#i wasnt posting because i wasnt drawing and especially not digitally

[tabooiart]

okay so i've been working on some hadestown designs on and off for MONTHS and i wasnt planning on posting them until they were all done but i decided to post what i have done to maybe motivate me to finish the rest. so heres the two main couples!! every time i listen to hadestown a little fake production plays in my head so i wanted to get it out into the world. notes under the cut i have a lot to say <3

my orpheus is a butch lesbian idc you cant take this away from me

i'm bringing back the jean jacket from the london production because i love it so much but ALSO because its always bothered me that orpheus is the only human character that doesnt get a jacket for the winter?? it's worn for some scenes in act 1 including wait for me but is gone in act 2. i imagine she lost it at some point during the journey to the underworld, especially because its so hot down there

the idea was that orpheus' clothes are pretty nice (nice slacks, nice shoes) but theyre all worn out. scuffed shoes, baggy knees, holes in the shirt etc etc

patch on the knee matches eurydice's dress <3

i like the idea of eurydice having a bright dress under her huge dark coat. during summer she is happy and opening up to orpheus so her wardrobe changes to reflect that. but on the flip side during winter when her coat is stolen she is forced to bare her raw self to hades

she keeps her headband even in her hades uniform to show shes still holding onto her fading memories and individuality

okay so while i was working on this i came to the realization that i dont really like persephone's dress that much. and then i realized i can do whatever i want.

i referenced a lot of 30's evening gowns. i wanted something poofy and with a lot of movement. not super happy with how i drew the sleeves but its hardddd

theres this one persephone wig that has gray streaks in her hair i loveeee

both dresses of hers would be very shimmery and sparkly. im imagining a lot of subtle texture thats just hard to capture with digital art

i still HATE drawing suits

not a lot to say about hades i didnt stray too far from his established look because its so perfect

OH i added a red pocket square to both match the red back of his vest but also to be evocative of his heart! like under all the layers and walls he still has some feelings lol

[kikiomoriartworks]

Sorry for not posting here in a VERY long time

Im more active on Twitter (But that might change soon) and Instagram, but I'll start posting on Bluesky often soon and I might post art here but I havent decided yet <3

Meet my new Digital Circus oc, Cerrie <3

Its very fun to draw her so you might see her a lot on my socials lol

~~~

Cerrie, the Little Doll Girl

A strange little girl, who cannot speak and only could speak garbled mess (At least at first). She's very quiet, childlike and adorable to the eyes of many. What was behind the frown face of hers?

~~~

Under tab for her relationships with the gang

Cerrie's relationships with the gang, when the little girl appeared the first time, she couldnt speak at first because of a traumatic incident that led her to here so Caine has to give her her name. She could only speak in broken garbled language overtime of her stay until she could actually talk again.

• Ragatha and Cerrie's relationship is very much of a mother/child esque bond. When Cerrie first appeared, she appears stoic but is terrified to be around people she doesnt know on the inside of her broken, traumatized soul. She never felt a motherly touch her whole life until she met Ragatha. The woman whos very caring and worried for the little girl, Cerrie was very confused and fearful that the rag doll woman would hurt her too, but thankfully it wasnt the case. Cerrie was joined by the hip with Ragatha ever since as her best friend/surrogate daughter. The child knows that the woman has her own set of problems, but she is very loyal to her newly formed mother figure.

• Pomni and Cerrie's bond is a little shaky at best, but eventually Cerrie saw her as an aunt figure. Cerrie thrives on being a menace to her and Jax each time the two are forced to babysit her during adventures. Cerrie is aware that the poor jester woman has her own problems too. The two gets compared a lot with their constant frowny faces and big sad eyes. Cerrie trust Pomni second after Ragatha.

• Cerrie and Jax's bond is an on again, off again kinda friendship. When she starts speaking again, she can be brutally honest and a little insulting at times, which impressed the jerk rabbit. Jax calls her "Bat Wings" because the sides of her head looked very much like bat wings. Cerrie is one of the very few circus members who knows that Jax is masking his emotions, but not much Cerrie could do due to her young age. Sometimes, the rabbit use her like a football and her not feeling a thing, which freaks out Ragatha without fail even though Cerrie is always unharmed.

• Kinger and Cerrie's bond isnt too shown at times, but Cerrie looks him up as a grandfather that she longed to have. The chess piece shows her all kinds of insects and his pillow fort as a reminder of his lost wife which someday he'll tell Cerrie about Queenie for she is too young to comprehend on what happened to her. Because of her newfound knowledge of insects, Cerrie would mostly bring dead bugs to the gang which makes Ragatha scared out of her mind, especially if Cerrie brought over a dead centipede.

• Gangle ADORES Cerrie very much and reminded her a lot of a stuffed animal she saw in an anime once. With the ribbon taught Cerrie how to draw, The child would sometimes draw a paper mask for Gangle if her comedy mask broke, which made Gangle cry out of joy of Cerrie's kindness. The child is patient with Gangle because she reminded her of herself in her past life that she would rather not remember.

• Zooble and Cerrie's relationship is a complicated one for sure. They are freaked out by Cerrie's stoic nature and her just up and ready for crazy adventures and her desire to not leave. Due to Zooble's grumpy nature, Cerrie isnt too fond of them because of her traumatic past with her mother being constantly mad at her. When push comes to shove, the mix and match member wouldnt hesitate to stand up for Cerrie if Jax went too far with her being thrown around like a ball.

• The one person or rather AI that Cerrie cannot stand is Caine, due to him dismissing her feelings and making everything worse for her and her fellow circus members. With him constantly yelling into her ear, it triggers a trauma response from the child, who cannot stand being yelled at, even when the AI is cheery. Caine of course being extra careful with Cerrie due to her being the youngest member, but he does more harm to her than good even if he didnt mean it.

[sonayesul]

Junior Thesis

some stuff I worked on for my junior thesis project earlier this year. Ill share the full finished comic later on but for now enjoy these character designs and such 🫶

the watercolor version of the cover looked too much like bradley james when that was like, not the point of the assignment, which is why the finished digital version looks so much different. I still prefer the original watercolor version but i tend to always favour my watercolor versions of things

In depth explanation below cut

the junior thesis assignment was the adapt a book into a six page comic and we could have creative freedom with certain things and the book only ever mentioned the color of guenever's hair and eyes, NOT her skin color or features and so I had my fun with her design. the ONLY description they give lancelot in the entire book is that hes ugly and beauty is subjective so i gave him "non traditional" features. In one of my original sketches for him, he was going to have crooked teeth, but unfortunately i do not draw teeth well LMAO. I wanted Arthur and Lancelot's designs to contrast each other as well. Arthur is shorter and stockier where Lance is taller and thinner, Arthur keeps his feelings quiet while Lance wears them on his chest, and then i wanted there to be the stark color difference too between them.

Morgause and Mordred were fun, but they both had a lot more descriptive descriptions in the book, so I didn't get as much creative control outside of their outfits. I assigned the Lot family the color blue and the Camelot cotizens red to try and contrast better throughout the story and it was kinda fun cause it made mordred look like an ice prince or something.

also despite gwen lance and arthur being around the same age at the point of my comic, i wanted to try and make arthur look the oldest, sort of visually show how much being king and his decisions has weighed on him, especially since the scene I adapted was pretty heavy.

also i did have a reference page for gwen but at some point it got deleted? so in this its just a fun drawing I did of her holding excalibur instead. I do also have a full reference drawing for exacalibur in my files that was useless because i never ended up drawing it in the comic LMAO

the last photo is the cornwall sisters, Elaine, Morgan and Morgause. With their designs i had fun trying to make them look related to each other, to Arthur and their parents but also try to not make them all have the same face. Elaine looks like her mother, Morgan looks like her father, Morgause looks like a mix of both (Uthers hair color but Ygraine's hair style, Uther's face but Ygraine's eye color) and Arthur looks like a perfect blend of both too. I sort of did the same with Mordred where I took features from both morgause and arthur to make him look related but like his own person. Ygraine and Uther are only in one panel so there's no proper ref for either of them.

This project was a five month process, six if you count writing the script to fit within a six page comic without losing any details from the book and creating my pitch for my professor (all of which was done over winter break)

The project took FOREVER and I definitely am not happy with the final result but its due to the fact i had frequent doctor visits and hospitalisations and wasnt able to work on it as much as I had wanted, PLUS i had an eight page comic for another class i worked on also over the same five months (and i was more focused on that one as it was my own original characters)4

regardless though, i do still like it, just wish it cane out better in the end lmao

will prolly post the full comic in a day or two :3

[sad-leon]

Hello! I hope you're having a good day!

So many people in my life seem to be going through something right now, and I just wanted to give you an opportunity to share anything you might be going through. Good or bad, as specific or as vague as you're comfortable with. Or feel free to ignore if you'd rather not. No pressure at all!

I hope things are going well for you! But if not, I'll be sending prayers your way if you're comfortable with that!

I am... not.

and i haven't for a long time

I'll preface this entire post with a warning: THIS IS A VENT POST the only tags will be trigger warnings

I thinks i've said it once or twice, but I started school this year. This is my first year in college after taking a gap year and also telling everyon i wasnt gonna go. I know jack shit about what im doing and its fucking exhausting. Theres so many things that i feel like I should know but dont because all the college information given out in my highschool was geared toward the college in that town specifically, which is not the college im going to.

I've also moved. im entirely on my own, physically and financially. I just met with my job and am starting very soon which is not good because my sleep schedule is all wrong. I may be switching jobs soon, but i can't just quit becuase, like i said, im on my own.

and those are only the big two. lets speedrun this. my anxiety, my autism, i need new glasses, my feet hurt more than i think they should, im a system, my eating disorder, my aversions that make it hard to drink the water up here, the burnout, the exhaustion, executive dysfunction, i also likely have adhd which mean rsd. im touch starved and touch adverse

those are just what i can think of off the top of my head

but all of this had been leading to what might be a pretty nasty breakdown and soon.

im so fucking tired all the time and that makes it hard to draw, but thats one of my only ways to relax. i like playing mc, but i get bored easily and also i cant sit at my desk for long becuase it feels like my head is too heavy for my neck. it hurts. everything hurts and my job doesnt help me at fucking all.

i was able to draw tsob while dealing with most of my issues becuase all i had to worry about was work. looking at my current schedule, i can find the free time. the issue is using that freetime to draw and not just sleep or dissociate. finding home is very dear to me, but drawing it the way i am can be exhausting and i dont want to start hating it, so i just.. dont draw it most days

i stress constantly about how i appear on my blog becuase i want so badly to do this right. i want to be good at something, like, as a person, not just as an artist. but i hate myself too much to believe in any progress i make.

i know its the rsd mostly but i see groups and i feel gross. its not as bed now (any of you beans that have made it this far, ily /p) becuase i found a community i can actually interact with, but it still comes up, especially because i've moved away from all my irl friends and its so fucking hard for me to make them in the first place. like.. actual friends, not just people i can work with at school

if i keep going i'll probably talk myself in circles, so ill stop it here. theres a lot more but im not going to ramble about my suicidal, intrusive, or sh thoughts on this blog. this is a post to inform you guys of the state of mind im in. im lonely and sad and its all building up to a massive breakdown.

im not going to be leaving tumblr or giving up on my comic, but i probalby wont update as often as i did tsob. i just dont have the energy.

i also will probably post some of my traditional art cuz i gotta fill up a sketchbook for my animation class, so that also takes away from the time i use to draw digitally.

im so tired

[m-erminea]

hiya is it ok if i ask what happened to your art blog? noticed it wasnt listed anymore but couldnt remember the name. thanks!

it still exists, the url is @hadalhound but since i don't post there much anymore, it is no longer listed in my pinned post. i have been focusing on my non-fanart traditional art lately and as a result i don't have any new, polished fanart to post there! because non-fandom artwork doesn't normally get shared as much on tumblr, especially from blogs with low follower counts (and hadalhound is a blog with less than 100 followers last time i checked), i haven't taken the time to post any of my recent paintings or drawings, and anyway it seems that digital artwork tends to do better here regardless of subject matter.

while i don't think I'll be creating any (serious) fanart again any time soon, i might get back to posting art on either this blog or hadalhound over the summer because i do have some ideas for digital arts.

[moss-sprouted]

being really good at imitating art without tracing can be really hard especially when you draw your own character but reference the art a friend drew of your same character, but unfortunately do it too well that they publicly accuse you of tracing but block you immediately and never even talk to you about it even when you had a friend who was literally watching you draw it live, then have their friends come and harass you about it and force you to delete art of your own character and other characters

like sure should i have used the same base they used? no, because then it can be very hard to tell i drew it myself and if anything i should have at least asked if i can reference it but i was 15 and thought it was fine cause it was my character, and it wasnt even official art it was a points making trend on deviantart (their digital currency at the time) and i wasnt even talked to about it and was then so ashamed i stopped posting all together on that account and left the entire fandom and basically gave away all my ocs from it so

maybe the community on dA was really bad actually and really set me back a lot in my art, i was scared to reference anything for YEARS and its worse when you have aphantasia and rely on reference and the ENTIRE culture there was that was bad and evil

yet another culture was to trace official art of properties and anime so you could draw over it which, yes i participated in and it did set me back a bit but damn i only wanted to draw to have fun and make characters,also the blogs here on tumblr dedicated to roasting fanart and ocs people especially CHILDREN made for monster high were brutal, and all of the mods were adults and probably should have had better thinking skills to not bully actual children and teens

but thats a discussion for a different day

[screbelbaziu]

tried some sorta nitw inspired style

[xyanmajor]

These days, I rediscovered the pleasure of creating something without having any fears or pressures.

In truth, it had been so long since I had enjoyed creating something, that I hadn't even realized that it didn't bring me any more.

Not that I was no longer proud of what I managed to create, but because in the end, the pressure of "it has to be at least of such quality, of such rendering, it's not for so me...” was greater than the pleasure taken.

If you are close enough to me or follow my artist social networks, you may have noticed the lack of new drawings. In addition to a "physical" concern which means that I can no longer practice despite the time available... The lack of new creations is the direct consequence of what I stated just before. I no longer create for myself (it had never been the case a lot though) and wanting at all costs to give a material utility to a creation made me lose all pleasure in it.

I have a difficult pregnancy time, physically and especially mentally. But a good point is that I managed to get into something new with the rest time, which allows me, since I have no expectations from anyone, to explore the "it's not for anyone, so I can do whatever I want, right?'' again. Even for my husband - whom I love with all my heart - who only loves half of what I create. I have nothing to care about it and it feels so good... And I think, I hope, that it will serve as a lesson for me in digital drawing.

I don't know if I would be able to redraw "as before" without falling back into a pattern of social pressure. It's my fault, I know that. But I hope so. And this time, the only drawings that will come out will be those for my beloved little sister (who are the exception to all this shit) and possibly some gifts to friends, without letting them know.

Well.This post is too long and nobody care about it but :

- dont be like me. Say stop to social attempt. Let your art be art before being useful.

- take time to think about what you want it to be.

- take rest. Rest time are safe.

- have a cookie and a wonderful time witj family or friends to rest.

Thank you @hikarinokusari for this evening. I had a great time with you. (It can seems it wasnt,but it was. I love u.)

[iambecome]

Digital vs. Traditional Art, Re: Berserk

Today I went to the 30th Anniversary Berserk Exhibition in Hirakata Park. Im planning on making a longer post with some photos and some other things to talk about the exhibit as a whole (spoiler: it was awesome).

The exhibit was about 20% elaborate plastic models and replicas (which we were allowed to photograph) and 80% original manga panel drawings (which we were not allowed to photograph). Seeing the original panels in person was amazing, and also quite surprising.

The main thing that surprised me was the number of materials used. Miura is known for his beautiful, dynamic art, but it was only upon seeing it in person that the creation of these pieces went far beyond just drawing something well or creatively. Black and white ink was utilized, as well as white out and deleter sheets. He also used large, thick black pens, graphite pencil (especially when drawing Griffith, who appeared to be uninked in several final versions to give him that ethereal, angelic quality), and a number of different sizes of pen, even when drawing a single figure. His drawings werent just linework-- it was highly textured. One of the most brilliant things he did was use ink splatter-- which, in person, you can clearly see is literally just ink splattered from a pen-- in order to project an image of something being dirty or chaotic, such as in fight or battle scenes.

Its a whole ecosystem in there, is what I’m trying to say. 

This all begins to change though some time after the eclipse, right around the end of the Conviction Arc. 

Now, this is just my personal opinion but, after the Conviction Arc it always felt like the story sort of... fell off. It wasnt that it god bad, but there was just something that wasnt the same. It began to feel less like an earth shattering fantasy epic and more like... just a regular anime.

Many people attributed this to Miura growing older, his interests shifting, or studio pressure. I, however, have a different theory-- I believe it was due to the shift in digital art.

You can see in the artwork once Miura begins to do more digital rather than analog pieces that there is a certain degree of restraint which  you dont find it earlier works. Character linework becomes crisp and defined. Miura’s dynamic cross hatching is replaced with more standard shading techniques. You can see this in the manga too, but when faced with it in person the difference is incredibly striking.

ANALOG

DIGITAL

I had believed for a long time that maybe his style was just changing. He just had different interests. Then, however, I got to the end where they had an interview with him, filmed a few months before his death. 

In the interview they ask him if he prefers digital or analog art, and he has a very surprising answer. I was not allowed to record, so I cant say it in entirety, but he is very eager to descibe analog drawing as “like calligraphy”. 

As he describes his process in analog drawing, he mentions several times that it is a process that relies almost entirely on creative flow. You begin a piece with an idea, and then let the pen and page carry you to the final work. He describes how it was “extremely fun, but difficult for others” because when drawing analog, he may decide to change a scene entirely or a perspective. It was an organic process.

Digital, however, he describes as “synthesizing”-- he seems to enjoy doing digital work, but he mentions how it gives you the ability to go into very deep detail. It allows you to plan out your work, change it and mold it. It also allows you to work more closely with others, delivering a cleaner yet more studied product.

He did not state a preference. Perhaps he never had a preference.

But after watching that interview and looking at the work in the hall, I began to wonder about the story of Berserk. How it began to feel formulaic and somewhat dry. It was less dark and dreary of course, but it also just didnt seem to flow the same way that it had before. 

It is only a theory. It can only be a theory I guess, I doubt even Miura himself would know if he could say. But after seeing what I saw, I now attribute this to the shift to digital. Once the work became digital, it stopped being just an exercise in free flowing creativity, and instead became something synthesized, planned, and heavily managed. 

Earlier panels in Berserk may not look as polished. They have a chaos to them that can sometimes make it hard to follow with your eyes, and the amount of black, dark ink used fills the page to sometimes make things near unrecognizable. 

But... I dont know. I think that’s sort of a part of the whole thing. Miura was a visual story teller first and foremost. Moving to digital-- in my opinion-- removed much of that artistic agency and creative flow, and for that-- again, in my opinion-- the story (and the art) suffered.

He did, at least, still seem quite happy. I dont mind if I dont like some of the last chapters. I just hope he enjoyed making them.

[trisloshr]

Ur drawings are so good they're basically digital chicken nuggets. Do you have any tips?

omg i feel so Not Qualified to answer an ask like this LMAO.. i will try my best and make a laundry list of various thoughts: (putting it under a cut cus its longish)

(this has mostly nothing to do with making fanart but more like art in general)

i think most people feel most pressure about their art style especially, i used to be like that until i realised that im not supposed to fight with myself and instead just grow with it. its fluid and youre always going to be absorbing new things and changing slowly. for me that realisation was like a wall i broke lol once i stopped getting frustrated about it and started Rolling with it my process got a lot smoother and fun.

technical skills go hand in hand with style (even though im the worst person to ask) (person who cant bring myself to go Learn things properly) it feels like a lot of riff raff but training your hands and eyes af. idk u have to find the fun in it somehow

look at lots of different stuff!! even if its art you dont like!! make like a sponge and absorb it. i dont think there is any harm studying others work as long as you dont claim it as your own, post it online without permission etc.

very important! get comfortable making stuff you dont like +++ when you come back and look at it youll always find new ways to rework it in a better way. get a cheap sketchbook with bad paper and draw only in pen idk mess around dont be scared!

also just. trying new stuff!! new program new tool new method etc etc etc. use markers use only the fill tool use only one brush use only one layer make lineless art. personally i like forcing myself to use brushes i didnt like at first cus then i have to find ways to get around what i dislike and sometimes it manifests in something i wasnt expecting.

recently ive been using pureref to collect references, art that i like and stuff. its like pinterest but better + u can make notes to take note of artists and stuff + its just nice to see everything on one big board all at once. sometimes im like really lost and then i just go and stare at it a while and then i remember what kinda art i want to make.

beyond style and stuff if its about getting engagement online idk if im the best person to ask, some people are really good at playing the algorithm and i kinda cant be bothered with that. really the most important thing is that you create from the heart (whether its fanart or your own art) and people who resonate with it will find you.

also this is my fav i cant believe i dont really see people say this but on god go and make stuff with your friends!! i have a group of friends and we just make art together and push each other and it makes creating things like 70x more exciting and fun. draw in each others sketchbooks, make works together, fig draw etc etc. going back to that point about doing things even if u dont like them i guarantee if u do things with friends it becomes fun. plus its so wonderful to see other people grow with you!!!

also because i can i am going to plug my friends right now:

https://twitter.com/tinyvermin_

https://www.instagram.com/catf1shmenace/

https://www.instagram.com/egretrites/

they are very cool go and follow them right now

thats all i could think of for now, maybe ill come back and add some things later. this is just my brain spitting out whatever

[tangerinegod]

Hello! I am sorry to bother you but I am a senior getting ready for college this year. I am in the US and I wanted to major in the same thing you did, do you have any possible tips for me? I still haven't even looked for colleges that would be best for animation majors so I figured if you were up to giving out any tips/saying any basic ideas if you wanted to/if you had the time to then maybe I'll have a better idea! I apologise for if I sound weird! I'm tried to word it correctly but I can't 😿

hi!! i’m totally down to share my experiences! someone else also had some questions so i’m going to put them all together in this post haha, hopefully this helps! it’ll get pretty long so apologies ahead of time but art school is a lot to think about so i wanna be as helpful as i can around it, its a lot of time and money. I’m gonna put it all under a read more cus it is really really long!

i wanna start off with the fact that I had the privilege of attending school in a financially stable environment, my parents were/are really supportive so w merit scholarship i only came out with around 20-30k in debt and i also had housing support my entire time in school. they were ok with me focusing on academics so i didn’t hold a retail job unless i was out of school like summer/winter break. Ofc though i regularly take commissions/do merch/cons to try and pay for all bills that arent rent cus i did want to be financially independent where it was possible. I also did try and work during the semester but everytime i did my body would deff start to breakdown from the fact that i didnt wanna compromise schoolwork with jobs.. so just read ahead know this experience is from a student who was able to attend focusing only on school work for most of the time!

the biggest thing is knowing art school is not required to become a professional in either freelancing or industry! there are a huuuge amount of online tools and classes these days that provide the exact same education and for cheaper too. i think it depends on what experience you prefer/can handle/want but it’s definitely possible to make art/animation art your living without higher education. the thing that college will for sure give you though is the ability to meet deadlines, work even when you dont want to, and connections with peers+teachers. i think the connections part is invaluable because you’re basically coming out with a network of people you already know and who know you! 

also its good to know if you want to attend/can handle art school! it’s a lot of time and energy and students get burned out really fast. the best piece of advice i got before going was ‘if you draw every single day, even if its for only like 5-10 minutes or a doodle for a whole year you should be fine’ consistency is super key because you’re attending school to draw, and you’ll have to create work for stuff you aren’t excited for at some point or another. burnout is extremely real and the only reason i didn’t experience it was probably because i got super into drawing naruto fanart again inbetween sophomore and junior year! it helped give me something to draw seperated from school which is the only thing i was drawing for since i had entered rip. a heads up id also consider myself a workaholic so i fit in ok with the ‘art school’ environment but it is suuper unhealthy. if you are fantastic at managing your schedule then it’s definitely possible to take care of yourself! freshman year i got 8 hours a sleep a night and only pulled all nighters for some second semester finals at the end. sophomore year + up though i ended up prioritizing hw over sleep and like for sure, definitely shortened my life span. there’s another q down below where i’ll go more into detail but ya, be careful w ur work balance!

another tip especially for animation is knowing for a fact what type of animation you’re looking to go into, and what the school is offering. I didn’t think i’d get into art school at the time so i only applied to two places + decided if i didnt get into either id attend community to get credits out of the way while building portfolio. honestly? i did not do a lot of research LOL but like i did end up having the chance to tour and stuff! just know that each school will have a very different curriculum. The main differences are schools that prioritize 3D (cg animation, cg modeling, ect) and 2D/traditional (hand drawn, ‘oldschool’, digital or traditional based) this is a huge difference so make sure you do research for it! in most cases a 2D/traditional program will also offer 3D since it’s at the forefront of the industry animation wise rn. My school taught 2D but like hand drawn on physical paper 2D, frame by frame. while it was a good experience it’s super outdated because digital tools make it way faster + easier! i’d recommend looking for a program that is digital 2D over traditional 2D. 

if after your senior year covid is still affecting campuses in the US to keep them shut down i’d recommend attending a community college to get credits and then transferring into school. one of the negatives is paying money for gened classes when ur not there for them; if you can get them out of the way sooner and cheaper there is absolutely no negative + you could graduate earlier or use the extra time for better work or to work a job! 

these are all the general tips i think i’d give on like a broad basis of attending or not to think about? let me know if u have more q’s! someone asked q’s im answering below that go more into personal experiences + work culture so heres those:

- how many hours a week do u spend studying, in class, otherwise making art? like how much of ur life does it consume?

I was basically working on art.... 24/7! since i wasnt working a job at the same time i crammed as many credits as possible into my schedule so on avg i did 18 credit semesters (around 6 classes) art classes go for 6 hours and non art go for 3, so i’d spent around 30-35 hours in class a week! hw wise it varied on the class but combined it would be around 35-50 hours a week... im guessing? on average studio classes would have 8-10 hours of hw, maybe 5 for a light week, and gened classes 5 hours w them all combined. or this was probably how things were before junior year? junior+senior year i had thesis + everything else ontop.. i’d spend around 30-40 hours on thesis a week with other classes ontop of that bc my film was super long cus im a dummy! 

- is it hard going to art school n realising that altho u were probably quite talented… so is everyone else? Like. all of a sudden. ur not special and everyone seems as good as u, you know? More generally, how do u deal with comparison?

kinda?? i think instead of the idea of like you vs others it feels more of like a competition at first to be the best. this varies hugely on school culture though; my animation year was really friendly with each other and get along extremely well, so my answer to this is v different than some others who attended different schools. i think that the idea of ‘comparison’ only lasts a portion of the first year because at some point you realize that it’s not a who’s better as much as its a ‘these are my coworkers’ type thing? like healthy competition 100% because we’re all working to improve but i think most of us learned pretty early on that viewing each other as peers going into the same workforce helped a lot. also at some point everyone develops their own style/starts to develop their artistic preferences so there isn’t a way to compare whos 'better’ anymore? i dont think there ever is tbh because style is appealing based off of an individuals preferences. If anything realizing everyone else is also amazing makes you wanna work harder ig? or thats how i felt! it’s inspiring to be surrounded by so many people who create such amazing work. 

- is there a lot of workaholic culture? all nighter culture?

100000% there can be a workaholic and all nighter culture. i know people who avoided it and thats honestly fantastic because i fall super easily into that pit. sometimes i’ll pull all nighters on a personal project just because i really want to finish it... i am definitely considered a workaholic all the way through and its not healthy rip... i’d estimate at the worst i was pulling 2-3 all nighters a week and only 4-5 hours of sleep on the nights i didn’t? that was only for one year tho, after that i was like yeah ok this is really bad for my health in the long run LOL so i tried to cut it down to one all nighter a week and around 5-6 hours of sleep the rest of the week! by senior year my decision to cram in full semesters paid off and i was able to consistently get around 7 hours of sleep a night + no all nighters minus finals since my schedule was lighter despite thesis 😭 while there is that culture i don’t think people view it as like a badge of honor or something to be proud of anymore which is good, we mostly view it as a flaw of the art school system and something that needs to be fixed!!

- are you glad u did it? how did u know it was what u wanted?

i am glad i did it! i’m definitely in a limbo right now of if it was worth both my time, money, and my parents money rip but i think with what i got out of it i definitely wouldn’t be as far skill wise or knowledge wise when it comes to the art industry. i would say it was only worth it for be because i had so much support going in though so i was able to focus so much on improving. if i had only been able to put in part of the effort and not make full use of the resources provided i would honestly have a different answer.. 

i knew it was what i wanted when i realized i really couldn’t see myself pursuing a different profession happily! despite all the bumps and stuff im fully in love with drawing still and feel honored that it’s a field that can provide a living. my second profession choice was to go into culinary school? and third option i think going was into music cus i was also a band kid hehe.  

- how do u cope with ur hobby becoming ur job? how do u deal with art going from something u do for fun to something u do on command constantly?

i think seperating work art from personal art is important! in my case im doubling naruto into being personal work so i have something to fall back onto that isn’t work related. its been a hyperfixation for 12+ years? so drawing it at this point is just like personal art imo. some people have hobbies outside of art and only draw for their job! i think after attending classes for so long the idea of hobby turning into job feels extremely natural? also i enjoy doing it so thats a huge plus! 

sorry this is SO long but i hope i answered your guys’ questions! if you have more just lmk!

[kenmagoesblep]

tagged by @cubistemoji!! 

1) How many works in progress to do you currently have in progress?

I currently have like,,,,, 4 works in progress that i’m willing to continue, that are 3 oneshots (2 bnha and 1 haikyuu) and 1 multichaptered bokuaka fic that is posted right here. theres also 3 fics i completely gave up on, and at least 1 more fic i already have outlined but didnt begin lmao

2) Do you/would you write fan fiction?

i do!!! i really love fanfiction, and i even did a presentation about fanfiction for a class once. the teacher was very impressed klgsdhgldskg he knew nothing abt it

3) Do you prefer paper books or ebooks?

if i can choose, i’ll always try to go for paper books, bc i just really like the sensation of the paper in my hands and the smell of new, untouched books, as much as i like the characteristic old book smell. but if i really wanna read it and i cant get a physical copy, i wont hesitate to get a digital one, even tho i get really distracted in contact w tecnology

4) When did you start writing?

honestly? i dont really remember why i started writing in general. i remember writing original stories since age 8, because i was a very lonely child and spend a lot of my time alone, playing games on our old computer. i wanted to be a comic artist one day and i drew a lot of comics, but at some point i decided to start writing them down bc i’d forget them before getting the oportunity to draw them.

i started really writing fanfiction when i was 12 to 13 years old and i got really into anime to cope with my crippling anxiety and depression. anime gave me life, and i had already came across the concept of fanfiction before that, but never really got interested in reading or searching for it. i knew it existed, but wasnt particularly interested, until i was getting into soul eater and i came across a fic on google. clicked it, read it and i was like “WOW.... PEOPLE CAN GIVE COMPLETE DIFFERENT DESTINIES TO CHARACTERS.... I CAN DO THAT, TOO” 

it also gave me the oportunity to pretend to interact with those characters that i considered my friends, since i had no one irl. so i started writing slice of life, comedy fics with self-insert OC’s. 

5) Do you have someone you trust that you share your work with?

my closest friends, especially @todoyamas, @jangbaekgi, @KwonSheri and @tinycute_turtle (all three from twitter), are usually the ones i ask for help the most, and the ones i trust the most. theyre almost always up to help me and theyve been supporting me almost since the beginning of time. sometimes i wonder how they never got tired of me. @shouyoto and a lot of other good people from our haikyuu!! server help me a lot, as well. 

6) Where is your favourite place to write?

on my computer, at home. cand and will write anywhere else if i’m either very inspired or bored. 

7) Favourite childhood book?

i dont remember most of their names since my actual favorite books were from my school’s library lhlkghsdglks but i remember all the clarice bean books as if they were written by me

8) Writing for fun or writing for publication?

mostly for fun and validation. writing is pretty much the only thing i feel like i’m any good at and the only thing i ever got validated for doing, so.... yes i like validation. and i also like making others happy. but its also because my ideas will haunt me like ghosts until i write them down, so i dont have much of a choice gklsdhgsdlk 

9) Pen and paper or computer?

nowadays i’d rather write on my computer, but when i was younger, i used to write on paper a lot, mostly because i’d get frequently grounded for things i didnt even do and had to entertain myself in some way. will still use pen and paper if, again, i’m feeling inspired or bored enough when im not home. 

10) Have you ever taken any writing classes?

i mean,,,,,,,,,,, not exactly,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, but i am a literature major mostly because i wanted to study literature and write better. so, in my head, my major is a fic major. i use all my literary knowledge in fanfiction lkgsdhglsdkgdsl dont tell my teachers shhhhhhh

11) What inspires you to write?

honestly, nowadays what keeps me going, what keeps me writing, is the love and support of my friends and my desire to make them happy. i thrive on people’s reaction, i live to make others happy. i’d probably wouldnt feel all that motivated to write if it was only for myself. i want to cause people emotional reactions, i want them to feel what i’m writing about, like i feel when i read great fics around ao3. knowing something i worked so hard on made someone’s day make my day.

but, in case this isnt what youre asking me, i guess a lot of little things inspire me??? the stories my literature teachers tell us in class, new songs i find around, good fanfiction, good games, ghibli movies, disney movies. and also sushi. sushi fuels my creativity gklshdglkds 

Thanks for tagging me!!! this was fun, and also very,,,, enlightening. i’m tagging @larytello , @smoke-and-bone-bender, @tenyalite, @tenseii and @shouyoto to do this game!!! ilu

[issayemme]

about this generation being over sensitive

aight, i dont really just voice my opinion anytime i feel like it but honestly i’m fed up. I used to like, be one of those SJW’s and go like hey this is wrong and this is wrong and this is wrong. Most of them were wrong tbh, and i totally get the thing about “normalizing”. We shouldnt normalize hate, we shouldnt normalize discrimination and we shouldnt normalize anything negative, ever.

But i feel like, after a couple of years being exposed to nothing but negativity i’m finally #sick and #tired of it. I understand it by the way, why we have to call something out if it’s wrong cause this is how we fix things but i feel like recently the world is becoming a little bit too sensitive.

I realized this with the whole controversy about Pewdiepie and Gigi Hadid and everything. Especially Pewdiepie. 

Like i dont even live in the US, not from there. I’m from Turkey, i’m studying advertising. And i wanna pursue my career in digital marketing so this whole thing is gonna be my field. This whole shitstorm is gonna be my audience and i’ll try to engage with you. Which frustrates me the most, cause i have to deal with this bullshit.

To start off, i know Pewdiepie did something not-so-okay. I did watch his channel every now and then and i remember telling my boyfriend, “eh, he’s doing whatever he wants lately. I’m not that into it anymore, he used the N word and stuff.” and i just stopped watching his videos and thats like a buck less for him. I did my part. I’m not gonna like go online and bash him or anything cause like fine okay he used the n word but the world has some bigger problems right now like the bees are going extinct. For those who dont know he made like.. there’s this site called Fiverr, you pay them 5 bucks and they do something for ya like this girl does your homework and whatever. Felix payed 2 guys (dont know their nationality) to write “Death to all jews, subscribe to markiplier” on a piece of paper and they did, later he commented on how people do whatever you want them to as long as youre paying them. Which is a good point in my opinion. And the whole point of this shitstorm also. 

And Wall Street Journal went up to Disney and they like.. snitched. like 5 year olds. i cant this is just too funny. And they took everything out of context, used a random image of him raising his hand and portrayed it as a nazi salute (If ya gonna go there you can find like even jews doing a nazi salute. HELLO COMMON SENSE?) Anyhow, Disney was like yah this is gonna hurt my image as butterflies and rainbows, occasional unicorns and shitty costume designing so cut ties with him or whatever. But there is like 2 sides to every story so i wish they would take a milisecond and contact Felix but fuck that am i right Disney which is the company that displayed Donald Duck in a Nazi outfit so like whats up

And then, this afternoon i spent my entire time reading articles about how Pewdiepie is the source of all evil, how he is summoning satan with a single look and how he is destroying worlds.  He always said mainstream media is hating on him but i’ve never realized it was this big of an issue. Jesus they were like vultures. The verge even went as far as comparing him to Donald Trump. Like.. Pewdiepie does a 24 hour live stream to raise like what.. over a milion dollars for charity and its like dead quiet but Wall Street Journal runs out of money so they go like “oh pewdiepie draws money lol ok.. guys here’s the thing.” Is every news outlet TMZ now? is this it

And i knew tumblr of course would be on fire. I’m actually glad to see some reasonable people defending pewdiepie because that’s what’s right. Some girl here is like “um im jewish and OUT OF ALL WORDS why would you pick death to all jews? like it has been said before. ermigird get my trigger gloves.” Like hello everyone knows it’s not an okay thing to say, that’s why he used it. To prove a point. It’s kinda amazing to see how people are hovering 100 miles over the point. good job keep it up everyone it’ll get you places in life

The truth is, this kind of all comes back to my major. Newspapers are dying, because noone buys them anymore. They need money to survive as we all do, but we are all on digital surfaces now. But we dont pay for news anymore. so the news outlets are doing everything they can to survive and it gets petty like you’ve been seeing these days. Clickbait is a real thing cause it’s not enough if you see their post on Facebook, they need you to go on their website, see the ads so they can get the ad revenue. It keeps the advertisers, advertising and the platforms alive. Scandal always gets you paid. What i’m sad about is as a generation we’re paying these guys. They dont care really, if pewdiepie is racist or not. Which he isnt by the way. Pewdiepie and his growth is so organic. He’s a goldmine for brands. Verge cant supply content like that, so they kind of shit on whoever does. I’m saying verge but like mashable, the wired.. verge is the pettiest tho. Business insider was kind of more toned down so kudos to them I GUESS.. 

My point being.. like they see we go crazy about social justice and they see the tiniest thing and they make a big deal out of it. We as a generation shouldnt be these idiot’s income. I refuse to be the reason to put money on some 40 year old idiot who has no sign of a backbone. There are things that matter. I’m sick of getting butthurt by everything. Yes some feminists are extreme. Denying it will not get you anywhere. We all believe in equality. If you are calling out Pewdiepie, which again i agree he fucked up but it wasnt like a total fuck up you know. So context matters. Just because something happened, doesnt mean we have to make a big deal out of it every time. Wrongdoing should be punished but not to extremes. Dont get offended on behalf of other people. I live in a Muslim country. And dont you dare get offended on my behalf when Trump says something about our religion. Let me speak first. Let me read the context first. Everyone is constantly in panic to defend someone, they just miss a lot of things. So just take time to evaluate before speaking your mind.  About Gigi’s face too.. Like gosh she wasnt trying to actually hurt someone. People are still trying to call Karlie Kloss out after she acknowledged and apologized  LIKE WHAT DO YOU WANT DID YOUR PARENTS NOT LOVE YOU? DO YOU HAVE A LOT OF FREE TIME? PLEASE JUST GET A LIFE. PET A DOG. We should stop bashing people after they acknowledge something was wrong. Like. Chill, seriously. go suck a dick get a life ffs

JERK OFF IDK WHAT RELAXES YOU

dont let people take advantage of you trying to do something right 

[vitalmindandbody]

Tragic, fascinating, bright- living for’ wild progeny’ Zelda Fitzgerald revisited

Two films and a TV line out soon portray the life of the jazz-age novelist and spouse of F Scott Fitzgerald

She is thought of as the original wild child, a pearl-twirling defendant girl who died at the age of 47 after a ardor broke out in the North Carolina sanatorium where she was a patient. Now Zelda Fitzgerald, the southern belle grew jazz-age heroine, dubbed the first American flapper by her husband and partner-in-drink Scott, is to have her own Hollywood make-over two films are in the pipeline and a television series will air on Amazon Prime early next year.

All three activities have starry appoints fixed: Jennifer Lawrence will take the lead in Zelda , a biopic directed against Ron Howard and based on Nancy Milfords best-selling biography; Scarlett Johansson will bob her fuzz for The Beautiful and The Damned ; and Christina Ricci will play young persons and impetuous Zelda in the Amazon series Z: The Beginning of Everything. The designation of the TV serial comes from Scotts awestruck provide comments on meet Zelda: I love her, and thats the beginning and end of everything.

So what is it about Zelda that fascinates nearly 70 times after her sad discontinue? In persona it is that the turmoils the couple lived through find an echo in our own hectic times.

Interest in the Fitzgeralds will no doubt been on the projected increase is not simply since Baz Luhrmanns film of The Great Gatsby in 2013 but too from the many parallels between their lives and production and the period were living through right now, does Sarah Churchwell, author of the critically acclaimed Careless Parties: Slaying, Mayhem and The Invention of the Great Gatsby .

Its a narrative of thunder and bust and it resonates as “were about” grappling with our own boom and failure, our own concern about the cost of our extravagances and our own social lacks. The lives and lucks of Scott and Zelda peculiarly mimicked their periods: in the 1920 s they were roaring for all they were value, but with the clang in 1929, everything descended apart.

It helps, too, that Zelda was so vibrant a digit. It begins with her beauty, does Churchwell. But likewise with the floors told in the 1920 s about the high jinks and recreation she and Scott seemed to have. Beings really liked her: she was surprising, intelligent, astute, amusing and adoration a good defendant. She too liked to be the centre of attention, and so had her detractors very. These occasions combined to draw her a legend.

Scott repeatedly returned to their relationship in his myth, most notably in his second novel, The Beautiful and Damned , which details the exhilarating early days of their union; and his mournful fourth, Tender Is The Night , in which the gilded daydream has faded into a more tawdry reality. Zeldas simply novel, Save Me The Waltz , presented the relationship from her side.

They were arguably Americas first fame pairing: a carefree golden couple who wrote their course into the spotlight, composing their own myth of gin-soaked days and fun-filled nights, simply to linger too long once the light-headed had started to dim. Their recklessness sees the fib exciting and dramatic, announces Churchwell. But they paid a the highest price.

After a few giddy times, all the youthful promise deteriorated away, leaving Scott a perplexed and drunk jobbing hack in Hollywood and delivering Zelda to breakdown at the age of 30, a diagnosis of schizophrenia , now widely thought to be a bipolar illness, and a life in and out of sanatoriums.

Her story is both fascinating and unfortunates, announces Therese Anne Fowler, on whose novel Z the Amazon series is based. Here we have a woman whose flairs and vitality and ability “shouldve been” became her a brilliant success, who was determined to be an accomplished creator, columnist and ballet dancer in an age where married girls were supposed to be wives and fathers, period. Her devotion to Scott was, in many ways, her undoing[ although] he was just as imprisoned as she was. Had they adored each other less, they might both have come to better ends.

The idea of Zelda as a bright girl caught by her period has gained traction in recent years, with a number of pieces re-evaluating her through the prism of feminism although it is not always the most wonderful of fits. As early as 1974, the couples daughter Scottie refused such affirms, writing that to make efforts to vistum her baby as a classic put-down spouse, whose efforts to express her quality were frustrated by a normally male chauvinist husband were no longer accurate.

Writing in the New Yorker in 2013, Molly Fischer agreed , mention: Saving Zelda Fitzgerald is no easy-going proposition …[ she] does not want to be anyones baby, and theres something mortifying about the literary readiness to domesticate her, to alter an irritating girl into an appealing heroine.

The new films may well further Hollywoodise Zelda, sanding away her bumpy borders and reinventing her as a relatable heroine for our modern times. The molding of Lawrence so often was regarded as Americas Sweetheart in the Howard biopic is no accident.

A report about the upcoming Johansson film in the Hollywood Reporter suggested it would draw on previously unreleased cloth to indicate that her husband stole his wifes ideas as his own.

Mark Gill, chairwoman of Millennium Films, the production fellowship behind The Beautiful and The Damned , agrees : She was massively ahead of her time and she took a defeat for it. He plagiarized her ideas and gave them in his notebooks. The wedding was a codependency from blaze with a jazz-age soundtrack. The movie has, nonetheless, secured the co-operation of the Fitzgerald estate.

Fowler agrees that there is a thriving propensity to utilize our own concerns to Zelda. We do anoint her as a kind of proto-feminist heroine, even though she didnt visualize herself as a feminist and didnt fully attain at anything, she supposes. But her original honour is based on conventional paternalistic standards of what the status of women, baby and bride ought to be and do. Her desires and her insistence on prosecuting them were considered inappropriate and undesirable; after her psychopathic crack she was literally told that this insistence had created her divide psyche and that the path to a antidote lay in giving up all passions that didnt conform to the paternalistic ideal.

Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Lawrence and Christina Ricci are all set to play Zelda Fitzgerald in the forthcoming yields The Beautiful and the Damned, Zelda and Z: The Beginning of Everything. Composite: Getty Images

The backlash against this image is understandable considering the fact that popular opinion of Zelda was initially driven by Ernest Hemingways notoriously corrosive descriptions in A Moveable Feast , produced posthumously in 1964, in which he dismissed her as insane and accused Scotts flourishing dependence on beverage on his wife.

Our perception has very much changed, mentions Churchwell. We have come to sympathise with her frustration, to recognise her endows and has become still more fair-minded about her alternatives. That mentioned, she cautions against attempts to create a Team Scott/ Team Zelda divide, as is so often the subject in famed literary partnerships. Its important to say that they always desired each other and wouldnt have appreciated beings taking slopes Fitzgerald wrote a few years before he was dead that it was a moral obligation that their friends understood they were a pair, a component and would abide that behavior, even if her illness necessitate they couldnt live together.

Churchwell is also scathing about attempts to suggest Zelda had a larger role in her husbands make than previously presumed. There are people who want to credit Zelda with Scotts work, which is just silly and doesnt do females any prefers, she mentions. Its not a zero-sum competition: we can recognise both of them for who they were.

Zelda had many aptitudes, but where writing was pertained she was probably extremely ill when she started to hone her gifts, and while it is true that Scott didnt especially want her to write partly out of territoriality but partly because medical doctors told him it was bad for her its also true-life that her work isnt in the same class as his. Her individual sentences are often lovely, and she can create a humor and has clever comes of phrase but her makes tend to be sketches rather than full stories. If they had acquired different selections, perhaps she could have been an important scribe, but current realities is that she wasnt.

Perhaps, then, the real key to Zeldas resumed pull on our imagination lies not in her design but in her modernity. I dont want to live I want to cherish firstly and live incidentally, she extol and it is that verve and desire for all of lifes know-hows, both good and bad, that unfolds down over the decades, granting each generation to see something new.

Z: The Beginning of Everything will air on Amazon Prime early next year

THEY SAID

I have rarely known the status of women who uttered herself so delightfully and freshly: she had no ready-made words on the one side and no striving for outcome on the other. Critic Edmund Wilson

I fell in love with her fearlessnes, her honesty and her flame self-respect, and its these happenings I would believe in even if the whole world pandered in wild surmises that she wasnt all that she should be.

F Scott Fitzgerald

I did not have a single inclination of insignificance, or shyness, or disbelief, and no moral principles.

All I miss is to be very young always and very irresponsible, and to feel that my life is my own to live and be happy and croak in my own direction to delight myself.

Other families ideas of us are dependent predominantly on what theyve hoped for.

Read more: www.theguardian.com

The post Tragic, fascinating, bright- living for’ wild progeny’ Zelda Fitzgerald revisited appeared first on vitalmindandbody.com.

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[viralhottopics]

RIP Wii U: Nintendo’s glorious, quirky failure

Nintendo has ceased production of Wii U less than five years after its launch. What went wrong, and what will be its legacy?

In late January it was announced that Nintendo had ceased production of the Wii U console. The follow-up machine to the hugely successful Wii had sold fewer than 15m units worldwide since its launch in 2012. PlayStation 4 sold more in a year. Wii sold more than 100m in its lifetime.

What happened? How did Nintendo, one of the oldest and most respected companies in the video game industry, get it so wrong? And did anything good come out of the Wii U era? How will the machine be remembered, if at all?

Certainly, some believe the console was cursed from the start right from the first announcement at the 2011 E3 video game conference in Los Angeles. Before that, Nintendo had made vague references to Project Cafe, a new piece of hardware deep in development at the companys famed R&D labs, but the nature of the device was unclear. The E3 presentation was supposed to be the big reveal.

Then, there it was at the Nintendo press conference, in front of the whole games industry. Wii U. Reggie-Fils-Aim, head of Nintendo America, gave an obtuse introduction and showed the unique GamePad controller, with its built-in display. After this, came a showreel of gaming moments, then nothing. The crowd whooped, but when the lights went down, a few expressed confusion: was the Wii U GamePad an extension to the original Wii? Was it an entirely new console? That evening, in an interview with the Evening Standard, the late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata stated: Because we put so much emphasis on the controller, there appeared to be some misunderstanding.

The PS4 and Xbox One, high-powered machines arrived and changed the gaming landscape. Composite: Xbox One S v PS 4 Pro v PS4 Slim v Project Scorpio

A masterpiece of understatement. In some ways, that misunderstanding never went away. Even when it became clear that Wii U was a whole new console, with a unique motion-sensitive screen pad, consumers were nonplussed. There had been rumours that, with its custom AMD 7 series graphics chipset and IBM multicore central processor, the machine would be more powerful than the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 especially as it was arriving years after those machines debuted. But before the launch, developers were already whispering to news sources that this was not the case driving the second-screen would eat up the graphics processing power and the CPU wasnt that special. It was all academic anyway: barely a year later, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One arrived to completely change the technological landscape.

But Nintendo wasnt competing with PlayStation and Xbox, and never really had. Instead, it needed to convert the tens of millions of Wii owners whod rarely bought consoles before; whod been seduced by the Wii Remote controller and the immediate, social experience it promised. Those people were now quietly migrating to other platforms: smartphones, tablets, set-top boxes … Thats who the Wii U was aimed at.

In the months following E3, it was at least picking up interest from the development community. I had done work on the N64, Gameboy, GameCube and Wii and I still maintain they were my favourite systems to work on, so when the WiiU was announced it had me excited, says Byron Atkinson-Jones of Xiotex Studios I wanted to see how far we could go in game design terms with the two screen setup. Were we going to get new game paradigms like we did with the Wii and its controllers?

However, even before the launch, the games media was complaining about a lack of compelling first-party content. The machine would arrive with only two major Nintendo titles, the mini-game collection Nintendo Land, and New Super Mario Bros U, a decent side-scrolling platformer, but by no means a major Mario title with with little involvement from Miyamoto. There were intriguing moments: Nintendo Land has the clever asymmetrical multiplayer action of Luigis Ghost Mansion and the boisterous arena-battler Animal Crossing: Sweet Day. But there was also nothing as immediately compelling as Wii Sports or Wii Play nothing that completely crystallised the idea of the GamePad.

Veteran developer Rhodri Broadbent once worked for Q-Games in Japan, and met Shigeru Miyamoto while making Star Fox Command. He felt there should still have been a role for the Wii Remote in the new era. The fact that Wii U did not come bundled with a Wii Remote was really disappointing to me, he says. I felt that the identity of the Wii Remote was worth continuing, and that combining the jump to HD visuals with the jump to HD motion control of the Wii Remote Plus would have been a smart play. In terms of marketing, the Wii Remote was iconic from the get-go, whereas the GamePad sadly didnt really get to find its identity in either software, nor marketing. There were some truly excellent, best-in-class games released for Wii U, but very few of them gave life or character to the GamePad.

The GamePad, as a unique selling point, was also a unique curse, an albatross around the neck of the whole project. Designers struggled over its multifaceted nature: should they support it as a standalone screen, a second-screen for the TV, or as a device to allow asymmetrical multiplayer experiences (the player with the GamePad is able to have a different experiences to others using Wii Remotes). It was a tough business proposition too. Games publishers like to be able to transition their projects freely between different machines most modern game engines are platform agnostic making this process easier. But Wii Us controller demanded a different approach, so including the console on multiplatform projects was complicated and expensive even if they were just going to use the GamePad as a mini-map, which many did.

Of the third-party games available at launch, most were quick conversions of familiar PlayStation and Xbox titles: Call of Duty, Batman, Fifa… few of these exploited the GamePad feature-set in truly innovative ways. The best was perhaps ZombiU, a fascinating survival horror title with a neat permadeath mechanic, set in a post-apocalyptic London that made inspired use of the GamePad as both an environment scanner and a cellphone. With its tense, gory action, it also brilliantly subverted expectations of a Nintendo launch title. But it wasnt enough.

The problem is, mainstream game development is all about confidence. Console manufacturers have to be certain that third-party publishers will support the device; third-party publishers have to be sure that consumers will buy it, and draw confidence from first-party titles; and consumers wont commit until they know there will be great titles from both first- and third-party studios. Its a vicious circle of reliance, and it often all depends on that launch week. Nintendo just didnt come up with the goods to inspire consumers, and because of this, the likes of Activision, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft were all backing off right from the outset.

Meanwhile, Nintendo was trying to make things easier for independent developers, noticing the huge influx of excellent indie titles on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. After the success of the 3DS eShop in attracting experimental games, the company set out to improve its digital store for the home console experience. However, its legacy was not good. On the Wii, support for smaller studios was patchy: the submissions process was, according to some studios, extremely lengthy, and there were sales thresholds that made it risky to commit to offbeat projects. Even after these problems had been addressed, Wii U had no support for the important multi-platform games engine Unity until much later in the consoles lifespan, strangling its potential with the indie community.

[The Wii U dev kit] was clunky and far more difficult to setup than its predecessors, says Atkinson-Jones. I remember opening the box it came in and there was a warning saying it was very easy to brick the machine so getting it setup was a terrifying prospect. Id love to say I got further than this but the reality is that even though Nintendo had signed So Hungry to appear on WiiU, Unity would not actually be ready for another year its because of this my other game Blast Em! came about and thankfully that game has kept my studio running. Once you got past all the problems of setup and getting a working build of Unity, it was just that much harder than doing any kind of cross platform work – the big difference being the two displays of course.

Nintendos Wii and revolutionary remote. Photograph: Andrew Parsons/PA

So the Wii U had a lot to contend with: a poorly conceived debut, a unique selling point that was difficult to describe, and a hesitant development community unwilling to commit resources to a quirky machine. But it did provide moments of genuine brilliance. The defining first-party titles Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros, Splatoon and Pikmin 3 may not have been top tier Nintendo originals (theres no Miyamoto Mario, no new Zelda), but they were excellent games, filled with interesting ideas and classic moments of design genius.

Pikmin 3 is one of the greatest games I have ever played on any system, says Broadbent. Its mission mode is so tightly balanced, with so many tricks and techniques to optimise battles, find new routes and shave seconds off your time that I can and often did replay the same mission for entire days without noticing that the my weekend had disappeared. Im a big fan of the oft-overlooked, but to my mind never bettered, New Super Mario Bros U, especially the challenge modes. And keeping with Mario, Super Mario Makers musical, whimsical user interface is a masterclass in hiding complexity and infusing character into menus the way the sound effects harmonise with the background music as you place objects on the screen is endlessly charming to me.

There were beautiful third-party games too, sparsely spread out though the machines lifespan perhaps, but certainly there. Cult Japanese studio PlatinumGames, best known for its demanding brawlers, was an unexpected hero producing two masterpieces for the machine: the extravagant Bayonetta 2, and the kookie super hero puzzler, Wonderful 101. Warner Bros brought us the excellent Armored edition of Batman Arkham City, but also the ludicrously overlooked Lego City Undercover, a hilarious Grand Theft Auto pastiche, which is now rightfully being remade for current consoles.

More importantly however, there were indie developers who truly embraced the idiosyncracies of the system and its development environment. We enjoy letting the quirks of specific hardware inspire new ideas and features here, so from a design point of view, Wii U was a lot of fun, says Broadbent. Gyros, a camera, a touch screen there was a lot there to use. For Scram Kitty, I had the idea of making the titular cat appear as a sort of sports commentator on the TV while the player focused on the GamePad action, and although in the end that element didnt turn out to be an essential feature of the game, it was a great source of personality for the game, and one which kept throwing up new ideas throughout development.

Highlights included DrinkBox Studios crazed platformer Guacamelee!: Super Turbo Championship Edition, the lovely retro platformer Shantae and the Pirates Curse, and the intriguing puzzler Art of Balance. Most were multiplatform, but lots used the Wii U capabilities in interesting ways. A key example was the engrossing Affordable Space Adventures from Danish developer KnapNok Games. In this interstellar puzzle game, the GamePad was used to monitor and interact with your crafts primary systems, including engines, anti-gravity controls and scanner, providing a great Star Trek bridge experience.

There were also thoughtful conversions of iOS titles, including Dakko Dakkos translation of the spooky narrative adventure Year Walk. We took a much more all-in approach to the machines feature set, combining the gyros, touch screen, separate displays, and even subtly altering the audio between the gamepad and the TV, to create very satisfying controls and puzzles, says Broadbent. The end result feels uniquely suited to Wii U.

Its also worth remembering Nintendos unique attempts to create friendly online communities around the Wii U. The Miiverse is a family-friendly social network in which players can chat about what theyre playing, draw and share pictures, and seek gaming advice, all within a safe, charming environment populated with customised Mii characters. It was a much more warm, human approach to networked play than Xbox Live or PlayStation Network and, as Jennifer Schneidereit, co-creator of luscious historical adventure Tengami discovered, it allowed unique relationships between developers and players:

It was possible to post to Tengamis Miiverse from within the game, to show level progress or ask other players for help, she says. As a developer I was able to interact with people in Tengamis Miiverse and help with puzzles, answer their questions and listen to their feedback. Because Miiverse posts are not only textual, players can also hand draw and incorporate stamps, it was a real delight to watch players using our stamps to create artwork of their own.

Wii U had a difficult start, with a difficult idea in a difficult era. The E3 presentation blurred what the machine actually was, and the GamePad was never an easy proposition to market unlike the Wii Remote that people could see was fun, just from the adverts. Meanwhile, with Xbox and PlayStation continuing their graphics arms race, and competition coming in from smartphones and tablets, the gaming audience seemed to be stratifying into two groups: the sorts of players who bought consoles and high-end PCs, and the sorts whod quite as happily play Candy Crush Saga for free on their phones. The idea of a console as the central focus of a party or family event, which had peaked between 2005 and 2010 with both the Wii and the rise of music games like Guitar Hero, had drifted out of favour.

Nintendos Shigeru Miyamoto. Photograph: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Now here comes the Nintendo Switch, a regeneration of the Wii U concept where the GamePad effectively becomes the console, with its own built-in controllers. If anything, it is a more flagrant attempt to seduce casual players away from their phones, while tapping into the family living-room appeal of the original Wii. Broadbent sees Switch as a reconnection with that machine: Im very happy that the joy-cons have so many little tricks in them, and encouraged to see games like ARMS push forward higher-fidelity motion controls right out the gate. But Im mostly happy that Switchs identity as a home console thats not tied to your TV is being communicated so clearly.

Communication, it seems, is key. The Wii did its own communicating: you just watched people playing Tennis or Bowling and you knew it was fun. Nothing Nintendo has done with its hardware since then has been quite so alluring. But to write off Wii U as a creative failure would be a gross disservice. The GamePad actualised a lot of vague entertainment industry hype about the second screen, and lots of games truly illustrated the magic of the concept. And lets not forget that Wii U also saw Nintendos entry into the toys to life market with its Amiibo characters little figurines that could be placed on the screen to interact with games. They sold over 40m of those.

In years to come, people will pick up the console second-hand, with a few games Super Mario 3D World, Bayonetta 2, Mario Kart 8 and theyll realise what it was that Nintendo had in mind, theyll understand the appeal of the hardware. Much too late, of course.

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from RIP Wii U: Nintendo’s glorious, quirky failure