#ask spifty

[spiftynifty]

I am glad my message made you chuckle but also! I agree 100% on your thoughts re: sheith.

Honestly, the setup was so good. It was two characters that were always meant to have a connection, but something sparked there and the whole "sum of the parts is bigger than the whole" type thing happened...

And it could've happened for such a long time, too? There were so many opportunities. And even an open ending would have worked so well, where they hadn't gotten together yet!

Just. Even besides not getting with Keith, they did Shiro so, so, so wrong. Like you I'm not angry anymore, more upset at what could've been. Two main animated characters, slowly falling in love, and it is a source of strength rather than weakness... That would've sent a message! (Now, now I just forget Shiro was canonically gay cause it literally doesn't seem to matter)

Not to mention artists like you and Wuffen who are just so brilliant in bringing these characters to life, and so much absolutely amazing fic.

The show fizzled out before the final ep, when it could have gone out with a proper bang, and I'll always remember that alongside sheith as, as you rightfully point out, being quite possibly the most amazing slow burn pairing ever.

Thank you for the sweet words, putting me in the same sentence as an art king like Wuffen is quite the compliment ^///^ Truthfully I'm just a selfish bean who got no closure and has to make her own haha.

It's not very long but I figured I'd put the rest of my reply under a cut.

My reply to the other ask was more about my grievances with the show on a broader level rather than Sheith itself but since we're on the subject I'd say it's the biggest and most confusing casualty of the bunch. I had no illusions of the ship being canon, even now on the cusp of 2022 we're not yet at the point where you can have the two leading men of a cartoon action series end up together. But that doesn't mean an attempt wasn't made. I still go back and forth on the creative intent behind them; there are scenes that can be read platonically but there are also some scenes that are extremely difficult to interpret as anything but romantic. I think there were crew with control over story who shipped them but I think there were also crew with control over who didn't. I think it was a very complicated thing which is why we'll probably never get a proper answer or closure on what the heck the goal was.

But what did matter, what was canon, was that Shiro and Keith were best friends who loved each other and were each other's most important person and that affection and respect were what we fell in love with. If that relationship had stayed as strong and kind as it it had been in the past, I don't think anyone would even remember the epilogue except to clown it. But they were strangers, to each other and to us as we had come to know them over 7 seasons. That's the heartbreaking part, at least in my opinion. If it was just them and all the other relationships remained intact we could chalk it up to executives getting antsy about ppl reading too much into things. But the baffling thing is that iirc, no relationships, not even platonic ones, survived and neither did anyone's 7-season character arc.

S8 just felt like a season with an active grudge against the episodes and story that came before it and was fighting to make you forget them. That's the tragedy of Voltron. Whatever your reason was for loving the show, no one won.

[spiftynifty]

Immortals: Fenyx Rising for the awesome art and also Zeus and Prometheus bitching at each other and Fenyx being an idiot

NGL it took me a full 2 mins to figure out what this was in reference to because my brain is pretty dusty these days but thanks for the rec I'll add it to the list! :D

[spiftynifty]

Thank you literally so much for reminding me that asterix and obelix films exist right at this moment 😭😭 I need sth fun to watch but didn't know what and they're absolutely perfect (also lucky you for watching one of them in history, much much better than joyeux noel) ❤️

Ah for us we learned WWI/II history pretty early (before joyeux noël even came out) and world history was in HS. We had a teacher who was pretty easy to needle into letting us watch Astérix et Cléopatre instead of his usual "reading from the textbook for an hour" class. Nothing historical about it but it was under the guise of French practice since we were in french immersion, and it gave the prof a break to retreat into the attached little office and read or grade papers or whatever. Pretty sure we saw the movie at least twice that year lol.

[spiftynifty]

Spiftynifty, we the people want to know, why is Shiro not a Dorito?

hh oly shit

[spiftynifty]

i've been thinking about the whole 'they were supposed to be roommates but we were able to convince the higher ups to not do that'. in terms of production, does this count as a huge costly change or was that something they could've fixed more or less overnight? d'you think we should brace ourselves for a slew of those sort of changes and pray to god those changes don't lower the quality of the show in general?

Man the battle for Shiro as the show’s LGBT rep is sooo fascinating to me. I would love to know more details about what finally made Dreamworks give the okay because what Joaquim dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery have accomplished, making a LEAD MALE CHARACTER gay on a cartoon for children, is an incredible milestone. Let’s talk about THAT SCENE and some Industry Stuff!

What probably happened with Adam and Shiro, is that JDS/LM went ahead and storyboarded the scene with the idea that they were boyfriends. They probably even threw it onto a leica (storyboard video timed out properly with dialogue) and added a scratch track (non-voice actors recording placeholder lines). And thus, they presented it to DW….. who had a moment of Puritanical Panic and said, “this scene is fine, but they absolutely cannot be boyfriends because THINK OF THE CHILDREN, so change the dialogue to make them roommates.”

Aaaaand that’s where the endless fights meetings with higherups on multiple levels would have begun. Actually I’m sure Shiro being gay had been discussed at length before. The introduction of Adam would have been a major catalyst into the more serious talks because it was JDS/LM saying listen, we are dead serious about this and we’re gonna THROW. DOWN. At NYCC’17 when asked about LGBT content in the show, JDS carefully assured the audience that“we’re fighting to create as open and as broad a spectrum of characters as we can” and the timing lines up pretty nicely with where production would have been on s6/s7.

The thing that probably finally won over higherups was JDS/LM coming up with a dialogue that makes it clear to the older audience who Adam is to Shiro, while keeping younger audiences completely in the dark. In case you didn’t see the episode, here’s their dialogue:

Adam: Maybe you shouldn’t go on the mission. You’ll only be putting yourself at risk.Shiro: You know how important this is to me. It’s worth the risk.Adam: Takashi. How important am I to you? […] This is your life at stake.Shiro: Don’t start that again, Adam! You don’t need to protect me!Adam: I won’t stop you. But I won’t go through this again. So if you decide to go… don’t expect to be here when I get back. 

We don’t see them kiss or touch. They don’t exchange I Love Yous, or pet names or refer to their relationship explicitly. Yet it’s beyond obvious that they’re in a serious relationship based on the way they speak to each other. It’s bloody brilliant, and a pretty clever option to present to a higherup. Dreamworks gets the glory of having the first-ever openly gay cartoon hero and kids can just think Adam and Shiro are really good friends (like brothers, even!).

It’s hard to say how far along this scene was in production by the time DW caved and let Adam be Shiro’s boyfriend. Some of the shots may have functioned fine for a roommates scenario but overall the scene is a little too intimate in its lingering shots. I mean was avoiding spoilers like the plague but a friend assured me the trailer was safe…

….it really, really wasn’t. These shots are intimate and on first glance I thought it was Shiro working up the nerve to talk to a fellow officer he was into. 

To answer your question anon, if the boards and maybe a few BGs needed to be redone, and entirely new animation added, this batch of 12 scenes (shots) was probably completed in a few days or less. The entire scene is pretty conservative on animation which makes things easier. Time would have been set aside for this scene from the get-go and it was probably one of the last ones animated on s6 while they waited for DW to weigh the decision. I can’t see them having spent much more or less time on it than any other scene so there wasn’t a lot of sacrifice here. There was also probably zero extra cost on making it if it hadn’t yet been animated but even if it had…Animation is actually really, really cheap to produce.

So no, I don’t think we need to brace ourselves for quality drops. The show is running on a crazy schedule and is pretty excellent at knowing where to put the money/time and where not to and in such a way that most casual observers won’t notice. Such as

vs

Important scenes get love; less important ones get passed off to junior animators and/or get shorter timeframes. More importantly, as JDS/LM mention in Form Podcast, the quality of the art improves as animators get more familiar and comfortable drawing the characters. The quality of s6 is likely something we can look forward to for much of 7&8 as well. So really I wouldn’t worry about quality dipping.

Every show has client retakes. Some are small, some are big, “reanimate this scene” style changes. It’s par for the course and many studios have entire departments just for handling those types of calls. Allowing time for those changes are built into the production schedule of every show. 

Voltron is a special bird though, its potential for changes are a liittle different than most cartoons because it’s a serialized story that needs to be plotted out in advance but there are Things that might end up being the result of some last minute decisions and allowances.

And by Things I mean Sheith. But that’s a long post of its own so for now I’m gonna leave it off here. Hope that helps, anon!

[spiftynifty]

Please put me out of my misery, I can't find the Form Podcast podcast anywhere!

I get my podcasts through iTunes! the program is free and works on both Macs and PCs. I don’t have any Apple products but I would imagine iTunes also comes standard on iPhones/iPads/iPods. Once you have iTunes installed, here’s how to get Form Podcast!

[spiftynifty]

I Literally JUST noticed how you wrote "Patience yields focus" in shiros scar on your header, like it has been there the entire time dknsdn

mwahahaha I’m sneaky that way ;3 ! I’m working on a series of all the Paladins with some of their best quotes. I’ve got Lance, Keith, and Shiro so far but I’m gonna have to go back and change some of the quotes because s6 gave us so many good ones and I’m sure s7 will have even more. Also maybe change Shiro to white hair? and change the look of his arm? And maybe give Keith a paladin armor option? Ahhh big decisions to figure out before FanExpo at the end of August! @_@

[spiftynifty]

Do you have some tips for drawing anatomy?? Love you art and how you easily manage that

Oh my goodness thank you! To be perfectly honest though, I’m not a great example to go by. Over the past year I’ve animated on 5 different shows with extremely different styles so lately I tend to break characters down into structures and shapes rather than think about anatomy. I’ve gotten too lazy hehe. But here are some tips for you (and for me to brush up on). 

1. LIFEDRAWING (FIGUREDRAWING in some places). As in, drawing the nude figure. This is HUGE, and for me personally I find it improves not only my dynamic poses and anatomy but strangely improves things like my color theory and painting skills?? I’m not sure where you are anon but most major cities have lifedrawing as either courses (where you are taught by a professor) or drop ins (ranging from 5$-25$, you may have to bring your own bench/easel/board). But if you live in a place without this, never fear! 

https://line-of-action.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/

Here’s a site I use when I want to practice at home. You can choose male or female models, nude or clothed, and how long the poses are. The images change for you automatically. It’s not quite as good as drawing in person but it’s still a good option if you don’t have access to classes.

Traditionally lifedrawing is done with newsprint because it's nice and cheap and easier to forgive yourself for wasting sheets on a bad drawing. But also the size of newsprint means that you aren't drawing small, which means you're using your whole arm and really loosening up. Conte is my personal tool of choice cuz it comes it so many fun colors, but charcoal is an option (albeit a messier one).

I'm a big, BIG supporter of FAST poses over long poses, because in fast poses you have to get the key info down and need to make snap decisions about what that key info is. It also means you get nice, dynamic poses. By short poses I mean 30s-2mins. It's also a great warmup.

Most dropins will have a series of short poses followed by a long one; if you are facing a 1hr pose you can always move around the room or turn it into a really intricate muscle study.

Which brings me to:

2. Pick up an anatomy book/visit an anatomy website! ...and I mean any anatomy book that shows you the skeleton and muscles in a decent fashion. The one I have on my shelf I got at Chapters for 10$

If you can find one as it relates to working out like "Muscles in fitness" or "Strength Training anatomy" I highly recommend checking out that as well as it will show you what muscles look like when they are activated which is definitely what you want. The purpose of cracking open an anatomy book is to understand how muscles and bones interact with each other, what ones feed into others to give our bodies the shapes they are.It’s also helpful to see realistic and muscular figures; it will help you understand different body types as well as hypersized versions of muscles you’ve seen on normal figures. 

3. Reference, reference, reference!!

When in doubt, never be afraid to look up a reference image. But when you do, I highly recommend breaking it down to simple shapes to understand WHY the image is working the way it is. Where are the shoulders, where are the hips? How does the head and neck feed into the torso?

4. Draw yourself! Look in a mirror, strike a pose. Draw your hands, they are right in front of you and are willing models.

There are a TON of great resources online, and actually some of the best stuff I’ve found has been right here on tumblr. Look into the “artist reference” or “anatomy reference” tags and have fun. Keep drawing!

[spiftynifty]

I adore your sheith comics and wow wow wow dude, you can DRAW

Ahhh thank you so much dude!! I’m so glad people are enjoying this silly comic and like the art. I like midshots best cuz when they’re wide shots it gets dicey because even 0.5mm lead isn’t always small enough for a 3x3 postit. But if I end up digitizing and coloring the whole comic I’d be able to actually make these kind of shots N I C E….

[spiftynifty]

Is your 5+1 Sheith confessions a fic too? Or just a comic? I really love the comics, and I'm craving more lol

Sorry anon, ‘tis but a comic. I find writing really tough and greatly admire anyone who can pump out a few thousand words of excellence in a single sitting or heck a single DAY. It takes me a whole week to write a single (terrible) paragraph! It’s so much easier to me to just draw it. So... yeah. Just a comic. I’m happy you’re enjoying it so much though! If it helps at all I’m trying very hard to finish it before season 6 hits and shatters my heart and probably my projected canon compliance, so there’ll be more soon. :)

[spiftynifty]

Hi spifty! Just have to tell you how much I absolutely adore your art and your Sheith 5+1 confessions AU. It's beautiful and hilarious and the sweetest thing ever and I hope you know there's no pressure at all to rush to finish it, whatever you draw I already know I'm (and many others are) going to love. Hell, I even loved that last update you drew about how s6 affected your plans for the AU. So thanks so much for being part of the fandom and gifting us with your brilliant art and own wisdom!!

anon you have no idea how much this means to me, that you took the time to write this out and say such beautiful things. I got this ask at like 2am while I was in the middle of a downward self-doubt spiral over my art so your timing was incredible and cheered me up so much. It’s the kind of generous people like you sending anon love to people instead of anon hate that make this fandom a better place. So thank YOU. ❤️

[spiftynifty]

i'm so happy your 5+1 series is continuing, i've missed it so much! (also i don't think i've ever seen vld and community crossed over before so honestly bless u)

Awww you missed it?? ^///^ That’s so sweet. Life got pretty crazy in April/May so I appreciate everyone’s patience. I was hoping to finish the next part before the trailer for season 6 dropped buttttt I bet a solid fiver that that happens tomorrow and I won’t be done by then. Hopefully by the end of the week!

Also Community rocks!!! The first 2.5 seasons are some of the best TV I’ve ever seen. Such a shame they only made three seasons. Yes, such. A. Shame. :|||||

[spiftynifty]

😭😭😭 what did we do to deserve your comics?? thank you so much love!! ❤❤❤💖💗💘💝💞

Dude honestly I feel like I can never do enough to properly deserve this fandom and all it’s done!! Sheithers are by and large an incredible group of people and I have felt so welcomed here in my ship. I’ve made friends and read and seen some of the best fanworks I’ve ever seen in fandoms. I’ve seen posts that made me laugh and read meta that made me cry, and I’m usually made of stone. We’re a big group of people of all ages and genders whose purpose here is to be big softies who coo and gush and cry over two cartoon men who canonically love, trust, and support each other.

And many of us have done this while fighting off people who send hate mail and death threats and chase the show’s actors out of the fandom, just because we like this thing. 

So thank YOU, anon, for being part of this fandom, for reblogging from artists and writers and meta-ers, or perhaps creating your own Sheithy contributions. We’re all here to have a good time and this kind of love and positivity keeps those good times rolling. ❤️

[spiftynifty]

Okay, SO, originally when I was figuring out this chapter of the comic I actually included references to 3 of my favourite series. Legend of Korra was ultimately the only one that made it in but at lunch today I doodled some terrible drawings of what I had intended for the other two. If you get these references we’re officially best friends, sorry I don’t make the rules. “art” below the cut!

I.

II.