#i have so many things i want to draw/animate but I have to pace myself or I'm gonna die lmao

[jakesythu]

doing drag when ur a dinosaur is no easy feat but someone gotta do it ig

[goldenshrikecomic]

Hello, this is gonna be a long one and I hope I don't bother you too much with it but you have something great going and and I think maybe some advice for someone like me who wants to do a longer comic and I took heart in that one ask you recently answered were you said you are plenty of pages ahead of the readers to not get paralysed by a deadline which seems like a no-brainer now that I read that with my own two eyes black on white but I had not thought to maybe go about it that way and I needed to have someone spell it out for me apparently. So to my question.. see, I have a skeleton of a story I have key scenes that need to happen and that I want to happen and I am sure in between things will shift and change and grow and a part of me can't wait for it to happen but- How do you start. How do you get going. It is in my head I have some written notes but most is in my head and I do not want it to remain there and rot I want to draw and tell the story I had in mind but I feel.. paralysed on the starting line of this journey and I am unsure how to go from there because my mind gets caught up in estimates of if I post one page a week that is "only" 52 pages. That seems so little. How many years would it take. Can I do this. And then my mind fires up in passion because I am willing to commit I want to do this I need to do this and I have a good idea of how to pace myself and how to go about it. I have the beginning of it on the back of my tongue and the tip of my fingers I can imagine it so vividly I wish I could animate it (if that wouldn't take up even more time and be insane I would) But somehow I still feel stumped on how to start. How to get over this first hurdle. It might be the executional dysfunction playing a huge part in it, maybe I am overthinking to much and stand in my way because of it, but like... How did you start your comic. How did your journey on GS begin? I know this was a bit of word vomit I am sorry but you are an inspiration and you seem to go about things (from what I could gleam from the asks) in a way that feels like it could work for me too and the way my brain functions but I do not know how to start? I dunno if it makes sense I am no english native and my thoughts are hard to put into words.

This ask has been sitting in my inbox for a while because it's such a loaded question. I have plenty of asks in this tag about my comicing process, so check them out maybe. This reply got lengthy! The more I wrote the more I noticed I feel very inadequate trying to give people tips on making comics. It's such a trial and error process.

I've seen plenty of advice for people wanting to start out comics to just start small, come up with a smaller story to get a feel of it before you go big. And I absolutely understand it in hindsight because I would've done many things differently if I had just tried it out first, but it's not what I did. I wanted to make a big comic, and a big comic I made, as my first project.

I don't think about the years these things take, but it'd absolutely ease your worries if you could come up with a simple style and be able to make pages faster. I've stripped my comic of shading and gotten more lenient with myself when it comes to backgrounds. You absolutely need to cut some corners if you want to make more than one story during your lifetime. It's a limited time afterall! Being able to turn your sketch into a lineart without having to redo everything with a careful hand would help a lot already. And colors, they take a lot of time.

This is not how I went about it in the beginning, but I'd love to tell you to write those things in your head down before you start. Leave holes, just write in what you know because you will forget some cool details if you keep them in. Write the starting point, middle and the end, even with just couple of words. Add things that interest you in the middle of those points. Do you want a sad arc for your character at some point? Write it in. Come up with what makes it happen. Weave it into the other scenes. If you know what's to come, you can add foreshadowing to the earlier scenes. Even if you didn't know what would come, you can take something from earlier scenes and make it foreshadowing. Writing is a fluid process. You can jump around and add things, you don't have to approach it by putting one block next to the other. Once you have the elements you want, you just have to tie those things together. It's the hard part. And you will change your mind about many things when you get to draw your characters and see them doing the things you've written.

The start! I always say it's the worst part, but I've started to think it might be the second worst. I think the worst part comes after you've started and worked for several ten pages on fumes and you finally run out of juice. Picking up after that is hard, for me at least. But if you can manage, it should get easier. You know your characters better by now, and they carry some of their own weight.

Make a canvas. Think about the scene you want to start your comic with. Night or day? Calm or busy? Just doodle, BIG and loose. Add some frames by just drawing lines, move things around, resize. What do you want to portray with the first page of your comic? I like to establish some of the world or atmosphere, and only then move on to the characters.

Don't try to be perfect, in fact leave that first canvas completely unpolished and move on to the next one. What should this page tell? Will you show the character? I'd leave the establishing shot of them as the last big panel. The rest of the page should build up to it. The last panel is important, it's a hook to turn the page.

Come back to polish those pages more only after you have a few of them done. The most important thing is to get yourself away from that first page, because the first page is scary. After five pages you can move things around and start adding ears to your spheres. You've started a comic now. You can go back to the first page and make it nice, because you already have opened the path to continue.

IT'S HARD. But it's rewarding. It's not for everyone but it's awesome if you can make it yours.

[lambment]

How do you have the energy to post everyday……..how do you pace your time to draw spare tips please 🤲

okay first things first! this is absolutley not a sustainable pace to go at!! just want to make that expectation very clear, that this is not normal!! lol I will run out of energy

a reason why this is happening:

Im having a shit ton of fun (what hyperfixation does to a man/so many brainworms )

I work freelance from my house (I choose my hours)

I've been reintroduced to adhd meds (lol)

everyone is being v nice to me <:

I was extremely burnt-out and barely drawing when I left my job as an animator to pursue boarding, this is like one of the only times ive had fun w art since then.

for proper tips all I can honestly give is: let go of expectations, just draw what you want to see, someone else out there will also probably want to see it too. Im ngl 80% of my comics are literally just stream of thought of what I would think is funny, and some of you are finding it 'hehe haha' too! not policing what Im drawing is rlly helping.

I normally render the ever loving shit out of things, I have let go of that expectation here, im not putting that type of pressure on myself lol, my only job is to have fun with this, therefore Im drawing way more than I normally would! give it a try yourself!

[snapescloaca]

i cannot stop rambling about arcane but something ive been thinking about with seeing people say season 2 is rushed is like. yeah it does feel rushed but i remember watching season 1 and also feeling like it was kinda rushed? maybe its bc i watched season 1 all the way through after it had already come out because i found it later, and maybe when you have more time between episodes it feels slower. but i remember finding certain things off about the pacing. like even vi and cait's bond seemed to go rather fast at times.

but that didnt stop me from liking it and i still appreciated it for what it was. i DO think s2 is faster bc theyre trying to wrap up shit WHILE adding more shit? but idk maybe because my expectations are lower about the pacing im just less disappointed by it

i think im so grateful to even have a show like this in the first place that maybe thats why im letting it kinda get away with it. but like. i keep hearing the crew that worked on arcane talking about how they wanted to always push animation and push what they could do. and i think what makes arcane so visually stunning is also perhaps what makes the pacing falter. like the more complex they get in animation technique, which they HAVE since s1, the more they wanna put in as many action/moving sequences as possible so you get more conflict back to back.

like i do truly wish arcane was maybe a season longer. that, or had more episodes to really draw things out and explore things with more due diligence. but i also understand that from a writing and production standpoint thats just not feasible. for arcane to look this good it is fucking EXPENSIVE. i think theyve tried to balance budget with the amount of time they have, and although they couldve potentially mitigated some of the fast pace by having fewer plot threads i think ultimately arcane did what its known for. being ambitious.

so this is kinda what happens when a gorgeous and ambitious project tries to do as much as they can with what they have with the time allotted them. and its not enough time. but with the time we DO get? idk. i find myself more grateful to have it at all.

but maybe thats bc this is the kind of show i rlly wished to have growing up. where its basically entirely women as the main cast save for like. a couple male characters LOL. the center relationships are all between women, like caitvi and the sisters. where women are allowed to be messy people and fully human. they were fuckin ambitious to do so much but im glad they even tried it in the first place yknow

[darekasama]

Writeblr Interview Tag

Thank you for the tag, @sableglass!

Short stories, novels, or poems?

To read, all of the above. To write, I’m very good with journal articles and short stories but if left unchecked some of them might turn into giant novels.

What genre do you prefer reading?

Fantasy, romance, adventure, but really anything that brings me into a world different from ours. Also I have a weakness for dragons and animals in general, so anything that tangentially involves them is on my radar.

Are you a planner or a “write as I go” kind of person?

I am trying really hard to be a planner! My first big story project crashed because I tried to write as I go, resulting in a mess of scenes with the same ideas in five different pages at the same time (including the backside of hundreds of drawings) and too many re-starts to count. Lots of re-writing that didn’t fix the core issues, and ultimately more material added to the chaos. It did not work out.

My current WIP, Project TL, is going at a slower pace, but this time I made sure to organise everything from the start so it’s actually pretty neat and I have no trouble navigating my files or editing!

What music do you listen to while writing?

Sometimes it’s a song, sometimes just music, sometimes ambient sounds. Genre doesn’t matter either, as long as it is appropriate to the scene. In general terms, if the song/music reminds me of good memories, then it is on my list.

For a while I listened to BTS, then to a piano cover of Heaven Official’s Blessing, then to the  lo-fi hip-hop radio. It really, really varies.

Favorite books/movies?

I love all of Licia Troisi’s books, but especially the Chronicles of the Emerged World trilogy. I grew up with her books!

As for movies I think the LOTR movies could be my favourite.

Any current WIPs?

One! In short, Project TL is about dudes, drama and dinosaurs.

What happens if the mentor isn’t there to guide the young noble boy? Very avoidable teenage adventures of course! From getting his nose into the local drama to exploring dangerous forests, all while trying to find some great treasure to bring home. Also, a possible romance with his roommate (who can shapeshift into a dinosaur for reasons you’ll have to read later to know)...

If someone were to make a cartoon out of you what would your standard outfit be?

^ Something of the sort, I suppose. My wardrobe is very basic.

Create a character description of yourself: 

I'm shy! My drawings are all you'll get :P

Do you like incorporating actual people you know into your writing?

Not really. Some aspects of people yes, but the people themselves are a big no-no. I prefer detaching the real person from the behaviour of a fictional character. I don’t even like to use names of people I know in stories.

Are you kill happy with your characters?

Sometimes I put them in very dangerous situations, but I actually prefer when they get out of them. Killing my darlings feels very bad. I want them to live happily, or to at least get a happy ending. They do deserve it.

Coffee or Tea while writing?

In the winter, tea! This year I found a very nice tea shop and got many different flavours to try. Some were a hit and some less so, but I'm pretty excited to start drinking again hot stuff once summer is over!

In any season other that winter, water and fruit juice. This girl does not have what it takes to drink sparkly water.

Slow or fast writer?

Slooooooow! I like to edit a lot. Althought English is not my first language, I feel like I got the grasp on ho to make a sentence flow well.

Where/who/what do you draw inspiration from?

A lot comes from knowledge I acquired over the course of my life. Often I ask myself how a situation could go differently, or why things have to be a certain way. Then boom, a story is born. Most of them last a short few minutes while others make it to the end of the day. Only a handful stay with me for a lifetime, and those I hold very dearly.

If you were in a fantasy world, what would you be?

Let me be a cat! They have the perfect life literally in any world. Eat fancy (or not), lounge in the sun for hours, strut around the town, climb high places and even get loved for just meowing. I wish my life was like that.

Most fav book cliche:

Saving the damsell in distress. Does not have to be literal, but I love it when someone in trouble gets a helping hand!

Least favorite cliche:

Miscommunication. Please just talk to each other!!!!

Favorite scene to write?

Quiet moments together. Comfortable in each other’s presence, maybe joking a little, maybe opening up about what they really think… So many possibilities in a simple stress-free interaction.

Also cuddles and physical closeness in general.

Reason for writing?

I must release my visions into this world.

Tag list (because I think you are all cool people):

@mr-orion @glitched-dawn @silentstaresfanficandfanart @theverumproject @uraniumwriting @princefluph @xenascribbles @wordsandwordsbyme @shenaniganssketched @creative-author @thedeerwight

[misscaterpilla4]

IMPORTANT

This is a clarification about TSAMS and what I will do in this blog

I'm sorry if I can't make myself understood correctly, I'm writing this quickly and I'm having a hard time translating it since I've been having some headaches and I just want to stay asleep, well, I recently found out about TSAMS and have received both warnings and suggestions , but I want to clarify something, I won't draw anything about it, this is mostly because I have a lot of things to do, I'm slowly getting back into animation, there are 2 animations I want to make about One Piece, doodles from both OP and of FNAF and I also have my head saturated with a comic that will be my most important project to carry out, so at the moment I don't have much time to review external things of which I have no knowledge, I want to clarify that this is nothing against the fandom , in my tray I received a warning about this and the behavior they sometimes have towards DCA artists, I asked others and they gave me varied answers, I have been in fandoms that can be considered problematic but I know that like in all fandoms of that style There are also very kind and respectful people, I have even had some run-ins with people from the DCA fandom and despite this I continue to draw about it, however as I mentioned before, I don't have time to get into another fandom, I want to focus on my projects and answer questions that I have pending for months, if you are part of the TSAMS fandom I hope you understand my position, all the suggestions sent about the show will not be answered, I also decided to delete the previous post where I asked about it since there was a situation that affected the person of the question, lastly and with all my heart, do not fight among yourselves, do not be threatening towards those who enjoy TSAMS, I know that you may be worried about the experiences and that you do not want that for me, but I will be okay, it is not necessary to make a complaint to the other person, this has saturated me with many emotions, I still cannot understand myself but I usually get very anxious and scared with anything since I worry too much about everything, I just want everything goes well, that both you and I are fine, I honestly don't know what else to add, I think this is all, I hope you can understand me and that everything is fine, I'm sorry if the text is very long, I try to be as clear as possible although perhaps I could have said very little but there were many points to be made here.

I will be away for a while, I am going to rest a little to calm the headaches, when I feel better I will continue working on my things, I will try as possible to bring some content so as not to neglect you so much, it may be a slow process but I will do everything at my pace, so please be good to each other, I love you and I don't want there to be problems between you because of me, it may not have been something that big but as I mentioned I can be very sensitive even with the most simple, see you later!!

[beryllineart]

How2Draw Comics: Story

Last time we learned about conceptualizing our characters, settings, art style, etc. Now we actually have to put our characters in a situation, drive them from point A to point B through a story.

There are many different ways to do this. I'm assuming you have, if not an outlined story, a situation you want your character to experience. If you don't have a story, make your character order pizza but something happens and they have to rescue the pizza (and the delivery guy, I guess.) The first method I'll discuss is my least favorite- the Script Method.

You write a script for your story, listing pages and panels as you go along. I hate this. It feels too limiting, and panels are actually one of the most limiting and intimidating things to a beginner comic artist. Yet most tutorials encourage you to draw your panels first and then squish or stretch your drawings to fit, and that's what the Script Method is based off of. I draw my panels while I do my drawings, or even after I do them.

If pacing your comics is one of the most difficult things for you (what size do I make my panels? Is there too much dialogue on this page?) then I suggest the Storytelling Method.

You do not have to make a full short story or book. Usually I just say something like, "boy is making cake. girl walks up behind him and hugs him, kissing his floury cheek. she walks away, licking her finger. she has stolen some cake batter and he didn't notice." In my head I can see a more detailed story there, but you can tell a story without a bunch of flowery prose.

You may be wondering how this helps with pacing your comics. Well, I have actions associated with dialogue, meaning I know which drawings will have which dialogue, automatically creating a nice balance. Additionally, I know what to prioritize. I know that the panel introducing the manor will be large, because I used the words "large and imposing" to describe it. I know that when I set the ballroom scene in this story, I also need to set the scene in an establishing shot. And I know that I'm going to have Bernice's appearance on the food table be surprising, taking place after she tugs his shirt or something. (This will probably make more sense once I actually make the comic)

The final method is a very flexible one for those who aren't into words and just want to draw- the Children's Book Method.

This particular example is mind-mapping, but you can also do a more organized version by storyboarding (placing each drawing in a square and giving a short description for context). I call these collectively the Children's Book Method because the basic idea is that you don't repeat your drawings like you would in a comic. Instead, you draw those things that feel the most interesting and most dynamic, the things that are most important. (like keyframes in an animation) Children's books illustrate one scene at a time, providing context for many different moments in one picture (and some text). They are less sequential than a comic because they only have one picture per page.

I usually have a mix of the storytelling method and the storyboarding end of children's book method. And usually I tell myself a story only in my head, without writing it out, because that's all I need. And I'll admit, sometimes the stories play out in my head like a movie, which is probably why the script method works for people. Sometimes you don't know which is the most effective way to tell yourself a story until you try to draw the comic and see what is giving you the most trouble.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me! I know I'm kind of rambly and don't make much sense, so if you need clarification or other tips, I'll do my best to help.

Next is Panels and Pacing: Drawing the Comic (which will probably happen in multiple posts, but this art block will make it nigh impossible for a while, why doesn't it just go away?)

[layingeggs]

Sorry I haven't been active on here art wise. Not that I have to produce content or anything. But I do want this to be an art blog! And I'm not art blogging! So like, I need to be able to express that I guess.

But here's some stuff I feel happy to show. First of all, my girly.

This is my oc. My original child. Her name is Rietta. She is a lowpoly character with 5 articulated fingers sitting at a cool 708 tris. Why? I don't know. Why not!

I suppose it is a pain to have to animate all of those fingers even if the polycount allows it. But then, don't you have the same amount of animating fingers with mid poly and high poly characters??? Surely, I can't allow Shrek of all things to impose the limits of my artistic ability?

Anyway I shan't be doing this again I don't think. I'm rather enamoured with the lowpoly muppet hands in fact. And Rietta shall walk through the muppet handed world, alone with her articulated fingers. She will be a queen of the monsters. Just like how in Labyrinth, the goblins are all puppets and the goblin king is a meaty man.

But here's my wonderful girly. Unanimated because I keep distracting myself going on to do other things right when I'm in the middle of something else. I've decided to start some plant creature studies.

It's palmon from the digimon series! Drawn from reference. In many ways, she is the ideal plant monster I think. Mentally, I am comparing your plant monsters to her. I know that it's unlikely that your plant monsters will be as cool as her, but the point is that you have to try!

I'm going to draw up some more plant monsters, and then I want to try making my own wonderful plant child. I may post her here. I don't think she'll be as cool as palmon. But that's okay. The important thing is to try. We are striving for the ideal.

Hoo ee boy I tell you. All that fiddly hatching and such? Massive pain. It's good to try and draw like this every now and then to exercise your art skills but I definitely want to cultivate an art style of communicating as much cuteness and coolness as I can with a minimum of lines and brush strokes!!

It's like I'm in a gym. I've got to do deadlifts at least once. Squats are the king of exercises! But ultimately what I really want long term is to just find an exercise regimen that keeps me in shape and keeps me happy. That's how art is innit? You want to draw the tough stuff at least once, but ultimately the only long term thing you want to do is find a good paced doodling.

So yeh. I'll get through my plant studies and then go back to animating girls. Alongside this mountain of other stuff I'm not posting because I'm juggling too much. Too much dilletantism or not enough? I think so long as I'm still making stuff, I'm happy!

[huesofvioletandpurple]

A few days ago, the DRDT channel made public a “character song” playlist with sixteen songs inside (link). Naturally, considering this means that every character has a theme song of their own, I became Fucking Obsessed and tried matching each song to every character

Out of sixteen, I have exactly Four I am completely and absolutely confident in. That’s like, (checks notes), a quarter of the songs. I wish four was as neat of a number as three but unfortunately I do not get a choice in that regard. This would’ve been a quick post on which song I think matches with who + why but these guys made me recite an essay to myself as I paced around the room. So they deserve their own post <3.

Featuring: screenshots, hidden quotes (link) (required reading), and a shit ton of brainrot. explanations are below cut. tl;dr:

Rose is Cartoons

Charles is Asymptotic

Nico is Drawing Pins

Teruko is Good Grief

=

Rose Lacroix is Cartoons

[plain text: Rose Lacroix is Cartoons]

Track #4 is Cartoons by Louie Zong, and I have decided this is Rose’s track too. This is one many, many others have suspected as well. Starting it off with this first because it’s the simplest to explain: Rose is an artist, the lyrics are about art; or, at the very least, uses animation and drawing as metaphors.

Abstractions how I live my day to day, [...] Hard to explain, And to express, Forever just a work-in-progress.

The song in general uses drawing to explain feeling burnt out/not passionate about. Well. Your passions. Rose states herself that her work can only give her catharsis, considering none of it technically “hers” anymore.

[ID: Two screenshots of  Rose from chapter 2 episode 5. She is in the dressing room talking to Teruko, and has her hand on her neck as she looks downwards. Transcript: All I do is make paintings on other’s beck-and-call. It’s been so long that I don’t think I remember how to paint something original anymore. / There’s no value in the creations of someone who’s fallen so far from artistry. The only thing I can get out of art is catharsis. End ID]

Which is even more tragic, considering how she had huge ambitions as a child

[ID: One screenshot from the same episode. Rose now rests her chin in her fist. Transcript: I wanted to be a great painter when I was a kid, but things didn’t turn out that way. None of my original stuff ever sold well. End ID] 

There’s also these lyrics here

Can't hold a pencil or a thought. (Oh uh oh) Can't paint myself something I'm not.

Tryin' to make that ol' deadline, But all I've got are two dots and a line.

Rose knows she’s talented; in fact, I’d argue she’s one of the most secure about her talent than anyone in the class. She understands how useful it is in the killing game when paired with her photographic memory. In chapter 2, however, she hesitates, despite knowing this more than anyone.

[ID: Three screenshots of Rose from chapter 2 episode 8. She is sitting against a wall, knees drawn to her chest as she buries her face in her arms. Transcript of her dialogue: I don’t want to find out what kind of corpse Arei left. It’s easier for me to pretend nothing bad happened and forget about everything tomorrow. / That’s why I’m sitting here, wallowing in my own guilt, unable to do anything helpful. / You probably need me to draw a picture of a crime scene, like last time. That’s something only I can do that can help everyone. End ID]

She doesn’t want to use her talent that way—she can’t “paint herself something she’s not”, and she would “make the deadline”, but she can’t just will herself to simply Do Something when it’s draining and linked to her trauma from the previous case—and she’s more self conscious of it than anyone, that she only has “two dots and a line” —an upset face.

There’s also her hidden quote from the inspect elements of her character page: “In the end, all I can do is watch my wretched life go on.” I think it fits with the general theme of being incredibly discouraged and burnt out. “Forever a work in progress” indeed.

=

Charles Cuevas is Asymptotic

[pt: Charles Cuevas is Asymptotic]

I’ve chosen Asymptotic by (once more,) Louie Zong as Charles’ song. I could say it’s because of the mathsy theming and Charles is literally a fuckging chemist and leave it at that—I almost chose this as Min’s song because of how groovy and nerdy (affectionate) it was. I’m sorry to say it’s because of angst.

We’re aymptotic, Divided, by the smallest, slimmest line

Hey, so you know how Charles has an older brother ?

And you know how he didn’t know this until one of the motives told him ? So now there’s a good chance he won’t remember him fully for a long, long time ?

[you’re] Not imaginary. But it's complex! The limits are infinitely great

Charles now knows of this family member he has no recollection of. He most likely existed at some point—every other secret, though written to show the worst of the cast, are based on some sort of truth. I have a pet theory that his phobia of blood is connected to his brother, considering amnesia of a traumatic event is a common occurrence, and he doesn’t recall the origin of his haemophobia either, which opens up the possibility of them being linked. As long as he has this amnesia, any memory of his brother will always be far from his grasp.

As close as we could ever get, you'll be just out of reach

His hidden quote is about how it’s better to just forget; that means those events weren’t worth keeping.

if you forgot it, then it probably wasn’t important to begin with. none of those memories should ever be kept anyway.

In the context of the creator looking at the lyrics of the song and going “omg that’s blorbo from my brain”, the song refers to him as believing that he and his brother are asymptotes—lines that greatly resemble each other that will never reach, existing in different planes altogether.

=

Nico Hakobyan is Drawing Pins

[pt: Nico Hakobyan is Drawing Pins]

So.

Drawing Pins by Nothing but Thieves ! This song in particular fucking Stumped me. The lyrics are good, they slap, the Creator has fantastic taste in music; I just couldn’t figure out who the Hell it could be. Then, I had an epiphany.

This epiphany, by the way, is also probably one of my BIGGEST reaches. It completely redefines the song—even MORESO than how I treated asymptotic—and focuses hard on One aspect of Nico’s character.

(In my defense, it’s a really huge part.)

I don't feel like I belong Here at all

Tell me what you did it What you did it What you did it for 'Cause I can't figure it out

What do I have to do To be loved, loved by you

These are the lyrics in particular that made me go “wait a god damn Second”.

Firstly, not feeling like they belong.

[ID: Two screenshots of Nico from chapter 2 episode 6. They hold their arm and look nervously to the side in the first screenshot, then bury their face in the collar of their shirt in the next. Transcript: I thought you would laugh at me. I was worried you would pick up rocks and start throwing them at me or pick up clumps of mud and start throwing them at me. / I’m sorry, this never happens! Usually people call me abnormal or say that I’m just trying to be special, in a derogatory way. End ID]

Nico has been a frequent victim of bullying. Even though their current classmates are accepting, that just made them wary that something was off, because their past experiences stuck with them ! I feel like it should go unsaid that that, already on its own, is pretty fucking isolating !

[ID: a screenshot from the same episode. Nico is in the same pose. They say “And then they leave me out of everything and never talk to me again because there’s something wrong with me.” End ID]

So, self-explanatory line in the context of Nico. Cool. Cool. What am I seeing in the other lyrics, though ?

Tell me what you did it What you did it What you did it for 'Cause I can't figure it out

Okay, so. You know Nico’s hidden quote ? It’s “why should I own up for the mistakes someone else made?”, if you’re wondering.

There’s another reason they don’t feel like they belong.

There’s this running thread of Nico misunderstanding social cues, causing conflict and being scorned for it, but never being explained why those social cues exist, leading to them confused on why something so arbitrary is held to such importance. This causes this cycle that they’re just expected to escape, yet not being given the understanding or tools to do.

[ID: Three screenshots of Nico from the same episode. Nico looks down at their hands, then scratches their chin, then buries the bottom half of their face in their shirt. Transcript: If you’re having dinner and want someone to pass the salt, you can say, “Please pass the salt,”  or you can say “Give me the salt.” / One of those things is supposed to be more polite than the other, right? But why? They both meant the same thing. They’re just slightly different mixes of words. / It’s like that. I don’t understand why some mixes of words come off as ‘rude’ and some don’t, even if they mean tthe same thing. End ID]

I suspect the hidden quote is of Nico snapping, of not caring about being polite or nice anymore. They are already honest, which escalated their animosity with Ace, but this time they’re not caving if someone tells them that they’re being “too blunt” about it.

What do I have to do To be loved, loved by you

But it was never on purpose. They are not “blunt” or “brutally honest” to Ace or David whoever because they want to build that kind of reputation. I think these lyrics are suggesting a culmination of their arc, “What can I do to be loved ? Why should I apologise in place of the person who did hurt you ? Why am I constantly apologising for my existence ?

How do I win over people like you?”

I am fully aware that I may be reaching, but if you see the song as a representation of Nico’s rage and resentment that they had to “hold down by drawing pins”, you can at the very least see where I’m coming from.

=

Teruko is Good Grief

[pt: Teruko Tawaki is Good Grief]

Good Grief by Bastille, aka the last song on the playlist !

I’ve seen people say it’s a Whit song, or a Charles song, and I see it ! Death is very important in both of their arcs, and so is their way of mourning. However, I feel like it couldn’t be anyone but Teruko, and I also feel like there’s a very important part of her that people often forget.

[ID: Two screenshots from the episode 1 of the first chapter. They are lines of Teruko’s inner monologue. Transcript: His name, her face, it’s just barely out of reach. I claw and grasp through the dusty haze of my memories. / Choking on my nostalgia, I keep begging for you to come back. End ID]

[ID: A screenshot from chapter 1 episode 9 of Mai Akasaki turning around and smiling at the viewer. End ID]

Teruko mourns.

At the very least, she tries. She misses people. She grieves. That is what drives her distrust—she knows how much love hurts, and doesn’t want to feel that way.

[ID: A screenshot from chapter 2 episode 3. Teruko playing with succulents in her room as if they are dolls. One succulent has an eyepatch and knife, and the other has a knife and a sticky note, with a cowlick resembling Teruko’s. End ID]

Even in this silly moment of Teruko playing with cacti—it shows she didn’t WANT Xander to die ! She misses him. She wishes it could’ve gone better and blames herself for trusting—and notice how Xander in this scenario stands by her side.

Every minute and every hour I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more

She “chokes on her nostalgia” when she thinks of two unnamed people, “begging them to come back”. Will she ever admit it? Fuck no are you kidding me she couldn’t be emotionally vulnerable to save her Life. But Teruko constantly loses and is never given time or space to mourn (That is what I meant when I said she tries), and it’s led her to bottling and hiding them to further isolate herself, to prevent her from losing the ones she loves again.

In my thoughts you're far away And you are whistling the melody, Whistling the melody Crystallising clear as day Oh I can picture you so easily, Picture you so easily

Again, the two people are “far away”, she’s half forgotten after all. But Mai Akasaki’s image is as clear as day. Her memories are one of the only traces of Mai we have at all.

I could repeat myself over and over with pretty much every lyric of this song in particular, so I suggest seeking it out and listening to it yourself. I cannot stress enough how much this song SCREAMS Teruko to me

=

Overall, I’m fully ready to be wrong. I do not have a great track record when predicting story arcs. However, I have thought about this for a very intense bit of time, so this is to work as a way to get my thoughts out there.

I have a few hunches, like Shun-Ran for David or Jotaro’s theme for Xander, but both are just hunches, and neither are as strong as the four above.

Anyways, have a great day ! holy shit this is over 1.7K words excluding the image descriptions.

[lilspacewolfie]

What are you working on these days? Want to share a tiny piece of a WIP?

Sup nonny! Still working on my Devil!Terzo fic *melts into the floor* but things are going well with that! I gave myself a few days off because of headaches... I realized I haven't shared much about my take on my Lucifer/Terzo as a character online. I mostly talk about him privately, but why not share a little of my take on the Devil's charm? This WIP snippet is from chapter 8 of YWNWA, the Walpurgis Night chapter! It was such fun to write but still needs some work, so everything is subject to change/edits!

Later, maybe, when he gets some liquid courage in him. But even that isn’t enough to completely outweigh the anxiety that’s quietly suffocating him. 

Eyes are falling on them, Siblings beaming and excitable at the mere sight of their Papa being in open touching distance. Something else creeps into Copia’s head and lingers on the fringes, cold and poisons—a snake ready to strike. He’s quicker to strangle it. He shouldn’t feel the slightest bit jealous of their happiness. It’s simply the allure Terzo exudes. He makes people happy, and Copia adores the joy he brings to them and the world at large. He is beloved and worshipped. Copia has no right to feel like this, and he’s reminded of his own ugly, crippling unworthiness. 

When he slows his pace and his arm starts to slip, Terzo tightens his hold just a fraction. 

“Easy,” Terzo soothes in a tone one would reserve a nervous animal. “Walk with me.” 

It’s confident and encouraging and Copia can't help but melt because—as much as he tries not to read too much into others' tones when he can for the sake of his sanity—there’s an awareness beneath it all.

“Keep me company for the celebrations, hm?” Terzo then says. “Join me for a dance later if you are willing. You have more than earned a break to let loose. What better night than tonight, no?”

Copia swallows, ears burning. 

“I am sure you have many from this legion of devout followers that you would rather dance with, Papa,” He counters a bit too bitterly. Besides, he doesn’t know how to dance. 

“Nonsense,” Terzo chides fondly. “I would like nothing more than to be your guiding hand for the evening.”

When he glances at Terzo, he’s drawing his gaze from Imperator and focusing solely on Copia with softer eyes. Copia knows what he’s doing and he’s certain, then, that Terzo is aware of what’s transpired between him and Imperator. He must know. Why else would he be doing all this? Why else would he be touching him, save for putting some sort of claim on him that will for sure rile Imperator up? It’s certainly doing something to the Sibling’s they pass. He can't imagine how much it must infuriate Imperator.

Frankly, when Copia gives himself more than a second to be hastily absorbed by his anxious thoughts, he doesn’t care. The annoyance he’s felt towards Imperator—the culmination of all the years worth of fleeting irritations brought on by the week's rough start—simmers in his belly. 

He’s allowed to be angry and upset. He’s allowed to do what he wants. He’s allowed this. It’s none of her business, anyway. 

Copia finds Terzo is still looking at him, searching his face like he’s reading the silent battle Copia is warring. He’s ever-patient, offering another gentle squeeze on his arm.  

“Would you do me the honour of being my company for this night, topolino?” He asks again, quieter.

[k00297230]

Hello you jubilant jaguars!

We've finished our final project and have placed all our things on the wall for assessment on Thursday. I didn't have as much to physically present because I didn't have my larger drawings from the first animation brief.

I've very much enjoyed the animation discipline work we've done and the overall process and pacing of the workflow. It was a little bit jarring in the beginning but once you started getting into it, it felt productive and consistent.

Final Brief "Nursery Rhyme"

I have to admit I was a little hesitant with doing group work that is often either really good or really annoying. I was blessed to be in the former of groups.

In the beginning I was a little withdrawn perhaps because my mind was on CCS and the prompt of

Three Blind mice

Epic/Historical

Space Age

wasn't something that sparked many ideas for me. I don't have a great pool of reference for space themed bits of media so I didn't feel super comfortable coming up with ideas. The first day we were supposed to make draft scripts to which I opted to do some research instead of. In the beginning it didn't feel like I was pulling my weight as such but during the weekend we had a call on Sunday to show off our newly written script, of which I did do.

It was my first time writing a script but I was actually really enjoying it towards the middle. I finished after an hour and didn't really revise it because I was occupied with CCS work I needed to get done. There's a couple of things I learned, from the time I spent.

I'm not supposed to write descriptions of shots. (in the beginning)

My dialogue was really long and wordy. (I wanted to get my ideas of characterization across and didn't give myself time to revise and edit it which I would've done usually.

On Monday we finalized the script after taking different aspects of each of our scripts that we liked. From my script they took:

The beginning shots of the space craft showing characterization through visuals.

"Some of the characterization and dialogue ideas such as "is that Russian?"

I spent Monday working on CCS and then on Tuesday my group had storyboard stuff done but I didn't have much of an impact on it besides revising the argument scene between Ridley and Latimer in the buggy. I found myself although not contributing as many new ideas to a discussion but rather looking at the ideas we had and seeing if they fit in with an overall vision. I suggested having an overall theme for the story as it is an Epic and came up with the idea of blind beliefs and the consequences that can lead to.

I knew I had to start pulling my weight for the group and we started doing research. I was put in charge of landscapes as well as spaceships and their interior.

I found the Observing the Moon book to be quite useful for looking at the Apollo missions, reasons for its' discontinuation and the geography of the moon. Moonshine was a Dreamworks background art book that more so served as inspiration and motivation for my future background work.

We put together a google slide consisting of the research we did and these were the ones I made.

We then went onto look at style/aesthetic and once again I felt like I didn't contribute much to this discussion although I was okay with going for the Star trek, Akira hybrid we settled on.

We then started going into concept art. I was put in charge of landscapes and backgrounds along with Mik. I focused on the moon surface and the spaceship interior and exterior. I found this youtube video to be quite useful for getting started as I wasn't too confident in my abilities to make background art.

I found this process quite fun in keeping loose shapes with wide brushstrokes and practising stroke economy which aims to show great detail and imagery to the viewer with implied detail. I also tried playing with values. It was also my first time really using the gradient tool which add a little interest to the sky as opposed to just a flat colour.

I feel like I could've experimented more with composition but I wanted to get more work done so I took one of the compositions and changed the hue/saturation/brightness to show different colours and palettes to see what type of feel we want for the background. I did try and place the ship in different spots to see how it'd look composition wise but that was the extent of it. I settled on a closer view of the ship for my master shot.

My group liked the bottom three particularly the bottom left purple hue. I then took this and fixed the sky to make it pop more with stars.

I also spent time working on the space ship itself. I sketched them out traditionally based off the video I had in my research to get used to the shape and structure of the exterior and then went to do it digitally/. I quickly sketched out my shapes and then went over them with a paint brush. I didn't do line art and kept it pretty basic.

I think I got the basic look of it down here and once again played with the hues/saturation/brightness to see how it would look differently.

I went over it again but took more time to make it fit the Akira aesthetic more. I used airbrushes, with a lack of line and tried to make it more detailed in spots. In the end I finished it early and was mostly happy with the top half.

Before starting my master shots at home, I wanted to look at other parts of the project for my time in college. I felt like we were lacking some of the civilization development and ideas and started drawing up designs for that.

Basing it off roman architecture with elements of irish stone carvings with the idea of rat/mice imagery and looking at how a language could be formed from this with writing. When it comes to writing I knew the writing would be composed of scratches as if done by mice. The writing I thought would look like symbols not too dissimilar to kanji or Chinese characters but in a more primal less sophisticated form.

I knew the pillars would be the most opportune asset in our storyboard to illustrate a culture or some form of civilization. I played with shapes and tried relating them to Ryan's work so they would feel connected. (Ryan's work below).

I then took these designs and tried making very quick digitized versions but I didn't quite like how they turned out. I also tried seeing how their look in a dark environment being lit with flashlights to the same result.

This was all the concept and design work I was able to get done and I was quite happy with the results. If I gave myself more time to work on this I would've liked to have breached out to other parts of the project such as character work, cave interiors and the city itself. I think it would've been interesting to see what we all would have come up with for each part of the project but with the time we were given I would've liked to have experimented more with composition I think.

After preparing for the pitch presentation I focused on the master shots I was responsible for. I did the exterior of the ship on the moon landscape in the composition I picked out earlier.

Liberty did the sketch for the interior of the ship taking reference from the video I had seen for research.

I went over this in my style to keep it consistent. I found this workflow to be more efficient.

I think a big thing I learned from doing these backgrounds and something to keep in mind for next time is to use darker colours against the light ones to create more contrast and create depth. I feel in some parts of my work certain things don't pop out as much as I would like them to.

We then had our presentation which went well. I wrote down a scripts and practised it multiple times until I felt confident In what I was saying and could talk around it if I forgot any words. I used a Q card to help prompt my sentences with words that I knew I blanked on during my practises written down. I felt my part went smoothly and I remembered my points. I did speak too early for one of my script lines during the animatic but I don't think it that much of an impact.

Coming to the end of this project I learned quite a bit working with my group. I was quite happy with the work I did do and wasn't used to the actual good communication and enthusiasm my group displayed overall. Although I faltered in the beginning, all members in our group felt they had a moment or moments they weren't doing as much. We still covered for each other and always had new work to look at each day. It was really nice to work on something with people who were equally as dedicated to making something together.

If I had to change somethings for next time it would definitely be how much I contributed to new ideas in the group. I did come up with ideas but I felt I kind of took a back seat and looked at the ideas we already had to see if they would fit without coming up with much of an alternative.

I felt also that there were some things I was thinking that I didn't quite vocalise at times but as I grew more comfortable with the group I was more relaxed in sharing my ideas and criticisms.

This might be my last Tumblr post but thank you guys for the support and love you've all given me throughout this journey.

Signing out,

~K00297230

[its-dean]

Interstella: How am I supposed to feel?

Just this past week, there was a special one-day screening in theaters of a "remastered" version of Leiji Matsumoto's Interstella 5555. On paper this is a really exciting thing to have happen, as it's one of my favorite films/anime/albums of all time. To me, it's such a breathtaking experience to sit through that I could gush about it for the amount of time it would take you to watch the whole thing :.)

But there's something more to this news that makes the whole situation feel rather... complicated in my eyes. To put it in short: this re-release, rather than being a remaster by traditional means, is one that's forced forward by the power of generative AI (you can notice it especially on Stella in the screenshot above). Just from watching the trailer on Daft Punk's Youtube Channel, things felt unnaturally crisp and, in a way, kind of "alien" to the original version I was so used to. I know that's a pretty personal takeaway for me to present you with, but it did alarm me with just how many keyframes I saw that looked very "unnaturally altered." Don't get me wrong, the picture quality is better than I've ever seen, a real shock to the system, but knowing the history behind this film and its production so well I just can't help but think about how this level of quality was something I was literally never meant to see.

This post is gonna be very different from what I usually like to share online, but since the announcement was made and the actual event has since happened, the thoughts have just been stirring in my mind nonstop. I wanted to put my thoughts out there for once, mostly because of how much this film inspires me.

The film itself is a visual masterpiece that I can't recommend enough. Headed by Leiji Matsumoto, an absolute visionary in the world of classic anime and one of my favorite artists in terms of his pure drawing style. I love a lot of his work, even as far back as Captain Harlock and the original Battleship Yamato, both from the '70s (though I'll always say that Interstella is my favorite project he was ever attached to). Considering he just passed away a little over a year ago, I'm a bit torn up over whether or not this AI driven re-release was really the best way to honor all of his hard work...

And then, if we're gonna talk about what you'll be listening to, you've got Daft Punk with Discovery, which is literally my favorite LP of all time(though I'd say in large part it's thanks to this film). I'll be honest, this post is about the visual film rather than the music, so I'm not going to be talking so much about them here. All of their songs are still there and in perfect condition, and considering these two broke up over 3 years ago I think it's an overall amazing feeling to see their music still being promoted like this (especially when it's Discovery).

It's really exciting for me to see Interstella getting a visual "update" such as this. The entire film is crafted to be a very "flow-based" experience unlike what you'd see in traditional anime/cinema. There's not a single word of spoken dialogue, and things are kept at a very brisk pace with high frame rates and detailed compositions. Not to mention the fact that the entire film is a well thought-out commentary on the music industry's hidden faults: exploitation of talent and destruction of creativity. It's a message that's unfortunately proved itself to be a timeless one, something I think we all need to refresh ourselves on from time to time. Reasons like these are why I'm really glad that this re-release even happened at all, because I think it's a wonderful thing to celebrate this type of creative and visual storytelling.

The debate I've been having with myself, though, comes from what I had mentioned before: generative AI. If you know the full story, they it might make more sense why the people who restored this thing chose to do it this way (well, besides the obvious $$$). Film restoration is a long and laborious process, but it becomes impossible to undertake unless you have the actual original film reel to work with. Toei Animation, the studio who produced the film, had scrapped the old master for the project, so there was literally no physical strip to be cleaned and re-scanned for this modern re-release. The best these new producers could do was to find a recording of the film, use it themselves, and pump that through an generative AI program. This type of approach doesn't make me feel like it was something they wanted to do, but rather saw this new technology as a means to bring easy profits, definitely a very artificial and soulless approach to promote and sell something that honestly didn't need to be remastered in the first place, but I'll talk about that later.

I should make it clear after saying all that, my opinions are very much rooted in all of these statements I'm making. I think it would be unfair for me to claim that I know all the sides of this story, but there are just those one or two key decisions made here that makes it hard for me to keep quiet. Daft Punk doesn't deserve any slack for doing something like this, they've been broken up for years and have already won me over time and time again through their music. And again, I think it's a wonderful revelation to be able to see this film shine again in theaters (even if it was only for one day). If any of you have pieces to this puzzle that might contribute to this rhetoric I'm winding here, definitely let me know by leaving a comment or messaging me. I'd love to learn more!

Because I wanna stay focused on the film itself, I'd actually like to transition to some of the more positive things I took away from all of this. I'll start with this: one thing I'm VERY glad to have noticed is that the remaster doesn't seem to be using AI to "insert frames." A common thing to see with a lot of these generative projects is a desire to have everything running at an unnatural 60 frames per second. The problem with this is that it forces these AI programs to try and fill in the blanks on their own, producing frames that were never actually made in the original animation sequence. This always end up resulting in movement that I think feels far too fluid to be compelling.

Unlike a lot of anime, and animation in general, Interstella already has quite a surprising amount of motion. I think it was likely done to try and tell as much story as possible, but there are so many sequences where I'm left surprised at just how many frames are packed into a single second of animation, lots of really quick camera panning too (High Life is a great example of this imo).

I think this whole idea of inserting frames to make things run at 60 fps is a very naive outlook on what animation is meant to offer. Letting your mind fill in the blanks is what animation is all about, and that's why elements such as breaking movement into ones and twos are some of the most powerful tools in an animator's arsenal. (This is a personal opinion I'd like to tack on, but I also think that seeing the "grainy-ness" which comes with older productions like this can make for a much more whimsical experience. It adds this dreamy, ethereal personality to certain key moments that's difficult to put into words, and it makes the overall watching experience feel much more memorable if you ask me). It makes me very happy to see that restraint from whatever team was in charge of putting this together, because Interstella is still a masterpiece in animation, even over 20 years later.

I really want to recommend that you watch this thing for yourself if you get the chance. Just get cozy, grab a good pair of headphones, turn the lights off, and take the time to appreciate this art in it's original form. The entire film is on Youtube and can be found very easily under a number of playlists, mainly because each single in Daft Punk's Discovery corresponds to a different part of the film. It still feels wild that there was this much I wanted to say about an event that's already come and gone, but I think I decided to take this leap to put some important food for thought out there, as well as to help you learn a little bit about myself. Animation has always called to me, and I've never found myself drawn to these modern-day trends that try to focus on building new spectacle from old works. Part of the fun with animation in watching it is thinking about the artists behind the screen, thinking about everything they were able to paint and produce using all of their effort. Whether it be art in a visual sense of the musical arts, as this film is built around, I hope you might give this film a watch if you haven't already. (And if you have, then why not go for a ride all over again!)

(When I rewatched it I could only think when Daft Punk made a cameo that their reactions are a self-fulfilling prophecy ,><)

[desultory-novice]

I just gotta ask... Does Dreamland have a licensed therapist? Because it sounds like a majority of the characters need one!

Dream Land is a really LOVELY place. The food is fresh and healthy for you. Even the fast food and the sweets, somehow! Lots of nature. Life is leisurely paced. The only jobs are the ones you want to work. There's plenty of activities for those who need some socializing and plenty of alone time for those who need their space.

There may not be a licensed therapist, but as long as you're open to your heart and the caring words of your friends, you can find your way out of the bad places on your own, in your own good time!

...In Dess's AUs, on the other hand...

Everything is bad. For everyone. I'm sorry. I feel very bad about it. :cough: ...That is, speaking frankly, as a creator, I trust that since everyone else does such a good job writing Kirby-verse fluff, no one will mind too bad if I have this little corner of the fandom where everyone can be sad and sometimes life does beat you down.

Now...

It probably doesn't come off this way, but sometimes the reason I hop back and forth to several different AUs is that in a few cases, characters DO get better! Marx and Magolor in the Branch AU? They're actually very happy right now running a theme park together for lost Souls! (Well, happier once Marx gets his body back.)

White-Haired Noir in the AU AU verse? He's...well, he's never going to be the same after the loss he suffered, but he is on the mend.

Adeleine, post-Apologies, is doing okay.

My personal Dark Meta Knight is a huge, incurable mess of issues but he gets to duel with his counterpart on occasion and loves it.

Some of my versions of the characters have REALLY awful, messed up traumatic backstories and yet they came out shockingly alright, re: Daroach. (And Elfilin too. Rats stay winning!)

I do enjoy fluffy things, a lot, but I don't write a whole lot of "pure fluff." Which arguably means, if you're not seeing me draw or write anything for someone, they're probably having a GREAT time! Take Taranza. Taranza is often characterized as the forever sad, "I miss my wife, Tails" character but I think he really is doing okay!

...Not great as could be. He lost his friend (and crush) of...some long period of time but he's healing. Dedede's probably got a whole routine set up for getting over possession trauma at this point!!

For my two favorite trauma puppy standbys, Marx and Magolor, I mostly write about them having lingering trauma side-effects because... it's just my favorite sub-genre to write in, I guess? Most of what I write are physical impossibilities anyway: curses, magic-induced ailments, body-snatching, etc. But I think they can be interesting metaphors for what I or others might feel in RL, so I like to write about them as a way to come to terms with those feelings.

-

[Warning: Things Get Personal Past This Point]

-

I almost went more indepth about this in an earlier ask this evening, but my favorite character from my last major fandom was a purely good character who, in the backstory, had his personality shifted 180 degrees by an evil god, driven to cuckoo levels of crazy, and possibly (at least, it was a fairly popular HC) trapped inside his own mind for a large chunk of time as he was made to commit atrocities that shattered every vow he ever made and everything he believed in.

(Mad Emperor Vector, my beloved... :sob: )

An anime backstory if I'd ever heard one! But one of the reasons he rose from character I loved to MY blorbo was because I was just understanding my autism at the time, and part of how I understood it for myself and how it affected me was through this character's traumas. You might think it was silly but it was shockingly useful!

Around when I started suffering from long-term insomnia is when I started to get really, really obsessed with the "Marx is a sleep-deprived Noddy" theory. When (not to get depressing but...) many of my dreams and aspirations started to fall apart, I became really attached to Magolor + the false promises of the Master Crown...

Noir's creation coincides fairly closely with my feeling massively overburdened with life's pressures and trying to support my loved ones, keeping a chipper exterior attitude despite home troubles while feeling like I couldn't tell ANYONE how much it hurt inside...

That's not to say that I only make these sweet characters have bad days because I'M having a bad day or that I'm "using" them like emotion sponges in place of just seeing a therapist.

It's more that, having experienced some of these things myself, I feel like I have a closer understanding of them. And I want to understand more. Or I want to explore avenues I didn't personally take.

...Or I want to celebrate my own life, shambles and all, by seeing how much worse it could be if only E~vil~ Magic had been involved...!!

-

TLDR, the actual Kirby characters probably don't need a therapist at all. Dess's versions are more likely to need one, but I'll probably write about the ones that haven't gone yet because that path is where I personally find the best and most meaningful stories...!

[innerslumber]

So...I've started drawing again. It's rough as all hell but the last few months while sick with pneumonia, I was stuck on my couch a lot and trying to sleep upright. Most nights it was unsuccessful and my brain was too scrambled to read or write, so I'd doodle.

During my teenage and college years, I wrote and drew a fair bit. Went to a ton of anime conventions and haunted the artists alley. But then school, work, family, LIFE just kept coming at me and then 20+ years went by with no creative outlet.

It didn't help that I've had people in my life that constantly discouraged it. That writing and drawing was frivolous and a waste of time. And as the years went by, the harder it was to think I could do it again. It was just easier to tell myself I got more important things to do.

But by some weird happenstance, I fell back into fandom a few years ago and picked up writing again. Now, I am the first person to say that my writing isn't like...earth shatteringly good or anything of that caliber. But that wasn't the point. I just wanted to create again and have fun with my new friends. I write at a glacial pace but at the end of the day, it feels nice to do it again when the inspiration strikes.

Art feels...different. It's incredibly intimidating lol. I know SO MANY INCREDIBLE artists and I've watched them apply themselves for years and I just...I don't know lol. The imposter syndrome is wicked hard. I could never call myself an artist, especially after such a long hiatus.

But a friend recently reminded me that art can literally be a doodle on a post-it note. I don't have to compare myself to others and undermine myself, too scared to even start. And the other day, another friend said I never have to post anything if I don't want to. As long as I'm happy and having fun, that's the whole point.

Creating anything, by word or art, can be so hard. So time consuming. But I'm going to keep trying at both. Right now I'm still figuring things out, especially because I'm trying to make art digitally and I've only done that a few times.

Life is still incredibly busy and hard...and I've been conditioned for years that to enjoy myself was being selfish. Having my abusive husband scream at me that I was a "bad mom and a bad wife" for having a writing hobby and that my online friends and I were "trash" for writing about "men fucking each other" was really demoralizing. I'd wait until when everyone was asleep to write on my phone in the dark. But at the end, I still ended up deleting and leaving behind so much because of his vitriol.

But that isn't my reality anymore. If I have time, I can write when I want to. I can draw when I want to. I don't have to look over my shoulder that I'll get caught doing something that isn't anything to be punished over.

And my art is all over the place but that's okay! I'm experimenting and trying new things. There isn't any high stakes. And I can allow myself to just enjoy it. Maybe I might even post it lol!

[foileadeux]

CURIOUS- What is your process when making your animatics? And what do you use your individual programs for most? (Ei: csp for art and moment / vegas for effects or somn)

Also, I recently got csp ex for animatic/animation stuff myself- You have any tips for how to make big projects alike yer animatics/tions ?

SO. umm. if im being good and professional i'll do the smart thing and do thumbnails for my animatics to outline the gist of what i want. but uhh if im being honest i only did that for lavender town of which you can watch the wip of here! (for some reason i also animated a little bit within these thumbnails which you shouldnt really do but whatever)

but for the rest of my animatics ive thumbnailed in my brain which is very bad and i advise against it. bc i can remember a few times in toba the tura, my heart still beats and mama where im just sitting there like. uhh. what next HAHA so its just good to draw out smthn beforehand or plan ahead even if its messy!!! my only saving grace is how fast i am at drawing so im able to make up for this LMAOO dont be like me for each of my animatics i make one Big csp file (and a backup) which stores all the frames for that animatic (its usually just titled "a" or smthn i am very uncreative) these bitches get huge. So many layers. theres around 600 layers for lavender town alone. if i were smarter id split these files up so it didnt take ages to load and save but alas i am not. But this is where i do my frame by frame animation basically, i just lower the opacity of a frame and draw over it (onion skinning is the term for this iirc), usually i draw key frames of movement and then just inbetween them so they look a little smoother (e.g: a head turning to the side, id draw the back and then the side profile, and then draw the inbetweens of that motion) , im fond of the choppy lower fps look so thats what i go for! i definitely do not set out for super ultra smooth animation or id be collapsed on the floor rn i think as for editing with sony vegas pro, i import all the frames from csp and use "track motion" and "pan/crop" to tween stuff! (like... make it go from left to right, move the camera around yknow) which is a huge crutch for me Especially in toba the tura, i did very little frame by frame animation for that one LMAOO (not shitting on tweening u can do some really fuckin fun shit with it, like that shot of pk stabbing the lance sentry in toba the tura) i do overall prefer the look of frame by frame but i use a hybrid of the two!! theyre both super cool, complicated and fun in their own ways tbh.

heres some extra stuff, the fucked up looking timeline of my mama animatic and a look at some of the raw frames (hair lego pieces)

funniest part of my Animation process is wanting the hair and body to be paced differently so i have to slot the hair in like its a fuckin lego piece on a different layer. this truly was the hell of the mama animatic. theres also just an entire layer dedicated to mouths for lip syncing. very funny anyways thats about it, i hope this has been enlightening!! if you have any like super specific specific questions feel free to dm me! i dont have too much experience animating using an art program's animation features specifically tho, so i can't speak to those! i compile and pace all the frames on a timeline in sony vegas pro basically so csp is just for drawing each frame out for me!

[lobotoboy]

Today I ascended from this mortal plane and remembered why I love movies and want to pursue filmmaking.

For context, I watched Barbie, and the Miraculous Ladybug movie today.

So, I saw Barbie with my mom, in a theater full of women. The first five minutes, I was sat there like "Did the internet lie to me again?" cause I was genuinely confused about what the hell was happening onscreen. But once I managed to get into the groove of things, I really enjoyed myself. I didn't play with Barbies growing up, and it was still enjoyable to me. It was so campy and funny(thank you Kate McKinnon and Michael Cera for being a big source of that), but it had some pretty deep themes, such as criticism against both a patriarchy and a matriarchy, the struggles of women in society, existentialism, and mother-daughter relationships. Definitely a movie for the girlies, but I think it's enjoyable for everyone.

I think the music was great. My mom hates musicals, despises them with her whole heart, but she told me after the movie that she loved I'm Just Ken. And yeah, it was so much. My favorite bit was the fast paced "Can you feel the Kenergy" moments. I've been playing Identity V, and I use that to hype me up for matches. It gives 80s power ballad, and it's super fun to listen to over and over again. Ryan Gosling did a very good job with it. I can see I'm Just Ken and Peaces battling it out for Best Original Song. Push was great as well, despite being underused in the movie, the full version(which is a cover of an existing song) is very interesting, and lyrically fits the movie so well.

I'm not typically a fan of bright colors in movies, catch me watching The Batman any day, but Barbie is the exception, as it just made certain scenes feel so much more important. Mattel offices being cold and gray, really sold that corporate vibes, and the soft white at the ending with Ruth definitely made it feel like Barbie was reaching a life-changing conclusion. It's a wonderful use of color.

Now the themes are the big draw of the movie. Regarding the patriarchy, matriarchy, and daily struggles of women, those themes are definitely hard to miss, but they do so much good with them. Showing Ken being essentially brainwashed by the idea of the patriarchy is interesting, and definitely rings home for anyone who grew up with boys as friends. I've seen a few guy friends of mine turn from sweet guys, into womanizers as they grew older. And it also shows that a matriarchy isn't good either, by showing how the Kens feel less than in BarbieLand. The Ken's situation is a muted version of women's situations in the real world. The Kens aren't sexualized or hated, but they're ignored. In the real world, both in the movie and real life, women have it worse than the Kens, and feel in a similar position. Makes it easy to enjoy both perspectives. Barbie focusing on thoughts of death and change as a whole hits with me on a personal level, as I have a lot of issues with existentialism, and any movie with death as a major theme usually brings me close to tears(such as Puss in Boots 2, curse you good movies). Seeing Barbie meet her creator in Ruth was so sweet, and was incredibly heartwarming.

Special mention to the line "We mother stand still so our daughters can look back to see how far they've come". It made me want to give my mom the biggest hug, and I'm in no way a hugger.

Then I went home, and watched the Miraculous Ladybug movie because I had nothing else to do. I've been with the show since 2020, which isn't as long as other fans, but the show still sticks in my brain the same. I knew the animation was going to be great, and that the art direction would make up for any shortcomings in the story. And while yes, the plot was rushed (duh, like, how many years has it taken to get to this point in the show? its gonna feel rushed) but the art was absolutely stunning. My favorite moment was from Hawkmoth's villain song, Chaos Will Reign(available on Spotify) when they pulled out the Disney Villain lime green color. I love that color, and seeing Hawkmoth with it made me ascend. I really love the ending battle as well, the use of colors, lightning effects, butterfly textures, was just perfect. The animation was also really smooth, down to the small details of hair movements, such as when Nino and Alya are on the roller coaster, or when Chat Noir's hair gets wet.

The music was probably my least favorite part, just because I think Cristina Vee could've slayed it, and that the songs sounded kind of generic. But Oh My God, Chaos Will Reign had me bopping and replaying it. In fact, I'm listening to Chaos Will Reign and I'm Just Ken while writing this. It definitely gave me old Disney villain song vibes, mixed with the slightest hint of a Danny Elfman soundtrack. It just sounded so evil, but in a way that I can get behind. Keith Silverstein can actually sing, and that note at the end was wonderful. The vibrato gave me life. I was lowkey hoping Nooroo would stop talking so I could hear more. The chanting was awesome, and gave Friends on the Other Side vibes. I was (and still am) a big fan of villain songs, and this is a throwback to my theater kid days when I exclusively played villains and enjoyed it. Definitely overthrew the Hawkmoth Rap as my favorite Miraculous Ladybug song, but the Hawkmoth Rap is like, second place still. The only crime this song had was being too short. Release the ten hour cut.

Finally, aside from the glory that is Chaos Will Reign, I want to say that the two identity reveal scenes were amazing. I'll start off with Adrien and Marinette's, just because I care about that one the least. I think it was a creative way to go about it, with the masquerade masks. Fanfiction wins again. But I have so much to squeal about when it comes to the Adrien and Gabriel reveal. This version of Gabriel was definitely way more sympathetic than his show counterpart, despite committing atrocious acts. I actually wanted this Gabriel to get some redemption, and I think that bit of forgiveness from Adrien is just that. Let them have a good bond, PLEASE! The whole battle scene was just amazing, the fact that Hawkmoth was willing to do literally anything, and very nearly came close to winning. I knew he wasn't going to win, it's a kid's movie, but I was still on the edge of my seat and biting my nails.

I need both of these movies injected into my bloodstream ASAP.

Do I recommend them? Depends on your preferences. For Barbie, I can see why people wouldn't like it, it's campy(in a fun way), and it's anti-patriarchy and anti-matriarchy, which would make the misogynists and misandrists mad. But I think if you're open to a goofy time that will make you appreciate the women in your life, then give it a watch. It's definitely worth it.

For Miraculous Ladybug, it's a kid's movie, based on a show with a big following spanning years. I think it's something to watch if you're a fan, former or current, of the show. If you're just starting to watch Miraculous, it'll be a better watch if you sit through the show. But, it's a good movie, and still enjoyable for novice Miraculers.

I'm definitely watching these over and over again.