#i might as well just learn blender at this point

[uncreative-cryptid]

i have a significant post regarding valerian's fashion with reference pics i've collected including some details regarding the uh, elemental buildup on his arms, but i cANT FOCUS FOR THE LIFE OF ME

[crazylittlejester]

the headcanon that Legend is royalty will never not be funny to me, I love it so much /gen

Like he has the vibe of an art kid, a hot topic employee, a twitch streamer, and a cottage core bisexual all put in a blender /pos, and the funniest part about all of that is that you CAN see him as royalty. Absolutely!! It is not at all hard to picture him as a prince despite the fact that his whole vibe kinda screams “guy who comes off as a bit edgy and closed off” and people who don’t know him well at all might assume he’s snappy or overly sarcastic to the point of being rude. (Which is not the case at all, he’s definitely one of the nicest members of the whole damn chain. Absolute sweetheart and I’ll die on this hill)

The others would be shocked to learn he was royalty, sure, but I feel like they’d be more surprised that Legend just didn’t lore drop that rather than the fact they find it impossible to see him as a prince. I’m just obsessed with the idea that he could absolutely whip around at a moments notice, change his aesthetic and demeanor to be slightly more court appropriate while still being very much him, and oh yep there he is, the prince of hyrule

i need to write more Legend fics

[ultimate-marysue]

The Batfam and cooking

Alfred: we have so much canon info about this one. He takes pride in meeting the demands of his grandkids, but the kids sometimes just pretend to like it for his peace of mind.

Bruce: No. And I don't mean in the meme way. He's more than capable of sustaining himself and following instructions. He also chooses to subsist on those "nutritional milkshakes". Like to him is not a matter of learning how to cook, he's a chemist measuring his exact nutritional needs in a cup. It's disgusting and he shouldn't be allowed near the blender.

Barbara Gordon: not the best, not the worst. She has cooked, she will cook again. She's also not trying to make anything too fancy. She prefers take out mainly because she has (and will again in the future) burnt her food to a crisp because she got distracted with oracle stuff. A quick check while the potatoes are in the oven is a very dangerous thing.

Dick Grayson: he would love to be that guy that takes Instagramable pictures of his food. Sometimes he manages to do just that, but that's not sustainable for him. He has a few fancy recipes he likes to bring out to impress people or to feel like a responsible adult. Most of the time he's sauteing random vegetables with some rice and chicken and calling it a day. It's good, healthy and filling but is not much in the great scheme of things. I feel like he'd make really good salads too for some reason.

Cassandra Cain: she's not very good at being people. Cooking is part of that, a survival skill and not much more. She really appreciates nice food but doesn't see the point in learning herself when her time is better spent elsewhere. I can see her breaking into the other's houses to join them for dinner because she forgot to make her own.

Jason Todd: this man cooks. I don't care if the whole "Alfred's favorite" thing is a bit fanon, it's fun fanon. I think that since he is aware of how they lie to Alfred sometimes, he'd be an even better cook. He's the kind of guy to make any recipe work first try, even if he keeps workshopping it until it's perfect. He's also very neat and cleans after himself. Cooking helps him wind down after a hard night. If he messes up though he might cry.

Stephanie Brown: she took the whole "cooking is like science" and decided to be a mad scientist. Her cooking works for her because she has crazy tastes. Like she'd make a salami and Nutella sandwich and consider it her Magnum opus. She loves baking too just so she can fuck around and find out. Steph usually leaves the mess there until she needs the space to cook again. Not because she's dirty it's just that she gets so caught up in trying the final product she forgets about it. She stresses the fuck out of Jason.

Tim Drake: he's more of an utilitarian, closer to Cass. He learned a few simple recipes when he was a kid and that's all he needs. Through the years he's had to add a couple more to make it more balanced and fit his needs (first with the increase of physical activity and then the asplenia). He has a very healthy but very limited diet. He refuses to add anything else because there's no need. He already knows how to cook the things he needs and likes well, thank u very much.

Duke Thomas: this man can cook. It takes him a while to get into it, but he has great instinct for it. He's more of a "vibes only" kind of cook, which makes him an awful baker but Alfred has the sweets covered anyways. Part of his process includes picking the spices from the back of the rack that Alfred pretends don't exist. He's creative but not in as much of a messy way as Steph. And unlike her, he does have functioning taste buds so sometimes he ends up a victim of his own hubris. Most times it works out for him.

Damian Wayne Al Gul: he helps his siblings whenever he mooches food from them (because Alfred is the only one that tolerates idle hands in the kitchen). He loves Jason's cooking but he has more fun with Duke and Steph. They allow his input and suggestions which makes him feel like he's contributing. He prefers Duke though, because his success rate is higher.

[paluding]

Updating... The Tattooer (ver. 3.4)!

Finally! Took me a while, huh. This is the updated version of the Tattooer project. It skips some steps, making the workflow much, much faster! Huge thanks to @applewatersugar for his suggestion on how to bake textures while preserving the transparency. This is kind of a repost of the original Tattooer post, but it actually has some new stuff and a few changes here and there, so please take a look if you want to learn how to use this new version.

This is a series of Blender template files already set up to quickly bake textures from The Sims 4 to The Sims 2. The different Blender files will allow you to: -Bake body textures from TS4 to TS2 (Female) -Bake body textures from TS4 to TS2 (Male) -Bake body textures from TS4 (Female) to TS2 (Male) -Bake body textures from TS2 (Female) to TS2 (Male) [Bonus!] -New! Bake face textures from TS4 to TS2 (Unisex) [Bonus!] -Bake head textures from TS4 to TS2 (Face + Scalp) (Unisex) [Still experimental] Check the file names to see which one is which, and the resolution of the baked texture it will give. Everything you see in the render above was 100% converted using those Blender files.

Download here! SFS / GD

Update: Version 3.4.1 (27/08/2023) Fixed some issues on the shoulders for the AF-body-4t2-1024 and AF-body-4t2-2048 templates. Now the top straps on most converted underwear/swimwear should look right.

Update: Same version (13/12/2023) As requested, added a new spanish version of the included pdf guide!

These templates were made mainly to bake and convert tattoos, but there’s more you can do with them if you get creative. I have to say, these are NOT perfect. Results may vary depending on what you are trying to convert, so! With that in mind, this is all the stuff you will be able to convert almost seamlessly from TS4 to TS2: -Tattoos. -Other body details such as body hair, scars, freckles, supernatural/occult details… -Body painted underwear and swimwear, as well as some other clothing that’s mostly painted on the body. -Socks, stockings and maybe leggings. -Even skintones! In some areas they will look weird, so I recommend editing and blending them with other existing TS2 skins. -Makeup, eyebrows and beards. In the old version this was just a proof of concept, but now I’ve added a new Face file template which gives some pretty decent results! -Hair scalps. Very useful when converting some hairs! Although keep in mind part of that texture might also need to be baked on the face mesh, you know, that hairline makeup stuff.

Got your attention? Nice! Editing some of the textures from TS4 to match the UV mapping in TS2 using a 2D editing program can be incredibly hard. That’s where texture baking in Blender comes to the rescue!

You will need to download Blender, at least version 3.4, but you could always use a newer version. It is only incompatible with versions older than 3.4. -You can download Blender for free here. -You will also need Sims 4 Studio to extract the original Sims 4 CC textures you want. In the first version of these Blender files, there was a necessary step using Photoshop, but that’s no longer needed. However, there’s still a tiny extra step which requires resizing the newly baked texture on some of the high resolution templates, so you might need a 2D editing program like Photoshop. More on that later.

So, before we begin, let’s clear out some questions you might have. What the heck is this texture baking thing and what does it do? Well, let’s imagine you have a video projector and point an image into a blank wall. Then you pick up some brushes and start painting and copying that projected image in that wall. Texture baking is kinda like that when it comes to 3D models. You align two models and match them as closely as you can in shape and form, and once you adjust some parameters and values, Blender does the rest for you: it will give you a new texture for a new model with a different UV map. These files I’m sharing have everything already set up, so it’s a matter of plopping in that Sims 4 texture and you will get that new texture for TS2 in just a few clicks.

This tutorial assumes you know literally nothing about how to use Blender, so if you feel uncomfortable with it, worry no more! This will guide you with pictures showing where you need to click and explaining what is happening. For Sims 4 Studio and Photoshop the process might be a bit less detailed, but still this should be pretty beginner friendly. For this tutorial, I will use some tattoos as an example (properly credited at the end of the post). Alright, enough with the rambling. Let’s get started!

·EXTRACTING TEXTURES IN SIMS 4 STUDIO: First things first, you will need to extract as pngs all the textures you want to convert from TS4 using Sims 4 Studio. It should be pretty straightforward. Just open the packages and export the Diffuse textures. Keep them organized in a folder for easy access.

·BAKING THE TEXTURES IN BLENDER: PRELIMINARY STEP 1: CONFIGURING BLENDER’S GRAPHICS SETTINGS: Open your preferred Blender file depending on what you’re going to bake and the desired resolution (in this example I’m going to use the AF-body-4t2-1024 file). Before we start messing around in Blender, there’s one thing you should set up. It is a onetime step, and once it’s done, you won’t need to do it again. So, does your computer have a dedicated graphics card? If you don’t know or you’re not sure, just skip to the next step. Configuring Blender so it uses your graphics card instead of your CPU will make the baking render much faster, so it is recommended you set it up correctly. If your computer has a dedicated graphics card, click File (1) > Preferences (2) > and on the window that pops up click System (3) > and select CUDA and make sure your graphics card is there and tick it (4). I have an Nvidia Graphics card but your case may vary. Once you’re done, click on the tiny button on the bottom left corner and Save Preferences (5).

PRELIMINARY STEP 2: CHOOSING THE RENDERING DEVICE: Click on the tiny camera button on the right, called Render Properties (1), and on Device (2) select GPU Compute if it’s not already selected. If you’re not sure if you have a graphics card or not, just select CPU. Then select the Material Properties tab (3) and Save your changes, either by pressing Ctrl + S, or clicking File (4) > Save (5). You might need to do this second step with the other Blender files, but once you have it done and saved, you won’t need to do this again. Okay, time to get into the good stuff!

·STEP 1: LOADING YOUR TS4 BASE TEXTURE: In the Material Properties tab, click the folder icon that says Open (1) and on the window that pops up, navigate through your folders and select your first texture. To navigate easily, the 3 buttons on the top right (2) are for the display mode. They will show your files in list mode, vertical and horizontal, and the one on the right will display the file thumbnails, pretty useful if you want to easily preview your textures here. The icons on the left side (3) will let you go one folder back and forward, go to the parent directory, and refresh the folder in case you just dropped something new in there. Double click on the image you need and that will load the texture into the Sims 4 body model, named “ts4 body”.

·STEP 2: SETTING UP YOUR SELECTION AND BAKING THE TEXTURE: On the top right of the screen, you will see the names of the 2 models in the scene. Hold the Ctrl key in your keyboard and left click on the “ts2 body” model (1). If you did it correctly, you should see “ts2 body” in a yellowish orange color, and right down below, “ts4 body” should look more like a red orange. If not, try again by clicking first on ts4 body, and then while holding Ctrl click again on ts2 body. Then switch to the Render Properties tab by clicking the tiny camera icon (2) and click Bake (3). Depending on your screen resolution, you might need to scroll down a bit with your mouse to see the Bake button. Wait a few seconds for it to finish. You will see the progress percentage down on the bottom of your screen. Don’t panic if you notice your computer fans start ramping up, that’s completely normal! As I said in the beginning, using your GPU will bake the textures much faster than the CPU.

·STEP 3: SAVING YOUR NEW TS2 TEXTURE: Once it’s finished, switch to the UV Editing Mode by clicking “UV Editing” on the top of your screen. And there it is: your new texture! You might have to scroll up your mouse wheel a bit to zoom in and see it in all its glory on the left side of the screen. We’re still not done yet though. You need to save it to yet another new folder (always try to keep your stuff organized!).

You can save it by pressing Shift + Alt + S, or clicking on Image* (1) and then Save As… (2). That will pop a window where you’ll need to navigate again and save it somewhere. Give it a proper name (3) and hit Enter to save it… well, Enter doesn’t always work for me for some reason, so if that happens just click Save As Image (4). And that’s it! You’ve successfully converted your baked texture. Congrats!

·STEP 4: GOING BACK TO STEP 1: Alright! If you’re done with your textures, you can close Blender without saving and call it a day. But let’s say you want to keep baking other swatches. In order to go back to step 1 and start the process once again, click Layout (1), go back to the Material Properties tab (2), select ���ts4 body” (3) and click on the folder icon (4) to open and load your next swatch.

Then it’s just a matter of repeating the process from step 2. When you’re ready to move on, close Blender without saving. If you see a small check telling you it will save some images, make sure you uncheck it, so you will be able to use it again in the future from the starting point with no issues. I don’t think it really matters if you accidentally save your progress in these files, but I like to keep it clean and fresh so I can do the process where I left it from the beginning next time I open it. And in case you mess up and save somewhere, you can always just delete the .blend file and download the template files again.

In case you’d like a video tutorial on how to use these files, the amazing @platinumaspiration recorded this fantastic video showcasing the process! You can watch it here.

One final note: some of the baking .blend files save the textures with a resolution of 2048x2048 pixels, as clearly stated at the end of their file name. That’s way too overkill, because TS2 only properly supports up to 1024x1024 for most of its textures and you should always resize your final product to that max resolution (or lower if needed). I just made those 2048 versions because there might be some really tiny and slim details on some tattoos that might look a little too blurry when baked into a 1024 resolution texture, so for those cases use that if you want and then resize them using your 2D editing software of choice. In Photoshop, in the Resample mode of the Image Size menu, there are a few options to choose. For the fine details, I like the Nearest Neighbor (hard edges) option, which, even if it looks a bit pixelated, it still preserves most of the texture and quality.

For anything else, I would just directly bake them using the 1024 versions in Blender (512 for the face and scalp).

And for the folks who feel comfortable playing around in Blender, this is just the beginning! Texture baking opens a LOT of possibilities, so feel free to move stuff around and edit the models to your liking! If you notice the baked textures look warped or stretched somewhere, or don’t like where some textures are placed in the S2 body, poke around that area moving stuff and then give it another try. The main objective of the baking process is keeping both overlapping models as close in shape as possible. You may also edit and save new copies of the templates, or make new ones from scratch using mine as a reference (keep a close look on those Baking settings and values, I think they work pretty well) and share them if you want to. Go ham, do whatever you want with them! I still have plans on making templates to convert body textures from Sims 3 to Sims 2, but for now it’s not on my priorities, so we’ll see when that happens.

Whew! Hope none of this was too confusing. Need help or have any issues with these? Please ask/message me here and I’ll be glad to help when I’m able to!

Credits for the CC used in the render demonstration: -Skin by Sims3Melancholic. -Eyes by Northern Siberia Winds. -Eyebrows by PeachyFaerie. -Tattoos by xtc. -Top by SerenityCC. And the Tattoo I used for the tutorial can be found here, by ValhallanSim.

Last but not least, a huge thanks to all the people who somehow contributed to make this project and update possible, either by doing initial testing, finding issues to fix, or teaching me new Blender tricks to make the workflow way faster and easier. So thanks again to @elvisgrace @moyokeansimblr and @applewatersugar on Tumblr! <3

And thank you for reading! Hope you have fun playing with this (not so) new toy hehe.

[starfieldcanvas]

You seem like the appropriate person to ask, so might as well. How do I read Scum Villain's Self Saving System? I'm an english only reader that's not very familiar with the danmei ecosystem.

It's been published in English! Big bookstores like Barnes & Noble are carrying Seven Seas danmei these days. My local indie carries them as well. And of course you can buy them on Bookshop or your preferred online retailer. There are four volumes in the English printing, which comprise the original chapters, a lot of illustrations, some translator notes on the basics of cultivation novels and Chinese forms of address, and the "extras", bonus chapters that are a fairly common addition to books that were originally published as pay-per-chapter webnovels.

My local library system has at least one copy of every volume. I do live in a large city (with a large Asian population to boot), but I don't know how relevant that is. The series was an NYT bestseller, so it's totally plausible that even a medium-size county system would have them too. And if you're very patient, you can always request the series be added to your local library catalog.

But the obvious easy answer is that the whole thing is (shh!) still online. 'Lily's BC translation' made it through the whole thing, and there are other slightly smoother fan translations that you can start off with before switching translations when you run out of chapters.

The issue with reading it online is that you're going to run into some odd mixes of preservation vs translation vs localization ('Shidi' sounds much nicer than 'Junior Apprentice-Brother', imo. but why is it always Regret of Chunshan and never Regret of Spring Mountain?) and some transplanted Mandarin dialogue formatting (often it's just [Charactername, "Dialogue"] with no dialogue tag at all) that will take a little getting used to. The translator notes are a lot more colorful, though!

Scum Villain is a fun trip to read knowing pretty much nothing going into it. It's a convergence (and parody) of four different genres: stallion novel, danmei, isekai/transmigration, and cultivation/xianxia. Stop here if you want to go in genre-blind!

Here are my random thoughts about what might be nice for new readers to know IF they don't feel like dropping themselves in the deep end and learning by osmosis:

Stallion novels:

This is the type of webnovel being parodied by Scum Villain's book-within-a-book Proud Immortal Demon Way. Kinda like a harem anime, but more focused on providing a satisfying male power fantasy. Though you can definitely get the gist of it just from the exposition in Scum Villain, there were a few misconceptions I walked away with at the end of the book. This rundown on AO3, Stallion Novels: A Guide, is a brief introduction to the genre and how it differs from or overlaps with other genres of Chinese webnovel.

Danmei:

The popular danmei that have made it the furthest into Western circulation don't necessarily give a representative sampling of common-denominator danmei tropes, precisely because the popular stuff is usually the memorable standouts rather than the generic pulp. So just keep in mind that the common gong (seme) archetype is the dangerous, demanding, quasi-rapist huge-dicked dom who magically makes dry pounding feel insanely pleasurable, and the shou (uke) archetype is the delicate virginal younger man who says no but means yes and cries prettily during sex. These traits WILL be thrown in a blender and parodied, lovingly.

Isekai/transmigration:

This is the trope where you die in real life and wake up in a fantasy world (typical isekai) or in an explicitly fictional setting you recognize from your real-world media consumption (fairly typical transmigration.) Especially in the Chinese webnovel side of the genre, there's often a lot of emphasis on 'leveling up', point farming, and getting 'achievements' like in a video game. Access to this game system typically gives the player advantages over the natural inhabitants of the new world. If there isn't a game system, the player usually still has some kind of magical specialness conferred by being from 'the real world', such as knowledge of how the plot will go. These things will, again, be parodied all to hell.

Cultivation/xianxia:

It's apparently pretty common for westerners ignorant of Daoism and new to xianxia ("immortal heroes") stories to assume cultivation stuff is unique to whatever cultivation-setting book they happened to pick up first. If you had never heard of vampires and then you watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you'd be forgiven for initially assuming that the show invented vampires, but you'd misunderstand its commentary on existing vampire lore, and it would probably be confusing how much vampire stuff it inexplicably expected you to already know. With that in mind, you can see why it might be helpful to have a vague awareness of what "cultivation" refers to in xianxia novels.

Here's my stab at it: "cultivation" means something like "increasing one's spiritual energy reserves and improving one's control over spiritual energy (qi) through meditation, study, and physical discipline, in order to develop a powerful core of spiritual energy that can heal wounds, enable powerful martial techniques, slow visible aging or stop aging entirely, and allow a person to forgo food and sleep indefinitely as they transcend the limitations of their physical body and become immortal, maybe even ascending to godhood."

Usually cultivators practice cultivation in cultivation sects - these sects are typically depicted as a cross between a temple, a boot camp, a university campus, and a small independent political entity

Everyone in the same sect ("martial family") refers to each other using sect-flavored family terms. Two people of the same generation are sect-siblings and will use sibling suffixes with the "shi-" prefix to indicate it's a sect relationship. Your sect mentor is your shizun/shifu ("honored teacher-mentor-master"/"teacher-mentor-master"). Someone in your mentor's generation is your sect-uncle or sect-aunt; they'll refer to you as their sect-niece or sect-nephew.

Similar to how Chinese family name suffixes differ by age order, sect-family suffixes differ depending on seniority (i.e. when your master took you as a disciple, relative to the other disciples.) But different novels play with these seniority rules differently and may assign suffixes by age alone or by some other ranking system.

Westerners occasionally get freaked out when people in the same sect generation fall in love because the characters are sect siblings. But there's no incest implied at all—it's nothing more than two people being in the same boarding school or church congregation.

If a cultivator is not in a sect, they're called a rogue cultivator ; this confers less stability and political prestige, but despite the name, rogue cultivators are not outlaws or apostates. It just means "independent."

Cultivators will often accept requests from civilians to deal with marauding monsters and mysterious ghost-related deaths. How much money they expect for their services is generally tied to how righteous they are.

Depending on their chosen cultivation path, they may be more martial or less martial. Cultivators of the sword path use spiritual swords that can (1) work like a regular sword but better, (2) project power at range in a glowing beam called a sword glare, or (3) be directed remotely in battle using hand seals (adopted into Daoism from Buddhism, known elsewhere as mudras) or wordless telepathy. Some cultivators of the sword path will nevertheless have non-sword spiritual weapons or favor other qi-powered martial techniques.

Cultivators make use of talismans (spells written in red cinnabar ink on strips of paper and then activated, often used like throwable magic stickers) and arrays (more powerful, longer-lasting spells painted or carved into locations or objects.)

Various stages of core formation may be referenced to indicate power levels. Reaching a new stage may involve some kind of tribulation, health risk, or grueling purification process (e.g. expelling all your body's impurities out through your pores as black goo.)

Spiritual energy is channelled through pathways in your body called spirit veins to key points called meridians. Different people may be said to have different types of spirit veins typed according to the five elements. A trained cultivator can examine someone's meridians to check their spiritual health or cultivation aptitude.

Strain on your psyche or your spiritual energy can lead to what's called a qi deviation, where the spiritual energy circulating through you gets fucked up and you have the spiritual equivalent of a stroke. Sufferers may bleed from all their face holes, lash out mindlessly at anyone who comes near them, hallucinate, straight-up die, or endure wacky shenanigans like temporarily reverting to childhood.

Cultivators may use external alchemy to create power-boosting pills in small alchemical cauldrons.

Dual cultivation is exchanging energy through sex in order to aid in spiritual regulation or to mutually increase power levels. It can be done in a one-sided way to steal spiritual energy, which is known as making a human cauldron. In the real religious practice on which the fantasy version is based, dual cultivation relies on the exchange of men's yang and women's yin, but somehow in danmei xianxia the m/m couples seem to manage it just fine...

Different Chinese novels and shows do different variations on cultivation (the same way Western shows do variations on vampires/angels/demons/etc) but they're all ultimately drawing on the same Daoist tradition of internal alchemy (also called The Way of the Golden Elixir) with bits of Buddhism and Chinese folk religion mixed in. (Chinese folk religion is usually where the monster/ghost/demon stuff comes from.)

Other stuff:

Scum Villain is peppered with a bunch of trope references that will be largely unfamiliar to most western readers, like "white lotus"/"black lotus", "blackened", "black belly", and so on. It also borrows a few Japanese archetype references here and there. "Cannon fodder" is fairly self-explanatory at least.

It's fun to look these up, but it's equally fun to just figure them out from context.

Hope this helps! Enjoy your reading!

[ceroro]

Hi!!! I wanted to ask if there were any tutorials you might recommend for Godot and making a 2.5 type game! I think its so cool that you are working on your game and I wanna get better at it!!! I have done some small stuff in godot but i always get to feeling a little lost at a certain point. No worries if you don't have time to answer but I appreciate u ���

I didn't come from nothing, so I don't know how much help I can offer --(I have experience in unity, and made 3 prototype things in gamemaker) The interface shares a lot of similarities with unity, so I don't know if theres a one-size-fits-all tutorial specifically for godot that would be good... My method of learning is simply:

look up tutorial on what I want to happen (3d smooth movement, transitioning between rooms, state machines, dialogue, etc)

Implement it in the game

figure out what I did wrong, reference the documentation and other videos, when it inevitably goes wrong

learn from my mistakes

Mix and match from other tutorials

Try to avoid the pitfall of "optimal" or "best practices" until you know a bit more about what you want to do!

Just start working on something and getting something moving!

If you never stop actively implementing stuff in your game, you'll definitely learn as you run into mistakes, and improve and get better! Coding is a must, and learning all programs that work with it as well ( blender, aseprite, music making tools, etc...)

quick tips: always check the inspector for what you need and learn what it can do! Don't be afraid to create as many nodes as you need! Try messing around with everything! A lot of it is just a big puzzle that has many solutions!

[crackedpumpkin]

Got tagged in this by the lovely @urfavarab , but I'm starting a new one since the previous got super full ahahah

Tag 10 or more people you'd like to know better

Relationship Status: Single, but might fyck around and find a fwb at this point ngl. I'm picky though so I'll fill the void by deepening the endless pit of love I have for my stupid silly fics about the stupid silly characters I am in love with. (AKA I'm kinda highkey shallow)

Favourite Color: Black, because it's slimming and I'm a little insecure about my curves lololol. I'm currently trying to incorporate more color into my wardrobe though, but it's mainly expanding with earthy tones like brown and green :>

Song stuck in my head: Blender by 5SOS, because of the funky ass bass. Stupid bass. I'm currently saving up to buy an electric guitar because I wanna learn it and go busking.

So in terms of that, another song that's stuck in my head is 'That Band' from the anime Bocchi the Rock, specifically the riff in the beginning that's in the show. It's so sick I puked internally when I watched it.

Favourite Food: Oooo this is a toughie. I don't think I have anything I like in particular, just depends on the cravings I have that day. But I do go for literally anything spicy. You bring a bowl of chilli wontons and it's on sight /hj (i would kill for dumplings/wontons)

Last song played: Well shit. Here's the thing. I have a tendency to listen to a song on repeat for fucking days, and I'm listening to Finesse by Bruno Mars because of this animation I found on Instagram. It's genuinely so sick and now the song's stuck in my head and will be for the next few days :)

Artist mentioned: rikachewey on Instagram, you guys should go drop them a follow!

Dream Trip: Well it's actually coming up for me in June! I'll be travelling to South Korea for my Graduation Trip with 2 of my closest friends I've known for over 4 years. I'm so excited for it ahahah, I'll be flying off on 11th and coming back on the 22nd :> who knows, maybe my trip will churn the creative juices and I can milk my brain :D

Last thing I googled:

....................... 👀 anyway,

No pressure-tags~

@buthowboutno-spamming @theblindhag @zprites @knightish-knight @turtle-babe83 @s-s-ironnie

[arthurdrakoni]

Residents of Proserpina Park is a mythology audio drama. It is currently funding season 4 and 5 on Indiegogo. I’m call on all of you to help however you can.

Hello everyone. I’ve got another call to action for all of you. As you might, or might not know, @proserpinapark is currently funding not one, but two new seasons coming out later this year. I’m calling on all of you to do your part to help out.

So, some of you might be wondering what is Residents of Proserpina Park. Why, it is a monster of the week, anime-inspired audio drama. Think like Percy Jackson meets Pokémon meets Scooby-Doo, with a dash of Jackie Chan Adventures thrown in. Throw all that good stuff into the blender, and you’ve got an excellent audio drama.

Residents of Proserpina Park follows a young woman named Alina who discovers a park that is, basically, a nature reserve for mythological creatures. Each episode follows Alina and the gang meeting a new creature from across World Mythology and Folklore. At the same time, they are try to uncover the mysteries of the park itself.

One thing I love about RoPP is shear variety of creatures. We got creatures Filipino Mythology, Māori Mythology, Lenape Folklore, Aztec Mythology, Lithuanian Folklore, and a whole lot more.

Now for a bit about the people who make RoPP possible. Series creator Angela Yih has worked on podcasts for Realm, Pod People, and more. Their credits include shows such as Overleaper, Echo Park, Blood Forest, and Harley Quinn and the Joker: Sound Mind!

The point being, Angela knows their stuff. But not just the technical stuff. They’ve also got quite a few voice acting credits under their belt. Angela has lent their voice to works such as Dreamscape Highway, Mx. Bad Luck, Omega Star 7, and even The Books of Thoth.

And what about the rest of the gang? We are over fifty percent people of color, fifty percent female, and I’m autistic. We have performers from all walks of life, and we’re all very passionate about bringing these mythological stories to life for your listening pleasure.

But okay, what’s in it for you? I’m very glad you asked. You see, you’ve got six different options to choose from. Or you can donate a custom amount with no perks. But if you do what perks, here’s what your options are…

$5 - Tourist

All the shoutouts! Shoutouts on social media, on our website, and in the last episode of season 4 for being an awesome supporter

$15 - Visitor

Early access to ad-free episodes a week in advance as well as all the perks from the Tourist Tier

$30 - Local

A digital copy of the official Residents of Proserpina Park Light Novel, which is a collection of short stories focused on the characters from the show, and all the perks from the previous tiers.

$50 - Member

A physical copy of the official Residents of Proserpina Park Light Novel plus other merchandise and all the perks from the previous tiers.

$100 - Resident

Learn what it’s like to be on the show or work on an audio drama. Work with Angela Yih and be featured in a bonus episode in season 5 as well as all the perks from the previous tiers!

$300 - VIP

Become an executive producer on Residents of Proserpina Park and be credited in season 4 and 5! Determine a creature for season 6 as well as all the perks from the previous tiers.

So far we have raised $696, and I contributed $306 out of that. But you don’t have to contribute as much as I did. Small drops fill the bucket, and every little bit helps. If you aren’t financially able to help, then I would only ask you help spread the word, and encourage others to pitch in. We can all do our part to make season four and season five the best seasons of RoPP yet.

So, you have heard the call the action. Now the ball is in your court. Do your part out to help the Residents of Proserpina Park Indiegogo campaign however you are able.

Link to the Residents of Proserpina Park Indiegogo: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/residents-of-proserpina-park-season-4-and-5-launch/x/29874655#/

[wakebymoonsleepbysun]

Crafting!! (sorta)

A few months ago I was making passing references to learning Blender so I could make a pattern for a DJ plushie via Plushify, learn to sew, and then make a DJ plushie. (And maybe make a Music plushie and/or bio-DJ plushie too at some point but those are far more distant goals.)

So I finally got started on that this weekend. I decided DJ is a bit too complex a character for my first outing with Blender AND my first outing with sewing a plush, so I picked DogDay.

Tail and ears would be separate pieces, and the nose would probably be a plastic stuffie nose, which is why all those are not modeled here. His toes should also probably be thread loops, hence the blocky feet in the model. However as I was making him I started to think his big smile and concave mouth might STILL be a bit difficult for a first outing, so I decided to go even simpler. (I will probably toss this model and start from scratch now that I know a bit more about not only Blender, but what Plushify expects in a model.)

Enter this dude:

Plushify provides you with a mock room to get an idea of how big your critter will be!

I'm still tweaking this, at first I had the legs fully 3D and attached to the body, but this meant the underside would be sliced into multiple pieces and I think that just made the whole thing needlessly complicated. (But I don't know sewing yet so maybe this is a mistake on my part.) So I did the legs as flat panes that aren't attached to the body in Blender.

I think the shape of his ridge will be good practice for the shape of DogDay's mouth. The horn might be a bit tricky, it seemed to be throwing the pattern maker off so I might separate that from the model as well. I'm also not sure how I'm going to get it to stand up like that but we'll see.

Also made a spider for the heck of it, because I thought that might be a bit more basic of a shape than the beetle. I was...partially correct. I think posing the legs like that in Blender confused the hell outta Plushify so I'm probably going to have to flatten them. Maybe run a wire through them when I make the stuffy so that they're posable?

As for the size...well, 6 feet is a nice thought but 18 yards of fabric...at probably about 10 bucks/yard MINIMUM...yeeeaahhhh, tis but a dream.

Also!! Needle felting progress:

No, it's not DJ, but I wanted to practice assembling pieces before I tried to put his pieces together. So I made this guy, kinda a jumping spider but I'm not good enough at needle felting or spiders to get too fussed about exact species, heh.

I uh...probably will not make a needle felted spider again unless things go really pear-shaped with the Blender/Plushify path. Doing all 8 legs + 2 pedipalps is incredibly tedious...but I MIGHT see if

So yeah. None of these are DJ but they are all in the service of DJ.

I inch ever closer to making my own DJ stuffie.

[hummingbird-games]

Postmortem: #CrushedVN Edition

Okie doke y'all! It's been some time so I guess we're good to dissect this project!

(I almost didn't bother with writing this up, but at the end of the day I do the dev diaries and the random--game development related--posts for me to look back on and prove I'm learning. Getting better. Not regressing. So. Might as well move forward!)

Background/Inspiration

It's like if you took my late 2022 brain and threw it into a blender!! Most of these are self-explanatory (Boys Love media I adore with emphasis on early to late teen experiences.) Let me draw your attention to The Edge Of Seventeen: not sure how many times I've rewatched, but it makes me tear up every single time. Main character Nadine is awkward AF, still hasn't come to terms with the death of her father years prior, isn't on the best terms with her mom or her older brother, and even ends up on rocky terms with her best friend too!! Anyway, that feeling of being young, and a little angry and a little sad and not feeling quite right on the inside but eventually reaching a place where things fiiiiiinally start to work out...it's just a sliver of what I wanted to capture and infuse into Crushed.

Listen y'all, I just pulled and pulled and pulled from real life experiences. I was inspired by authors Julian Winters, Leah Johnson, and Jay Coles' works (all Young Adult authors LOL! Fitting since I seem to be creating things for the teens at this juncture in my life). This all provided the base for Corey and his inner world. Also, I've been wanting to create a bookworm character...no time like the present right???

As for deciding to specifically create a boys' love visual novel of all things?? First, y'all must understand that I fought the original idea and anything related to it. This was coming off the heels of me suddenly seeing (another) wave of players throwing fits about indie games forcing you to play as a femme character. First off, no one is forcing you to do anything. Secondly, we are still at a point in video games where the majority of characters you play as are male. Forgive some of us for wanting a little variety 😑Thirdly, for those looking for games where there's even more inclusivity (choosing pronouns, playing as nonbinary/trans, and etc) I really wish that players would seek out those games that ARE being made and support them so the developers don't lose steam and drop their projects. It's so disheartening to make something that's meant to be consumed and BOOM, silence.

Anyway, all of that to say that as a developer herself who's tired of watching girls' media be regulated as Less Than, made fun of, and just overall disrespected, I wasn't interested in making any games that didn't center a female character. But back to my main point!!!

I had Heartstopper, the webtoon, infecting my brain. I was so not immune to falling in love with Nick and Charlie like everybody else. But then I was hit for the 34573847th time that I was engaging with white queer media. And I knew that if Nick and Charlie were Black Brits, they wouldn't be getting half the attention they are now. Even less if the boys were girls and we had a sapphic relationship on our hands. (But that sapphic story from Hummingbird Games is still brewing, and Corey and Jacob's story was ready first.)

Also....the biphobia is real. It's insidious. I could write a whole book about how the straights and the gays need to get their shit together. I could then write a sequel about how the Black community can be some of the worst offenders when it comes to our Bi Fam and say some of the most ignorant and devastating things. But I had limited time on my hands and decided to write a short VN instead. Once I let Corey just be, exist as the person he is, everything fell into place.

Things That Went Right...

I took a very niche, very Specific To Me, very nestled in the space between my heart and my brain and wrote a script just so I could be a part of a game jam specifically highlighting and supporting the work of Black game developers.

And I submitted the bitch on time.

I'm always down for anxiety rep!!! As a fellow anxiety haver, I say the more visibility the better!!! At the same time, it's not a one size fits all, and there were some things I dealt with that I'd never seen depicted and I figured I might as well be true to my experiences. Maybe someone would take solace in Corey the way I've taken solace in other characters for reflecting my lived experiences.

I tried new things I was scared of or didn't have time for with HSD or didn't feel confident enough to sit and learn previously: partial voice acting (and holding auditions to incorporate more), a text message system (which wasn't my own but part of learning to code for me means being able to take what others have done and replicate and/or use it myself), and implementing music and sound effects with intention. I've done it with film, but games are a close cousin in a lot of ways. A LOT of ways. I should remember that.

I still didn't do too well in the marketing department but for this game, it didn't feel like a failure. I also didn't really try. Oops. I've got to do better. I went into Crushed knowing it wouldn't have half the audience HSD does, and yet the feedback I've received for Crushed has made me want to break down into tears of relief.

I launched the game around 10 something at night my time and proceeded to be sick with anxiety for about 3 days. For three whole days I legit felt like I was going to die. And then I wanted to laugh because didn't I just make a game to express a version of the human condition?

Things That Were Different...

HSD showed off my skills when it comes to intensive planning and sticking mostly to that plan. Crushed was a jam entry that became more extensive over time and found me flying off the seat of my pants.

I also had less (aha, zero???) budget this time around. Because again. Jam entry. It wasn't supposed to be a Big Affair. But now that it's over and out to you guys, I'm not mad. You could say that it all worked out.

If I Could Go Back, I Would...

For one, I would have smacked the voice in my head that said "let's add more voice acting now". I love the feature, but there's no reason why I couldn't have done auditions after release. I was impatient and restless waiting for art assets, and my idleness led me to take on more things just to not feel useless. I Have Learned My Lesson, thanks.

I Had The Pleasure of Learning...

There will always be an obstacle in the way of game development. (And sometimes your body will be your own worst enemy, yuck.)

I don't know who my audience is (yet) for HBG but I'm always a part of it. And that's not a bad thing. If I hadn't felt so strongly about Crushed or even HSD, neither project would have happened because I would have given up a long time ago.

To the Future...

Empasis on future, but the world of Crushed isn't exhausted. It lives in the bigger universe of HSD:JY but took on a life of its own. So it's no surprise that Corey and his friends became even more precious to me. Not that I know when I'll be able to work on it, but right after finishing and publishing the demo, I outlined a rough draft for a kinetic novel sequel told through Jacob's POV. In my head, Corey's story was always half of a whole, and busting out Jacob's outline so quickly confirmed that.

(What I didn't anticipate was how loved Oke and Keegan would be, or that there would be a want for their story outside of myself??? Between us and this postmortem, I hope to sort out their deal and get the satisfaction of seeing another type of love story/dynamic I can't get enough of and share it!)

Closing Thoughts

The comments I've gotten concerning Crushed and noting the appreciation for its slice-of-life/grounded-ness is reassuring! Maybe I'll branch out to other genres, but realism will be something I always come back to. Also, making Crushed wasn't too traumatic soooooo that means I'm still making games LOL! Can't get rid of me yet!

- Gemini 💛

(some links of other posts where I went on tangents concerning the creation of Crushed; these can also be found by searching the tag "crushed vn"!)

Music Inspo and Crushed

Memes Tag Game

Game Dev Commentary: Bonus Content

[oldbutnotyetwise]

When You Say Nothing At All

     I want you to think about this seriously for a few minutes.  What would it be like if you lost your voice and couldn’t speak anymore?  It is something that we all take for granted almost from the time we are born.  A young baby will coo, gurgle, blow bubbles experimenting with sounds and quickly realize that people around them pay attention to them when they do this.  There is absolutely no doubt in any parent’s mind that a baby is very capable of communicating their displeasure from the moment of their birth. In time the baby learns words which slowly form the foundation of their language skills that under normal circumstances last until they die.

     Maybe for the rest of today I would like you to think about what it would be like if you couldn’t speak.  Every person you want to talk to, you can’t.  Phone or video calls? Nope, you can’t make or receive them.  You could use sign language or play charades or become a Mime, except your arms and hands don’t work very well. 

     ALS is in the final stages of stealing my voice from me.  Whatever is supposed to be working, whether it be my vocal chords or the way my tongue helps to make sounds, they simply aren’t working anymore.  When I do try to speak, I speak much slower, I focus on enunciating my words, what voice I have left is now much softer.  So even if you can hear the sound coming out of my mouth there is a good chance you may not understand it.  It sounds silly but I can now become exhausted just from talking.  I mumble and slur what used to be words but now are quickly becoming indistinguishable sounds.  I know what I want to say, the words are very clear in my head but by the time they leave my mouth its like they have gone through a blender and no longer make sense.   I would like to think I was once a good conversationalist, but now I’m just a listener, hopefully a good one.  I am no longer able to ask the probing questions that showed people I was really interested and helped bring their story out. 

     If I’m being honest, I knew that this day was coming.  I knew that with ALS when the person starts slurring their words, they normally lose their ability to speak four to six months later.  I am now coming up on that six month point.  Even though I knew this day was coming, I find it very difficult to believe and accept that I will not be able to speak anymore.  I find it hard to believe I sound like I presently do.  Yes, yes I know, finally my friends and family will be able to get a word in while I am sulking in the corner.

     So the other day Robin and I were out walking Kiwi, she went into store and Kiwi and I rolled down the street to a warm sunny spot to wait for her.  A young man approached asking if he could pet Kiwi.  I said that he could and then we began chatting.  He heard the garbled words coming out of my mouth and I could read his face as he tried to determine if the garbled words might also be indicating a mental disability.  I could see how difficult it was for him to understand me, and in the end I regretted having gotten into the conversation with him.  Chatting one on one with people has always been something I enjoyed, just one more thing ALS has now taken away from me.  

     Robin was out the other day when my phone rang, I normally don’t answer my phone these days preferring Robin take the call, but as it was Sunnybrook Hospital calling I thought I had best not miss the call.  They were calling to advise they were sending a form that needed to be signed, hearing me mumbling they then added my Power Of Attorney could sign it for me.  Numerous other calls like this have come through since I’ve been going to the hospital, this time with my mumbling they added the part about a POA being able to sign for me.

     Sadly, my communication methods are starting to resemble that of an obnoxious teenager who can’t be bothered to actually converse with his parents.  I now point at things, nod in the direction of things, or maybe just look at things hoping that Robin will understand what I want.  When someone is asking me if something is all right I now resort to the ever reliable thumbs up.  

     Now people in my situation have ways to communicate thanks to advancements in technology.  I was told early on to ‘Voice Bank’… save my voice so when it came time that my computer would sound like me speaking.  Sadly I just never got that done, by the time I started trying to do that it was already too late.  There is also something called AAC which is Augmentative and Alternative Communication which includes boards with buttons to push which then say common phrases, or even Eye Gaze Technology, where your eye movement is able to communicate with your computer which can then speak or write for you.  Presently my Text to Speech App on my phone has me speaking with an Australian accent.  I’m trying to distract the listener from this broken old man in a wheelchair and make them think of me more along the lines of a handsome Aussie on a beach with a surfboard under his arm.

     Robin and I have always gotten along very well.  We used this rather unconventional approach to our relationship, we actually talked and listened to each other.  We are each others best friends, and although we can certainly talk about the big things going on in the world, we are both much more interested in what is going on in our own little world.  When we lived on the farm there were always things going on, she would tell me about her gardens, I would tell her about the things I saw on my hikes, we would slip into those easy conversations much like you might slip into a warm winter sweater, they just felt good.  Those nice easy conversations that I loved are now slipping away from us.  Having to continually repeat myself, and still not being understood makes me want to give up attempting to converse.

     I am totally dependent on Robin for my survival.  It is extremely important to me to make sure that I am able to tell her how much I love her, not only for who she is, but also for all she is doing for me.  It is also so important to me that I can make her aware of how very grateful I am for everything she does for me.  Yes you are right, she does in fact know how much I love her and how grateful I am, but it is still important for me to be able to say the words, just as it is important for her to hear those words….but I can’t say them, and she can’t hear what I can’t say…..or can she?

     Through most of my later life when I was struggling with something I would “sit with it”.  Not everything requires immediate action or response, sometime by just sitting with something a solution presents itself, or I am able to come up with a well thought out plan to deal with it.  So I was sitting with my inability express my love and gratitude to Robin when an old Allison Kraus song came to mind.  It was an old favourite of mine, and one I had played on my guitar many times…..and it gave me comfort. 

When You Say Nothing At All

It’s amazing how you can speak right to my heart

Without saying a word, you can light up the dark

Try as I may, I can never explain

What I hear when you don’t say a thing

You say it best, when you say nothing at all.

Robin, Kiwi and I.

[classyfruit]

Hi ma'am, what environment works best for you to work in? Like time of day or specific place?

Hi and hello dear Anon, thanks for getting in touch with your question - I hope you're well! 🤗 Since your question might be interesting for everyone, I've taken some time to answer in depth. I hope it's useful for y'all!

🔽How I work best as a full-time artist🔽

Time/Schedule

I personally work best early in the day when my concentration and energy is at its highest.

Since I am prone to either ALWAYS work/draw or be exhausted from rushing myself, a good schedule is vital! Currently, I am in the process of figuring out a new, much more flexible schedule for myself, where certain days of the week are reserved for tasks with some flex days to switch things around if needed.

I like to start with admin tasks, which I find difficult, and work my way down until I can "just draw", which I find easiest.

Workplace/Set-Up

I work with a PC and drawing tablet set-up, so I am bound to my desk workplace-wise, but I would love to upgrade with a portable tablet so I can draw out in nature or in society.

I've surrounded my desk with things that inspire me: Plants, postcards, trinkets, you name it. This keeps my brain fresh and oftentimes gives me a boost to keep drawing.

My monitors are positioned high enough that I can see them well while sitting upright. Good posture is vital if you spend a lot of time working!

I now have my big Huion Kamvas tablet that has a display, so I need to remind myself to not be crouched over it all the time. I also pull up the artwork on my further-away monitor to check the overall composition and/or values, instead of drowning in details!

Health While Working

While drawing, music, documentaries or Let's Plays are vital to keep the overthinking at bay and to keep me in the flow!

WATER!! I can't stress enough how important it is to drink. Enough. Water. If I don't, that results in brain fog and art is no.

Sometimes I need to rest my eyes on something else than my WIP art - I usually keep my desktop wallpaper something calming and almost neutral (like a mist-covered lake or a mountain ridge) and just stare at it for a few moments.

I am mindful of my breaks, especially when drawing! I use a pomodoro timer to know when it's time for stretching my hands and for water breaks.

Snack breaks are also a good thing - I definitely recommend fruit (because of course!), nuts and dark chocolate. They help me stay energized without making me drowsy.

Process

I keep a very detailed To Do list to keep myself motivated and also to know where exactly in the art/project process I am. My brain can either be in admin mode or creative mode, not both.

If I feel blocked either artistically or energy wise, I try to do some personal sketches for at least ten minutes.

If I absolutely can't motivate myself to draw (due to energy levels or whatever reason), I honor that and see if I want to do something else, like learning Blender, learning more about the business side of the artist life - or maybe just take a breather and let myself be a human bean.

Some days, I like the challenge of sketching a new idea, some days I prefer the cozy and less creative task of doing outlines and shading of existing sketches. I now try to let myself do what I gravitate towards more and it pays off with me not feeling overwhelmed as easily. It's about just doing what you can most of the time.

When I'm done with a piece of artwork, I try my darndest to be very supportive and proud of myself. I take a longer break and return to look at the finished artwork, trying to name my favorite thing about it as well as something I can see needs more work.

Something I don't do YET but will do: Keeping a document with all the positive comments I receive. I think validation and acknowledgement are things that humans almost always enjoy and keeping a record of praise around is sure to motivate me at least a little.

And that's that! If any of you read to this point: Thank you very much, I hope you found my list useful! If you have any tips or tricks regarding drawing, staying motivated and in general doing a hecking survive as an arting individual, why not drop it in the comments for all to benefit from? Stay healthy and stay happy! Much love! 😊

[femboycatofmystery]

So my post about how you should draw (YOU SHOULD DRAW!) blew up beyond any precedent since my return to tumblr and someone in the FRANKLY KIND OF TERRIFYING NUMBER OF REBLOGS mentioned downloading a free DAW to make music and that got me thinking,

HOBBY SOFTWARE MEGAPOST GO

All of the below software is free to use, and most of it is Open Source (which is its own thing I recommend learning about, its entire existence and success gives me hope for humanity) so GO GET SOME TOOLS! Make things like nobody's watching and then SHOW IT TO THEM ANYWAY! Or don't! Even if you hide your work from the world (lord knows I do!!!) you will have created something! And it feels amazing to create something!

VISUAL ARTS:

Inkscape: Adobe Illustrator replacement, pretty solid if a bit quirky.

Krita: Painting software, if anything slightly overpowered and sometimes more complicated than you want, but can do bloody anything including advanced color management. A wonderful tool.

Blender: You have probably heard it is super hard to use. This is CONDITIONALLY true. Because the developers are working day and night to improve everything about it it's always getting better and now like, 80% of the hardness is just because 3D is hard. Aside: Blender Grease Pencil - A subsystem in Blender is concerned with 2D animation and it is. Surprisingly good. Some annoying conventions but totally possible to literally make professional traditional 2D animation.

MUSIC:

LMMS: A free and open source DAW that can do a lot, except use most modern VST plugins. The practical upshot of this is that if you are just starting out with music it is totally serviceable but over time you might start to long for something with the ability to load hella plugins. (I'm currently trying out Reaper which has a long free trial and is technically nagware after that point...)

PlugData: You GOTTA TRY THIS, it's not mentally for everyone (not HARD exactly, just WEIRD) but if your brain works well with this kind of flow graph stuff it's a magical playground of music. (If you have heard of PureData, PlugData is based on it but has a lot of nice graphical upgrades and can work as a VST if you have a proper DAW)

Surge XT: A big ol' synthesizer plugin that also can run standalone and take midi input so you can technically use it to make music even if you don't have a DAW. If planning notes ahead of time sounds intimidating, but you can get your hands on a midi piano controller, this might actually be a great way to start out playing with music on your computer!

Bespoke Synth: Another open source DAW, but this one is... sort of exploded? Like PlugData you patch things together with cables but it has a wild electrified aesthetic and it can do piano rolls. Fun though!

GAME DEV:

Yeah that's right, game dev. You ABSOLUTELY can make video games with no experience or ability to code. I actually recommend video games as a way to learn how to code because the dopamine hits from making a character bumble around on a screen are enormously bigger than like. Calculating pi or something boring like that. ANYWAY:

Twine: Twine is what I might describe as sort of a zero-barrier game dev tool because you're literally writing a story except you can make it branch. It has programming features but you can sort of pick them up as you go. Lowest possible barrier to entry, especially if you write!

Godot: I use this engine all the time! It's got great tutorials all over the internet and is 100% FREE AND ALWAYS WILL BE. Technically there are more Unity tutorials out there, but Godot has plenty enough to learn how to do things. It's also SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT so you won't spend your precious hobby time waiting for the engine to load. There are absolutely successful games made with this but I think the best thing about it is that the shallow end of the learning curve is PRETTY OK ACTUALLY.

[pinkyjulien]

Hi, i really hope im not bothering you by sending a modding question... i am absolutely brand new to even thinking about modding, and i know theres a big discord out there, but ive mostly heard horror stories coming out of the community so im honestly terrified to even check it out... im just wondering if you have any idea if its feasible to make a mod of Padre's shirt for V? (The one w the sweater over a collared shirt, i feel like ive seen it on other random npcs as well) not asking you to do it or anything, but its one ive never seen in mods so idk if its already been tried by modders and everyone decided "nah this wont work". Again, so sorry if you dont want to be bugged with questions like this, you honestly just feel like one of the most approachable people ive seen in this fandom so far and trying to make any cp77 friends has proven extremely intimidating.

Heya!! It's always ok to ask modding questions, you don't bother at all 🤲

I can't blame you for not wanting to get your feet into big servers, it can get quite overwhelming and frustrating when nobody seems to notice you. Tho I recommend using them as modding-wiki extension! It can be useful to search for solution, plugins and softwares, discord exclusive tutorials, or catch someone's getting help for a similar problem for example. There is no need to be active :3 but no pressure ofc, just know that it's totally ok to join these servers to just lurk

Now for Padre's shirt! I won't be able to do it (not right now at least) so I'll throw infos and direction if anyone else wanna give it a try 🤏

Here's the path to Padre's mesh -

base\characters\garment\gang_valentino\torso\t1_078_shirt__sweater\t1_078_ma_shirt__sweater_old.mesh

Tho we can see its all wonky compared to a regular MA mesh, and that's because this one is specifically fitted for old' Padre (it's even in the mesh file name, _old)

To make a version useable for masc V, we'll need to combine a few meshes available in the same folder!

The main piece: t1_078_ma_shirt__sweater.mesh

The bottom part: t1_078_ma_shirt__sweater_shirt.mesh

The cuffs: t1_078_ma_shirt__sweater_cuffs.mesh

And one of the two available collar: t1_078_ma_shirt__sweater_collar_01.mesh or _collar_02.mesh

All of these should already fit into one another, but if not a lil refit in blender should do the trick!

Then I can only point out to the Modding Wiki and its numerous tutorials for the AXL part (making a standalone clothing mod)

I also recently added my own AXL Workflow in my Tutorial Drive; I'm planning on writing a proper one, for now it's only screenshots from an old private tutorial I made for a friend, some infomartion are outdated (I've learned a lot since then as well) but it can still be useful, hopefully!

Thank you for the ask and for your kind words 🧡 I'm sorry to hear the community hasn't been too welcoming, but there are a lot of good souls willing to help and guide if needed!

A big server that I often recommend is The Cyberpunks; it's a fandom focused server, really chill and friendly, not based entierly on modding but its modding channels are pretty active! I lurk in there, you can catch me in the modding and screenshots area :>

If big servers are out of the picture, I totally recommend trying to get into a smaller server; small bubbles can be more comfortable when the members are well spirited and positive :3

I hope you'll find your place and people you vibe with 🧡 and hope the few info on Padre's shirt can be useful, to you or anyone out there seeing this that might want to give it a try! With a few recolors I'm sure it can be a cute, cozy corpo-ish attire ✨👌

[kvetchinglyneurotic]

Hi! I, evidently like so many others, absolutely loved THD!! I am spinning it in my hands, bouncing it up and down, examining the fractals it throws off when held to light... it's just SO GOOD! I wandered over here when you posted the final chapter, read your plan of attack post for the series and am now stuck on this somehow being the first fandom fic you've written?? If you're happy to answer, I would love to know what it is about TL and Jamie Tartt specifically that inspired you to jump from original work (which I will definitely be checking out later!! Your prose demands no less!!) and into fan fiction, any why this particular AU gripped you to the point of delivering 80k words of brilliance? Thank you for the story and (hopefully) thank you in advance for the response!

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! My venture into fanfic is the result of a confluence of a few different factors. I finally got around to watching TL maybe a month before season 3 aired, having already osmosed some of the major plot points from Tumblr at large — most notably the Wembley scene, which was the main reason I decided to watch it and probably gave Jamie an edge going in. The show falls into the sweet spot between "bad but I had a good time" and "this is a beautiful work of art" that made me want to dig my fingers in and pick it apart: it has defined themes and character arcs and is overall well-crafted, but also has a number of flaws and bits that didn't quite work, particularly when it comes resolution of Jamie's arc with his dad — which annoyed me so much that it's the origin of this sideblog.

Jamie falls into the category of like. characters alchemically created for me to like them. As in, the first time I heard a description of the show, they got to Jamie and I was like "if I ever watch this, he's going to be my favourite." And I was right! I have a real soft spot for what I lovingly refer to as "narrative problem children": if there's one member of the main group who causes problems for everyone else and is an asshole that no one likes, they're probably my special little guy (think season 1 Izzy Hands, Catra from She-Ra, Thomas Barrow from Downton Abbey who was the only reason I watched that show), which of course means I want to put them through the emotional blender. Bonus points if they're either very talented/good at whatever they do (especially if it comes from hard work rather than natural affinity), a schemer (I love me a schemer), have a tragic backstory, and/or have autism vibes.

My reasons for getting into fanfic are maybe surprisingly pragmatic: I'd finished part 1 of my original fic series and wanted to write something else before I started editing so I wouldn't be thinking about that universe and would be able to judge the world-building more accurately. I'd also spent enough time in my academic life defending my ideas and having my writing critiqued that I stopped being as nervous about having an audience and became curious about how people would respond to my fiction writing, which I figured would be a lot easier to find out with fanfic. (Was it also a bit of a guerrilla marketing campaign for my original fic? Maybe a little).

As for this AU in particular, I was really interested in how the relationship that we see between Georgie and Jamie in 3x11 fits in with everything we'd previously learned (or could deduce) about his past, as well as how Jamie might respond to being made vulnerable the way he is in 2x08 at the height of his prick era. I fully did not intend for it to be 80k (it was supposed to be a one-shot) but the story kept expanding and sometime around chapter 3 or 4, it got upgraded from "quick break from the original fic" to "long-term project."

[doraminatook]

Five things this barista wants you to know (and do)

This June marked nine years of working for Starbucks.  As someone who didn’t think that they’d last a week there, I honestly consider this a massive achievement.  I have learned so much about myself since becoming a partner, especially in regards to what I’m capable of and how to handle conflicts.  This journey has had its ups and downs, but all in all, Starbucks has treated me very well. As with any corporation, the biggest issues arise from people higher on the pay scale not understanding how things “at the bottom” work.  I like to picture some big corporate suit walking into one of our stores and asking a barista, “What can we, as a company, do to help you?” The barista replies, “We need more people on the floor.  Can we hire more people and ​have more labor hours?” Nodding and scratching their chin, the suit says, “What I’m hearing is you want us to update the sequencing of drinks so you now make three at a time rather than two and you want a free reusable cup.”   The barista stares blankly at them and asserts, “That is not at all what I said.”   But it’s too late; corporate has already thrown thousands of dollars at some lackey who is going to study the partners efficiency and see how they can make their employees do more with less.  The gifted cup will come with stickers!  Won’t that be fun?! While my time with the siren is about to end, I have picked up a few tips along the way.  Not tips for the employees, mind you.  No, these are tips for you…the consumer.   I would say that ninety percent of the people who have come into one of my stores have been lovely and friendly individuals, but – ooh-weee!! – that remaining ten percent (especially at drive-thru stores.  This is not to shame drive-thru stores or people to use them.  Drive-thru stores are amazing for people with small children, social anxiety, certain mobility needs, etc.  But there’s a certain kind of crazy that doesn’t want to get out of its car to get its coffee.  And it’s usually the kind of crazy that insults the employees or throws hot drinks at them.) To help steer people away from joining that ten percent group, I’ve created this simple list of things everyone can do to help their baristas out and make the process go a little smoother.  Yes, this is taken from the standpoint of Starbucks, but many of these points apply to any coffee shop.  Let’s begin!

Give yourself more time than you think you need.

The thing about any coffee shop is that the length of time it will take to get your order ready will always be a crapshoot.  You may be able to usually receive your order in a certain amount of time, but things come up: the blender might break down, a barista may have called out, maybe someone ahead of you placed a massive twenty-drink order.  Be prepared for the unexpected.  If you think you can get in and get your coffee in five minutes, you’re probably wrong.  At the very least, this isn’t going to happen every time, and it isn’t the barista’s fault.  That’s just life.  Things come up, and you might have to be flexible.   Oh, and full disclosure: when you tell us that you’re “running late”, we don’t care.  We aren’t going to move your drink to the front of the line.  If you’re running late, don’t stop for coffee.  It’s as simple as that.

Get off your phone. 

People generally dislike it when we mess up your order which is why we are trained to ask a lot of questions.  You come up to the register and order a latte?  Well, I’m going to ask what size, hot or iced, is two percent milk alright, is there anything else I can do for you, how are we paying for this today, do you want a receipt, and so on.  That’s a lot of questions, but we’d rather get all the info at the register rather than have to go back once the drink is made and start over again. You can help us out by paying attention, and (hands down) the biggest distraction we see is the cellphone.  Contrary to popular belief, baristas are not telepathic.  If you want almond milk in that mocha, then you have to tell us.  If you didn’t want that banana bread warmed up, then you have to tell us.  We try our best to ask questions, but help us out…and more importantly, don’t get upset with us when we ask questions.  I’m not grilling you for information on how you like your frappuccino because I enjoy bothering you or because I’m trying to lower your defenses so you join my cult; I just need to know what you want so we can avoid wasting time.   Please get off your phone and tell me clearly what you want.  If you don’t know, I am happy to answer questions and guide you towards what you’re looking for, but no matter how dexterous you think your mind is, you cannot simultaneously focus on the drama going on with your friend Becky and order an iced Tall quad shot shaken espresso, no classic syrup, sub five pumps hazelnut and two pumps sugar-free vanilla, light ice, chocolate cream cold foam, lightly sprinkled with cinnamon powder, in a Grande cup.  

The barista is probably not flirting with you. 

    I’m not going to spend too much time on this one.  It should be self-explanatory.   Just know that it’s our job to make you feel welcomed and comfortable, but that does not mean that we want to sleep with you.  I did not really experience sexual harassment until I became a barista and then suddenly I had a flock of men (usually old and white) talking about my “pretty little lips” or asking if I wanted to share a scone with them or reaching across the counter and grabbing my arm to tell me that my skin is very soft.  (Thankfully, my current boss is incredibly good at nipping any of that stuff in the bud and has a strict no tolerance policy for customers making partners feel unsafe or uncomfortable.  Thanks, Char!) Stop.  I am not your toy.  I am just a person doing a job and trying to make a living.  Yes, I do enjoy welcoming you to this third space and even establishing friendly relationships with anyone who comes in, but customer service me is not the real me.  I am not trying to flirt with you, I don’t want you to flirt with me, and I will tell you when you cross a line.  

I do not care if you mispronounce things.

I also do not care if you get the names of the sizes incorrect.  Let’s just admit that the sizing at Starbucks is awful.  The whole thing started because once upon a time, they only offered the sizes Short (8oz) or Tall (12oz) and while that’s easy to remember, Starbucks just kept adding sizes up because, ya know, America.  At one point in time, the Grande was considered extra large and then they added Venti before finally adding Trenta.  What we’re left with is a lot of people assuming that the biggest size we have is a Tall and then getting disappointed when they’re large frappuccino is so tiny.  (Honestly, I personally prefer it if you simply say small, medium, or large.  At least then I know that we’re speaking the same language.)  So many of the terms used are Italian or at least Italian-derived and most Americans do not speak Italian.  If you call it a “grand mach-yee-otto”, I will understand what you mean.  As someone who spent years being afraid to order a sauvignon blanc because I knew that I wasn’t pronouncing it correctly, I get the instinct to try and “speak the language”, but just know that no one is going to laugh at you.  And if they do, then you tell their store manager.   Furthermore, don’t be afraid to ask us questions.  We are here to help you figure out what exactly that one drink was…you know, the one your sister got for your last time (“I just remember that it was hot and it tasted like caramel.”  Hey, I can work with that!) I don’t mind people asking questions; what I do mind is when people complain about having to wait in line but then get up to the register and only then think about what they want to order.  Get your life together, Karen.  

Read the room.

Picture it: you’re waiting for your drink.  You’ve been waiting maybe five minutes.  You think to yourself, “Why is this taking so long?”  And then you decide that you’re going to march up to the handoff plane or (God forbid) crane your neck over the glass partitions in front of the bar and demand to know why you don’t have your drinks yet.   Stop.  Look around.  Are other people waiting?  Are the baristas running around crazily?  Is there a line of drinks on the counter?  How many people are at the bar?  During peak, there should be at least two (hopefully more if it’s very busy).  Is one person running the register and the oven?  Is there a pile of dishes laying off to the side?  Is an employee yelling something like, “I need peppermint syrup on the fly?!”  If you’re in a drive-thru, is there a line of cars behind you? If you answered yes to any of the questions above, the store is probably very busy.  And, being very busy, there are going to be some longer wait times.  I have worked primarily in a cafe store (meaning no drive thru), and our general rule is that we want people to be waiting ten minutes at the absolute most.  Check your watch and ask yourself, “Have I been waiting longer than ten minutes?”  If it’s very busy and the answer is no, then take a seat and calm down.  (And, no, that ten minutes does not start when you walk in.  It starts when you finish paying and your order goes through.  See #1 if you have questions.)   The amount of people who go into a rage because they had to (dramatic gasp) wait, is stifling.  Take a look around and have some pity on the people making your coffee.  If you truly feel that something is unacceptable (be it wait times, a barista’s attitude, etc.), the best thing you can do is email or call the store manager or the district manager.  Stores should have business cards with contact information for both of these individuals.  Said cards are usually located at the hand-off plane but not necessarily.  Before you start yelling at the twenty-two-year-old who has been awake since 4am and is doing the best they can, contact someone higher up and complain to them.  I know that it isn’t as cathartic (you maniac) as screaming in the middle of a Starbucks and getting up on some proverbial soapbox about how “no one wants to work anymore”, but you’re going to get better results if you express your frustration to the people who actually have a say in things like labor hours.  

All in all, friends, assume the best in others and have patience.  If you can do both of these things, you’ll get your drink and us baristas won’t have to run to the backroom in tears.  At the end of the day, it’s just coffee.  Is this really the hill you want to die on?  I didn’t think so.