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surveys-at-your-service · 3 years ago

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Survey #461

“this city looks so pretty, do you wanna burn it with me?”

Have you ever wanted a Nikon camera? Or do you have one already? My camera before the one I have now was a Nikon D3200. I use a Canon now. Who was the last person (if anyone) you said Happy Birthday to? A friend. Do you have Photoshop? If so, how often a day do you use it? I have it, but I barely use it nowadays. I use it to edit photos for character profiles or profile pictures, add a watermark for my actual photography, and I used to make Mark-oriented gifs like crazy. They mostly did really well, so... I might wanna get back into that and get That Sweet Validation. Do you watch any shows that you know your parents wouldn’t approve of? No. Have any of your exes gotten married or had kids since your breakup? None, I think. Do either of your parents have a mental illness? My mom has depression. Can you tolerate children for a long period of time? NO. Have you ever lived with someone you felt thoroughly uncomfortable around? No. Are you into dubstep? Yeah, I tend to enjoy it. Zelda or The Sims games? Can I pick neither? lol I don't feel very much at all for The Sims, and Zelda games have always looked... boring to me? Like I've watched most of the Game Grumps' playthroughs of all the games, and they make it hilarious of course, but the games themselves? Nah. Are you terrible at assigning bands their proper genre? YES YES YES YES YES YES. Even in my preferred category, that being metal, FUCK if I know the sub-genre. Have you ever made out in a closet? No, that shit sounds claustrophobic as hell. Have you ever been to a laser tag place? Yeah, on a triple-date once! It was SO fun. How do you wanna celebrate your next birthday? Have a couple friends over, pig out at The Cheesecake Factory. o3o Do you tease your parents about them being old? No, especially not Mom. She's self-conscious about getting older. Are you in love with someone? "In love" is a bit too far, buddy. But I love someone. Have you ever ridden a unicycle? No. Have you ever wanted a pet bunny? I was VERY serious about getting a lop-eared bunny for quite a while, but we just couldn't afford to adopt one (even off Craigslist) and get a cage for it, toys, etc. Are the bottom of your feet clean? I HATE seeing the bottom of my feet. Not because they're dirty, but because it's Callus City. I ain't even fuckin jokin'. Do you like really salty food? Yeah. :x When’s the last time you bled a lot? Well, I just recently finished my cycle after not menstruating for three or four MONTHS, so you can figure that one out. Have you ever watched a needle go into your own skin? Yeah. I like to know exactly when it's coming. Have you ever seen someone get a piercing/tattoo? Yes to both. When you’re done eating finger foods, do you usually lick your fingers? Usually kasdjlf;kalsdjf shut up ok I like food. What’s the most racist thing you have ever said? As a little kid, when my really good friend (a neighborhood kid, even) asked if he thought we'd be a good couple, I told him no because "blacks and whites don't date" or something like that. It was an idea I'd never been exposed to before; the idea was so foreign to little kid me. I had no idea I was being racist. It ended in a small fight and we didn't talk for a few days 'til he came to my house telling Mom that he had to "be a man" and fix this and if that ain't the cUTEST SHIT RIGHT THERE. We were friends again after that. He's still on my Facebook, and he actually semi-recently got married! :') Do you know someone that is mute, deaf or blind? No. Have you ever spent more than two weeks in a wheelchair? No. Does weed smell good? Or no? Ugh, no. Where do you see your closest friend in ten years? Successful and happy she kept pushing. Mama to so many reptiles that are blessed with the best lives possible in human care. Got at least one amazing book out there. If she's reading this, you've fucking got this. <3 Would you like to have twins? Mother of fucking god, no. Even if I WANTED kids, do fucking not give me twins. Who was the last person you got into an argument with? My mom. Want to have kids before you’re 30? Once again, I don't want kids, but IF I did, that'd be preferable before the risk of birth defects and other issues climb with age. Does anybody have a tattoo with your name on it? My older sister has my initial. Do you think somebody’s in love with you? No. Do you think you and your best friend will be friends in ten years? Yes, I genuinely do. Who were the last people to hang out at your house? Miss Tobey, our friend and landlord. Does anyone like you? Welp... I hope he still does. Guess we'll figure that out soon. What person on your Facebook do you talk to the most? VIA Facebook? Probably my friend Lyndsey. She likes to comment on stuff I share. Do you want to fall in love? I do, but I'm also utterly horrified to and risk being hurt again. Are you interested in more than one person at the moment? No. Once I realized I was so deeply into Girt, all other romantic feelings kinda just... poofed. How was your last break up? Civil and done with both of our best interests in mind. What is the hardest thing you’ve ever had to say? Probably the first time I admitted I needed to go to the hospital for suicidal thoughts. I was so, so scared of what it was going to be like. What is the hardest thing you NEEDED to hear? That if Jason wasn't happy with me, he had every right to move on. She was right. Do you treat yourself well? No... but I'm trying to change that. What was the last song you sang out loud to? This "Set Fire to the Rain" cover. Do you take good pictures? I think I do? Have you ever done any internship? No. What’s a topic you’ve drastically changed your opinion on? Holy shit, so much, especially when it comes to morality and political stances. I am now a massive supporter and member of the LGBTQ+ community, I'm pro-trans rights, pro-choice... I've done like a dozen 180s in a lot of topics. Do you know anyone who has a PhD? I mean, some doctors, but no one in my truly personal life. Do you know anyone who works as a lawyer? Yes: my cousin. Have you ever experienced sleep paralysis? LAKSDJFKLA;JWD NEVER AND I PRAY TO THE HOLY LORD THAT I NEVER DO. Does the thought of having wrinkles when you’re older upset you? Not massively? Like literally everyone gets them and is natural and inevitable. Do you know anyone who’s struggling with addiction? I know one alcoholic, and one that's probably borderline. I also have two friends who are extremely addicted to weed. Look me in the eyes and say it's not an addictive substance and I wouldn't believe you one bit. Is there a video or computer game that you can get lost in for hours? Eh, sometimes World of Warcraft. Some days I'm really into it, and others I barely touch it. What’s your favorite Disney Channel movie? I have no clue. I don't even remember movies that were made *for* Disney exclusively. Do you ever have to do yard work? No. We have a friend from the dance studio mow the lawn. Do you have any live versions of songs in your music software? My iPod has a whole live album of Ozzy. Did you or do you listen to Britney Spears songs? Both did and do. Britney is a boss bitch. Does your favorite band have a male or female lead singer? Male. Have you seen the movie Moulin Rouge? No, but I've seen some of that P!nk music video of the song and it brings out the Gay in me. Do you have a key to anything besides your house? No. Could you ever complete a 500-piece puzzle? I've done that before. I miss doing puzzles... Have you ever been to any sort of convention? I went to a reptile expo with Sara!! I REALLY want to go to another when my legs are stronger and can handle standing and walking so much. Is your mom or dad the older parent? Mom. Have you ever tried to walk on a moving vehicle and fallen over? No????? What is your favourite kind of bread? Is there any of that in your house? Pumpernickel. No. Are/were you in the school band, and if so, what instrument did you play? I played the flute all through middle school and I wanna say half of HS. Have you ever ordered an unusual drink at a bar? Never even been to one. Have you ever been pulled aside by security at the airport? I think once for some reason I don't recall? What is your favourite seasonal candy? (only available at certain times) Gingerbread men, probs. Or chocolate bunnies!!! :') How do you feel right now? My stomach is KILLING me. I'm super excited though that Girt is coming over tomorrow. Have you ever had surgery that kept you in the hospital for over a day? No. What would you like your generation to change? How we treat nature. Is there anyone that you truly could not live without? No. I learned that is a very unhealthy mentality to have. Do you like carrots more if they’re raw, or cooked? I just hate carrots. What restaurant did you last go out to dinner at with friends? With friends? I couldn't even guess. Does your refrigerator have an ice maker or do you use ice cube trays? It has an ice maker. Do you have a favorite sibling, if any? No; I love them all. Do you have a favorite brand of clothing? I STAN CLOAK. How’s the love life? Something new might start tomorrow. I think it will. Do you watch the news? No; that shit is depressing. Who do you admire most? Mark. Do you have a favorite album? Black Rain by Ozzy Osbourne takes the cake and always will.

#survey #surveys #random questions #lyrics: ''city'' by hollywood undead

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yurionice-secretsanta · 5 years ago

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To @cadencekismet From @vilchan

Purrhaps Not Today

Yuri kicks open the door of the animal shelter and stomps off the snow stuck under the soles of his leopard print vans. An elderly couple and the girl behind the counter stare at him, pen held motionless in the air over a form of some sorts. Yuri lifts his chin and raises an eyebrow, squinting in that way Mila once described as ‘a delinquent waiting in line to pay for a carton of milk’.

The elderly couple startle a little and are quick to huddle closer together, mumbling under their breath. The girl behind the counter—who can’t be older than twenty—raises an unimpressed eyebrow in return, holding his stare for a moment before she turns back to the couple and points her pen on the next clause to explain.

The wall behind her is covered by posters of cats in the arms of smiling children and dogs leaping after frisbees or tennis balls, with titles like ‘Become someone’s forever home now’ and ‘Make a difference today’. She doesn’t quite fit in with the vibrantly coloured backgrounds and photoshopped faces—on the contrary her messy bun is lopsided and coming apart at the seams, her t-shirt wrinkled and covered in dog hair from the looks of it, and there are not one, but three coffee mugs next to a computer who looks as if it’s been running since before he was born. If it weren’t for the customer friendly smile and the easy flow of her speech as she informs the couple about the different options they have, Yuri would’ve easily mistaken her for one of the many stressed college students he sees in front of him in line at the 24-hour open supermarket, arms full of comfort food, painkillers and coffee grains.

Two waiting chairs and a table take up most of the space in the small room. Yuri ignores them and leans against the wall, skimming the pamphlets spread out on the table briefly before his attention wilts and his fingertips start itching. Hidden in the pocket of his hoodie, he twists a tiger shaped keychain around his pinky.

The elderly couple give him a wide berth on their way out, and the pleasant smile from the girl slips once the door shuts. She looks him up and down, dark eyebrows pinched together—Yuri is long used to stink eyes, it comes with the territory of being a child prodigy who also spent his teens being a total asshole, but an animal shelter wasn’t the place he expected to meet one.

«Can I help you?»

He plants his elbows on the counter, chews thoughtfully on his chewing gum as he skims the mess of papers and loose documents strewn across the desk and observes her idly as the girl’s lips purses themselves into a frown as she waits. Her name tag reads ‘Natalya’.

«I wanna volunteer,» he says, tilting his head slightly to the side so his hair falls away from his eyes.

Not what she was expecting, he could tell. A moment passes in which she just stares at him, stone faced with a disbelieving tilt to her mouth. Her eyes narrow and she looks him up and down again, this time with none of the welcoming hospitality she showed the couple from before. Yuri clenches his jaw, considering for just a moment to leave if she won’t take him seriously—but back home is an empty apartment and the looming threat of a phone call from his grandpa where he’ll again have to make his uneventful days sound healthy and engaging.

«Do you have any prior experience volunteering?»

«No.»

«Any experience handling animals?»

«I had a cat,» he replies, fingers twisting and untwisting around the keychain.

Natalya rummages through a drawer, curses quietly when she doesn’t find what she’s looking for and pulls out another. Eventually she slides a form over to him, the paper slightly crinkled and with what looks like coffee stains in the corner.

«You don’t get a lot of volunteers, do you?» He asks, mostly out of curiosity, but also to see that annoyed twitch in her expression.

She makes the kind of face Yuri over the years has learned to recognize as a warning; she pulls the form back over the counter and Yuri has to yank it back, banging his hand against the polished wood in the process. A mutual glare is shared before Yuri snatches a dog face-printed pen from a cup next to his elbow and stalks back to the chairs. He can feel the force of her glowering as he discards the top and lets it fall to the ground.

He takes his time reading through the document, paying extra attention to the clause in which they promise not to divulge personal information like his phone number or email; Yakov had at least taught him that much. He scrawls down his name, address and contact information. He writes down his date of birth and age, and for once it doesn’t make him feel old to write down 24 years old.

He ticks off ‘walk dogs’, ‘shelter care’ and ‘cat attendant’ when they ask what types of volunteer work he’s interested in, and after a moment of hesitation he ticks off the box next to ‘other’ as well, for good measure.

A question about when he’ll be available comes up, just to estimate the amount of time he’ll be able to devote. He checks off the box saying ‘at least five hours a week’, but beneath it he scrawls ‘anytime’.

Natalya looks up from her paperwork as he slides the form back to her, their gazes locked in a steely staring contest as they both hold onto the form.

«We’ll be in touch,» she says briskly and goes back to her paperwork, apparently done with him. Yuri bites the inside of his cheek and wonders for a brief moment if this is how Yakov felt all those years. Maybe he should send him a gift basket for his birthday.

He turns on his heel and marches out, making sure to slam the door just as hard on his way out as he did on his way in.

***

“Yurotchka. It’s been too long since your last call.”

Yuri looks down briefly and his grip around the phone tightens; beneath the chiding gruffness is worry, and he hates it when his grandpa worries.

“Sorry, it slipped my mind. How’s your back? The weather must still be cold in Moscow.”

His grandpa barks out a laugh at that. “My back is fine—it’s you I worry about. Are you eating well?”

“Of course. …Actually, I’m thinking about volunteering at a shelter. Just part time, but it’ll get me out of the apartment at least.”

There’s a moment of silence on the other end and Yuri has his lip held between his teeth, holding his breath because this is another kind of nervous than what he’s used to.

“I’m glad to hear that,” his grandpa says, calm and collected where he is not, and Yuri can finally breathe again.

***

A week later he’s called in for a basic introduction on how the shelter operates. It’s not Natalya who shows him around, but an older man with greying hair, big glasses and worn leather shoes who introduces himself as Josef. Yuri pays rapt attention as he’s given a tour of the shelter, informed about the different procedures and what volunteering entails. When he asks how many other volunteers they have, Jakob rubs his neck and chuckles awkwardly.

��There haven’t been many volunteers except Talya, lately. I’m the owner and deal with most of the paperwork, while she handles the animals and reception along with some college students who drop by once a week or so.”

Jakob looks at Yuri through those comically big glasses, and for a moment it’s like being fifteen again with one skate on the ice and Yakov’s steady hand on his shoulder just before a competition, both to ground him and to give him that extra push. Yuri recognizes very well that hopeful, expectant expression.

“I guess that means I’ll have plenty to do, then,” he says and turns on his heel. Once he stepped out on the ice he never looked back at Yakov, and he doesn’t look back at Josef either. Eyes forward. “The cages are next, right?”

Deep in his pocket, the keychain is wound tightly around his pinkie.

***

«I wasn’t sure you were gonna show up,» Natalya says as the door slams shut behind him. She doesn’t sound happily surprised.

Yuri holds back an eye roll and twists his hair up into a ponytail. She watches stoically from the counter with only one coffee cup this time—still steaming. Hopefully she isn’t one of those people who get grouchier with more caffeine.

«Well, here I am,» he says, «What do you need me to do?»

She waves him along to the door behind the counter which he already knows will lead to the back rooms with the animals.

The first back room is for the dogs, and they all perk up when they enter, barking and panting for attention like a certain poodle he’s glad is currently on another continent. Natalya tries to shush some of the barking and leads him quickly past the cages—stopping only to ruffle the ears of a moping golden retriever who wags weakly with his tail in response.

“I’ve already cleaned the dog cages, so you take the cat ones. Someone set up an adoption meeting in—” She glances briefly at her locked phone screen, “—thirty minutes, so I’ll do one cage for you to see before you’re on your own.»

The cat room has thirty cages lining the walls and within are cats of all colors and shapes. Some stay curled up on their bedding and will barely turn an ear in their direction, while others get up on their hind legs and wail like sirens for attention.

A siberian with long, smokey grey fur pushes their face close to the bars and blinks up at him. Yuri reaches out to let them sniff his hand—

«I wouldn’t do that if I were you,» Natalya comments drily from behind his shoulder. «She likes to act all innocent, but that one’s got some claws on her.»

Yuri has half a mind to ignore her, but the cat’s tiny paws are indeed armed with a set of sharp claws she methodically digs in and out of the bedding with her blue eyes firmly fixed on him. Better let scheming cats lie.

«What’s her name?» He asks. The finger he moves from side to side in front of her cage must either smell like dead mice or look suspiciously like a red dot, because her eyes follow it with searing focus.

«Belle.» Her tone is clipped and dismissive and if she had pigtails Yuri would have to fight back the impulsive need to tug on them. But, he reminds himself, she does not have pigtails and therefore he should not tug on them. That would be immature and petty.

Natalya gives him a quick rundown; pull out, shake, laundry basket, fold and repeat. A dry ‘good luck’ later and he’s on his own.

Cleaning cages is—unexpectedly—a shitty job. It’s smelly, moist, tedious and it’ll take forever to get through just one row. At the pace he’s holding it’ll take at least another hour before he’s anywhere close to finished, but the thing is…

Yuri kinda likes it.

Except for the smell and the symphony of thirty cats crying out for food, Yuri really doesn’t mind the task. Every cage comes with a new furry face, and it feels good to use his body for physical work again; his height is for once an advantage instead of a pain and saves him the effort of pulling out the ladder Natalya pointed out for him earlier.

Around the time he reaches the halfway point, Natalya pokes her head in to check on him.

«Things alright in here?» She asks, sounding remarkably, almost friendly. Just a tad less grouchy and he might even give her credit for trying. «I’m gonna go for a walk with the dogs. You good to stay here for another hour?»

Yuri nods, doing his best to keep his expression from screaming ‘my schedule is a black void of nothingness with the exception of the weekly calls to my grandpa’. Every now and then he gets a text from Yakov reminding him to eat a minimum of two meals a day and get something between eight to ten hours of sleep, but other than that his time is his to do with as he pleases.

«If someone rings the bell, just tell them to come back some other time.»

Yuri raises an eyebrow. «And if I can actually help them?»

She looks him dead in the eye. «Don’t. Most likely they want more info about the adoption process or they want to schedule an adoption meeting—you’ve been trained for neither. Just tell them to come back. If they’re serious, they will.»

Her semi-friendly tone is all but gone as she observes him. The way her gaze lingers on his leopard printed vans and the bold print of his hoodie reminds him of Lilia when he first met her—but unlike Lilia who always fought to bring out the potential she saw in him, Natalya looks more like she’d like to see him reduced to dirt than anything else.

She stares at him and some old, stubborn part of him wants to bite back, call her a hag and stomp off somewhere to stew until she comes creeping back. But that tactic never really worked with Mila or Lilia or Victor, and imagining the faces of his grandpa or Yuuko if they saw him behave like a literal fifteen-year old just… doesn’t appeal to him.

«Fine,» he says, «But chasing them away doesn’t sound as the best tactic if you want them to come back.»

And in true fifteen-year old fashion, Natalya glares at him with the power of a thousand burning suns and slams the door—or, well, more like shuts it firmly to not scare the animals, but the intent is there.

A drawn out, raspy meow from Belle reminds him of the dirty bedding he’s holding and what he should be doing with it.

«Yuuko better be feeling fucking proud right now,» he grumbles and whips it once, twice; successfully transferring a ton of cat hairs from the bedding onto his newly washed, black jeans.

***

Natalya is, in fact, not back within an hour. Yuri finishes up with the cages, and since he’s not allowed to help any clients if they happened to stop by anyways, he waits in the back, mostly out of spite. But fifteen minutes passes, the cats are pacing in their cages and complaining, and she’s still not back, so he refills all of their water bowls and then—after a quick glance at the feeding schedule taped to the wall—he refills their food bowls too.

Josef is the one who finds him thirty minutes later on the ground making funny faces at a dozing tabby who really couldn’t care less. The cats all perk up at the sound of someone entering the room; even Yuri’s lazy tabby meows for attention.

«Ah… I see you’re having fun?» Josef says, absently pressing his knuckles against one of the cages to let one of the cats sniff them. «Have they’ve been out already?»

«What? No. Natalya told me to clean the cages, but they’ve been acting weird ever since I finished.»

«Wow, she sure isn’t going easy on you, giving you the crappiest job first,» he says, and Yuri has to physically ease his hold on the keychain he’s been fiddling with to avoid breaking the chain. In the beginning it could be accounted to a bad mood, but now it’s really starting to look as if she doesn’t want him here. Either Josef doesn’t notice the tight set of his jaw or he chalks it up to the fact that he’s just spent two hours cleaning cages; there’s nothing but a curious tilt to his voice as he continues:

«She didn’t tell you about the socialising? We usually let them out of their cages after cleaning for some playtime. If they were to adopted by a family with kids, for an example, we want them to be fairly used to humans. So we take them out in batches of ten to play.»

At his blank look, Josef waves him up. «I’ll show you.»

Three batches of ten for thirty minutes each; they carry them one by one into a playdate room with boxes of cat toys, water bowls and a cat tree stationed in the corner. Belle scratches him in thanks before she darts out of his grip, tail lifted high and haughty like she owns the place. Even though she’s small in size, Yuri doesn’t miss that some of the other cats shy away from her, so that might very well be the case.

When every cat is safely moved and the exit properly barricaded, Josef gives him a few safety instructions and tells him to yell out if he needs him. Something about paperwork or responsibility or whatever, Yuri had two cats in his lap and tried to secure a third one climbing from his shoulder to his head at the time, and multitasking was never a specialty of his to begin with.

The lazy tabby who didn’t appreciate Yuri’s funny faces earlier is apparently called Rolf. Josef carried him in earlier, and the second he had all paws back on earth he headed for the cat tree, probably to continue his day-long nap with a higher vantage point. A single narrow eyed look and a flick of Belle’s tail as Rolf nears is all it takes to dissuade him from that idea.

Instead he curls up at Yuri’s side and keeps a watchful eye on Belle, tail curled around himself. Yuri’s hand finds its way into his fur almost on its own, and after a tense second in which Rolf contemplates wether protection is worth the ear scritches, he softens and closes his eyes to doze.

«Hmph, coward,» he says, carding his fingers through the soft fur of his neck. «Letting her boss you around like that, where’s your pride?»

Rolf rumbles with a deep, vibrating sound and offers no other response except the lazy curl of a paw.

The cats look happy to do their own thing; dozing on the different levels of the cat tree, sniffing around the water bowls in search of food, snuggling up to him for some attention or just to be petted for a while.

One of the boxes next to the door is filled with cat toys, and especially the younger, more playful cats seem to enjoy chasing after jingling balls and swatting at stuffed mouse toys. Yuri manages to lure some of the lazier cats in the cat tree down by using a plastic fishing rod with a feather at the end of the line, tickling their noses and pulling away when they try to bat at it until they’re leaping from one spot to another with their claws out to catch and kill.

When the first half hour is up, most of the cats aren’t all that happy to be picked up again and placed back in their cages. A new set of scratch marks join their comrades on his arms, courtesy of two worked up cats whom he doesn’t know the names of.

Cute little bastards.

Natalya is having her own playtime with some of the dogs in the other room, wrestling them for a chewy toy and scolding them lightly when they get overeager and jump up on her.

She hasn’t noticed him yet, so he leans on the doorframe and crosses his arms as he observes. A moment later he realizes that he looks like a moody teenager and plants his arms back at his sides, shuffling his feet a little to rearrange himself.

«I thought you said you’d be back in an hour.»

Her smile slips for a moment and one of the dogs bark triumphantly as he finally manages to steal the chewy toy from her lax grip. Immediately, two of his smaller cage mates leap on him, yipping and shoving their noses beneath him to snatch the toy away for themselves.

Natalya fixes him with a sour look. «I took a longer route and came back twenty minutes ago. What about it?»

«Oh, I don’t know, you could’ve told me?» He says and crosses his arms. «Or you could’ve explained that I was supposed to do the socialising thing after I was finished, instead of leaving me waiting for you to toss me a crumble.»

She snorts, and Yuri scowls. «What, is that too much to ask? I’m here to help, but it doesn’t really look as if you want me to.»

«Yeah, sure, you’re here to help,» she snorts. «Believe it or not, but I’m not gonna waste my time training someone seriously when you’re obviously not taking it seriously.»

«Where is that even coming from? I’ve done everything you’ve asked of me—you’re the one who’s not taking me seriously!»

«Oh, for fucks sake, you’re an olympic champion and my brother has your posters plastered on his walls! You show up here in your flashy clothes with no experience volunteering, and I’m supposed to what? Act as if it’s not a publicity stunt? Sure, you can clean cages and cuddle with cats as much as you want, but at the end of the day you’re gonna make your dramatic return to figure skating next season with a better reputation than Jesus himself. I want nothing to do with it,» she says, looking slightly redder in the face than before.

It’s Yuri’s turn to snort, and he doesn’t bother to hide the sceptic look on his face. «Who the hell shot your Santa Claus? First off, I’m not going back to skating. Long story short, my injury from the Grand Prix was just the feather to tip the scale; my body’s so busted the doctors won’t allow me to even look at a rink, so that’s a big no. Second, I get three worried phone calls a week from people who want me to get out of my apartment, so I thought doing something nice for the society would be a good start. And also: cats. I really like cats.»

He looks down his nose at her and raises a sharp, blond eyebrow. «Are we done here?»

***

The next morning, Yuri wakes up feeling like piece of shit gone through the drier. His shoulders are sore from leaning into cages all day yesterday, aching in ways he’s grown unaccustomed to after so long away from the ice and the training regime following it. He twinges as he reaches up into the cupboard to retrieve a mug, but he sucks it up; feeling like a piece of shit after coffee is usually better than feeling like a piece of shit prior. Maybe it’s time to pick up a membership at a gym or something.

The thirty minute long bus ride to the shelter sounds about as tempting as eating the leftover kibble in the dogs’ feeding bowls, but being a no-show after yesterday’s shitshow is absolutely out of the question. Natalya and her entitled opinion can go die in a hole for all he cares, but hell if he’s gonna let her think she’s right about him.

His closet has been forty percent workout clothes and fifty percent tiger stripes and band logos since he turned fourteen, but he fishes out a plain, black hoodie and a pair of white sneakers he’s used maybe two times in his life. Not that the chance of being recognised out on the street was very high to begin with here, but he knows his absence has made the atmosphere among his fans more… turbulent than usual.

He leaves his apartment with the hood pulled down low and arrives at his bus stop five minutes early. He keeps his earbuds in and his nose buried in his phone for most of the ride, and for once he doesn’t make a ruckus on his way in, instead shutting the door gently behind him.

Natalya looks up, for once not with a frown. Her hair is pulled away from her face with a bandana, and it takes him back to an onsen in a has-been town with nothing to speak off except their broken ace and the people who love him. But unlike Mari, Natalya has none of that easygoing confidence. She looks at him with weariness in her eyes, pen halting in the air and stumbling in its steadfast ‘taptaptap’ against the counter. She looks ready to say something, but makes no move to do so.

«Where do you need me?» He asks, tilting his head to the side in a manner his grandpa would scoff at. It’s a bad habit he hasn’t quite managed to shake since his teens, and an annoying coworker isn’t what’s gonna inspire him to get rid of it. It’ll take a heartfelt apology and a bag of newly baked piroshki to even consider, and Natalya hasn’t even made it halfway.

«Uhm, dogs,» she says, blinking a little to compose herself. «I’ve finished most of their morning walks, but Yoda, Dany and Eloise haven’t been out yet. Take them to—you know that park two blocks from the mall? The one with the little pond and oak trees, right by the dentist office? Take them there.»

Unlike the cats, the dogs’ cages are all marked with their names and are thus easy to find. Yoda is apparently the shi tzu who always greets him with a hoarse ‘bork’ when he passes by his cage. He and Dany, a standard poodle and are two of the older residents well-used to the routine. He fastens leashes to their collars and leads them down the hall to the last cage. Unlike her buddies, Eloise is a bundle of endless energy, constantly pulling at her leash to run ahead and very insistent in where she wants to go.

Except for the occasional jogger and elderly person passing by with sneakily hidden bags of bird seeds, the park is theirs to rule. They keep a leisurely pace so that everyone will have the time to stop and sniff at lampposts, flecks of grass or a bush of interest. Natalya gave him the ok to let Dany loose without a leash if it wasn’t crowded, and she trots diligently a few steps behind him, sometimes slacking off a bit or taking the lead as it suits her.

Yuri’s experience with poodles is limited to Makkachin, and seeing Dany leaping ahead does bring back memories of the countless times Victor had him dog-sit for the weekend whenever he planned to whisk his husband away. But Dany doesn’t jump onto him or bulldoze him down with wet kisses and snouts pressed under his chin like Makkachin. It’s been a while since he though about her, actually. Maybe he should give those two idiots a call later.

Once everyone has found a spot worthy of their droppings, they head back. On their way in, Yuri holds the door open for a father and his daughter. Between them is a carrier, tightly shut and with a familiar, furry face hiding behind the bars.

“—can’t wait to introduce Ketchup to Billy; do you think they’ll get along? I hope so since…”

Is all he hears of their conversation, even as he turns to watch them leave with Rolf; or Ketchup, as it seems he’ll be known as from now on. Good for him.

Yuri leads the dogs back to their pens and hangs the leashes back on their hooks. He refills their water bowls and spends some time showering a long faced mixed breed with affection.

While he’s been out, Natalya and Josef got started on cleaning the cat cages and are almost finished by the time he pokes his head through the door.

«Ah, there you are, Yura. Could you just get started on the socialising while we finish up here?» Josef asks.

Natalya has her back to him, shoulders tense and hunched. Josef hands her some clean bedding, and their gazes meet for a split second across her shoulder before she breaks it off.

***

They meet in the playroom with the eyes of ten cats on them. Belle has finally accepted his existence and even lets he pet her; the first touch to her furry, little head is hesitant and careful, ready to pull away at any sign of hostility. She stares at him as he pets in slow, light movements, and then her head sinks back to the floor and her eyes close slowly.

Yuri holds his breath, almost moved to tears at the display of tolerance trust.

Natalya joins him on the floor with her back to the wall, and she is immediately surrounded. One cat comes out victorious and settles on her lap, purring loud enough for him to hear six feet away. Two others settle down on each side of her thighs, pressed close to steal some of her warmth.

They sit in silence for a while. Yuri has no need to break it; he’s not the one who should be apologising right now, so if Natalya wants to stew, he’ll let her stew.

“I’m not really sorry. I mean— My thoughts, not the way I treated you. The way I treated you was pretty shitty, to be honest, but I don’t think it’s weird for me to be suspicious when an Olympic champion stumbles in and wants to volunteer at an understaffed shelter. But I guess it wasn’t very fair to you, and we need more volunteers, so, y’know, you’re welcome to stay.»

It’s a pretty crappy apology in his opinion; no eye contact, no bag of piroshki, and he never actually heard the words ‘I’m sorry’ in there. But well, he’s probably delivered much worse apologies himself when he was her age—not that that’s a high bar to reach.

«I could show you how to work the computer system later, if you want,» she offers.

«Sure.»

He can’t waste time on grudges when there are cats to pet and cages to clean.

Thank you for reading! This was a gift for cadencekismet! I had some trouble coming up with something for your prompts, but I hope you liked it :)

#cadencekismet #vilchan #gifts19 #YOIsanta19 #fanfic #Yuri Plisetsky #Yuri!!! on Ice #submission

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wodrueckts · 5 years ago

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part of me kind of wants to do that gif meme because i do enjoy making gifs even if they’re shitty and through making more i might even get better at it, BUT

1. all of the prompts are like “favourite xy” and i’m really bad at picking favourites lmao

and 2. my computer can barely handle photoshop and just opening it is an ordeal and it took literally 10 minutes and like 17 crashes just to import the frames for the last gif set i made lol

#das leben ist hart und ungerecht

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narcon9-blog · 6 years ago

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Exactly How To Choose The Most Effective Computer Software

If you're like most people, computer software can be a aspect of contemporary technology. There are so many different kinds of software that perform diverse types of functions that it's practically impossible to find a handle.

Perhaps a lot more difficult compared to usability is that your job of selecting the best computer software; you will find plenty of unique aspects and lots. Luckily, with a little prep and basic know-how, you'll find the applications and programs that are right for you personally. Here are the most crucial points to think about while searching for applications. From getintopc, users may download software at no cost. From the website, users may download both PC and cellular applications.

Can this applications faithfully execute the functions I want it to perform?

The most important characteristic of any application is that it gets the ability to complete the work you require it to do. You may be surprised to find out that software programs purport to do one thing, but do something entirely or nothing in any way, while this sounds obvious.

For instance, a number of computer software on the market promise to be able to boost your computer's speed and functionality. Some computers come with more gaming skills while some have more storage space. Make sure that you do your homework.

Does my pc meet the minimum system requirements?

This is a dilemma which you'll need to ask yourself when choosing applications, but it's as important as any. Applications for, say, audio editing or graphic-design may be yet another story entirely, while most ordinary apps like word processors and spreadsheet programs aren't very caustic to a computer. Ensure that your computer has enough RAM, the kind of graphics card, a large drive, and a fast enough processor to conduct the application before purchasing any software.

Can this software?

Making sure that you and any other users will have the ability to use this program is 1 standard that gets looked over frequently. No one wants to have to go through hours of applications training that is intensive if it could be avoided, but sadly using some high level software that's a necessary evil. A few software, like Adobe's Photoshop, by way of example, can barely be used and energy to learning how it works without devoting lots of time . Most frequently there are numerous competitions in the software market for a particular program type, therefore look for the one that's easiest to use so long as it fits your finances.

You will have to keep in your mind that, like most things, purchasing computer software is a trade-off, because there are many varied standard for choosing computer software bundles. Is it more important for the applications to be powerful but difficult to learn how to make use of, or would you rather pay more money for a option? These are matters you'll have to decide yourself, after you be certain that the software can execute the functions you want it to and may run onto your own PC. Superior luck and happy hunting!

#getintopc #get into pc

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hysteriamodes · 6 years ago

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Coloring in grey scale

So, hey, this is somewhat of a tutorial for those curious about some of my coloring and blending. I made this especially for anyone younger than me and is exploring digital art, but this is also for others who are curious about what I do. I love reading other artist’s comments and looking at their WIPs, so why not.

Another reminder: if you’re looking for my artwork, please follow @rainbow-illness and not this blog. All of my finished stuff goes there; usually, my works in progress (WIPs) or Angry Doodle Corner go here. Sometimes I use this blog to repost my art, but that is my official art blog, no this one. Not unless you like nonsensical posting and metal, then have at it. If you have any questions, don’t be afraid to hit me up, I love talking about art.

So I can’t always sit down and talk about my processes and how I go about doing them, but I was able to sit down and take some screencaps while I was working on my iPad Pro. Using the iPad is actually my first choice to draw on because of the convenience of carrying it around like a sketchbook, whereas my laptop isn’t always easy to carry around--it’s a big laptop. While I use my iPad, I also like to go back and correct things, recolor, re-proportion, or spend more time privately working on a drawing. I have my iPad with me, all the time, so I’m out in places usually like Starbucks doing this. I also struggle with pretty bad PTSD and agoraphobia, so having my iPad out with my headphones on gives me an excuse to put my mind elsewhere to calm down. My family just usually looks at me and goes “oh, she’s working on her art again”; I did this as a kid, too, only with sketchbooks.

I do not have a Cintiq either, though I would absolutely love one. This laptop is capable of using a stylus, but I think I need a better one to do it with. All I’m using is a cheap Wacom Bamboo tablet that I’ve had for five years, that’s it. Everything I’ve done on this blog has been on a small surface. So if you’re just dabbling into art, don’t beat yourself up for having the small stuff, I’ve worked with small stuff and still do. The only thing I have that’s not small is, well, the space and processor on my laptop are much faster than any other laptop I’ve owned, bought especially for graphic design classes and my artwork.

So, that being said lemme just forewarn some of you guys. My artwork is all done in two to three layers! Yes, you read that right! Why? When I was 16, I didn’t have a Wacom tablet to mess with, so I had to use a mouse and learned from there. When I turned 18, I got my first Wacom tablet while working my first official job and the family computer didn’t have a good processor. So when I got my first official laptop, it was basic and not made to run anything beyond the web browser and such, it could barely handle Photoshop. It did, however, run Paint Tool SAI with no issue (which is why I still prefer it over anything I use), it just couldn’t handle more than five layers. After losing my drawings constantly and not being able to do anything in the prized software I’ve been eyeing since my Sophmore year of high school, I found a workaround with it.

And that’s what I’m going to write about here. With that in mind, no, you do not have to limit your layers! I’ve taken traditional art classes so my first instinct is to literally paint over my stuff like I would on a canvas. If you don’t want to do that, you don’t have to! Yes, I am nuts.

That being said, let's do this.

If you haven’t taken traditional art classes, that’s cool! I’m going to be using some art terms you haven’t heard of, but you definitely will when you take your first ever drawing class. These terms are foreground, value, negative space, contour, and weighted line (I’ve seen it called line weight too). For the more experienced art students who are likely groaning over that stupid contour practice from that book “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain”, I’m sorry, guys. Newbies, you are going to know this.

And you are going to hate it. While I still hate it and, yeah, my eyes are rolling into my skull right now just even talking about it, there are some useful practices in here that I... actually use. Who would have thought? At least we’re not talking about still lives.

Anyway, here’s what I’M going to say that some art teachers will not tell you but I want anyone to read this to know:

- Do not obsess over your drawing to look exactly like your reference. Just don’t. Forget this completely, worry about it later or don’t even worry about it at all. This is your style, your interpretation.

- Digital art is hard. Art is hard! Practice makes perfect and you learn over time just by studying (looking at) other pieces of art. It took me like well over 10 years to find my own little niche and I’m still playing around with coloring styles. I have a lot.

- If you’re just starting to draw with a tablet of any kind, play around with it. My first official program was a cheaper version of Paint Shop Pro and when I first got it when I was 14, I sat around and experimented on layers to see what it would look like. Explore!

- When you start drawing figures or faces, try not to think of it as, well, face or a figure. Reduce it to basic shapes, like squares, triangles, and circles.

Greyscale can establish light source, value, scale, and negative space.

I don’t always use greyscale for my art, but when I do, I appreciate it because it makes my life easier. For example, Alphonse Mucha’s pieces here from his “Slav Epic”.

Chances are, you’ve seen Mucha’s art nouveau on prints, fanart, fabrics, and all of that. But Mucha did so much more and he is a huge influence on me for a reason. By the greyscale we see here, we can see foreground/subject with each illustration. Mucha is using value (that’s shadow) to emphasize this, in addition to negative space (background) to draw you in, just by using black and white. Notice how the other subjects don’t have such a powerful contrast and light source versus the other, especially the woman on the left. Mucha made his art pop by his understanding of contrast.

For this first part of this entry, I’m going to be using Papa Emeritus II from “Ghost”... who is a good example of how to draw faces, too. Huh. Regardless of what drawing program you’re using, keep your opacity low, at 50%.

Simplicity at its finest

Instead of focusing a lot on Emeritus’ face, I’m going to focus on the negative space behind him. I’m using this to define his figure. This is a good picture because of the stark contrast, though, it’s a little tricky because it is really contrasted and you can’t see where the light source really is. But that is okay! I am going in and just using this negative space, the contour of his head and torso. Before I even think of a face, I want to softly go in and use black (or grey) to fill up that negative space. Keep it simple and work your way up.

After I lightly fill in the negative space around him, I can start lightly going in and establish his face by blocks of shadow. And this is why Emeritus II is such a good example for this kind of work. I don’t usually start going in and drawing eyes, I rely on the shadows of the face to see where their eyes, ears, lips, and such lie.

Here’s another example (though, it’s old):

This is in my maroon style underpaint, which is what I post most of the time. For their faces, I just used basically eye sockets to start working on their faces, like Papa Emeritus II down below. Again, this dude is a great example.

Here is where it may get a little funky. I created a new layer and set that layer to Multiply, still keeping that opacity low. Since I have no light source and I just want to create a really dramatic lighting, I made a vignette with a simple airbrush tool.

With that little vignette, you can create a new layer (unless you’re me, I just merge it down because of that constant fear of nonexistent software crashing) and I’m using the color pick tool to go back and forth to start using greys to really get into Emeritus’ face, especially his wrinkles. I’m painting over it constantly, switching back and forth between a paintbrush tool and color pick tool to blend. Again, keep your opacity low... unless you’re me and you’re feeling adventurous. You’ll also notice here that I have more than one photo reference. I use several for a lot of my art, so I encourage you to do the same. I had no idea what his jaw looked like, so I grabbed a second photo. Now that I have a better idea of where his hat ends on his forehead and how his nose looks, I start doing a weighted line.

Weighted line and Contour

Now is the dreaded talk. Of contour.

Welcome to Drawing I hell. This cursed image is from the book “How to Draw on the Right Side of the Brain” and if your teacher does not talk about this in your first drawing class, I am going to eat my hat... I have a hat lying around here somewhere. ANYWAY, the contour line exercise is basically you just using a neverending line for a drawing. I don’t know who drew this (and tbh, thanks a lot for every single boring assignment I’ve done in drawing classes), but this guy used contour lines for his drawing. I’m having war flashbacks over here, but I managed to find an art teacher’s page talking about different types of contour. My god, they are evolving.

Going back to our dear friend Papa Emeritus II, I used weighted line to start adding in little shadows to his face. Weighted line goes hand in hand with contour; it is a great technique to not only add details, but add little bits of shadows.

This is a simple example; the thicker line is adding to the shadow of the apple, giving it value!

Papa Emeritus II is such a good reference... I used him as inspiration for King Melwas here.

Gwenhwyfar is also a good example of weighted line. Gwen is essentially a very, very pale character. In contrast to Melwas, who is in darker clothing, Gwen is soft, she is the focal point in this drawing. For the little pieces of her hair, the corner of her lips, eyelashes, and her fingertips, I used a weighted line to establish these things, otherwise, Gwen is so pale, she’ll easily be washed out completely.

This drawing of Alice, which I’m still messing around with, is another example of how effective a weighted line can be with depth. The lines I added into her face, eyelashes, creases, hair, and fingers add those little details since everything I’ve done before like Papa Emeritus II was so soft with a low opacity on the brush settings.

Layer masks and curves

There are two ways you can color greyscale images.

You can do this by going into Layer > Adjustment Layer > Curves (this is how it looks like in Procreate).

This gives you a neat ol’ base color! I am playing around in the blues, adding soft hues of blue in their figures and the white in this picture can either turn blue, cream, or even green. You don’t have to use Blue, you can use any of the other colors. For me, I’m always drawn to blues. Another cool thing to play around with is Color Balance, which is underneath the same function as Curves.

But if you don’t have any of these, you can add a new layer, and do Multiply.

The only drawback to this, of course, is how destaturated (the lack of color) it looks. And yes, that’s an issue you will have and I did run into this while doing this. How I combat this is using additional layer masks. Believe it or not, Alice here was once at a grey scale, looking even more desaturated than Gwen.

For Alice’s face, I went in and use:

- Soft Light because she needed more peach and roses in her skin. Omri’s original drawing gave her a light rose blush so I wanted to do the same.

- Overlay to mask out the black lines from the greyscale I had.

- Lighten which I used to make her lips pinker, her apron’s shadows lighter, and parts of her hair brown.

The same went for Gwen, who is, again, very pale. But while she’s supposed to be pale, I didn’t wash her out completely. To add more saturation, I used a combination of Soft Light over my Multiply layer and Overlay to start working at the highlights on her hair, nose, and shoulder.

This little walkthrough isn’t as visual as I like, but with limited software like Fire Alpaca, GIMP, or Paint Tool SAI that don’t have the abilities of Photoshop in terms of color correction and playing around with colors, I really encourage you, readers, to play around with these tools. Using the color picker back and forth, especially after using layer masks, gives you an ability to mix and blend colors. The reason why I work with greyscale or a maroon under paint is that you can create brilliant colors and make a new palette; the trick is to constantly mess around with them. I never go in and flat out color anything, with the exception of things like “angry doodle corner” which is basically what I call my lazy drawings, drawings where I’m just honestly goofing off with.

So in summation...! Or me trying to summarize this.

Experiment and explore with layer masks and adjustments. Whoever says that using these tools isn’t real art, they’re wrong. And please don’t ever be afraid of using references of any sort! Alphonse Mucha is saved ten times over on this computer.

#my art #tutorial #i think #an attempt was made #digital art #procreate #ipad drawing #ipad pro #Alice madness returns #alice liddell #american mcgee's alice #alice asylum

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steve0discusses · 7 years ago

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Yugioh E6 S1: Everyone is Psychic but Mei

Last we left our four (five) buddies, Yugi just finished a two-episode long duel, and maybe that’s why he decided to go very off-character and just do nothing almost this entire episode. There’s plot reasons as to why this is, and mechanically, they can’t make the whole show all about Yugi--they have three other characters who right now barely serve a purpose since, up to now, Yugi’s basically done all the legwork for them.

Also, note they didn’t get the guy who is good at drawing Yugi into every episode--because this is one super googly-eyed Yugi. To be fair though, these character designs are pretty rough to throw at any animation team, and I don’t blame them--when your pupils don’t match your eye shape you get...you get this:

(more under the cut)

And as I’ve mentioned before, this show is unique amongst kids shows for not holding our hands as it dumps very heavy drama on our laps. Special interest kid’s shows like Hey Arnold did discuss how Arnold’s parents were dead, but also did so in a very PSA sort of way. It took time to digest the information, it gave it back to us in a way a child would understand. But, in Yugioh--heavy stuff just happens and there’s no processing it. There’s no real solution. We have this vague surgery that can fix Joey’s sister’s eyes but can it fix their situation? No. Not really.

And it’s not unusual for a kid’s show to take on divorce, but the Yugioh take is such a messy divorce--one where the two kids are starved of each other--the type of emotional abuse that does happen IRL, but just in general stays off the air during prime kid-watching time.

They’re actually pretty cute as kids, I’m not going to lie. Not sure why they got the OK to run away from home to escape to the beach for an entire day but maybe laws are different in Yugioh Japan?

And I just want to remind you--this show was only made to serve one purpose--to sell toys. That was it. This show only ever needed to make these cards look cool and that was it. But someone behind the scenes was like...”Guys, lets get REAL deep” Does it work? I...I don’t know yet. And the crazy thing is--if the rumors I’ve heard are correct--this isn’t even the tip of the iceberg to how far things are going to go later.

Joey, with the first opportunity to take his sister to the beach again somewhat in reach, realizes that maybe he should look at the cards that Yugi’s grandpa gave him in Episode 2.

And Joey decides “welp I’ll just use a boost from the environment because I got all meadow cards” because he’s bad at cards. Tea decides to take the opportunity to beeline for Mei and harass her since Mei called Tea out for being a deadweight, which is completely true, lets be fair.

(Also I have a hell of a time with getting an accent over that a on my computer so forgive me for calling her Tea from here on out.) And I mean...it’s a 90′s early 00′s show, so they gotta have the girls all catty and jealous of each other, although in my mind Mei is just playing the game. Mei is fine. Tea is...I don’t know why she is like this.

Also, the way they composed this shot is hilarious. Sometimes it looks like the storyboarder is fighting Yugi’s height, and other times, they are fully embracing it. This is fabulous. As a very short person, I approve.

But Yugi’s decided, I’m gonna let Joey do this on his own. Why? I don’t know. Yugi usually jumps to defend his friends-- but today he’s just like...nah. I’m gonna stare blankly at the sky (in like eight different directions because these eyes are very hard to draw) with a very little mouth and just let this happen.

I don’t think I’ve even hardly covered Tristan, but basically he’s really into Joey’s sister and it’s just kinda gross to me.

Maybe being Pharaoh for too long makes Yugi a little spacy? I dunno. I dunno why this is happening other than they needed a Joey episode and gave up with trying to find a reason why Yugi would not be handling this himself. Also any zoom in on little Yugi turns into a cursed image--I can’t with these eyes.

It’s like he’s staring right through me, I can’t. I can’t handle this.

OK even when you zoom out little Yugi is still a cursed image--like they aren’t even trying to not make googly eyes here.

And like seriously kid’s shows need to stop with the whole “you should do what you do only because you love it.” Listen, I do art because I love it--but I gotta pay bills. It means I draw a lot of art I don’t really love at all. A lot like whoever the artist was this episode who had to draw Yugi’s face.

And then, just like that, Yugi comes out of whatever stupor he’s in and realizes yeah Joey has not changed at all since ep 2. Also, serious question as I’m looking at these zooms: Does Yugi wear eyeliner? He seems like the type, and guyliner was a trend around this time. I mean he does wear a belt around his neck so guyliner is just the next logical step.

Oh man I just had so much nostalgia for my 00′s youth just now.

And then, next to his friends, does his mind scream. I’ve heard that this really is happening in his head, which makes sense here. But like...the show does seem inconsistent of how they portray it, hence my confusion.

I mean...Joey’s Dad sucks, Yugi Grandpa is semi-dead--so this is the next closest Dad, right?

I do exaggerate what they say sometimes for jokes but this is an exact line. He’s done this before: Like do you have to use your superpowers to convince Joey that Mei isn’t psychic? Maybe Pharaoh knows no other way, he is a Pharaoh after all. These kids must have brains with holes in them like swiss cheese.

Also Yugi’s Pharaoh form is still short this episode, which seems sort inconsistent but youknow, it is a kids show, so inconsistent is gonna be a theme here and I don’t need to get stuck on that. But, I just want to point out that seeing an adult face on little Yugi is almost worse. Like...pictures of a human face photoshopped on a cute fat animal.

To the surprise of no one, Yugi gave Joey a Blue Shell That Screws Everything card about three episodes ago with the instructions “You might need to kill Mei’s harpies three episodes from now, so put this in your deck, because I’m a psychic”

Aw, what a good Pharaoh Brain Parasite Dad.

This show’s messed up.

#Yugioh #recap #ep6 S1 #review #I'm pretty blind so don't spoil anything for me #Yugi Moto #Joey #Serenity #Mei #Tea #humor #sorry if your in the tea community and wanted like earl grey but instead got this nonsense on your timeline #you probably get this all the time though #accents on a's are really annoying on this keyboard #and it keeps opening up other tabs instead of accenting #so I have to copy and paste every a and hell no I'm not doing that anymore

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storydevs · 7 years ago

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Creating Vector Graphics

While making icons for StoryDevs it became obvious that raster graphics (i.e., images made of pixels) wouldn’t cut it. I wanted to be able to scale the images up or down without losing quality. This post is about me learning how to make vector graphics and the best free program I could find to make them.

Part 0: What Are Vector Graphics?

Most images you interact with on a computer are probably raster images which are made up of a grid of pixels. Common formats for such images are JPEG, PNG, GIF, and so on. When you zoom in on a raster image you can see the individual pixels, and scaling them up tends to look pretty nasty.

In contrast, vector graphics are made up of paths as shown below. You can zoom in forever and it will always be sharp as only the path info is saved, not the pixels that represent them on your screen. When you zoom in on a vector graphic it essentially re-renders the path again so it’s always smooth and clean:

Paths can be straight or curved. Paths can be stroked, which means a coloured line follows the path (as in the gif above), or they can be filled, meaning the interior of the shape is filled with colour. As far as I know, the only vector graphic format supported in modern web browsers SVG — Scalable Vector Graphics.

Part 1: Everything Is A Nail

I’m a 3D artist who can do a little digital painting if bullied. My first approach was to avoid learning a new skill and instead try mapping the problem to a domain I was already confident in. I had Blender and Photoshop installed but Photoshop barely does vector stuff. That left Blender.

Above you can see I modeled the icon for writing Blender. I then downloaded an old Python script that allowed you to render line art to an SVG file. This turned out okaaaay but there was a problem: it wasn’t exporting curves where there were curves… it was exporting segmented paths.

So this meant every time the line curved slightly it created a new segment, leading to a somewhat jagged line. Furthermore, the lines weren’t properly connected in the corners for some reason.

As you can see above the Blender SVG output was janky; you can see the segments even at normal zoom levels. Unfortunately I didn’t know the reason it looked bad at this point. So in the process of troubleshooting it I opened up the SVG file in my text editor. This is how it looked:

To my surprise it was written in XML (eXtensible Markup Language)! XML is similar to HTML — they’re both languages for categorising and storing data. The tags in each language are used to describe the data. If your document has a title, for example, you’d wrap it in a title tag <title>Like This</title>.

For now just ignore everything and look at the <path> tags with a bunch of numbers inside them. Those numbers describe the positions for points along the path. They’re all floating point numbers (i.e., they have a fractional part after the decimal point) rather than integers (whole numbers).

I’d read online that SVGs render best in browsers when there’s only integer values. I don’t know if that’s true, but I thought maybe that was why it was turning out screw-y looking. So I wrote a Python script that read SVG files and rounded the numbers up/down. Here was my script:

This had absolutely no effect! I was pretty pissed off by this point but it lead to a new idea: maybe what I’m seeing is the jagged-ness of polygons. There must be a lot of path segments due to it recreating the polygons as line segments… so maybe if I put it into an online optimiser it’d reduce the segments into curves?

After some searching I found an SVG optimiser online. I decided to try it. The file became much smaller but it didn’t look any better. At this point it became undeniable that Blender was not suited for this task.

Part 2: Get A New Tool

I already knew Inkscape and Adobe Illustrator existed. I had a bad experience once with Inkscape and I don’t want to talk about it. Illustrator is too expensive for me because I want the programs I use to be on-hand incase I want changes. I can’t afford a monthly subscription.

I decide to use Inkscape. It’s a good program in a technical sense — it has a lot of features — but it was just as confusing as I’d remembered. I’m sure there’s an internal logic for why things are the way they are, I just don’t know it. Still it’s a decent program and I made my icon in it.

As an aside: SVG doesn’t support branching paths. I didn’t realise this for a long time and kept trying to make the outer part of the page icon above a single path. Eventually I found this out and ended up making the fold on the upper-right of the writing icon as a separate path:

Using a dedicated vector program also allowed me to snap lines to the grid. This was another suggestion I’d read about creating SVGs that would supposedly help them render better in the browser. I dunno if that’s true but it couldn’t hurt. Something else I could do was use curves:

Notice how there’s only four control points (the grey diamonds)? That means the SVG file only needs to store these four positions rather than hundreds of little segments. This made the file quite small even before it was put through the optimiser.

Anyway, I exported it and ran it through the online optimiser. The result looked good and the file size was smaller. Below is a comparison of the files. The first attempt where I used Blender is on the left, while Inkscape + the online optimiser is on the right.

Much, much better. I integrated the icons I created into the site to see how they’d look when shrunk down. I was pretty happy with the result:

I didn’t feel like creating all the icons at that point so I took a break to do some client work as well as other programming tasks for StoryDevs.

Part 3: The Best Free Vector Graphics Program

When I came back I decided to look for something more easier to use than Inkscape. A couple months back I followed Ubuntu on Twitter since that’s the flavour of Linux that runs on StoryDevs servers. During my search I happened to see a vector art program shared by the Ubuntu account called Gravit Designer.

Overall it’s much easier to find what you’re looking for and it’s free! It’s a program for graphic art that looks like it was designed by graphic artists. I’ve only used the program a bit and while I was initially frustrated by some things, it seems like this is what I’ll be using from now on.

Conclusion

So that’s it! I skipped over the process of integrating the SVGs into the site because that’s another blog post right there. I’m probably going to recreate all StoryDevs’ existing branding and icons as SVGs at some point but for now they’ll remain raster images until I have some time to spare.

If you like what I’m doing with StoryDevs or you got some value out of this post (or both!), consider supporting me on Patreon. Sharing also helps :)

StoryDevs is a place for developers of story-focused games and visual novels to find each other and collaborate. The site is under development but handle reservations are open: www.storydevs.com/reserve

Website: www.storydevs.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jakebowkett Twitter: https://twitter.com/storydevs Discord: https://discord.gg/A2jtNqE Email: [email protected]

#vector graphics #svg #raster #graphic design

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holytheoristtastemaker · 4 years ago

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We are gathered here today….

Today I write in memory of Adobe Flash (née Macromedia), something that a bunch of people are actually too young to remember. I write this with love, longing, and a palpable sense of relief that it’s all over. I have come to praise Flash, to curse it, and finally to bury it.

We’ve been hearing about the death of Flash for a long time. We know it’s coming. December 2020 has been announced as the official timeframe for removal, but let’s be real about this: it’s dead. It’s super-dead. It’s people-are-selling-Flash-game-archives-on-Steam dead.

That last bit actually makes me happy, because Flash games were a huge part of my childhood, and the archives must be preserved. Before I’d ever heard of video cards, frames per second, and “git gud”, I was whiling away many an hour on disney.com, cartoonnetwork.com, MiniClip, Kongregate, and other sites, looking for games.

I think we’ve established in my previous work that even as a missionary kid, I did not have a social life.

The Internet itself gave me a way to reach out and see beyond my house, my city, and my world, and it was wonderful. Flash was a part of that era when the Internet felt new, fresh, and loaded with potential. Flash never sent anyone abuse, or death threats. Flash was for silly animations, and games that my parent’s computer could just barely handle, after half an hour of downloading.

I even built my first animated navigation menus in Flash, because I didn’t know any better. At all. But those menus looked exactly like the ones I’d designed in Photoshop, so that’s what mattered to me, young as I was.

That was a part of Flash’s charm, really.

What Flash Got Right

Flash Brought Online Multimedia into the Mainstream

Funny story, JavaScript was only about a year old when Flash was released. While HTML5 and JS are the de-facto technologies for getting things done now, Flash was, for many, the better option at launch. JS had inconsistent support across browsers, and didn’t come with a handy application that would let you draw and animate whatever you wanted.

It was (in part) Flash that opened up a world of online business possibilities, that made people realize the Internet had potential rivalling that of television. It brought a wave of financial and social investment that wouldn’t be seen again until the advent of mainstream social networks like MySpace.

The Internet was already big business, but Flash design became an industry unto itself.

Flash Was Responsive

Yeah, Flash websites could be reliably responsive (and still fancy!) before purely HTML-based sites pulled it off. Of course, it was called by other names back then, names like “Liquid Design”, or “Flex Design”. But you could reliably build a website in Flash, and you knew it would look good on everything from 800×600 monitors, to the devastatingly huge 1024×768 screens.

You know, before those darned kids with their “wide screens” took over. Even then, Flash still looked good, even if a bunch of people suddenly had to stop making their sites with a square-ish aspect ratio.

Flash Was Browser-Agnostic

On top of being pseudo-responsive, the plugin-based Flash player was almost guaranteed to work the same in every major browser. Back in a time when Netscape and Internet Explorer didn’t have anything that remotely resembled feature parity, the ability to guarantee a consistent website experience was to be treasured. When FireFox and Chrome came out, with IE lagging further behind, that didn’t change.

While the CSS Working Group and others fought long and hard for the web to become something usable, Flash skated by on its sheer convenience. If your site was built in Flash, you didn’t have to care which browsers supported the <marquee> tag, or whatever other ill-conceived gimmick was new and trendy.

Flash Popularized Streaming Video

Remember when YouTube had a Flash-based video player? Long before YouTube, pretty much every site with video was using Flash to play videos online. It started with some sites I probably shouldn’t mention around the kids, and then everyone was doing it.

Some of my fondest memories are of watching cartoon clips as a teenager. I’d never gotten to watch Gargoyles or Batman: The Animated Series as a young kid, those experience came via the Internet, and yes… Flash. Flash video players brought me Avatar: The Last Airbender, which never ever had a live action adaptation.

Anyway, my point: Flash made online video streaming happen. If you’ve ever loved a Netflix or Prime original show (bring back The Tick!), you can thank Macromedia.

What Flash Got Wrong

Obviously, not everything was rosy and golden. If it was, we’d have never moved on to bigger, better things. Flash had problems that ultimately killed it, giving me the chance, nay, the responsibility of eulogizing one of the Internet’s most important formative technologies.

Firstly, it was buggy and insecure: This is not necessarily a deal-breaker in the tech world, and Microsoft is doing just fine, thank you. Still, as Flash matured and the code-base expanded, the bugs became more pronounced. The fact that it was prone to myriad security issues made it a hard sell to any company that wanted to make money.

Which is, you know, all of them.

Secondly, it was SEO-unfriendly: Here was a more serious problem, sales-wise. While we’re mostly past the era when everyone and their dog was running a shady SEO company, search engines are still the lifeblood of most online businesses. Having a site that Google can’t index is just a no-go. By the time Google had managed to index SWF files, it was already too late.

Thirdly, its performance steadily got worse: With an expanding set of features and code, the Flash plugin just took more and more resources to run. Pair it with Chrome during that browser’s worst RAM-devouring days, and you have a problem.

Then, while desktops were getting more and more powerful just (I assume) to keep up with Flash, Apple went and introduced the iPhone. Flash. Sucked. On. Mobile. Even the vendors that went out of their way to include a Flash implementation on their smartphones almost never did it well.

It was so much of a hassle that when Apple officially dropped Flash support, the entire world said, “Okay, yeah, that’s fair.”

Side note: Flash always sucked on Linux. I’m just saying.

Ashes To Ashes…

Flash was, for its time, a good thing for the Internet as a whole. We’ve outgrown it now, but it would be reckless of us to ignore the good things it brought to the world. Like the creativity of a million amateur animators, and especially that one cartoon called “End of Ze World”.

Goodbye Flash, you sucked. And you were great. Rest in peace. Rest in pieces. Good riddance. I’ll miss you.

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webbygraphic001 · 4 years ago

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In Memory of Flash: 1996-2020

We are gathered here today….

I think we’ve established in my previous work that even as a missionary kid, I did not have a social life.

That was a part of Flash’s charm, really.

What Flash Got Right

Flash Brought Online Multimedia into the Mainstream

The Internet was already big business, but Flash design became an industry unto itself.

Flash Was Responsive

Flash Was Browser-Agnostic

Flash Popularized Streaming Video

Anyway, my point: Flash made online video streaming happen. If you’ve ever loved a Netflix or Prime original show (bring back The Tick!), you can thank Macromedia.

What Flash Got Wrong

Which is, you know, all of them.

It was so much of a hassle that when Apple officially dropped Flash support, the entire world said, “Okay, yeah, that’s fair.”

Side note: Flash always sucked on Linux. I’m just saying.

Ashes to Ashes…

Goodbye Flash, you sucked. And you were great. Rest in peace. Rest in pieces. Good riddance. I’ll miss you.

Featured image via Fabio Ballasina and Daniel Korpai.

Source from Webdesigner Depot https://ift.tt/2Ox7wlK from Blogger https://ift.tt/2Wl1Hw3

#Blogger

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midnightshowing-acm420-fall2019 · 5 years ago

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Week 16 - Alex - Dénouement

--- Opening Thoughts:

Here we reach the end of the story of this project; the final knot, which took so many threads to tie, yet seemed not long ago to be little more than a tangled mess. This week, our group achieved more than what seemed achievable, given the time constrains and pressure. And although so much could have gone wrong, this was truly a very ‘right’ conclusion to an epic semester-long project. I’m so very, very thankful, and proud, of each and every member of our our group - without whom this film would never have been possible. And I’m honored to have been a part of what may very well be one of the finest films produced here in ACM Animation since its inception. I also would like to give a huge thanks to all the colorists who made the production pipeline go so much smoother and faster - sacrificing their own time and effort to be a part of something amazing! I also would like congratulate our terrific voice actor Justin Bendo, for his incredible work as the voice of Angel. And to our composer Joshua Namba, who breathed life and vigor into our film through his music.

--- Weekly Deliverables

For my work this past week, a lot has happened, as most of our group can probably agree to. It’s difficult to bring to memory every individual thing, but the core tasks were these: Coloring Sq13s6, a shot I originally roughed for. Although the final version would go on to have some major alterations to Angel, I’m happy to see it least one rough of Phantom I did pretty much stuck all the way to final:

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Colored Sq13s16; took a heck of a long time even using pre-programmed inputs for the coloring process. But it turned out good, and due to me needing to use base layers for the characters, Gavin came up with an interesting blending mode for the Old Man which we can see in the final film:

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For the next two shots I finished line from last week, plus color and shading for this week. They turned out pretty good I’d say:

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We ran into some technical issues when it came to rendering out certain files, and one in particular that comes to mind is Sq9s16, as imaged below.

I don’t know how it was possible to even work on a file this large on Photoshop, with the hardware we have. It was so big that most of our group’s computers couldn’t even open it. Mine struggled big time to load it, let alone render it as an uncompressed .mov. I had to clear almost all my ram, and even then it crashed before finally managing to render it, which only took around 10 minutes (for one shot mind you,) and then uploading it which took a solid three and a half hours.

This one file almost stopped our whole production. It was amazing, kind of hilarious, and a bit scary, but we managed to pull through. I added a clipping mask to the fire’s lineart to make it orange.

The next thing which ate up a lot of time and energy this week was sound. Basically, I expected have sound done in maybe 5 or 6 hours over the weekend. Turned out it required almost two full days to finalize. Me and Gavin met up to discuss corrections and adjustments, and after some last minute feedback, all the retiming work was done, and we got an incredible audio track. Even though it was a heavy tax on my very tight finals week schedule, I think having those two days to work on it really raised the fluidity and creativity to provide something almost of a remaster to the animatic audio track we’ve been using up to this point. The premiere file itself is kind of a convoluted mess:

Nevertheless, it gets the job done, and taught me a whole lot about sound editing and design over the course of the semester (except organizational skills.)

--- Last Reflections

This semester has been such a momentous one for so many reasons. If 320 taught me “how to work on animation,” then 420 taught me how to work on animation for real. The jump is so tangible, not necessarily in a “workload” sense (although that may be part of it) but more so as an appreciation for the art of animation itself as a collaborative medium, and a visually exploratory one. I am much more aware now of every element that goes into a piece of work, and I think I can see the great value in attempting to discerning the purpose behind everything we see in Animation, as with any art piece. While it was easy to get away with seemingly arbitrary choices of shape, color, motion and such in the past, it has become especially necessary now to be deliberate in making choice, since the workload falls on someone else’s shoulders.

- Adjustments to the Process in the Future:

Not all of this is necessarily in my control, nor should this be held against anyone or any part of the film making process here, since after all we’re learning and exploring how to work in teams with new techniques. That being said, one thing I would aim to sharpen in the future is the pre-production estimates of workload times/levels, as well as the overall film length. I think I speak for most of us when I say that the film’s scope grew a lot over the course of the semester. And I’m not saying having a large or ambitious idea is bad - that’s my favorite kind of project! But it can become a bit of an issue when it grows to such a scope that we are having to recruit outside helpers and dedicate most or all of the 24 hours we have in a day to be able to manage finishing on time. Basically, just have a more rigid plan from the start, and be very cautious towards anything that adds unnecessary levels of complexity. That’s something that can be addressed at the animatic stage. Beyond that, being more cautious with the estimates of time and energy requirements per shot would help. I noticed that some (or maybe most) of the shots required quite a bit more time than originally intended to be roughed, lined, colored, and shaded. That’s not taking into consideration all the revisions they may go through as they are reviewed, given feedback, and trade hands between group members. Production schedule-wise, it’s much better to undershoot I think, and have a lot of extra time to hammer out details, maybe refine shots, and properly apply feedback versus feeling the dread of being behind schedule and cutting years from your life due to the amount of sleep lost to try and catch up. A general rule of thumb is that specificity helps. Despite how meticulously we planned, we would still occasionally run into issues such as what color a prop might be, or how the shading might change between environments. Or another example might be how a character’s physical attributes such as stretchiness might change or remain consistent throughout the film. Although these were minor things that got addressed in the end, baring those details in mind in the future would be of great help I think.

- Words of Advice to Future 420 Students

You have three options: either become a cyborg, learn to hate sleep, or adapt to being powered by copious amounts of coffee every day. As for me, I took something from all three of those this semester. Joking aside, these are some general pointers I would give to incoming 420 students: -Choose your story and teammates carefully: This semester can be as fun (or unfun) as you make it to be. No matter what though, the people you have at your side are the people you’re stuck with. Hopefully by this point in the major you would be familiar with your teammates and their individual strengths and quirks, so if you’re having trouble picking a team in the beginning, go with the people you feel are the most self-determined, hard working, and whom you can adapt to their mold (not necessarily vice versa.) If you hate your team, you will hate your semester. But if you love your team, it doesn’t matter how tough the work gets, because you can still come to class with a smile (a very dead inside smile.)

-Come in with a strong concept: Even if your idea doesn’t get picked, being able to receive other people’s ideas and represent them faithfully is vital to the overall success of the production. The better you understand the idea you are working on, the better prepared you will be to make it a reality. Also, simple designs and ideas tend to get picked more often. Keep that in mind when developing your idea.

-Diversity is a strength: Having a broad skillset on your crew is incredibly important. Ideally, everyone can functionally perform any given task on the production. But having specialists assigned certain specific tasks is very helpful. It serves to balance the workload more or less equally among members based on their strengths, and the result is a product where you have good work reflected in all aspects of the film.

-Be prepared to change your schedule: Unless your group’s idea is ridiculously simple, chances are you will be losing sleep, possible questioning your choice of major, and being forced to change both when and how you are available to people and things you care about in the world outside the borders of your computer screen. It is not a joke to say that this course can affect your health, your diet, and maybe even the way you view other people - or even yourself! If done properly, this class should challenge you in the way you live and handle work. It should force you to adapt to an animator’s lifestyle. Not that you need to forsake life to be an animator necessarily, but to give you a taste of what the industry may demand of you through certain seasons of life.

-Be able to take a joke: By the end of the project, you’re going to be throwing shots at each other left and right. It is a crazy, whacky time - and you may find yourself forgetting this is all for a school project. Learn to enjoy acknowledging your own weaknesses, and have fun pointing out the flaws in others, when its appropriate. This makes the experience not only more enjoyable, but in a strange, ironic way it makes us become comfortable with our shortcomings, and enables/pushes each other to genuinely improve our skills, and ultimately create a better product.

-Communication is key: You need to keep up with your group. Period. If you are our of the loop for even a day, it can throw things off big time. Setup a chat group via text, setup a Discord server, or find some other means to talk to one another that is reliable. Even if you don’t always feel like chatting, just be ready when somebody needs you (which will happen quite a lot.) Also, having a system of file sharing such as Google Drive is indispensable. You may find yourself keeping certain tabs open and rarely closing them, just to check for updates and be able to send/receive files when you need them.

-Practice makes perfect: I don’t care how good or bad you think you are at animating up till this point; if you do your best in this class, you will grow. You may find yourself drawing in a different art style than you’re used to, and implementing work methods and software that you’ve never used before. And that’s wonderful! Be open to experimenting and exploring new styles of work. I’ve found that is a big part of what makes animation enjoyable and inexhaustible. Just when you feel like you’re set in your ways, the moment you step into something new, it’s a whole other world, and you just might find something you like about it.That opens the door to not only other ways of being creative, but on a practical level, makes you a much more viable component to a team when being considered for hiring. Don’t let the early hardships bog you down; with time and practice, there’s nothing you can’t do. -- Well that pretty much wraps up this last blog post and the semester for 420. The experience has been life altering, no joke. I have no regrets, and I’m so thankful to have had the chance to work so closely with everyone. In my experience, this class has been the difference between being an animation student and becoming a professional animator. Even though it was as a real challenge emotionally and physically, I would take the class again if I could, and I very much look forward to working with you all - my fellow animators - in our continuing classes, as well as our careers beyond. You all have been my family here while I’ve been without one since moving all the way out here for school.

Thanks to Brittany for teaching our wonderful class! And to everyone who has fought through this semester together and made it something special, right up until the very end. Until next time my friends, this is the Undercover Animator signing out.

#midnightshowing #acm420 #theend #coffeepower #i cry every time

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table-top-romulan-playing-games · 7 years ago

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logicheartsoul replied to your post: Me: *wants to get back into 3D modeling* Maya...

God I haven’t touched Maya since HIGH SCHOOL… and that was only coz the school was able to get extremely reduced discounts! Ugh, why do art programs have to be exorbitant??? At least Photoshop used to be ok until they did the pay per subscription thing… though CS6 is ok with me right now. Still, fucked up

I got CS6 Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign as a one time buy right before they they started on the CC stuff. The only program I do the monthly payments for is Premiere because i like to make videos and soundbites, and 19$ a month isnt that bad considering how much I make...

But $185 a month? No way bro...

I think the ZBrush $750 dollar single user license is a one time buy, it doesnt say monthly, but thats still a LOT to pay... and also, looking at the system requirements, i don’t think my desktop computer can handle it (it can barely handle premeire, i have to use premiere on my laptop because my laptop has the HDD space for it)...

So either I have to save up for ONE BIG TREAT YO SELF and get both a 1TB Desktop (most likely a gaming computer, which are at the cheapest $1000 dollars) and ZBrush 4R8 for 750... Or wait till I have fewer big bills to pay and get either Maya at 185 a month, or do $175 (again, idk if this is one time buy or monthly payment) for ZBrush core, but the system requirements are the same as 4R8, so I would still need a better computer...

3D modeling can wait

#logicheartsoul

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archi-anime · 7 years ago

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Hello, friends! This post is a bit of a random one compared to my fangirling over anime, architecture and my precious bishies.

My Desktop during School (don’t mind the crappy panorama – I took this from my IG)

I’ve mentioned this in one of my Sunday Salutations post, that I’m starting to hunker down and really study for an exam I have coming up. It got me to thinking about a new computer. Now, to be fair, I don’t necessarily need a new one at the moment, but a girl can dream right? And while I’m mostly an Apple user, the PC has it’s own perks and is actually more accessible in terms of software *cough* gaming *cough*. So I started to ponder, what are the things I look for? And what would I put into my ideal set-up?

When in the market for a new computer, I’m looking for affordability, durability and reliability. Computers are an investment so affordability plays the biggest role as I want the best bang for my buck. So looking at the specs are key, so with that in mind what kind of components do I want? What’s this particular computer going to be used for? These questions should help narrow down the types of computers to look for. After affordability, I would probably look at the durability of the computer. This may not apply to desktops, but more so to laptops. When carrying a laptop and mobility it’s nice to have something sturdy because when you’re on the go you never know what’s going to happen. When it comes to desktops, it probably would be nice to have a tower that can handle a bit of wear and tear, sometimes chairs bump into it, and sometimes you accidentally bump up against it; that is unless you like the all-in-one computers; but again, it depends what you’re doing with your computer. Besides durability, I’d look at the reliability of the computer. Reliability in software and hardware are definite musts, I mean, who wants an unreliable computer that will crash frequently? So looking at the particular specifications of a computer will also play a key in reliability. I usually take into account the type of work I’ll be doing. Is the RAM high enough to handle multiple programs in the background? Do I have enough memory for all the program’s I’ll be needing?

Typically looking at big name brands like HP, Apple, Sony and Dell are definite go to’s for comparisons and contrasts as they’re notable brands in the computer world.

Top Three Specs

There are at least three things that I absolutely look for when shopping for a new computer because these things are definitely what I need in doing anything design, blog or game-related.

Processor

The faster the processor the more seamless productivity becomes. At the very least it has to have an i7 core.

Graphics Card

As someone that works with graphics pretty heavily, especially the adobe suite, it’s nice to have an additional graphics card that isn’t part of the integrated system to help boost output.

RAM

I run multiple programs at a time. I have to use photoshop, illustrator, indesign, Rhino 3D all at the same time to work efficiently without completely crashing my workstation.

These three things definitely help me determine the type of computer I’m willing to invest in. But, these are the bare minimum.

Dream Desktop

However, if we’re talking about my dream desktop, there are a few other items I’d definitely splurge on:

Computer Case

I’m a designer at heart, so aesthetics are everything. If I were to build a computer, I’d definitely pick up a cool looking tower; have you seen these tempered glass cases? Super cool! I love to see the working parts of the computer, it just looks so much more technical to see things exposed, especially with cool backlighting!

image source

Heating

With a big processor and lots of RAM, heat is bound to build-up and ultimately slow down the speed your OS operates, so to kind of alleviate that, I’d probably splurge a bit on a system that would help lessen the heatload. I also have a really bad habit of leaving my PC on for a few days at a time.

Graphics Card

Again, I cannot emphasize enough how important the graphics card is especially when you’re playing games. So a good graphics card could help with the frame rate of a video game (i.e. less skipping) and make the game more fluid. However, there are other things that can affect frame rate outside of graphics card and your CPU, the monitors also can be a factor. But I’d still splurge on the graphics card.

So, these were just a few things that came to mind when I started to think about building my own computer again. I built a PC for school since most of the programs I needed were PC based. The probability of me building a high-end computer like I did during school is probably not high on the priority list since I don’t do such heavy designing like I did a few years ago. But hey, it’s nice to keep a list of the spec’s you’d like to have in your dream desktop.

With that being said, I’m curious, if you guys were to build or buy a new desktop or even a laptop. What kind of things would you look for? Let me know in the comments below! 🙂

Computer Ideals: What Specs Appeal to You? Hello, friends! This post is a bit of a random one compared to my fangirling over anime, architecture and my precious bishies.

#apple #computer #gaming #pc #specifications #specs #windows

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componentplanet · 5 years ago

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Living With the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon

If you’re on the road a lot – or were on the road a lot – and you’ve got to do business work that can’t be handled with a smartphone or tablet, you may want to invest in a seriously good, seriously compact notebook computer. The very lightest weigh in under 3 pounds, sometimes approaching just 1 kilogram, or 2.2 pounds. The best is the Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1, with a 14-inch display, priced from $1,400 to $2,400.

Working from home? The small size makes for a great computer-at-home when multiple adults and students are sheltering in place in the age of coronavirus: sitting at a kitchen table, draped across a couch, or lying in bed.

It’s not merely the ThinkPad X1 Carbon’s low weight. It’s the compact size, barely bigger than a sheaf of paper a half-inch thick. It’s the small power adapter and the 10-15 hour battery life. It’s also knowing that the machine is not going to break down when you’re on the road, or when you’re working from home and your company’s nearest IT guy is sheltering 20 miles away. ThinkPads don’t break very often. The price delta over a mainstream five-pound portable is not insignificant, but it’s less important than the fact that you’re remaining productive.

Great view(s): The companion ThinkVision M14 USB C display doubles screen real estate. It’s perfect for times when the hotel doesn’t let you jack into the big screen TV. (No, not all hotel rooms have this kind of view. Some trips, you get lucky.)

Second Display Extends Main Display

ThinkPad M14 display. Thick USB-C cable provides power and signal.

Dropping down from a larger, heavier notebook of 4-5 pounds also reduces how much bulk you have to carry when traveling. I’m on the road 20-plus times a year. (Well, I was until, uh, everybody stopped traveling.) The photo above was shot during a week at an auto show, where I needed to write stories; process photos; work social media to raise my ExtremeTech stories’ visibility on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram; and keep up with friends and family, working not just in the hotel room-with-a-view but on shuttle buses, in downtime between meetings, or at airport departure gates.

For years, I’ve traveled with a thin HDMI cable 10-15 feet long ($15-$50) that I could jack into the hotel’s big TV if I could access the rear jacks, if the TV didn’t lock out access to the HDMI2 jack, and if the TV could be seen from the desk. That let me look at dozens of photos in Adobe Lightroom or stream videos. Now I travel with a second display, the ThinkVision M14 USB C display ($250), that quickly plugs in when I’m in the hotel or working in a convention center press room. Feet on the base let you get the screen bottom level with the base of the computer’s screen.

The 14-inch ThinkPad X1 Carbon is only a little smaller in every measurement. Calculate total size (volume) and weight, and the Extreme Gen 2 is half again as bulky and heavy. You notice it.

Whether stepping down to the hotel bar or at home headed to the media room to watch TV, I find that I now tuck the X1 under my arm – instead of my iPad – if I might want to check mail or social media. It’s unobtrusive. I wouldn’t do that with a 15-inch laptop weighing 5 pounds. Even the very nice ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 is just a little bigger in every respect (table above), enough so that you feel the size and heft going from place to place. And this one’s light compared with most notebooks with 15- to 16-inch screens.

The left side of the ThinkPad X1 has a USB C/Thunderbolt connector for power, a second that also connects the ThinkPad docking station, a wired Ethernet connector that requires a $35 adapter, a USB 3 jack, and an HDMI (full-size) jack.

First-Class Mechanicals

I’ve been a long-time user of laptop and notebook PCs. I wrote a book on using laptops in the early days, and was thrilled to see weights come down from 10 pounds and then slip below 5 pounds. Over time, I’ve valued ruggedness and reliability over low prices or (until now) the absolutely lowest weight. The X1 lets you have it all. Other than a low price: The cheapest X1 is still well over $1,000 and the every-options-box-checked X1 approaches $2,500.

If you go out on the road or commute daily by mass transit, when you lift the lid, you want the machine to come back to life every time, right away. For that, it’s worth a higher initial price point. It absolutely is when the company is paying, but probably is even when you’re paying. (Maybe you don’t need the 4K display upgrade on a screen measuring just 12 inches across.)

Mostly, I do the usual things on the road: deal with email, write documents and stories, chatter on Slack, and check social media. For that, any laptop works. I also handle a lot of photos and videos. For those, the X1 Carbon is more than workable. That said, Adobe is finally pushing its Photoshop and Lightroom tools onto the iPad and they’re certainly usable.

I have a 30-inch desktop monitor at home. Away from home, I compensate with the ThinkVision secondary display or jacking into the hotel TV when it’s accessible.

The right side has a headphone jack, always-on-for-power USB 3 jack, and a locking connector.

The X1 Carbon has two USB and two Thunderbolt/USB jacks plus a wired-Ethernet connector that requires an adapter. There is also a microphone array and a 720p front-facing camera with IR illumination for dark locations. You can almost double the price by upgrading:

14-inch 1920 x 1080 full-HD display (400 nits) to touchscreen to 2560 x 1440 WQHD to 3840 x 1440 UHD (500 nits)

CPU from 10th generation Intel Core i5-10210U at 1.6GHz to 8th generation i7-8665U at 1.9GHz

Solid state drive from 256GB to 512GB to 1TB storage (2TB not offered)

8GB to 16GB RAM

Windows 10 Home to Pro

ThinkPad keyboards have always been first-class. Use the TrackPoint, touchpad, or your own mouse to point.

Not the Only Ultra-Light Notebook

There are at least a half-dozen competing ultraportable laptops, those weighing 3 pounds or less, typically with 13- or 14-inch displays, solid-state hard drives, and battery life over 10 hours. The two that draw the most attraction are the Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 and the Apple MacBook Pro 13-Inch. They’re both premium-priced and score high for reliability. I like them both; my wife has a 13-inch MacBook and she’s an artist, and that (artist) is a near-automatic win for Apple.

If you can live with 512GB not 1TB of storage, one of the best deals on the X1 Carbon is Costco’s take-it-or-leave-it $1,500 single configuration: the more powerful Intel Core i7-8565U processor, the larger 16GB RAM config, a 1920 x 1080 touchscreen with 300 nits brightness (the other X1 displays are 400, 300 and 500 nits), and Windows 10 Home.

Other good choices are the Dell XPS 13 (13-inch LCD, 2.7 pounds) and Inspiron 14 7000 (14-inch LCD, 2.9 pounds), HP Envy 13 (13.3-inch LCD, 2.6 pounds), and LG Gram 14 14Z90N (14-inch LCD, 2.2 pounds). Most offer 8GB or 16GB of RAM (typically soldered down) and 256GB to 2TB of SSD storage (512GB and 1TB are most common). If your company just buys one brand of portable PC, they’re all pretty good. You may want big-screen monitors at your home and office work desks, and 24-inch displays are so inexpensive now.

The Apple MacBook Air (13.3-inch LCD, 2.8 pounds) is even lighter than the MacBook Pro 13, but it’s light on I/O as well: You use the two Thunderbolt/USB-C for external VGA, HDMI, or wired Ethernet.

Of note is the LG Gram 17, a 17-incher with 2560 x 1600 (WQXD) resolution, weighing just 2.9 pounds with a rated 17-hour battery life. So it’s super light, but also may call for a larger backpack or shoulder bag, and you want to be extra careful you don’t torque or stress the case.

Over the years, I’ve used IBM/Lenovo, Compaq, Dell, Gateway, HP, NEC, Panasonic, and Toshiba laptops. All were major productivity enhancers at the time. The most dazzling was a 4-pound NEC UltraLite at a time when only a handful of laptops were under 10 pounds. I still have it as a souvenir, next to an ancestor’s Underwood 5 typewriter. Right now, the go-to notebook for me is the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon because portability matters. Even when the word portable, for now, means only from the den to the living room to the kitchen table.

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from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/computing/282800-lenovo-thinkpad-x1-carbon-review from Blogger http://componentplanet.blogspot.com/2020/04/living-with-lenovo-thinkpad-x1-carbon.html

#Living With the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon

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