#his artstyle is fucking amazing as of recent tho

[duckiemimi]

i think gege is being overworked because of the high demand towards the series, which was ironically what he wrote about in the first half of jjk. to be frank, it doesn't even seem like he's all that enthusiastic in the story anymore, not even the fights, given the repeat battle between "gojo" and sukuna. they said, "bring gojo back!" and he did, but it doesn't seem like he really wants to. could you blame an author for how big a character's grown in popularity compared to the actual protagonists and the actual story? could you blame the resentment? it fucking sucks to have your creative freedom stripped away from you for the sake of what would sell well, but this is just my speculation.

[ouroborosorder]

what do you think the most stellar examples of arknights' vfx are?

Okay so there are a lot of examples, so I'm going to try to keep my description of each one short. Unsurprisingly, most of my favorite effects are on more recent, paid skins for fan-favorite/meta 6* operators, since those are the ones they put their whole ass into.

Executor the Ex Foedere. The way that it weaves blasts of light and the shapes of Sankta wings into his shotgun blasts is absurdly creative. Perfect for a saint of Laterano.

Passenger's Skin. Specifically his S3. Stellar lightning is a weird pitch, but it's so fucking beautiful that it works. This is the effect that convinced me that I might enjoy being a VFX artist after all, not fucking kidding.

Jessica Alter. Look. Her skills are underwhelming as fuck, they're all the same shot effects every time. But. Do you genuinely understand how amazing these gunshots look? Do you know how hard it is to make a stylized gunshot that doesn't just look like magic? These are breathtakingly good. The glass shattering on hit genuinely made my jaw drop when I first saw it.

Eyjafjalla the Hvit Aska. It's hard to make a healer that genuinely looks unique, but Eyjalter's dreamlike colors and flat effects manage to bring the visual style of So Long Adele into every map and make it look reasonable with the artstyle.

Kirin R Yato. Monster Hunter's effects are extremely distinct, and seeing them recreate MH's style in Arknights' is really lovely. My one sorrow is that I wish there was more lightning, since like. Kirin.

Lin. Glass is a legitamately hard thing to pull off because it so often just looks like crystal, but leaning more into glass dust and shards makes it work perfectly. Her skin is also quite pretty, but it loses the glass look that made me love Lin to begin with.

Reed the Flame Shadow. Holy fucking shit holy fucking shit holy fucking shit holy fucking shit fire made of flowers?? The way the fire looks secondary to the whole thing while being undeniably present is stunning. Her skin is nowhere near as good tho.

Penance. Penance has such a stunning aesthetic that it immediately endeared me to her. Her vibe of gilded thorny chains carries to her effects and it works.

Texas the Omertosa. Fucking. Duh. It's hard to make a normal sword swipe look unqiue but Texas nails it. Her skin's effects are even more stunning, even if the animations are awful.

Minimalist. It's hard to make effects that are minimalist and still look good.

Specter the Unchained + Skin. I need to specificially call out her skin. Her skin may be one of my favorite pieces of effects at all time. The colors, the aegirian poetry as part of the visuals, the stellar water, it's all practically perfect.

Kazemaru. A sleeper hit!! She's got a lot going on with the "paper-controlling ninja whose clone has a completely unique aesthetic" thing so it seems like she might be too busy, but it manages to pull it off. Shoutouts to her clone's spawn, which actually does the slash mesh slightly wrong intentionally because the ring look actually helps a lot.

Goldenglow. It's rare that I see a lightning character and say "I have never seen anything like that before in my life" and Goldenglow's pink and blue stylized lightning genuinely shocked me.

Ling (Does it Wash The Strings). If you want my choice for best VFX in the game, this would at least be in running for first. It's flashy as hell, but manages to not be overbearing. The S3 dragon attacking with mountains rising from the earth alone is stunning, but the normal attack impact is my favorite part of the entire thing. It's so simple and elegant and stylish.

Amiya Guard. Amiya's Guard form is the combination of Amiya's Arts, Sarkaz Arts, Ch'en's swordfighting, the normal AK Arts and sword design languages, and a tiny bit of weird space tech to represent the Precursors. And it manages to come together to something that feels really cohesive while still drawing attention to how incongruous these elements are. The effects actively tell the story of Amiya - a girl with big shoes to fill, carrying the legacy of so many.

Ceobe, and her Unfettered Freedom skin. At this point in Arknights' lifespan, they had a much more defined visual language for how Casters look compared to melee units. Ceobe, being a Caster who throws fucking enchanted melee weapons instead of casting spells? So she combines their languages, with the buildup and trails of Arts casters and impacts of melee units, it's subtle and I love it. Unfettered Freedom deserves a special shoutout because I love geometric magic so fucking much.

Conviction's Skin. Why is this so good they're a joke operator.

Dorothy's Skin. I may have mixed opinions on this skin, but the effects are objectively stunning. I am personally heartbroken that she doesn't have the sand anymore, but that's a personal thing. I also don't like that her S3's range is obfuscated by the explosion but again that's nitpicking.

There's probably WAY more that I've missed and even more I cut for time, but those are my favorites after browsing the list of operators and skins for like, two hours straight. If there are a few I missed... Look, this list is this long already.

Also note that I didn't really list enemies or anything other than playable operators. Their enemy effects are usually... servicable, with a few standout exceptions with Talulah and Frostnova.

[dolphin-enthusiast]

I thought it was a cute idea so: the pillarmen with a s/o who's a skilled animator and proudly shows them like, really pretty or cool animations. Animation is something I'm really interested in taking up and I need something like this to give me the kick in the pants I need to start

Yo this is v e r y wholesome??????

Kars:

- Has already heard about plenty of inventions that humans came up with, technology included. However he’s no expert (I mean, mans was s c h l e e p i n g for a fuck ton of years until recently) and he’s going to eagerly ask away all sorts of questions in regards to your work. Kars finds it absolutely fascinating how creative humans are, especially when it comes to art. Just...the mere fact that you hold so much power in your hand and create with such ferocity is enough to make Kars all the more enamored with you.

- Could literally watch you draw, color and put everything together all day long, not even joking. He may be the big bad ultimate lifeform but when it comes to you Kars just can’t help it, the man turning into an equally as big softie as his eyes constantly flick from your concentrated face then to your hand and ultimately the screen that’s displaying your meticulous work. Truth be told most of the time he has absolutely 0 fucking idea about how animation works (you already explained to him the basics and yet he still can’t grasp the idea of l a y e r s) but that doesn’t mean he won’t shower you in compliments and praise your creations.

- And we don’t talk about that one time when you decided to make a cute little animation of him. Kars literally watched it ON LOOP all day long and since then has kept it saved somewhere purely because he was utterly touched by the details you put into it, specifically just how attentive you were when you animated his silky, flowing mane that you adored so much. All in all, my man is absolutely smitten whenever he watches you work and he can and WILL cheer you on even if animation (or technology for that matter) ain’t his domain. Has tried once to animate you but it ended up like those cringe fail stickman 2 frame masterpieces made by kids using free animating phone apps. You still loved it tho.

Santana:

- Literally THE MOST clueless when it comes to technology and devices and the first time he sees you majestically whipping out your tablet and all the fucking monitors he’s like ??????? My man’s jaw literally d r o p s as his eyes scan over all the technology surrounding him as he asks you what the fuck experiments are you going to conduct using all those screens. You, of course, laugh your ass off at his confusion as you begin lightly teasing him for being such a “boomer” to which he gets EVEN more visibly dazed.

- Eventually grasps the idea of technology and animation in general (even though he still doesn’t really FULLY understand how it all works) and settles for quietly watching you work on your projects. He’s eerily quiet in general so you won’t even notice him behind you until you take a small break and spin around in your chair, nearly choking on your water when you see that Santana was right fucking there the entire time watching you with an almost childish expression of curiosity. You ask him for how long he’s been looking and he just s h r u g s.

- Isn’t the most verbal but you can clearly see that he’s proud of your “little human thing” and thinks that you’re fucking talented as s h i t. His main way of encouraging you is by doing small things such as rubbing your back when he notices you tensely working on your projects, bringing you snacks and drinks as well as reminding you to take small breaks from time to time since he knows how consuming working on big stuff can be. Can and WILL brag to the other pillarmen (and people in general) about what you do even if he doesn’t find the right words to express himself since his main way of telling others about you is by saying shit like “so my s/o makes these tiny detailed moving images and it’s awesome-”

Esidisi:

- NO. 1 FUCKING HYPEMAN BRUH!!! He has no fucking idea how animation works but omg is he going to be loudly and openly encouraging the SHIT out of you on a daily basis. Like the first time he walked in on you eagerly working on your projects my man audibly g a s p e d (which made you almost drop your pen as you severely fucked up a line) as he proceeded to ask you dozens of questions at the speed of a fucking machine gun, the being going on and on about how “lit” all that you did looks and how he wants to keep on watching you do it if that’s ok.

- Sure Esidisi may not be enlightened on the subject of technology but G o d does he find it absolutely fascinating and jaw dropping that you put your blood, sweat and tears into such an intriguing branch of art. Like whenever he’d be leaning his chin on your desk as he’d be watching you work he’s going to have this stupid lovestruck smirk on his face because THAT’S just how amazing he thinks your creations are. The only “downside” to this however is that, as much of a supportive bf as he is, Esidisi is lowkey clingy and he will be trying to distract you and get you to take a break for time to time, the man becoming a whiny mess as he’d embrace you from behind whilst begging you to pay attention to him and take a rest. Then again, it IS beneficial that he reminds you to put your pen down for a while so???

- Brags to everyone about what a talented upcoming artist you are to the point where you’re going to be severely blushing because Esidisi is HELLA touchy and he can and will crush you into a bear hug as he’d ramble to people about how you’re “going to be bigger than Picasso real soon”. Even if his v e r y open displays of love and affection can be quite overwhelming sometimes, he means well and never fails to show you just how much he cares about you and how talented and amazing he thinks you are. In fact, he’s your “reviewer/art critic” because you always put him to rate your creations and you know shit’s g o o d whenever he bursts into tears whilst saying that it evokes intense feelings and vibes. Honestly mans got an eye of art so you 100% trust him.

Wamuu:

- The most fascinated with this entire thing after king Kars. Akin to the ultimate lifeform, Wammu can’t get enough of art and could spend his entire immortal life studying and observing humans and their tendency to create (as well as destroy.) He may not be too talented with technology but he’d be VERY impressed by your work nonetheless and would even ask you to teach him how to at least digitally draw at some point.

- Documents himself on various artstyles, techniques and even fucking drawing/animating softwares then tries impressing you with his vast knowledge which visibly makes you let out a chuckle because he’s t h a t determined to help you out. And when you tell him that art is subjective and that you ain’t trynna animate Renaissance statues or some shit like that he’s visibly blushing and stumbling over his words, a drastic contrast to his usual cool and collected image. Wamuu would feel lowkey embarassed but you’d thank him for being supportive and invested nonetheless, of course.

- Sometimes it would feel as if he’s your pupil (ironically enough) because of how damn eager and patient he is when it comes to learning shit about animating. He just wants to be as supportive as ever and to have at least somewhat of a knowledge of the domain because he values your work alot and wants to be e n l i g h t e n e d. He once stayed up all night trying to draw you but, just like in Kars’ case, poor Wamuu merely ended up drawing a stick figure that had your exact hair, eyes and clothes but you were STILL impressed by the huge amounts of attention he’s put into those. Sure he might have royally fucked up the overall human shape but at least he’s got a talent for small details and features. The only downside is that he broke like 2 of your pens because of the sheer amount of force he has, but you could never stay mad at him.