#exceptional vfx

[fratboykate]

You watched The Peripheral? I love it so fucking much!!! I fee like ppl are missing on it, busy watching the dragon show and the ring show…

I BEEN REBLOGGING STUFF SINCE LAST WEEK and I'm not ever even here. That's how deep in the hole I am lol. I'm SO FUCKING HOOKED. Truly one of the best sci-fi shows of the last decade. But there is like...no fandom. I hate it. I need people to scream with.

[imthebentley]

Union Victory!

Horray we did it!

What a faff!

Cheers to successful negotiation and really really good chants!

[magentagalaxies]

honestly so mad nobody's paying scott and paul to be oscars commentators because oh my god ideal viewing experience. scott showed up an hour late because he didn't realize the show started earlier this year. paul had seen almost every movie and had a lot of opinions. scott had seen none of the movies and somehow had even more opinions. paul got ridiculously hyped when what was i made for won best song. scott was thirsting over john krazinski any time he appeared onscreen for two seconds and the comments got increasingly strange and specific. the three of us losing our minds for the entirety of john mulaney's bit. during "i'm just ken" scott was like why is this so homoerotic so i had the pleasure of explaining to him the lore behind cock ring ken (bellini already knew about cock ring ken but that's because i explained it to him back in august). jfc i want to do this every year. someone hire the three of us to host

[lwieserce]

Oh so we've already seen her ult? A little bit disappointed tbh

[sanstropfremir]

I listened to n//mi//xx pre release bc I thought maybe their songs would be more appealing to me now that they're doing a mini album and so far I'm just confused with jyp A&R team. Like who signed off on the song??? I think it's great to sample things and try stuff but like... other kpop groups have sampled nursery rhymes and made them fun and interesting! but this felt too on the nose and just uninspired almost. Like I can see what they may be trying to do but??? It didn't land for me personally.

Like there is a way to experiment with thought and care you know?? I'll still check on their mini bc they may have a song like cool your rainbow which I loved!! But oh well.

I did finally check out x///g shooting star and found it super fun! And cupid by 50/50 is great! I prefer the twin version shockingly lol.

i........................................

man i don't even know on this one. i'm not even sure i can see what they were trying to do here, this is all just so......weird. i know often melodies and songs that are associated with specific things in the west don't always have their connotations transferred over when used in other countries (ex on douyin christmas music often gets used as bg music for random vids bc its usually royalty free + is just random music to most ppl in china), so i'm not expecting koreans to be familiar + have the same nursery rhymes......but still. i agree there are intelligent and thoughtful ways to experiment with sampling and musical structure and the connotations of different melodies but personally i don't really consider anything nmixx has done to have actually been that thoughtful or coherent.

[twig---verginix]

swear to god i'm just gonna stop watching the endings to shows i like. good shows need to get cancelled on cliffhangers forever

[imposterogers]

I think there's a lot of factors that has led to the overall downfall of the mcu, from consumer fatigue to the shoddy cgi ununionized vfx workers were forced to grind out to incohesive plotlines, but the one that I think alienated the fans the most was the writing -- specifically by people who genuinely disliked the source material characters and stories they were writing about. how many times can you watch yet another one of your favorites be ruined? do something so wildly out of character it hurts? there was a shift post infinity war. to put fan servicing ahead of good writing. to stuff everything with cameos. make gif & memeable scenes. to treat characters like playing dolls -- where nothing felt like them except their face. sad tbh

[eddiediaaz]

hi guys, i am kind of ashamed and embarrassed to have to do this, but i figured it can't hurt to ask. basically i am really struggling right now (i know a lot of us are). i need financial help, so i set up a ko-fi page ☕

any kind of help would be so appreciated and i am so grateful for anyone taking the time to read this little post.

long story short: because of situations completely out of my control, i lost my job in vfx after almost 8 years and i am now forced to switch careers. i'm going back to school and can't find a part time job even tho i have been working non stop for 15 years. financial aid will only cover my rent, so i absolutely need to work 20 to 30 hours a week to cover the rest of my living expenses, but it's really hard to find a job. i am also currently over 10k cad in debt from my film school loans and credit cards.

signal boost would be appreciated, if you can 💕

my situation in more details under the cut for those who are curious

i was working in the vfx industry as a 2D compositor since 2016 (i have worked on over 40 films and tv shows), but in december of 2023 i lost my job due to the hollywood strikes (as expected, and as it should—i fully support the strikes). this was supposed to be temporary for a couple months where i could get unemployment benefits (only 45% of my usual salary though). unfortunately, on may 31st 2024, my government announced that they are significantly cutting the funding & tax credits for the vfx industry where i live. what does this mean? mass lay offs. thousands of canadians and other people in the world working in the industry are losing their career, including me. there will only be about 20% vfx jobs left where i live by 2025. vfx shops and production houses have already started to close doors here. i'm still mourning this career i have been working in for 8 years and loved, even tho it's been difficult and demanding at times (lots of overtime), but there are just no jobs right now (unless you are a senior vfx artist with decades of experience) and the future will only get more bleak. i could move abroad and follow the industry that is already moving somewhere else, but i don't want to do that on my own (i am already super lonely as it is!!) and i can't afford it.

my unemployment benefits will run out by the last week of september. in 4 weeks. i've been sending resumes everywhere, both online and in person, but i am just not getting anything in return. even tho i have over 15 years of experience working in various jobs and i have never been fired from anywhere. even tho my resume and cover letters are solid because they have been approved my professional counselors (a free service for people under 35 where i live). so much for they're hiring everywhere...

since my vfx compositing skills are very niche and not really applicable to much else, i decided to go back to school, taking college classes in the admin and excecutive assistant fields, since it's something that i think would be good for me and there are lots of jobs for that here. i will be getting some financial aid, but it's nowhere near enough to survive. it will only cover my rent, and that's because my rent is super cheap for my city. my college classes start on september 30 and i am excited for it, but also very stressed because i still don't have a part time job.

i've been living on my own with a small salary for over 10 years now, but it truly is the first time that i'm struggling this hard. i honestly don't have anything worth selling except some taylor swift perfumes, which i sold this week. i also have over 6k of credit debt and another 4.5k of school loans left to pay. at the bare minimum i will need about $1.000 CAD/month to cover my other bills and expenses after rent, hence why the need for a job ASAP. i am desperate and my mental health has been a huge mess. this is why i decided to open my ko-fi accounts. not that i'm expecting much, but anything can help, i think.

i don't have much to offer in exchange, except gifs? i'm wondering if (cheap, low price) gif commissions are a thing? i have no idea know, but i set up a poll on my ko-fi page to see if anyone would be interested.

thank you for reading if you've made it here, it's appreciated 💖

[lemonjamdraws]

early posting for @lilanette-week day 3- bodyswap

small ficlet to accompany it as well

“Marinette? Are you okay?” There’s a strange high-pitched voice in her ear. Lila shakes her head, pressing a hand to her temple.

“What the hell…?” Her back is sore as hell, but she’s definitely not where she just was, and her own voice sounds different. Like, sweeter and rounder somehow. Just then, she registers the name she heard.

“Marinette?” She blinks as she pulls herself up to standing, squinting down at her paler skin and pink capris. What?

“Yes, you, Marinette!” The voice comes again, shrill and piercing, and she looks to the side to see a tiny red creature floating before her. Her jaw drops as she steps back. “Wait- you’re not Marinette-”

Just then, a force flies into her side and smashes her into the wall again.

“Ack! Sorry!” Another voice says–her voice–and she looks incredulously at the huge mass of dark brown hair against her. When the perpetrator looks up, she’s stunned. Like she’s looking into a mirror, except there’s a completely different expression than usual on her face.

“Who the hell are you? Is that my body? And what is the fairy? What-?”

“An akumatized villain swapped our bodies,” the fake-Lila says, pulling back to stand up straight. Lila looks around, having lost sight of the red thing. She does not trust the situation. “Oh boy, this got messy fast. Um. Tikki, help me out?”

Just then, there’s a tickle at her ear. Lila practically jumps, whipping her head around as goosebumps rise on her skin. Her hands rise automatically to protect her ears, but already there’s that red thing flying away towards the fake Lila, two black earrings in hand.

“Sorry!” That high-pitched voice calls out again.

Dots connect as she stares.

“No way,” she says, “you’re Ladybug, Marinette?”

“Umm,” fake-Lila says, “uhhh. Noo, that would be ridiculous, hahaha. Your ears are pierced by the way, right?”

Lila fixes her with a pointed glare and folded arms as fake-Lila manages to slot the studs into her ears with actual impressive ease.

“Okay, so. I’ll definitely explain this later. But if I don’t do this then we’re gonna be stuck like this forever,” fake-Lila says. Lila looks down at herself, at the painfully bright pink and honestly boring shirt and jacket combo.

“And that would be awful,” Lila finishes, “I certainly don’t want to walk around dressed like this.”

Fake-Lila’s mouth opens in protest. “Hey! I’m literally a fashion designer.” Lila makes an unimpressed sound, making a show of observing her own outfit.

“You certainly don’t dress like it,” she sniffs.

“I don’t have time for this,” Fake-Lila huffs, “Tikki, spots on!”

Miraculously, Lila watches as her body is consumed by a swirl of pink sparkles. When the VFX dissipate, the girl is standing there with a spotted red jacket and high-waisted shorts. Lila’s long hair is pulled into two different loose ponytails, and her face partially obscured by a classic red mask, complete with a single red spot on the center.

“Looks like even the miraculous can tell that I’m more fashionable than you,” Lila says with a smirk, satisfied at the much more attractive design that formed for her, versus that awful, awful spotted suit that Ladybug normally wears.

“Wait, really?” Fake-Lilabug takes a long look at the layers of her new outfit, shifting her feet out to observe the black boots complete with antennae-like bits flicking out the back. “Dang, this is not fair at all. I’m going to need to have some words with Tikki.”

“Is Tikki that bug thing that literally pickpocketed me?”

“I’m not sure removing my earrings from my body counts as pickpocketing,” fake-Lilabug returns. “So, I’m going to need you to stay quiet about this whole thing. But here’s the bonus! After I defeat this akuma, you can say I lent you the earrings to be Ladybug this time and actually are my best friend. We both win!”

Lila cocks her head.

“Oh, really?” She didn’t expect that, but since Ladybug’s on a time crunch, it makes sense she might try to buy Lila’s favor as quickly as possible. “That’s very nice, but my price for silence is much higher.”

Lilabug frowns, her foot tapping impatiently. “What do you want?” 

Lila smiles sweetly.

“Take me on a date as Ladybug and let me do a vlog about it.” Her words are accompanied with a big grin, and it’s all too amusing to watch fake-Lilabug’s face fall, even if it’s with her face. “Prove me right and let the whole world know that we’re very close.”

Fake-Lilabug looks left and right, biting at her lip.

“You’re going to put yourself in more danger if you do that,” she says. “Hawkmoth will go after you.”

“Let’s just say it won’t be the first time,” Lila returns easily, looking down at her (Marinette’s) nails. “Deal or no deal, darling class prez. Clock’s ticking.”

“Damn it,” the girl swears. “Fine. You stay right here, though. I’ll be back soon.”

“Of course,” Lila says with a smile. “See you soon, bestie~!”

When the room is finally empty of everyone but her, she hums nonchalantly and pulls Marinette’s phone from the pink crossbody bag. 

Hopefully, she has fingerprint ID turned on…

[gael-garcia]

SAG-AFTRA deal on AI is looking terrible, actually 😬

#SAG Actors, I want to make you aware of some of the language in the #AI portion of the tentative SAG agreement.

Though SAG leadership made much effort to protect members in AI, there are many issues you should look at. I have saved the most serious issue for the end. 1/

If a “digital double” is made of you during a film, they must get your consent and inform you of their intentions for its use, EXCEPT "when the photography or sound track remains substantially as scripted, performed and/or recorded.”2/

This is going to be left up to the studios/streamers’ interpretation. And so, any subtlety regarding how you chose to look or move for the character during the shoot could potentially be changed. Your hair, your clothes, your make-up, etc. 3/

Also, your physical placement in a scene can be changed, like your nearness or distance from another character, or even moving you from the front seat of a car "to the back seat of the car." This suggests not much agency on your part to control your character or performance. 4/

Under “(Digital Double) Use Other Than in the Motion Picture for Which the Performer Was Employed,” it says that "No additional compensation shall be required for use of an Employment-Based Digital Replica that was created in connection with employment of a performer who was… 5/

… employed under Schedule F.” It appears that if you were paid Schedule F for the first film, you don’t get paid for the sequels, where they’re just using your digital double instead of you. I suggest members get sharp clarity on this. 6/

If a “digital double” was made of you in a separate manner (on another film or privately made by you), it's referred to as an “independently created digital replica” (ICDR). There is no minimum compensation listed for studios/streamers to use an ICDR of you in… 7/

… any film they want; only consent. You will apparently need to negotiate any compensation on your own. 8/

Neither consent nor compensation is necessary to use your “digital double” if the project is "comment, criticism, scholarship, satire or parody, a docudrama, or historical or biographical work.” So, you could find yourself in a project you never consented to… 9/

…doing things you never were informed of, for no compensation at all. This is the “First Amendment” argument the #GAI tech companies are fond of trotting out. 10/

Another consent exemption is granted to "adjusting lip and/or other facial or body movement and/or the voice of the performer to a foreign language, or for purposes of changes to dialogue or photography necessary for license or sale to a particular market. 11/

The substitution of swear words is not new, but that your “body movements” would be changed suggests you’ll be used like a type of rag doll in post-production. 12/

There are still a few concerns with the Background Performers’ details, but there’s one that stands out as especially sad. "If the Producer uses a background actor’s Background Actor Digital Replica in the role of a principal performer, the background actor shall be paid… 13/

…the minimum rate for a performer… had (they) performed those scene(s) in person.” So, if an extra is “bumped up” to a principal cast member, they never get to experience that position on a set. But you get a check after the fact. 14/

And the most serious issue of them all is the inclusion in the agreement of “Synthetic Performers,” or “AI Objects,” resembling humans. This gives the studios/streamers a green-light to use human-looking AI Objects instead of hiring a human actor. 15/

It’s one thing to use GAI to make a King Kong or a flying serpent (though this displaces many VFX/CGI artists), it is another thing to have an AI Object play a human character instead of a real actor. To me, this inclusion is an anathema to a union contract at all. 16/

This is akin to SAG giving a thumbs-up for studios/streamers using non-union actors. This would be like the @Teamsters putting in their contract that it’s A-OK for the employer to utilize self-driving trucks instead of them. 17/

@Teamsters I find it baffling that a union representing human actors would give approval of those same actors being replaced by an AI Object. And don’t forget, those AI Objects are a mash-up of all actors' past performances, adding insult to injury. 18/

@Teamsters Bottomline, we are in for a very unpleasant era for actors and crew. The use of “digital doubles” alone will reduce the number of available jobs, because bigger name actors will have the opportunity to double or triple-book themselves on multiple projects at once. 19/

@Teamsters The use of these “digital doubles” will most likely preclude the need of a set or the use of many @IATSE crew and @Teamster drivers. 20/

@Teamsters @IATSE @Teamster Audition odds will change. Winning an audition could become very difficult, because you will not just be competing with the available actors who are your type, but you will now compete with every actor, dead or alive, who has made their “digital double” available for rent … 21/

@Teamsters @IATSE @Teamster … in a range of ages to suit the character. You also will be in competition with an infinite number of AI Objects that the studios/streamers can freely use. And a whole cast of AI Objects instead of human actors eliminates the need for a set or any crew at all. 22/

@Teamsters @IATSE @Teamster You are a complex & remarkable human. Don’t let the CEOs convince you otherwise. Seek out filmmakers & showrunners who value your basic worth & committed to human workers on their projects. These are the ones who will make work that matters. We’re going to be OK. Just hold on. /

[centrally-unplanned]

Got linked to these very good videos recently on all the fake branding around "No CGI" and "Practical effects" in big budget movies today - as is no shock to anyone virtually every single claim of "no CGI" in a movie today is just a complete lie (Oppenheimer is the only debatable exception). Jonas is a very good presenter, he respects your intelligence and has a breadth of cinema knowledge that makes this series more than its headline.

Something that I thought was interesting that he alluded to was a cool industry shift that has occurred around the ease of special effects meaning that people involved don't even know they are happening. If you were an actor in a movie in ~2010, and a shot was a "VFX" shot, you would see greenscreens/bluescreens, you would see rigging equipment, you would maybe wear a mocap suit or tracers or something. You yourself had VFX skills, you were part of the project. And audiences learned that too, they learned to expect to see bluescreens or behind-the-scenes footage of those things.

But that is increasingly outdated now - still used for ease or specific shots, sure, but its not necessary. You can completely redo the backgrounds, build rig models for actors, clone objects from the frame, and so on just from the native footage, the tech is that good. So you will sometimes shoot a scene and it will look normal to you, and then be changed in post, you don't even know. At one point he tangents to discuss how marketers will lie about the actors "doing their own stunts", which seems credible to audiences because they know that for stunts you do things like hiding the actor's face or having specific cuts to mask the actor switch. But they don't have to do that anymore! You can just composite the actor's face onto the body of the stunt double, and you don't notice. That old "trick" you had to tell isn't functional, and being used *against* you.

It really reminds me of Dan Olsen's idea of "Bakshi's Vision", where the distinction between an animated film and a live action film becomes too blurry even bother with. Obviously that won't become literally true, but you can see the shape of it more and more.

[rhysdarbinizedarby]

Our Flag Means Death season 2 shot a crucial scene in the Avatar 2 tank

A behind-the-scenes look at how Taika Waititi and Rhys Darby shot their big merman moment

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Our Flag Means Death, Season 2, Episodes 3]

Season 2 of David Jenkins’ pirate comedy-romance-drama Our Flag Means Death has finally premiered on Max, with an opening three-episode arc that’s guaranteed to get the series’ fandom buzzing. The third episode in particular ends with a sequence that feels like it was intentionally crafted to inspire the crowds of fan artists who have turned the series into an obsession. Polygon talked to the series’ VFX supervisor, David Van Dyke, about what went into shooting that sequence — and how James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water helped out.

At the end of episode 3, Ed “Blackbeard” Teach (Taika Waititi) is in limbo after being assaulted and nearly killed by his crew. There, he meets his former captain Benjamin Hornigold (another of the series’ historical pirate characters, played by Mark Mitchinson), who tries to help him through his emotional crisis over being abandoned by Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby). Except Hornigold mostly helps by pointing out Blackbeard’s failings, then tying a stone to his waist and throwing him off a cliff into the sea — where he sees a vision of Stede as a fish-tailed merman, coming to save him.

“Just so you know, Rhys and Taika did very well underwater,” Van Dyke told Polygon about shooting the scene. “Rhys is not an Olympic synchronized swimmer, but he’s a strong swimmer. They were both very comfortable underwater. They both did a really good job of being mermen.”

Van Dyke says he was originally asked whether he could do the scene with CG versions of the two men, for safety reasons. He explained that it was possible, “but that’ll cost millions and millions of dollars, and we don’t really have that.”

Instead, he ended up shooting the scene practically. Season 1 of Our Flag Means Death was shot on a soundstage in Los Angeles, but for season 2, production moved to New Zealand. That gave Van Dyke a lot of advantages in terms of shooting natural backdrops to use on the production’s giant virtual environment screen, and in using experienced crews from past special-effects-heavy productions, from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies to James Cameron’s Avatar movies.

“There were definitely a few pieces that were serendipitously to our advantage,” Van Dyke says. “New Zealand was where they shot a lot of Avatar stuff, and there just so happens to be an enormous tank on the lot. There are a bunch of Avatar crew who are SCUBA certified, because they’ve been shooting in that tank forever. This was not something we had to figure out — we didn’t have to send a bunch of grips and lighting technicians off to SCUBA school. So they were there, they had really amazing underwater photography teams, and obviously a really good stunt team that was able to train up Taika and Rhys to make sure the scene was working.”

Van Dyke points to New Zealand’s thriving mermaid freediving community as a boon when it came to designing Darby’s merman outfit. “There are a lot of incredible mer-tails out there,” he said. “We were able to take those, and [costume designer Gypsy Taylor] and her team brought them together to make these beautiful physical pieces, so Rhys was able to actually sell it and do the performance underwater.”

For Van Dyke, the sequence really started with the cliff-jump sequence, which actually used considerably more CG than the underwater shots. “That cliff sequence was a great culmination of effects, merging physical photography and our LED wall, because you can’t really put those two guys on a thousand-foot cliff,” he said. “The insurance alone would be out of control. Also, we’re not really in the business of having people fall to their deaths.”

The cliff sequence began with sequences shot off New Zealand’s Bethells Beach, using drones to capture images looking inward from the ocean and photogrammetry of a specific ledge for production designer Ra Vincent and the art department to reproduce in the studio.

“The wide shots use production plates of those cliffs, and the tighter shots use photography we shot specifically to build out the stitching of the cliff sequence,” Van Dyke said. “Hornigold and Blackbeard are standing on a cliff set. We tied in drone plates of the actual cliffs so we can see the ocean and really set up how terrifying [the drop would be]. Then he falls into the ocean, falls into our tank.”

Once Waititi was in the tank, the next step was the shot where the stone tied to a rope around his waist pulls him deep underwater. That part of the scene required more conventional, practical production trickery than the rest of the sequence.

“The tank is massive, but it’s not 300 feet deep. It’s pretty darn big, but it’s never big enough, as they say,” Van Dyke says. “So when Taika is being tugged by the rock, we actually shot that sideways. By turning the camera sideways, you get more length to the shot. The problem is the bubbles — they should be streaming off him and then rising to the surface, but if you’re going sideways, they’re going to come off him and then go up, perpendicular to him. So we took over with CG to make sure our bubbles were traveling toward where the surface was supposed to be.”

The CG in the underwater sequence was mostly used to hide the lighting and rigging necessary to shoot it, Van Dyke says. “Anytime you’re shooting anything underwater, there’s gonna be a lot of gear. There’s no way you can get around that. So we’re making sure we have [convincing deep-sea] lighting and the bubbles. And then there’s his performance — that’s a real performance.”

For Van Dyke, the real complication was the costuming and makeup for both Darby and Waititi. “Taika’s wig — I was amazed that thing stayed on so long. It’s a long shoot. He was shooting all day, all weekend. But things stayed on. It’s a heavy weight. And Rhys is really working underwater, so his tail has to be working, so it all feels seamless.”

The shot in the underwater sequence that seems most likely to be a CG creation has both men just floating deep in the sea, facing each other above a seemingly endless abyss. Again, Van Dyke says, he used very little CG for that shot, and it was mostly to hide the tank walls.

“In that case, we were not shooting sideways,” he said. “It’s essentially a locked shot. It was about getting them at the right depth underwater, and making sure the shafts of light above them were working properly. We don’t have to track as much, we don’t have all these moving elements, we don’t have to worry about where the bubbles are going. That one was really just about cleaning up the tank, doctoring out the sides of the shot, where we can see the water receding into blackness, then giving the base of the tank true depth, so it really feels like they’re suspended a hundred feet below the surface.

“Obviously, a fair amount of CGI and visual effects had to go into it. But at the same time, it was a moment where we really needed to let the story take over, and have the visual effects just get out of the way, man.”

The first three episodes of Our Flag Means Death season 2 are now streaming on Max.

Source: Polygon

[mostlygibberish]

Part One:

Part Two:

Huh???

I'm so far behind on writing reviews for movies. I rewatched Dune 2021 and then part two, and my main takeaway is: How come they made the Eyes of Ibad way more subtle? They were a lot more vividly blue in part one.

[reriart]

Commission for @jiiigen!

There's a bit of story behind this piece and I wanted to share it because I hope to help other artists if they are in the same situation.

I had a severe art block in the past weeks, mostly because of my health problems and because I've lost my main job. I was already at the point where I wasn't enjoying my art at all and it all makes worse.

But I have to pay bills and school so I tried to go out of my comfort zone, even with panic attacks, and I did it. I considered that I had a clue of the art style I wanted - and it was Netflix's Castlevania style. I rewatched the show many times over the years, I consider it my comfort animation basically. I'm also studying VFX because of it.

Luckily, I have the official art book, I watched the documentaries on YouTube plus I follow so many Castlevania artists (I'd like to thank any of them XD), so I did my best to understand their fundamentals. Of course, I'm not even close to their perfection, but my love for the show helped me to reach a level that makes me say: "Mmmh, it's not that bad!". XD

The client asked for Halsin x Tav to do stuff against a wall or a tree, and of course, the amazing love scene from BG3 romance was my first choice. I loved that scene except for the light because I wanted Larian to focus better on Halsin's shape and muscles, using the light. They didn't so it was my chance to make justice. XD

Even with my severe depression, today I can say that I'm happy about what I drew. Probably the first time ever in my life. So thanks a lot for commissioning me, because... I feel... happy! *In Astarion's voice*

Note: I hate drawing body hair!! How do they work ffs??

[charmwitch]

some days I think about what I am and feel deattached from myself sometimes. I don't think I'm a webcomic artist, because I'm not as dedicated or passionate as others. I take a lot of breaks, I am slow and it's not a fun or exciting story to others, but I still like it.

I feel like I'm never passionate except for frivolous things. I think about this with work too, I like my work but I'm not passionate like some of my coworkers. My life isn't VFX, but I enjoy making VFX.

Sometimes I wonder if I know how to enjoy things that matter. I like to draw my fun little things, but am I really an artist