#edit: replaced with higher quality version

[hoyotunes]

BITE! from BITE! Lei Yuxin, Jacob Crooked, Peter Sierzput, Lei Sheng, Sān-Z, HOYO-MiX

[hislopchino]

Angus Deayton outside his Soho office in London - 19/05/1993

Photo by Bob Barclay

(X)(X)

[temporary-tats]

The fuck's a background? Anyway - here's some White Raven/Lennabel fanart I made!

Hope I did ya proud @your-decadent-madam

(Edit: for some reason it uploaded a pretty low quality version of the image! Replaced it with the higher quality one 🫡)

[letomills]

Download: SFS / Mega

[Custom versions are here.]

I love @katsurinssims 's idea to replace the CM and TM private school uniforms with age conversions of ambodynehrujacket (see this post and this one). Since I just shared my edits of the custom versions in this big ambodynehrujacket-centric post, I thought I'd apply the same edits to Katsu's defaults in case someone is interested.

More details and previews under the cut.

I used the same files as Katsu's. What I edited:

• replaced the textures with higher quality ones (taken from the lifos - then my 'no wrist shadow' edit from the custom versions also applies) • removed blank bump maps to reduce file size • replaced the meshes with my versions (see comparison pictures on this post):

CM (replaces cmbodyopencoatlongpants_pvtschool) ↓

TM (replaces tmbodyopencoatlongpants_pvtschool) ↓

• edited the property sets - the outfits are still unhidden in CAS like Katsu's are but now instead of appearing at the front with a CC star, they're at the back with the other BG content:

[Mini tutorial: When you default-replace a BG outfit and need to extract its property set, your default replacement will appear at the front of CAS with the CC star as if it were custom clothing, unless you add these 2 lines in the property set: version (dtUInteger): 0x00000002 product (dtUInteger): 0x00000001 It's not a requirement to make the default replacement functional but it ensures the player isn't going to delete that piece of clothing from CAS thinking that it's custom and accidentally delete a game file. And it also looks cleaner imo.]

[dawns-beauty]

Whelp, mods have been unhidden, comments are turned off on all of them.

Guess this will have to work, since I don't think there's a file hosting site with enough free storage for the various versions of my mods.

Still feeling crappy enough I can't sit at my computer, but eventually here are the updates and new mods I'm planning when I feel better:

Lunar Lattice Tweaks (full release): thanks to LittleMissF for the massive help! It no longer has custom morphs, instead it uses Wood Elf face morphs for true compatibility with High Poly Heads and EFM and more.

Lunar Lattice Tweaks - RM Presets: makes my 4 Ohmes-Raht presets I used for screenshots playable

Khajiit Overhaul - New Heads and Presets: makes the KO Subrace heads converted by Mharlek1 playable. I will tweak the meshes and add presets that make the heads look more like the species they represent. Also will make continuity patches for LM's Beast Teeth, Lioness Look, and mesh replacers for the original KO male heads.

Denizens of the North - NPC Overhauls: this will be made up of a lot of individual modules and several larger ones (Elderly Elves and Scarified Dunmer NPCs)

Big Friendly Giants (and Mammoths) - really small mod that makes giants bigger (1.8 scale) as well as mammoths. Makes giants more chill: they won't attack you unless you get really, really close or attack them first.

And finally:

Children of the Moons - Another Khajiit NPC Overhaul: the next generation of Project ja-Kha'jay, now with higher quality assets across the board, some refreshed designs, better compatibility, and easier to edit.

[abavo]

My thoughts on the new LMK season

With no (or at least very minor) spoilers

TLDR: Its easy to focus on the drop in quality of the visuals since we can't focus too much on the other aspects of the series due to the language barrier, the english fandom will likely start having a more positive reaction to the season when the eng version drops and we can focus on character interaction and story.

RIP The YT channel hosting the episodes I will edit this post if it comes back up or someone reuploads them.

I'm probably gonna talk about the animation the most as I'll have to wait for the eng version to come out before I can talk too much about the story.

Also all of this is my opinion if you don't agree that's fine, make your own post with your thoughts.

Like most people, I don't really like the new animation, which sucks because WB is capable of good animation (some really good animation) but because LMK wasn't designed for puppet animation and WB was likely pushed to get this season out, the quality suffered. Some of the animation looks pretty good but a lot of it is stunted and some characters look out of place. It also doesn't help that a lot of older animation was reused (for flashbacks and such) which makes it a lot harder to adapt to the new animation style.

I'm not one to notice mistakes in animation so I wasn't taken out of the experience every time a character is off model but if you are you might have a hard time watching it.

The 3D models are also especially rough this season, there's one that keeps appearing (likely due to a tie in set) but it looks bad and it's really jarring

But I think "give workers more time to create higher quality products" is like, the coldest take in the world and I think most people wish FB had stayed or a studio that works with hand drawn animation was picked as a replacement. I think WB can do some great stuff and if they animate the next season I'm sure it will look better and I hope that lego will give the studio more time to work to achieve that polished look.

Pacing is a potential problem I'm noticing as well. I feel like some characters show up for like a minute and then disappear which is fine for some cameos of fan favorites but its frustrating when new characters that showed up in the trailer barely had any screen time (it really sucks because some of them are really cool looking! and I wanted to see more of them)

I can't talk too much about characterization but there are some things that definitely feel out of character, most notably something that happens towards the end of episode 1, I've seen some people refer to this as fandomization of the character but I'd need to wait for the eng version to come out before I can say yes to that. I think it's much more likely they just needed that character to do something and figured it could be a way to show how that character has changed although I do think it needed more buildup maybe that will change when I actually understand what's happening though lol.

Other than that I think the characterization is mostly intact (again will need to see the eng version) but its the same writers so I don't see why characters would act strange. There does appear to be some super interesting stuff that happens towards the end can't wait to figure out what thats about.

Plot is hard to follow (again language barrier) but seems fun if a little generic, I can't talk too much about it because I don't really know whats going on and this is spoiler free

New characters seem fun! Wish I knew what they were saying though! I wish some of them stuck around a little bit longer as some of them are only shown for a few minutes which again sucks! because some of them have really cool designs and I would have liked to see more of them.

[sydney-carton-of-sour-milk]

The Many Illustrators of A Tale of Two Cities 6: Max Cowper

...& some frustration from faulty sources...

"Lucy (sic) Bids Farewell to Sydney Carton"

As we've come to see here, not all sources for these many illustrations are, put simply, all that great or reliable.

To start off, the ↑ above illustration is excellent example: A) Obviously, the name of this illustration doesn't match up with any scene in A Tale of Two Cities! My guess is that it's actually depicting Charles being taken away in "Dusk" (pretty major thing to get wrong!). Multiple online sources cite this as the name, but is that really what Max Cowper himself named it? B) I honestly didn't know until recently that this was, in fact, by Max Cowper! I've had this illustration stored in the archives for years and was only able to confirm it by - you guessed it - looking at that faint signature below the main character's feet and checking it off another color illustration by him (poetically, for Barnaby Rudge).

This is something that happens often in my research: Many illustrators for this novel will have a one-off piece not necessarily related to the work they did for the novel itself, and it's usually much more difficult to connect that piece to their book illustrations (when we get to Fred Barnard eventually...oof!). Oftentimes, the image just gets passed around over decades of republication - sometimes even traced / redrawn - and used as a cover or frontispiece without credit.

There are other forms of unreliability, though - including one I just encountered for the first time: Here are Cowper's eight 1902* illustrations for the novel. One of these is not like the others - see if you can tell which!

If you guessed the fourth ("Monsieur le Marquis"), you'd be correct!

Basically, when I originally downloaded this set from the Internet Archive, I hadn't downloaded them as individual images but rather the entire book as a PDF which I then picked the images off of - and what I hadn't realized until recently was that this compresses the images in a strange way.

Here is what the PDF compression looks like:

See how much beautiful linework and detail gets crunched?

And so, today, to make this post, I went out to that source again and downloaded each individually - only to find that this exact source no longer had the Marquis illustration! Basically, I think that someone working at the Internet Archive rescanned the exact same copy of the book - accidentally skipping one of the illustrations in the process - and then replaced the old scan with this new (honestly really nice) one. Human error strikes again, both on my part and on theirs!

Ultimately, I decided not to try to find these from any other source and to just include the one with the compression error that doesn't quite match the quality of the rest - which will tie in well with the next edition of this series anyway (you'll see)!

And regardless, I'm grateful we have access to these beautiful, humanistic character designs and illustrations at all, no matter the image quality🖼️

*To round it all out, the copy from which I downloaded these is from 1904, but I also read a source that said the first version of this edition was maybe from 1902, so, once again, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

& the standard endnote for all posts in this series:

This post is intended to act as the start of a forum on the given illustrator, so if anyone has anything to add - requests to see certain drawings in higher definition (since Tumblr compresses images), corrections to factual errors, sources for better-quality versions of the illustrations, further reading, fun facts, any questions, or just general commentary - simply do so on this post, be it in a comment/tags or the replies!💫

[trybones]

( + [𝚝𝚛𝚢𝚋𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚜] 𝚎𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚎𝚢𝚎𝚜 )

♡ i really wanted a nice soft maxis matchy pair of eyes, so i hand painted some! there is a mixture of softer and higher contrast swatches to suit more tastes. high fidelity, high quality (i worked so hard on them😭)- anyway(!) enjoy my lovelies!

⸺ 23 swatches for the neutral colors ⸺ 15 extra swatches inspired by cryptid & monster eyes ⸺ hand painted, hq ! ⸺ the facepaint versions are disabled for random ⸺ i removed ea's specular overlay ⸺ non-default & facepaint versions ⸺ they look really good with your favorite creators sclera overlays !

! ! ———-  download → [ patreon (free) ]  ———– ! !

[** edit: 26/10/23]: reordered display to group together and replaced the thumbnails to my new thumbs !

[hoyotunes]

As the sugar cube floats, fleeting in time from As the sugar cube floats, fleeting in time alan, Cream Kumako, Yang Wutao, Sān-Z, HOYO-MiX

[kaiowut99]

GX Finalized-Subs!113 (WIP): Digging Up Dirt

Working on stuff for 113 and 114 some more, and for 113, I wanted to go ahead and translate this more blink-and-you'll-miss-it bio on O'Brien that Echo sends to Amon early in the episode. It's a quick shot at 64 frames long as the map of Cobra's compound changes to this bio being transferred to Amon, with the bio transfer itself taking up 47 frames (or a quick 1.5-2 seconds), but with my penchant for thoroughness/consistency and what-have-you, I'd have been remiss not to translate it, lol. And since the dub decided to go with... random text (what language even is that lol (they at least go with something like [Latin?] come 5D's text replacements), I made a version for the dub as I've been doing with these text edits (which I may use for reasons later).

(Edit breakdown below; also, pro-tip if viewing in the tags or on the dash: click into the post on my blog, let the gifs load, and then refresh for simultaneous viewing~)

Although, I did worry initially about not being able to translate this because the shot in the Astral_Union DVDRip that I'm working with had the text decently blurry--but luckily, Zichs over on NAC (who's been working on encoding some clearer/higher visual quality DVDrips for GX as well as 5D's+) was able to shoot me a much clearer frame from the DVD footage itself, and while there are a handful of kanji that were still harder to make out, I was able to read much more of the text while making an educated guess or two at what the lines with the harder-to-read kanji were saying. That said, the text in the red box was still pretty unreadable, and it didn't seem any sharp-eyed Japanese fans transcribed any of this, so I had to leave that as-is unfortunately.

So, I worked on this over a few total hours between Thursday night and today, once I translated the text, and first used Photoshop to place the text over a frame of the blank screen (luckily didn't have to do any editing to make it blank, as there's a fair few frames of the blank screen before any of the text starts streaming in--though the dub for some reason places their random-language name-replacement text a few frames early over these blank frames). I gave the text a light outer glow blending to imitate the original light glow on the text, and applied a light Gaussian blur/noise effect.

Once I was happy with how the text looked, I threw the English edits into Sony Vegas, where I first used masking to recreate how the text gradually streams in frame-by-frame. I then masked in the original red box so that it and its text streamed in as it did originally, and masked O'Brien's photo separately over the screen so that I could then recreate the light screen flickering on top of everything. I also applied a very slight extra Gaussian blur on the text since I thought it was a bit too un-blurred, and then just copy/pasted the masking keyframes I applied on the subbed-English edit to the dub-English edit.

Overall, as the gifs above show, think it came out nicely for a quick shot like this!

Also, for reference, I've transcribed the text on this below, along with my initial translation which I had to tweak some to make my edits look nice; "X"s indicate where a kanji was unreadable:

[Japanese]

オースチン＝オブライエン ・デュエルアカデミアウエスト校2006年度チャンピオン。 ・XXXデスクロージャーデュエル大会優勝。 （プロフェッサー・コブラ主催） ・XXはウエスト校よりデュエルアカデミア本校へ留学中。 ▶プロフェッサー・コブラ ▶デスクロージャーデュエル 「RED BOX UNREADABLE」 ◦XXデッキ　ボルカニックバーン （XX） デッキ ▶モンスターカード ▶魔法カード ▶罠カード

[Initial Translation]

Austin O'Brien ・2006 champion at the Duel Academia's West Campus. ・Winner of the first Disclosure Duel tournament. (Organized by Professor Cobra) ・Has left the West Campus to study at the Duel Academia's Main Campus. ▶Professor Cobra ▶The Disclosure Duels [RED BOX UNREADABLE] ◦Primarily utilizes a Volcanic Burn deck ▶Monster Cards ▶Magic Cards ▶Trap Cards

[doesnotloveyou]

Don Johnson Filmography - Free Links!

Instead of you spending countless joyful hours trawling the web for grainy old '70s flicks, I did it for you! Here's a list of FREE places to watch DJ's stuff.

This list will be in reverse chronological order as they appear on IMDb. Some are just placeholders until (if) better links can be found, and some are bootlegs from other countries. I'm excluding music videos since those aren't hard to find.

And if you want to skip boring/annoying plot but don't want to miss him, I've made a key:

MC (main character) - much of the story involves his character and he is onscreen often

SC (side character) - only part of the story involves his character, so he's onscreen far less often than other characters

C (cameo) - he's got one or two scenes and they're small, in which case I'll mark his appearances in 0:00:00 format

I'm leaving most content warnings to viewer discretion, but some I don't feel comfortable ignoring. Also, some of the YouTube vids may get taken down at any moment :( If you like something, back it up! I'm using KMPlayer to download my faves, but I've heard you can also use VLC.

>> Links below cut! <<

First, check out my list from Tubi which has the most high quality versions of his work and TV appearances. If it's on Tubi, it won't be on this post!

Home Movie: The Princess Bride - (C, 0:41:30) the entire film is hilarious, especially if you've seen the original; made by a bunch of celebs during quarantine.

Knives Out - (SC) ok, there's no link, but i'm begging you to go buy this movie on DVD it's like $5-$10 tops in stores these days.

Moondance Alexander - (SC, 0:18:20)

Just Legal - (MC, eight episodes)

Word of Honor - (MC) this vid has "helium" audio and other insufferable flaws.

Goodbye Lover - (SC, login req)

In Pursuit of Honor - (MC) WARNING: animal death/abuse

G.I. Joe: The Movie - (SC, voice only, 0:30:35...) spare yourself, skip this movie that he probably did for his kid.

Tales of the Unexpected - (SC; one episode)

Matt Houston - (SC; one episode)

Melanie - (SC)

Soggy Bottom, U.S.A. - (SC; German dub) clips of his character.

Elvis and the Beauty Queen - (MC; Portuguese subtitles)

Revenge of the Stepford Wives - (SC, 0:12:40, 0:25:15...) he has multiple scenes including one at the end, but these movies stress me out.

Beulah Land - (SC) only in part 1, but his character is replaced by a young Jonathan Frakes in part 2. WARNING: non-graphic rape

From Here to Eternity - (C, one episode, 0:07:10, 0:36:00)

The Rebels (MC, two-parts)

Amateur Night at the Dixie Bar and Grill - (SC, 0:13:39...)

First, You Cry - (SC, first scene, 0:24:20, 0:44:20, 0:57:07, 1:15:38, 1:32:16)

Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold - (C, 0:19:48, 0:32:19, 0:44:03...) can't stomach this film to find the rest of his scenes, he's a very minor character.

The American Girls - he's not in this! the main male character is played by the lovely Charles Haid from Hillstreet Blues, but it isn't listed on Haid's IMDb. Also, the character he plays does not go by the name DJ is listed under for that episode, so maybe DJ's in a different one? Regardless, I only found two episodes and DJ is in neither.

Ski Lift to Death - (SC) he shows up in the second video...don't make me watch this.

What Really Happened to the Class of '65? - TV spot w/ the only footage of him that I can find.

Cover Girls - (SC, 0:27:21, 0:40:40, 01:01:15...)

The City - (MC) costarring Mark Hamil

Barnaby Jones - (SC, one episode) I watched this and now it's missing...it sucked anyway. DJ plays an amateur arms dealer with a sickly son, a wife in jail, and a hideous mustache. He loses.

The Streets of San Francisco - (SC, one episode)

Law of the Land - (MC)

Return to Macon County - (MC) login to YT req but there is also a Spanish dub that doesn't req login. costarring Nick Nolte

A Boy and His Dog - (MC) this version has the nude scenes edited out, sign in to YT for the full cut; much higher quality than Tubi. WARNING: rape, etc.

The Rookies - (SC, one episode) costarring Nick Nolte

Kung Fu - making an executive decision here uhhh skip this one

The Harrad Experiment - (MC; two-parter w/ odd in-video ads that you can easily fast forward) WARNING: they all get naked

The Bold Ones: The New Doctors - (MC, one episode)

Lollipops, Roses and Talangka - (SC; some scenes in Tagalog) can't find the 1975 sequel or much information on English sites, but one Filipino fanblog implies the film may no longer exist.

Zachariah (MC)

Endlessly impressed by how much has been preserved and curated over the years. Even if a ton of it was junk, it's nice to save people's hard work and memories :)

........................................................................................................................

[kuiperblog]

Reviewing four small Knizia card games

I love Reiner Knizia’s small, simple board game designs that are “easy to learn, hard to master.”  And I love the fact that many of the games he’s designed have Japanese editions which are made by companies that 1) care more about component quality than their western counterparts, and 2) are made for customers in tiny Tokyo apartments, where shelf space is at a premium.

They’re the perfect games to stuff into a backpack (or suitcase) and bring out to share with people who “enjoy playing games, but aren’t into the board game hobby.”  They’re something for the people who don’t want to play a 1+ hour long euro engine builder, but would like to be treated to something of a higher class than Uno or Monopoly.

Thus it came to be that when visiting my family for Christmas this (er, last) year, I took four Reiner Knizia card games with me. They were such a big hit that the family won’t let me take them back with me. (Okay, actually, leaving the games behind was my suggestion after they expressed interest in acquiring copies for themselves; given the economics of importing items from Japan, it makes more sense for me to just order replacement copies of the games for myself the next time I place an order from Amazon JP, which is something I now do fairly often since learning that they will let you pay in USD with a US credit card and ship directly to the US.)  The following list is assorted roughly in descending order of how much I liked them:

High Society (3-5 players, 15-30 minutes)

This was immediately my favorite, and a poll of the family revealed it to be a unanimous favorite (excluding the non-vote from my sister, who refused to pick a favorite). It also happens to be the one game in the pile that wasn’t a Japanese import. (There is a Japanese version; I just like the art from the 2018 US version published by Osprey better.)

I love this game. It’s an incredibly mean game consisting entirely of auctions to win cards that are worth points (and “reverse auctions” where you bid money to not receive the cards that are worth negative points), with the stipulation that whoever has the least money at the end of the game loses.

Furthermore, you are bidding with fixed denominations of money: you have a single card of each denomination of $1, $2, $4, $6, $8, $10, $12, $15, $20, or $25 (Actually, the “currency” in the game is francs, and you’re bidding thousands of francs, but denoting them with a dollar sign is easier.)  Critically, you can only increase your bid by adding a card to your previous bid; the auction house does not make change. What you very quickly realize is that lower denominations are a precious commodity: you’d much rather spend a single $10 card than a $4 + a $6.  If you spend all of your “low” cards early, you quickly lose the ability to incrementally increase bids.

This is an auction game that is mean, where you frequently use your money to bully other people at the table into paying more for cards that you had no intention of buying (but that they desperately need), or by baiting them into bidding wars that bait out their low cards, removing their ability to strategically bid later in the game. There are all sort of subtle asymmetries that crop up in ways that affect the bidding in interesting ways: for example, one of the negative cards (which triggers a reverse auction where you bid not to take it) causes you to lose one of your point cards. If you’re sitting across the table from someone whose only card is a 9 or a 10, they’ll be desperate to avoid that card, whereas you might be more willing to take it if you’re just going to be losing a 2-point card. That gives you leverage. Ditto for situations when you’re in the final turns of the game, sitting across from someone who has a handful of money but with a point total that is nowhere near winning -- or the reverse, when you’ve got a handful of money, and are staring at someone who is at risk of being sent to the poorhouse and has precious little money to spend when a negative point card comes up.

It’s incredibly simple and takes about 2 minutes to teach the rules, but it’s highly interactive, and extremely cutthroat. It’s the opposite of what you get from most modern “euro” board games (which are often made to feel like “multiplayer solitaire”), and everything you want from a Knizia game.

Kariba (2-4 players, 15 minutes)

(The above photo is of the Japanese version of the game, which has slightly different art from the latest US release; as you can surmise, there’s no language component.)

Kariba game with simple rules and simple artwork/theming that you could play with a child, but as with most Knizia games, it hides a certain amount of depth behind its simple decision-making. (It also has an optional “expert” mode, where you draft cards from a market rather than drawing blindly off the top of the deck, which is highly recommended once everyone at the table understands how to play.)

The rules are simple: all the animals want to visit the watering hole, and so every turn you play a card from your hand in one of the eight slots around the board. Animals are allowed to bring friends of the same species: you may play multiples of a matching card. And when three (or more) animals of the same species are present at the watering hole, they chase away the next-smallest animal: three rhinos (7) will chase away any number of leopards (6), allowing the player who played the rhino(s) to add the leopards to their scoring pile.  And if there are no leopards presents, the rhinos will instead scare away the ostriches (5), and if that slot is also empty they’ll chase away the giraffes (4)... The elephants (8) of course are big enough to chase anyone away.

The mice (1) are too small to chase away any of the other animals -- except for the fact that, as everyone knows, elephants are afraid of mice, so a group of mice can chase away any number of elephants -- but only elephants.

The game often begins in a sort of “cold war,” with everyone playing conservatively, trying to sculpt their hand without adding too much scoring materiel to the board, until more and more points have been deployed, and finally someone is forced to act -- which creates a bigger stack for someone else to either grow, or to take for themselves. It gives the game a wonderful sense of tempo: there’s a slow build-up, followed by a series of high-scoring turns where you try to cash in as much as possible while hoping that you won’t be the first player at the board to “fizzle out.”  And if you do fizzle out, then you get to play “defense,” creating small stacks to create buffers and “play defense” and limit the scoring opportunities for other players.

Circus Flohcati (2-5 players, 15-20 minutes)

Rethemed in Japan as  なつのたからもの (Treasures of Summer), featuring the many beautiful cards shown above which depict the various joys of summer, including fireworks, eating watermelon, visiting the beach, and so on.  (The English versions of Circus Flohcati are themed around a flea circus, and the various versions range from annoyingly cartoonish, to the debatably offputting illustrations of the 2016 English 2nd edition where all the members of the flea circus have human bodies and insect heads, like something out of a Cronenberg movie.)  Also, the Japanese cards have much better quality/texture.

Circus Flohcati is a game that is much more fun in practice than I would have expected from reading the rulebook before my first playthrough.  Technically speaking, there’s not much in the way of interaction, which is often how you get games with a “multiplayer solitaire” feel, where people feel at liberty to get up from the table and get a drink (or otherwise not pay attention to the game) when it’s not their turn. However, in practice, that rarely happens in Flohcati.  Part of it comes from the fact that you need to pay attention to what cards other people are picking up -- at the end of the game, you only score the highest card for each suit, and seeing someone else pick up a white 6 might clue you in as to how likely they might be willing to pass on a white 5.  There’s also 9 cards in the 89 card deck that allow for direct interaction, allowing you to do things like force another player to give you a card of their choosing or at random, so if you see someone take a card that you wanted, you should (and will) remember that fact for later.  (This is the only form of direct player interaction.)  Players also can get points for completing sets, so you want to be aware of what other people are taking.  (If you see someone else going after all the 3′s, maybe you don’t want to veer into their lane and compete with them for 3′s. Or maybe, if you’re seated to their right, you do want to compete with them and deny them the last one that they need to complete their set.)

But, more fundamentally, everyone pays attention during each other player’s turn because each turn feels exciting, because it’s a press-your-luck game: you can pick a face-up card from the table, but if you don’t like what you can see, you can flip over a new card -- with the stipulation that if you flip over a new card that matches a suit that’s already on the board, you “bust” and forfeit your turn.  There are 10 suits, so flipping over a new card when there’s 2 suits visible gives you a ~20% chance of busting (fairly safe), but the danger quickly increases...each card flip feels tense, and it’s fun to watch as other people at the table get greedy and either get rewarded or punished for their greed.

When reading the rulebook for the first time, the level of decision-making in this game didn’t strike me as something that would be all that interesting, but when playing, it strikes a good balance: the decisions are simple, but they’re fast and often quickly lead to other decisions as you ratchet up the risk and tension. As Knizia titles go, it’s not the deepest game, but every turn (including your opponents’) feels exciting and engaging.

Trendy (2-5 players, 20 minutes)

If you want to get your hands on a copy of this game, the 2021 Japanese version might actually be the easiest to find, as the only other versions are the original 2000 German release, and the 2004 version which was released in English.

The rules are simple: on your turn, you play out a numbered card face up. Once the table has collectively assembled a “complete set,” everyone who played cards as part of that set gets to score them, and all other cards that don’t match the trend get discarded. (A “complete set” requires a number of cards equal to the face value of the cards: three 3′s is a complete set, as is four 4′s, five 5′s, six 6′s, or seven 7′s.) Each card scores equal to its face value, so making higher numbers trend is harder, but more rewarding if you can pull it off.  Mixing things up are a few cards that count as two cards, and a few “out” cards that will discard all cards of a specific number from play.

Out of all of the games, it’s the one I feel the least compelled to go back and replay, as it lends itself to somewhat repetitive play patterns. And yet, as game designer, I kind of love this game for achieving what few games do, and that is perfectly communicating its theme through its gameplay.

In Trendy, you are often left in a quandary like this one: the table has just been cleared, and the player to your right has just played a 7. You also have a 7 -- so maybe you want to hop on that trend so that when the 7′s score, you won’t be left out. On the other hand, the person who played the first 7 probably has multiple 7′s in hand. If you play your own 7, you’ll be scoring 7 points for yourself, but you might be helping that opponent score 14 or even 21 points! Better to go under them with a low card like a 3 or a 4 -- you’ll score fewer points, but you’ll punish the player who played a 7.

So you play the 3. And then you watch in horror as the next two players also play 7′s, followed by the original player, playing a fourth 7. Now, 7′s are very close to trending -- will you stubbornly try to undercut them with a 3 and try to make 3′s trend first?  Or will you accept the inevitable, hop on the bandwagon, and add your 7 to the pile so you can at least walk away with 7 points (knowing that your opponents will probably be walking away with more)? But what if the table doesn’t collectively have seven 7′s -- what if your opponents don’t have that final 7, and by hopping on the trend, you’re actually helping them score cards that might have otherwise been dead in their hand?

That, in a nutshell, is Trendy -- like the name (and artwork/theme suggests), it is a game about watching as trends catch on, and being left in the tension of getting peer pressured into hopping on a trend out of fear of getting left behind, versus the decision to break from the crowd and try to start a new trend that catches on faster. And, of course, with each person who hops on the bandwagon, the trend only grows stronger and harder to buck. You don’t want to be left out, but the later you join a trend, the less cred you get for being part of the “in” group. The person who starts the trend often collects bigger rewards than all of the followers, so it’s better to be the king of the 3′s than the fourth person to jump on the 6 train. And because higher numbers are worth more points, the more unlikely a trend is, the more you get rewarded for starting it. The gameplay is such a perfect encapsulation of the game’s theme that I’m kind of left in awe.

And yet, there’s only so many times you can watch those stories play out before you start to get a “been there, done that” feel. Having played over a dozen hands of this game, I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve spent playing Trendy, and I’m happy to recommend of for the reasons above, but I’m not sure it’s a game that I’m sad to see leave my collection. (On the other hand, my sister loves this game and will probably be introducing many more people to it.) It’s a great game to introduce to new people who can play it for 15-60 minutes, then get to say goodbye to the game before they have a chance to grow tired of it -- and in a way, isn’t that exactly what you want out of a “gateway” game?

[burningaurora]

Can you give me a quick rundown of how you make the podfics? I liked the voice, and don't do much on the others I've tried, and most seem to have a character limit. I googled the "Microsoft Edge Read Aloud" you said you used? Do you have to do it on browser? If so, how to you save the audio file? Do you have to edit out all the authors notes and such?

I'd love to make a couple for myself, bc carpool is torture lol, and I've listened to all the long wolfstar ones I can find. Tysm!

I’m going to do my best here to explain my process. Read aloud is an option in the Microsoft Edge browser itself; you can right click to get to it or click the 3 dots at the top of the browser. The voice I’ve found I like best is “Microsoft Christopher Online (Natural) - English (United States)”. I generally use the PC version of Edge because I create my podfics through Audacity (free software) where it essentially records my computer audio, but there are Android and Apple version of it that have the same read aloud functionality. To get mine to the quality that they are at I actually wrote a computer program (I’m a software engineer in real life) that does a lot of the HTML formatting for me. It also does a lot of find and replace on words that edge pronounces funny that I’ve come up with creative spelling for to get it to sound accurate. My general process is to record the audio straight through and then when I’m listening to it I create bookmarks in my audio player (Smart AudioBook Player) to indicate where there are issues for me to go back and fix. Issues are generally a strange Microsoft Edge pronunciation or a grammatical error that was missed by the author - pretty minor things. If you’re only creating them for yourself it probably isn’t necessary, but I’m a perfectionist and things like that drive me nuts. I have so many more podfics recorded, but most of them I haven’t heard back from the author on about posting. I don’t feel like I can ethically post them without the author’s permission. @heartofspells was actually the first author who got back to me and I've been doing this for months.

Prior to learning about Microsoft Edge I used the Android Evie app which all things considered is pretty good. It's base pronunciation is definitely better than Edge. I just didn’t want to pay for the higher quality voices.

I hope that answers your questions. I'd love to create more of these to distribute, I just can't seem to find authors who are interested.

[herrscherofpee]

Hey, if you want my (rather selfish) opinion, i would LOVE to see the raccoon and Firefly in a predicament! So i would certainly be expectant to see anything about it! (Ideallymaybedesperationandwettingbutyouknowidontwanttobethevoiceinyourheadthattellsyoutospendtoomuchmoneybutyouknow)

Yeah, i instantly noticed how your pfp was a colored version of the Bronya and Seele one! (Actually as i was typing this i am now curious about in what situation you would even put "Stellefly" in) You got good taste ngl

Yeah, about that...I thought my little extra money I earned recently would be enough, but his rates are a little higher than I thought and in order to get even just line art is too much for my currently unemployed butt (I am not in danger of starvation, I live with my parents)

But honestly, I ain't even upset. The prices I think are fair for the quality of work, it was just my expectations that were screwed.

Although...I think out of respect I am going to take down the full image of my PFP. I had colored it myself, and seeing the prices I feel a little dirty (not the fun way) for my edit. No big deal, but now I need something to replace it with.

Anyways, what I would have done is Stelle and Firefly in an alley, with Firefly in deep desperation either leaking or squatting down and peeing while Stelle is sitting on a trash can peeing into that. If money wasn't an issue, it would be a 4 panel story lol

[sida-wang]

WEEK 10 Rendering and Editing

（Completed Version of Rough Cut）

This week was all about troubleshooting, and rectifying errors. After completing the modeling and animating, my first task was to export a low-resolution version (10%) for smooth playback, allowing for detailed inspection and adjustments. The time-consuming nature of Blender rendering became a significant concern as it directly impacted the project's overall completion timeline. Render times varied widely due to differences in model sizes and its complexity, ranging from 2 hours per frame to 1 minute per frame for 4K resolution animations. To accelerate rendering, I applied a combination of reducing resolution and utilizing three computers with frame-skipping rendering techniques. For instance, computer one rendered frames 1-100, computer two rendered frames 100-200, and computer three handled frames 300-400.

（rendering with 100% resolution）（rendering with 10% resolution）

（An iterative process）

While Blender is still rendering higher resolution version, I utilized the 10% resolution version in Premiere Pro for editing and sound design. I structured the four main model scenes ("grass," "corridor," "Hole," "Life") as separate sequences, allowing for easy adjustment of the entire editing timeline when rendering higher-quality versions by simply replacing frames within the sequences.

When selecting the authoring platform, Vimeo was initially considered, but due to compatibility issues with Meta headsets and non-member upload limitations, I opted for YouTube. Uploading directly from the computer's web browser allowed for real-time updates in the headset. A crucial detail during video upload was selecting the "Not made for kids" option to ensure proper VR video playback in the headset.

However, during cross-checks between headset and web editing, I noticed that the Oculus Quest 2's audio quality was inferior compared to computers and headphones, particularly lacking in bass reproduction. Increasing bass levels marginally improved the situation, but not satisfactorily. Solutions considered include audio replacement for bass-heavy sections and exploring higher-end headsets for better audio fidelity.

In the upcoming weeks, I will embark on the lengthy rendering process while optimizing transitions between scenes in editing. After confirming that both modeling and animation are error-free, the best solution I can think of is utilizing a Cloud Rendering Service, which is priced at around 20 Australian dollars for 24 hours on Taobao. Through my testing, I have observed a significant improvement in rendering efficiency with the 4090 graphics card. Previously, rendering one image at around 50% resolution took about 40 minutes, whereas now, rendering at 100% resolution takes approximately 9 minutes per image. The only concern with remote controlling the computer is the risk of personal data leakage.

（Remote control computer for rendering）

[ifotoeditor]

8 Best Free Online AI Photo Editors [2024 Full Review]

When AI technologies are spreading to photo editing programs, you no longer need to get familiar with a complicated editing program like Photoshop for beautifying images - it now only takes several simple clicks! Among countless online AI photo editors, we have tested and sorted out the 8 best free options that can bring you effortless help. Now, head down and grasp them to start a quick photo editing process from today!

Top 1. iFoto

The top-ranking online AI photo editor of great popularity today refers to iFoto. This web-based platform has prepared multiple helpful image editing functions, like the AI background changer, face swap, photo enhancer, background remover, etc. to cater to different editing demands. With the advanced AI techniques integrated, iFoto delivers high-quality and quick image-resolving ability. Especially for functions like background changer, remover, and face swap, it can smartly and precisely detect objects for erasing, and generate natural image outputs without consistency. iFoto is equipped with an encryption technique, which will strictly protect user data without keeping any uploaded files before getting your permission. Its clear webpages are also free of ads, making it friendly and secure to use online image editing without worrying about threats like viruses attack.

Despite the online service, iFoto also launched both an Android and iOS application, which will deliver stabber and more convenient image editing functions for mobile users to process image editing in one shot. Overall, iFoto can be a superior online AI photo editor no matter considering from image output quality, editing efficiency, and secure performance. How to Use iFoto AI Photo Editor? All functions delivered by iFoto online AI photo editor are quite easy to grasp. Let’s take the Cleanup Pictures function as an example to guide you how to use the tool without hassle: STEP 1. Firstly, open iFoto Cleanup Pictures in a web browser, and upload an image you desire to edit to the online editor. STEP 2. In the editing window, all editing functions are provided on the left panel for you to select. Simply choose any of them to complete the image editing and customization in your preferences. STEP 3. Once the image editing is completed, simply click on the Download button to export the edited file to your desktop local folder in no time.

Top 2. Canva

For graphic designers, you must be familiar with Canva. Replacing of providing complicated editing features, Canva is also designed with a user-friendly interface and offers intuitive functions for image creation. With the AI techniques applied to its web-based editor, you will discover that its resolving speed and accuracy are both enhanced to a higher level. Like one of its features called Magic Edit, which allows you to describe the changes you want to make to an image, and then use a brush to select the specific areas of the image you want to modify. The output images will be resolved at natural conditions, which better guarantee higher resolutions to help you get high-quality outputs without hassle! 

Top 3. Adobe Express

Many of you must know about Adobe Photoshop, but have you ever tried its online AI photo editor with simplified functions to help edit images in high quality but a quick process? This web-based version is named Adobe Express, which harnesses the power of Photoshop through its web and mobile applications, allowing users to take this capability with them anywhere. Adobe has recently updated Express with a wide range of useful AI-powered features, including generative AI for creating images from text prompts, one-click text effects, and smart object removal and replacement. During testing, Adobe Express's AI tools proved to be among the best and easiest to use, a rare combination. Express has also expanded its video editing capabilities by introducing animation options. Even for those new to animation, it is easy to select a layer and apply animation effects with just a few clicks in the side menu. Users can set the animation to loop, export it as a GIF, and have a great asset for social media posts or to be used within longer video content.

Top 4. Movavi Photo Editor

Movavi's AI Photo Editor revolutionizes the photo enhancement process, making it a breeze to transform your images with minimal effort. At the heart of this innovative tool lies the AI-powered color correction feature, which allows you to enhance your photos and create stunning, cinematic-style photos with just very simple clicks. But that's not all – this online AI photo editor also possesses the remarkable ability to repair old and damaged photos. With its powerful restoration capabilities, cherished memories can be revived, ensuring that your precious moments remain vibrant and vivid. Movavi Photo Editor also offers a comprehensive suite of basic and advanced photo-editing tools, catering to all your editing needs to get perfect image outputs as you like!

Top 5. Autoenhance.ai

Another efficient online photo editor bringing bringing seamless solution to edit images without hassle can be Autoenhance.ai. This innovative tool harnesses the power of AIto streamline the photo editing process, providing three core features that can elevate your images with minimal effort. You only need to upload an image, and the AI will automatically edit it for you, taking care of the intricate details. You even have the option to enable HDR editing for your images, further enhancing their visual impact. However, it is noted that Autoenhance.ai is only offers 15 free quotas to edit images (including the API). But it also offers flexible payment options for those with greater needs. You can choose a pay-as-you-go model or opt for one of the available bundles, tailored to suit your specific requirements.

Top 6. Hotpot Tools

Another AI-powered online photo editor that is able to bring effortless help on image editing refers to Hotpot Tools. This cutting-edge online AI image editor provides exceptional editing and graphic design services, making it a must-have for anyone seeking professional-grade results. Also, the advanced AI-powered subject detection ability also make its object removal and damaged photos repairing functions perfect to use - the accuracy in extracting objects and erasing as well as refining the images will be well handled by the tool! With Hotpot Tools, you can definitely get a remarkable image editing experience.

Top 7. Photopea

For pro users who are wishing a professional online image editor like Photoshop, Photopea can be the best option you should consider. It is equipped with a Photoshop-inspired layout, but moving all its functions to the web browser - you are able to access the platform and use its online editing functions without installing a third-party programs at all! However, compared with other AI-powered online photo editors, Photopea chooses to sacrifices efficiency but tries to guarantee a better output with high image quality. If you pay attention to professional image editing and is desire to output images in high resolutions, Photopea can definitely bring you help.

Top 8. Pixlr

The final recommended online AI photo editor can be Pixlr, which is also a versatile and comprehensive option that provides a wide array of photo editing capabilities to cater to all your needs. With Pixlr, you can unleash your creativity by making animations, removing backgrounds from images, creating visually stunning collages, adding decorative stickers, and exploring many more exciting features. Its user-friendly interface empowers you to edit photos like a professional, all within a matter of seconds. Pixlr is an ideal choice for beginners, as it offers a guided experience, walking you through both minor and major edits, ensuring that you achieve high-quality results effortlessly. In addition to its online version, Pixlr also provides a mobile app, allowing you to harness the power of this AI photo editor on the go, whether you're working online or through the app.

Final Words

When AI empowers photo editors to deliver a more automatic image editing process, you will find it no longer be a time-wasting task even if you have batches of photos to edit at once. Among the above 8 best online AI free photo editors, iFoto delivers the best performance, high-quality image outputs, and also efficient resolving ability to you. As it is free to get started, directly navigate to its webpage and  Read the full article