's actually a really simple and manageable mod type to start with. What then happened is that the community just jumped on board and started offering voice acting, pointing out bugs and even assisting with my horrible spelling. That in itself was a ridiculous driver to continue, the player base (and other modders) was always waiting at the Moonpath Nexus page, ready with more feedback, more requests and more general helpfulness. I think up to that point I had never had such a direct audience engagement, and it was a complete trip that burned away every free hour I had for about six months until most of what is now the Moonpath was there. [b]I noticed that both The Falconeer and Moonpath to Elsweyr feature airships, would you say that's something a staple in your creative works? [/b] I think the need to fly away and escape has a very literal form in much of the art and games I create, so I'd say that's something that's just a part of me. I'm also a huge fan of tall ships and historic sailing ships in general, so visually I'm always drawn to ships and airships. [b]For Skyrim Special Edition, you entrusted the development of Moonpath to Elsweyr to [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/1240951]Illiani[/url] was this a difficult decision for you?[/b] No not at all, there was a point where I realized I needed to focus on other things and long before Special Edition, I opened up the Moonpath and all its assets to any modder that wanted to use them. The [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/24587]Dev Aveza[/url] already showed what sharing things could lead to (I think it might actually still use my base airship model underneath all their epic expanding they did to it). So no the community was part of creating the Moonpath and happy to see other modders take it onwards to new places. And improving it in many places I might add. [b]How do you feel modding Skyrim helped (or hindered!) your career as a game developer?[/b] It has been an incredible boon because the direct contact with the community is a unique perspective which is hard to get when doing a more classical game dev project. I've also met plenty of people in the industry that played the Moonpath and it's opened many cool conversations over the years. I even met some people from Bethesda who knew it (I guess they kept close tabs on the modding scene in the early days). [b]If you were to work on an Elder Scrolls title with everything you know now, is there anything you'd do differently?[/b]  I have nothing but admiration for how Skyrim was made. I've made my own educated guesses on why certain choices were made and understand the lineage of the creation kit, and I think it delivered an unparalleled game world and modding environment. I wouldn't presume to be able to improve on that. I do really like the more "out there" aspects of the TES lore and would love to see that remain centre stage in a new iteration. [center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1581951105-1941102210.jpeg[/img][/center] [b]Important question - when do you expect we can get our hands on The Falconeer?[/b]  Hahaha. Definitely later this year, working as hard as I can. ;) It'll be playable at [url=https://east.paxsite.com/]PAX East[/url] (Feb 27 - Mar 1) for those wanting a gameplay taste. [b]Do you have any final words of wisdom for aspiring game devs in the Nexus Mods community? [/b] I think for those who want to use modding as a stepping stone it's good to keep realizing how much a part of the wider game industry modding has become. It's part of game development. And there might be moments where people showing off their mods can get apologetic because it's "just" a mod and they fear people might still see it as something derivative or adapted from something original. But I've never met anyone in the games industry who isn't a huge fan of mods. Mods are such creative original works of art by themselves. So if you make something don't be afraid to show it to any game developer or artist you might meet, good chance they love mods, are gamers themselves or have even modded in the past. [b]Thank you for joining us Tomas, we wish you the best of luck with the release![/b] [line] A big thank you to Tomas for taking the time to speak to us! If there's an author or mod project you'd like to know more about, send your suggestions to [b][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/64597]BigBizkit[/url][/b] or [b][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/31179975]Pickysaurus[/url][/b].  [center][url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1135260/The_Falconeer/] Add The Falconeer to your Steam wishlist to get notified when it releases. [img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1581950708-1759106569.png[/img][/url][/center] Published first at Modder to Developer - muppetpuppet

[kidsviral-blog]

18 Instagram Accounts That Will Inspire You To Live Your Best Life

New Post has been published on https://kidsviral.info/18-instagram-accounts-that-will-inspire-you-to-live-your-best-life/

18 Instagram Accounts That Will Inspire You To Live Your Best Life

Because 2015 is the year you’ll stick to your resolutions.

1. Nicole Warne – @garypeppergirl

Instagram: @garypeppergirl

Instagram: @garypeppergirl

Instagram: @garypeppergirl

  Nicole runs the amazing Gary Pepper Girl blog and seems to have the coolest life ever. Though she originally hails from Australia, her Instagram will take you all over the world, inspiring your next adventure and showcasing the coolest travel spots from around the globe.

2. Jess Robinson – @lazygirlfit

Instagram: @lazygirlfit

Instagram: @lazygirlfit

Instagram: @lazygirlfit

  Jess is a trainer who focuses on short and simple workouts that anyone can do with very basic equipment. Her Insta is filled with inspirational quotes, exercise demonstrations, and delicious-looking healthy food.

3. Jessica Stein – @tuulavintage

Instagram: @tuulavintage

Instagram: @tuulavintage

Instagram: @tuulavintage

  Named after the Finnish word for wind (‘tuula’), this Instagram is about wanderlust and wardrobe, and will inspire you to open your eyes to the beauty of the world we live in. Jessica is a style blogger who exudes effortless chic at all times.

4. Erica Domesek- @psimadethis

Instagram: @psimadethis

Instagram: @psimadethis

Instagram: @psimadethis

  Literally everything on this Instagram is something that you can MAKE yourself. From bags to skirts and shoes to jewellery, P.S. I Made This is a perfect place for anyone who’s always dreamed of being crafty but has no idea how.

5. Loni Jane – @lonijane

Instagram: @lonijane

Instagram: @lonijane

Instagram: @lonijane

  Loni is possibly one of the healthiest people on Instagram, and is all about raw, vegan food without compromising taste. Her huge salad bowls will never fail to make your mouth water and her constant stream of photos will inspire you to embrace a wholesome diet.

6. National Geographic Travel – @natgeotravel

Instagram: @natgeotravel

Instagram: @natgeotravel

Instagram: @natgeotravel

  We all know about National Geographic, but did you know that they have a kick-ass travel Instagram account? Their photographers visit every corner of the globe, showing us some of the coolest places we wouldn’t ever know about otherwise.

7. Valerie – @biggalyoga

Instagram: @biggalyoga

Instagram: @biggalyoga

Instagram: @biggalyoga

  Valerie proves to us all that anyone can do yoga and look damn fine in the process. Her Instagram offers daily yoga challenges for beginners, and is all about having fun and loving yourself.

8. Hamish Blake – @hamishblakeshotz

Instagram: @hamishblakeshotz

Instagram: @hamishblakeshotz

Instagram: @hamishblakeshotz

  If you like looking at photos of cute babies (and please, who doesn’t?), then Hamish is the guy to follow. This Aussie comedian will have you laughing with every pic he uploads, which isn’t only limited to his son’s adorable costumes.

9. Levo League – @levoleague

Instagram: @levoleague

Instagram: @levoleague

Instagram: @levoleague

  Levo League is a community of young professionals, and their Instagram account is all about inspiration and daily photos which will make you smile.

10. Jamie Milne and Greta Epstein – @cleaneatz

Instagram: @cleaneatz

Instagram: @cleaneatz

Instagram: @cleaneatz

  This Insta is just a huge amount of food porn which won’t leave you feeling guilty. It’ll have you craving a huge, fresh salad or a delicious sweet potato loaded up with veggies.

11. Jordan Ferney- @ohhappyday

Instagram: @ohhappyday

Instagram: @ohhappyday

  This charming Instagram account is packed with amazing DIYs and cute home decorating ideas. It’ll have you itching to try out all of of the fun and colourful projects on offer.

12. David Frenkiel- @gkstories

  Photos from this Instagram just make you want to move to a farm and eat delicious food for the rest of your life. Focusing on homely, nourishing meals, David and his family will take you on a food journey that you’ll never want to unfollow.

13. Beardoblack – @beardoblack

Instagram: @beardoblack

Instagram: @beardoblack

Instagram: @raat_fashion

  This man has the most glorious beard in the world, and can pull off a suit like no one else. His Insta is just a huge inspiration for pretty much every man ever.

14. Miann Scanlan – @miannscanlan

Instagram: @miannscanlan

Instagram: @miannscanlan

Instagram: @miannscanlan

  This Instagram is all about chilling out and finding your inner zen. A mix of peaceful beach shots and muted colours, Miann sends out peaceful vibes and happiness through her photos.

15. Chloe Morello- @chloemorello

Instagram: @chloemorello

Instagram: @chloemorello

Instagram: @chloemorello

  This makeup vlogger from Sydney frequently updates her Instagram account with makeup tutorials, inspiration, and snaps of her daily life. Her detailed how-tos also include specific examples of makeup suggestions for different skin tones.

16. Teresa Cutter – @teresacutter_healthychef

Instagram: @teresacutter_healthychef

Instagram: @teresacutter_healthychef

Instagram: @teresacutter_healthychef

  This is the perfect selection of recipes and food inspo for anyone who has a sweet tooth but still wants to feel healthy. It is a delicious mix of beautiful food shots and inspired dishes using super fresh ingredients.

17. Manal – @naildecor

Instagram: @naildecor

Instagram: @naildecor

Instagram: @naildecor

  Nail polish grams are always awesome, but this particular artist uploads detailed video tutorials of all her colourful creations. They may look intricate and confronting, but most of the designs are actually a lot easier than they seem.

18. Apartment Therapy – @apartmenttherapy

Instagram: @apartmenttherapy

Instagram: @apartmenttherapy

Instagram: @apartmenttherapy

  Everyone goes through the phase of wanting to completely revamp your whole home, but sometimes it’s really not that easy to decide on what you want. Apartment Therapy provides heaps of awesome ideas for all different types of abodes.

Read more: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jemimaskelley/yoga-and-nails-and-acai-oh-my

[stompsite]

indiebundlecruftdeathmatch vol. 1: reckoning

As detailed in this piece, I have a problem, and that problem is random games I’ve acquired without meaning to over the years.

I’m going to play them as long as I feel like, and then I’m going to jot down some notes, and I’ll do it until I get bored or other duties demand my attention.

So here goes.

BOOSTER TROOPER: This is a side scrolling deathmatch game. Because it’s a sidescroller, I don’t really care about it. Production quality isn’t great. I’m pretty sure this game was made in like 24 hours with a bunch of sample game assets. PASS.

BOREALIS: I have no idea what this game is about. I booted it up and the menu was just a bunch of symbols. When you hover over the symbols, they say things like “survival.” In a game with a tutorial, I might know what this means. As it stands, I had no idea what to do until I visited the store page.

I tend to approach games as an impatient customer when I don’t know anything about them. Don’t get me wrong, I give them all a fair chance, but it’s a really useful tool to come at a game like someone who doesn’t have the time or money to put up with a game. It really makes you appreciate the best games, and how they communicate well with the player. Borealis does not.

Also, I said I’d take screenshots, but Borealis showed up in the background, despite being a full screen game, and it wouldn’t let me take screenshots. PASS.

I have restarted my machine to see if it will take screenshots.

BOTANICULA: This is a point and click adventure by Amanita Design, a developer I have heard of, but I’m not sure why. It’s pretty cool. Again, I cannot take screenshots. It’s gorgeous, it’s charming, the puzzles aren’t hard or anything. Just click until you find a solution. Let yourself steep in the ~vibes~!

Oh wow, a 97% positive rating on Steam? Dang. Not surprising, considering I’m not a point and click guy and I like what I’ve played. Pick this one up, guys.

Good stuff. IT STAYS.

BOXES WITH GUNS: Well, I clicked on it and it said it was missing the executable, which is obviously Not A Good Look. 214 files failed to validate and had to be reacquired. I tried to run it again and it claimed that Steam Must Be Running To Play The Game. Steam is totally running, because that is how I was able to launch it. I haven’t had this much trouble with a game since Hitman: Blood Money.

haha wait what

It’s not really my genre and I’m not too interested in the screenshots. Pretty sure, looking at all the awards it got, it came from groupees years ago. Anyways, HARD PASS.

BRAID: a game I don’t remember ever buying, but apparently it was added to my account in 2009??? I guess it’s a platformer so I probably don’t care about it at all, but hey, let’s try it out.

Huh. Another game won’t launch.

Screw it, I’m booting DOOM to see if I have problems. I’ve run Doom before, so if it isn’t working, it might be that Steam is broken.

For whatever reason, restarting Steam fixed the issue where restarting my computer did not. Anyways, Braid is a platformer, and like all platformers, I don’t really find “mash one button at the perfect time to jump” to be particularly interesting or engaging gameplay. As a quirky puzzle platformer, I’m sure it eventually gets good, but that’s true of every quirky puzzle platformer. I don’t really find it fun.

Nice looking game, great music, not my genre. PASS.

This is BRAINPIPE: A PLUNGE TO UNHUMANITY, though the title screen just says BRAINPIPE. I don’t know how to play. It asks you to select your skill level, which is just, like, a numerical value and you slide an eyeball along it. I don’t know what the eyeballs are for. I don’t really know how you play the game. You kinda just... fly through a tube and if you click it slows down time?

Not really interested in spending time here. BEGONE.

BREACH AND CLEAR: It’s some kind of tactics game. The intro video was boring, which gave it a Bad Look, but you know what? This looks fun and I’m going to try playing it later. Great menu, though none of my default squad sounds Russian, which is weird because the game indicates it’s the Russian special forces. Font’s a bit annoying; they use what looks like Helvetica and then something more boring for the menu. I got an achievement for four-starring a bunch of missions, despite having zero stars. Weird little bug. LIVE TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY.

BREATH OF DEATH VII: Okay, apparently this runs on XNA. It’s basically a game stylized as an old school JRPG, minus the extremely good art that a lot of older JRPGs had. I am not really into JRPGs, but I do enjoy the sense of adventure and the artistic quality of some of the older games, especially a game like EARTHBOUND.

Basically, everyone died a long time ago and you’re a skeleton in a world where basically everybody is undead, but being undead doesn’t make you evil. It’s a JRPG, so the gameplay itself really isn’t that interesting. That’s just how JRPGs are.

The sad truth about JRPGs is that there’s basically no roleplaying involved. They’re mostly just adventure games where you can kinda go wherever you want and sometimes you navigate menus as an extremely abstract form of combat.

Their charm doesn’t lie in the gameplay, but in the adventure. A JRPG lives or dies by its story. SUIKODEN is interesting because of the narrative it sets up, the cute, schlocky adventure. It’s not because you tell your party to attack or heal.

Breath of Death VII commits two crimes: first, it could stand to break up some of its text boxes so they don’t feel quite so wall-off-text, and in doing so, the game would stop violating one of the most important rules of design: don’t let a single word dangle by itself. If the text box uses ALL THE WORDS and then you have an entire text box for just one word, you’ve failed. We learned this in design school on, like... day one?

The second crime it commits is that its humor is mostly referential. There’s a Castlevania reference early on. These jokes only work if people are in on the joke, and while JRPG fans who probably have played a lot of console games know all about its inside jokes, people who don’t get the reference don’t really see the point.

Referential humor is basically just “hey, remember that thing? You didn’t expect to see that here, so it’s jarring, which is funny.” Thing is, you do that too much, and it gets grating, because now the audience expects it, so... it’s not funny.

I’ve said way too much about a game I’m actually LEAVING ON THE BACKLOG. What can I say? I was charmed by what I’ve seen and I look forward to playing more. It’s just more fun to talk about what’s broken and why than anything else.

THE BRIDGE: huh, interesting. M.C. Escher’s "2D logic puzzler.” But ehnhnnmhmmhmmnooo. no. I just don’t feel strongly enough to keep it around. I forgot to take a screenshot of this and the next game.

BRIDGE CONSTRUCTOR: it’s one of those puzzly bridge building games. Not feelin it. BYE, FELICIA.

Anywho, I’m feelin really tired. That’s a bunch of games. Most of them aren’t staying on the backlog. Without meaning to, I’ve just gone through ten games exactly. Three of them are staying on the backlog. My standout here was Botanicula, believe it or not, though I could see myself loving Breach and Clear if it’s good enough.

The biggest takeaway I have from these games is this: if you’re making a game, the most important thing you can do is to make it extremely clear what everything does and how it works. Why are people gonna stick with your game if your game’s not immediately grok-able?

They aren’t.

Until vol. 2, my friends.

[ensemblebxl]

20 essential Moodymann tracks selected by Kong & Gratts

Catch Kong & Gratts warming up for KDJ this Saturday at Stereo Club in Brussels. In anticipation, both ensemble residents made a personal Moodymann top 10 for you. Read on below - in no particular order.

KONG

Moodymann is everything I love about house music: soulful, raw, enigmatic, unconventional, from Detroit, … I remember hearing Shades Of Jae for the first time as it was yesterday and when I started listening to his albums, I was completely hooked to his sound and vision. Visiting Detroit a few years ago stimulated my fascination for him (and the complete Detroit scene) even more. In 2014 I was booked to warm up for him for the first time at a Deep In House party in Brussels, in a back to back session with Antwerp’s finest Eklektiker. We were asked to play 3h and the room quickly filled with enthousiast punters. Eventually Moodymann was one hour late, which created an incredible anticipation in the audience. I will never forget the amount of energy that went through the room, definitely one of my highlight sets. Full recording is online by the way.

1. Moodymann - Dem Young Sconies (Planet E)

What a torpedo when you throw this to a dance floor. The power this beast holds is huge. Amazing sampling of the Belgian synth-pop tune ‘That’s The Game’ by Wet by the way. I often play them together in the mix, works well in both directions.

2. Moodymann - Mahogany Brown (Peacefrog Records)

This is the theme tune of his second album Mahogany Brown from 1998. I’m simply in love with this track. It’s so well crafted and designed, I can keep on listening to it. Check his track ‘Black Mahogany’ from 2004. It’s another variation on the same theme, equally good.

3. Larry Heard - Another Night (J.A.N. re-edit) (Track Mode)

When Kenny and Larry, two of my biggest heroes, appear on one release you know magic has happened. Moodymann gives this beautiful Larry Heard tune that little something extra, not much more than a cherry on the cake (some extra Detroitesque details here and there), but nevertheless a very sweet one. 

4. Kenny Dixon Jr. - January (Soul City)

Moodymann released most of his music on his own label KDJ, on Carl Craig’s label Planet E and on Peacefrog. One of my most favourite MM records got released on Soul City though, the red coloured Mike Banks imprint. He only did one release on Soul City, under his real name Kenny Dixon Jr. It holds four classic deep house gems that I often play in my sets. Prices are high for this one, but it’s a good investment that will never lose value.

5. Rick Wilhite - What Do You See? (Moodymann remix) (KDJ)

Fellow Detroiter Rick Wilhite is a good friend of Moodymann and this EP is a good example of the Detroit house scene power. It got released in 1996 on KDJ and has two tracks by Rick Wilhite being remixed by Theo Parrish, Moodymann and Rick himself. I got my copy when Rush Hour re-issued this in 2009, always works on any dance floor.

6. Moodymann - Come 2 Me (KDJ)

From his latest album, released in 2014, with Nikki-O on vocals. A kinda of super sexy slow burner. ‘Take Me By Surprise, Like A Thief In The Night’.

7. Moodymann - Music People (KDJ)

The B-side of ‘I Can’t Kick This Feeling When It Hits’. Particulary love that little funny melody in the intro of the track, before he brings the ‘Welcome To Our World’ sample of Mass Production.

8. Moodymann - Backagainforthefirsttime? (Peacefrog Records)

Had to include a track from ‘Silence In The Secret Garden’, my most favourite Moodymann album (and cover art). The crying baby gives it an uncanny vibe, a recurring mood on this album and an overall quality of his music.

SILENCE IN THE SECRET GARDEN by MOODYMANN

9. Amp Dog Knight's -  I'm Doing Fine (Mahogany Music)

Amp Fiddler on Moodymann’s other label Mahogany Music, with the boss himself on production. Soothing jazzy house. It samples Syl Johnson’s ‘Is It Because I’m Black’, needless to say the African-American roots of house music is a strong subject for him.

10. Dewayne Davis ‎– It Shows (Extended Mix by Kenny Dixon Jr. & Norma Jean Bell) (Pandamonium)

Moodymann’s work with Norma Jean Bell is another highlight in his discography. Wanted to put a lesser known track here, one that is still for sale at a reasonable price and will always perform well on the floor.

GRATTS

Moodymann has been one of my favourite artists since I first discovered him as a young teenager. The mystery, the records, the imagery, the personality, the spoken words, the odd catalogue numbers on his KDJ imprint, the untitled tracks, alternate versions and B-sides… it all fascinated me a lot. For every gig, I seem to be able to dig out a KDJ record that will fit the occasion, his music often makes it into my dj-sets. Arguably a lot has changed since I first heard about Kenny Dixon Jr. I’ve seen him play countless times since, in very different circumstances, and with his rise to fame some of the mystery vanished. But in all honesty, I’ve yet to hear a bad set from the man and he always adds something interesting to the table. I’d choose KDJ in a shit mood over almost any other dj any day. Making a top 10 of Moodymann favourites wasn’t an easy task, but here’s an attempt.

1. Moodymann - Long Hot Sex Nights (Feat. NJB) (KDJ)

First Moodymann I ever possessed. I actually bagged it from the guy that I bought my first pair of Technics decks from. I remember him saying he’d never expected a fifteen year old kid to be into this record. Such an amazing live groove that I will never get sick off. One thing’s for sure, I certainly wasn’t around when the “original version (was) done live 12/3/94 at Jimmie D's Supper Club” in Detroit.

2. Moodymann - Your Sweet Lovin (KDJ)

First heard this track on the Forevernevermore album on Peacefrog, my second ever Moodymann purchase. (I got it from ‘33’ record store on the second floor of my favourite bar Apero in my hometown Leuven.) The whole album is one long trip that made a huge impression on me. I must have listened to it a thousand times. ‘Your Sweet Lovin’ was also released on KDJ 23-A, which is the version that I’ve played out a lot over the years.

3. Moodymann - Me And My Peoples Eyes (Instrumental) (Peacefrog Records)

Probably my most played out Moodymann track of all time. Though I could have easily picked the B-side ‘Don't You Want My Love’, another firm favourite, instead.

4. Moodymann - I Feel Joy (KDJ)

Timeless house music. Those chords, that scat! I have this one the ‘Inspirations From A Small Black Church On The Eastside Of Detroit’ record. (It also includes Theo Parrish’s seminal ‘Lake Shore Drive’ with that clever Tasha Thomas sample.) True story: my copy of this used to be warped as fuck. After reading about it online, I tried straightening it in the oven. IN THE OVEN. Yes that’s right, those people that blindly trust silly online tutorials, they exist. Thank god I managed to track down another copy a few years afterwards. (Although I still couldn’t deal with binning the warped and partly burnt one - it’s probably still lying around the house somewhere (sorry)).

5. Moodymann - Silence in The Secret Garden (Peacefrog Records)

This track goes places. Nearly 10 minutes of KDJ perfection. Takes balls to play this one in all its glory, but when you do, it pays off. Raw as fuck and cheap as chips.

6. Moodymann - Joy Pt. II (KDJ)

Breathtaking jam that truly encapsulates everything that Moodymann stands for to me. And a bit of an epic tune when dropped at the right moment.

7. Moody - It's 2 Late 4 U And Me (KDJ)

Moodymann becomes Moody for the first time for this ‘Ol' Dirty Vinyl’ EP. This one is for all the underground haters who don’t like the more recent, new skool Moodymann output. While I agree that some of it is indeed a bit underwhelming, this one is nothing but lush. It features Amp Fiddler on keys and his brother Thomas on bass. I haven’t found out who’s on vocals, anyone?

8. Norma Jean Bell - Nobody Is Gonna Love You (2 A.M. Instrumental) (Pandamonium)

The 2.A.M. version of ‘Nobody Is Gonna Love You’ (which also appears on NJB’s 2001 Peacefrog album ‘Come Into My Room’ simply as ‘Nobody’) is as vivacious, sexy and high-spirited as they come. With an all-star team like Moodymann, Kelli Hand and Norma Jean Bell behind the production, it comes as no surprise.

9. Moodymann - The Thief That Stole My Sad Days (Ya Blessin Me) (Peacefrog Records)

This version off the Forevernevermore LP is the one I like the most, probably again because of nostalgic reasons. The track has appeared in various incarnations on different releases (see also KDJ 23 for example).

10. Moody - Hello 2morrow (KDJ)

Fabulous, well crafted, almost pop music. This track has been known to stay in my head for days at a time. Now sing it: “hello tomorrow, goodbye yesterday!”.