#also using some editing things i learned from editing render pics to in game pics has been neat

[elderwisp]

fe o amor, no quita esperanza, ven, amor, aquí

[phenikas]

What do you use to make your renders? Is there a place you get your models?

Hooo boy, be prepared for a truckload of information! 😅

The software that I use is called Unreal Engine (same game engine used to create the BL games aside from old Tales), specifically UE5, to do all the heavy stuff, like posing the characters, making backgrounds, environments, effects and such. Some people prefer to use Blender or Source Filmmaker, which is totally valid. I'm not as familiar with those softwares, so I just stick with what I know. There's definitely some stuff I need Blender for like customizing the models for use, but the gist of it is done in Unreal. I've also made some custom post-process stuff and visual effects by watching YT tutorials, like the lighting effect, the general black lines around models, or even my own version of Holo-Jack. I don't think I would've been able to work with those as well in Blender for example (I don't even know if doing something like this is an option in Source Filmmaker, either.)

When it comes to models though, that's a different story entirely. There are some amazing people out there who have done an incredible job porting out the characters and some other models and then customizing them for ease of usability, like 416Lottie, Kabalstein and N1ghtinGalez on DeviantArt. Personally I use their versions of Rhys' old Tales and Jack's and Timothy's BL3 models, however when it comes to customizing the textures, that's all my own handy work.

Oh and there's also a site (SFMLab) that lets you download any source filmmaker model the community has put out. I've only used it once, but it's worth checking out.

Zane and Jackbot, though, along with the rest of the models, I ripped out of the games themselves.

For BL3 and New Tales, there's an amazing software called UEViewer which lets you export models and textures (and also the original skeletons for the movable bodies, which quite differ in the number of facial bones compared to the models of 416Lottie, Kabalstein and N1ghtinGalez, that's how you know how much work they've done. Getting rid of bones and then weight painting the leftover areas is something I have yet to learn). However, you have to have the games downloaded in order to do this and it doesn't work on animations (sounds and sound effects I haven't checked yet.)

For old Tales, I also ripped out some files, which I haven't had the chance to use, however I followed 416Lottie's tutorial on how to do so (it's quite lengthy and very complicated but once you get into how things work, it's quite straightforward.) There's also the TelltaleExplorer, but as I've come to learn, this one cannot export the models and the textures always come out corrupted, so I only use this one to read text files (e.g. there's some very different dialogue written in there, some old version of the script) and listen to the voice lines.

Oh, and last but not least, I also use Photoshop to edit the pics I take in-engine cause I absolutely hate working with the post-process stuff in there lmao.

If you have any further questions, feel free to ask!! :)

[startledpixel]

Sorry to show my old ass but I enjoy this back and forth, it's giving me nostalgia for long indented LJ threads lol

Def, he's for sure been thinking about how to help ex-yakuza for a long time! Not sure whether he already has the HLA up and running by Y0, though maybe not if Kiryu only learns about it in Y3. I could see Wagi maybe helping ex-yakuza one-on-one pre-HLA when he has the time, and then it eventually evolves into the HLA when he gets more funding and someone to run it for him. Also I love that Kamurocho Guard substory in Y4, where the founder just straight up tells Tanimura that Kashiwagi inspired him to start the group. He died a whole game ago! Clearly an early sign of RGG's love for Wagi.

that one substory in gaiden got me thinking an awful lot about him and how he interfaces with other people

I know it was Kuze who first brought up to Kiryu how shitty it was that by supporting the orphanage Kazama basically brainwashed he and Nishiki from youth into being loyal yakuza (not that Kuze himself wasn't trying to manipulate Kiryu into spying on Kazama for him). I loved that coming back in the Gaiden substory. Would be cool to read some Kazama meta, maybe I just selectively look for Wagi posts but I feel like there's even less on him.

I love fics with Wagi and the boys! I've been trying to write one with him and Nishiki for forever but I can't figure out where I want it to go hah. That's true, Wagi's voice can be hard, he's very internal. I dig your fic idea though, like the boys taking care of him for once (waaah), and the slice of life potential! It'd be fun for them to talk about non-work things like Kiryu's new pocket circuit hobby, lol. Also that walk to Kamuro Castle with Majima sounds like a ficlet idea, just sayin...

disliking going back and reading anything i've written before

so much of my writing is editing it until it's less bad, hahah. Dialogue comes more naturally for me and I am trying to get better at description :P

kashiwagi's "suit" model from y7 is in the files for infinite wealth, but i'm assuming it's tied to the daigo summon again

ah interesting. I guess it's not the first time RGG's reused stuff. They will never re-render the Y3 orphanage pic and I love that for all of us.

lol is that cap from when he tells Ichiban "I hear you're looking out for the people of this town"? He's so precious and smiley there and I love Adachi giving him shit for being so fucking corny xD

(screenshotting the replies and posting because i feel weird replying from my main <\3 hope you don't mind the ping @startledpixel )

i never even thought about it happening that way... haha... excuse me while i go scream in a corner for a couple of minutes

it ties in really well to the sort of recurring motif i see through his life that the only time he's allowed to be truly happy with himself and his place in the world is after his "death" and recovery. kazama is a very complicated character to think about when it comes to his motivations and his relationships with the people he's close with - i don't think he's very good at prioritising his emotional investments (nishiki being the obvious example, but also the way he doesn't send any letters to kiryu in jail until the last day before his parole), so to add an extra layer of tragedy to the whole thing i like to think that he hadn't been making as much time for kashiwagi towards the end than he maybe could have been. not in a premeditated disloyalty sense, of course, but he's got his hands more than full with the whole embezzling 10 billion yen from the tojo coffers gambit... kashiwagi being the way he is though would be all the more desperate for reconciliation, and to then not get it before kazama kicks it would be the icing on the shit cake

but yeah KNOWING adachi was in the building with everyone else must have been like reliving his second-worst nightmare... meeting this man he thought he'd be able to settle down with for the first time in sixty odd years but still constantly having to worry after him. i still adore no idling as an exploration of those feelings after the fact & i find myself coming back to it an awful lot as someone who doesn't generally read fiction more than once or twice unless i'm trying to find something specific (if you may allow me my nerd moment)

it's something i would love to explore more myself, but i don't really feel i have the means to do it in a way in which i'd enjoy the end product... but i suppose that's what commissions are for!

ANYWAY, apparently, everyone kiryu meets in his side story gives him some kind of reward, and i'm having A Time thinking about what he might get from kashiwagi. i'm trying not to set myself up to be disappointed by what happens, but there's a big part of me that hopes kashiwagi pulls "suzuki" to the side and leaves whoever else on the bar for a while so they get a chance to actually catch up. i think at this point both of them really need something like that, because i doubt there's any way kashiwagi didn't get the news that kiryu "died" in 2016

the other big thing that's got me physically shaking is the idea they might finally namedrop him. and uuhhh if they still let us karaoke at survive then i hope judgement gets its own cinematic. : )

[connor-sent-by-cyberlife]

It's me again. Sorry for bother you in your askbox, but I can't answer in comments at any posts, idk why ☹

Yes. I remember your works with LK Parcel 3D model as Connor (btw, I also found this model recently and just "oh wait, I've seen him before…OMG!") and then I saw your post when you finally had Gavin model. Long story short: the links brought me on twitter and I decided to give it a try. And yes, I have few minor questions about DAZ and I will definitely ask them :D I've been working with Photoshop long enough so it's easier for me to edit problems, than looking for solution. How to create raindrops, for example. No, Blender is still tough for me. Too many buttons and I don't have the patience for it. I only use it for import/export stuff. So yep, DAZ and IRAY photoreal. What about you?

Hey, how long does it take you to create a full scene? (from opening DAZ to final render). Last one with Convin, for example?

Hi again!

Thanks again for your reply! I tried to contact you yesterday to tell you I got this message and will reply later, but I could neither tag you nor write you via the Tumblr messanger. Maybe you've selected something in your settings that denies people to tag and send you private messages? Is there any way we could chat directly? Maybe you can try send me a private message here or on Twitter? Do you have a Twitter account? Instagram would also be an option, if you use that.

I've been working with that Parcel model for over a year before I learned about Metoria on Twitter who finally could help me getting all the original models I use now, well, not them alone, but also apathetic-roombas who shared several of their original models with me they had already commissioned from Metoria. I was so indescribably happy to finally have original models to work with!

Feel free to hit me with all your questions! I'll try to help you as best as I can.

Idk, maybe you could also teach me a bit about photo editing? I know a lot of functions in GIMP are similiar to the ones in Photoshop.

I also render in Daz with the Iray Photoreal setting. I was just wondering if you used that for your 2 pictures of Connor alone in a car and Connor and Nines together in a car, because these pics had such a cool grainy look that somehow made them look like real screenshots from the game.

How long a scene from beginning to the finished render takes me varies heavily. For example the "He was beautiful in a way deadly things always are" Nines took me only like 10 - 15 minutes including rendering! The Convin pic with the rainy background though took me several hours with posing including facial expressions and arranging the scene, finding the light solution that satisfies me. And also for full complex scenes like that one my laptop needs two hours to render (and just because I set this as the render time limit). And after that there's the editing of course which can also take some time. What about your renders?

[xbaebsae]

First vs Last

Tagged by the wonderful @ziorre ♥

Rules: you choose one of your first art (even if you don’t like them) and one of your lastest art. Don’t forget to specify the years when you drew them and you can even write what, when and why these pics were drawn! Oh, and make sure you tag your fav art.

I cheated and chose more than one, forgive me.

Modelling:

2010: a weird ugly anime base created in blender 2.49 aka the ugliest ui under the sun. Suits the model lmao xD I think it was supposed to be an anime version of an OC but I never actually finished it. Looks more like an alien creature now.

2017: She’s Tessa, an OC from an original story I write. My first full character model, i made everything you see here myself, including textures. She was sculpted, then retopo-ed to be game res. Would change a lot of things nowdays but eh.

2020: Rheese base model is extracted from the game but many of her clothes and all of her hair was modelled entirely by me. Her hair is usually particle based but I learned how to convert that properly into a mesh for her in-game model. Her default shirt is also my own model, but it uses an edited version of Jacob’s shirt texture for accuracy.

Rendering:

2009: My very first 3d render using a retexture of a Tomb Raider: Underworld model. This was done in Maya xD and I evidently had no fucking idea what I was doing.

2020: Not technically my last render but the one that shows best where my skill level is at now I think :) Self made 3d background, particle hair, waaaay better posing and a camera angle that makes sense.

Throwing some tags to @p0lkadotdotdot @fadedjacket @dep-yo-tee @dieguzguz @yokobai @v3ryvelvet @veinereastath @theknifegame 

[simtrospective]

SCRAPPED STORY CHALLENGE by @bugsims

01. Post a few screenshots from a scrapped scene / edit / story! 02. Share why you scrapped this specific thing. 03. Tag five friends, and watch the fun play out!

Thank you to @gilded-ghosts for the tag.

Because I wrote so much that you might prefer to skip, let me do 03. outside the cut. I tag...

@ladykendalsims - @jet-plane-sims - @boogey-studios - @pinkmonsimblr - @dynastiasimss

The above pictures (plus the related tray files) are all I have left of an idea that was half-formed to begin with and which never got off the ground at all.

01.

Depending on if you’re a follower of mine + how long you’ve been following me, you may have seen a few of these shots before but I’ll explain them anyway:

Set 1: The characters Charlie, Hick, and Craig, in their original states on the left and their enhanced, final states on the right;

Set 2: A few WIP pictures of the performance space/club/thing I built;

Set 3: A bunch of test shots I took to see how the characters looked interacting, what they did naturally, and how they looked when I ~directed them. I used these pics to try and find my editing style for the story. I didn’t find the style I wanted. Clearly.

02.

I scrapped this idea because it never came together; I didn’t connect with the characters; I didn’t care about the storyline; I’m not done with my new save so I couldn’t ~comfortably start telling this story when the rest of the world was/is disordered; and on and on. The point is, I wasn’t feeling any of this. Oh! And I hate the whole vibe and time period and aesthetic irl; what on earth was I thinking writing about it?!

So. What was this going to be?

[[Under the cut because this is... so, so long. So long.]]

Charlie, Hick, and Craig were

going

to live in Del Sol Valley in my new save, in the Pinnacles neighborhood, which I was

going

to turn into a Laurel Canyon-style neighborhood. An entire community of would-be songwriters/musicians were

going

to live in the two smaller lots and commune with one another and be the New Guard colliding with the Old Guard; the huge mansion lot was

going

to house an aging former film-current soap actor confronting his mortality and also hating the living shit out of these hippies whose existence he took as a personal affront--I digress. Back to the “story.”

Charlie, Hick, and Craig met after each arrived in DSV separately and they vibed and they moved in together, all in a matter of, like, a week’s time. Charlie and Hick vibed especially. So much in common! Such poor little rich [kids]! Both came from pampered environments in which their family money and respective fathers’ connections allowed them to skate through life and to play at being musicians because--despite crying oppression at the hands of upper class WASP-dom--they'll always have safety nets to ensure they’ll always be okay. Charlotte Grant graduated from her all-girls prep school and put on a floppy hat and became Charlie Grant; Richard Hickey (lololol) ripped up his acceptance letter to Britechester and grew his hair out and hitchhiked and told people to call him “Hick.” They’ve lived parallel lives and “recognize” one another as soon as they meet. They have an electric connection, but neither will verbalize that. Above all, they... really want to sleep together.

Craig grew up working class and has no safety net; he just wants a little adventure before he gets a real job/grows up/gets married (his gf back home is off to college; they’re long-distance; it’s... not going to work). He’s a good guitar player and he’s a good songwriter and that’s it but maybe it’ll be more? What do they say about the lottery? Can’t win if you don’t play? Charlie and Hick want to be famous ~rule the world. Hick plays guitar well and tries to write songs but they’re shitty. Charlie is passively learning the keyboard and writes songs that are not... bad...? Some are... good?

Charlie and Hick--can you tell they eclipse Craig, yet?--have weird sexual chemistry and tension: they tease, they flirt, they taunt, they enjoy one another’s attention but they never so much as hug. They both have cruel streaks as only disconnected, spoiled, emotionally stunted bluebloods can: the torture of their relationship/non-relationship gets them off more than anything else could and that thrill drives much of their behaviors: bringing wanton strangers home for one night stands, each hoping the other is watching/overhearing, fighting about little things, acting like inappropriately close siblings, acting like strangers. Craig suffers their whims; Charlie and Hick aren’t just united in their toxicity and their dreams of fame, but in how they make Craig into a third wheel or a--well, punching bag is too strong a term. Charlie and Hick think they’re teasing their bff but you know how it is to be teased allllll the tiiiiiiime and how it can make your head spin when people who can’t get along with one another join forces--without even having to discuss it--to turn on you. Their relationship gets patched up, you’re hurting, they insist it’s not a big deal and even that you even liked it. We’re all friends. We’re all best friends omg.

But sometimes they have fun together. They have a lot of fun together. Sometimes it all is everything each dreamed it would be. DSV is a wonderland and their careers are happening and life is happening and they’re best friends. They’re soulmates for life.

The three work on music, perform at clubs. Craig is starting to come into his own as a man. I hate the term coming-of-age but in the background of the Charlie & Hick Show, Craig is maturing. He has to, because C&H are fuck-ups. They jeopardize scheduled performances. They don’t know how to talk to club owners. They’re not interested in paying their dues. They are unable (or unwilling) to promote themselves without being obnoxious attention whores. They don’t practice or help write songs. They don’t take care of the house. Hick is late with his rent. Charlie thinks she can flirt her way out of everything. Craig is also the only one of them who works; he has a day job at a print shop, gives guitar lessons on the side, and makes sure the three get gigs and don’t get evicted. The only thing C&H put consistent effort toward is making the social scene or finding a party or scoring drugs or getting laid. As the group’s local star(s) rise, their fates start to change course which increases the interpersonal tension. Hick’s fun-loving nature is starting to turn into a legit substance abuse problem and he’s picking fights with the wrong people and socially devolving, his arrogance and issues and general laziness rendering him unable to relate to others; Charlie is getting a lot of attention from older men In the Business, who have the money and connections to make her a solo star, which she is shrewdly considering; and Craig’s resentment toward his “friends” and disillusionment with the superficiality of DSV is making him rethink his motivation for coming west in the first place.

Oh, and Charlie and Hick--again, as their paths change and as their weird tension remains unresolved--continue to take their bullshit out on Craig and now it’s not funny anymore, it’s not cute, it’s not exciting, and neither is it when Hick ruins a show by being too stoned to perform and neither is it when Charlie brings unsavory characters home who trash the three’s equipment and neither is it when C&H steal Craig’s songs and perform without him at a gig they didn’t tell him about.

What I intended was that the story would at first seem to be The Charlie and Hick Show, all about them, as if we’re supposed to root for them, but ideally, through my ~deft hand 🙄 the reader 🙄🙄 was supposed to be like, Um... hold on-- until it eventually was quite obvious that these two--though human; though in situations we could understand and empathize with--were captured at a point in their lives when they were Super Toxic Assholes, and what you were watching all along was Craig as Hero.

So I had ideas, but I didn’t know how to fit them together and I didn’t want a really long story and I couldn’t--I just couldn’t figure it out. I do know that the end was going to be Craig screwing them like they’d been screwing him, a final middle finger with consequences. I know that he and Hick were going to have words and Hick was going to try and fight him (such a loser) and Charlie was going to throw a Hail Mary of like... trying to seduce (lol) Craig into staying omg I always had a thing for you/we’d be such a great team/I always thought we could ~be something ~together uwu bullshit like that. Was this true? Was this true in her own mind? I think I was going to set the story up so that if you reread, yeah, it could be true, but she’s so flirty and manipulative and socially savvy and used to getting what she wants that who knows what her real feelings ever are? Ultimately that would’ve been irrelevant bc Craig never looked at her that way and hates her and Hick now; good going guys. It’s worth noting, I guess, that when I put the group on a test lot, Charlie was super into Craig immediately, went right to him, stood close to him, was eager to make romantic overtures; she went 0 to 60 in an instant and as so far as is possible in this game they had chemistry, but Craig was not feeling the romance. And no one was feeling Hick.

Anyway, Craig was going to move on with his life and Charlie and Hick were going to learn nothing and blame him, ~the end.

And then, as I continued to play my save and maybe tell more stories, there would be Easter eggs, references to Charlie, Hick, and Craig older/in the future and where they went in life in the background of other, unrelated stories: Hick’s substance abuse problems and rehab stints and going by Richard again and his eventual moderate fame and eventual sobriety and attempted comeback and his bad relationships with his exes and children; Charlie’s legit fame + marriage to a producer + eventual fade away + moderate comeback + solid second or third marriage and bff relationship with her children 🙄🙄🙄 and her palatial house on the coast and now she exclusively wears white and ivory and pampers her dogs and eats raw (but drinks wine) because it “cured” her undiagnosed, unnamed “autoimmune disorder,” which she wrote a book about resulting in a semi-comeback but as a Famous Person and not a musician. Craig going to college and becoming a high school English teacher who plays in a local band on the weekends and who has a good marriage (not to the long distance gf) and nice kids, one of whom would eventually have her own story where she pursued musicianship with her dad, which got him back into his first passion but it was a qt father-daughter project and not An Attempt to Be Famous.

So. Idk. That’s what this all would’ve been. But it wasn’t, and it won’t be!

[maxismatchccworld]

Hey you lovely Simmers! It is time for our new Spotlight of the Month. Please give a warm welcome to MLys aka @mlyssimblr​. 😊

Hello!

I’m MLys, I’m a 27 years old French simmer and I’ve been sharing maxis match custom content for The Sims 4 for three years.

I’ve discovered the game with The Sims 1 back when I was 9 and I immediately fell in love. I still remember when I’ve unwrapped the base game and Vacation EP at Christmas! Thereafter, I’ve been a huge Sims 2 player (gameplay wise it’s still my favorite of the franchise), skipped The Sims 3, and out of curiosity and nostalgia, came back to the game with The Sims 4 without a lot of expectations. I just wanted to play time to time in my corner, mostly as a builder, and didn’t have any intention to start a blog and create CC.

The need of creating my own custom content quickly came up because I felt frustrated to not find the items I needed to design my builds the way I imagined them. I already downloaded CC as a kid, and was sooo obsessed about it back then! I ingeniously wished I could be able to do the same and run my own sims download website, but it wasn’t easy to find proper tutorials in French (and I most likely wasn’t mature and skilled enough ahah) so I had no idea how all those things worked. I just accepted that it was some computer magic. Several years and more experience later, that sweet memory contributed to make me want to give it a try and take my revenge!

Into the Simverse!

Pic: Exhibition set (Part 1)

My Exhibition set, specially made for the museum I was building, was the first CC I completed and shared on my blog. The set was very simple, but it was already foreshadowing what I would particularly love to do ever since: trying to expand the lore of the Simverse! As it can be deduced from this set, I was very inspired by the creative @femmeonamission’s Great Art Serie and the principle of only using resources from the game. Simlish fonts weren’t enough, I wanted to embrace the fact that the Sims live in a similar but alternative world to ours, with its own peculiarities and silly historical background.

Pic: Sim’Pop culture Tucked-in Tee

I’ve started to become a build mode catalog and Sims Wiki nerd, trying to collect Sim cultural references from all the games and brainstorm head canons that I could exploit for my builds backstories and CC design. I just need a consistent universe!!

I loved to imagine swatches for my tucked tee, which illustrates that approach pretty well. The TS4 concept artists have created so many cute and creative little gems in the game that need a second life, like the base game paintings and the movies from the Movie Hangout SP.

An other example is of course my baby Pufferhead Stuff, that was initially supposed to be a tiny set inspired by a base game poster, but that ended up being a liiiiittle bit more ambitious, whoops. I spent an outrageous time working on all the details I could think about to make the pack cohesive and refer to Harry Potter without losing the maxis match spirit. I am so so touched when I see simmers considering some elements from Pufferhead as canon in their game! During the process, I genuinely thought that I spent a useless time on things that most simmers would barely pay attention to, such as the Harnock sorting test, so it was really rewarding to discover that people actually appreciated the effort!

(If you like Simverse headcanon CC, my simblr crush @bottsbotts​ had also made a very creative set inspired by base game posters!)

Pic: Pufferhead Stuff Pack

We do love collaborations

The second part of the Exhibition set that I’ve made with @aroundthesims has a very special spot in my heart. I’ve been a big fan of Sandy’s work since day 1, and downloaded everything she did. When I’ve started to share CC, I needed to fangirl in her DM to tell her how she inspired me. It must sound silly, but when she proposed to collaborate, I felt so crazy happy and proud! If mini-MLys playing sims in her bedroom full of dolphin and HP posters had heard about that, her brain would have been like “Can’t… compute…”

Pic: Exhibition set (Part 2) / Screenshot features items by Sandy and me

I can’t introduce myself either without talking about my friends from The @Plumbobteasociety!  They’re the first friends I’ve ever made online and I love them (I’ve even met some irl!). Working on Cottage Garden Stuff with them was a blast. There was a real team spirit and it definitely made me progress. Never I would have been able to work by myself on Pufferhead without the Cottage Garden experience and without their support!

Pic: Cottage Garden Stuff pack / Screenshot features items by @magnolianfarewell @femmeonamissionsims @teanmoon @nolan-sims @litttlecakes @simlaughlove and me

There is something very fulfilling in collaborating with someone that got skills that you don’t have, and managing together to create something cool. I had that feeling with those projects, but also with the talented @illogicalsims who accepted to make the render of Pufferhead. It really was out of my current ability and his final render is fully part of the identity of the pack and I’m sure contributed to valorize it, so I can’t thank him enough for that!

Other stuff

“Sorry, I’ve been quite absent recently…”

I update my simblr very irregularly, and my content can be quite random. To be honest I don’t feel like I have produced that much? I really wish I did! I have so much ideas condemned to stay in my notebook forever… RIP. Here are my favorite editing and building projects:

31 years of Simblreen (2017)

The Windenburg Old Town Square

Forever grateful…

…Like for real. I don’t try to be mushy or something. That simblr really helped me at times when I needed it. I definitely have a creative profile, but without a specific goal in mind, I tend to want to do and learn so much things at the same time, that I end up feeling overwhelmed and uninspired, and don’t practice anything. And then I feel frustrated and can’t manage to have a consistent hobby. When I started the blog, I totally underestimated all the various skills it would actually make me work on: 3d modeling, texturing, editing, illustration, storytelling, my English… and even video editing for the Pufferhead trailer! I admit that I haven’t talked about that blog to a lot of my irl friends, because I’m afraid they wouldn’t understand that it’s not “unworthy”. And well, I myself also devalue a lot what I produce in general. I’m working on feeling more confident and share with them all the good memories and touching moments I have from my simming experience! All the adorable support I’ve received here through those last 3 years really really helped for that, and I can’t express how much it means to me <3

Thank you Kerstin for the Spotlight (and aw sorry for the delay) ! Especially for the month of my birthday, such a cute coincidence :)

Thanks for reading, have a great week, and happy simming everyone!

[fuzaointerviewproject]

Online project | #02 Lorenzo Bellini & Guilherme Figueiredo

Round #02

Lorenzo and Guilherme have never met before, but they know each other on the internet, they usually like to chat together on Instagram.

This time, at Fuzao's invitation, they chose some fragments of their chats during this period, selected and modified these memories and showed some of their art works.

Guilherme Figueiredo：GF

Lorenzo Bellini ：LB

GF  16:31

What about you, are you ok? It’s a really freaky climate covered with disaster

LB  16:32

I'm happy to know that you are good..   also for me the indoor situation is ok we are good here in Milan, we had 36 days of quarantine I can't imagine how the situation will be after everything is over

GF 16:36

Yeah every sector/infra-structure will be fragmented But I guess the instinct will always be to   REbuild and REdo the same.   Idk if it will work I’ve been doing a little paper tower I stack one paper each day

LB  16:40

send me a pic of the progress I wanna see how it’s grown

GF  16:42

(VIDEO - 3D paper tower)

LB  16:43

I started to write a diary of these day (it’s less original)  but I felt like writing   so everyone has their methods of counting the quarantine days

Citybash series, By Lorenzo Bellini

GF 16:47

I’ll start a poll on Instagram and ask about it! See what people say! what do you think?

LB  16:49

Interesting for sure because you can discover strange things about people

PDMC series by Guilherme Figueiredo

LB 16:44  

I would like to see your spot like your desk or another place

GF 16:46 

I didn’t have a desk in my room. I used to work on an atelier, so this is kind of the only way I have

(VIDEO - 3D Guilherme Desk)

LB 16:47

woww!! very cool my spot is pretty dark.

(VIDEO - 3D Lorenzo Desk)

GF 16:31  

Fungal Fantasy, wow it’s actually a great name

LB 16:31  

it’s a fantasy about fungus (mushroom)

Trashdraw series by Lorenzo Bellini

GF 16:32  

Well yeah. Might as well be an rpg with a Covid like virus spreading through the world

Ooohhh yeah we can 3D render some of your sculptures. They would be such good apocalyptic type of characters

LB 16:35  

it would be a pleasure!

Lorenzo's work table at his studio in Milan

and the hype for animal Crossing? what do you think? For many people that game is the real escape from quarantine. hahaha when you learn how to code let’s make it! Fungal Fantasy 

 Container drawing by Guilherme Figueiredo

GF 16:36

Animal crossing. My god yeah it makes total sense. I wish I had it. I think the hype makes sense. You can go outside in the game and it’s beautiful the outside inside of the game, have you seen it?

LB 16:38  

Yes I saw some random images but I never tried it.. but I really liked your analysis “the outside inside of the game”. Many people that I know that play, have met each other or made a party inside the game.

GF 16:49  

Yeah we are all in the same state obviously Ooh show me some figurines!

LB 16:50  

my collection.. okay it’s a little one

(VIDEO - 3D Lorenzo Diorama)

I had a particular interest for modalism and small objects or scaling object 

GF 16:54  

Yeah I noticed on your work 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

Burn by Lorenzo Bellini

LB 22:59

Also I'm really in love with this sculpture of yours.

Half-Life’s Gordon in the flesh by Guilherme Figueiredo

GF  23:00

Ah I felt the same about you and your work. There’s magnetism I agree Yeah ! It’s from an installation I did last year Thank you!! It was a lot of fun that piece. I love when my work makes me laugh in a way

LB  23:06 why is it funny?

The dolls made by Lorenzo

GF  23:07

It was mainly the movement of the roombas There was two characters and they would go against each other And its “unfinished” state makes me giggle I guess

by Guilherme Figueiredo 

LB  22:43

so what you think about our discussion are you satisfied?

we had much more than 10 sentences

you prefer to make another session more specific for the project?

I like this one because it’s very natural.

Dollwood by Lorenzo Bellini

“Arqueologia Virtual” series by Guilherme Figueiredo

GF  22:48

[Shhh] well yeah I’m satisfied but how would we go about it? Yeah I liked it too But how can we curate this? Maybe we can edit and chop it up a bit? Hmm...Or select a fragment maybe..

But honestly I kind of forgot about the project midways haha..

LB  22:51

hahaha me too...but this was my expectation. Have a free conversation with someone that I didn't know. but I felt some common thing with you that inspired me confidence okay I wrote to the curator

______________________________________________________________________

Guilherme Figueiredo

Lives and works in Lisbon

Finishing a masters in Visual Arts in Caldas da Rainha. Works on concepts of game and gaming and how the structures and layers of play in the world work in contrast with the seriousness of some scientific and pragmatic knowledge of the world’s history (speed on the archaeological process, evolution of the species, gambling and luck, computer programming, etc).

Lorenzo Bellini

Lives and works in Milan.

Sculpture and assembly are the practices he prefers, the method with which he works within these two practices is inspired by the stratification and concretion of the material. What feeds his work and his research is the exchange between producer and consumer.

Contact:

Instagram: bl.lorenzo & jelherme_magma

[andiroo42]

Free and affordable creative software for photo & video editing, design and illustration.

If you’re a creative and you don’t have a lot to spend on the latest software, you still want decent tools that will make life easier. Here’s a list of free and low cost software options that won’t make you a slave to outrageous pricing schemes and monthly subscriptions. All of the paid products listed here (except one) have retail options for under $50. Try them, see if they fit into your workflow and maybe they’ll find a new home on your hard drive and in your heart.

*Many of the applications listed here are open source meaning that the code base is available for anyone to tinker with and customize to their liking. It also means that fixing bugs and adding new features relies on the willingness of developers and often times the donations of users. Please support your favorite open source projects!

Photo Editing/Raster Graphics

Free:

Gimp (Windows, MacOS, Linux): Adobe’s Photoshop has long stood as the go to for photo editing, illustration and desktop publishing but their bloating app size and subscription based model doesn’t work for everybody. Short for GNU Image Manipulation Program, GIMP closely resembles Photoshop and is totally free and open source, nailing down the basic feature set you’d expect for editing photos along with some pleasant surprises.  https://www.gimp.org

Krita (Windows, MacOS, Linux): This app caters specifically to raster or pixel based illustration with unique drawing features, a streamlined interface, a great selection of brushes and customization options. It also has traditional 2D animation features.  https://krita.org/en/

Paid:

Affinity Photo (Windows, MacOS, iPadOS) : Serif’s Affinity line of products do a great job of giving a pro toolset without the pro price tag. Their one-time purchase price is super affordable. At first glance it may not have the same feature set as other packages, but on closer inspection it just does it in a different, perhaps even more efficient way. Kinda like if Lightroom and Photoshop had a beautiful baby without all the bloat. Check out their other entires on this list (Windows, Mac, ) https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/ Note: Affinity will often have discounts depending on the season!

ArtStudio Pro (MacOS, iPadOS): Closest thing to Photoshop on iPad I’ve ever seen, even more so than the newer iPad Photoshop app. Has plenty of pro features without feeling overwhelming. http://www.luckyclan.com/apps

Pixelmator (MacOS, iPadOS): a sleek, speedy alternative that focuses on integration into the Apple aesthetic. Great for editing profile pics and video thumbnails.  https://www.pixelmator.com

Procreate (iPadOS): Procreate for me is the definitive illustration app for iPad. It’s simple, intuitive and has the fastest drawing engine in the west. https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id425073498

Vector Illustration:

Free:

Inkscape (Windows, MacOS, Linux): I’ve always see Inkscape as sibling to Gimp, and certainly as the definitive open source replacement of Adobe Illustrator. The basic tools overlap but with some different terminology. You’ll definitely want to check this out if you’s like to make infinitely scalable artwork for logos, illustrations and mathematically perfect artwork. https://inkscape.org

Vectornator (MacOS, iPadOS): as a new comer, it does things a bit differently but has a super user-friendly interface. What it lacks in features it makes up in style. https://vectornator.io

Paid:

Affinity Designer (Windows, MacOS, iPadOS): Designer is unique in that it mixes vector graphics along with pixel brushes. I’ve used Designer for large scale illustrations and it doesn’t break a sweat. I appreciate it’s ability to handle raster effects like drop shadows, glows and blurs without losing performance. Definitely a game changer if you want to say sayonara to Adobe Illustrator and don’t mind the absence of some features. https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/designer/

Print Design/Desktop Publishing:

Free:

Scribus: (Windows, MacOS, Linux) This entry is on the infrequently updated side and I haven’t used it in a while, but it’s worth a look. From it’s site, it’s “a desktop publishing (DTP) application. Scribus is designed for flexible layout and typesetting, and the ability to prepare files for professional quality image setting equipment.” https://www.scribus.net/downloads/unstable-branch/

Paid:

Affinity Publisher (Windows, MacOS): Publisher is the best replacement for InDesign out there in my opinion. Besides being able to import InDesign files via IDML, one of it’s strongest features is StudioLink: an on the fly, in-app switching to Affinity Photo and Designer (if you own them already), bringing to it all the features of the suite. https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/publisher/

Video Editing

Free:

Kdenlive (Windows, MacOS, Linux): Kdenlive is probably the most well-known of the multi-track open source video editors and comes full of features you’d expect from professional software. It’s got a great community and good documentation. It also runs well on aging or low-spec machines. https://kdenlive.org/en/

Shotcut (Windows, MacOS, Linux): Shotcut is an intuitive editor that is frequently updated and feels like iMovie with a Premiere Pro aesthetic. Easy to edit transitions, color grading and above average green screening and compositing effects make it great for someone needing flexibility without the learning curve. https://shotcut.org

Olive (Windows, MacOS, Linux): This one is a newcomer and shows promise. It’s got surprisingly decent text editing features, compositing and animation features. https://www.olivevideoeditor.org

Paid:

Da Vinci Resolve (Windows, MacOS): As non-open source, proprietary software, the free version of this video editor has it all: 8k editing, color correction, visual effects and audio post-production in an easy to use package. While you can purchase the full studio version for a pretty penny, the free version is available with a few limitations. https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/

HitFilm Express (Windows, MacOS): HitFilm Express is a great tool for aspiring filmmakers who need to incorporate solid visual effects. It’s unique in that they offer a free base app and a sliding pay what you want scale, but spending more gets you extra features and you only pay for what you want. https://fxhome.com

BONUS: 3D Modeling/Animation/Creative Production

Blender: (Windows, MacOS, Linux) Blender is the biggest, most well-funded open source project around with a huge community of users. As an entire 3D-production suite, it includes modeling, sculpting, texturing, compositing, physics simulation, 2D animation tools, video editing, a real-time renderer and host of other features aimed at the creation of 3D artwork for motion and still images. It’s got a steep learning curve but plenty to keep happy for the price tag: zero. Download the current stable version at http://www.blender.org For the latest builds, go to https://builder.blender.org

Opentoonz (Windows, MacOS, Linux): Opentoonz is a dream come true for 2D traditional hand-drawn animators. Based on the original “Toonz” software, it’s been tweaked by Studio Ghilbli and was released to the public as open source in 2016. The original OpenToonz is available here:  https://opentoonz.github.io/e/index.html   I recommend the further customized Morevna branch: https://morevnaproject.org/opentoonz/

Pencil 2D (Windows, MacOS, Linux): If you’re interested in traditional 2D animation, Pencil 2D is a lightweight app that’s easy to use. It has basic features like vector tools and sound import, but I like to think of it more like an animation sketch pad than a pro-level production tool. https://www.pencil2d.org

Andrew Carroll is a freelance graphic designer in Allentown PA that focuses on logo and illustration design for ministries and small businesses. When not pushing pixels you can find him volunteering with Simplicity Outreach, an urban community center and hosting the Adventist City Ministries podcast. See his work at 42design.co  Instagram