#i don't have a good setup for taking product photos

[bittersweetblasphemy]

[floatingcatacombs]

Anaheim Gals Being Anaheim Pals

12 Days of Aniblogging 2024, Day 2

Zeta Gundam has a real lurching, strange start by design. In the time between the One Year War and the Gryps Conflict, things have gone terribly! Not only did a good amount of Zeon’s forces escape to the asteroid belt and start rebuilding, the Earth Federation is getting taken over from within by the ruthless Titans. But wait, the Titans are still feddies at the end of the day, so why are they the ones piloting Hizacks and other Zeon-style designs at the start of the show?

The answer to this is brilliant and sadly relegated to a narrative footnote. You see, after the One Year War, Zeonic’s personnel and blueprints got absorbed into Gundam manufacturer Anaheim Electronics, as part of an Operation Paperclip-style deal. This leaves Anaheim's mobile suit aesthetics during the interwar period a total hodgepodge, iterating on both GM and Zaku style designs while also moving forward with plenty of secret prototype successors to the RX-78 Gundam. Maybe it’s just the OL in me, but this particular era and company really pique my interest! The culture shock and office politics that would follow from Anaheim folding in the engineers from the other side of the last war, the competition between rival design teams, the back-channel deals of an arms manufacturer now compelled to play both sides…

I’d been told that the Gundam OVA entitled Stardust Memory was vaguely about this, but I’d also been told that Stardust Memory was terrible and just plain not worth watching, so I steered away from it. Instead, my prayers were answered in the form of a lovely 2009 yuri doujin visual novel called Anaheim Girl’s Love Story.

I don't feel like cropping the screenshots, so peep my VM setup. it'll add to the vibe

First things first, I would like to simply acknowledge the joy of being alive, and alive at this exact moment in time. It is so wonderful that a group of dedicated fans made a complete visual novel starring lesbian office workers at the Mecha War Crime Engineering Company. And not only did they realize this dream in the first place, a separate group translated the script into English in 2013, and then another team reverse-engineered the game’s engine and released a patch in 2020 so that now the translation can be experienced in its original format. Each and every one of you is a true yuri warrior.

Anaheim Girl’s Love Story is a passion project through and through, extrapolating from all the bits and pieces of lore we get about Anaheim Electronics across various shows and crafting a believable setting, while still making it feel like a Gundam story on some level. It’s also fully voice acted? I don’t know what typical doujin VN production values were like in 2009, but still, color me impressed. We play as Rinne, a new recruit to Anaheim and a mecha otaku through and through. She loves these mobile suits, just like you and me! And she wants nothing more than to work for the company who invented the Gundam. Anaheim is a tech company through and through – most of the workers on the ground really believe in what they’re doing and put their whole heart into it, even as their leadership takes on increasingly shady and secretive contracts. But it’s also implied, in the VN and in the Gundam shows, that the company is staffed by mostly women. Great! I really do like when a setting asserts that being invested in mecha is primarily something that women do. After all, girls were the ones that kept 0079 popular in the first place according to Tomino.

All of the Anaheim girls have pale blue double-breasted suit jackets and long pencil skirts, culminating in an extremely 80’s look. AGLS also covers its blurry background photos with a dark blue filter, resulting in a fairly monochrome game where the character expressions really pop out from everything else. The mecha CGs are surprisingly well done, even if they suffer a bit from 2000’s shading syndrome, when everyone went a little too hard on the airbrush. The character portraits holds up a lot better in comparison. All of this to say that the presentation is fairly minimal, as they were clearly working with limited resources, but it gets the job done.

Rinne likes milk tea and is equal amounts excited and anxious about her job. This is the sort of milquetoast relatable protagonist traits you’d find in any dating sim, so the fun twist here is that when she’s feeling down about her work, she’ll go to the hanger where an RX-78 (the RX-78? It’s left unclear) is being stored and start talking to it. Rubber-ducking your mobile suit designs with an actual mobile suit is cute!! Things unfold as you’d expect, with Rinne befriending her hacker kouhai, starting a rivalry with the office villainess, and getting intimidated by her boss Sophie. It’s nothing revolutionary, but that’s fine, because the setting alone does a ton of the lifting. While no named characters from any official Gundam series appear, they’re namedropped ever so occasionally, and there’s plenty of cameos and lore sprinkled about for a Universal Centuryhead to lap up.

Of course, Rinne invites her boss over for dinner a bunch and discovers her soft and vulnerable side, and the two of them engage in a slowburn office situationship while trying to also trying to win the Gundam Development Project, an internal competition to develop next-generation experimental mobile suits. And wouldn’t you know it, office politics are afoot. She’s been keeping it from Rinne, but Sophie was originally an engineer from Zeonic. Trust issues ensue, as do complicated feelings about being in love with someone who designed the weapons that nearly killed you. The leadership of Anaheim has a clear bias towards Federation-style suits, and still views the Zeonic hires with scorn and suspicion, even if they bring useful perspectives in design philosophy. Sophie wants to design every part with cost and performance in mind! That’s what enabled the Zakus, after all. But if we skip ahead and look at the results, the end goal of this intra-office competition seems to have been extravagance bordering on wastefulness. Rinne and Sophie’s team produce a fairly standard but combat-versatile Gundam, while the other teams contributed a hyper-flexible Gundam, a hilariously overinflated mobile armor that you can stick a Gundam into, and a Gundam with a fucking nuke attached to it.

Most romance VNs and stories in general have some sort of last-act plot development that threatens to end things so the couple can bounce back and have a narrative climax. Sickness, family, trauma, a breakup feint, really anything is fair game. Anaheim Girl’s Love Story pulls out the most brutal one yet – “Stardust Memory happened”. It turns out that Anaheim has been playing both sides of the emerging Delaz conflict, and was planning on giving your team’s ship to a particularly unhinged Zeon commander as a gift of goodwill and temporary alliance. In doing so, they dismantle the iconic Gundam armor from the mobile suit frame, replacing it with a new and undeniably Zeonic red outer shell. It’s a genuinely fucked-up moment! To see your child ripped away from you and corrupted into being the other kind of war crimes monster, and your boss/girlfriend knew this was going to happen and was too ashamed to tell you. Rinne runs out of oxygen while trying to stop the Gebera Tetra from deploying, and falls into a coma afterwards. By the time she wakes up, the events of Stardust Memory have all played out, and things are in the process of returning to normal. Our protagonist ends up on a research vessel to Jupiter to test cutting-edge mobile suits, but promises to meet up with Sophie again when she returns. One wonders if she got recruited into joining Paptimus’ crew while on Jupiter, and was subsequently killed by Kamille. The timelines just barely overlap to make it possible!

Anyways, that’s Anaheim Girl’s Love Story. I’m not sure how fleshed out the hacker girl’s route is, or if there are different endings I could have gotten on mine. Maybe I’ll give it another shot next year. This game is by no means amazing. It is on some level just a softcore lesbian eroge with a Gundam coat of paint. But the delicacy with which it fits itself into the UC chronology without messing things up or being a fully irrelevant plot, the care put into having these ladies fall in love and do the usual OL yuri rituals, the honesty with which it carries itself… I’m so charmed by it all. I don’t know if I’d recommend it outright (you’d want to already be very invested in this slice of Gundam, and you need a VM with an older version of Windows to play it, and I think the website linking to the patch went down earlier this year), but I’m so happy that this exists in the first place and that I got to play it.

What I am less happy about is that this visual novel made me trick myself into watching Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory. This is entirely on me, mind. Most lesbians are fooled into watching Stardust Memory because they saw images of Cima Garahau online, but I was ready for that trick. No, I genuinely wanted to fill in the finer plot details of the 6.5/10 visual novel I just played. Oopsies.

[averageclawcodeenjoyer]

Analyzing things in ATSV part one

Okay so I have to be absolutely insane about Ganke for a bit, so this will probably take up several posts because screenshots/videos galore.... ermmmmm....

HAVE FUN (will edit and update as needed)

I'm going to start off by analyzing this piece of concept art

Taking a look at Ganke's tapestry on his wall, that absolutely looks like the CS:GO logo, just flipped and without the text. Ex:

Taking a look at more things on the walls as well:

1) who is doing this math. Is it Ganke? Is it Miles? Is it both of them? I like to think that is is Ganke writing things down and then coming back to them later, or, maybe Miles writes things down and Ganke corrects them/adds stuff.

2) I'm pretty sure that says deadly twins. Is this a game? Movie? A play on words? Makes me think of seven deadly sins, but I'm not too knowledgeable in the world of entertainment.

3) (not the jet) is this a schedule? Lunch schedule, perhaps? It's on the bulletin board in the final cut of their dorm as well, just redesigned. Has to be something school event related. It says "Spring 2023 Brooklyn ________ Academy." I can't make out the middle word.

4) I just like the little spider included in the drawing :3 Miles FOSHO draws all over the whiteboard all the time. I love it.

5) I love love LOVE the stickers he put on the drawers, and I'm guessing there also from video games, but again, not good with logos. If anyone knows though please tell me and I will put it on here.

6) I think it's neat that they have a poster of a bunch of cassette tapes on the door. That was definitely Miles's doing, as well as the record player that i found in there (it's his way of honoring Aaron.)

7) Peep the No Expectations drawing on Miles's side of the bunk. I love the little Easter eggs all over. This is so special to me. Makes me think of the Chekhov's gun principal that they did with the Spider in ITSV and are continuing in Across.

8) Ohhhhh so he's a soccer guy. I wonder if he likes the sport, players, or had played it himself. Maybe that's why he got buff, bit I doubt it (BRING ME BACK LOSER NERD CHUB GANKE)

9) Taking a look at the photographs that Ganke has and comparing them to what I could find in the final product. Ganke has a camera on his desk, so obviously he takes all of these himself, but we will get to that later.

10) This looks like a picture of himself to me. Self portrait. Look at that blurred out smile. It's either him, or one of his parents, but I'm guessing it's of himself. Did someone take that for him, or did he take it? Maybe it was Miles.

11) might again be a stretch, but it looks almost like two people leaning against each other. Headcanon that Ganke is just like Lilo and takes pictures of random people interacting for funsies (reminds me of them Gwen & Miles leaned on each other on the building but I have HIGH doubts it is that)

12) ..Again, just bullshitting here. But this reminds me of the scene from ITSV where Gwen and Miles first were introduced to each other. Could he totally off, but there were a lot of kids in the background that resembled and could have been Ganke. Who knows what that kid does in his free time. (I bet he has a lot of photos of Miles that he doesn't know about...)

13) i don't have any idea of what this could be but uhh.... we're open to discussion. Train???

14) Looks like a party. A school dance perhaps? Winter formal? Homecoming? Something. Reminds me of the Prom scene in Gwen's universe.

___

I absolutely love all the stuff they have in their dorm room for food. Those sillies!! Look at them! Eating dinner together! Fully equipped! Who owns this shit! Banking on Ganke owning most of it because like... just look at his fucking setup.

15) Here's that record player I was talking about!!!! I wonder if it's a brand new one of something Miles got when they went through Aaron's stuff after he died...

16) Coffee machine even though Ganke drinks like 7 energy drinks a day (this boys' coffee addiction is.... wow. Also personally I feel like Miles wouldn't really be too fond of coffee. Imagine if the caffeine messed with his venom strike and caused him to chock everything and himself a billion times lmao)

17) what is this???? Is this some kind of like.... portable burner, or something?????? So they can boil water/use a pan??????? If anybody knows it would be GREATLY appreciated.

18) We've seen the air fryer/rice cooker with googly eyes and I love that... oh, I bet that was Miles's doing. Maybe as a prank or a joke to mess with Ganke and they kept it. There's so much personality here.

19) ignoring the condiments for a moment- THEY AHVE A MINIFRIDGE???? DO THEY EVER NEED TO LEAVE THEIR DORM, ACTUALLY????? It almost looks like it has sparkling/seltzer water in it but.. gross. They really decked this place out, huh.

20) and in ITSV there's a microwave too. Everything to fuel Ganke's crippling chronically online illness.

21) SPRAY CANS!!!! Oh how wonderful. These are hidden/scattered throughout their finished dorm, too. I love that. I wonder if Ganke and Miles ever become delinquents and go off to graffiti stuff. (However, I don't see Ganke as being very artistic when it comes to things like that, so maybe he just tags along with Miles and acts as lookout.

22) FIDGET spinner!!!!!!! Oh boy. Oh boy. I know that these were a big thing a couple years back, but please consider... Audhd Ganke.... thank you.

23) is this an alarm clock? Radio???? Why do they need another source for music when they have like... three.. seperate ways.... okay.

24) You cannot convince me that this isn't Yoda. Or at least a similar character.. but I'm banking on Yoda. WHY DID THEY CHANGE SO MUCH STUFF THERE WAS SO MUCH PERSONALITY HEREEEEEEER

25) look at this slanted ass bowl. This supports something I will talk about later, but keep him in mind.

26) SKATEBOARD! Does Ganke skateboard??? Oh man. Oh boy. It's Canon because I said so. Skateboary Ganke!! You think he goes somewhere with Miles just to show off the tricks that he knows. I do. It's also his because it's leaning on his bed and there is a pretty clear separation of whose side of the room is whose.

27) Here is laptop #1

28) BIGASS speakers they deafen EVERYONE when they start playing music.

29) HIS FUCKING PC??? BROTHER, WHY DOES HE HAVE THAT EXPENSIVE ASS PIECE OF EQUIPMENT IN HIS DORM ROOM. WHAT DOES HE HAVE AT HOME?????? Bros got eh curved screen and everyrhing. Also is he making MUSIC. Ganke in his producer era (what genre do you think he makes?) Also, not pictured, but he has a Webcam, too. StreamerGanke....

30) HERES THAT CAMERA I MENTUONED EARLIER!!!! He has hobbies other than gaming like... photographing Miles.. and......... taking.. pictures of Miles..

31) is this some kind of console, maybe? We see him playing the Spider-Man 2 game, which is playable on both PC and Playstation, but I'm pretty sure it's confirmed that Ganke is, in fact, playing it on his ps5 (do not quote me on this that is what Google has told me...)

32) his professional-ass microphone.... pray that nobody ever finds out the kind of LOOT you have, Lee, or you will be robbed blind. (Not sure if this is still kept in the finished version, I'll have to check) ((also the stuff on his bulletin board? Brother.... broski you live with him.. you don't need to have him beside you on the daily))

33) This looks like an IPad to me, but I could br wrong. Also, he's watching Miles on it!!! COME ON. I know Spider-Man is his favorite superhero and all.. but come on, this is "person-who-has-crush-behavior" and I don't think that's too wild of me to say...

34) look at him with his little soundboard!! In the final version it ends up looking more like a keyboard than what it does right now, but he obviously makes music on the side as well. He's so dear to me.

35) This little drawer pulls out on his desk!! Where he stops his billionth keyboard and mouse. (In another angle of their dorm, in ITSV, their is a random unused keyboard propped up against the wall)

36) ANOTHER FUCKING LAPTOP. Bro has one for his games, one for school, one for talking to his online friends, and one for coding stg /hyperbolic

37) Here is the console for his computer. Simply that. Just astounding to me.

___

Just look at how much mire comfortable they are with each other now versus ITSV!!!!!! Good friends, good match, good sillies. The only thing I DONT like is the inconsistencies of the room... but perhaps they got a different dorm room this year and still chose to bed down together. Historians will just call them best friends.. rommates... anything but lovers.

Oh you thought I was done?

No.

No, I have one more thing to say.

One more tiny, tiny detail I fished out while studying their room.

Are you ready?

In the concept art.

Underneath Ganke's desk.

Is a bag.

And what's on that bag?

Some pins.

Oh but what's that?

That yellow one??

Is that the intersex flag?

Is that another game logo that I'm too uncultured to understand, is that just a coincidence, or, is Ganke intersex?

I don't know enough about people that are intersex to get into it, but.. Has anybody else noticed this?

I can't find it in the finished version... but. But guys. Guys.

Please tell me your thoughts on this.

I'm going to analyze that scene in ITSV with the hyperlapse of Miles sleeping and Ganke.. dicking off all night next. Might not be tomorrow but it will happen.

Edit:

I gave Ganke longer hair because he looks bald without it. THATS ALL BYE

Part 1.5

[lethedwarddavidsonworld-blog]

Signalis Doom - 5

Not much today either, it was mostly a mix of overcoming issues with 3d models in doom and figuring out some workflows.

3d models are still considered sprites, so to get models to display properly, it involves a degree of pointing the engine to look at invisible dummy sprites and then swapping those with the model. Odd stuff. There's better formats than this one and i'm going to look into those. That being said, i'm unsure how much i'm gonna commit to 3d, right now it's just experimentation. what I'll prob end up doing is spending a day banging out a buncha mockup sprites to approximate some chars and start mapping. Just enough to get the idea. tbh i could be doing way more mapping to establish a level language than i am, i'm kinda putting it off to play with textures and i gotta diversify.

I'm considering commissioning some artists for some spritework, either on specific characters or UI elements or such. I know i'll want something done for the opening splash. Most of my time today, and the next few days, is going to be spent reacquainting myself with a host of tools. I've been doing gamedev for years, i went to school for 3d animation, and i've spent a great deal of time in alot of art tools. However, i tend to forget how they work very easily. I realized i'm not gonna get anything done unless i take the time to remember how the following tools work; 1. Maya for core animation(could be a problem, iqm is the newest doom format and the community pipeline is best setup for blender, but we'll see how it goes) 2,. Blender for import/export/better compability with some aspects of gzdoom 3. Photoshop for photo manipulation of the existing textures and as a means of either creating new textures, or givng more nuance to ones i create elsewhere. 4. Aesperite for core pixel art. Signalis is a mix of low rez painted works and pixel art, and knowing when to deploy each is a good idea. 5. I'll need to get a proper toolkit up for the model to 2d pipeline, i have options but they need to be tested. 6. FL studio for audio manipulation. 7. and imma be real i don't know how spreadsheets work and i'm gonna need a hell of a spritesheet to organize what assets i'll need to recreate. That sounds like a lot but i've used them all before, and i'd need to more or less do the same thing for any real production anyway.

On the plus side, i think i've figured out how to do the floors. i'll just take elements of the original textures, and build a larger one out of them with built-in variation for tiles and color variation. I'll add more variation as needed in-editor.

I'm realizing i'm spending alot of time in odd spots. To be honest, i've never done a fan project like this before, much less one working with OG textures. I'm having a tough time getting my head around not only the unique nature of doom modding (releasing contnet packs taht can slot into any game) with full game production (Og maps, mechanics, story with bespoke stuff) ontop of fanworks (fanfiction, recontexualization of original assets). part of me wonders if my focus on getting og textures working is a mistake, as it's putting me in a mindset that's not the most useful for my project. But we'll see, I'll get my priorities straightned out, this ain't getting done overnight either way.

[vixonspixels]

Hi, I love your profile and sims! I’m ‘kind of’ new to the sims world! I’ve been playing since 2018, but not religiously. I just wanted to ask about your mods folder (sorry if it states somewhere on your profile these kind of questions aren’t allowed, i’m new to tumblr too and still understanding how it works). Feel free to ignore this question if it’s not allowed. I understand that by having lots of folders within the mods folder it can make the game lag. I just wanted to ask how your mods folder looks? As I want to keep mine tidy and be able to find certain cc easily. I’m also in the process of buying a pc as I am currently using a macbook and have so much cc it’s starting to not work… If you have any tips or suggestions with having a pc (if you have one yourself) and how your set up looks, I would really appreciate it. Thank you!! 🤍

Hello darling and thankyou so much! 🤍 Welcome to tumblr 💁‍♀️🤍

I think lag in your game mostly depends on what kind of computer/laptop you're using. I have just over 50gb at the moment and my game still runs as smooth as it does vanilla ( no mods at all ). I know some people who have 100gb+ and they don't have lag issues either. Again I think it boils down to the computer itself, and what it can handle

I personally chose to go for a custom built computer so that I could choose my own parts as I really wanted a computer that could handle a lot of mods and also I wanted my game to run nice and smoothly, my partner is a bit of a nerd when it comes to computers so he knew exactly what kind of specs I needed

When it comes to my mods folder I am super organised, that way when patch day comes I know exactly where everything is to be able to take it out of my mods folder until its updated etc. I'll pop in some photos of what my folder looks like so you can see below. Trust me it didn't always look like this 😂

If you're struggling with lag then a short term fix would be to have a good clear out of your mods folder and delete everything that you don't reach for often, you can even go as far as deleting swatches of clothes and build buy items that you don't like. I cleared around 5gb last week just by removing swatches from some build buy items that were high in mb's. For example, I had a bed frame that was 320mb in size so I deleted all of the swatches except for the one that I liked the most lol

What my mods folder looks like

The only suggestion I will give regarding picking a computer out is to take your time and do your research! I really rushed my build and didn't want to wait for the white case that I liked so I ended up with the black one I have now that doesn't match my set up at all haha

When getting your computer the main things to look out for is making sure you've got enough storage and a good graphics card, obviously everything is important but these two for me where the main ones I focused on. If you do go custom built for example, you can always upgrade your parts very easily, where as if its pre built I'm not too sure if the cases are universal to fit different brands of parts in if that makes sense?

I am in no way a pro, I had alot of help from my partner when it came to building my computer. If you need help when the time comes feel free to give me a message and I can run things by my partner to help you choose what parts or pre built etc

I'll leave a few photos below of what my setup looks like, I just got the aurora collection for christmas and I also have the razer quartz collection too ( I prefer the aurora lol ). I can easily recommend you some good equipment also if you're not into the aurora or razer products. If you're looking for set up inspo then I would highly recommend browsing through Pinterest, that's where I got the majority of ideas for the aesthetic of mine. Pink and white are my favourite colours, hence the colour palette haha

If you need any help at all with specs or anything else at all feel free to pop me a message or reply to this post 🤍

[imanbenerrabeh]

could go into what you use to take photos and how u record videos for your youtube?

hi, thank you for asking!

here is my current photography setup:

to record video, I use a canon ivis mini. it's a fish lens camcorder from around 2013. its resolution is really not great, but I don't mind because it's wide focal length creates such a cinematic shot that the quality becomes a secondary matter for me. if I want a closer shot, I opt for my macbook photobooth. simple and sweet.

my main camera is the ricoh gr ii - which I have in the silver edition. the resolution is mid-range, with its 16.2 mp, which is perfect for me as I am still learning and experimenting with photography. this is a wonderful piece of machinery. despite its wide variety of features it is light, as big as my palm, which makes it a true edc. aside from its size, what makes it a good fit for me is that it is part of a niche kind of cameras. similarly to the cult classic fujifilm x100v, the ricoh gr is - like its cooler and more popular sister - a digital film simulation camera. throughout the years I found film photography unsustainable, both financially and in terms of practicability. when I got into digital cameras with film simulation due to built in film "recipes", i never went back. I chose the ricoh gr ii specifically because unlike the iii, the ii still has a pop-up flash.

for sound, the mic I use is the sony pcm m10. this is a giant in field recording, renowned for its battery life, sound quality and overall design despite its now considerable age. they're hard to find in english as production has stopped, but there are many still available in japanese. it produces a beautiful and warm sound, soft and true to life.

this is a system i am very satisfied with, and that i am still growing into. once i feel confident in my skills and i am looking for more power, i plan to add in a fujifilm xt5 in my digital ecosystem. it would be my main driver for heavy duty shooting, while the ricoh would step down and simply be a compact edc camera. so far so good though.

about youtube, i wish i could say more but i am slowly and only recently getting into recording, editing and publishing videos. overtime i hope to get more confidence in me filming and shooting projects and that takes the time needed to find a visual style, a thread or a voice in the content, and a rhythmic behind the scenes process that gets the project from idea to creation. to record videos you don't necessarily need much, but i am mindful with the technology i use both because i genuinely find it beautiful and i love to research niche kinds but also because i want it to last me a long time. so this is what i use, but as for the how there is no true how since i am figuring that out myself. in the meantime, i hope this was still useful to you.

ricoh gr ii silver edition, white canon ivis mini, sony pcm m10

[pipermca]

Photocomic Workflow

I wanted to document the workflow I used to create my holiday photocomic, Mission Creep, so that I can repeat it when I work on the next one. I am not super familiar with the graphic design tools that artists use to create comics, so a lot of what I did was a combination of trying to make sense of tutorials (some of which weren't in English), and a lot of trial and error. I didn't want to have to reinvent the wheel next time, so I made note of what I did for each step.

The whole process is behind the cut if you're interested, from script to finished product. (And if any artists have an idea on how I could have done things easier with the tools I have available, I'm all ears!)

Script and Photos

Write the script.

Tool: Scrivener comic template

My usual MO is to write the basic story, sketch out the panels to make sure I don't have too much happening in one area, then finish the script.

Tip for next time: It's a good idea to very clearly sketch potential panels, so that the photos can be framed correctly. I ran into some problems with panels 1, 2, 5 and 6, since the edge of the photo extended past where the panel would be, and I had to do a lot of creative resizing of photos.

2. Separately, detail each shot that will be needed. Note specific framing and toys needed.

Tool: Pen and paper

For Mission Creep, I listed the shots out by toy/character. That way I could complete all of the photos needed with one toy, then set up for the next one.

Example:

3. Take photos and save to computer.

Tool: Camera or phone. I have several cameras and lighting setups to use, so I just selected which would handle a given image the best.

4. Edit the photos as needed. This includes adding backgrounds, manipulations such as "movement" lines, etc.

Tools: Gimp or Photopea

Tip for next time: Resize the images to make them easier to work with.

5. Save images in an "Originals" folder.

6. Transfer each photo to phone.

7. Run each photo through Prisma on the "Mononoke" filter.

Tool: Prisma

The Mononoke filter is my favourite for a good "comic" feel. There are a few others I might use, depending on the mood I'm going for.

8. Transfer each photo back to computer. Save images to a "WIPs" folder.

Panel Layout

9. Create comic page.

Tool: Medibang Paint Pro

After creating an A5 comic template page, add the panel material.

Layer > Add Panel Material > Line Width (selected 9)

10. Add images to the comic page.

Drag resized/modified images into the Layer box to create each image as a separate layer.  Rename each layer with the Panel number.

Resize layer when added: Select > Transform, Apply.

Example:

11. Add Panel lines.

On the base layer, use Layer > Material > Divide. Can also use the cutting tool to divide panels more or in a custom manner. (Hold down shift for tilted lines.)

12. Clean up panels.

Move or resize images as needed.

On each panel, delete the portion of the image outside the panel lines. (Select tool > Select frame of panel > Invert select (Select > Inverse) > Delete)

Make tiny adjustments as needed (for example, In Mission Creep I flipped the frown on Jazz's toy to a smile).

Example:

13. Save working image as MDP file (Medibang Pro file), just in case you need to make tweaks. Save another version as a PNG (File > Export > PNG 24-bit).

Word Bubbles

14. For each speech bubble, create a layer folder.

Tool: Photopea

It might be helpful to name the folders per the panel numbers, but I just used one folder per speech bubble.

Example:

15. Using the Type Tool, add text where it needs to go. Each text block goes in the bubble folder

Used font Comic Relief, in black.

16. Add a shape around each "bubble" of text. Shape goes in the bubble folder.

Used square shape tool > Corner Radius of 9, white background, stroke in Black w/ thickness of 2.6 (I could have made this a bit thicker, maybe 3.5?)

17. Add "speech" lines. Layer goes in the bubble folder.

Create layer. Use pen tool in white to create speech line.

Fill inside of speech line w/ white.

Use pen tool in black (same thickness as stroke on shape) to outline the speech line.

Use eraser to clean up spillage.

Use pen tool (in white) in white to clean up strokes from shapes on overlapping bubbles.

Example:

18. Clean up as needed.

19. Save file as PSD file (to make tweaks later if needed). Save another copy as a PNG.

Watermark

(I debated not watermarking the images, but since I was going to be posting them separately I figured I might as well... Mostly for the learning experience.)

20. Load the PNG back into Photopea.

21. Select each "page." Invert selection, delete, then trim.

22. Save each "page" as its own image, then repeat with remaining pages.

23. Add watermark. (I honestly don't remember how I created the watermark, but there are TONS of tutorials on that so I'm not fussed about not writing down how I did it.)

And that's it! It was a lot of work, but now that I have the workflow figured out I hope the next one will go more smoothly.

[eegroupglobal]

Transform Your E-Commerce Game with Amazon Store Setup & Management Mastery

Any business that wants to succeed in the fast-paced digital world of today has to have a strong online presence. If you want to improve your e-commerce game, learning the art of Amazon store setup service may make all the difference. Let's explore how improving your Amazon store may revolutionize your e-commerce company.

Understanding the Amazon Ecosystem

Amazon is a huge ecosystem with millions of daily active users that is much more than simply an online store. Regardless of the size of your company, Amazon offers a platform to connect with customers around the world. Selecting the best selling plan is crucial as it affects both your expenses and gains. Professional plans offer cutting-edge tools and capabilities for bigger enterprises, while individual plans are perfect for smaller vendors.

The Basics of Amazon Store Setup

The first step in setting up your Amazon store is choosing the right seller plan. After selecting a plan, you must register as an Amazon seller. This entails supplying bank account information, tax information, and business information. It is essential to comprehend Amazon's regulations and guidelines in order to prevent any future problems.

Creating a Winning Amazon Storefront

First impressions are formed on your digital storefront, which is your Amazon storefront. Having a polished, orderly storefront may greatly increase your reputation. High-quality photos, a clear layout, and thorough product information are essential components. Prosperous Amazon stores typically feature a unified brand identity and prominently display their top-selling items.

Product Listing Optimization

For your products to stand out in the competitive Amazon marketplace, they must be optimized. Start with catchy product names that contain pertinent keywords. Prospective customers might be convinced by thorough product descriptions that emphasize features and advantages. It is imperative that you provide high-quality photographs that highlight your goods from various perspectives. Use bullet points as well to make important information simple to scan.

Effective Inventory Management

Your Amazon business's success depends on how well you manage your inventory. Maintaining an eye on your stock levels helps avoid stockouts, which can result in missed sales. This may be made easier with the inventory management tools that Amazon gives. Preventing excess inventory is crucial as it consumes funds and storage space.

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On Amazon, competitive price is essential. You can maintain good margins and remain competitive by making use of Amazon's pricing tools. You should take market demand, rival pricing, and manufacturing costs into account when developing your price strategy. Recall that the appropriate pricing has a big impact on your product exposure and sales.

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The goods that appear in search results are ranked according to Amazon's A9 algorithm. It is essential to comprehend this algorithm if you want to optimize your product listings. Important: Don't forget to use keywords in your descriptions, bullet points, and titles. You may increase sales and exposure by adding relevant keywords to your listings on a regular basis.

Customer Service Excellence

Having a good reputation on Amazon depends on providing excellent customer service. Positive evaluations and recurring business might result from immediately answering questions from customers and resolving their issues. Managing refunds and returns effectively is crucial as it affects your seller rating.

Marketing and Advertising on Amazon

Amazon provides a range of advertising choices to assist you in promoting your merchandise. Using Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products is a good approach to raise awareness. Customers on a tight budget may be drawn in by Amazon Coupons & Deals. By taking part in initiatives like Amazon Vine and the Early Reviewer Program, you may increase the legitimacy of your product by obtaining early reviews.

Utilizing Amazon Analytics

Amazon's analytics technologies yield an abundance of data. Making wise judgments may be aided by having a solid understanding of important data like sales, traffic, and conversion rates. By going over this data on a regular basis, you may see trends and modify your approach accordingly.

Expanding Your Amazon Business

After your Amazon store is up and running, think about adding more products to your inventory or branching out into other areas. You may connect with consumers throughout the world with Amazon Global Selling. You may expand your product line and boost sales by introducing new lines and product categories. By using Amazon's fulfillment services, including Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), you may increase customer happiness and optimize your business processes.

Staying Compliant with Amazon Policies

It is imperative to adhere to Amazon's regulations in order to prevent account suspensions and other penalties. Learn about Amazon's policies and be sure to revisit them frequently to keep informed. Staying away from typical hazards like fake products or inaccurate product descriptions might help you keep a positive reputation on Amazon.

The Role of Amazon Store Setup Service

Setting up and running an Amazon business may be quite difficult for many merchants. An Amazon Store Setup Service might be quite helpful in this situation. You may save time and effort by using these services, which take care of everything from account registration to product listing optimization. By utilizing these expert services, many sellers have achieved success and have freed up time to concentrate on other facets of their businesses.

Conclusion

Gaining proficiency in the development and maintenance of an Amazon store may greatly impact your e-commerce business. Every step is critical to your success, from using Amazon's marketing tools to improving product listings. You may establish a successful Amazon business that sticks out in the crowded market by being aware of and making use of the tools available.

[smuppetshowmovie]

date: June 22, 2022 caption: new lights! project: The Smuppet Show

I got new lights for this project ($250 for a pair of LED light panels! so fancy! they have adjustable color and adjustable intensity! they come with adjustable stands!) and it took a while for me to adapt. I am so glad I upgraded, though; it was well worth it in the end.

A bit of unpaid promotion: I recommend B&H Photo if you are looking to buy any sort of camera-related equipment online. They have been a good place to shop over the years and I generally find the comments and reviews on items really educational. I'm not much of a gearhead when it comes to camera stuff, so I don't continuously follow the latest and greatest tech developments. But I do occasionally want to upgrade and poking around the reviews for a couple hours usually helps me narrow down my options. I want to end up somewhere in the serious amateur tier, somewhere comfortably in between the "I do this for a living" or "I'm a bleeding edge collector of gadgets" tiers and the "absolute entry level fully automatic no learning curve" tier. It can take a while to figure out where that line is - it's constantly shifting!

For Theatre of Coolty I shot only at night and used gigantic fluorescent lights. My setup was two 6 foot wide kitchen light fixtures strapped to 6 foot high step ladders and wired up to long extension cords. They served me well over the years for doing portrait photos but weren't easy to move around and had no ability to be anything but intensely bright; they were also optimized for people-sized photos, not barbie-sized video. Mr Bee built them for me (2002? 2003? ... sometime around then ... thanks, Mr Bee!!). I'd been wistfully looking at "real" video lighting rigs but back then everything I could find was a couple thousand dollars minimum and I was not willing to spend that kind of money for a hobby project. We already had the step ladders; the light fixtures and wires and other hardware added up to not much more than $100. It was a good setup!

For Detective Pony I started out with the big lights and used those for all the "original" Jeanne Betancourt filming in 2017. But the lights had seen a lot of hard use at that point and were starting to fall apart. By the end there I think I was down to one light propped up on a couch - when I wanted to re-direct the light I had to move the whole couch!

When I started filming the edited-in Dirk Strider scenes, I used a lot of natural light (the room I was working in had a big sliding glass door that let in lots of light) supplemented by some random floor lamps with random light bulbs. I struggled a lot with keeping color consistent from shot to shot because although the scene looked fine to my eye, the camera revealed that every angle was a different combination of random color temperature light. I could tell I was having problems, but at the time I just thought I was bad at white balancing. Live and learn!

In 2022 I bought new LED lights, using The Smuppet Show as my excuse to finally upgrade. I was so excited - the lights immediately fixed my color temperature issues and I stopped needing to fiddle with white balance for 5 minutes before every new shot. However, I got a little bit too complacent about lighting and got out of the habit of really paying attention to the lighting setup much at all. As a result a lot of the early scenes were either too dark or too grainy (a result of the camera trying to compensate for the lack of light). I eventually got better at catching that and adjusting, but it was rough for a while. Always an adventure!

[onlineearningselite]

The Ultimate Blueprint to make $100k with Affiliate Marketing.

Introduction:

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Spend some time looking through the various items on ClickBank to find one that suits your hobbies and area of expertise. It will be simpler to produce interesting content and establish a true connection with your audience if you choose a product that actually interests you.

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Once a product has been found, select "Promote" to create hop links. These hop links are specifically your affiliate links, so whenever someone buys something using them, you'll get paid. Keep a handy copy of these hop links for later use.

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[free affiliate marketing webinar by Freedom Asselator]

[andmaybegayer]

How do you take macro photos?

If you're interested in macrophotography you're in luck, because it's one of the most accessible fields of specialist photography. While you can get pretty deep, e.g. product photography for large companies, basic but quality macro gear will probably set you back somewhere between USD 300-600.

The most basic things you need for a macro rig are a camera with interchangeable lenses and a flash, a wide-ish angle lens, and a lens reverser. You also need something to diffuse your flash. That's what I started with, here's what it looks like and what kind of photos you can get with it:

Camera Body

I have my old Canon 600D, a mid-range APS-C DSLR from 2011, any camera body with swappable lenses will work. APS-C and MFT cameras have the benefit of lower cost and cropping your image significantly, so they're good choices. Mirrorlesses will work but I've never used one, there may be pitfalls I'm not aware of, I think you might need an extension tube, do some reading.

A flash or way to add a flash is necessary because down a reversed, small-aperture lens, in anything other than broad daylight there won't be much light getting through the sensor.

Lens Reverser Ring

A lens reverser screws into the filter thread of your lens and allows you to mount it backwards, so you need to know what lens you're using (filter thread) and what body you're using (mount). Canon EF and Nikon F-mount are pretty easy to find, if you're working with something less common you'll probably have to buy online, e.g. for a 52mm thread Sony mirrorless you'd want a "52mm E-mount reverser ring"

Since you're reversing the lens you lose all aperture and focus coupling, we'll address that a little bit in the next section.

Lens

I use the 18-55mm kit lens that comes with this body. The lens you use doesn't necessarily have to be compatible with your camera since we aren't using its mount anyway, but you do want to make sure you have some way to set the aperture, either by a manual control ring or by setting it on-camera and then taking the lens off while the aperture is closed, which is what I do.

35 and 50mm vintage primes are popular because they have decent quality glass and manual control rings so you don't have to fight with it. You want a pretty short focal length, since a reversed lens works backwards (shot focal length: tight angle, long focal length: wide angle) so probably don't go much past 60mm.

Focus isn't really something you use since it's very hard to get the level of fine control you'd need, most people lock focus to get a certain frame and then very carefully move the camera to move the focus plane.

Flash Setup

I've run a bunch of different flash setups, originally just the stock pop-up flash and a piece of paper stuck to the camera body which actually works great. These days I run a Godox TT6600 with a bounce card either on the body or off the body with a remote trigger, which is actually worse than the paper trick but it's easier to work with and more reliable, so it makes me more likely to shoot.

Your ideal flash diffuser is a big hood you basically envelop your subject in, you can make or buy those.

Altogether this looks like this:

And takes photos like this:

The hardest part is just nailing focus, you're usually at somewhere around f2 or less equivalent and your working distance is centimeters, making your depth of field razor thin. If you're using a DSLR your viewfinder will be super dim and you'll have to practice to get focus down, but it's not too bad. If you have a mirrorless or a nicer DSLR you can turn off simulated exposure to get a bright viewfinder and even use focus peaking.

[ducktracy]

154. porky’s road race (1937)

release date: february 6th, 1937

series: looney tunes

director: frank tashlin

starring: joe dougherty (porky), billy bletcher (borax karoff), tedd pierce (w.c. fields)

because of the 10 photo limit i can’t post a photo, but you’re lucky i can read! this is the first of many cartoons that begins with a fake disclaimer (often used exclusively for facetious purposes):

FOREWORD:—

all the characters in this picture are strictly phoney! any fancied resemblance to any living person is the bunk! any incident portrayed is pure fiction!

and so, of course, the cartoon deals with an amalgamation of celebrity caricatures, all competing in a road race, with plucky little porky reduces to a mere shadow in the competition... or so we think.

frank tashlin provides a clever segue into the cartoon as the title card fades into a banner that still advertises PORKY’S ROAD RACE —

first prize....$2,000,000.00

less tax.......$1,999,998.37

net..............$1.63

a very clever gag that would be used time and time again in many a looney tunes cartoon.

pan down from the banner to an extended garage of cars. “in my merry oldsmobile” underscores the scene (and a hearty chunk of the short), stalling’s music transforming into whistling as we hone in on porky hammering away at a behemoth of an engine. another “i would NOT want to animate that” moment from a tashlin cartoon—there’s so many little movements happening at once! to top the gag off, the behemoth engine slides out of view, and we see porky hammering on his OWN engine, a dinky, pathetic excuse of a machine. wonderful setup as always.

and, because frank warned us, we now see caricatures of Totally Fictitious Celebrities who in fact do not exist. stan laurel and oliver hardy start us off, both seesawing on a sawhorse. laurel scratches his hatless head (which spins around in circles behind him on the board) while hardy glares at him. both make their contributions to the preparations for the race—laurel pumps up a tire, while hardy raises the car jack, both contraptions connected to the seesaw. a lot of meticulous details and animation, lots too look at.

next victim is charlie chaplin, who’s going to town with a spanner wrench in the engine. the music is wonderfully hilarious—still an underscore of “in my merry oldsmobile”, but chaplin’s frantic movements are accompanied by the quick chuffs of a calliope, syncopated with the music. chaplin moves from one car to the next, wobbling along with the same frantic movements. he heads over to another car, emblazoned with three stars on the side. chaplin prepare to twist a bulb poking out of the car, when in reality, the bulb is just the bulbous nose of w.c. fields (not in pig form this time!), who chews him out. “heeeey, whaddaya think you’re doing here, my good man? keep your wrenches out of my proboscis, yeeeaaaah.” tedd pierce’s drawl is lovely as always.

next is elderly actress edna may oliver (who really wasn’t all that old, she was only 54 in 1937, and would die on her 59th birthday in 1942), sitting in her jalopy. she pegs w.c. fields for assistance, a man doing her voice—imdb lists it as dave barry, but imdb is about as reliable as wikipedia; not very. fields lumbers out of his car, droning in terms of endearment (“my little demitasse, my little chickadee, my little bonnie lassie...”) tashlin does a great job of stretching out fields’ actions, purposefully making him take forever to put on his hat and coat and get to the point, but almost to the point where it grows tedious and the joke dies off. nevertheless, tashlin compensates with the product of the build up: fields pours a bottle of alcohol into the engine, and the car launches into a hiccuping frenzy, faster than the eye can see. a faithful gag we’ve been seeing since 1931 with you don’t know what you’re doin’! (which is still my favorite ising cartoon melody)

an unseen greta garbo works beneath her car, and all we see is her giant shoes (a reoccurring garbo gag), providing her catchphrase of “i want to be alone” as “at last, i am alone.” the next car is no car at all, but a full bathtub, an engine with a propeller sputtering in the water. a zoom out reveals the driver as charles laughton, donning a captain’s hat and tipping it wordlessly to the audience. laughton played captain bligh in MGM’s mutiny on the bounty (1935), which even inspired such shorts like jack king’s shangahied shipmates.

the next caricature is probably my favorite, or at least pun wise. billy bletcher’s villainous bellow thunders as we hone in on a shed. if the skull and crossbones mounted to the wooden doors wasn’t enough of a turnoff, the giant sign shouting BORAX KAROFF — KEEP OUT! certainly is. borax karoff is a take on actor boris karloff, who played frankenstein’s monster in frankenstein. while billy bletcher supplies his voice, karloff WOULD work with a rather notable looney tunes alumnus, voicing the grinch on chuck jones’ how the grinch stole christmas! borax is a compound of boron, used to help clean cars as well as a number of other uses. i’m a sucker for puns. borax karoff is depicted as frankenstein’s monster, lubing up his giant of an engine. and, for good measure, his car number is 13. what else would it be? karoff crawls into his limo of a car and revs the engine, the skull hood ornament chattering like crazy.

tashlin’s distaste for porky is certainly starting to become more noticeable, because only now does he say his first lines of the short approximately halfway through the cartoon. an announcer (who sounds like tedd pierce to me) calls “calling all stars! calling all stars!” (as opposed to calling all cars), signaling the start of the race. porky, still whistling “in my merry oldsmobile”, obeys the cue and gives a few happy “oh boy, oh boy, oh boys!” the animation is exceptionally smooth, flouncy, and weighted as he bounces out of his car, out of frame, and then bouncing ON his car into the seat that awaits him, now donning his racing gear. with the way the eyes are drawn, it looks possibly like norm mccabe animation? i wouldn’t quote myself on that, though. the car sputters and jerks to life, an unpromising start, but manages to transport porky to the starting line where the rest of the competition awaits.

the flagger gives the telltale “on your mark, get set, SCRAM!”, which was reused earlier in hugh batman’s bosko the speed king in 1933, albeit with a stuttering dog. no stuttering dog flagger here, but we do have a stuttering pig, does that count? the cars all zip off, a few stragglers speeding by, whooshing along to “shave and a haircut”. the sound effects sound eerily similar to mel blanc’s hoohoo shrieks, so i wouldn’t totally rule that out as a possibility. on a much less lighthearted note, we get a dose of racism as a stereotypical blackface caricature of stepin fetchit (at least in voice) straggles much further behind. “i don't know why everybody's in such a big rush, i’m in no rush.” agggh, product of its time, but c’mon frank, you’re better than that! if anything though, the slightly tilted camera angle makes for an interesting layout, and the shave and a haircut gag was nice.

another parallel to bosko the speed king as we receive a ground shot of the cars barreling towards the camera, swallowing up the viewer. tashlin uses his quick cuts again, perhaps not to the extent of porky in the north woods or later porky’s romance, but they’re certainly quick enough as the cars whirl around the track, skidding on walls and flying around sideways. three celebrities are all packed in one giant car: the cheerio special, toting george arliss, leslie howard (ashley wilkes in gone with the wind), and child actor freddie bartholomew, all from the UK. w.c. fields passes the trio, honking his nose like a horn (daffy would later save everyone the trouble by either biting or squeezing the noses of his victims himself). freddie asks leslie what the time is—4:00. george does a take. “4:00? then it’s time for tea.” with that, all three pull out their teacups from the Great Unknown, taking a sip and staring into the audience, giving a “pip pip, cheerio!” in frightening unison.

big bold letters advertise the CALIBAN, a zoom out revealing the car belonging to john barrymore, who starred in a film adaptation of shakespeare’s the tempest from which the character caliban comes from. “caliban” suddenly speeds away from a shrill woman’s voice calling for his name. we see the perpetrator—a woman with a lasso, calling for caliban, the word ARIEL emblazoned on her own vehicle. barrymore’s “ariel” turns out to be his wife, elaine barrie. in real life, barrymore and barrie (confusing, ain’t it?) would call each other caliban and ariel. strangely sweet!

tashlin plays around with dynamic angles as we view the front of borax karoff’s threatening limo. he pokes his head out of the window, spotting the competition behind him. to further his lead, karoff laughs as he showers tacks on the road behind him (wacky races is taking notes), with the next shot being a lovely view of the racks thrown into the track from the audience’s perspective. charles laughton attempts to remedy the situation by wielding a fishing rod, a magnet tied to the line and thus collecting all the tacks.

karoff’s next line of action is a “torpedo” (which is really just a toy plane), tossing the torpedo at laughton. the torpedo sinks into laughton’s bathtub on wheels, striking the engine and causing the engine to drown in the water. living up to his role as captain, laughton cries “it’s mutiny! that’s what it is, it’s mutiny!” meanwhile, edna may oliver putters along in her jalopy, but her “success”, so to speak, is hindered by each passerby. one car whirls past, stripping her car of its windshield, retractable roof, horn, etcetera. another zooms by, reducing the car to a soapbox, and then another, reducing the car to a mere frame with wheels as oliver ogles at the audience in disbelief, “woo!”ing with each passerby.

it’s no cartoon without a clark gable caricature! gable hitchhikes on the side of the road, but the racers aren’t too willing. he’s spun like a top (tex avery style) as the cars whirl by. once the dust settles, gable has been considerably dug into the dirt, his lone thumb still jerking out of the hole in hopes for a ride.

some wonderfully malleable animation as karoff displays his next trick: squirting glue onto the course. the racers get lodged into the glue and fly up into the air thanks to the resistance, slingshotting back into a cluster in the middle. accompanied by the famous electric guitar zooming twang, of course. the animation reminds me a lot of the rubbery, malleable animation in ub iwerks’ cartoons. the scene where a bee swoops around and stings porky, both beneath a tarp, comes to mind from porky and gabby. speaking of porky, this is still his cartoon. he skids around in the glue, animation smooth as ever, circling around and stretching into the air. the glue strand manages to snap, and he’s propelled into a pile of bricks near a construction site (a sign reading W.P.A. DETOUR PROJECT). the combination of bricks and glue on the wheels makes for army tank wheels on porky’s car.

a lovely sense of urgency and speed as karoff speeds into view, halting in front of the camera and spreading grease on the track next. all of the other competitors zip off of the track like nothing, but thanks to the traction provided by porky’s makeshift army wheels, he’s able to crawl up the hill with ease. as both he and karoff race down the hill, the glue begins to wear on porky’s wheels, and a shower of bricks knock on karoff’s head in succession. there’s a great, quick camera angle as karoff turns the corner on the track, with porky close behind. they weave in and out, porky attempting to pass, but with little luck. the weaving gets faster and faster, carl stalling’s score enhancing the gag as each weave brings forth a higher note in succession. finally, porky outsmarts karoff (which is rare), extending a car horn to the other side and honking. as karoff zips back to where the source of the sound was in hopes of blocking porky, the pig zooms straight past him.

another one of tashlin’s famous “concealed action” scenes as porky and karoff head into a tunnel. there’s the sound of crashing and an explosion. tashlin cleverly extends the surprise just a little longer as an unidentified blur rushes out of the tunnel, presumably porky. however, a look at karoff’s long limo reveals porky in the driver’s seat, with a hunched over karoff crammed into porky’s little car. juxtaposition is comedy’s best friends, and it works!

karoff veers off course in favor of a draw bridge, where he reaches into the control room and pulls the lever. the draw bridge starts its incline, and porky in karoff’s elongated limo flies over the bridge like a ramp. just as karoff’s about to make it across the finish line, porky dives ahead of him in a photo finish, screeching to a half with karoff just a second behind.

if losing wasn’t bad enough, crashing into the rear end of porky‘s new car definitely is. karoff flops to the ground, his car landing next to him. a classic gag that never fails to amuse me as an ambulance screeches up next to karoff, the assistants loading the car into the stretcher leaving karoff by his lonesome, the assistants heading off to tend to the “injured” car. an oldie but goodie.

while the race is clinched, the others still haven’t finished. edna may oliver has completely refurbished her frame car into a sailboat, her dress the makeshift sail as she pumps air via tire pump and funnel into the sail, propelling the car along. a pompous porky awaits his coronation as speed king, when oliver zooms right past. everyone ogles in befuddlement as we iris out on oliver pumping along her makeshift car, the crown placed promptly on top of her butt.

this isn’t my favorite porky cartoon, nor is it my favorite tashlin cartoon, but i certainly think it has its share of good qualities. tashlin uses some beautiful and unconventional camera angles, such as cars zooming at the audience, tacks being thrown FROM the audience’s point of view, and so on. the caricature designs are hilarious—we’ve seen many of these from the coo-coo nut grove, but they still have their charm. a dated cartoon for sure, but as i mentioned in my review of the coo-coo nut grove, looking up who the celebrities are and learning about them is half the fun. with these shorts, at least, you get to learn something new. however, nothing in this cartoon particularly wowed me. not bad, but not as exhilarating as tashlin’s other cartoons. though, for 1937, the wacky races trope would be much fresher and newer than it is now, so as clichéd as it may be, this isn’t necessarily the fault of the cartoon itself, but just how played out the cliché came to be in other cartoons. and plus, the stepin fetchit caricature was... not great. a minor role, but still enough to be considered uncomfortable. i’d recommend this cartoon to check out the caricature drawings in action, but essentially that’s about it. you can go either way with this one.

link!

[howtobeaconartist]

I have an odd question about merching with traditional art vs digital. I'm a trad. artist who colors with marker/watercolor and want to do stickers and acrylic charms using my art. I did a sample of artwork colored digitally and tbh i really don't like it- it doesn't look like my style at all. My question is- do any of yall do your artwork for charms/stickers/etc using trad. artwork? If so, do the tiny variations in color, etc., negatively affect the finished product? (1/2)

”I’m pretty good at getting the colors consistent in PS, but worry that it might not look right when printed. Is there a good way to see how the colors might be affected before dropping tons of $$$ on charms and stuff? Thanks a ton for this blog, btw. It’s easing my anxiety about my first con :p”Nattosoup:  I work mainly in traditional art (watercolor and alcohol marker, often ink), although when I’m designing most of my merch, I prefer to work digitally, just because I can get cleaner color reproduction.  But you can see from my table that I have A LOT of traditional media work up for sale, or reproductions of such work available as books, charms, and mini prints.

SO!  You’re going to have to do some degree of digitization to your work regardless.  You’re going to have to scan it, to clean it up, to design it for the products you’re making.  How much digitization you want to do, and how much it differs from the original, is going to vary product to product.  I recommend you invest in color correction hardware like a Spyder or a ColorHug, so you can calibrate your monitor to accurately reflect color.  I have a post over on my blog about monitor color calibration.

My banners, mini prints, some of my stickers, my comics, and mini comics are all drawn, inked, watercolored, or markered traditionally.  I then scan them and fiddle with them in Photoshop- often just to get rid of unnecessary/unwanted color variation (say, the paper warping when scanning), to add more contrast (since my scanner tends to grey things out), or to bump up the color vibrancy.I print through:Overnight Prints (make SURE you format it in CMYK not RGB with them, they will not check for you)ShutterflyBuildASign (their print resolution is kinda crap, but it works well for banners)And I’ve used Staples skrim printing for the banner below.  I also print at home.Basic tips for making merch with traditional art:1. Scan in CMYK.  Edit in CMYK.  Printers print in CMYK, so the closer you can work within their gamut, the more accurate your work will be.

2.  Many places will send proofs- Createspace, Catprints, and many of the charm manufacturors will send a PDF proof to give you an idea of color accuracy, but you can also request or pay for physical proofs.  This will give you an idea of how it will print, and what you need to do to correct it.

3.  Scan LARGE.  I scan everything at 600 DPI, as I find it works best for large scale things like banners, and allows me to reutilize art.

Even with proofs, there’s a margin of error.  My third printing of 7″ Kara was ALL wrong- CreateSpace switched their printers, and didn’t send me a proof for me to double check, and I wasn’t aware that they’d switched printing services until I’d contacted them about it.   They wouldn’t replace them, wouldn’t refund me, and I had to sell them as is, as I can’t afford to just eat 50 miscolored books. If you’re printing traditional media onto merch, you may need to accept that the finished merch won’t necessarily look like your finished illustration.  You also need to keep in mind that without the original to compare it to, your customers might not care, especially if it still looks good.

4.  Order early!  This way if there’s a mistake or a misprint, you have time to get it straightened out.  Never order from a new supplier or source right before a show- that’s a great way to end up with product you can’t sell, or product you’re not quite comfortable selling.  Give yourself time to make mistakes.

5. Read their submission information CAREFULLY.  Follow their setup instructions carefully.  If you’re uncertain about something, email the company, and if they don’t respond with them, don’t continue to work wtih them.  If you’re concerned with your artwork fidelity, it’s better not to take risks with companies you cannot communicate with.  You’ll end up paying more (customer service always comes at a price), but you’ll also feel more comfortable because the communication will be there.

6.  Places that already do photo printing are generally good at reproducing original artwork.  I haven’t worked with anyone from AliExpress, but I have worked with Artscow and Shutterfly, and any place that does quality photo prints can reproduce traditional artwork faithfully onto objects.  I have bags, waterbottles, vinyl stickers, and more with my watercolor art printed onto it and while the price margins make it unfeasible to offer items like this for sale, I’m quite happy with the print quality, and regularly use these items.

7.  Work with what you’re comfortable with, then figure out how to digitize it for reproduction.  My wooden charms were originally traditionally inked (fude pen in sketchbook) designs, that were scanned and then reinked as vectors to cooperate with Ponoko’s laser cutter.  Most laser cutters prefer vectors, so you may have to get comfortable converting your art over.  I have a tutorial here on how to prep your files for Ponoko.8.  Start out with home manufacture and assembly. I do a fair amount of manufacturing at home.  I print and cut my own stickers, so I can adjust the color based on the printer and print quality.  I print and assemble my own mini comics and zines, so the same goes for those.  My dear friend Kabocha has a post on cutting stickers using a Cricut that you may find helpful if you get into home production.Basically if you followed instructions, you digitized your work properly, at the right resolutino and in the right color profile, and you requested a proof, you should be good!  Also!  If this post was helpful, or if you enjoy this blog, please click through the links on Nattosoup or Kiriska’s names, and check out our art!  You can also check out our about section for links on where you can tip each of us as individuals (HTBACA does not have a joint Kofi, Paypal, or Patreon)

[daedricsnakes]

do u know a good and Exteremely Polite way to tell an aquaintance that no, bettas need big tanks (bigger than a bowl) and more than just unfiltered water in there :/ i understand that no one is made of money but i want to figure out how to explain to ppl: don't get a living being if u don't know how/cant afford to care for it!

Provide evidence of proper care and it’s benefits, and avoid placing blame! It can be very hard to try and give pet advice without sounding rude and like a know-it-all when that advice was not asked for in the first place. Pet care is a touchy subject and people get defensive very easily. Defensive people are unreceptive to advice when they feel attacked by it. I think that’s something we all are well aware of, and it can be very frustrating to work around. But it’s possible! 

Evidence is your friend. Find research, papers, photos, videos… anything you think may help. Photos and videos are great because a lot of people respond well to things they can actually see. Try not to overwhelm them, but give them what you can and encourage them to do more research on their own. Focus on the positives. Say things like “Look at how active this fish is! It’s so fun to watch him explore,” etc. You want them to see what a happy, healthy betta looks and acts like, and THEN you can help them figure out what kind of setup makes a happy, healthy betta. 

Be positive, not negative. “A betta in a heated, filtered tank can live 2-3 years” sounds much better than “A betta in a bowl might not even live a month or two.” Positive gives them a goal to reach for. Negative might seem at face value like it’s proving there is a better option, but it isn’t actually helpful for most people, in my experience. Especially because people who do not know anything other than putting bettas in bowls will probably not know that a couple months is NOT normal. Bad things don’t sound so bad if you don’t realize they’re not typical. (That isn’t to say don’t show them ANY bad thing. Comparisons like sick betta vs healthy betta, and good tank vs bad can be helpful. But make sure to emphasize the good examples.)

Likewise, don’t say “You’re doing this wrong” or any variant. That falls under the blame thing. When choosing your words, try to put yourself in their place: You think you’re doing everything right because it’s what you’ve always been taught is right, and here comes someone trying to tell you you’re way off base. What things would you like to hear? 

Obviously, every person thinks differently, but I think most people would rather hear something like “I see you care about your pet, and I have some ideas that he might appreciate” than “You are neglecting your pet, here’s how to fix it.”

Another helpful thing might be to provide examples of the supplies they need for a proper setup! Give them brands and specific products, and price tags. Try to point out that even though there is a bigger price tag, it doesn’t have to be incredibly expensive. I sent my 10g tank up for about $100, and I bought everything brand new, without any special sales or anything. Suggest the dollar per gallon sale at petco/smart, or craigslist, to get a tank for cheap, etc. 

It’ll take some effort. And it will partly depend on your relationship with the person, as well, and their personality. It varies wildly from person to person, how they will react. For example, when I talk to my mom about proper care for pets, whether it’s about our mammals or my fish or reptiles, or about the fish we had when I was little (bettas… in bowls), she is very responsive and understands that I’ve put in time and effort to find out what “proper care” entails. After I got Cap, she mentioned the “big” tank, and I just told her that bowls are really bad for betta because so and so, etc. She immediately trusted me and though it wasn’t my intention to guilt trip her, she felt bad about the past fish and I know that if she ever wanted to get another one, she would never consider a bowl again. My dad.. well he knows the effort I put into caring for my animals, but he thinks it’s largely unnecessary and doesn’t respond to the sources I try to give him because “it’s always been this way” and “you found that online, you can’t trust everything you find on the internet” and the always great “it’s just a fish/snake/lizard/etc”. 

Most people I know fall somewhere in between. I can’t promise your acquaintance will be receptive, but I hope that some part of this very rambling answer can be of use to you. It can be very frustrating trying to convince someone their care needs improvement without outright saying it. And it probably won’t happen over the course of a single conversation. But patience and empathy are important. You have to stay calm, polite, and not aggressive. 

I’m glad you’re trying. And I hope it works out! Please let me know if you need anything more specific, or anything else. I’m always happy to provide any help I can. 

EDIT: I thought of another thing and that is to let them know that you are still learning too! That you were once in their spot, figuring out what is good and what is bad. It helps you to avoid coming off like a know-it-all if you admit that you’ve made husbandry mistakes as well. And (hopefully) they’ll see that you put in the effort to learn and be a better pet owner, so they can achieve that too. Make yourself relatable and not superior. It really helps!

[catharineshuman-blog]

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