#an act he puts on at the start of the animatic

[wolfythewitch]

What a freaky little man

[crabsnpersimmons]

This one goes out to all the slow burn enjoyers, the dense Y/Ns, and the soft robo jesters that suffer in silence!

Inspired by @bamsara's “Solar Lunacy” fic.

If you feel like reading my ramblings and want to experience more heartbreak for fictional jester blorbos, check under the cut where I detail all the planning behind the frames!

so i heard this song for the first time in a while and the opening lyrics immediately made me think of moon, so i was daydreaming some scenes and then i decided to thumbnail some ideas:

and it all went downhill from there as everything became a metaphor and a parallel to each other, which i will now go into detail on!

you thought the animatic itself was sad?

*writing muse laughs maniacally* IT'S ALL A METAPHOR

Frame 1. "turn down the lights" We start with a back view on Moon. The lights are out, the Moon is out, but we do not see his face. The music and the greyscale atmosphere are enough to establish the weight of the moment and the weight on Moon’s mind.

Frame 2. "turn down the bed" We cut to a shot of Moon's body, kneeling on the ground of the daycare, like a padded cell. Moon’s hands are twitching with the effects of the glitch, with purple sparks coming from his hands. We still do not see his face.

Frame 3. "turn down these voices inside my head" Cut to an extreme close up on the dark half of Moon’s face. Now we see his face, but only a portion of it. His left eye is wide open, red and glitching out. The voices in his head can refer to the glitch but also his repressed feelings. Or maybe it could be Sun's voice in their shared headspace.

Frame 4. "lay down with me" Y/N's hand enters the frame from the upper right corner, lowering down to meet Moon where he kneels on the ground. Only a corner of Moon's face appears on the bottom left corner of the frame, his starry nightcap beginning to cover his glitched left eye.

Frame 5. "tell me no lies" An full shot of Moon on the floor and Y/N standing in front of him with their hand stretched towards him. A light spills out from behind Y/N, creating a boundary between them.

Now we see more of Moon. It is only when Y/N enters the frame—enters his world—that Moon’s body is shown in its entirely. When Y/N is here, he is no longer fragmented. He is whole.

Frame 6. "just hold me close" pspspspsps Playfully, Moon extends his own hand, beckoning Y/N to come closer, to join him. His right hand crossed over his body as he uses the playful gesture to hide his true feelings—to put distance between him and Y/N. His hat continues to cover his glitching left eye. He doesn’t want to worry Y/N.

Frame 7. "don't patronize" In response, Y/N’s hand pats Moon on the head, returning his playfulness. Moon looks surprised by the action. Moon, notably, does not lower his hand—perhaps he has forgotten it or perhaps his invitation is still open.

Frames 8-9. "don't patronize me" Moon rotates his faceplate so Y/N’s hand is touching the side of his faceplate, a more intimate gesture than a head pat. However, his hat is in the way. At this angle, his starry nightcap fully covers his glitchy eye and the dark side of his face, hiding his defect and acting as a veil between him and Y/N. A self-imposed boundary. So close, yet thinly separated. It's better this way. It's safer this way.

The lyrics are broken up by Y/N's arm, both to illustrate how the song is sung ("patronize" is drawn out and "me" is briefly added in before the chorus starts) but also to show how Y/N interrupts Moon's resolve, highlighting the irony between the visuals and the lyrics. Demanding not to be patronized, yet Moon happily accepts this play at intimacy. Don't patronize me, I am weak for it.

This is also the only instance where the red light of Moon's eyes glow and tint the surfaces around it. Visually, it makes it look like Moon is blushing (heavily inspired by @restinsodaroni's art). But also, in this moment of honesty, Moon's intrinsic light spills out, colouring the greyscale world. In this brief moment of honesty, Moon touches the world with his own colours, his own light.

(and this is also where i forgot to clean up the shading on Y/N's arm, but it's okay it doesn't need to be perfect it simply needs to be. And Moon will still love Y/N even if they are a continuity error.)

Frame 10. "'cause I can't make you love me if you don't" A parallel to a frame 4, Y/N retrieves their hand away and immediately Moon is reduced to the corner of his faceplate in the frame. Only now his glitched eye is fully covered by his hat.

The lyrics here (and in the next frame) in particular grow lighter to emphasize Moon's diminishing resolve and agency.

From here on out, the lyrics here are broken up, carrying on this theme of fragmentation. Y/N is pulling away, Moon is breaking up, the words are breaking up. Everything is coming apart.

Frame 11. "you can't make your heart feel something it won't" Y/N turns to leave. The lyrics, broken up as before, highlight the irony of the situation. Y/N, a human, can’t feel something they simply don’t feel. Whereas, Moon, the machine, feels something his code never intended him to feel.

Frame 12. "here in the dark in these final hours" Another full shot that parallels frame 5, as Y/N steps towards the light and Moon leans forward into the space Y/N once occupied. Y/N is leaving—that which makes him whole is leaving. And he is only capable of making it to the boundary where the light cuts into the darkness. The "final hours" suggest it might be the end of Y/N’s shift, or perhaps this scene takes place right before the glitch takes over—the final hours that Y/N has with the true Moon. Either way, time is running out—and only Moon knows it.

There is a contrasting display of body language here. Moon is on the floor leaning towards Y/N with his hand still left out. Whereas Y/N is turned away, walking away, and has already slipped their hand away and into their pocket. Y/N is closed off while Moon is limply open. Y/N is actively moving while Moon is on the floor, waiting, hoping, for that which he lacks the agency to reach for himself.

Frame 13. "I will lay down my heart" A close up on Moon’s hand, rising up again, perhaps to beckon Y/N back once more. This is a slight parallel to Y/N's hand reaching out to Moon. While Y/N can freely reach out and touch Moon, Moon cannot. He can't enter the light and more importantly he can't risk potentially harming his relationship with Y/N—be it through the glitch or by his feelings. He can only lay down his heart—put aside his feelings or hope that someone will pick up his pieces and make him whole.

Frame 14. "and I'll feel the power" Still on a close up on Moon’s hand, now clenched in slightly. This initially was going to have the glitch effects. However, I felt it more meaningful for it to be left without. Leave it up for interpretation why Moon pauses his hand. What is the power that he alone feels and stays his hand?

Frame 15. "but you won't, no, you won't" A parallel to frame 1, a view of on Moon's back with his hand stretched out towards the light, and Y/N walking into the light spilling through the open daycare door.

The placement of the lyrics suggest two different “you won’t”—Y/N who won’t realize Moon’s feelings, and Moon who won’t dare speak them into reality.

Another note on the parallel to frame 1, this time we also see Y/N's back, but it is notably different from our view of Moon's back. With Moon, we literally see inside him through the hole for his loop. However, Y/N is shrouded in shadow, just a solid, obscure silhouette against the bright light of a world Moon—and Sun for that matter—are closed off from. We don’t see into Y/N, just as the Daycare Attendant doesn't have any vantage point of Y/N's life beyond their time at the PizzaPlex. (The unfortunate reality of a being a character made for the purpose of being a vessel for the reader.)

Frame 16. "'cause I can't make you love me" We finally cut to face Moon head-on, frozen in place with his hand stretched out, unable to cross the boundary into the light. His eyes have gone dark. Where we began by seeing bits and parts of Moon, and never seeing his full face—now we, the viewer, see the full Moon, open and vulnerable—unbeknownst to Y/N.

Frame 17. "if you don't" But in the dark, behind closed doors, there is no one to perceive him—no one to receive him. The light dwindles as the daycare doors are closed. Moon stays frozen where he kneels. It is no longer the glitch that plagues him, but a far deeper dread.

But a lone streak of light peaks through the gap in the daycare doors. Perhaps that is just enough. A silver lining. A frail hope. A single, ethereal thread out of darkness and into light.

Thanks for reading and watching!

We'll be back to our regularly scheduled fun and games shortly!

[chatlote]

Very Evil Stafford Gambit ❗

(Symbolism breakdown undercut)

(Watching the original video of the song will probably help so I recommend looking it up on youtube shorts!)

The Stafford Gambit starts with the Petrov's Defence, which has both players repeating each others moves, this represents the fact that Akechi and Joker are two sides of the same coin, equally matched.

White is Akechi. Black is Joker

But as the game unfolds, white makes mistakes by being greedy or acting without thinking. This is a game where black uses aggressive play against white.

So as Akechi starts slipping, that's when the PT prevails, even if there are certain victories Joker gets from Akechi that don't feel good. (Engine Room Sacrifice)

The game is set when Akechi comes back to life.

But the Stafford Gambit is about sacrifice. To achieve victory, Black must put the Knight at risk (the PT) and allow his Queen (Akechi) to die. In the end, they both thought that they were playing the same gambit and would win because Akechi too has made plenty of sacrifices himself, but he messed up.

But it all comes down to the line of 'Take the Queen' by white, the one who has to be greedy and make the move that dooms himself is Akechi. Taking the queen will be his loss, by 2/2 he already knows there's no winning-so he is encouraging Joker to finish the game and win like he is meant to. White takes Queen, as self-sabotage. Giving up on the game.

The thing is that Akechi is wrong about one thing. He is not helping Joker win against Maruki by doing this, the game of chess is between the two of them from the start. And Joker does win, but his win is against Akechi by proving to Akechi that he survived on the last three shots. From belief alone.

Joker wins the Stafford Gambit. He sacrificed, Akechi took bait, Joker uses his two weapons, metaverse and being a hopeful fool, so they get their happy ending.

(Hope this made sense AND hope you enjoyed the animatic <3)

[kingsonne-zedecks]

It's Here!

Cradle Animation Trailer

The trailer for the upcoming animation of the bestselling novel series Cradle, by Will Wight, produced by Jay Oliva at Lex + Otis Animation Studio has been released at last!

Cradle

Cradle is an amazing fantasy series by author Will Wight that reached its conclusion with the publishing of Book 12: Waybound, in 2023. Cradle is a western interpretation of the Xianxia genre, which can be described as "Magical Martial Arts."

As shown in the trailer, Cradle follows the journey of Wei Shi Lindon as he starts a journey of growth rather than remaining the weak Unsouled that his Clan has labeled him.

Fans of Naruto, Demon Slayer, Dragon Ball, Avatar the Last Airbender and more will all find elements from the stories they love in Cradle.

Lex + Otis Animation Studio

Cradle is being animated by Jay Oliva and his studio, Lex and Otis. If you don't recognize the name, you'll probably recognize some of his past work, particularly his work with DC Animations in general and Batman in specific.

His studio is equally impressive, and released a bit of a showcase of some of their more recent work that you can see here (in addition to the Cradle teaser, you did already watch that a couple of times right?)

The Cradle animation is a passion project for Jay, who loved the books so much that he reached out to Will to make sure that he had the chance to see them brought to the screen.

The Cast

The upcoming animation already has a fantastic cast announced, with more to come. The following have already been confirmed for the project.

Travis Baldree

Phil Lamarr

Steve Blum

Matt Mercer

Morla Gorrondona

Baraka May

Sumalee Montano

Maxine Phoenix

Matt Yang King

Where/When/How Can I Watch?

Will and Jay have really put the Tease in Teaser, as we'll have to live off of replaying the trailer and reading the books for the time being. But more is to come, and announcements will continue to be made as the project continues.

For those who have not been involved in the project yet, a brief explanation to get up to speed.

When Jay reached out to Will about the possibility of animating Cradle, Will decided to personally fund this trailer that they could then take to Netflix and Amazon and the likes to pitch the show. Then, together, they asked how much further they might be able to go, and so they reached out to the fans with a Kickstarter that ended up raising 1.25 million dollars.

Animation is expensive, especially when you choose to only work with studios that treat their employees well, so Will and Jay had to be smart with the money. The upcoming animation will be released to the fans as a thank you for our support in making this a reality, but it's real strength will be in supporting Will and Jay's original plan.

The 80-90 minute animatic that has been funded will be complete in mid to late 2025. With that, the teaser trailer, and the fans reactions in hand, Will and Jay will be able to approach platforms such as Netflix, Amazon, and Apple to pitch a full Cradle Animation.

Animatic?

Yes, Animatic. While the trailer is fully colored and animated, the final result of the kickstarted animation will not be. Here is a sample of the style of animation we will be getting next year

This particular animatic is taken from the website of Tiger Animation, which is the South Korean studio that Lex + Otis partnered with for the Cradle Teaser and many of their other projects.

The animatic we get will be fully voice acted and scored, and the only step remaining to turn it into full animation is the funding required to send it off to Tiger Animation. Tiger Animation has an amazing portfolio as well, including Avatar the Last Airbender, Castlevania, and a large number of both Marvel and DC Animations.

Animation Structure

The 80-90 minute animatic will be released as a standalone product and will cover the contents of the first two books of the Cradle Series, Unsouled and Soulsmith regardless of any potential contracts with distribution platforms like Netflix or Amazon.

If/When a platform picks up Cradle and decides to fund the full animation, the show will follow a fairly standard 22 minute episode format. As such the animatic will also serve as the first four episodes of season 1 of the show.

This was a creative decision made by Will and Jay as part of the adaptation process. A number of the fan-favorite characters are introduced in books two and three, and its fairly unanimous that any fan that wasn't hooked immediately, was hooked by the third book, Blackflame.

That is to say, that, while the first two books will only receive two episodes each, this will not be the pace the rest of the show follows. The total number of episodes per season is dependent on funding, but the goal is currently to take 4 season to tell the story of Cradle.

So What Now?

Well. Now we wait. But in the meantime, share the information about Cradle, watch the trailer, show it to your friends and family, read the books if you haven't already, check out the wonderful audiobooks narrated by Travis Baldree if you prefer listening, join us on reddit and discord to talk about things.

In addition to just exposing more people to a wonderful story, each bit of interaction with Cradle is another piece of evidence to show the streaming platforms and prove that a Cradle animation is worth the investment.

[the-burd-lord]

Heavily inspired by @deafenedsaltwater 's concepts. Idk what was in that post, but it sparked me to make a whole heap of sketches and ideas. Dunno how far I'm gonna roll with this concept, but for now it's rollin kinda far.

Loads of info below:

Four is the math teacher with X as his TA. Four's one of those teachers that really knows the material, but because they know it so well he thinks it should be easy for anyone to get. So they're kinda harsh with the students if they get something wrong.

Whereas X gives more positive reinforcements for students, and isn't as harsh with them. X doesn't know as much of the material, and probably looks to the teacher's textbook if they're lost. One of those teachers who kinda learns with the class.

Airy is the school's nurse and teaches the Home E.C. class, and he's awful at both jobs. When he's not starting fires or teaching the course like it's some kind of wilderness survival camp, he's mainly works as the nurse.

As a nurse, he misdiagnoses things constantly if it's not an obvious injury, and uses a bunch of herbal remedies for the few things he does know how to help with. Mainly scrapes and stomach aches.

Two often times subs in for him when Airy has to take care of a sick student, who often times will fake being sick so they can get Two to teach the class.

MePhone teaches coding and AutoCAD as an extra circular, and probably typing for lower grades. I keep slappin' a bunch of classes onto 'im cause I remember taking so many throughout high and middle school.

He doesn't enjoy teaching coding or typing since he doesn't see them as creative as making actual models for things in AutoCAD, even though the other two can be used creatively. MePad's kinda left to teach those classes despite being a TA.

Also it's a very hands off class where he gives them the basics of how to use the program, and the rest of the class is leaving the students to make whatever thing fits the assignment.

He's the kind of teacher who's real in tune with internet culture and reality tv so he uses a bunch of modern slang phrases or casually gives hot takes on shows if he overhears the students talking about them. Everyone thinks it's cause he wants to be "hip with the kids" when in reality he just has brain rot.

Clock's the history teacher. He discusses each history point with the same tone and enthusiasm, and remembers the years and eras with pinpoint accuracy. Kinda put too much emphasis on the dates, and how long events lasted, over the content of those events.

He's the teacher you can get to go on a long side tangent about something unrelated to the material, but they'd always find a way to bring it back to history.

Idk I also think it'd also be funny if he co-taught an economics class with Four (thinking there'd be a lot of math involved) when it's really more so about theories.

Out of all the teachers, Four and Clock are the most knowledgeable and could probably teach college level courses if they wanted to.

Animatic is the PE teacher with too much energy and gives the harshest workouts but thinks they're easy. Mainly cause he does them alongside the students and always has energy after to run laps around the school. Two would have probably told them to tone it down.

Speaking of-

Two is the health counselor and sub for Home Econ., but also has a bunch of unofficial jobs. They're the unofficial vice principal mainly cause the rest of the speaker boxes are kinda incompetent at their job, and they have to mediate not only students but teachers too (mainly Four and Animatic). As well as sub in for Airy, or even act as a supervisor, when need be.

Some other ones I haven't drawn yet are Daddy Long Legs as the music teacher, Popcorn as the theater teacher, and Hourglass as the English/Literature teacher.

The speaker boxes are the principle/VP/admin. They all kinda interchange with each other, considering how similar they all are also cause they switch out a lot in the original show.

Dunno who the science or art teacher would be, cause I'm mainly going after object shows I've seen. Honestly I may just swap some roles around.

Mainly doing this as a thing for funsies, but boy howdy is it a rapidly rolling snowball.

[betweenlands]

okay, folks! we're home, let's talk about sbk!fool. specifically, the fact that something weird is going on with him. fair warning: this is gonna get long. also there's spoilers.

Fool is kind of a... side character in SBK. he's not directly opposed to OSSHA, but he's not exactly allied with them either. his island partner is Milkman and he's the other Birch Box guy, but he's good friends with Vintage. a lot of what he's done has been attributed to other people.

also, he might just be a huge threat, especially to whatever Olm is doing.

let's back up a little to the part of Avid's ep11 with Fool in it. here's a timestamp.

there's silly music. Kittrix is doing her "i am but a fence" bit. we hard cut to Avid saying "we're gonna need to have the law removed from this situation" and there is no background music. we go further into the scene, Vintage turns to Kittrix as Fool & the Jungle folks are walking off and says "remember that service i told you to sign up for earlier?", and we start getting an ominous synth drone that remains throughout the entire scene. Fool's whole prank slash hitman service is apparently deadly serious business.

this is... really weird. i was there for the Fool stream where this was recorded, and tonally while Fool was definitely being a little bit of a ham, he's also genuinely just like that and was being pretty lighthearted at the time. this scene? this scene is edited in a way that makes Fool seem really ominous, on-par with Avid in the scene an episode earlier where he kidnaps Ruby, and...

speaking of Ruby. their OSSHA clone does not like Fool. here's another timestamp from Leon's ep5, but what's important to know about this scene is stream context again in the opposite direction.

OSSHA Ruby, aka Cloneby and hereby called Tuby because i think it's funny, spent the entirety of their time online during Fool's stream basically stream-sniping him. Fool is not lying when he says they threatened him (even though i kind of had to point that out because it was a little subtle). not only did they show up in-person at Birch to act ominous, they also /msg'd Fool some threatening stuff and kept streamsniping him whenever he tried to go over to Cherry Kingdom and warn Vintage about how weird Ruby was being. this is what led to Tuby showing up at End Kingdom after Fool talked to Leon; Ruby-as-in-the-actual-player was straight up watching stream to know when he left and where he was going.

Tuby has beef with Fool... which is pretty weird considering OSSHA kind of struck a bargain with Birch early on where they could put up "under construction" signs and OSSHA would leave them alone.

okay. so Tuby doesn't like Fool and Avid thinks he's threatening. pretty lowkey so far. for this next part, we've gotta jump around in time, and you've gotta trust me a little -- Fool doesn't upload his VODs anywhere so the only proof i have of these is "i was there at the time."

anyway: this is Fool in the Limbo animatic. notably, this is from the sequence where Olm tells Avid to stop people from falling into the Void.

Fool has different skins for different servers he's on. Skyblock Kingdoms Fool is gold. Fool's PNGtuber is purple, but purple Fool also has a server he's associated with. to be absolutely clear, i am going to make a leap in logic here, bear with me, but this is not SBK Fool. because purple Fool is from Avid Adventures.

deep breath in, deep breath out. here's where stuff gets very "source dude trust me" other than the screencaps i have, so i'm gonna start with the absolute confirmable basics. Olm is the antagonist of Avid Adventures, the command block based adventure map that Avid makes. they are also the antagonist of Avid Adventures, the series about Avid making that map -- they're possessing Avid in that series, in fact, generally being quite ominous about it. i have an entire essay about that but we don't have time for it right now.

Fool, while playing on Avid Adventures, initially only did Dark Path. these VODs are well and truly lost to time, but initially he was doing the Shrouded Isles fully evil, committed to helping Olm largely for funsies. Avid even logged in as Olm to be ominous at him a couple times! in general it seemed like Olm and Fool were kind of wary of each other, but mostly chill -- Fool has a main god he swears allegiance to that isn't Olm, but he's still helping the guy, so there shouldn't really be much of a big issue?

anyway, turns out Olm is really petty. they left him a mean breakup note and everything! (sidenote: Atium's name is entirely my fault. as far as Fool is aware and as far as Fool's lore is concerned, they are a deity of luck, coffee, precious gems, and some other things all totally unrelated to any novels by a certain brando sando.)

anyway then Fool's base gets exploded to bedrock and he respawns in a white void room.

this actually coincided with Avid removing a lot of the shop builds at the original spawn, by the way! lore going forward implies that Olm, either using Avid as a conduit or just in general, straight up thanos style snapped everyone who used to be on Avid Adventures out of existence. one would assume this means this was also Olm trying to delete any trace of Fool.

you may notice that i said that purple Fool is Avid Adventures Fool, not was. this is because Fool does not stay dead -- he respawns! on his boat build next to his exploded base! with every single inventory of every single chest wiped! Olm really did not want him to survive. he and Atium, however, chose life. Atium leaves him a book as well:

Atium's typing style is kind of just straight up delightful, i'm not going to lie. their "blessing" took the form of a Fortune 6 pickaxe titled Atium's Prosperity in rainbow lettering with flavor text reading "A chance at a new life", by the way.

but yeah, uh, Fool and Atium (who is also Fool, it's complicated) just kind of looked Olm in the eye and went "nuh uh," which is insane because this is Olm we're talking about, the dark god most commonly known for destroying an entire civilization in a single night and also constantly telling lies to Nightmares/SBK Avid for funsies. Olm legitimately has straight up destroyed and killed and maybe even eaten other gods before. we have confirmation from Avid that they consumed an entire pocket dimension somehow and that's what led to the creation of Limbo.

and again, purple Fool just kind of said "nuh uh" to all that with the help of his deity, who is also him.

considering it's like 95% certain Olm is in charge of OSSHA at this point, and it's heavily implied that the clones are part of their orders for Avid, there's... a pretty good chance Olm knows Fool isn't exactly someone to take lightly, and that could explain why Tuby is so hostile towards him and Avid is so nervous around him.

then again, maybe it's just because Fool is fun to mess with and good at playing the prankster hitman. who knows?

Atium, probably.

[madrone33]

THE WISDOM SAGA IS OUT AHHHH

It was SO much better than I anticipated. Like, I knew it'd be amazing to listen to - 'cause practically all of Jorge's stuff is - but I was less attached to Telemachus as a character than Ody, so while I was settled in for a fun time I wasn't as invested as I had been for the previous sagas.

Little. Did. I. Know.

HOW DO THE SAGAS JUST KEEP BEING SO GOOD LIKE WHAT JORGE DO YOU SLEEP

Anyway, now that it's officially out for everyone, here's 1000+ words worth of excited screeching/rambling/word vomit from my immediate reaction to the audio, when it released at midnight for me! (I'm australian, so I got it 15 hours ahead of the americans lol, but also means I hadn't seen the animatics from the Live at this point)

Also, heads up there's a lot of swearing and I wasn't very coherent, 'cause my brain-to-type filter was non-existent at midnight while in the middle of a HYPE adrenaline rush lol

I feel so awake rn, even though it's midnight lol.

Started smiling as soon as I heard him. He sounds so GOOD!! MICO you're knocking it out of the park!

"Come and give me a sign!" Ayyy the Athena motif!!

Ooh they merged MICO's audition way of saying "if you're dead... or just tooo far"!

"Can I do whatever I takes to keep my mum safe?" aww don't worry bebe Athena's coming!

"Where is the man who'll have to wife?" ooh they really did use the Man of the House lines!

And they dropped that it's been 20 years! That's good, a proper timeline needed to be established at this point or newcomers might get confused.

ohhh shit! That growled "Boy!"

(Also, edit from after I watched the Livestream: HE DID NOT JUST THROW A BOWL AT MY BOY OH HELL NO-)

"Why don't you open her room so we can" oh FUCK OFF ANTINOUS!

oh the LINE! The CHAMP line!

"If I fight this monster" THS MONSTER! It changed from those monsters to this monster, because while he might be having fun thinking of conquering distant monsters out in the world, the real monster is living in his home and he needs his father's strength more than ever and AHHH

(Another edit from post Live: he decided to fight for his mum's honour and thought he'd get a beatdown or DIE in the attempt and STILL put his fists up oh my goddd!! And also, HIM STEPPING INTO THE SPIRIT OF HIS FATHER AHHH)

Ok I hate Antinous already. Like, I really love his voice, it's perfect, Ayron did amazing, but Antinous? What the FUCK! FUCK HIM! And I decided I love Telemachus. He sounds so helpless in that last line 🥺 ATHENA STEP IN!

Listening to Little Wolf now! Oh god I'm scared for Tele

(Edit post Live: YOOO IT'S FULL ON STREET FIGHTER STYLE!)

"Wanna entertain me?" oh EW Antinous!

I just have a permanent stink face on rn lol

"Wanna entertain me?" Still ew, but also aww he didn't do the growl like in the demo

Clock sound effect! ATHENA!!!

she's giving TE/MO type vocal vibes, more than Act 1 Athena lol

"What's going on here??" lmao he's confused about Quick-Thought, like ody wasn't

"Uppercut him. Now." AYYYY FIGHT ADVICE

she's doing the verse melody but for him!

wait what'd she say? "I've no respect for bullies! Those who [something something] will!"

SHE CALLED HIM A DOG HA! What's a dog to a wolf hey antinous >:)

"One young wolf has a larger heart than all these men combined!" awww Athena <3

YES!! SHE'S SINGING THE CHORUS BUT IN HIS FAVOUR!!

the HARMONIES!!

"Oooh, maybe I pushed you a bit too hard..." lol she's too used to ody who is used to her

oh FUCK OFF antinous!

"Tell me, Athena, why you came to my aid..." wait WAIT HE SUNG THE "what keeps you up so late at night myyy friend?" MELODY??? HOLY SHIT!!

Ok that was awesome. We'll Be Fine time!

SHE CALLED ODY HER FRIEND!!

OMG SHE'S DOING THE "MIIIND" RIFF!!

awww she regrets <3

NO THE "SLEEP AT NIGHT" CALLING BACK TO ALL THOSE TIME ODY COULDN'T SLEEP FROM REGRET

omg but her HIGH notes

ooh? 👀 The line changed from "sailed to an island" to "and I didn't die?? What does this mean for HTD's "I heard he's on a diplomatic mission" line?

oh now HIS high notes!!

THEIR HARMONIES!!

awww their motifs mixing! <3 <3

(Edit post Live: lmao him trying to lean on her shoulder and accidentally falling through her instead XD)

Well that was nice! Time for LIP... What am I in for bro

AHA I was RIGHT! The music from the cover art reveal IS here at the start of this song!

OH HOLY HSIT NOT HIS "REMEMBER ME" OMG WAIT GO BACK

The "ohhhh" motif from Remember Them!

TIME DIVE! WITH LYRICS!

oh yo! THESE scenes! We called the Sirens, Scylla, and Thunder Bringer on the discord, but the lines that are being used are INTERESTING

(Edit post Live: the animatics are going CRAZY this saga!)

calypso time...

Ooh calypso's voice is much gentler than the snippets! (I'm determined to not let my bias against her character in the Odyssey colour how I feel about her performance, because Wangui is a lovely person, and her voice is beautiful.)

lmao the awkwardly long pause and then "... ANWAYS!" is always funny XD

the electronic elements when she reveals what she is!

"Time can take a heavy toll." uh oh what's that mean

Damn not the "all I hear are screams"-

...

... holy fuck. Um. My jaw literally dropped what. What. Ok first, her "ody" fuck that. Second, the LEDGE?? Um. UM. I need to rewind please

Oh shit

Oh my goddd JUST LET HIM GO

NOT THE OPEN ARMS NO WHAT THE FUCK NOT POLITES OMG EURYLOCHUS OH FUCK ANTICLEA TOO OH SHIT

no him calling for athena! 😭

the slow clock omgggg

YES GO HELP HIM HE NEEDS HELP

... wait I need to rewind wait shit I'm shaking

ok. Pause. That was.

I guess I called correctly, but it turned out to be a BIT of an understatement when I said there'd be an UNEXPRECTED EMOTIONAL MOMENT! What the FUCK. Oh god that was incredible and I teared up and ah fuck wtf fuck who gave him the RIGHT

TIme for God Games. Shit. Am I ready for Beast Mode Zeus??? No. But I'm doing it anyway! :D

ok that was beautiful. Also her calling him "father" was unexpected but welcome

"... Odysseus." commander motif!!

god I love his voice but I hate him

ok I love how he says "AphroDITE!" I'm smiling, I'm getting into this

also, wait why does he say "or" instead of "and" like the snippets did?

The voice teasers! Ah shit I can't believe I'm going to HEAR THEIR VERSES IN A FEW SECONDS WHAT. Also Hera's voice is VERY interesting!

Apollo? YO?? Wait wait I have to go back and actually listen to the words lmao his voice is cool!

oh the sirens??

Huh. I... don't really get that logic? Athena just said "yeah but they had it coming and now they'll know better" and he replied "understandable have a nice day"?

wow what is that accent? Lemme go back and understand lol

damn those went by quick. Also, not what I'd thought their issues would be. Tho I think someone called the sirens one!

ooh wait I've always loved aphrodite's, this is BEAUTIFUL. I need to go back to the start of the song so I can get her full impact after pausing so much.

ohhh she's the first one to reject athena!

Ares!!

"HOLD YOUR TONGUE NOW! HIS SON'S MY FRIEND!"oop you done fucked up ares

oh I LIKE hera's voice! It's kinda airy but still hella powerful!

damn my jaw hurts from smiling

I hear cheering 👀

ohhh THAT'S what he meant by "or"! Athena was supposed to face either the five gods or Zeus?

"You DARE to defy me!" DAMN Zeus! That growl!

THUNDER BRINGER CHORUS!

lightning bolt to the face lmao

oh? The Wotm motif?

wait. Is the. Is this the "anime character on brink of death thinks of their friends and powers up" moment???

(Edit post Live: shit, zeus. Someone call CPS)

"Let him go..." oh wait that's IT?? NO WHAT SHIT

... lemme hear that end bit again.

WAIT reading through the comments and JORGE'S DAD VOICES HEPHAESTUS?? HOLY SHIT THAT'S EPIC! Now we just need his sister lol.

Oh that's right, I can see the cast now! Brandon McInnis as Apollo, POSEY as Hera, and Mike Rivera as Hephaestus. Nice.

It's 1 am now. Holy shit that was a wild ride. Damn. Hats off to Jorge and all the cast and editors and EVERYONE, that was absolutely incredible!! 💙🙌🏼🎉

... but also JORGE! WHEN I CATCH YOU JORGE-

[tunguszka20]

infodump about Epic please- I know nothing about it but it sounds awesome and where do I watch it? :)

Okay okay okay. Let me get my thoughts together.

So let's start from the begging. There's this amazing man called Jorge Rivera-Herrans (Jay), who started making a musical adaptation of the Odyssey by Homer because. He can. He's super enthusiastic about the project, if you look up his videos on yt, his enthusiasm and energy is basically contagious. He's also super funny.

So the tricky things about EPIC is that. It's not done yet. So you can't watch it (well you... Can in some way but not like you can watch Hamilton or any other normal musical). Jay puts puts new "chapters" of the story whenever he has one ready (they're called Sagas. There's 9 sagas in the whole musical, 6 of them are out. These are The Troy Saga, The Cyclops Saga, The Ocean Saga, The Circe Saga, The Underworld Saga and The Thunder Saga). 5 Sagas are in Act 1 and 4 in Act 2. Both acts have 20 songs, so a total of 40 songs.

When a new Saga comes out, there's usually a watch party (it's also streamed on YouTube), where Jay streams the songs with the lyrics, and with some scenes they recorded/animatics.

The Thunder Saga came out today, but this time Jay didn't only stream the current saga, but the whole thing (My friend @randomfangirl32 recorded it, if she'll let me, I can send you the links so you can watch the whole thing we have so far, if you want). It was because they had to re-record the first two sagas due to... Financial stuff, idk how to explain it, Jay has a video about it.

And also. The actors. The actors are SO perfect. My favorite ones are Talya Sindel (as Circe), Teagan Earley (hope I spelled her name right, and she's playing Athena), Steven Rodriguez (as Poseidon), Luke Holt (as Zeus), Anna Lea (as Penelope), but seriously, everyone else is awesome too 🥹

And then. You'll get my favorite songs. Because I can't just choose one.

From released songs:

Full Speed Ahead (it's pretty underrated imo)

Warrior of the Mind

My Goodbye

Keep Your Friends Close

Ruthlessness

Puppeteer

Wouldn't You Like (HERMES 😭😭)

No Longer you

Suffering

Different Beast

Thunder Bringer

(but like. I love every song so muchh)

Not released (there are snippets in yt):

Little Wolf

Legendary

God Games

Dangerous

Charybdis

The Challenge

Hold Them Down

King

Gracie. Thank you for this question. From the bottom of my heart. This is literally a once-in-a-lifetime question, and. I'm so happy 🥹

Anyway if you still have questions I'll. Gladly elaborate.

[kadextra]

so on a whim I started reading omniscient reader’s viewpoint manhwa

..and got hooked on the story so hard that I easily blasted through all available eps in less than a week. istg they put dr*gs in this thing it’s so good???? 😭

[SPOILER WARNING! big ramble ahead. if you’ve never read it, leave this post. consider checking it out you won’t be able to put it down]

lets get this out of the way first.

RAHHHHHH KIM DOKJA….. KIM DOKJA I LOVE YOU

GUYSSSSS 🥺 LISTEN. HE’S SUCH A GOOD PROTAGONIST. MY TRAUMA BOY. MY DUDE WITH THE POWER TO INFODUMP PEOPLE TO DEATH. YOU SELF-SACRIFICING IDIOT. his cunning intelligence makes him super attractive what can I say, I LOVE smart mcs with ambiguous morality and self sacrificial nature

here’s a big ✨shut your mouth✨ to every character who’s said he’s ugly- get your eyes checked, get a job get away from him (I know it’s because of the fourth wall’s filter it’s not their fault I’m just being silly)

the fourth wall is such a cool power to have. the complexity of how it acts based on his perception of fiction vs reality as the reader …. that’s very interesting and well thought out!!! how it lowkey has a consciousness too and it’s so tied into his mental state makes me want to psychoanalyze this guy even more. probably one of the most unique powers I’ve seen created and explored in a story tbh

I think the entire system of how the world works is really well done in general. constellations watching the apocalyptic bloodbath via livestream and sending donos to their favorite little guys shouldn’t work as well as it does and cracks me up so much 😭 (uriel is the best). I enjoy learning about all the irl different fables, history & mythologies too. plus doing my own research is fun! I did a deep dive through the web to learn about dokkaebi folklore lol I’m having a good time

I also related hard to how dokja read TWSA throughout his life, the story was a companion for him. got choked up bc I reflected on how much my own favorite companion stories for years mean to me. there’s been situations I’ve thought “what would (character) do?” dokja saying stuff like “what would joonghyuk do?” felt like I got called out <3 I’d probably be the same as him if my favorite characters suddenly came to life

anyways yeah I caught up with the manhwa looked online and discovered it comes from an already completed novel with over 500 chapters and the manhwa is barely a third into adapting it though it’s been releasing every week for 4 years. and that it’ll take like 10 more years to finish. I then planted my face in my hands and screamed with despair

I’ll shrivel up waiting to see what happens……………heyyy woahhhh.. whats this light of salvation ? the novel file just completed download on my phone ? that’s crazyy wow I opened it ? im scrolling it right now ? omg I’m telling myself in the mirror “pace yourself, try to space your reading out do NOT read too fast” ?

jokes aside im excited, first I’ll take some time to read back through the earlier chapters for extra context of scenes! >:D after I finish doing that…. pls pray for my self-control to try stretching this for as long as possible. I’m pumped to see what happens next with this demon king part so maybe I’ll read along with the manhwa unless I get too impatient heh

to conclude- I had no idea the fandom of orv was so passionate. while closing my eyes to spoilers, I was looking at beautiful fanart and animatics (watched this one and ascended that’s one of my fav rin songs). I can tell how much you guys love the story, there’s always going to be people like me who get interested so keep it up :D if the fandom does end up reading this, ummm *knocks on the door* hi im new

I will likely talk about it more in the future!! tagging under “#kade reads orv” ! might draw fanart on my art blog too bc brainworms <3 happy reading everyone

[raposabranca]

Okay, I'm going to talk about this on my main art account because I haven't seen this being addressed yet (there are obviously other pressing matters) but I believe it deserves to be acknowledged both by art appreciators and artists alike:

ANIMATIC ISN'T WHAT YOU MAY THINK IT IS. "Fan animation" IS NOT called "Animatic".

This is not me being a snob, it's what the words were created for, and using them wrong may be misleading at best and upsetting/unrealistic at worst. Allow me to explain in as much detail as I can right now, so watch out for a long post:

ANIMATION, ANIMATIC, AND WHY IT MATTERS: THE LONG POST

First of all, remember that every animation is a film or video. Even if it's an animation that is composed by mostly static images and it may few weird to call it "animation", it's still a realized video or film (or MV - music video -, student film, etc)

Very roughly put and with many caveats as every studio/person is different, once the pre-production stage of an animation moves into production the process goes like this:

STORYBOARD: A storyboard is a graphic portrayal of a narrative, concept, or script, divided into sequential scenes (panels). Usually, it is done based on a written or roughly drawn script, and it serves to translate the story visually so placement, movement, timing, and camera angles are better understood or articulated. It's often done even for live-action movies.

They can be as detailed or as general, as clean and shaded or as scribbly as they can. Their point is being a visual sequential reference to the script.

Examples (more here):

Batman: The Animated Series opening

This Batman storyboard puts a lot of effort in making the images very clean and readable and in high contrast, which is useful in a noir series.

Super Mario Odyssey cinematic sequence

Mario is a lively series where depth, character silhouette, and fluidity are favored, so it's okay if the storyboard is scribbled if it's coherent to the movement and characters.

ANIMATIC: An animatic is a string of storyboard images edited together with sound to illustrate how a sequence will flow in motion. (...) [It] is basically an animated storyboard. The same images you’ve already created as a storyboard are now put into a video and can include dialogue, sound effects, and music. 

TL;DR it's a storyboard, that is, those static panels that can be as detailed or as rough as they must, put into motion and with added sound.

Animatics are useful to keep track of timing, placement, acting, etc, which you can't do very well with static images. They may contain placeholder images, stock photos, live-action acting frames, and even fully animated sequences that were previously done - whatever it's needed to help. Technically, some are animation. But they are, by definition, unfinished animation.

Examples:

Coco - "Un Poco Loco" finished animation vs animatic:

This is Pixar here and the animatic is scribbles. There is fluid, expressive animation there in order to communicate the livelihood of the sequence, but no more.

This wonderful thing:

Dan Harmon recorded a real court order discussion and drew the animatic on top of it, but he didn't intend to do a finished animation from this. Therefore, those are cleaned-up simple static drawings that still convey the absurdity of the video so it can be presented to the audience, like a sketch.

Mari Flexion's "Epiphany" , from the eponymous "fluff" extra from The Magnus Archives:

Like Harmon, Flexion never intended to fully animate this piece, but unlike Harmon - whose style is simpler and more cartoony - Flexion did this with time and in an elaborated style. There are moving parts and even simple animations in there, shadows and fully conveyed details like clothes and freckles. However, by the nature of being a sketch of an animation, it's an animatic.

ANIMATION: Once you have the storyboard and (if necessary) the animatic fully realized, the "animation" stage can start - this is the refining and production of what will become the final film. This stage is composed of many other stages that characterize how close to the final product something is. Stages will vary depending on the type of film you're doing, but Ill use some of my work to show some of the most common ones in 2D animation. (you'll notice that the timing changes from one place to another; that's because I'm only one person doing that on my pace and not a studio, and also I'm a gremlin)

Rough animation: The closest to animatic; some animatic can be considered rough animations:

Cleaned-up: Rough animation that has the final lineart/style that will be used in the end (sometimes static elements are already finished; animation can be weird)

Flat colors (or flats): Where the colors without effects/shadows/lights are added.

Final: With everything else (and here, because it's a video, it contains the music I timed everything on)

Originally posted here (final video) and here (work in progress gifs)

AND THEREIN THE ISSUES BEGIN

I've been observing in the last years that a lot of people are calling near-finalized, very-into-production animations "animatics". Not only fans are saying that, but sometimes artists themselves seem to consider stuff such as the following as animatics:

Shandzii's "It's tough to be a god" (original characters)

It could be argued this is a very elaborated animatic, but the amount of finished animation, detail and cleanness would put it at rough/almost clean-up animation.

@twinkle-art 's and @worldformula `s "The Magnus Archives - villain(빌런)"

This is a finished video, despite the lack of "animation" mostly.

SprectroliteAAA's "Death by Glamour - Mettaton vs. Frisk Fight"

This one has been bothering me for years now - it's a fantastic, almost fully realized rendition of this sequence, it's called "rough animation" in the opening, but it's called "animatic" on the title hhh

"But Branca," I can almost hear you say, "why does it matter?"

Well... it's not something that is urgent, or pressing, like I said before. AI- generated stuff and N/F/T/s are actual problems, but that's beside the point. Still, it's a trend that is becoming stronger, and the immediate issues I see are:

For artists: you'll look like a fool: No one is born knowing stuff, but that's inadequate vocabulary in artistic circles - especially in animation ones. If you call an animation "animatic" because it's digital, fanart, or a music video, it may sit wrong with people in the industry. You want to know which words mean what.

For art appreciators: it may sound derogatory: If someone posts their finalized film and you call it an animatic, it may rub the artist the wrong way. What if you wrote a whole fiction book and someone called it "your notes"? It's finalized work - call it for what it is.

For people who make/hire artwork: "But that's not what I/you asked for": The idea that animatics are "supposed" to get to more and more polished levels cause potential conflict between art professionals and costumers. The terms are laid out for clarity, and if "animatic" has a double meaning, people can be upset for getting "less" of what they wanted to get. Worse, calling animation/film "animatic" creates unrealistic market expectations. "Well X artist did that kind of animatic, can't you do that?" is a very hard situation to be in, as an artist. We may sell our work for crumbs just so we get the job, being exploited to do work we're not really supposed to due to a fiction.

For everyone: it can generate confusion and conflict: "Animatic" a term from the film industry. Some terms from some places may be redefined into something better or more appropriate, but this one creates miscommunication for the reasons mentioned about. Worse, it can create miscommunication between groups of people, particularly in fandom. Knowing the right words is the most conducive course of action.

Anyway, I hope this long ramble helped! Go spread the love for animatics and animations and videos all around!

[give-grian-rights]

btw im still SO FUCKING PISSED about how the dream smp ended it. if you were a summer-fall of 2020 dream smp fan. fucking. watch the last tommyinnit vod because it is BULLSHIT

i am watching fan animatics and shit right now and just. i think if you fucking grabbed ten randos who have wrote atleast one thousand words of fanfiction in their entire life, they could've put together a better ending

you're telling me this entire time Dream was a fucking. PHILOSOPHER? who was doing alllll of this in the name of SCIENCE? because people he DECIDED were disruptive and useless and were gonna kill anyway, fucked off and said "lol leave us alone!! we sell drugs to eachother now", THAT SOME HOW CAME IN THE WAY OF YOUR DEATH EXPERIMENTS?

what about the fucking prison?? what about wanting to collect every beloved item everyone ever loved? you're telling me he went to war with tommyinnit like two or three times because he just found him ANNOYING and we're supposed to ACCEPT THAT?

the entire thing FELT like gaslighting but we KNOW. WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE. when c!Dream does that. and we know how cc!Tommy ACTS and breathes and talks when he's being manipulated and pressured by Dream. AND THAT WASNT IT.

The scene before the Event seemed like Tommy GENUIENLY remorseful. shit like "i think in a different life we could've been friends" (i dont think thats an exact quote i was blinded and deafened by fury at that point) IS NOT WHAT YOU SAY TO YOUR ABUSER

Punz being a villain is COOL we KNEW ABOUT IT already for a while and it made for a good plot twist from the other's perspectives. HOWEVER what the fuck compelled his character to CALLING BEING SUICIDAL SELFISH? ? ? WHAT THE FUCK

and tommy JUST ACCEPTED THAT? WHAT THE FUCKKK

i think a ten year old could've characterized all the guys in the finale better. letting a suicidal character, fucking end in self sacrifice, SECONDS after forgiving their abuser. is bullshit. and i dont know WHO to blame. but i just started thinking and i NEEDED to say this.

[beltransadie]

Small tidbits about my Still Into You 2ha animatic

Coz it's April, exactly one year from now was when I started completing it and I'm in the mood now. + I don't think I made a proper one + it won the twitter poll

Check it out if you're interested... or not! I just want to dump my thoughts and fun facts that I thought of while making this.

To preface this, check them out if you haven't seen it yet: (Still Into You & Please Don't Leave Me)

If you've been hanging around my blog for a while, it's kinda evident that I did post a promo post for Still Into You back in January 2023. And that first part does have an in-depth explanation about what it covers (which is from the start to the first chorus).

If you're wondering why: TL;DR I can't work on An Act of Kindness coz I was back home from school for vacation and I thought of the idea during a trip.

Anyway, I ramble. Time to get to the actual discussion.

(spoilers!!) The Actual Discussion

Making the rest of Still Into You, unlike Mo Ran's feelings for CWN, was actually just straightforward. I already knew that it'd cover the rest of the book, given that I intentionally focused heavily on book 1 while making part 1.

Like part 1, part 2 was that type of animatic that just naturally flowed during the storyboarding and rough sketch process. The whole animatic is divided into three phases which covers the following: Book 1, Book 2 and 3, and lastly the Epilogue.

Book 1 I've already discussed in an earlier post here but I did find this interesting tidbit I wrote to my cousin:

Anyways the discussion:

Yeah I really wish I have a funny image to put here. I'm really enjoying looking back at my stuff and seeing my initial plans though.

Order at which I made each part.

One thing of note (and actually a common oversight I experience while doing storyboards coz I don't do timings) was that I storyboarded the frames when the vocals started and forgot the timings in between.

So I kinda had to fill the parts between part 1 and 2 last-ish? (don't really remember the proper timings).

Oh, oh! And another fun fact:

Still Into You Part 2 (Rough Draft)

Part 2 was initially done on my tablet in CSP so there's a whole different and rougher version of it. (pls lower the volume if you're wearing earphones)

Funnily enough, this took me like one sitting to finish and a whole lot of sessions to clean up. I do like this process though given that, around the time I drew this, I started leaning heavily into animation and prioritizing getting my thoughts across without care for cleanliness. (Something I felt held me back too much while making Please Don't Leave Me).

In fact, there are some obvious frames that I didn't really bother polishing up (mostly because they're too hard for me or they just flash by quickly). A glaring example is this frame from the third part:

Another fun fact about the scene where TXJ shows CWN the plant he's been raising is it's actually inspired off of a doodle I made for someone in the Two Lifetimes CSE back in April 16 2023.

I just really think that it's super adorable for them. Mo Ran in the the epilogue section alternates between TXJ and 2.0.

Aside from the plant, TXJ also appears in this frame which is inspired from one of the extras. Another silly intentional decision I did is to have him pour alcohol onto a cup and drink from the bottle.

Meanwhile 2.0 appears here:

The one on the left is also from (you guessed it) an extra! It's based from an offhand mention that CWN makes in one of them. (Let me know what your guesses are haha)

I kinda just jumped into the 3rd half of the song, huh? I hope my ramblings aren't too much! I just wanna let it flow naturally.

Returning to the topic of the storyboard, I really only had a rough idea of what I wanted for the 3rd half. The references to the extras and even Goutou's appearance just came when I was already putting it into frame. Like, this was what I initially had in mind for the 2nd chorus to the end.

I think one of the notable differences is that I initially planned on doing the half MR half CWN screen transition the same way i did with chorus 1 and 2 but decided against it. In retrospect, I think it fits a lot because both aren't divided anymore.

Something about the second verse + chorus of the song

Like in chorus 1 and chorus 3, this section of the song takes on a darker tone since it covers book 2 going into book 3. It's a lot to talk about so I'm gonna select a couple that I personally like that's worth mentioning and leave the rest to the viewers to guess.

Also sorry not sorry for those who got spoiled by the animatic lmao.

The confession scene

Another fun fact: The confession scene in Still Into You and Please Don't Leave Me are intentionally connected through the color palette.

It's just that Still Into You takes a dump at how it treats it. Yes, the stick figures are intentional. It adds to the funny and tbh Still Into You really is just a feel good animatic. The comedy also serves as a whiplash to the angst hell that is the chorus 🥰.

(Insert obligatory CWN running at a tree meme here)

My Favorite 2ha Moment

Gotta insert my favorite chapter here (ch 184) which I think is one of 2ha's peaks because it resolves CWN's doubts about MR's feelings all this times.

And I'm just soo glad I could incorporate it in an animatic because it's so important to me. AND Like, 'yknow, I think it echoes the song very well because guess what MR tells CWN then?

“It has always been you."

That one frame before the chorus

There's like this moment before the second chorus starts where MR tells CWN something. I wanted it to echo ch 207 where MR felt the pressure of having to reveal that he actually is reborn and has memories of his past life.

If this were animated I'd have had MR match the song and tell CWN "I'm still into you".

Anyways, here's the frame before it zooms in. Physically it's still at ch 207, but I wanted the shadows to imply what happens next which is the chorus.

Other Bonus stuff

Ran out of stuff I wanna gush about so Imma talk about cut content.

XM and the MHX twins are supposed to have more frames (I didn't include it because it felt like it had too much energy)

2. Ling'er and the village ranwan visits during farm arc is also supposed to make an appearance

3. I forgot to animate the butterflies

4. I was supposed to polish the sequence at 2:41 - 2:51 at one point.

5. Fuck ow

6. CWN was supposed to glomp MR at the reunion scene

7. You and I

anyways go watch it

[tssdresses]

Sanders Sides Animatic Ideas | Inside | Welcome To The Internet

Main: Janus, Roman, Remus Background Characters: Logan

Janus lyrics are in orange, Roman in red, Remus in green, and Logan in blue.

Welcome to the internet Have a look around Anything that brain of yours can think of can be found We've got mountains of content Some better, some worse If none of it's of interest to you, you'd be the first Welcome to the internet Come and take a seat

Janus is sitting in a wing chair, composed with legs crossed and his crook over his lap and hands folded. He says the lyrics. 

Would you like to see the news

Roman rises up on the viewers left from behind the chair to say his line. 

Or any famous women's feet

Remus launches himself up from being the chair to the viewer’s right to say his line. 

There's no need to panic This isn't a test [*laughs*] Just nod or shake your head and we'll do the rest Welcome to the internet What would you prefer:

Janus, completely unfazed by any of this, says his line. 

Would you like to fight for civil rights

Roman

Or tweet a racial slur

Remus

Be happy

Roman

Be horny Be bursting with rage

Remus pulls Logan in from the side as an example of “Be bursting with rage.” Logan is somewhere between confused and disgruntled.  

We got a million different ways to engage

Janus does not acknowledge Logan. Janus is not acknowledging any of this (yet).

Welcome to the internet Put your cares aside

Janus.

Here's a tip for straining pasta

Roman

Here's a nine-year-old who died

Remus

We got movies, and doctors, and fantasy sports

Roman

And a bunch of colored pencil drawings of all the different characters in Harry Potter fucking each other! Welcome to the internet! Hold on to your socks' Cause a random guy just kindly sent you photos of his cock They are grainy and off-putting He just sent you more Don't act surprised You know you like it, you whore See a man beheaded Get offended, see a shrink Show us pictures of your children Tell us every thought you think

All of this is Remus, while Janus looks mildly off-put that Remus is steamrolling his song. 

Start a rumor, buy a broom Or send a death threat to a boomer Or DM a girl and groom her Do a Zoom or find a tumor in your... Here's a healthy breakfast option You should kill your mom Here's why women never fuck you Here's how you can build a bomb Which Power Ranger are you? Take this quirky quiz Obama sent the immigrants To vaccinate your kids

Remus and Roman talk over each other to the extent that it’s hard to tell who’s saying what. Janus shuts them up after the last line. 

Could I interest you in everything All of the time? A little bit of everything All of the time Apathy's a tragedy And boredom is a crime Anything and everything All of the time Could I interest you in everything All of the time? A little bit of everything All of the time Apathy's a tragedy And boredom is a crime Anything and everything All of the time

Janus stands up and starts doing a one-man kick line. 

You know, it wasn't always like this

Logan gently pushes Janus by his shoulder down into his seat. Janus makes the most dramatic “betrayal” face.

Not very long ago Just before your time Right before the towers fell Circa '99

Logan begins to lecture. The twins glance at each other, dealers choice if it's a reference to the 'King Creativity' or just a 'Here comes a Logan infodump' look.

This was catalogues Travel blogs A chat room or two We set our sights and spent our nights Waiting For you

Logan pauses and Janus takes back over. 

You Insatiable you Mommy let you use her iPad You were barely two And it did all the things We designed it to do Now look at youOh

Janus’s lines. 

Look at you You, you Unstoppable, watchable Your time is now Your inside's out Honey, how you grew And if we stick together Who knows what we'll do It was always the plan To put the world in your hand

Logan, referring to Thomas. 

[*laughing hysterically*]

Remus laughs, Roman looks concerned. Logan is chuckling. Janus has had enough and gently banishes them all. 

Could I interest you in everything All of the time A bit of everything All of the time Apathy's a tragedy And boredom is a crime Anything and everything All of the time Could I interest you in everything All of the time A little bit of everything All of the time Apathy's a tragedy And boredom is a crime Anything and everything And anything and everything And anything and everything And all of the time

Janus regains control for the remainder of the song. He sings from his chair, where he sits with one legs crossed over the other, looking down the camera.

TOC All Time Low | Bezos II

[roseillith]

Going back to Ninku episode 29, but it seems like the way you tried to insert action scenes is the same as what you did for Naruto.

Wakabayashi: Both feel the same, don’t they.

Perhaps, I thought you changed the setting considerably along with the storyboard.

Wakabayashi: Yeah, I changed it. (laughs)

I could see what kind of action you wanted to show in the process.

Wakabayashi: Obviously Ninku‘s action format was transferred over to Naruto. Still it wasn’t fully formed, but I started to notice something at that time. How to set up action or the amount of cuts, I guess? I think that it was about time that I was finally able to figure it out.

So that’s how it got finalized on Naruto. The reason why those three episodes are called ‘divine episode’ even by anime fans who aren’t familiar with animation.

Wakabayashi: (Laughs) Thank you very much. (Interview Note: On Naruto, Wakabayashi handled directing, storyboarding, and animation supervision on following three episodes: episode 30 (The Sharingan Revived: Dragon-Flame Jutsu!); episode 71 (An Unrivaled Match: Hokage Battle Royale!”; episode 133 (A Plea From a Friend). These are absolute must-watch episodes for Sakuga Obsessed.)

How did you end up getting involved with Naruto?

Wakabayashi: With Ghost in the Shell, we had discussions about working on subsequent episodes. As I kept working it, I found it would be troublesome to others,  so I let it drop to one episode. Around the time, I was thinking about what should I do next, then Naruto got started. There was opening available at Pierrot, so as I wobbled back there and Naruto‘s director (Yuto) Itachi suddenly handed me a scenario with a ‘here-you-go’ manner. That was episode 30. I thought I was more suitable for characters like Rock Lee, so Sasuke’s Sharingan story didn’t click with me. However, it seemed like an important episode, so I passed back my intention directly to the director (laughs). And that’s how it happened. Because I still had some time in my schedule, I tried to do storyboards, direction and animation supervision. Therefore, with the reaction I got from the Ghost in the Shell action-construction method as basis, I wanted to put a serious consideration on assembling the action sequence. I put my heart and soul into how to make that part of the manga really awesome.

Did you personally pick out animation team for this episode?

Wakabayashi: That’s right. I couldn’t leave out (Norio) Matsumoto and (Atsuko) Inoue. With three people, including myself, I had this crazy idea that we could pull off one episode by ourselves. Nowadays, I don’t know any joe could pull it off, but even in the past, Nakamura drew key animation with three people in Urashiman. (Interviewer Note: Norio Matsumoto is super animator of realist school. He handled many key animations of Wakabayashi’s action sequences. He and Wakabayashi met during Tatsunoko Lab days. The subject of Nakamura is about Future Policeman Urashiman episode 26 (From Neo Tokyo to Hell). In this episode, Takeshi Nakamura handled storyboard, animation supervision, and key animation.

That’s right, isn’t it. He did draw half of the act.

Wakabayashi: Yeah. That’s what I remembered. I thought that I should be able to do that too. It was quite difficult, but I had feeling that I could do it if I tried.

Even in the parts where Matsumoto’ key animation is drawn, there are detailed instructions densely packed in the storyboard’s fight scenes.

Wakabayashi: Everything was pretty much set in the storyboarding stage. When more key animation comes up for check, I just accept them with ‘yep, looks good’ manner. There are parts where I did corrections on expressions, timing correction during editing, or touch up here and there, but I left most of them alone.

On episode 30, Matsumoto’s key animation starts off in the middle of Act A?

Wakabayashi: Nope, it never started in the middle. It’s Act A all around.

So he worked on all of the Act A? Did Matsumoto work on half of episode 71 and 133 as well?

Wakabayashi: He did all of the Act A of episode 71. On episode 133, he worked on various parts in Acts A and B. After that, I, Inoue, and (Tokuyuki) Matsutake filled in whatever was left over.

So Matumoto’s key animations took up the most in episode 133.

Wakabayashi: That’s right.

In short, Matsumoto drew key animation on parts where Naruto shoots off.

Wakabayashi: That is Matsumoto’s. When he came aboard, I felt that I should give him the kind of storyboard he deserved.

Was it Matsumoto who worked on the tree branches that grow out in episode 71?

Wakabayashi: Yep, I know he’s good at it and because he himself was willing to do it (laugh). He knew how to arrange effects well, so I drew storyboard in consideration of bring out the best of it. We only made one episode of Naruto per year though.

You’re right. Just one per year (laughs)

Wakabayashi: Otherwise, the producer will not let you do it. Due to fact that it uses up tons of paper, so it would end up going over budget. We approached (the project)with a ‘it looks like the excitement is dying down, shall we kick it up the notch’ feel. (Translator note: Unlike typical copy paper, professional animation paper costs about 10 Yen/10 Cents per sheet. So using a lot of paper means drawing tons of frames thus costing millions of yen/thousands of dollars spent on extravagant scene(s). One reason why some anime studios disclose how much sheets used on their feature film or TV episode because they want to show off production value)

How long does it take to make one episode?

Wakabayashi: Animating takes about two and a half months. Storyboarding takes six to seven weeks. In order to build an action sequence, it requires considerable blending.

That’s because you were doing never-seen-before action sequences in your Naruto episodes.

Wakabayashi: That’s right. I thought such a situation was my life line. If this is something that other people can’t imitate, then this is probably where I think it should be.

Are such action sequences an accumulation of movies and other things you’ve seen?

Wakabayashi: They’re accumulations, all right. There was a lot of bizarre and strange stuff on air, especially when I was a kid. Simply put, it’s like saying, ‘you’re eccentric’, even though I didn’t knew what that word meant. To be specific, I like quirky things. I certainly have a desire to make up crazy situations.

Maybe I’m being too nosy, but it’s not good for your personal finances when you take six to seven weeks on a stroyboard.

Wakabayashi: You end up being broke. So I took the risk of becoming poor working like that. But I would get an immense satisfaction by doing it. It’s like living for that satisfaction. Once I finish directing episode, I take up a normal job temporarily. So I saved up money a year after, then I spend time on directing an episode afterwards.  That’s gist of it.

Oh, I see.

Wakabayashi: My point is, I wanted to make history. I wanted to leave a mark that says, ‘this kind of stuff is made by this guy’. When it takes time, it’s like trying to prove that nothing like those three episodes have ever been made.

Your episodes are in the same level as Takeshi Nakamura’s Gold Lightan episode.

Wakabayashi: Oh, thank you very much! It’s meaningful to make stuff like that. Lately there are young animators who’ve told me that they entered the anime industry after watching those episodes and I was very happy. I’m happy that I could influence people in such a way.

You have clearly have a different personal stance between doing direction and doing storyboards.

Wakabayashi: I do. When I’m doing storyboards, I try not to cause problems for the production. I draw storyboards by following the scenario and not try not to make it look complicated from a director’s point of view. For direction, I still want to put my personal touch.

Do you have one ideal when doing storyboard, direction, and animation supervision?

Wakabayashi: I do; I cannot do it without a schedule. I can’t pull it off if I don’t get three months. Although such an ideal is impossible with a normal TV series, right? Because a company like Pierrot is generous enough to allow such a method, I think I was able to pull it off.

As you imply, there was no separate schedule for your team or special budget put aside or early draft scripts as other people assumed.

Wakabayashi: There was no such thing. It was just like all the others. About the script, other episodes were already written in advance. Since they’re based from manga, so they’re already written ahead of time. Other people were also under the same situation. It’s just that other people were already working on prior episodes, so that’s why the scenario was in dormancy for a long time. (Translator note: Wakabayashi is implying that he had early start with episode 30.)

Earlier you’ve said that episode 30 was dumped on you by director, however you chose episode 71 and 133 on your own?

Wakabayashi: That’s right. I thought only I can do them myself and I asked to him to let me work on them. Actually, I told him that I also wanted to do the Naruto vs Orochimaru fight, but I was working on the pilot of Guin Saga, so my schedule didn’t allow it. I was thinking of making that sequence as a final finishing touch. But I now I regret that I couldn’t do it.

Do you think you might get another chance to work on “Naruto” in the future?

Wakabayashi: Only if Naruto continues on after the Guin Saga is over. Because I absolutely have not given up on Naruto yet.

[stuff-plus-textposts]

Nothing At All is a Good Song

Nothing At All is a song from How To Dance In Ohio the musical that I really really like. I have this whole animatic to it mapped out in my head, but I haven't got the skill or patience to actually draw it. But the song's singer Desmond Edwards said that they would want to read the outline I've written, so here it is! It's very long and I'm sorry.

I work in a lab at a hospital, and this is about my job.

I walk into the lab, into the break room, and put my purse down. On “It’s not like I’m shocked by the ableist cliches, but they do make me tired,” I reach into my purse and put on a barrette (which I actually wear everyday). The barrette then turns red and becomes a wisp of smoke following me. 

“Do I only exist on this planet to make somebody else feel inspired?” I’m grabbing a lab coat from the closet when the wisp flies away from me, I turn to follow it and see one of my coworkers waving at me. Said coworker is drawn with no eyes or nose, just a mouth and eyebrows - everyone in the animatic is drawn like this except for myself. I wave awkwardly back. 

“I’m no object of pity, and if that’s what you see, then clearly you aren’t seeing me” the camera circles around me, showing a hallway that looks like I’ve made it longer for dramatic effect but that actually is that long, and then pans around so you can see my face as I start walking down the hall towards the core lab. 

I pretend to be my own OCs a lot, so the characters I turn into are my own characters. As I turn into each one, the wisp of red smoke becomes an article of clothing on them. First is Jaimy, who has a big red bow. Then Tris, who has a red ring, and finally Jada, who has a red headband. As the line gets to “today’s look is nothing, nothing at all” I fade back into my normal self with the wisp of smoke at my shoulders, and walk over to my work station. I type at my computer with the wisp curling over my wrists, I grab a pneumatic tube that’s just come in with the smoke curling around the tube and my hands. 

“I try to have patience meeting folks where they’re at” I sit at my chair talking to my boss, who is on one knee in front of me because she's really tall. “But this gets under my skin” she stands up to walk away. “Cause if you’re writing about me, then getting to know me should be where you begin” my boss goes over to one of my coworkers, a guy who acts like and is treated like he’s a supervisor even though he’s not, and says something. The two of them look directly at me, then back at each other. 

“It’s so condescending assuming the worst” We see my hand reaching towards a piece of paper on a printer, which is me attempting to do an assignment that I’m capable of doing but don’t have permission to do. The wisp of smoke curls around my hand and pulls it back, forcing me to turn away and see my boss. I glare daggers at her but that’s all I can do. 

“When I’m Wanda Maximoff” My glare fades and I turn into my OC Taylor, the red wisp becoming a wand in my hand. “I can change my own reality” using the wand, I open up a centrifuge and remove the tubes of blood to float in front of me. Unlike most of the animatic, which is black and white, the tubes are in color. They’ve been spun already so you can clearly see the red blood cells at the bottom, the separator gel, and the plasma/serum on top. Some of the tubes have light green tops and some have gold tops (if you’re curious what I’m talking about, look up centrifuged blood gold top). “When I’m Gaga I’m ready to rehearse” I change into my OC Jodie, stepping forward into a pirouette, the red wisp turns into a rehearsal skirt, and the tubes of blood are still floating in front of me. “When I’m Miles Morales I really do believe I am a superhero in the multiverse” I change into my OC Cytherea and start to float, the wisp becomes glowing red eyes, and for a moment the tubes of blood turn into crystals in front of me. “But todays look is nothing, nothing at all” I morph back into myself and come back down to the ground. The tubes of blood become tubes of blood again and return to my hands. The red wisp goes back to being a red wisp at my shoulders. 

“Then come the voices of doubt saying right on cue” we see the core lab, where my coworkers are doing regular core lab stuff, like typing at computers and putting stuff into machines. “This world will never make space for people like you” my coworkers all look at me, now looking angry, and now shaded red. I take a step back. “I see my past rejections framed and hung on the wall” The tubes of blood fall out of my hands, not like I dropped them or anything but just like in a floaty way. I also start to float as the background becomes black behind me, and we see representations drawn in red of various crappy things that have happened to me. This includes F’s on papers, children laughing at me, and mean quotes people have said to me. They scroll by in the background. 

“And I wish I felt nothing, nothing at all” I start crying and I curl up into a ball. The background changes to say in giant red letters “Autism.” But then the red disappears from the actual word, turning it white; the red becomes becomes the wisp again, circling around my whole body. “Nothing at all” the black background fades, leaving me in a cloud of red. “So sick of good intentions, that only make me feel small” still surrounded by the cloud. I look up and see the lab in front of me, except I am literally small now, and it is huge. “Your good intentions all add up to” I fall to my knees with my hands over my ears. “Nothing at all” suddenly I am normal sized again, holding the tubes of blood like I was before. I shake my head a little bit and look startled, as if I was trying to shake myself back to reality after zoning out. 

In the instrumental break, I walk over to one of the stations in the core lab and put the tubes of blood in the rack. Then I’m seen getting my purse and leaving the lab. 

“That’s why tomorrow night I will not be at the formal dance” we see me driving home, coming inside, and walking upstairs to pull out my laptop. “though I’ve worked hard to get there all this year.” The red wisp settles around my shoulders, still weird and wispy but not floating anymore, just resting. I take a deep breath and open my laptop. “That’s right, tomorrow night I will be doing my first livestream” I open up a zoom meeting entitled ‘Ableism in the workplace’ and click join, “to discuss the controversy further here!” I wave at the people in the meeting, and you can see the clock behind me displaying the time 5:30. “Cause the whole conversation” we see a girl wearing noise cancelling headphones talking on the screen. “Needs a huge overhaul.” We see a boy talking on the screen. “And if we simply do nothing.” I wave again, and you can see that the clock reads 6:30 now. I close the laptop and look sad. The red wisp starts to float again “nothing will change at all.” The wisp becomes a single red tear which falls down my cheek. 

In the final instrumental, I wipe the tear away. My hand stays on my face as I move it up to rub at my head, like I’m pushing my hair away from my face. When I pull my hand away, the red is gone and it has turned back into the barrette that I put on at the beginning. I set the barrette down on top of my laptop, alongside my employee badge, and stand up to walk away. The end.

Don't worry though, this makes my job sound awful, but it's actually really cool and most of my coworkers don't suck. This is a picture taken for lab week a few weeks ago, I'm the white girl sitting in the front :)

@wakanda-never I hope you like it! I know it isn't exactly what the song is about, but it's what it makes me feel. Thank you for everything you did with HTDIO, it's one of my favorite musicals ever because it makes me feel so seen.

[denrukatheblogger]

QSMP Rambling (Tallulah and Chayenne)

(Main context: QSMP is a multilingual minecraft multiplayer server with streamers playing and I specifically follow Philza but watch clips and read happenings from other streamers)

Good god help me I was going to just enjoy philza's qsmp portion of the stream but then apparently lore stuff happened and now the eggs are clashing. (I rambled way too much, so I'm putting it below oops)

Though the lore stuff is not something I dislike, my mind immediately honed in more on how the two eggs I watched QSMP for mostly ended up. Tbh, I started watching QSMP because I saw clips and animatics connecting Chayenne to Techno and then I think I started officially watching Wilbur's streams when Tallulah happened. Not immediately, but it was either the 2nd or 3rd stream with her.

Chayenne was one of the outgoing eggs, picking fights and jumping off of the wall his dads made a home on. Tallulah was the youngest at the time, I think, and was mostly sweet, gentle, loved flowers and music. Chayenne was one of the first eggs and iirc only 4 of the og batch remain. Wilbur left after making sure Philza could care for Tallulah, and Chayenne ended up needing to do the same considering he was the older kid that had more experience.

And then things got worse for the eggs. The code monsters, the kidnapping as people or groups organized shit, and then the eggs left thinking they would be protecting their parents after being threatened.

Chayenne ends up as one of, if not the main, leader of the eggs. Tallulah was known by most as "not a fighter". Needed to protect and needed to be protected respectively. Their dynamic was almost always like this. Chayenne was cared for by his dads of course, but Missa has irl stuff to do and Philza needed to give Tallulah more attention since she needed help. Tallulah has been missing her father for months now- even if the server cared for her, she wasn't their special person. She felt like someone that needed pity and was given it- not like as if they would've cared otherwise...

I'm going all over the place but despite it somewhat feeling sudden how they acted in the recent stream, I feel like I can understand mostly what was going on with them switching in choices. Tallulah used to want love and peace- she's tired of being "useless" and a "burden" for not being able to fight. Chayenne used to be one of the reckless eggs- he's exhausted from being given most of the responsibility whenever they're in danger.

He's tired from all of the action. She's tired from all the inaction.

Chayenne wants to fucking rest for once in his life, meanwhile Tallulah wants to actually help fighting for once in her life.

They got separated before/during Purgatory.

Tallulah had to survive with Dapper and Ramon who seemed to be closer friends with each other and Tallulah maybe envied their bond. But they're still siblings and so she cares deeply about Dapper being kept hostage right now. She frustrated over bonds people get to have because she can't connect with them when she doesn't even have a real pillar to stand on. Missed her dad so much that even with the family he left her with, she doesn't feel like she belongs. She just wants her dad back with her but she's changed. She's scared. She wants to be useful and actually do something so that people don't see her as a weakling anymore.

Chayenne was perceived as one of the stronger eggs. He had to keep calm and focus on keeping everyone safe. He was stuck for however long without even knowing if Tallulah was still alive. He was cared for by Phil and Missa and then Missa needed to leave while Phil had to figure out how to take care of Tallulah with Chayenne. He wouldn't necessarily blame his dads, but a kid wants attention. A kid would love to feel special care from their parents more. But no, Chayenne needed to push aside his wants because others need more care and protection. Maybe not intentionally forced by others into the leader role, but he got into the role and people listened, so people started perceiving him as the one in charge if things happened to the eggs. But it's not like he's immune from all the bullshit they've been going through just because he's not acting out like some others. He's been carrying a heavy weight on his shoulders by staying in the protector role. He loves his siblings and wants them safe, but he's tired and wants to be cared for back instead of simply being looked up to as a leader. He doesn't want pure idolization or criticisms in doing his "job"- he just. He needs a break.

Philza, god bless him, the man's gotta deal with all this bullshit happening on the island while still caring for his eggs. The kids say he's a wonderful dad while Phil says he's been shit at it if he didn't notice them feeling this way or not caring sooner. He does care, but Rose told him he needed to recover his lost courage for a reason. He's understandably terrified of everything that could kill the eggs, that could kill or take him away from being able to be with his kids again, but he needs to regain the confidence he once had in himself to be able to face things stronger too. But that's... It feels bad saying things like that.

Like father like son, I guess. They both just want to rest. But Tallulah's tired of being given rest. That's what most people seem to tell her to do while everyone else goes off to do all the important shit. She can't do the important things because she "can't" fight. She's changed. Chayenne's change. God, Philza's changed from what the Ender King and Rose saw of him before QSMP.

I don't know a solution for this, I don't think a solution could be easily made when there are factors outside of this family's control affecting them. I know they talked it out by the end, but I'm still worried yet intrigued by how things might continue on. The dynamic between the two eggs just tickles my brain in the fun way. I don't think I tend to focus so hard on things that aren't my own OCs- usually I take what happens in a thing and use it as inspiration for my own stuff. But these two are just... I want them to be okay in the end. I want to see Tallulah being allowed to be the strong badass she wants to prove herself to be while still accepting that people care for her in a way that they'd be willing to risk a lot for her too. I want to see Chayenne being allowed to relax, to take the backseat and have fun while not needing to worry about shit messing up their entire lives. I want to see Philza being able to take the kids on adventures and just being able to have a good time with them without the terror of everything threatening their damn lives.

I want for them to be okay and they're trying. Damn it, they're trying as much as they can to be okay for everyone else too.