#it can really help you transform your artstyle

[berlingotesque]

I haven’t been in the bendy fandom for a while but found your blog and I must say I love your style, so sharp and gorgeous, what drawing software do you use? It’s so clean like how lol, also love each Bendy characters design you’ve given them, really brings out there personalities

Ohh, no one ever described my artstyle as “sharp” or “clean”, what nice compliments !! Thank you so much !

I’m glad you like my style too 💖 I personally use the drawing software Procreate, which I can't recommend highly enough. Getting an IPad is expensive but once you have it, Procreate only costs 11$ once and then you have it forever ! So if you’re a digital artist, I highly recommend investing in Procreate :))

And thank you so much, I’m delighted you like my batim designs 🥺 I’m also super glad I’ve succeeded in transcribing their personalities accurately ahah

[joseispiral]

CRUISIN’ 4 A BRUISIN’ (Gokusen)

by Kozueko Morimoto | 156 chapters | 1999-2007

9/10

Gokusen is your typical relatable Josei manga: The protagonist, a mousy-looking girl, embarks on a quest to find love while trying to balance work life and home life. Except in this case work life is being a grade school teacher at an all-boys school, and home life is being a Yakuza heiress. This manga balances drama, comedy, and action, and oh my god, it’s so good. I started this review several months ago and I’m just finishing it now, but is it crazy for me to say I want to go back and re-read it already?

There is an unstoppable joy in Morimoto’s characterization of the protagonist, Yankumi. It’s honestly pretty cathartic to watch Yankumi bring her Yakuza know-how to public school, because lord knows the power structure of the educational institution could use a good ass-kicking. Yankumi’s teaching style can only be described as tough love, and none of the romance drama interferes with her ability to persevere and show a great deal of love to her students, family, and friends. It is so delightfully refreshing to read a manga where the protagonist is a compassionate, loyal, unfuckwithable, cop-hating teacher practicing non-hierarchical pedagogy! Emphasis on the cop-hating. I take issue with people who complain about “weak and annoying” female characters (that just sounds like a personal diss to me, ouch), but if you really just want to watch a girl utterly and completely fuck people up, Gokusen is the way to go.

What makes Gokusen so strong is how well it sticks to our Yakuza princess’s moral integrity: Nobody is irredeemable, not even mob bosses and snot-nosed teenage boys. Despite violence being her preferred solution for any problem, Yankumi isn’t hungry for power, nor does she slap people up because she wants to eradicate them. She acknowledges that her power, be it as a Yakuza heiress or a schoolteacher, can be used to improve the world, which very much appeals to me as a believer in transformative justice. I always recall my roommate telling me, after I relayed my firm stance on nonviolence, that some people really just need a punch to the face to really make them stop acting a fool. Gokusen effectively pulls off this ethos by using its buoyant and crisp tone. This manga is about beating people to a pulp and then helping them get back up again.

The second half of the series had moments that made me explode with laughter which I think is pretty hard for a comic to do! If you like Daria or even Beavis and Butthead I think this definitely scratches that itch. Just a note that there are some jokes made about pedophilia in the story, so that’s something to beware of if you’re sensitive to it. Beyond just jokes though, the main love interest is one of the high schoolers, but I actually found that plotline pretty sweet and interesting - Yankumi shows little to no romantic interest in him and most of their relationship is about him trying to prove himself to her as an adult, which hits home for me. Does that make me messed up? Did other people fantasize about a teacher or two when they were in grade school? I found that Morimoto handled that emotional landscape with serious honesty when it could have quickly become rocky territory.

Why do I see so many people complaining about Gokusen’s artwork online? Even in the first volume, when the proportions are a little funny and the lines aren’t as confident, I found the expressions and character designs irresistibly endearing. It’s got a simpler slapstick artstyle common in these older mangas that reminds me of a mix of Stop!! Hibari-Kun! and Urusei Yatsura but with a Josei twist. Ultimately the art style works in service to the writing style, which has serious moments treating characters’ intentions with levity; but also is riddled with hilarious scenarios. The sparse backgrounds allow for the focus to facial expressions and character gestures. 

Just go read this manga, it’s so kickass and sweet and there is so much cop hatred. It’s for the kids who have bottomless amounts of both love and violence burning a hole in our hearts.

[drill-teeth-art]

not sure how well I can articulate my thoughts rn but your artstyle fucking slaps & your colors are so vibrant & all around your character designs are so nice to look at. also your stuff & designs about the cassettes, about tfa starscream w the allspark, about the constructicons, about the insecticons just. yes god. the stims the pronouns your hcs & aus are so GOOD!! you inspire me to think outside the box & get creative when handling g1's artstyle & make me confident about having my own characters be neurodivergent, I get a lot of inspiration from your stuff & it makes me so happy all the time. thank you so much for doing what you do /gen (all of this is /gen)

GOT DAMN !!! Thank you so much for this omg… It’s really so amazing every time I hear how my work inspires others. Honestly, I think every Transformer who enters my Field Of Interest gets blasted with my “Gender Non Conforming + Neurodivergent” beam. It’s super fun to work with and expand on the canon materials in wacky ways, and I’m so happy it’s something I do that’s giving you confidence and inspiration! Keep making art! Draw and write what you want to see! That’s some advice that’s always helped me. Like. Do I wanna see this character explored in a certain way? I do it. My art is first and foremost for me. And I’m glad my work is something that gives others a similar confidence. Keep making out there! Stay epic!

[mystical-renaissance]

If I could reboot

Now I know reboots of classic and beloved shows of our youth are technically looked down on in certain fanbases for arguably good reasons. But here me out I’ve been thinking and pondering on something a question of which was “If I could reboot a show, what would it be? What would I change and what would I keep?, and the most important one of all how would it still feel like the original show or series and not step too far into fanfic territory?” ( and with that I mean your just doing your own thing and straying real far from the source material.)

So for what I came up with was if I could I would give the Powerpuff Girls another try. I know the 2016 version is one that is not in particularly loved especially by me & on top of that I didn’t really watch the show I just saw a couple of clips and from what I saw I didn’t really care for it. Which kind of saddens me because I loved the intro that CN released for the show when it was announced that they were brining them back. And also I love the PPG’S a whole bunch. So much so that when I found out that there was an anime version of the PPG’S I instantly wanted to watch it and luckily YouTube hade a couple of episodes uploaded and some were even dubbed which was helpful.

 And let me tell you I also loved the anime versions of these girls and the changes they made for them. I mean yeah at first when I watched it I was a little taken aback with what they have changed but to me they weren't that jarring. I liked how they weren’t really sisters and how they became a cute friends, I liked that they went the route of them being “magical girls” and transforming into the hero selves. On top of it all to me at least it still felt like it was the Powerpuff girls, nothing was too different that would have me to dislike or hate it. 

But what where here to talk about is what I would do if I was to revive this show. What I would do is combine the original Powerpuff Girls & Powerpuff Girls Z. Keep the 60s modern feel for setting and have the characters designs simple but close to an anime artstyle. Like for example Magical DoReMi’s style or say Studio Triggers style. Have the backgrounds in watercolor like in Sailor Moon or any old studio Ghibli movie. For concept we can take form PPGZ by having the girls 1) not be related. 2) have them hit by piece of an asteroid that landed near Townsville. 3) have the Professor be their gradian for helping them with their powers. 4) keep magical girls aspect of the show. What to take from the original PPG would be 1) their names. 2) their Villans. 3) setting ex: Townsville, USA. 4) Characters in general. 5) the girls personalities. 6) professor being single & a scientist. 

What would I add would have to be 1) I would add some characters from the ‘16 reboot. only because I feel like they could be better characters if written and handled well. For ex. Sapna  or even Bliss ( the one many didn’t like because of how she felt like a character the art directors kids made and forced the team and working staff to write a story about her and put her in the show.) But like I said she could be interesting if handled better. For me she is another super who works for Dick Hardly who works as an agent or sponsor for hero's in Townsville. 2) some characters from PPGZ.  3)  an monster island for where the monsters live not to far from the city. 4) other hero’s that were in the old show maybe some from the 2016 show (maybe) 5) an agency that sponsor's hero’s 

For the most part that's what I have in mind I might post some drawings that I have been working on. As well as more on this concept maybe get into more detail, but for now that’s it. If anyone has any suggestions or wants to answer the question of what they would reboot I would like to hear it.  

[mintmoth]

hi!! first real quick i just wanted to say i love your art so much! your artstyle is so cute and expressive and your comics are so fun to read. all of your Kalim and Jamil art and stuff has definitely made me appreciate them way way more, like they were already great and ur comics only made me like them more, so thank you for all the awesome works!! idk how you feel about random anon fic reqs, but since your like the Jamil and Kalim person i thought it wouldnt hurt to pass on knowledge about this one fic. It’s called “twinkle, twinkle, little star” by vanicanela thats about Najma and also features like her relationship with Jamil and Kalim and its just so good and well written! if you do decide to check it out i hope you enjoy it! thats all i had to say, thanks for reading and have a nice day :D!!

I actually meant to respond to this a lot sooner I'm so sorry I've been so busy moving 😭

But THANK YOU SO MUCH?? 😭😭 Honestly so many people send me the sweetest things and they always make me so emotional, I just hang on to them in my inbox

But as far as the fic goes- YES I've actually read that before and it's genuinely very good imo

It's a really interesting way to explore Najma as a character that exists in a way that's parallel to Jamil and to think about the differences between them and the roles they've been given in life in conjunction to their family, the Asim family, and their own differing hopes and dreams

I've talked here before about how despite us not knowing much about Najma as the audience, you can only assume that she helps out the Asim family in a more general way then Jamil does with how he's more of a personal retainer for Kalim then anything else, while the Viper family outside of him are more of just esteemed servants. So while there are definitely pressures she's endured from this she doesn't hold the heavy weight that Jamil has been made to endure as the first born son who's literally taking care of and accompanying the Asim heir

But the direction the fic goes in is genuinely so good?? Idk it's a really good exploration of Najma and how she could exist- as well as just having some really great scenes exploring her relationship with Jamil and how Kalim would regard her as a person

Here's a link for anyone who's interested in checking it out!

I'm definitely always open for fanfic reqs because I haven't been reading a lot of them as of late outside of the occassional one I come across lmao

[xamaxenta]

So this is a work in progress but I got a doctor dilf, he’s 42 and an absolute sweetheart, he’s also part of a pirate crew

He’s very cool, I really like the hairstyle you’ve chosen for him!! Despite this being a WIP it’s easy to tell he’s a kind character bc of the eye shape and the soft waves of hair framing his face, I think hairstyle helps how a character feels and how they can be percieved by a ton

Also the half moon glasses (is that what they’re called?) those are rly nice, glasses are hard bc the perspective but these look great

In regards to the baby face, from what I can see its a combination of two things I’d have to critique:

1. You’re using a base standard mannequin model reference - this is absolutely fine for practice don’t hesitate to use these resources - that being said, there’s guidelines on the head and the eyes aren’t following the horizontal guide, I’m at work so I can’t draw over (if youre OK with me doing it) to show you, but heres another reference IRL:

I know this isn’t the exact same pose (neck shoulders facing the other wayh hah) as your 3d model reference but the head angle is kinda close enough cuz chin dipping down

The best advice I can give is follow the hairline, here the model in the photos eyebrows follow the hairline on the diagonal, the eyes should follow the same rule

For your sketch the left eye on the character (our right) is sunken further into the face, what Id do to fix it is lasso tool the nose and that eye and transform rotate it clockwise until it fits the guideline curve

2. The mouth and the chin of your sketch are a little too low, this is super subjective tho espeically when it comes to anime artstyles etc

The cheek region of the face has a muscle called the masseter and is kinda left out in simpler art styles like anime styles or more cartoony styles - i forget it alot myself and thats why some of my art looks wack as hell, basically I recommend putting it in bc it helps volume and emphasises a jaw - for the 3D model it bypasses this muscle completely bc its very smooth

I could be talking garbage here abt the cheeks bc its subjective and this differentiates between artists styles and likes etc, this issue can also be solved by moving the mouth a couple taps upwards, and to change the shape to a more w shaped upper lip

See the dark seam of the mouth, i know for your sketch the mouth is open in a smile but in all of this dudes mouth shapes theres a slight w shape in his upper lip, again subjective take this with a grain of salt sort of thing because everyone is different in how they choose to draw and create things

Summing up the critique: review eyes and nose (check guidelines and look at photos of ppls), for the jaw can review the actual shape of the face by including detail like cheeks and flattening the chin OR by reviewing the mouth by pulling it up closer to the nose, not too close and adjusting the shape

But so far so good !! I think your OC is great, I hope this wasn’t too horrendous to read im sorry for the long post

[redrobin-detective]

Crawls out from the Pit

Alright so after about 2 and half weeks I have finished all 8 seasons, 80 episodes of Ben 10 Omniverse. I’m a little sad to be done but also glad to have my free time back (also if I have to hear that motherFUCKING opening theme again I will actually cry). So it was an experiencing one that was both super enjoyable but also infuriating. Let me break down my thoughts (with some spoilers) under the cut.

Things I liked

- From the very first episode I was, and still am just fascinated by the basic world set up. Ben Tennyson is known across the entire universe as a hero and wielder of the Omnitrix, everyone he meets knows who he is. Coming off series with locked down secret identities Ben’s status as a universal celebrity had both pros and cons and was simply fascinating to watch.

 - Aliens are common in his hometown of Bellwood and there’s a thriving populous under the city. Watching aliens and humans interact with awkward moments and periods of adjustment was damn interesting, great world building in there too.

- The Plumbers being intergalactic peace keepers of sorts (again with all the good and bad that come with essentially being space cops) and having a presence on earth and beyond. Ben’s status as being part of the organization but not a true member, one who really answers only to himself was intriguing.

- For all that I nitpick Ben and Rook’s relationship (stilllll not seeing shippers sorry) I loved Rook Blonko as a character, he was delightful. I also did like Ben and Rook’s relationship bc their individual prejudices and problems kept them from becoming actually close and reliant on one another and while it came close at times it never really resolved which I’m okay with.

- Love the time travel shit *chefs kiss* Professor Paradox my beloved. Also I would die for No Watch Ben. And why is Ben 23 so popular? He’s a lil bitch.

- Genuinely did love the cartoony artstyle, I was obsessed with how green Ben’s eyes were. My personal fanon is the Omnitrix has slowly made them green and glowy over the years. Also the flashbacks to 10-11 year old Ben, baby diagnosed. Such a cutie patootie. 

- Speaking of which, loved the frequent callbacks to the original series (my first and favorite). OV felt way more connected to that Ben that I first fell in love with than AF or UAF.

- Ben, when his character was executed right, was wonderful. A big hearted teen who has way too much power and responsibility just doing his best. He covers his fear of failure with jokes and a deceptively casual attitude. While he can be lazy and overconfident and doesn’t think things through, he is dedicated to what he does not for fame but to help people and his determination and adaptability always see him through. 

Things I Didn’t Like

- So when Ben was done right it was great but my biggest peeve was how they changed his personality, maturity, competency level episode by episode. Sometimes he was capable of complex negotiations, sometimes all he could do was complain and eat junk foods, sometimes he he could sheer climb walls, other times he was pathetically weak without his Omnitrix. Needless to say I was really irked by the dangerously immature & reckless, rude to the point of being mean, willfully idiotic moron version of Ben who didn’t care about anything.

- When I first started someone said the first half of OV was good and the rest was not. They were right, loved S1-4, 5-8 had good episodes but overall was either cringing or rolling my eyes. S5 in particular aggravated me with Ben being at his worst. I was pulling my hair out at Ben yelling about how ugly and monstrous the citizens of Anur Transyl were like Ben... you regularly turn into those aliens.... your whole deal is being able to see from other’s perspectives...

- Just, the lack of taking itself seriously or following through on some damn interesting storylines. Like Ben being put on trial for recreating the universe? And being found guilty not just of that but misusing the Omnitrix??? That’s good shit right there but they waved it all away with some trial by combat bullshit and well back to normal. I know its a cartoon but that episode infuriated me. 

- Gwen and Kevin... didn’t care for them much here. Their characters just felt flat and shoved in whenever it was convenient with no real meaningful interactions between the supposedly close trio. They really were thrown under the bus to make room for Rook and the whole Plumbers thing.

- Kai *long groan* Honestly any attempt to address Ben’s love life was so nightmarishly bad. Everyone who says that Ben is Aromatic is absolutely correct. Boy hardly showed any interest in dates and tried to get out of most of them and yet he was ‘destined’ to be with a girl who was shown only to care about his transformations and not him? And that he didn’t really respect back? Hell no.

- Most of the villains were kinda Meh. Maltruant was cool but underused, we hardly got ANYTHING interesting out of the series big bad Vilgax, Albedo was... still don’t know what to think of him. Malware was cool tho, the whole Feedback thing was painful.

So overall the good outweighs the bad but I liked it far more at the beginning than I did the end. I’ll rewatch some of my favorites but probably won’t do a full binge again. Still, I love the idea of this particular universe and really did enjoy most of my watch!

[unseelie-bitch]

The Secret of the Lost Kingdom

[Here we go lads, we've gotten to the first film]

This opening song is highkey a bop

Oh no nononono they did this in 3D animation??? Gotta be honest, I'm already not a fan and I haven't even seen their faces

Oh yep their faces are SO CURSED

WHY WOULD YOU USE 3D YOU HAD A PERFECTLY CUTE 2D ARTSTYLE

Oh they just jumped into an abandoned castle like ninjas

See you all have new voice actors so I have NO IDEA who was just tempting fate into bringing out these big knight monsters

Not sure I'm a fan of how naked they made them in the transformations

Musa sounds way too preppy

They all have the same voice what is going on

"Are you hurt?" Bloom she is lying on the floor in pain

ABSOLUTE HATE THAT THEY'RE SAYING FLORA CAN FEEL ALL THE PAIN HER PLANTS FEEL

If you're Techna, why are you American?

Really don't like Bloom's voice actor

Ah he was the sword smith from the company of light

Is that supposed to be Faragonda

Yep it is good god

"We're all a little bored with you and your sword" LMAO

So it's been centuries since the company of light disbanded. And Sparx was destroyed 17 years ago. Which was when they FORMED the company of light. Come on lads get a timeline

Stella gagging because he flirted with Faragonda is both hilarious and on brand

Please stop talking about "shiny steel" I am embaressed FOR you

Faragonda don't just look sadly after her

DON'T TELL HER FRIENDS TO LEAVE BLOOM ALONE SHE'S CRYING WTF FARAGONDA

Oh good god WHAT did they do to Riven's hair

Sorry ONLY the Winx Club are graduating and "achieving ultimate harmony"

Oh Kiko is so fucking cursed

Why is there a cat???????????????

She called the cat Ron

WIZGIZ IS CURSED WIZGIZ IS SO CURSED

Oh they floatin'

Brandon don't laugh at Riven you bitch

Okay so they just heavily implied they are the only fairies with their powers???? Sus

WHY DOES LAYLA SOUND LIKE A SOUTHERN BELLE

Oh fuck OFF Sky

Why did you make Musa a giggly prep and Riven a dick again wtf

Sky looks like Prince Charming from Shrek

Okay so Bloom actually didn't graduate??? Why

Sky she's allowed to be sad don't be a bitch

Cue Sky ALMOST saying something important and getting cut off. Watch him not finish that sentence til the end of the film

Oh hello who's this girl... I like her

Bye Sky! Don't come back

"Bloom, you know it's not a party if you're not there" so Stella's still gay, good to know

Stella's dancing with Kiko awwwwwww

SHE DROPPED HIM NOOOOOO

It's okay Bloom caught him

Oh I do like the redesign of Alfea though

Sad Bloom montage

"She's like a wild bird in a tiny cage" at least Mike is Aware

Oh no Bloom's having a magic anxiety dream

DO NOT LIKE THE 3D WITCHES NOPE NOT AT ALL

Daphne!!

Daphne is Bloom's sister??????? They did NOT make that clear

SHE'S BEEN AT LIGHTROCK THIS WHOLE TIME?

Woah Daphne's giving Bloom her mask awww

AWW HER PARENTS INVITED ALL BLOOM'S FRIENDS FOR BLOOM'S BIRTHDAY

Oh. Yay. Sky's here. Wahoo.

I love this magic cat but is it going to be relevant

Why are the OG witches still kicking about wtf

Whom the fuck is this? Why are you here does this mean we don't get the Trix?? That's such a joke

He was gone for FOUR MONTHS without even a text? Bitch

THANK YOU TECHNA these boys are acting like CHILDREN

Aaaand Riven woke up the bird

I thought that vine was "stronger than steel" how the fuck did it break

Please don't reduce Stella to an airhead we've seen in previous seasons she's actually really intelligent

Bloom's voice actor sounds more like Musa than Musa's does

Hello Mr Scribe Man

"You knew my parents?" He JUST said he was your father's scribe

Please stop making Stella flirt with the scribe to get what she wants I hate how they're portraying her in this

Shady voice calling out to Riven wtf

We love a good prophacy

Anyone who enters Obsidian is hopeless, lost and corrupted?? Bro wtf

Mirta!!

WizGiz is being a bitch because Mirta was going to use a dark spell to stop herself GETTING MURDERED BY A MONSTER. Why are you like this WizGiz

Palladium!!

Faragonda you NEVER think it's a good time for explainations

Mandragora used to go to Alfea???

Faragonda you could help at literally ANY time

Faragonda finally did something lads

...and immediately passed out wow

They destoryed the school yikes

Ew future book please don't say Bloom and Sky will get married

The pixies!!

The school is fixed

The OG witches are pissed that the dragonfire's in a person lmao

Musa is 100% on board and I love her

Sky you had the whole flight here to talk to her if it's that important stop waiting til she's about to do something important

Techna don't be mean to Lockette

Jolly wtf

"The perfect vacation spot from people you hate" iconic

Oh whaddup Mandragora

Lads Musa did not get stabbed she just knocked his sword out the way

They're all being attacked by their own powers... apart from Stella, who's fading away because they've decided all she cares about it appearances with is BULLSHIT

Why do the witches look like those blow up thingys that stand outside... y'know, the ones that look like people and dance around

Yikes her dad's a statue

OH SHIT EVERYONE ON SPARX IS PETRIFIED

EW ONE OF THE WITCHES JUST POSSESSED STELLA

Mandragora just about to kill all the guys lmao

Is Mandragora secretly Miriyam because no one else is talking about her

Oh nice Riven's back

LMAO HE JUST DECKED HER YES RIVEN

Sky canNOT wield the sword fuck OFF

Lol he really can't it electrocuted him

Oop Mandragora's dead nvm

Ugh he can he's the king. I hate this man

Oh Sparx is back and everyone's alive NICE

Oh Miriyam was in the sword. Right. Okay

Love Bloom's dress

"Since we weren't able to be there for the first half of your life, Bloom-" sorry HALF??? SHE'S 18!! WHAT'S THE LIFE EXPECTANCY ON SPARX, 36?????? WHAT THE FUCK

Ayyyyy that pretty guard is back

The dialogue in this film is atrocious

And he's proposing. She's 18. But okay.

Aww Winx are the new company of light that's so soft

Oh shit the witches are free

I HATE THAT THEY'RE SAYING THE TRIX ARE NOW POSSESSED BY THE OG WITCHES THAT'S HORIFFIC NO NO NO NO I REFUSE

Right so I'm not ackowledging ANY of this film as canon apart from the winx being the new company of light

[viria]

hi viria! i’m a 13 year old trying to develop my own style. i keep trying to draw original art, but i find myself just copying other artists. i saved up enough money for the apple pencil and ipad pro and bought them, but i’m afraid it’s all going to go to waste if i can’t be original. do you have any tips?

Hello! 

First of all, I feel like I always say this - but you are so young! You absolutely don’t need to stress out about finding a style right away. You are younger than I was when I started drawing, so trust me, there’s a world ahead of you, and generally, styles builds up on it’s own over time, inspirations you see along the way, and the knew knowledge you find out.

So! Stressing aside, if you can’t do it in a second.

But, you can definitely help yourself to start getting into developing an artstyle. As I said before, style is a mix of your experiences, your inspirations, your knowledge, and your skill. 

Although you can’t quite forse experiences and skill on yourself yet, as it doesn’t happen over night and genuinely does need time, you can start to build a base for that by looking at various artists.

To say simple, pick 4-5 (or more) artists you really admire. The majority of people, I feel like start by copying in the style of one artist, and then sometimes get stuck to it for a while, whether they want it or not. Once your hand gets so used to draw in someone else’s style, it’s quite hard to make it unlearn, and to make it form somewhat different lines instead, so that’s one it’s great to start with a few artists.

You can start by looking at a very simple basic shape tutorial on how to “build” a body, and take the very base from there. So that, is gonna be artist A.

When you’re learning, nothing really just miraculously comes to you, it’s always some observation and some parts you try mimicing from someone else. So the key here is, instead of looking at one single artist and try mimicing every aspect of their artstyle, find a few. And try mimicing only a small fraction of it - say, you really love artist B draws eyes. So you try your best to mimic that, and it’s great when it doesn’t exactly looks like a 100% copy and has your own twist to it. 

So now you have the way of drawing eyes you got by looking at artist B, and you put it on the base you got from artist A.

Now, pick as many artists as you like - and take some elements from their works. Say, lineart from artist C, colouring from artist D, shading from artist E, hands from artist F, hair from artist G, etc etc. You don’t need AS many, I am quite exaggerrating here. But that’s the general idea. 

By the end of your excercise, you have this completely unique blend of your own inspirations. That’s your base. The more time comes by, the more you will improve that base, add more and more unique twists over it, simply change some things you initially borrowed to be a bit more submissive for your own hand and the way YOU do lines, and so so on. Over time it’s going to morph more and more into you, express you, and that’s when it can be your style you didn’t steal from someone else, but made yourself.

Because every single style is a blend of many elements that have already been done by someone. It’s the combination of the things, different for every artist, that people later on recognize as yours. That’s why I feel like taking all the elements from one artist can be quite harmful, both to the artist, and to you as an individual.

You can always try using references that aren’t someone else’s drawings, but various photos. Say pose from one photo, clothing from other, bg is another blend of different nature photos. It can be a very helpful excersise too, and there’s no shame in needing those references, especially at the beginning (but even later on). You still take something and you need to transform it into your thing, re-drawing with your own twist.

As for worrying about not being original - trust me, there is so SO much time you have ahead of you to get it all done. Draw for your pleasure, draw for fun and because you like it. It will come to you over time and over practise. The more you draw, the more your art transforms and starts getting the feeling of YOU. 

Keep it up, and you’ll manage it all!

[miximax-hell]

I always tell my friends that they’re capable of anything they put their mind into. But, personally, I should know my limits and act accordingly. And considering how INCREDIBLY long it took me to finish this piece for such a poor result (despite the fact that I was just trying to replicate official art, so I had all the help in the world), well, I would say this was my limit. But, hey, you’ll never know until you try, and all practice is good practice.

That aside, hello! For today’s post, I decided to revisit the concept I started this blog with and work on a bigger illustration. It’s probably my least popular kind of post, but trying to mimic KH’s artstyle is kind of a blast regardless of the result or the struggle.

With Max’s and Kageno’s out of the way, it was about time I worked on Handa’s, since, you know, he’s my favourite character and all. I can be biased here, right?

So, it might be a good time to talk about HanRoku’s reasons to be.

Well, well, well. This is coming at the beginning of April when my last post was on January, and even that was just to celebrate the fact that, somehow, over a hundred people have decided to follow this blog. I’m not even going to pretend I’m way too busy to work on stuff--it’s just been a fantastic combination of things that made me want to... stop. I hit a big wall where the ideas I had were being a tad too difficult to pull off in a satisfying way (I swear to God, Kidou, your hair is impossible to work with), and I was either not in the mood to do anything or more focused on other and, at the time, more fun endeavours. I was super passionate about my graduation thesis, for example--and that went rather well, thankfully.

But, boy, I loved Kingdom Hearts 3. No bad mood or task was going to keep me from sinking hours into that game somewhat regularly. Playing it filled me with immense joy, and seeing Roxas again after so long brought me to tears. It made me think a lot about finally finishing (or trying to finish) this big piece... and it caught me very rusty, which led to hours, hours, hours, HOURS of work for what I have already described as a disappointing result. I mean, it’s not the worst I have ever drawn, but... well. It could definitely be much better, and I’m rather tempted to rework it in the future. I hadn’t touched my tablet in ages and it shows. Nor my pencils. Just my brushes, but that was just to paint doggos and Life Is Strange-inspired landscapes.

And the best part is that the illustration ISN’T EVEN COMPLETE because the rest would actually be a spoiler for a fic of mine called Zero. If you check the official art I linked above, you’ll see that what my illustration shows as a black area is actually filled by a completely separate illustration. I know what I want there, but, as I said, it’d spoil the story, so, yeah. Talk about a work in progress. I hope I can finish it all one day...

Anyway, enough pointless ranting! Thanks for putting up with me. To reward someone who has made it this far without getting tired of me, I’m giving away a Steam copy of Batman: Arkham Origins, along with all of its DLC. If you want it, please shoot me a non-anonymous message~ There is absolutely no need to follow me nor reblog/like this post, although it’d obviously be greatly appreciated. The first to ask for it will get it. And, please, don’t follow me for future giveaways--I doubt there will be any. Now, let’s talk about HanRoku. That’s what you clicked on that "read more" button for.

The beginnings of HanRoku are ancient at this point. We’re talking 2012 or 2013, and that’s INSANE. For how long have I been struggling with this project?! Goodness gracious. Anyway, at the time, Chrono Stone was hitting all of the right notes for me. Time travel? Check. People that transform to become more powerful? Check. Fusions, because I've watched too much DBZ for me to not love that? Check. And one day, for reasons that have been lost to time, but probably have a lot to do with the aforementioned fic, I realised something. Zero was supposed to be a story about how Roxas mingles with Someoka, Handa, Aki and mostly Endou, but then it hit me: Roxas and Handa are actually... extremely similar.

To those who have never played Kingdom Hearts, PLEASE GO PLAY KINGDOM HEARTS. And to those who couldn’t care less about what I recommend them to do, KH is a story that, under a deceiving cover full of Disney characters and confusing plot points, makes a deep and rather interesting point about what the true nature of the soul is--even if they insist on calling it “heart” instead. What is a soul? What is it for? Who, or what, has a soul--and why? Is the soul linked to the mind or to the body? Is it even possible to have a body and not have a soul? Is the soul something you’re born with or something you can/must acquire over time? What makes it grow, and what is true strength of soul? You know, for a game where you hit cute Hot Topic monsters with an oversized key, that’s pretty darn cool.

I talked more about this way back when, but I’ll give you a brief summary of the main reason why Handa and Roxas are such a perfect match: they are both people looking for their place in a world that actively acts against their very existence. They have no purpose and are simply tools for other people to shine and/or achieve their goals. That is obviously not a good, fulfilling life.

But, well, after all these years of ruminating and thinking (and crying) about HanRoku, there has to be a bit more to it than just that, right?

Obviously (and even more obviously after Kingdom Hearts 3), Roxas is very strong. Very strong. What he lacks in existence, he makes up for in raw power. For someone like Handa, who is so overlooked due to being okay at everything but not great at anything, this is massive. Even if Roxas doesn’t make him stellar at everything, he doesn’t need to. He still gives Handa enough power to become an extremely invaluable asset in the field and a force to be reckoned with--especially early on, since Handa is the first original Raimon player to get a miximax and all. I’ll talk more about HanRoku’s powers in the future.

But the usefulness in the field is only the first part, and even that is debatable due to the post I linked to earlier and the fact that, well, he sure will be special and super strong when no one else can mixitrans, but he won’t be once the whole team can do so. I mean, let’s count: Endou, Gouenji, Someoka, Max, Kageno, Megane, Tamano... That’s 7 people, when there are only 11 players on the field at a time. Handa would only be at an advantage over 3 people. (And if you’re going to tell me that he’s still the only midfielder with a miximax, thus making him special on his own, that’s a perfectly valid point and you should congratulate yourself for having such a keen eye.)

What really shines about HanRoku, though, is how mutually symbiotic their relationship is. Even if their struggles are so similar at heart, the reasons why those struggles exist are not.

Handa’s problems come from not being good enough at anything to be really... indispensable. Sure, he can do pretty much any job at any given point and be adequate enough at it, but he’s never the first option. He has no place of his own in the team; not one thing only he is capable of doing. And that leads to all kinds of problems of self-worth and trying to find a purpose. He will leave Raimon and no one will remember he was even there.

Roxas is completely essential to Organization XIII, but he’s been reduced to a killing machine that they are trying to replace with a better and more obedient one, thus taking away from him the only reason to be he ever knew and making him question his very existence. Once Org XIII disposes of him, no one will miss him--and that’s made even worse by a certain plot point: Nobodies disappear from the memory of everyone who ever met them once they are defeated/killed.

Of course, Roxas would help Handa immensely, as stated earlier. That’s kind of the point of this whole ordeal. But here’s the catch: Handa would help Roxas too. By leaving a part of himself inside Handa (that sounds extremely wrong, but please bear with me), he knows he will never be truly forgotten no matter what happens to him, and his life will ultimately have a purpose: to help a friend in need find his own worth. But let’s not forget that Roxas has only been alive for less than a year, while Handa has been struggling with his demons for over a decade without ever giving up. Despite having the world against him (or, at the very least, definitely not on his side), Handa is still going at it, trying his best, fighting for what he believes in, dealing courageously with the fact that he’s just an ordinary boy in a world of amazing people in order to help them achieve their ultimate goals. At a time when Roxas felt like his existence was worthless, meeting Handa, a boy who challenges his own self to find an identity that may not even exist, is truly inspiring. His selflessness, his love towards his friends and his neverending efforts to be better give Roxas a reason to stand up to the norm and fight for what he believes is right: in this case, to save his few and treasured friends.

Handa and Roxas find in each other a mirror that, for the first time in their lives, shows them in a new light that gives them hope for the future. They learn from each other, complement each other, improve each other, inspire each other, share a deep bond of friendship and trust, feel stronger and braver when they are together, and make a fantastic team. A team of throwaways, a team of tools, a team made of convenient replacements that will one day become obsolete. But a team that, however, is much greater than the sum of its overlooked parts, and will achieve incredible things when they eventually figure out just how unique and special they both are.

Talking about HanRoku makes me very emotional and it’s difficult to convey my feelings about them when I’m choking on my own tears, but I hope you can all understand why I love these two so very much. And if you can’t... well, feel free to ask me any questions you may have! I’d love to find new ways to describe why these two are so precious to me.

[lia-nikiforov]

Spring 2018 Anime Watchlist

THERE IS TOO MUCH ANIME THIS SEASON I HAD TO BINGE 37 EPISODES IN THREE DAYS TO CATCH UP

Dropped

Mahou Shoujo Site: Although I originally intended to irony watch this one, expecting something like MahoIku or King’s Game, its sadistic reveling in the main character’s suffering was impossible to stomach. I felt physically ill at the end of it. I’m not, in principle, opposed to gory stuff, y’all know I sat through the whole stupidity that was King’s Game, but MahoSite doesn’t even reach the level of ridiculous over the topness to make it funny, it’s just a cascade of misery porn with not a single moment of levity or triumph for the heroine. I think I was done the moment that gratuitous “if you punch my stomach my period won’t come” line, because apparently some dudes get off on the idea of a woman being so brutalized she stops menstruating??????

Kakuriyo Yadomeshi: I was willing to give this one the three-episode trial after the first episode in spite of the godawful main love interest and the fact that the grandfather sold the MC into literal slavery wtf, because the main girl seems proactive and independent buuuuuuut fuck I hated episode 2. Not only does she seem to quickly forgive her grandfather for SELLING HER OFF, the men around her keep speaking over her and making decisions for her and she turns out to be just independent enough to not be a complete doormat, but not enough to appear defiant and I hate it. Thanks but no thanks, I ain’t here to see a romantization of being literally sold into an arranged marriage.

YOU THINK?!

Cutie Honey Universe: Before this, I’d had zero interaction with any other iteration of Cutie Honey, so I wasn’t sure of what to expect beyond knowing this was from the creator of Devilman. Certainly blatant homophobic jokes and jokes about physical abuse wasn’t in my list of thigs I expected to see, yet here we are. I ain’t here for “hyuk hyuk look at these fat/butch/ugly lesbians, aren’t they ridiculous” jokes either.

Butlers x Battlers: I completely forgot I watched this one. I don’t remember anything about it except being confused

GeGeGe no Kitaro: This one didn’t do anything wrong, but I was never gonna watch it. I just checked out episode 1 because I heard it made a dig at Logan Paul. I wish they’d gone all the way through and killed that character, but I guess you can’t have it all. It was actually a pretty decent episode, and in a weaker season I’d probably keep watching it, but there’s just too much stuff coming out. And I have watched previous Kitaro anime and it’s sometimes too meanspirited for me.

Uma Musume: I didn’t expect much from this show and was pleasantly surprised by the double-length first episode. Special Week was a nice, fun protagonist to root for and although the world-building was weird as heck, it was fun and positive. So I’m not exactly sure of what happened with episode 2/3 that it left me feeling completely dry. The pacing was super rushed, the characters all felt horribly flat, and the races weren’t super exciting because rather than any strategy or strong emotional realization, Special Week just has to start running even faster and faster in the final leg. It was also kind of implied she had gained weight? But then never brought up? And it’s not made very clear why she lost in the end? Was she supposed to learn humility and not getting too complacent? Seems too early for her to learn that when she’s supposed to be an underdog. I don’t know, it didn’t really work for me and I don’t feel like I care to watch more of it.

Because this post is long af and has a lot of gifs some folks were having trouble loading it on mobile, so you’ll have to read under the cut to know which are the shows I’m actually watching oops

Chopping Block: 

There is too much anime and I’m near the end of the semester so I’m gonna have to cut at least one -preferably two- of these shows

Sword Art Online Alternative: This was another one I intended to hatewatch? But rather than offensive or idiotic it’s so far been pretty boring. Episode one was a slog. The first half of episode two was a horrendous spectacle of hating your own body. The only think I liked was the friendship between LLENN and Pito (btw Pito meand ‘dick’ in Spanish and every time she says “call me Pito” I die). Then episode 3 was more boring exposition. FPS games are the least interesting I could think of, and I’ve never been into Let’s Play, so this show is hitting all the right notes to make me bored out of my mind. I also don’t appreciate the big dude not telling Llenn the plan and just kind of being condescending to her. If next episode is just 20 more minutes of the dude explaining things to Llenn, I’m out. (Also, Pito is 100% Elsa Kanzaki)

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Not feeling this reboot at all. It’s all very dry and just dudes expositioning strategy at each other. Also there are 30 characters in the Ending and only 2 of them are women???? I’ll give it one more episode, but tbh I’ve had problems even paying attention to 2 and 3, it just doesn’t grab me.

Libra of Nil Admirari: Although I like the heroine and she might be one of the strongest reverse harem heroines I’ve seen, the plot itself is very... eh. The guys are also very uninteresting so far. There’s also the fact that Tsumugi claims to have no interest in men or love, but this being a reverse harem with a bevy of men starved for her attention makes me worry this’ll end with her being “fixed” by an actual nice guy who is worthy of her or something. But the OP is very cute!

Hatewatch

Darling in the Franxx: Boy oh boy, the otaku have been creaming their pants and tearing their clothes off for the last three weeks, but “Don’t call it Fucking, It’s Making Love” in the Franxx’s greatest achievement in my eyes is going for idiotically offensive to just bland and clichéd. A recent AMA on reddit with the producer seems to imply that none of the themes of sex, gender and heterosexism that have been at the core of the show were even properly thought out, nor were their implications even remotely considered. I don’t know if the show’s heterosexism would be worse if it was active propaganda rather than what it seems to be: a bunch of ideas the producers thought would be “cool” and “titillating” with no particular meaning to them. Also we’re 15 episodes in and all we’ve achieved is Palurdo has finally tamed his beast waifu who is Not Like Other Girls. Oh, and I guess the monsters actually had humans in there, what a shocker, never seen that before, never expected such a clever twizzzzzzzz....

Mid Priority

Tokyo Ghoul: Re : I thought I was done with Tokyo Ghoul after trying to read the manga and being bored shitless by all the unnecessary exposition, but this one, while not quite excellent, managed to pique my interest. The conceit of Kaneki losing his memories and joining the Doves and helping in exterminating ghouls I’m super not interested in, but his encounter with Nishio has made me curious enough about what has happened with the rest of the characters to keep watching for now.

Rokuhodou Biyori: The iyashikei show of the season I guess. The guys’ personalities are a little bland, so I might bump it down to the chopping block, but it’s only been two episodes, so I want to give it a fair chance

Persona 5: My history with Persona has never been good. Episode 1 of P4 made me sleep, and I watched the first P3 movie THREE TIMES and never managed to parse wtf it was about. This show shares some of the same problems in making me struggle to pay attention, but at least so far the plot seems interesting, the visuals are creative and striking, and I really like the main character’s design. I’m also more inclined to keep watching because Sayokan directed the OP for the videogame.

Hisone to Masotan: There’s a cynical part of me that watches this show and feels like I’m watching a commercial for the JSDF. Yvan eht nioJ, come join us, we have cool dragons!!! I also don’t love the fact that the dragon turns into a plane :/ BUT the characters have a lot of heart, the dynamics so far between Hisone and Masotan and Hisone and Kanzaki have been very touching. A part of me though, wishes Hisone had stuck with Otofu because it’s such a cute name and she sounded really funny yelling “OTOFU!!!”

Safe Sequels

Although some of these sequels would go in higher categories, I was unsure about how to rank them -especially the 2-cour ones- compared to some of my top premieres of the season, so I’m just putting them all together because there are A LOT of sequels.

Yowapeda Glory Line: FINALLY SOMETHING POSITIVE HAPPENED FOR SOHOKU. I was starting to feel exhausted with all the gloominess, especially for seeing Teshima punished, HE DESERVES EVERY GOOD THING. Now we can get back on track and hopefully have a fun race without Teshima brooding all the way through the episode. ALSO THANK YOU FOR THE EXCELLENT TESHIAO CONTENT

Nanatsu no Taizai: FINALLY ESCANOR SHOWED UP. It’s felt like the first half of the show dragged a lot compared to the manga, so I’m happy we’ve reached one of the coolest parts. Though if memory serves, the rest of the season will be spent floundering around, but damn, the Escanor vs Galand battle is very satisfying to watch.

Lupin III Part V: So this time around they’ve added the social media factor into Lupin’s adventures, and so far the result has been quite interesting. I don’t have a lot to say, the artstyle looks closer to classic versions of the franchise and has lost some of the edge from part IV, but the comedy and Lupin’s plans are still creative and fun to watch, even adding a unique spin to the social media component, so I’m excited to see where they take this. But we need more Fujiko yesterday pls

Binan Koukou Chikyuu Boueibu Happy Kiss: A soft reboot of this magical girl parody franchise, with frillier costumes and even more ridiculous attacks and transformations, and I’m here for it. I do wish we’d get at least some cameos from the original gang. I also feel that so far, apart from the Red guy (Kyotaro?) the others don’t seem to have much of a distinctive personality. It’s only episode three, so hopefully that’s something we’ll see developed as the show goes on.

Hozuki no Reitetsu: It’s the same as it’s always been, a brilliantly dry workplace comedy. If you haven’t watched the previous seasons, you’re missing out on one of the best comedies of this decade.

Boku no Hero Academia 3: After the recap first episode, the series has gone back full gear ahead into the next story arc and so far it looks pretty cool. Although I’m never a fan of “regular MC activity gets interrupted by villains”. Idk why it bothers me a lot -a prime example being the S Class exam getting cut short in Fairy Tail and the concept of S Class mages completely ditched thereon after. But anyway, I have faith in the writing that they’ll make this villain interruption cool and worth it. I do however wish they’d let us meet the Class B guys better.

Steins;Gate 0: You know, I was 100% ready to be disappointed and abandon this one right away, but damn, damn have these first two episodes been brilliant. The nuances in Okabe’s characterization, the portrayal of his grief, and his more mature attitude seem like a mirror of the watcher who has grown all the same in the seven years since the show’s original season. I’m hoping the teases about Maho as a potential love interest are a red herring, but other than that, I’m blown away by how good it has been so far. Just delete Daru please.

Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card: Things have started happening! We’re starting to see that Akiho’s mysterious book is somehow having an effect over the events of Sakura’s life. The episode with the animals was particularly strong, with a new card that had a nice renovated design, and a really emotionally effective scene of Sakura and Syaoran embracing to help Sakura regain confidence to save her friends. It’s one of the strongest episodes of the series so far, so hopefully we’ll have more of those and less of the “finding a card that only minimally makes 10 cm from a bookshelf disappear” type. As a sidenote, I find Akiho’s obsession with Sakura’s play a bit offputting.

High Priority

Mahou Shojo Ore: Given how little I knew about this series going in and how excited I was about it in spite of it, I’m pleased to report the show has lived up to my expectations in one way or another. The weird comedy is on point and also everyone is fucking gay. I’m rooting for you Blue Girl! Easily the superior show with Mahou Shoujo in its title.

Hinamatsuri: You know, I didn’t have super high expectations for this one, but it’s turned out to be a very nice surprise. It has that charming paternal relationship between Nitta and Hina that is cute and hilarious. I have to say I’m not super into the classmate-forced-to-become-a-bartender storyline and I’m not sure how that even fits with the rest of the show, so I hope there won’t be a lot of vignettes about it.

Piano no Mori: Wonky CGI and occassionally questionable character design choices (Ajino was so BEAUTIFUL in his youth, why does he look so ridiculous in the present?!!!) aside, this has been one of the strongest premieres of the season. I know fans of the manga have criticized it, but as someone unfamiliar with the original, I’m definitely intrigued by this story.

BESTEST

Megalobox: This one wasn’t on my radar at all. It’s one of those numerous cases of me seeing a title that sounds stupid and deciding to ignore the show based on that alone. I’m glad I stumbled on all the praise the premiere episode received because damn is it good. The story behind the cameras is that this is a 50th anniversary project for Ashita no Joe, and it was meant to be a reboot, but the director couldn’t find a way to make it work, so he created something entirely new, and aren’t we glad about that. It has a unique retro look and although the plot beats do call back to Ashita no Joe, our Joe feels like his own person alright. I think my only nitpick is that I’m not entirely sure of what is even the point of the additional gear. Also, I know how Ashita no Joe ends and I hope this show won’t end like that too :’D

Golden Kamuy: How long has it been since the last time a multi-awarded manga not only wasn’t disappointing but ended up being one of the most promising anime adaptations of the season? Yes, everyone’s seen the ugly CGI bear, moving on, this is a captivating and unique historical show with a so far excellent portrayal of Ainu culture and a kickass lady coprotagonist.  I am really excited to see where this one will go. Also, it was really exciting to hear characters actually speaking ainu language. I’ve done some research on Ainu history (and kickass Ainu women) for school, so I’m very pumped about this one.

Otaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii: By far my favorite premiere of the season. So far, two episodes in, it’s all I ever hoped it would be and more. The characters are charming, Narumi and Hirotaka’s relationship feels natural and effortless -both the romantic aspect of it, and the way they easily become comfortable with one another-. Narumi is delightful and very well-rounded, being as cheerful and optimistic as she can be cynical, and her quick-developing friendship with Hanako is so violently relatable I was screaming. I really love this show. ALSO THE OP IS SUPER CUTE

I FINALLY FINISHED WRITING THIS IT TOOK FOREVER BECAUSE THERE IS TOO MUCH ANIME

[sofie-the-witch]

Ok.. so i just watched New gods: nezha reborn, a Chinese 3D animated Netflix original based on a a novel from the ming dynasty.

I don't know much if anything about the source material but it's been reimagined in a cyberpunk/ dystopian future setting and this movie kicks so much fucking ass. I didn't (and still don't really at the time of writing this actually) know much about this movie, it just popped up on my Netflix recommendations at some point i added it to my list and forgot about it untill tonight.

What i can tell ya is that this kid who street races motorcycles in a city with a serious water shortage is Naruto style born with a fire god in his soul and has to fight to save his friends. Oh and this is one of those movies where your like, oh shit they've actually killed maimed or comaslaped quite a few characters and it's based on some old tale so theres a genuine chance my match guy here is about to kick the bucket.

INSANE VISUALS.

In the fight scenes.. otherwise it was so so, but really it was very pretty, but the were some rendering issues here and there that i spotted, line sometimes the animation would go a bit choppy. And the artstyle is so detailed that flat surfaces can look a bit out of place, while simultaneously making the buzzeling moving works mc moves through seem hard to read (think transformers fight scenes where there was so much detail you couldn't pick ANYTHING up.)

I know a tiny bit about budist and tao stories (though general interest) in know a few of the chariters from things like journey to the West and stuff like that, and i do think a bit of prior knowledge (probably more than mine) will help in the full understanding of the story, but honestly without it the movie still claps cheeks.

7.5/10 Would totally recommend.

[anopuff]

I honestly love your artstyle! You earned yourself a new follower! ;) I especially like that you're a fellow M Corrin lover. I mean I love both versions but male Corrin definitely deserves more love! Can I ask what's your favorite thing or things about Corrin?

AHH thank you so much for the compliment and for the follow!! YES I AM A LARGE TRASH FOR M!CORRIN–

My absolute favourite thing about Corrin is how sweet and caring they are towards others! In many of their supports when they raise their concerns over other characters’ difficulties, they’re told that “it’s not something Lord/Lady Corrin should trouble themselves with”. But Corrin always encourages the others to open up to them (and they eventually do in the subsequent supports), and after listening, Corrin would go to all lengths to help and resolve the problems.

Honestly many parts of Fates are so poorly written (out of the three FE games I’ve finished so far, I rank Fates as my third fav lmao) but I really, really adore Corrin’s altruistic personality. Their innocence makes them sweeter (instead of bratty) and they’re justtttt really adorable aaaaaa

Also the fact that they can turn into a dragon… Corrin’s dragon skill animations are just so epic sign me the heck up for Corrin’s partial dragon transformations

[goddamnwebcomics]

Predicting Spinnerette Arcs 26-35

Everyone except very delusional people know that Spinnerette is going downhill. With it’s current asinine plots, the fact the whole comic seemed to lose it’s serious plot-related grasp after Colonel Class arc, and it’s stupid awful artstyle drawn by a guy who keeps altering the designs of characters - let’s call him P. C. Dimbleby - and actual script calls for chibi faces, things aren’t honestly looking good for the Asylum version of Empowered. But hey, Kraw’s printing money with merch involving scantily clad protagonists and porn comics that are canon so nothing’s gonna be a problem for him!

With that said, it’s pretty easy to call what he has in his mind next, and here i will predict the plot of every issue from 26 to 35. Let’s begin.

Issue 26: The Return Of Jara

It’s revealed that before Spinny, Mecha Maid dated a man who was abusive towards her and made her become a lesbian. The said man is now working in the same science lab place as Heather, and the man titled Jara - who looks like a Biff Tannen with classic P.C. Dimbleby hooknose, by pure accident runs into her. Jara grows fondness for Spinny, thinking she is single. After several irritating catcalls, Heather wants to bring Jara to comfort HER love. Heather forgets that secret identities are a thing that must be protected, and in her futile ALS form, she comes to see Jara again. Jara calls her buzzwords which are meant to make audience angry, allowing Heather to transform into Spinny and beat the crap out of him. Mecha likes it for some reason and they get away with it, because turns out Jara had been stealing scientific tools from the lab in order to make moonshine and the cops think Spinny was beating him up for that reason. Their relationship “develops” and Kraw wants to inform you he is not like most guys and he is single ladies.

Issue 27: Colonel Glass 2: Part 1

North Korea has done some nuclear tests, which pisses off America and it’s anti-superhero and anti-fun and anti-allthingsKrawlikes president Meanie D. T. Incompetent. He teams up with prime minister of Canada, who is a topical Rob Ford parody despite the fact dude died several years ago, in order to use the “superity” from the local superheroes to recreate Cherenkov-Kirby Reactor or something which could wipe N.K. off the map. However, the superheroes know MORE THAN THAT, Benjamin Franklin returns to reveal the nuclear tests are actually massive attacks performed by Colonel Glass 2. Turns out N.K. had a bodyclone of Colonel Glass in case he would die in his trip, which he did. Benjamin also tells the heroes to watch out for government who are trying to do something with “superity”, we get exposition that the first superhero that did CK reactor basically created superheroism by using his blood to create the reactor, which gave birth to “superity”, more “superity” they have, the stronger they are and so far CK Reactor is the only one that can infect being with “superity” but governments all around the world are looking for other ways to make it. Because governments are hypocrites, says Kraw as he pats himself in the back and thinks he’s about to create the next Brave New World. Superheroes get canadian superfucks to help them because of course they do.

We cut to Colonel Glass 2 doing shit, turns out he shares the memories of Colonel Glass 1, including the memories from before he died? and develops perverse fondness for Mecha Maid, he starts flying towards America as all glass around the world go haywire. Spinny, Mecha Maid, Tiger, London, Minerva, Katt O Nine Tails and Green Gable try to sneak with their supercar when Sergeant Generic notices them, he sends Noob Saibot after them. Meanie D.T. Incompetent finds out about the escapees and proceeds to BOMB THEM AND NOT CARE ABOUT CASUALTIES because that’s how politicians in real life work. Cliffhanger.

Issue 28: Colonel Glass 2: Part 2

Spinny and rest of superheroes survive the attacks and reach the Atlantic, where they bump into a weird group of rejects with really one sided personalities, one is a character meant to point out the flaws of Netflix series Daredevil which Kraw seriously thinks he could write better, other one is a friendly zombie girl and another is a quirky scene girl who licks things and a wacky running gag is that Mecha Maid finds her creepy. They reveal they are South Korean Superheroes who were almost killed by Original Colonel Glass and set up a base in the atlantic. They were before experimented with CK Reactor and therefore have more “superity” than any other superhero on the planet besides Colonel Glass 2. Meanwhile President Incompetent decides to start a war against the entire continent of Asia, considering them all “anime-watching rice eaters who did Pearl Harbour” because Kraw never puts stereotypes in his own characters. American War Fleet flies past the superfucks, and canadians and Tiger stay in the base while the SK heroes and Spinny and Mecha Maid go after them. They all get destroyed in one hit by Colonel Glass 2. Spinny, Mecha Maid and SK heroes somehow survive the blast but turns out it was INTENTIONAL as Colonel Glass 2 finds Mecha Maid to torture her. Spinny is mad. Cliffhanger.

Issue 29: Colonel Glass 2: Part 3

President Meanie D.T. Incompetent has HAD ENOUGH and demands Sergeant Generic to call some abnormal guy to help them set up the CK Reactor Weapon properly that can wipe out CG2. Because world is small, Generic calls Dr. Universe, who agrees to let past be past in face of common threat, but also wants to manipulate them into following their objectivist goals. Mecha Maid wakes up in a dark room, where she gets fed memories and other shit, that Kraw wants you to think resembles sexual harassment geddit Kraw knows your feelings Kraw understands Kraw is a friend. Bullshit happens as Spinny’s anger manifests inside him and transforms him into a giant golden spider creature, one of the SK Superfucks say “this is like Dragon Ball Z episode” and at that point you know where this is fucking going. Spinny tears inside Glass’s base conveniently and a long climactic fight ensues, ending with Glass 2 dying by thermite again. Spinny becomes normal again and wakes up in the SK fleet, where Mecha Maid is mad at her for once again murdering someone. Mecha then cries it was her own fault and crying crying crying. Dr. Universe fools Meanie D.T. Incompetent as he calls Super MILF and Greta Gravity to sex him out of working on the weapons! Ha ha! This is a serious comic!

Issue 30: Boring Prequel

This story is a prequel to the first ever case of “Superity”, which takes place in Wild West, in yet another stupid unimaginative alternate universe twist, Buffalo Bill was a superhero, and from there it’s shown how first CK Reactor was made, but the first superhero whose name i forgot is warned of “them”, who are “they”? You’ll find out soon enough.

Issue 31: Critical Analysis

Spinny has returned home with a bad feeling, and she’s got strange aches all over her body. Turns out the Friendly Zombie Girl is there to investigate upon Spinny as she reveals to her both of them are “Stanisian”, people who are full of “superity” which is just Stanisian blood, and are unable to toggle their powers off. Spinny somehow became stanisian by CK Reactor because before stanisians were only by birth only which intrigues the zombie girl. She reveals what happened in the last arc was her exposing her “Ultra Stanisian Power” which only comes into effect over strong stress. Heather also finds out Stanisians never die, as SK zombie girl was the first child of Genghis Khan. Stanisians have existed since humanity’s beginning, but only when CK Reactor was created, humans could get “superity” AKA Stanisian blood too. The reason most humans don’t know about them is because they’re the mortal enemy of “Enlightened”, perfect humans who have ability to manipulate people and are omnipotent but don’t have superpowers, Enlightened have controlled the world by their secret society - you guessed it - the Illuminati since the old times in order to wipe out Stanisians but they always fail.

First thing Spinny realizes after all of this is that, she can cure Mecha Maid by transforming her into Stanisian! Friendly Zombie Girl advices this is not a good idea because exposing a human to too much superity could kill them, and types like Heather are a rarity. Spinny can’t convince Mecha though, who just gets madder so Spinny asks help from Universe. Universe reveals he knew about Stanisians all along and he constructed CK Reactor so that he could in fact turn more people into them so that the Illuminati could be taken down. It’s revealed Ayn Rand was against the Illuminati and the infamy of the book is a pop culture propaganda. What. They begin working on it. Cliffhanger.

Issue 32: The Lesbian Torment

Adrastea and Sara NIcole meet on same jailcell, they fall in love because Sara Nicole hasn’t eaten her anti-gay bagels. Their relationship is meant to be “different” as in, “it’s same shit as Mecha’s and Spinny’s relationship, except they’re both more aggressive”. They fool the guards by making out and escape.

Issue 33: Critical Analysis Part 2:

Dr. Universe takes a bit of blood from Friendly Zombie Girl as she has finished the POCKET SIZED CK REACTOR. Then government rushes in with Sergeant Generic on helm and Universe as well as Spinny get arrested. They’re taken in front of Illuminati, who are ready to literally wipe them out of existence because oh cool Kraw read 1984 just now. Friendly Zombie Girl wasn’t arrested and Greta takes her to bite Mecha Maid, curing her by all of her fucking problems and she becomes Ultra Stanisian, saving Spinny and Universe. Illuminati finds out THE INFESTATION IS SPREADING. At this point it’s also revealed N.K. Government is actually propaganda’d as shitty dictator state because they refused to join the New World Order and is the only state ran by Stanisians.

Issue 34: War Of Minds

A kickstarted exclusive story focusing on SK Superheroes, with Daredevil potshotter dating the other. Boring.

Issue 35: Revenge of Revenge

Life has become harder for Spinny to keep double identities when Sara Nicole and Adrastea butt in to cause chaos. Adrastea wants to nuke science facilities while Sara Nicole wants everyone to like her. They nag like an arguing couple, isn’t that funny. It ends with Mecha Maid dying as Spinny cries, when she wakes up to find out it has all been a drug-induced dream and she remembers when she went to comfort Mecha Maid after Colonel Glass Arc, she threw Heather off the bed and beat the ever-living shit out of her, before she got a massive heart attack and passed away, with her last words being “I wish i never met you.” Heather wants to go back into these dreams when she finds out she’s been carried to hospital, where Sahira states that she’s been diagnozed with a rare variation of ALS that is contagious. Haw haw.

[greatcheesecakepersona]

Tutorial: Custom Skylines for Sims 2

This tutorial is for advanced Photoshop users that bring up quite a lot free time and have The Sims 3 installed on their computers. The skylines are being created by sticking screenshots from Sims 3 worlds together and warping that into a globe. Because of this, you could also use other games with cool landscapes or real life photos, but it probably won’t fit to the Sims 2 artstyle.

1. Start Sims 3 - preperation

Choose a world with an interesing landscape and be sure to be in live mode

If you haven’t already: Turn up the resolution. Optional: If your graphic card supports virtual 2k or 4k resolutions, enable this in the NVIDIA or AMD settings and choose the highest resolution in TS3. Your game will look weird and your laptop screen/monitor might not even support this resolution, but the pictures will look better afterwards.

Turn off all weather effects and seasons, only leave summer activated

Make sure it’s daytime

If your PC can handle it for a short time: Maximixe all settings except the reflection quality, turn that off (doesn’t fit to the TS2 graphics)

2. Making photos

Pause the game and hit tab, move the camera up or down (E, Q), tilt it so it looks like the following video. The goal is to shoot three photos of your object. The first one is the left, the second the main (center) and the third one the right part of your object. Let’s say it’s a mountain with a waterfall in the center and the mountain extends to the left and right. It is important that the left and right part end with the same landscaping because the ends will meet afterwards. You can also make it ‘seamless’ in Photoshop later, but that’s just more work.

Be sure that your object (ex. main part of a mountain) is in the center and the top is not cut off (ex. a hill or trees). You can ignore the bottom since you won’t see much of that later. Also be sure that you are not too far away from the object because oftherwise it gets really foggy. Here's a picture of the three divisions you have to pay attention to.

Hide any icons and the red border by pressing F10.

Rotate the camera to the left (,) and take a photo (C). Memorize the object that is on the right corner and move the camera again to the right (.) until that objects disappers to the left. With that, it’s easier to stick the images together later (fewer gaps). You are in the center again. Make a photo (C). Note the object on the right again and move the camera one more time to the right (.) Be sure that the objects disappears. Make a photo again (C).

You are done here. But I recommend to do this a few more times from slightly different angles here and there. You are set up perfectly at this point, so it would be annoying if you would have to start at step 1.1 again if the original pictures did not meet your requirements.

3. Photoshop: Sticking the images together

In the following gifs I’m using the German Photoshop version. Be sure to follow the text and look at the position of each option.

Open a picture of a set in photoshop, click on the lock in the layers and enlarge the Canvas Size’s width (3x your current width).

Drag and drop your two other pictures in Photoshop and align everything correctly (does not have to be perfect yet).

For now, don’t edit the images. We don’t know how it will look on the globe in Sims 2. Once you see the globe with your texture in the game, you will be surprised how much information of your original picture is lost under the terrain of your neighborhood. I’m sorry.

4. Photoshop: Forming the globe; edit the skyline package file

Merge all your layers into one. Copy the picture (without empty borders) and paste it into a new one (with the same dimensions). You can undo the first step in the original picture if you like. Now in the new picture, resize it to 2048x2048px. Don’t be scared. Flip it vertically (CTRL + T, then right-click and check the tick at the end). You may ask what’s going on at this point.

Go to filters > warp filters > polar coordinates. Leave the first option checked. Click OK and here you go. That’s your globe. You will notice that the center looks totally weird and stuff in there is deformed. We will look at this later. If you don’t want your head too much, you can rotate the camera by pressing ‘R’ and then click with the mouse.

Position the globe in the center of the picture if it isn’t already. Save it as png and clone (or edit) either lowedeus or criquettes horizon object. Change the texture by buildung a DXT and upload the globe image. Save and start your game.

5. Sims 2: Take a detailed look at your beta horizon

In your neighborhood, place the globe wherever you like. Now take a look at things that are too big (often houses are too big) and things that disappear under your terrain. Take a look at the colors. Just look at your horizon. Take screenshots of everything you don’t like. If you don’t like your skyline at all (of course, at this point is isn’t perfekt at all!), consider creating a new one with the other images taken. Also snap a screenshot that shows the horizon from under the terrain. You want to clean this up since it’s confusing and ugly. You now have several screenshots of the Sims 2 that show screenshots of the Sims 3 in the background.

6. Photoshop: Work on your skyline

Now go back to your flat skyline and remove everything that’s ugly. Remove houses or trees that appear too big (yeah...), remove the sky (the magic wand tool should be enough) and tweak the colors. For this, I put in a Sims 2 screenshot and pick the grass color & copy the color code. Now I replace the color in the skyline with the new one. If the edges of the landscapes are too frayed, mark the image and add a mask. Round the corners and play a bit with the options. I recommend to place a black background behind the image because otherwise you won’t see the edges that well. Oh and don’t forget the smooth transition between the images!

Make sure everything in the buttom is cleaned up with grass or water. You won’t see that in lot view for example, but it’s nicer in neighborhood view. Or if you want to do it the fast way: After transforming the skyline into a globe, just cut a hole into the center of the globe.

Enlarge the Canvas Size a bit and move everything to the right. Select a part of the very right corner, copy it and paste it before the left beginning. At the end of the copied part, insert a help line and now, merge the corner piece with the actual picture. Now you have to make the two ends (that are now both at the left corner) seamless. If you are finished, cut off the copied corner and paste it where it originally came from (far right edge). You should delete the original corner (that's now behind the new one) so it doesn't stand out.

If you are happy with the results or interested how it will look like, repeat main step 4 and 5 again. Be sure to exclude the empty part of the picture that came from enlarging the canvas size when you want to form the globe.

7. Done

... after thousands attemps and hours of work in photoshop. At least I hope so! Now don’t forget to include this little thing in the center of your globe so you can actually see where you placed it in the neighborhood:

[terryblount]

The 6 Best Games We Saw And Played At Level Up KL 2019

Level Up KL Play 2019 is opening its doors today at KL Convention Center. One of its biggest attractions for its claim to be the “Ultimate Games Conference” is well, there are games. Games from Southeast Asia developers to be precise.

On the business day, we tried a few games that are on the show floor and were impressed with what we saw, hear, or play. These six games, in no particular, are the best of that. You should seek out if there are on the Level Up KL Play show floor, or put them in your radars at the very least.

Academia: School Simulator

Developer: Squeaky Wheel (Philippines)

On the onset, this looks highly reminiscent of Prison Architect. And that’s because it’s the same artist, Ryan Sumo. He also runs the company as CEO.

Academia: School Simulator tasks you to build a school of your liking. Provide amenities and competent teachers. Or don’t. The choice is yours and you can mess around with the sandbox any way you can.

On the show floor, we saw a game designer testing the game out by building the longest courtyard exit out of the school premise. The labyrinth would take the students at least a period and a half to get out of. And get in. And you can put toilets in the canteen because why not.

If you love builder games that provide freedom to express yourself, including making someone suffer, Academia: School Simulator should fit the bill. The game is now in Steam Early Access.

The team is also working on another game, Ruinarch, an evil overlord simulator. The evil stuff you can do is comparable to what you see in Crusader Kings, we have been told.

Chandu VR

Developer: Students from MMU (Malaysia)

This VR game by students of MMU got viral a while ago. A VR shooter based on history, in particular, the tales of Lieutenant Adnan and his heroics in World War II.

This looks quite a big task so we assumed it was a Final Year Project by these VR majors, but it’s not. It was born out of a small assignment where they have to make a VR game, and with their lecturer’s support and the university’s assistance with providing Vive headsets, this little university assignment is now being polished and primed for release on Steam soon.

The students involved in the development are now all in their Final Year, and props to them for not just putting this game as their project, but instead are working on new ones. Good for the portfolio.

Gigabash

Developer: Passion Republic (Malaysia)

Imagine the kaiju battler War Of The Monsters, make it top-down, and have Smash Bros. influence. That’s what Passion Republic’s new IP Gigabash basically is. With larger-than-life monsters (plus one mecha), a simple but deep fighting mechanics, and all the chaos from destructible abilities, transforming into bigger sizes, power-ups, and super abilities, this is fun. It looks fun. It feels fun already.

It’s easy to just mash your way in, or cower it out and let the other three players squabble. And it looks so popping- the diorama artstyle where the scaling of objects are a bit off really helps it stand out.

Gigabash already took home four of ten awards from the SEA Games Awards, including the Grand Jury Award. Expect a long line and a lot of smiles for this one on the show floor. It’s something special.

Meka Hunter

Developer: Illogical Games (Malaysia)

A mech game. What else to say? Okay, there’s a lot to say here, actually. Developed by the one-man studio Illogical Games, this was first known as Meka Royale, with it being poised to be a battle royale on mobile where the winner gets a mech for the next round they play. Eventually, the developer feels this is already a saturated market and is now pivoting into a single-player experience.

It’s early days, but suffice to say the mech customisation we took a peek looks promising. Mix and match parts, min-maxing is possible. While the mechs don’t look like Armored Core- these mechs are closer to MechWarriors.

Chinatown Detective Agency

Developer: General Interactive (Singapore)

Think Blade Runner by way of Da Vinci Code. That was how we were pitched for Chinatown Detective Agency. Taking place in real locations all around the developer’s hometown of Singapore, you are unraveling a mystery in this cyberpunk city. The twist here is that some clues you get will require you to your own wikidive outside of the game. Go look at a famous art piece and see any pattern or clues your need, for example.

If you are familiar with the old Carmen Sandiego games where you need to open a geography map, Chinatown Detective Agency is of the same spirit. It wants you to immerse in the very, aesthetic, art style and have you look and appreciate art in a different way.

If you are a fan of old-school point-and-click adventurers, which the game designer Mark Fillion is a huge fan of, this is definitely should be on your radar. Wishlist on Steam here.

  King’s League II

Developer: Kurechii (Malaysia)

What if a medieval RPG has a Football Manager-style league system, with promotions and relegations? We didn’t expect that when we first try out King’s League II. In the downtime, you can train your team, recurit party members, and go hunt or on a dungeon run to make you stronger. All for the lead-up to the league matches where you fight other teams that’s also growing stronger as time progresses.

There’s a story mode too, but the fact that the game is confident enough to offer a mode that skips the story bits is sign of confidence of how deep and engaging the macrogame of preparing for matches is.

The game is out now on Steam and Apple Arcade

There’s More!

This is just a small, and probably biased, look of the many other indie games shown at Level Up KL 2019 business days. There are many others that we haven’t covered yet, so expect some surprises if you are coming to Level Up KL Play today and tomorrow.

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