#i'll maybe post closeups of the references if you want them

[yelmor-boots]

read 'Silver Bells' by @heavilycaffeinatedsblog if you haven't yet. this took me way longer than it really needed to. there are references all over the place (as well as shoutouts to some of my favorite fanfics (hard to find because tumblr) and a skyrim easter egg ((i don't know why i did that last one, brain rot i guess)))

this is from chapter eighteen and maybe not super accurate to certain descriptions but was the most fun I've had drawing in a while. so thanks for that caf and keep up the good work.

[the-ancient-dragons]

How to Spot a Dragon Before it Spots You!

(Written by a human for humans in the Wings of fire universe).

Transcriptions of my chicken scratch and closeups of each tribe can be found here (two separate posts)!

Otherwise, next week I begin Overcomplicating the Pantala tribes. See you then!

I was inspired by a bird of prey identification poster at my sister's school. It had a very similar layout. I really loved the coloured poses and the multiple silhouettes and thought it would work so well for the Wings of Fire dragons. I'd seen another artist experiment with their wings shapes and wanted to give it a try myself. This is the result! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

All the designs you see here are not final - I drew these without properly planning their full bodies, but the final versions I will try to keep as similar as possible. The only change I might make is the position of their wings. I also won't go back and change this because it doesn't need it. They look good enough like this and, who knows, the changes I make might not be enough that the final designs would be any different. I will be doing a lot of muscle and skeletal anatomy, possibly written in the perspective of a NightWing since they seem like the type to explore the insides of a dragon for science.

This, however, is written in the perspective of a very lucky human who saw these dragons and lived to tell the tale. Or maybe it was a collaborative effort between multiple people adding their own wisdoms, like the Dragon Manual in HTTYD 1. I haven't read Dragonslayer but I think they refer to the dragons as '[element] dragon' (not [Element]Wing at least). I also think that they're not sure RainWings exist (at least according to the 'Here Be Dragons?' over the rainforest, but I didn't want to exclude them from this piece).

The main purpose this guide would serve in-universe would be to help humans identify dragons, preferably before ever being seen. That's why I used a lot of auditory and movement descriptions unique to each tribe, ways that a person could identify a dragon without needing to be close.

I'll be splitting the closeups into 3 and 4 tribes each following this post so you're not scrolling for 10 years (you still will be but I'll try to keep it brief. Will I succeed? No!

Stay tuned next week for the beginning of Overcomplicating the Pantalan Tribes: SilkWings!!!

[zeondraws]

Definetely noticed how much I am learning about the game through trial and error. Some details I just don't notice, until a certain moment where it clicks in my head.

Earlier this morning I rewatched the videos from the developers and noticed they did show closeups of a few crew members, including Muir and I was like- Wait, that's him!

I remember watching that video before, but not quite understanding who these characters were, or maybe the way they got rendered threw me off.

Seeing how much I am learning here makes me wonder, how come I don't do the same with other topics? There is so much I could learn, if I had the motivation or the drive. It's hard on some days.

Either way, I feel like making a small post for myself with various links/image references. At one point I have to make a mega post to link each of my research posts, so that it's easier to pinpoint.

Here are some face closeups of a few crew members

Innes (I am sorry everyone it looks like he's half bald)*

Gibbo - Gibson

Muir

Brodie, Edit: I think the two images are actually Dobbie? But I'll check up on this in the future again

O'Conner (This one was a bit hard to identify, but some folk on discord helped me)

Roper

Video Source:

*In the Cantines I noticed another person that looks similar to the model, that I linked to Innes. Tho that person wears a red suit, while Innes wears blue. Tho I still think the above pictures fit for Innes, we never get to see him without his hat. So it's hard to say for me.

Helpful Link for the Achievements (scroll down for a List of Achievement Timestamps):

(I still need 3 of them)

Ripped 3D Models on Sketchfab (You need an account to view Muir, Addair, Trots and Rennick):

What I also did was looking through reddit to find tiny pieces of information here and there. I am not sure how deep I want to dive in for this game, considering it's quite time consuming to check small details (replaying the entire game again each time). But here are two Screenshots I grabbed from TheChineseRoom's comments on Reddit.

And of course their Youtube Channel has a bunch of Videos about Behind the Scenes. Quite interesting listening through them. Helps me to get a small glimpse into the Industry and how things work.

I think I have rambled for long enough, I gotta tidy up XD Been posting so much about this game, hope it doesn't get annoying.

Either way, if anyone has something else to add to this, feel free to tell me.

[digisims2]

I'm going through my projects folder and deleting old things I no longer need or forgot what it was all about and I'm finding some really weird things and thought I'd share some with everyone. :D

This is going to be long post with bunch of pictures so I'll put the rest under the read more. Oh um, warning possible bodyhorror / trypophobia right under the cut!

For starters self, what the hell is this?

I wish I had any idea. Clearly it's an eye mask with... a lot of eyes. For what reason? I don't know. I have no recollection of creating this thing but apparently I did so back in October 2019. Maybe it was going to be a Halloween gift? That's like the only sensible idea I have. I think the texture for it is kind of really pretty though:

It just stares at you, unblinking, forever disappointed. Unthreateningly it was just called "facemask" so I had no idea what awaited when I clicked on it. This was not what I expected it to be.

Moving on, what the hell is this and why have I made it?

Also fresh from 2019. Judging by the textures it's a "conversion" of some Sims 4 makeup but I have no idea why it exist. I can't think of a single reason why I'd want this sort of eyeshadow in my game. To the trash it goes.

Then I found these simple eyes:

I don't think I ever finished them, from 2020. Apparently they were supposed to be kinda like this anime/game character since his picture was pasted in the texture:

Yeah I don't know either + the reference image is damn near useless, you can barely even see the eyes so A+ job me! Anyway these eyes aren't anything special so I'm deleting them too now.

Then I found these eyes, they're titled as "newdefaulteye" so clearly I had big plans for them.

Apparently I've exported them somewhere since the .psd in the folder has all the colors. These are from February 2021. I think they're actually quite pretty so I'm confused about why I haven't shared them. Here's a closeup of a better color so you can see the details on the texture:

Seriously, it is nice isn't it? Why did I not finish and share these? I will never know. Maybe I'll slap them on a normal shaded sclera though, I know you don't appreciate my animation friendly one :P and then I'll remake and actually upload them.

Messily made pulled up version of.... I think Trapping's mesh?

This one I actually remember, I had seen plenty of such tops for Sims 3 and 4 and just thought "Hm, wonder if I could do something like that using an existing Sims 2 top?" and then did it. It clips like hell in game but I still have it and its recolors since nobody still has made (a better) such top for Sims 2. Wink wink nudge nudge at anyone with actual meshing skills.

Another unshared eye:

She looks as dead inside as I feel at work. Not going to finish these either since I don't like them so off to the bin with them.

Another eye set:

These were sort of version one for the July2022 eyes I did share. I wasn't happy with these so the version which I shared was born. Now I almost like these more than those so maybe I'll go back to them and try again?

Then I guess I tried painting eyebrows at some point last December?

Pretty sure the idea was to mirror it once I'd be happy with it but then I ended up never being happy with it. I'm still not happy with it and too grumpy to try again, to the trash bin.

Some animation friendly eyes I gave up after finishing the base texture:

And that's it. So many things I've just dropped and never finished. Maybe some of them drew a chuckle out of you or something.