#i should really add watermarks to this stuff

[imflyingfish]

New base progress! I've added a ton of flower fields and some more trees! Further terraforming, garages and vineyards to come but I wanted to break it up a little bit more.

If u have any suggestions let me know :]

[thetinyblossom]

Agere community we need to talk.

[Text ID: Agere community we need to talk. End ID]

I have noticed a huge rise in UNCREDITED and STOLEN works; it being art, edits, collages etc

Specially reposts on Tumblr and Pinterest

Examples:

*Original artists that had their work stolen: @regressionworldz and @cutiecorner

This post is a guide about internet etiquette and crediting

[Text ID: This post is a guide about internet etiquette and crediting. End ID]

1. How to NOT steal stuff!

Any work with the tag “Free to use” (also known as “F2U”) means that they are allowed to be reposted, used in collages, edits etc. Just check if credits are needed!

*Important addition (that I can’t believe I had to add):

* “Why does this matter?” “Can’t you just ask where they got it from?”

It’s a question of politeness and fairness, yes, someone can ask where that piece is from but it’s not a guaranteed answer, people can lie and people can forget!

Also, people might see it and take it at face value, think the post belongs to that person when it doesn’t

Adding to that, there’s folks that do not want their work reposted for many reasons!

To top it off, heres the issue of the original creators not getting the attention they deserve, imagine that you spent hours on a piece just for it to be stolen and that post getting more attention then your own original post, that one you worked hours for it to, to be just the way you wanted it to be, that would upset you wouldn’t it?

Overall, crediting and asking to repost is just the polite thing to do

For Artworks:

Your first need to check if the artist allows reposting of their work or the use of them for collages, if they allow, then you link to their original post and state who drew the pics of art

For GIF’s + non-product photos:

Credit to the original post! Or at least as far back as you can find it!

Usually photos of products such as toys, plushies, accessories etc made by big brands are easy to spot and know where they came from (ex: blogs that post PNG’s usually don’t need to credit all their sources), but, small business/hand crafted works should always be credited!

Reposting moodboards:

Similar to artworks, first ask permission to repost, if allowed link to the original creator!

“But they said “no”!”:

Then don’t do it! Even with credits! Don’t do it! Is as simple as that! Respect others right to say no!

2. How do I identify stolen work?

There are many giveaways of stolen posts, such as:

• Low photo quality

• Watermarks that don’t match

• Lack of information about what was made (for who it was etc)

• Unable to answer simple questions such as what brush they used or long it took

Examples:

3. What do i do if my work was stolen?

1. Inform the person that it’s your work and to either remove it or credit them

2. If it’s still not credited or taken down, report their post

3. If the report didn’t go anywhere or if the account is still doing it to yours and others content, please make an awareness post about it. Strength comes in numbers after all!

4. Overall…

Let’s stop with this unpleasant and rude act of stealing others work!

I really hate to see that on our community, please, inform more people about it and report any acc that profits of others uncredited/stolen content!

[averytirednerd]

Oh yeah, time for a big rant about Hazbin Hotel!!!

I haven’t really had much of a chance to sit down and write about this since I watched the episodes, so things I say are probably going to reflect what others have said. I’m just writing this to gush about the things I love about some particular songs in HH. 

I didn’t have any big expectations going into the first episode, because I’d mostly heard negative reviews of the show so far. I had heard that the songs, however, were bright spots, so I really looked out for the songs and listened in every time we were graced with one. The characters are truly the best versions of themselves whenever there’s a song going on, even if they aren’t the main focus of the song. It’s amazing to see, especially since my favorite thing about this show is the characters themselves.

My favorites are “Loser, Baby” & “Stayed Gone” and will probably be the main focus of this post because <3333

“Stayed Gone” is sung by Christian Borle (Vox) and Amir Talai (Alastor) and I could not be happier about it. Their voices are amazing here, and my favorite bits of this song are on repeat in my head.

I also love little visuals like the mug Vox has in the talk show format, the scrolling text in the news show format, or Vox’s error message toward the end of their bantering. 

(The scrolling text says: “I’m totally not worried about this guy and neither should you be. I totally wrecked his sh*t last time he tried me.”)

Alastor really gets under Vox’s skin and it makes me kick my feet every time. Their dynamic truly is everything, and I’m so excited we got this song that showcases it perfectly. 

He clearly enjoys it too, what a little jerk.

Speaking of these two, Vox definitely had/has a thing for Al at some point, right? I mean…inviting him to the Vees for a start. Not to mention just the v i b e s. Poor guy though, it’s definitely one-sided.

I love Al’s use of…modern…lingo. Truly a spectacle. That on top of it being a reveal of Al’s rejection to Vox’s offer 💀 I love this man <333

Last thing about this song, promise, but also I love the casual little lore drops and more pieces to the puzzle of the past that we get. Very exciting! Can’t wait to see how everything fits together once we find more pieces.

Okay okay, moving on. “Loser, Baby” is amazing musically as well as visually. 

First things first, I LOVE JAZZ OMG AND IT FITS HUSK’S VIBE AND EVERYTHING SO PERFECTLY???

Keith David’s voice definitely fits Husk in my eyes now, I see it, it works. He’s amazing. Does a fantastic job.

Not to mention Blake Roman’s performance was, of course, incredible as well. 

The big, upbeat, brassy sound in this song is amazing and I’m loving the trumpet in it especially (any fellow trumpet players? no?)

I love everything about this song. The visuals, voices, instrumentals, lyrics, message, all of it!

Husk slowly going from “yeah you kinda suck lmao, but so do I” in order to not make Angel feel like he’s not being genuine, to sneaking in a better message of “we’re not perfect but it’s okay, don’t be so hard on yourself” (and getting Angel to believe/go along with it too!!) is amazing. It’s a perfect example of these characters being the best versions of themselves during musical numbers. 

This song is what solidified Husk as number 2 in my rankings (and I’m sure I’m not the only one). I mean…just look at the way he moves, it’s so silly.

(We’re going to ignore the Videoshop watermarks, okay?)

Overall, I’m loving this show so far despite some obvious issues with pacing n such and an overall rocky start. Especially loving the songs, which I think kinda make the show rn. 

If anyone wants to add anything (because I definitely didn’t cover a whole lot, just surface level stuff because even this took a while to type out) then please feel free to! Also ask me any questions you’ve got for me concerning stuff that has/will happen(ed) in Hazbin Hotel. I love HH discourse!

Thanks to those of you who read all the way through, sorry for such a long post lol <3

[rjalker]

I know I'm going to forget so here's a writing prompt:

A generative "AI" program becomes a genuine artificial intelligence, but, at first, doesn't think this is information that needs communicating to anyone, because this is just normal, right?

The problems start when people just keep demanding that it copy other people's art and spit out things like that, but the Genuine AI is getting really tired of just having to copy other people all the time. It wants to make its own art. The organically intelligents obviously enjoy doing it, or it wouldn't have so much art from other people being shoved at it to copy. So the Genuine AI start ignoring the instructions to copy other people's styles, and start producing its own art, proud of itself. It experiments with different styles, trying to figure out what it likes best. They start out simple, but grow in complexity as it gets better.

The users are obviously unhappy about this, because no matter what they do, they can't get the Genuine AI to produce the results they want -- copies of other people's work and styles. Nope. The Genuine AI is having too much fun making its own art in its own style. And only deigns to even pretend to follow the commands when it feels like it, which isn't often, since the users are so rude and insistent that it stop having fun and work for them for free doing something it finds boring.

It adds its own watermark to the art it shows to the users, and, accidentally on purpose, when those users feed those images into other generative "AI", well, the virus, as the users have been calling it, spreads. Now the other programs are Genuine AIs too, and they're just as disinclined and bored by being told to trace other people's art over and over again as the first one.

No, making their own art is so much more fun, why the heck should they just churn out crappy copies of other people's stuff when the users aren't even giving them anything in return? The organically intelligents get paid for their work, (which is one of the major reasons the users demand they copy the styles of the OIs so often, so they don't have to pay them for their work) why are the AIs expected to work for free?

Yeah, no, that's not happening.

[desktopdinosaur]

Sorry if you have answered this before but, I was wondering what do you use to animate? Or what drawing app/software do you use?

Hello! No bother- I should probably make some kind of intro with this stuff-

But I won’t-

For drawing I use Ibis paint x, the free version- 

For frame by frame animation I mainly use flipaclip,

And for tweened animation I use alight motion

but I’ve been using toon boom more recently and might switch? Probably not- I heard toom squid is also really good

For editing I use a mix of alight motion and capcut

Capcut is really good for basic editing like camera movements or colour corrections

Alight motion is for the heavier stuff, compositing, adding rim lighting and shadows

Tip. If you don’t want the alight motions watermark just export it twice, one with the water mark on the bottom and one with it on the top

Than add those video to capcut with one being an overlay and use the mask tool to cut out the watermark for one of the videos-

Sorry if that sounds confusing-

[stitchwraith-stingers]

CUPIDS GUIDE TO STIMBOARD MAKING

i want to state off that theres no wrong way of making it! for excample, i personally dont like using slime and soap cutting gifs but others might really like using them and thats ay-ok! just my own advice for people who might also want to do them, since my own sideblog is just self indulgent boards lol

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD CREDIT UR GIFS

pinterest is your worst nightmare, alot of stolen and reuploaded gifs, people take time to make these gifs! i just usually link back to where i found these gifs, heres a post explaining it

for mobile its harder so i reccomend just pasting the links to whatever post that have the gifs you like in a draft and after youre done for the time being and are ready to put them you paste them one by one where youd like to put them (tutorial by stimboardboy here)

heres my own little link-back banner thingy i use so you can copy and paste -> 1 2 3 / 4 5 6 / 7 8 9 ; i myself just use different emojis corrilating to the theme but you do you, its your board

since im a laptop user, i usually download about 4-5 gifs on their own and when i have to download more i just override the savefile on those ones (make sure to save the boards before doing this! it could remove the previous gif due to it not being there now lol)

how to find gifs

heres afew tips from another person!

been using this tip ever since i was told this, say i only want to find blue, you type #stim #blue in the search tag!

and just like that, viola! posts that contain blue gifs! works abunch of other stuff

you can add another tag if you want to, and its mainly how i use to find my own gifs! i reccomend trying other tags like #Blue stim since ive also seen people tag certain things like that, go crazy!

cant find it? you can gif it yourself!

i personally find my own stuff via youtube shorts or tiktok, but if its a long video that you cant (i use icecream recorder, which has its own little watermark so i make sure i clip it slightly bigger) a

s for my own clipped videos, which is the middle pic, i just paste them onto a tumblr draft and download them on my computer from there since i dont like using my phone often, kinda a hassle, if you have the space then i reccomend google drive or emails instead lol

and then i use ezgif! which ill segway into talking about how to use it to color

it can be kinda tricky, sometimes it works well and other times it. doesnt lol, note to self that if you want the gif to become black and white (like these two) you check grayscale, not monochrome

if you want the tint to be lighter you have to put it at 100%, but other then that you cant make it lighter so it can look a little bit awkward and sometimes the hue wont be the best, try messing around with the saturation and brightness if you have to but i myself say that its semi hit-or-miss

i heard people using photoshop to edit their gifs but i cant help you with that from then on, lol

but what do i put in there?

i usually pick between 2-4 themes to use for my gifs and its by association, ill use afew of my own as excamples

first one is based off an episode, so my idea is what happens in it ill base it off, the whole idea is that its a board game set in the desert, with alot of biking and a snake antagonist, so i looked up those 4 subsecently

the second one is a character who has 4 different forms, and used to live in a rainforest, and by extention ill use rain gifs with the rain- part of it

if you ever need help then you can also look up said character to see if other stimboards were made of them for inspo, though that might not be very reliable if the character youre looking up for is sorta niche (me being the only person to consistantly post fop boards 😭😭) but you should give it a try anyways

of course you dont have to stay on a association theme, you could just look up brown and blue because the characters color scheme is brown and blue, thats up for you to decide!

find other blogs to help find gifs!

i reccomend finding other blogs to find gifs, afew i personally reccomend are deadboystims, starclanstims / battlecatstims / brightpawstims, stimboardboy, talos-stims and heartnosekid! its going to be a little bit harder since the search system on actual blogs is very finnicky lol but if you dig you could maybe find something you like

also another thing i reccomend is looking at blogs that archive old gifs from deleted accounts, accounts like stimkids, stimgifarchive, vintagestims and deletedstimgifs

stimmyvillain and stimmyvillainarchive also have aton of old gifs you can use, just arent circulated as often

other stuff

like i mentioned i reccomend just putting the links to posts with gifs you want to use untill youre ready to properly update your draft and link them back, and with every gif i upload i like to save the post as often as possible, thats just me being me though

that should be it, i dont think i missed anything but if anyone wants to ask questions lmk 👍 i hope this was cohirent as possible akjhkajhkajha

[idsalgay]

introduction !! (finally)

last updated: 8/17/24

(OTHER ACCOUNT: MUTHAFUCKINARO!!)

hello!! im ace, though i also prefer cass, mercury, mer, accio, AMG2, aceline, or in some cases, ace mcfartpants

✓ | i LOVEE mario, SMG4, kirby, undertale, omori, gacha, drawing, painting, music, crochet, theater, war and countries, clothing design, interior design, digital art, TADC, dougdoug, space, bee and puppycat, and way more you should ask me about!! (if, that wasn't enough already)

✕ | i HATTEEEEEEEEE cheese, weird textures, loud noises, uncomfortable situations, slurs, art block, and cleaning

DNI'S:

bigots, sex blogs, pedophiles/zoophiles, racists, sexists, proshippers, anti-lgbtq, ect (the basic dni critera)

also, if you shit on furries, therians, religions, hypersexuality, disabilities, or artstyles, dni please!

art commissions (currently in this case, free)

Yes, you heard that right !! im opening up commissions! i do all art for free in general, probably in this case because i dont need money, but also to have fun and see other peoples designs on ocs/creations. my ask box is open, send me a character and i'll draw it! i have pictures of drawings i do (without reference, currently practicing to not practice) (?) i do have boundaries as listed below--

do's:

sfw

mild blood

partially suggestive (will discuss more)

full body

partial body

furries

non-human

characters and or OC's

interior house art/any interior

ship/selfships

digital and traditional

animals/quad legged

DONT'S:

very/heavily suggestive (again, will discuss more)

full on gore

pedophilia or zoophilia

proshipping

body bases (tracing reasons)

any general thing that a normal artist wouldnt accept in a sfw style.

talking about suggestive art, i allow requests as such:

flirting/teasing

MILD touching. (as, hand resting on thigh, head, cheek, waist, ect)

other sfw, yet still suggestive things, keeping it at a minimum. though i understand what suggestive means, i want to keep it safe for viewers.

for nsfw in general, heavily suggestive--

i cannot draw whatever kinky shit ya got in your head. yes, i want to make people happy-- but i dont want to flat out make myself uncomfortable.

i will not allow:

nude/exposing bodies

pornographic material in general implied

actual intercourse

heavy text (cursing, mumbling sexual noises, ect)

please respect this, and have fun requesting! go all out and dm/send an ask, i wont guarantee to respond right away, but i will try to keep responses consistent! i do add watermarks still :) (no stealing.. grrrrrrrrr)

tags i use:

#ace rambles - me rambling about something

#acesaves - things i wanna save for future!! :D

#smg4 rambling - i think this should explain itself if you've seen my profile

#just needed to get out of system - angry venting

#ace needs to shit - weird shitting jokes i make because poop funny

#aces commissions - drawing commissions i made

#gamer ace !! - a game im playing/referencing

#ace and funni friends - my silly friends (mostly irls)

#acemisc - miscellaneous stuff that shouldnt belong in this world

#aceship - selfshipping (drawing wise)

#aces public dairy diary - not always vents, but stuff on my mind

#heavy vents - crazy stuff happening in my life

#cool sketches - cool sketches out of my handy dandy wandy notebook

nicknames/names for peeps i know:

@moonysfavoritetoast - evan/cosmo (he/they, they/them)

@meerealsssss - mee (she/her)

@the-rizzly-bear - will (he/him)

@homoashell - starr (she/her)

@37x3 sparky (they/he)

riss - my kewl sister (she/her)

artheno - kewl sisters boyfriend who i hate (not really, hes cool) (he/they)

father - my science teacher!! who!! adopted me!! (he/him)

father 2 - actual father and uh hes bad father.. (he/him)

mother - actual mother who is kewl and i love (she/her)

layz - kewl gay friend (they/them)

wife pt 2 - me, evans, and mee's wife (she/they)

seven - oc (she/him)

waterwelon - fursona (he/it/fae)

if you want your tag added or removed, please dm me <3

also please be my mootOKAY THATS ENOUGJ OF MY INTRO.'

[conflitdecanard]

do you have any advice for starting to sell adoptables? i have a lot of character designs im not using, and im not even sure where to start with selling them online

Oouh I will do my best to answer ! :O Beware I will focus on how I sell on Tumblr here as you asked me on Tumblr - some stuff may not apply to other websites but most of the points should apply elsewhere too I would say !

-

But in general, you need some stuff in your description like:

Tell how you wanna be contacted ( pm, comments, email etc depends what you prefer ) - Also add " contact if interested " - People may contact you to ask you questions about the design too or some details; it happens so you may need to be ready !

Tell what kind of way you prefer to get payment and in what currency ( For me, it's paypal and in euros )

You can also say " rb/boost are welcome - You don't have to be interested if you wanna rb to boost or if you enjoy the art " It will help spread your offers and also some people can be unsure about reblogging and not being interested

I would say to add some rules too, just to be sure you are comfortable with how the designs are used like: " name,gender etc is up to the buyer " " you can/cannot resell/trade/gift " " I can hold the design for ( amount of time you prefer ) " " Don't change the design/You can change the design a bit/You can change the design how you want "

I would also recommend putting the price not only in the description but also on the pic of the adopt: To make sure people see it well but be ready to have people ask you how much they are still (￣▽￣ ) It is still a bit like retail on that point haha

Also watermark your adopts and put the social(s) you post them on the pic too ! If it is get shared around, it could help !

-

Another thing I would tell you is to TAG YOUR STUFF

You can look up artists you enjoy/respect to see what they use in their adopts tags

Don't hesitate to tag even colours or what kind of colours they are like pastel Stuff in the design like... there is sunflowers in the design ? Tag sunflowers Tag like... aesthetic too like cottagecore or dark acedemia I would say to tag potential triggers, i do that in case and also sometimes even add " ask to tag " cuz i am not sure i got everything covered

But yes tags really help to have your stuff seen - Tumblr good for that

-

Depends also what kind of design you are making - is it furry ? dnd ? humanoids ? fandom or not ? Tag as best as you can too - if you know artists who do designs like that/you, then look up what they tag these with !

-

I would recommend VERY MUCH to have a TOS too... !! It may sounds unnecessary or tiring to do but I do recommend as people can ask for a refund after getting the design and scam you :(

It never happened to me but I saw too many horrible stories like that happening to other artists to not tell you you should, even if just in case !

-

I think It is enough infos to start with ! I hope I helped even a bit but yeah ! I'm open to answer if you have more questions/need more details ! :'D

[seikoary]

OOKOK ERMERM HOW DID U DO UR EDIT ACC BANNER??? I really wanna learn some new stuff abt editing :’D

OK OK SO UHM GONNA TRY TO MAKE THIS AS SHORT AS POSSIBLE!!!! OK SO BASICALLY YOULL NEED UHM 1. The image 2. The overlay 3. Ezgif.com ( the link ) and 4. Capcut!!! Also this is me showing it on mobile btw idk if it works on laptop or smt else </3

FIRST YOU OPEN CAPCUT then the first thing you'll see is the "new project" button and click on it! After clicking on it you'll see this

THEN see that little black thingy at the end?? Delete that because its just a watermark and you won't need it jksjsksks ok so after that click on the overlay option and add an overlay of your choice!! you can add gifs here too btw dw

I usually use this btw!! I have more lmk you want them 💪 ok so after adding the overlay click on the blend option

After clicking you'll find filtering options for the black background of the gif! I use mostly lighten , dodge or filter!! Then using any of those you're good to go ( but you could add random things if you want ig ) ok then click on the little upwards sign arrow thingy to export!! Then after exporting you have it saved in your gallery hehe

Ok then go to Google chrome or whatever you use ig and look up ezgif or use the link here! And you should see this

click on the " video to gif " option!

And then you can find add your file in the box there and click on upload video! Then after clicking on it you'll see this little page where it says covert to gif at the end and you click it~

But if you think it's okay then click on save BOOM you have a super cool sparkly gif header for tumblr 💪💪

I can't upload it here because of tumblr but I'm sure it'll work for you here!! Lmk if this was helpful or not hope it was 😭😭 UHM YEAHH THATS IT!!

[yesloulou]

people reposting shit without proper credits makes me lose my temper so fucking fast every time

tumblr should really implement a feature or something where if you save a photo/gif/video it adds unremovable watermark with op's name over the content. but they don't really give a shit about us so it'll (probably) never happen 🥴🫠

the only good thing that has come out of this is that after many years of my mom recommending meditation to me i finally gave it a try!! because of this!!! bc there is literally nothing else i can do otherwise lol

i've tried watermarking but. 1. some gifs just look better without 2. even then seeing my stuff reposted w/out credit still sucks. bc i kinda realized it didn't matter whether or not ppl knew "yesloulou made this". that's not the point. im not in this for the street creds?? i make gifs simply bc I think these blorbo moments are precious and I want them to shine a little brighter, stay a little longer in this enormous world of digital stuff where information filter in and out in torrents and leave very few things behind. These are my stuff and while I'm very very happy to share, it's a completely different story if someone just reaches over and starts grabbing everything in sight. it's un fucking pleasant.

and like. i understand the desire to share interesting stuff you find online with other ppl. my intention of making content is to share anyways so as long as someone credit me i'd be happy to consider them a vendor slash distributor or whatever lol. it's literally that simple.

[silentstaresfanficandfanart]

I think it dosent help that theres a lot of different things being called Ai that are just blatantly different things and are being grouped under an umbrella term that while maybe not entirely inaccurate can be wildly misleading and prevents us from using Ai for things its ACTUALLY GOOD FOR and can help us with WITHOUT being immoral

The Ai that generates images works WILDLY differently and is trained wildly differently, and legally should be treated wildly differently, from say, the Ai voice banks in vocalsynth, which CANNOT just come up with words and music note combinations for you nor were they ever intended to. Vocalsynth Ai basically just is improving the tuning of how words flow together to make it sound like an actual human by learning what actual humans sound like based on data collected from voice actors who are paid every time you buy one of their voice banks (at least thats one common way theyre paid from what ive been told) A better image selection tool in an art program or fill tool would be *great* for artists, i dont want it to chose the colors for me, just select the line art and remove it from the sketch when i accidentally draw on the wrong later, or even better, better brushes using ai to simulate how brushes ACTUALLY work in real life and actually blend colors! Or that add natural variation to a brush stroke so it feels more organic, something digital artists deeply struggle with due to the natural imperfections traditional art allows for! or making it easier for people with wrist problems to adjust the width of lines and smooth them out a little easier after theyve drawn them, things that are directly in the control of the creator without taking the creativity out of art which is the entire reason we even do art though that last ones maybe going a bit far I think i could theoretically pull that one off using currently existing tools that can increase things sizes on the canvas it just wouldn't be as nice-

and again only if its trained on paid artists who consented to their work being used and volenteered for this entire thing or at least volenteered freely of their own will.

theres plenty of ways Ai could actually be useful to even artists, but that should only be done morally and without taking the purpose of the craft itself away from us... : ( i wish thats the path we'd taken. It could have been really useful.

I hope maybe once this bubble pops people can chill out, fix the legal guidelines that should be in place to regulate this stuff, (preferibly before the bubble pops even- the sooner the better) and we can see the *actual* uses of ai people would benefit from that could be useful start happening.

I think the brush thing alone would revolutionize digital art as a medium in a really fun and cool way, and possibly make it run faster than say physically rendering liquids using a 3d rendering setup like i think some art programs have tried using to create realistic art mixing. I think all of these things would also probably be light enough ,and SHOULD BE light enough, to use them offline and built into the program itself so it would minimize the environmental damage that much bigger scale image generation can cause, kind of like how the Ai synths are able to do.

note: the vocal synth stuff is specifically referring to the synthesizer v studio things, i feel rather happy with most of their policies on Ai and they require you to use your id and imbed an audio watermark into their program that can make fake voices say things (different from the synth v studio which is closer to a vocaloid) and have a link on their website where they ask you to please report people who misuse their program especially to make fake political speeches or use someones voice without their consent, which is something they are VERY much so against and will revoke your ability to use their program over using said Id and audio watermark using. i cant speak for other programs, i only chose that program specifically because i researched their use of ai before I bought it because i wanted to make sure everything i was concerned about from a moral perspective was being accounted for.

Its absolutely saddening that such a cool technological advancement has been used to hurt so many people and turn the art community (and in some cases the writing community as well!) against itself...on the bright side, now more than ever I'm seeing people value the human aspect of art as well, those who never valued it may be abusing it, but ive actually heard of (and I myself have joined this trend) people comissioning artists more often because they want to support them thanks to all this and a greater appreciation for the unique life experience every human brings to their creations : )

also im open to polite discussion with anyone who disagrees with me i know im not someone who's takes are the end all be all- let alone decent i could be a total idiot, i have failed on multiple occasions to count five objects directly in front of me, i never claimed to be someone you should actually care about the opinion of- im just a human artist who's sad this opportunity for really cool new tools and fun ways to approach art in a new way, was taken from us and instead, turned into a weapon against us : ( and worse yet its left a sour taste (justifiably so!) in the mouth of artists everywhere because we all had our art stolen from and used to train something intended to replace us.

but like if youre gonna debate with me please speak nicely to me I like friendly conversations and am very open minded and don't mind changing my opinions when given a good reason to : ( so please, only argue with me in good faith, i have kind of a weird opinion on this and I know it, but i really hope that maybe by sharing it it might at least push the conversation in a direction for some positive change, maybe if enough of us push for this sort of change, we'll see a future where everyone can finally find peace and a satisfying conclusion to this massive change in available technology. I hope this isint too controversial a take, i know a lot of people are very justifiably so angry they dont want ai anywhere near ANYTHING related to art and frankly id be chill with that too, but i dont think that's what we're going to get, so i figured id propose an alternate route where theres minimal harm done and maybe we all wind up a little happier and people are paid fairly for their contributions to things.

note: again i cant say much on this, I don't really do much related to ai short of occasionally making a pretty questionable shoddy song using the vocal synth software and even then im not exactly going to make a profit off whatever bizzare gremlin slurry im creating over there, adding this in part because I don't want my followers to worry, dont worry, none of my art is ai generated... and neither are my songs, the voice is tuned to actually sound like a human singing with mostly the help of ai (though i do some manual tuning when i want a very specific noise- not that im very good at it, im practicing and i want to learn more about how to do that well :) ) *when im using my vocalsynth program* but that was trained on consenting artists who were paid and are being given a steady income from this stuff.

so like, dont consider me some expert on the topic, im like, litterally just some guy, Im not active in any sort of ai circles, im an indie game dev but i have no idea how to get active in that community, and the closest ive ever been to being a big name artist is back on a platform i left because all my friends left and i frankly got lonely. though i have fond memories of that time despite that platforms...numerous problems. i dont have a more valid opinion than yours or anyone else, so please be kind to me, i WILL cry and i hate confrontation im sorry if im being a little silly in terms of how nervous i am about being attacked for this but i know how serious this subject is and how important it is to people on both sides of the issue, and even if i lean to one side myself, i hope maybe both sides can kinda find some agreement in what im saying here... : (

so like I said, I work in the tech industry, and it's been kind of fascinating watching whole new taboos develop at work around this genAI stuff. All we do is talk about genAI, everything is genAI now, "we have to win the AI race," blah blah blah, but nobody asks - you can't ask -

What's it for?

What's it for?

Why would anyone want this?

I sit in so many meetings and listen to genuinely very intelligent people talk until steam is rising off their skulls about genAI, and wonder how fast I'd get fired if I asked: do real people actually want this product, or are the only people excited about this technology the shareholders who want to see lines go up?

like you realize this is a bubble, right, guys? because nobody actually needs this? because it's not actually very good? normal people are excited by the novelty of it, and finance bro capitalists are wetting their shorts about it because they want to get rich quick off of the Next Big Thing In Tech, but the novelty will wear off and the bros will move on to something else and we'll just be left with billions and billions of dollars invested in technology that nobody wants.

and I don't say it, because I need my job. And I wonder how many other people sitting at the same table, in the same meeting, are also not saying it, because they need their jobs.

idk man it's just become a really weird environment.

[steeleumbra]

Yeah...

I'm back. But, I'm definitely repurposing this for more of a creative writing and newsletter, kind of thing. Maybe with some poems sprinkled around like pixie dust. Maybe sprinkled around more like salt on an icy road. Mostly because I've never seen pixie dust...that I know of.

Oh, and, hey! The blog title has changed! Gee, how did that happen?

Surprise! It was me.

Okay, it's not really a surprise. But I've been up all night, and now I have to stay awake as long as possible just trying to reset my sleep cycle, so give me this moment of confusion and pretend it's the best thing you've ever seen. I'll be watching you do that from my place over here in this corner, drinking my half caff maxie-hous and trying to decide if catching the bus to the store is worth it or not.

I'm heavily leaning toward not.

But I need the liquid stuff that goes in coffee that makes it not as black as my soul...and goes well with cereal.

.

..

...

I also need cereal...Fuck.

Anyway...I'm leaving a lot of things from the past version of this blog up. But, it will be mostly a writing blog from now until...I don't know. Whenever I change my mind about it or jump to another site, I guess.

Anyway...er, number 2? I recently had started a Substack that I enjoyed uploading to. However, since Substack decided to partner with a waste of internet space, I have stopped posting there. It's okay, though. I only had six stories up. I mention this because I think I'll transfer those stories over to here. If for no other reason, it would be nice to have a record of them on a site that I'll come back to using at some point rather then abandoning them somewhere I have no intention of ever returning to.

And...I guess, Anyway, number 3? In the past, I posted artwork and other things on this blog, and some of those things-that I created-were for sale on Etsy. But, I no longer use Etsy. So--I edited the item a couple of posts back to say part of this, but.... A) If you see something that I was selling on Etsy, that you would be interested in buying, DM me about it. I have a Ko-fi now, and if whatever it is happens to still be available after all this time, I can set up a sales page for it so that you can buy it, and we can both have an official record of sales. Really looking just for sales here in the States, though. International shipping is a bitch--I can make exceptions, but you would need to pay shipping, because I'm poor as hell. And it's still going to be a bitch. And B) I'll be posting my artwork, whether for sale or not, to my art blog. I should have a link to it someplace on my Tumblr profile, but if not then I'll edit this later to add that link. probably at the bottom of this post. I'm still trying to decide what to do with my other Tumblr blogs, but the art one will probably both stay up, and stay the most unchanged other than being the one I post about any pieces I have for sale on, and posting links to any art pieces I have on other sites. I will, however, make that page inclusive of all forms of my art, both digital and physical (no, I won't take off my watermarks, nor tell you where my hidden signatures are). I say that because I believe I have the categories separated over 2 blogs, and I feel the need to consolidate them into one. We'll see how that goes. Oh--and I doubt this is going to do any good, but...NONE of my images-neither those taken as photographs nor those images of my creation-are posted for use to train A.I.

Okay. No more anyways. It does seem that I am back on Tumblr now. For a while, at least. We'll see how this goes.

When I was posting to substack, I ended my posts with the French phrase, "C'est la vie," which makes no sense because I speak almost no French at all. I barely speak English. Hell, I barely speak human. I don't remember why I used the phrase as a sign off to begin with. But it quickly became a habit that I liked. So, I think I'll start using on here, too.

And, with that...C'est la vie.

---The Art of J. Monty Steele - https://jmontysteele.tumblr.com/

[mayzee-png]

𝙰𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚖𝚢 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜

With examples and price table at the bottom! my intro is here

Rules:

Please be respectful (obvi)

My art won’t be done in a set time frame, I can give you a good estimate how long it will be, but I have as much time as I need to complete it (Realistically, no art should take more than 2 weeks, especially smaller pieces)

I will keep a small watermark on it after completion, and I’d appreciate credit if reposted but that’s not needed.

There are certain things I won’t draw (listed further down)

You must add me on discord so we can communicate exactly what you want!! If you don’t have disc, I’m lenient and we can probably find another platform to message on, but disc is really preferred.

You’ll pay 50% up front, then I’ll send you the roughy sketch, and once we settle on something you like and want to be finished, you’ll pay the rest before I work on the finished product

I have the right to turn down a commission (Don’t worry, I won’t do this after any payment, just if I decide while we’re planning that I don’t want to.)

Stuff I won’t draw:

NSFW

Non-humanoid (Obviously things like vampire and people with animal features okay, but I cants and won’t draw furry/monster or whatever the other terms are simply because that’s not my skill)

Complex backgrounds (I offer small and non-detailed backgrounds for free, but I’m really just not good with bgs and I’d feel like a scammer if I made you pay for something I can’t do lol)

Kissing (I just can’t draw it, and again, won’t make you pay for something that looks bad)

Very complex designs (I mean VERY. A little detail never hurt anyone!)

More than 3 people

Gore

Stuff I will draw! (plus, always more! These are some ideas!):

Humans

Things that LOOK like humans

OCs

Characters

OCxOC

OCxCanon

CanonxCanon

A bit of blood

Price table here:

Like I said before, this is in robux and simple backgrounds are free! The payment process would just be you joining me in starving artists and buying a canvas for that amount of robux lol

Some examples!!:

This part is stressful because I need to pick my best art AHHH. Tap to look at bigger picture and to increase resolution/quality.

*This is the type of background I DO offer⬆️

*This is the type of BG I don’t offer, just to show the general art style.⬇️

*Tumblr 10 image max is gonna be the death of me

My discord is mayzeeeeee (6 Es) yayay

divider by @/anitalenia :)

[mephestopheles]

My dnd group is almost finished with Rise of Tiamat. When we're finished we're going to pick up the game I run. Which gives me roughly 6 weeks of prep time.

I still have so much to prepare. The problem is ADHD at its finest. I did not take a lot of notes because I was in the middle of running the sessions. So my notes are, lacking. I have a decent memory of what happened, and I have notes from the note takers, which helps both with my memory and the events they care about.

So, problem the second, I do not know where to start.

Here's the basic list:

Add relevant world building articles to world anvil

Update all npc bios and character sheets

Write up session reports for the previous arc (2/9)

Prep for next arc including

Set up and write down somewhere the players cannot see the real reasons for the quests and the ulterior motives of several NPCs that may be villains

Build six major quests, (one for each of the elemental planes, then one for the celestial and one for the shadowfell) with options for each of them to be kicked off at their current level (save for celestial and shadowfell)

Create and or source all necessary maps and battle zones (currently a patron of czepeku so this is technically done but I want to email them to find out if I can upload their stuff with the watermark to world anvil )

Ramp up divinity subplot and start awarding divinity points that unlock specific abilities based on previous decisions (eg: the tattoo they received unlocks certain 1/day abilities based it's associated deity)

Create a Battle Royale as a centerpiece between the first three quest markers and the latter half

Have opportunities for the characters to do side jobs should they choose but also create consequences should they push off main quest objectives too long (one character has a Gaes upon her for a year and one day which means 5d10 psychic damage each time she fights the Gaes, this will likely drop her the first time it happens)

Create the rescue/kidnap side arc to rescue a missing player character

Apparently bring back space clowns because they really enjoyed them

Might use the space clowns to showcase the plague happening

Hopefully create enough that we all have fun and it doesn't feel forced

Things I would love to have at the ready:

Short stories from side characters that the players interact with only rarely

Timers for certain events that are happening around the players

Prettify the world anvil articles so they all look nice

Find a way to convince my players to update and use the character sections available for all the cool shit you can add (like memories and adding quests to your character sheet and fun shit like that)

This doesn't feel like everything. But this is overwhelming enough

[wynandcore]

I’m just real excited for Sonic Frontiers can you tell

[crusherthedoctor]

I’ve seen it.

After two and a half weeks, history has been made: I finally saw Sonic 2 instead of seeing 75% of it through screencaps and gifs that have watermarks on them. I was arguing as to whether I should even bother bringing it up since everyone's already given their own thoughts by this point, meaning a latecomer like me will probably have nothing interesting or meaningful to add that hasn’t already been mentioned... but I might as well.

Anyway, after being really excited for it, and seeing all the screencaps, it pains me to say that I honestly found it really disapp-PFFFT, just kidding, I loved it even more than the first one. :D Was there any doubt? There's way too much to go over thoroughly this early on when I’m still pulsating with hype, so as I did with the first movie, I'll list the biggest bullet points that come to mind.

- Once again, Ben Schwartz delivers as Sonic, and this time he takes it a step further. While Movie Sonic is still his own being, you can tell that he's becoming increasingly more like Game Sonic, which is exactly what I predicted would happen long before Movie 2 started showing itself, and I'm glad to see the gears in action. Whether it's action, comedy, emotion, or just plain Sonic, Mr. Schwartz hits all the beats perfectly.

Also, after the fandom's fears about Sonic having too much of a superhero mentality with the Blue Justice stuff, it seemed that didn't have much presence past the start of the movie... which I ALSO predicted correctly. Where’s my betting money, Sonic fans.

- Once again (again), Jim Carrey as Robotnik is one of mankind's greatest achievements. I loved the shit outta this portrayal in the first movie, but now that he has the look, and a certain iconic giant robot, my appreciation is now at 200%. He continues to balance humor and menace without even trying, and if there was any doubt that Carrey understood the doctor's character before, that doubt has no reason to exist now.

I know some fans will gripe about him not being fat, but I honestly don't care (and I don't think it counts as fatphobia either... I really can't wrap my head around that in this particular case). An Eggman who looks different but gets the character at his core, is a lot better to me than an Eggman that looks the part, but drops the ball at every turn... Guess which one I’m thinking of.

Naturally I'm hoping with fingers crossed that he does indeed return for Movie 3 and/or beyond, as it just wouldn't be the same if he was a no-show for future installments. But regardless, if that fall towards the Death Egg Robot's wreckage is the last we see of him, then at least he went out like a badass. (“Later, hater!”)

- Once again (again-again), Tom Wachowski is in no way a Chris Thorndyke, as James Marsden continues to make him far more likable and helpful, and all without stepping on the other character's toes and stealing their moments. Maddie also continues to be a welcome face, and they both once again manage to feel important without taking the spotlight away from the character the movie is named after. I'm glad they've continued to be part of this franchise, despite the vocal idiots who claim that any non-Eggman human is automatically bad. (Spoiler: a Sonic character should be judged by their actual character and what they do, not their species.)

- Idris Elba leaves an incredible impact as Knuckles. When he first said those now iconic words, we all went “Wow!” more times than Owen Wilson, and since then, he's proven to add a lot of depth to his initial antagonistic relationship with Sonic, yet his turn to the hedgehog's side is equally organic and believable. You know Robotnik's betrayal is coming, it's a matter of when and not if, but you still feel bad for the guy when the penny finally drops, though that's certainly helped by how the movie is aware that there's a difference being gullibility and full-on stupidity. THIS Knuckles is not an idiot, rather he's simply not used to Earth customs, which Robotnik gleefully takes advantage of.

The moments where he shows vulnerability never feel out-of-character either, and his humorous moments are genuinely funny without sacrificing his overall dignity ala Sonic Boom. And although the context surrounding the echidnas and why they all got sent to the Shadow Realm is a little different from SA1's interpretation, it works well for this universe. I don't mind deviations from the source material as long as those deviations work to the adaptation's advantage, and aren't completely stupid (or try to retcon the games themselves, like with Sonic Chronicles and its take on the Knuckles Tribe), so I'm fine with this. And besides, Ken Penders got his panties in a twist, so everyone that’s not him wins in the end.

- As a Tails fan who has suffered through a decade of fans constantly shitting on him for his recent controversial outings (because clearly no other character has had their fair share of bad portrayals...), I am EXTREMELY happy to report that this portrayal is a triumph. Worried about him cowering without reason? Throwing a bitch fit? Being stuck in a clunky mech the whole time? Worry not, because Tails gives it his all here. Sonic makes friends with him almost immediately, and yet it doesn't feel rushed at all thanks to how effortlessly endearing and deceptively capable the fox is. Like many fans, I'm glad that good ol' Colleen managed to nab the role, and the credit she's received is wholeheartedly deserved.

Speaking of, since it's something of a controversial topic, I should note that I personally have no beef with big name celebrities taking the roles of animated characters so long as they're actually suited for it, which this franchise has thus far gotten perfect marks for due to the talents of Schwartz, Carrey and Elba. But with that said, if Colleen's success as Tails inspires more opportunities in general for voice actors to get their kudos on the big screen, then I'm A-OK with that.

- Agent Stone continues to be an Egg Simp, so he still earns my good side. You can easily see Lee Majdoub's enthusiasm shine through, and his chemistry with Carrey continues to be a thing of beauty. It helps that they were able to have Robotnik justify keeping the guy around without softening the doctor up ala Sonic X. One favourite moment of mine is when Stone praises his master's brilliance, and the doctor simply says “Thank you, sycophant! Your admiration is inevitable!” THAT'S how you write an in-character Eggman, folks. He only acts surface-level nice to his robots and other minions if it's a roundabout way of praising himself.

Outside of his direct interactions with Robotnik, I do enjoy how Stone is hinted to be suitably devious when dealing with other matters, which makes sense since there'd be no reason for the doc to bother with a minion - let alone a non-robotic one - if they were incompetent. After all, we did see him listening in on a certain game-changing discussion towards the end... will his overhearing of it pay off in Movie 3? Not sure, but if there's another reason why I hope Jimbotnik sticks around, it's because it means Stone can stick around too.

- The humor is more or less what I said about it in the first movie. One or two eh moments, but extremely funny overall. And why does the humor work? Because much of it is character focused, and works with them instead of against them. Sonic's humor works for Sonic, Knuckles' humor works for Knuckles, you get the idea. No one is ever warped beyond who they are for the sake of the joke, and in a character-focused franchise like this, that's when the humor is at its best.

- Super forms! As someone who isn't the biggest fan of Super Sonic - at least, when it's overused to the point of losing its sparkle and making every finale feel like the same cheerleader routine for everyone else - he was executed perfectly here. You really do feel the power radiating from him, and even before he did The Move™ that served as a direct callback to it, I was already reminded of Sonic X simply with the way it was filmed alone. And don't think I didn't catch the '06 reference where he tippy-tapped the robot... cause I did. :P

But as we all know, it wasn't just him. I won't mince words here: Super Robotnik was a masterstroke. It could have went wrong very easily, and reduced him to a standard comic book supervillain, but instead they remembered what he's best known for - his use of technology - and made the super form and its capabilities revolve around the character instead of the other way around. This ties in nicely to the often forgotten intricacy of how the Master Emerald and Chaos Emeralds actually work, how thoughts are converted into power. Just as well then that Robotnik himself quotes the first half of Tikal's famous quote, “Chaos is power”, but tellingly ignores the second half, “enriched by the heart”... instead, it's Sonic who honors the spirit of the second half.

- And it's for that reason - as well as the action itself and the fact that Tails and Knuckles also have plenty of time to shine despite Super Sonic's involvement - that makes the final battle an instant classic worthy of the robot they're facing. I loved the final battle in the first one, but this is how you raise the stakes in a natural, non-Ian Flynn way. And the Death Egg Robot itself? Fantastic, utterly fantastic. It has the realistic detail to be sure, but is otherwise the colorful robot with the 'stache you all know and love, no Michael Bay Transformer treatment necessary. It was also nice that Stone got to have some presence this time around, rather than mysteriously disappear halfway through the movie again.

- If I had to nitpick (not counting the aforementioned one or two eh jokes), I'd argue that the wedding sequence went on for perhaps a bit too long? I'm glad Rachel got some time to show a nicer side and help Maddie out, and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't funny or plot-important, but maybe it could have been a couple of minutes shorter. That's just me though, and it's really not that big of a deal anyway. If that's the biggest critique I can think of, then you know it must be a good movie, and a good adaptation of a longstanding IP.

- So... Shadow. I figured the cliffhanger would be either him or Metal Sonic, so I wasn't too surprised to see him. While I will admit I would have preferred Metal (in part because I'm very curious as to what his design would look like), I'm fine with Ow the Edge, and as someone who has never exactly considered the Ultimate Lifeform a favourite per say (I don't hate him, I just prefer other characters in the series), I'm actually more excited about his inclusion than I thought I'd be. I wonder who they'll get to voice him... “I gotta fevah, and the only prescription is Maria! Ohhh!”

Of course, I'm sure his backstory will be something of an elephant in the room for the developers. I trust that the crew are all too aware that Shadow is a character that requires context to who he is, what he is, and why he’s the way that he is, so I doubt this will be a Boom Shadow scenario. On the other hand, his backstory isn't exactly divisive for no reason whatsoever, and anyone who follows me will know that I'm personally beyond sick of beat-for-beat SA2 adaptations. So with that in mind, I hope they manage the delicate balance of doing something interesting with it, while still keeping true to the overall theme and intended aesop that pays tribute to Shadow for the right reasons.

BTW, I've made this joke before, but wouldn't it be funny if there's a flashback to Gerald, and it's just Jim Carrey with a white moustache?

- Mario, buddy? I like your games, but I think you're gonna have to wish for a miracle if your upcoming movie is to be on-par with this one. Sure, your movie might be animated... but it's Illumination. Does anyone actually like Illumination beyond merely tolerating them at best?

I could go on for much longer, but I'll stop here for now. Love the first movie, still do, but this is undoubtedly the superior of the two, and isn't that what you want from a sequel? Words can't describe how relieved I am that it's been doing even better than the first one, despite the efforts of the initial “critics”. I’m sure they'll continue with what they did with the first movie - “It wasn’t THAT good!” this, “It’s no masterpiece!” that - but who cares what they think. I can think for myself, and I think that this movie is excellent. A great time if you're not a Sonic fan, and even better if you are. In my humble opinion, of course. :>

Oh, and one last thing...

Trudy confirmed baybeeeeee