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ghouladventures · 4 years ago

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Real Writing Advice

I just thought I’d share some of the tips and tricks I’ve picked up over the years in regards to writing. I am by no means an expert, but I’ve been writing screenplays (at least attempting to) and fanfics/short stories for around 7+ ish years and I have definitely learned a lot from my mistakes. I’m partially making this post to combat some of my own imposter syndrome, and motivate me to work on a script I’ve been avoiding. This is just advice from my own experience, not a bunch of regurgitated stuff from the internet.

“Write what you know” (stay with me on this!)

I know, you’ve heard this before a million times. But that’s because it’s true. I’d like to extend more on this idea though because it’s often overlooked due to how vague it is.

To me, “write what you know” means taking your life, your experience and putting it into the story. Nobody else will ever have your exact life experience, so use material from your own life. DO NOT worry about it being done a million times, because I can assure you, if you do it your own way, it will end up being unique.

WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING. As a comedy writer, it can be really hard to create funny situations/dialogue out of thin air. But observation is the key to comedy and writing in general. Anything funny I hear, a story that happens to me or a friend, I have a strong opinion about something, etc. I write it all down. Your phone is right there, open the notes and write it down because you WILL end up forgetting it. I cannot tell you how much effort I have saved because I have a whole bunch of notes that are just pure material.

Character writing is very difficult for me, as I always end up making characters that are just like me. In fanfics I end up projecting myself onto the characters hella, and I only notice during the re-reads. But...you’re the only one to reference. You ARE the main character of your life, so it’s only natural. What I do to create characters is look within. Make a character who personifies the person you want to be, the type of person you hate, the type of person you crush on, a character that shares a flaw with you, who you feel like inside vs. outside, etc. Make a list if you want, as many things you can think of. Share a piece of yourself with every character, your own experience adds a realness that can’t be replicated through research. DO NOT be afraid of flaws! Flaws are the absolute best thing you can give to a character. The character has to overcome these internal flaws to get where they want to, so don’t shy away from character flaws!

Enjoy Writing!

Too many times it’s easy to get caught up in the stress of writing. Making sure your story is cohesive and engaging, and trying to juggle a million things at once is HARD. Writing is hard. But please have fun, I beg of you.

If you love a certain movie, watch it, analyze and learn why! Don’t copy the entire movie, but take things that you really love and put it into your own story. Great artists steal. You love a certain plot point, character element, message, dynamic, etc., find a way to incorporate those things you love into your work.

Put yourself in the audiences shoes. Create the type of movies you love watching, the type of movies that cause you to jump into a fandom! Once you find out why you love the stories you do, you start getting excited about your story. For me, doing this has taken the negative connotation of “working” on a script away that I often can’t get away from my notepad. You start getting excited to write, and while that passion unfortunately dies down, keep finding reasons to be excited about your story.

Play around with genre. Tell a story from a different perspective. Add that element you thought was “too weird” to add. Don’t shut down ideas that seem too self indulgent or ridiculous, it might just lead to something. The screen/page is your place to play! Try something new, test it out. Do not be afraid to “fail” because your just brainstorming! Failure doesn’t really exist, it’s just testing and trying things until you find gold. You have a whole page of just scribbled nonsense? So what! Everything is part of the process. Stop beating yourself up before you even start.

Vibes are important

A lot of times I have no story ideas, but I want to make a movie like ______. But hey, vibes are a start! Maybe you just have a few scenes in mind, a color scheme, etc. If that’s what’s bouncing around your head, start writing them down! From there you can start connecting dots. Throw in a character you’ve been working on. Basically all of my stories start out as “just vibes”, so don’t dismiss them.

When I’m starting a new project, I’ll make a playlist of music. Not music that will be part of the soundtrack necessarily, but just music that relates to my idea. I take soundtracks from other movies and just put them all in a pile, throw it on shuffle, and write. It makes everything 100% more fun and engaging, and having the music match the “vibe” helps immensely with creating the vision.

Like making a playlist, I make a pinterest board filled with just everything related to my idea. Aesthetics, character looks, locations, etc. This helps me really create a vision of what I want this movie to be. Not the story, not the plot.

Your Brain, Your Process

There is no correct way to create anything. When I was starting out, I would read and watch a lot of “advice” and “screenwriting process” stuff. While I felt like I was gaining knowledge, it really only made me feel like I didn’t know what I was doing.

USE YOUR STRENGTHS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE. So your visual? Great! Make little idea bubbles, make a venn diagram, use a story circle, draw lines connecting ideas, use a punnett square, etc. Maybe you’re really good at writing fanfictions but not screenplays. Great! Write your scenes out like fanfictions before formatting them like a script. Just some examples but my point is, use the skills you already have. This makes it so much easier, it takes away the daunting feeling of writing and allows you to progress.

Find writers you look up to and learn from them! One of my favorite writers is Dan Harmon, so I looked up writing advice from Dan Harmon and found a bunch of advice that was extremely useful to me (highly recommended for visual people). Look up the writers to your favorite movies/shows/books, and see what you find! You’d be surprised how much extremely useful information is out there if you look. Learn from the people you look up to, the writers you want to be. I keep little notebooks and write notes (like i’m in class), of everything I learn, and when I need some help, I whip out my little notebook and find some advice, it has helped me get un-stuck countless times. Over time, the concepts you learn will become more instinctual, making writing easier.

It takes time. This is my biggest problem. I will work on a movie for a few months, then get bored and desert it. But look at any movie, if you see any storyboard or “first draft” type of stuff. It’s like a completely different movie! Great things take time, you don’t have to speedrun a whole script. Just keep working on it, it will take a long time, but it will be worth it.

I hope that was helpful to some of you writers out there!

#writing #writing advice #screenwriting #screenwriter #writer #writer advice #writing tips #actual writing #writeblr

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iraprince · 5 years ago

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Your mental illness comics have really meant a lot to me since I saw one of your first ones about trauma. They flow really well and just the layout is very visually pleasing. Any advice for someone who wants to get into drawing comics as well?

first of all, thank u, it means a lot to me that you’ve been able to connect w my stuff.

as for the actual question — man, that’s broad, and it’s hard to think of a cohesive, useful answer. the first thing that comes to mind is something you’ve probably heard a lot abt any creative thing, which is: if u want to make comics, read comics. tons of em. and try to read them with study in mind, try to be picking them apart and asking yourself questions about how they work: how does the artist control the pacing/control how quickly or slowly you read certain lines? (the evocation of time and the control of pace is one of the most important, but most invisible parts of comics). how do they lead your eye around the page in the correct order and stop you from getting confused? why is this story being told as a comic instead of a short story, an animation, an illustration? what does a comic offer that other mediums don’t, and how do these artists use those unique things? what limitations has the medium of comics imposed on this story, and why don’t those limitations get in the way of what these artists are trying to do? when you’re asking these questions as you read, you might find your answer is a big giant “i have no fucking idea,” which is fine, bc you’re trying to dig all of that up so you can learn.

but if all that gets overwhelming the good news is you’ll absorb useful stuff about how comics work even if you’re not picking them apart like that, so read tons of them anyway just for fun even when you don’t feel like asking all those questions. i think it’s probably obvious that my work the past two years has been heavily influenced by kabi nagata (my lesbian experience with loneliness, my solo exchange diary) but i never read her stuff with that kind of study mindset the way i study other stuff; i think she just resonated w me and i absorbed a lot of it and it comes out in some of the quirks in how i draw faces and use visual metaphor, etc. so at the end of the day no matter how methodical or casual you are about it something will always rub off.

another piece of advice you’ve probably heard a ton, but i’m repeating it bc it’s true: just start, and try not to get too caught up in the concept of polish. some of the work i like the best (and that ppl have responded to the most, not that that should be ur primary metric on judging if a comic is “good” but like, it means a lot to me) have been really rough, scribbly things with crappy lettering and wobbly frames, and an idea that you managed to get out on paper even if it’s rough and unpolished and kind of crappy is still worth more than an idea you’ve been sitting on for two years in the back of your head bc you can’t find time to do a really nice clean polished version, or bc you’re scared to start bc u think you’re not good enough at drawing yet. you will learn MUCH more by doing, and these ideas do you more good drawn out on paper than sitting in your head, even if a few years from now you think you’ll look at them and find the execution cringe or whatever.

final note, which is specifically about creating mental health related work and sharing it online. not all vent art is cathartic. not all vent art is healing. it’s easy to feel like ANYTHING you do must be helpful, no matter how raw and sensitive and personal it is — because you’re “getting it out,” right? but it took me much, much too long to learn that for my own health and safety i had to filter what i created and posted, and with the way that mental health stuff tends to circulate bc it’s Relatable etc, it is really really easy to start feeling EXTREMELY weird about getting feedback on depictions of yourself in pain. to have depictions of your pain get “popular.” to have depictions of your pain go viral, as they have for me a few times. in the past i have not had enough boundaries, i felt like “people like when i rip my guts out and show it to them so that’s my value, that’s what people want to see, that’s Good Art — if i heal up this hole and i can’t show people my guts anymore i’ll be nothing.” i didn’t think that was what was going on in my head, but it was. i wish i had been more thoughtful abt what i shared of myself. now, even the work i post that seems very raw and very personal has been filtered. i have asked myself very honestly “are you okay with strangers seeing this? are you okay with strangers reblogging this and saying ‘this is so me?’ are you okay with people projecting on this? will this make you feel upset or violated?” about every single thing i make, before i post it, and there’s a lot of stuff i decide to keep to myself. if you intend to make mental health work, PLEASE ask yourself these questions along the way, instead of finding out after you post stuff and it unexpectedly gets a lot of notes that it’s hard for you to handle. you can’t control how people respond to your work, you can only control WHICH work you decide to post, and sometimes you don’t know how you’ll feel about sharing this stuff until you’ve done it. i really hope this doesn’t come off as discouraging bc i don’t MEAN to discourage ppl from making art abt mental health — i wouldn’t still be doing it if i didn’t find it healing and meaningful, the way that i do it now. but it can get weird FAST, in ways i feel like i don’t see a lot of discussion about, so when ppl ask me for advice bc they like my comics i wouldn’t feel right just saying “yeah it’s great!!! go have fun!!” without mentioning that my relationship to my art and to the public side of it can often be tumultuous. just always be attentive to yourself and put boundaries and healing, constructive interactions with art first. SORRY FOR TEXTWALL LOL

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adobe-outdesign · 5 years ago

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The Big Grand DCTL Review/Critique

In my previous liveblog I said that I’d do an overall review/rating kind of thing to summarize my thoughts on the book, so here you go.

No Spoilers: So I’ll preface by saying the book isn’t bad. It has it’s... moments, but it’s pretty enjoyable overall. The FNAF books, for example, were fun to read but they were also a hot fucking mess. This is not a hot fucking mess - it has its flaws but it’s pretty decent over all.

Spoilers below the cut:

The Canon-ness of the Book

I would like to say first off that I really don’t think this book is meant to be 100% canon - not to say it isn’t canon, but I don’t think it’s supposed to lie up with the games perfectly. It was approved of by Kindlybeast, but they didn’t write it - Adrienne Kress did, they just helped to develop it.

To explain better: There are a lot of contradictions in this book with the main lore. Some are more minor and could potentially be waved away, but others are extremely glaring. Here’s a short list of the ones that come to mind:

In the book, the Ink Machine is secret and almost no one knows about it. In the game everyone knows and actively complains about the machine on a daily basis. In the Employee Handbook, there’s even a memo from Joey proudly introducing the Machine to everyone.

The book claims you put ink into the Machine and it changes it in some way (effectively running on ink). In the game, it seems to produce ink itself - Joey’s memo kind of indicates this, as does the blueprints, and Wally’s “who really needs that much ink anyway” makes less sense if they’re putting ink into the machine rather than it making the ink.

Plus on Thomas’ board he has a list of the gallons of ink produced each day, with the highest amount written with exclamation points - if it ran on ink this doesn't make sense, as to get 423 gallons of ink he would’ve had to have put 423 gallons of ink into the thing to begin with.

Sammy is wildly OOC in this, as he’s basically a feral asshole throughout the thing, while in canon his merch description calls him a “decent person” and he generally seems agreeable most of the time, except for when he’s annoyed. The book even claims he doesn’t refer to women by their last names, while Susie’s tape tells us the exact opposite (as according to her he referred to Allison as “Miss Allison Pendle”).

Bertrum is also OOC in this - in canon, he’s extremely egotistical and hates Joey for multiple reasons. In the book, they’re buddies (even hugging each other) and Bertrum seems more humble. He doesn’t even correct Joey on calling him “Bertie”, when he had an entire tape about how much he dislikes being called that in the game.

The timeline for this part is also very wrong - it’s treated as if they just met (which could explain why Bertrum doesn’t dislike him yet)... but Bendyland was in progress for years before the studio went to hell, and he even has his BATDR tape (wherein he’s actively disliking Joey) dated years before this book takes place.

This also makes it kind of impossible for him to be the octopus ride like in canon, because he literally just joined the studio when Joey started killing people (and keep in mind that designing and building a ride like that would have taken at least a year or two).

The ink is, for some reason, somewhat alive, able to move around on it’s own and possess people. This was never indicated in the game, ever.

Buddy wakes up as Boris. In the game, stuff like Grant’s tape indicate the ink creatures wake up and then transform (the files even have an unused transformation tape from Wally, who’s likely our Boris). You can kind of headcanon around this one if you try though.

At the end, Norman and a few background characters die. Joey says he didn’t use the machine on them because they had been infected by the ink for too long and didn’t have souls any more. This means that, according to the book, The Projectionist cannot exist (as Norman wouldn’t have had a soul to use and Joey outright says he couldn’t/didn’t use the machine on them in the first place).

Some of these are pretty minor, but some of them are extremely glaring and even casual gamers would pick up on this stuff.

Basically, we have two options: Either Kindlybeast doesn’t know their own story/characters too well, or they didn’t require this to line up perfectly with the games. Except the first option doesn’t make sense, because they’ve recently published stuff that contradicts what’s said in this book in favor of matching the actual lore from the games, proving they do know their own story.

For ampel, Bertrum’s BATDR tape, which lines up with the game’s lore and corrects the mistakes in DCTL, was released in March - long after this book was in production. The thing about the Ink Machine being secret was also disproved in the recently-released Handbook, which instead says they employees do know about the Machine, just like they do in the game. So Kindlybeast do know these things don’t line up with canon.

I think basically they approached Adrienne and were like “hey, can you write a prequel novel based on our game?” and while they offered her some guidance, she mostly just did her own thing based off of it (she even said it felt like working on fanfiction while writing it) and Kindlybeast liked it and published it. It’s an adaptation of the game and its lore, done by a new person - things tend to change in adaptations. I don’t think they needed or cared if it lined up like puzzle pieces, they just wanted a good story, which they got. It is canon... but it’s also not, if that makes sense.

So for our intents and purposes I’d consider this semi-canon - take what you can as canon (which is most of it, as the most major contradictions also tend to be the shortest scenes) and ignore the stuff that doesn’t line up with canon, unless otherwise stated by Kindlybeast or confirmed in BATDR.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Overall, I’d say this book is about 70% good and 30% bad. When it is good, it is really, really damn good - but when it’s bad it leaves an awful taste in your mouth that’s hard to get rid of.

The Good:

Like... the majority of the book, really

Buddy and Dot are wonderful characters with strong personalities. They’re super likeable, bring some much-needed heart into things, and have great chemistry.

While some of the aforementioned characters are majorly OOC, the ones that are in-character (Joey and Norman are good examples) are amazing - every scene with them is gold and the book really fleshes out their personalities.

Some of the new lore tidbits are great, and help explain some things in the game (like how Lost Ones are created) or are just interesting (like Sammy drinking the ink and the idea of the ink being able to infect people, which sounds like something that could have directly come from the games).

The book goes into way more depth about what being a cartoon/ink creature is like, which is some much-needed exposition and is extremely interesting.

It also has a ton of heart and good intentions. I was worried about it being overly dark, but if anything it has far more sweet moments than depressing ones.

The Bad:

The contradictions I mentioned above. Some of them are easy enough to ignore, but some are incredibly jarring and take you out of the story (and make it impossible to take it as 100% canon without breaking the space-time continuum).

I kind of mentioned it above, but the stuff with the ink being alive and possessing people comes right the fuck out of nowhere, has nothing to do with the game lore, is completely tonally dissonant to BATIM as a whole, and literally has nothing to do with the plot of the book, like, at all. It feels like a few pages from a Venom novel got mixed in with the early draft and no one remembered to remove them before publication.

The racist shit - it’s only like 1% of the book, but when that 1% of the book ruins a really good character it’s a pretty big deal.

A random NPC dies for no reason and this death has more relevance to the plot than Norman, who dies off-screen.

Also consider: They could’ve found Norman first, Buddy runs off to get back to his house, Norman follows and gets killed via neck snap. Fixes both problems at once.

There’s very little tension during the horror moments because we already know Buddy will die but not until the end and that Dot will live.

The Ink Demon acts more like an xenomorph than the Ink Demon in this - his behavior is bizarre and it feels pretty generically horror movie monster-ish compared to how he acts in the game.

The Ugly:

The B-plot with Buddy’s grandfather should have been cut. I know that sounds harsh, but really think about it: what effect did it have on the plot? It only crosses with the A-plot twice, and both times nothing came out of it. It gives Buddy a chance to learn how to draw and he goes through some character development, but I find it hard to believe that couldn’t have been accomplished by expanding the A-plot.

The main problem is that A) this is a BATIM novel so we want to see the studio, not Buddy’s relatives at home, and B) it makes it kind of slow towards the middle, wherein the stuff with the studio barely progresses while we keep cutting back to the B-plot.

I didn’t dislike reading it or anything, but it makes the plot flabby, and slicing it out would’ve given us much more time in the studio and the characters we like rather than trying to juggle two plots at once, effectively streamlining it and making for a more cohesive story.

The ending (like the last 5 chapters) is a hot mess in multiple and varying ways:

Sammy shows up and... gets knocked out by a projector. Which is funny, but it amounts to nothing plot-wise and makes Sammy’s whole appearance kind of pointless

Killing off a bunch of characters, one of which was a main character, off-screen

The weird Venom shit that has nothing to do with the plot of the books or the games and amounts to nothing

Bendy acting fairly OOC, especially with how he goes about killing people

Buddy grabs the idiot ball bard by trying to drown a creature made of ink in ink, then standing right near the spot so he can be grabbed and killed

Not only does the “can’t use them because they had been infected for too long and no longer had souls” thing not only raises the aforementioned plot hole with the Projectionist, but it raises a plot hole in the book itself: When the other are exposed to the ink they die, but when Sammy drinks the stuff he turns into a Lost One. Which one is it?

Keep in mind that that was more bullet points in those 30-some pages than I have for the entire rest of the book

There are only like... two actual horror scenes in the book, and one of those is the climax. While it makes sense that too much couldn’t have happened before the ending, it feels like there could have been more than that.

Not all of the characters from the games appear. I know it’s a tall ask but it’s also easy to see how they could have been integrated, and some of them could have easily taken the roles that were given to NPCs instead.

I feel like this book would be more engaging as a non-fan, as the plot tends to progress like a mystery, with you learning a bit more about what’s happening with every scene in the studio... except as a fan you already know what’s happening, so there’s little to keep you engaged until you get into that nice juicy lore at the end.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s lots of little details that tell us new info and the character interactions are great, but a lot of the scenes are just like “Surprise, Sammy is crazy!” and it’s like thanks, we already knew that. The mystery is supposed to build and move the plot forward, but there’s effectively no mystery.

Overall Rating

I’m worried this review is going to come across as overly negative, as it’s much easier to critique what’s wrong than it is to say “this part was good!” like 200 times. But all of the stuff I was talking about that’s an issue? That’s like... 30% of the book, maybe less. Some of the most problematic scenes you could literally remove and loose nothing plot-wise (which is frustrating but you know). The bulk of the book is very good, the lore stuff when handled correctly is amazing and it even provides some extra answers that we didn’t have before, and the characters are great.

Overall, I’d give the book a solid... 7/10, I think. Not perfect, but pretty damn decent all around. If you’re a fan, I’d highly recommend picking up a copy if you haven't already.

#bendy and the ink machine #batim #batim: dctl #dreams come to life #buddy lewek #dot #sammy lawrence #joey drew #outdesign posts things #batim spoilers #outdesign analyzes things #the good news regarding the canon issues is that buddy has memory issues and is a unreliable narrator #so you can take the bulk of the book as canon and just headcanon around the stuff that doesn't make sense and say buddy got confused

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baphomet-media · 5 years ago

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Run, Jump, Scratch, and Sniff - A Tearaway Review

Genre: Adventure

Subgenre: 3D Platformer

Developer: Media Molecule

Publisher: Sony

Platform(s): Vita

Release Date: November 22nd, 2013

When you read anyone’s list of top games for the Vita, you’re likely to find Tearaway on there somewhere. However, the Vita’s library is woefully small, and exclusive games are even rarer. Does this charming papercraft adventure from the developers of LittleBigPlanet still hold up seven years later, or should it fall into ignominy alongside the Vita?

Story

Tearaway is set in a world where two deity-like beings have told countless stories and grow bored with their cliched creations. In order to inject a spark of originality and create a brand new story, they decide to enlist the help of The You (that is, the player). The You exerts their influence over the game world by controlling a messenger who is on a mission to deliver their letter to The You and create their story along the way. However, as The You observes the story dimension, mischievous beings known as Scraps are invading to try and stop the messenger.

At the beginning of the game, the player chooses whether they want their messenger to be male or female (named Iota (meaning an infinitesimal fragment) and Atoi (pronounced Ah-Twah, from the french “à toi”, meaning “yours”), respectively), though the choice has little consequence as the player can decorate their messenger as they see fit at any point throughout the story. Additionally, the game asks the player whether they would prefer to be referred to as male or female, sadly with no gender-neutral option, though as far as I could tell, this never actually came up in the game. I suspect this is likely a bigger deal in languages other than English which place more importance on gender. At any rate, I appreciate the way this is handled, and will likely help players feel included.

The game’s story itself is pretty minimal, and is mostly just based around different obstacles the messenger experiences on their way to The You. If I had one criticism, it would be that there doesn’t seem to be a cohesive direction to the plot, and it can be hard to figure out how far through the game you are until suddenly it ends. There are also a few characters encountered along the way, but these mostly just exist as set pieces, such as the Squirrel King, and never really impact the plot at all.

While the game’s story is somewhat minimal, I can forgive it, as it does a lot in terms of gameplay and presentation that really make it stand out.

Gameplay

Tearaway is a 3D platformer that focuses on getting the messenger through a set of linear levels with different gimmicks that take creative advantage of the Vita’s hardware features. Some common mechanics include using the Vita’s camera to take pictures of yourself, as well as show a live feed of your face through the front camera over the world’s sun; touching the Vita’s rear touch pad to activate bounce pads or push your fingers up through the ground to defeat enemies and move platforms; using the Vita’s touch screen to manipulate bits of paper in the environment and create new decorations and decals out of paper; and using the Vita’s gyro controls to operate an in-game camera. These new features are introduced gradually and are very easy to understand with little tutorializing. It helps that each of these mechanics has a distinctive visual label, such as touch-interactable objects having a shiny fingerprint pattern on them. One odd facet of the core mechanics, though, is that many of them have to be unlocked as you go along. For instance, you can’t jump until most of the way through the second level when the game tells you that you’re allowed to jump. Still, I found the game’s levels fun to traverse, though not terribly difficult for the most part. I don’t think this lack of difficulty is a flaw, as the game does a much better job of being a relaxing adventure that you don’t have to struggle with.

I enjoyed most of the game’s mechanics, as I felt like it really increased the feeling of verisimilitude and really made you feel like you’re peering into this alternate world. However, I found the rear touch pad mechanics to be finicky at times, particularly the poke-your-finger-through sections, which would often have trouble locating the positions of my fingers. I also thought the real-world camera sections were a little much, and sometimes didn’t seem to fit all that well with the world. I didn’t always want to take a picture of myself, and ended up just taking awkward pictures of my scrumpy face as I laid on the couch playing the game.

Each level also features a bevvy of collectibles for the player to find, including Confetti, the main collectible, Scaps to defeat, hidden Presents to open, Sidequests to complete, and color-drained objects that the player can restore with the in-game camera. Tracking down these collectibles is a pretty significant hunt, though don’t matter too much aside from getting trophies and getting more Confetti, which you can spend on new decorations for your messenger and additional filters and features for your camera. While most of these are easy enough to find on your first or second play of a level, some drove me absolutely crazy. If you only need one or two bits of Confetti to find out of an entire level (which usually have 100+ bits to find), you have little choice but to heuristically check every corner of the level until you find them, usually just slightly higher than your normal jump height on a bounce pad or hidden behind part of the level that you didn’t see before. I had to refer to a guide for one or two hidden photo objects, as some of them are really hard to spot, for instance one in a later level is on a flipping platform that only appears once every few seconds in the background, and you have to have your camera ready to take a good enough picture the moment it appears. Fortunately, if you’re not a completionist like me, there are more than enough pieces of Confetti in the game to unlock any customization options that you could want. And if you are a completionist like me, you’ll be relieved to know that with a guide, Tearaway’s platinum trophy is pretty straightforward.

Presentation

If you’re familiar with games like Yoshi’s Crafted World or Media Molecule’s previous work LittleBigPlanet, you’ll know what to expect with Tearaway. The whole world looks like one big art project, though themed heavily around papercraft. Every platform and object in the game looks like it was constructed in real life, and the game reinforces this, as the color-drained objects that the player photographs throughout the game unlock real papercraft models that the player can access on the Tearaway website. Really, the attention to detail here is insane, and it makes the game ooze with charm. The game’s music isn’t terribly memorable, but definitely goes for some wacky and original instrumentation choices that will make you smile.

Conclusion

Tearaway is a fun romp that really shows what the Vita is capable of. It draws you into its world, but doesn’t overstay its welcome. It has a few bugs and shortcomings, but I think it’s a must-play if you’re a Vita owner. If you’re not, you could always try the remake on the PS4, Tearaway Unfolded. It’s easy enough to platinum as well, though there isn’t too much reason to come back to it afterward.

Score: 8 / 10

#review #gaming #tearaway #media molecule #article

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years ago

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I’m reading and so far enjoying Absolute Carnage a whole heck of a lot and I’m thinking to myself why is that? Why in fact is this story working for me when most other crossover event stories don’t? This inevitably led me to think about what those few event stories I do like even are.

Off the top of my head Contest of Champions II, World War Hulk, Annihilation, Annihilation Conquest and at the tippy top Infinity Gauntlet (the main book not all the tie-ins) and Secret Wars 1984.

I started to notice some things.

a) Almost all of these stories are built upon a fundamentally simple premise (Annihilus invades space, the heroes fight in a tournament, Thanos becomes God, etc)

b) A lot of them are event crossovers that don’t characters from multiple franchises in big ways in the stories. That is to say lots of heroes show up in Infinity Gauntlet but the number of really truly central characters in it is relatively small and don’t include like half a dozen people from X-Men, F4, Spider-Man, Midnight Sons, etc

c) Most of them are very action heavy

Why is it these factors contribute to making an event crossover successful?

Well to the first point, it’s simply put because by having a clear cut hook it allows all the tie-ins and such to not veer too far off course for that premise and allows the main book to keep it’s eye on target as it were.

The second and third points are I think interconnected.

See when you really break it down, it takes a whole heck of suspended disbelief to make the Marvel universe work.

And I don’t mean because you have to accept the conceit of radioactive spiders or lizard formulas. I mean because you have to accept that stuff and mutants, high tech suits, confirmed aliens, confirmed deities of every religion, confirmed parallel timelines, dimensions and universes, time travel, etc.

Consider for a moment how Lord of the Rings or Star Wars actually demand less suspension of disbelief of audiences because the fantastical elements are all mostly cut from the same cloth and if they aren’t there aren’t THAT many to juggle, so making them mesh together and create a sense of verisimilitude isn’t that hard.

For Marvel though an awful lot of the time to make a Spider-Man or Daredevil story work demands you outright ignore every other Marvel series out there. Look at Aunt May’s current situation dealing with cancer. If you were being realistic within the context of the Marvel Universe there would be at least 3 or 4 obvious solutions to her problem and that’s a very conservative estimate.

This is why I think making good crossover event stories is so difficult, because you need to find a way to balance vastly different concepts and characters, some of which aren’t even tonally on the same page. The X-Men are metaphors for prejudice because they have super powers, but the F4 are wacky superhero celebrity explorers from the Space Race and Thor is a Shakespearean God figure and Captain America is a politically charged figure from propaganda.

This is a fundamental problem with the Avengers. I’ve talked about this before but one of the biggest problems with the Avengers is that their stories tend to be about little beyond just BEING the Avengers. Occasionally it’s more than that, but usually it’s just they are the Avengers and they are Big Damn Heroes who kick ass on a Big Damn Scale. The X-Men in contrast might do that but they also have the idea of adolescence and prejudice to fall back on to give their stories substance. The F4 can do the same as an exploration of technology, weird sci-fi concepts, celebrity and above all else, family. Part of why the Avengers have this problem is because they were intentionally built from characters never designed to work together or in team environments. Neither were some of the X-Men but if you know Wolverine will be on your team then you know he’s fill a certain role and you can sort of tailor the other characters in response to that.

Most comic book event crossovers have the Avengers problem but magnified because now you got dozens of characters not designed to work with all these other characters.

That’s why having a simple hook for an event (like Carnage is going to try and kill everyone who’s worn a symbiote) works so well because it’s something that can easily be applied to any comic as a tie-in.

It’s also why stories like Annihilation or Absolute Carnage work more effectively because they aren’t crossing over everyone, but rather a subset. Annihilation used cosmic characters. Cosmic characters aren’t a monolithic group but there is a certain greater cohesion between all of them collectively as opposed to having Punisher, Doctor Strange, Super Skrull and Conan the Barbarian. The same is true of Absolute carnage which thus far is concerned with Spider-Man characters or street level characters.

Alternatively you can feature large groups of characters who do not really jive together but utilize them as secondary or tertiary characters whilst you instead focus upon a more select cast of figures, preferably with a clear cut central main character to make sure the story remains focussed whilst still having scale.

This is exactly what both Infinity Gauntlet and the film Infinity War did. Neither would have worked if the lead characters were the heroes trying to stop Thanos rather than Thanos himself trying to BE stopped by the heroes.

Finally if you are going to throw all these disparate characters together and make them the point of view focus, not only does having a simple story help a whole hell of a lot, but having an action story first and foremost sells it.

Let’s be real, that’s why the concept of the crossover is enticing. Seeing heroes fight together or one another is the box office draw and by simply making it a fight comic you side step clumsy attempts to have substance that will fall apart when you have literally dozens of characters to juggle who are all conceptually vastly different to one another.

This is the key to Secret Wars’ success. I know it sounds nuts to say having little substance worked in favour of a story, but in this case it really did. By having Doom be the main character and the events be beautifully drawn and paced out action set pieces (set outside the regular books so as not to disrupt them) the story worked like a charm. No fuss, no muss, pick it up enjoy characters hanging out, bouncing off of one another or cool battles and you are done.

It’s a whole heck of a lot better than promising to be about something substantial but falling flat as a pancake like civil War did.

#Absolute Carnage #Carnage #Thanos #Infinity War #Infinity Gauntlet #Secret Wars

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so-shiny-so-chrome · 6 years ago

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Witness: Battle_Cat

Creator name (AO3): battle_cat

Creator name (Tumblr): fuckyeahisawthat

Link to creator works: https://archiveofourown.org/users/battle_cat/works

Q: Why the Mad Max Fandom?

A: Fury Road blew my goddamn mind. I like action movies and female action protagonists, but nothing has ever quite hit me like Fury Road. I couldn't stop thinking about it. I had never written fanfic and didn't know what ao3 was, but the characters just wouldn't leave my head. I started seeking out meta on Tumblr, and many of the people who were writing and sharing great meta were also writing fic, and at some point I started thinking, hey, this is a thing I can do. And then I did it, A LOT.

Q: What do you think are some defining aspects of your work? Do you have a style? Recurrent themes?

A: Smut smut and more smut, lol! And sometimes action. I really like writing about intense physical experiences and the emotions they generate. I come from a screenwriting background, so I tend to be terse and am always thinking about how to say the most with the fewest words possible. I love writing characters who find it very hard to talk about their feelings, so Max and Furiosa are pretty much perfect for me.

Q: Which of your works was the most fun to create? The most difficult? Which is your most popular? Most successful? Your favourite overall?

A: Ahhh I can't pick between all of my children! AO3 statistics says Zero to Sixty, my Max-and-Furiosa-get-together fic, is my most popular by hits, kudos and bookmarks, which is not surprising given that it was written early in the fandom. I don't think I can pick a favorite but I have a lot of love for: Desperate Measures, Her Reputation Precedes Her, Hard Run, Tough to be Tender, and Scarf Thing. The only fic I'm still slightly unhappy with: Equinox. I feel like I set up some great tension and then wrapped it up too quickly.

Q: How do you like your wasteland? Gritty? Hopeful? Campy? Soft? Why?

A: Hard but with some humanity left still.

Q: Walk us through your creative process from idea to finished product. What's your prefered environment for creating? How do you get through rough patches?

A: Most of my short pieces are really just a single scene, sometimes with setup and aftermath. Sometimes I'll start with an image (like one of @youkaiyume's excellent smut drawings) or a concept or idea for the scene. Something short, like under 2,000 words, I will ideally sit down and write in one draft, maybe in a day or two. I don't do a lot of drafts, although I do somewhat edit as I go. Something longer like a multi-chapter fic, I usually have a separate Word document with notes and a very rough outline. I usually have the ending or the big climactic scene in my head before I've got everything in the middle figured out. If I'm struggling with something, I'll usually step away and just let my brain chew on it for a while, until I figure out what about it isn't working for me. I learned in grad school that your brain can be doing a lot of creative heavy lifting while you're off doing other things.

Q: What (if any) music do you listen to for help getting those creative juices flowing?

A: I'm not much of a music person, tbh. I have gotten inspiration from fanart, Tumblr submissions and kinkmeme prompts, though.

Q: What is your biggest challenge as a creator?

A: Finding enough time and energy to write. I'm someone who needs big chunks of time to let my brain get into the creative state and this whole having to have a job thing is a real drag.

Q: How have you grown as a creator through your participation in the Mad Max Fandom? How has your work changed? Have you learned anything about yourself?

A: When I saw Fury Road, I had been in a serious writing drought for the better part of a year. I was frustrated and feeling very hopeless about the filmmaking world. Even under the best of conditions, filmmaking is an incredibly slow process with a lot of gatekeepers. Being able to just write something, put it on ao3 and get instant feedback was an incredible breath of fresh air. I remembered my love of writing and found a whole new creative community. I started exploring a new genre, erotica, and learned that I love it. I started writing prose again after a long period of focusing on screenwriting, and gained a new appreciation for what can be done in the short story format.

Q: Which character do you relate to the most, and how does that affect your approach to that character? Is someone else your favourite to portray? How has your understanding of these characters grown through portraying them?

A: Furiosa is the character who lives in my head most vividly. She has a lot of characteristics I tend to put in my original female characters: a certain ruthlessness and hardness; hypercompetence combined with standoffishness punctuated by a few key moments of vulnerability.

Q: Do you ever self-insert, even accidentally?

A: I don't really like talking about characters as self-inserts. I think every character has some part of you in them whether you're aware of it or not.

Q: Do you have any favourite relationships to portray? What interests you about them?

A: Maxiosa for sure. I already had a pattern before Fury Road of writing hard women and caring men, so Furiosa and Max fit right into that. They are both incredibly damaged people who have been the victims and the perpetrators of violence, have a lot of self-loathing, have been isolated in various ways for a long time, and are used to having no one to trust. Bringing those two people together and watching them slowly allow themselves to trust each other is very powerful.

Q: How does your work for the fandom change how you look at the source material?

A: Fury Road is an incredibly rich text and there are so many things that are only hinted at, left unexplained or implied. I've lost count of how many times I've watched it at this point, but there are always more details to notice and spin headcanons about.

Q: Do you prefer to create in one defined chronology or do your works stand alone? Why or why not?

A: For MMFR, I started out writing mostly short smutty one-shots. At a certain point it made sense to start stringing them together, and the ones that take place in the same timeline are now roughly in order in the series Together. It happened organically, though - I tend to write my longer stories non-chronologically anyway, so at some point I realized I was constructing a giant smut novel.

Q: To break or not to break canon? Why?

A: Ehn, I am pretty agnostic on this. Sometimes sticking to canon can be a fun limitation you impose on your story. Other times, ignoring it can be a fun what-if.

Q: Share some headcanons.

A: Ace definitely lived. Nux definitely died historic. Valkyrie is alive in some of my stories and not in others. Dag's baby is a girl and she names her Angharad. Max comes and goes from the Citadel, staying for increasingly longer periods of time. Furiosa often wants to leave, but feels too much responsibility to the new Citadel to ever let herself.

Q: If you work with OCs walk us through your process for creating them. Who are some of your favourites?

A: I haven't created a lot of OCs in the Mad Max world because the canon characters are just so interesting to explore. But when I do they just kind of pop up. Biltong from the story Her Reputation Precedes Her is a personal favorite.

Q: If you create original works, how do those compare to your fan works?

A: My original works are mostly on the action/thriller/horror spectrum. I had never written smut before MMFR, but to me, it's very similar to writing action. You're telling a story through high-intensity physicality and the emotions surrounding it. In my original works, I mostly write female protagonists in high-intensity situations, so it made sense that MMFR would catch my attention.

Q: What are some works by other creators inside and outside of the fandom that have influenced your work?

A: @primarybufferpanel 's Orbit was my fandom gateway drug. @primarybufferpanel, @sacrificethemtothesquid, @lurkinghistoric, @v8roadworrier, @thebyrchentwigges, @thatonezombiecosplayer, @youkaiyume, @ecouter-bien , @bethagain, @fadagaski and @yohunny have all created things that I find inspiring, epic, thrilling, heartbreaking, hot, funny or all of the above. And I'm lucky that I've gotten to know many of them online and in meatspace!

Q: What advice can you give someone who is struggling to make their own works more interesting, compelling, cohesive, etc.?

A: Stop and ask yourself: What does this character want? Why are they doing what they're doing right now? Concretely, what are they trying to achieve? What are the obstacles? What are the consequences if they don't get what they want? If a scene or story isn't working for me, usually it's because I don't know the answer to one of these questions.

Q: Have you visited or do you plan to visit Australia, Wasteland Weekend, or other Mad Max place?

A: I've been to Wasteland Weekend 3 times (2016, '17, '18) with Clan of the Boltcutters, and plan to go again in 2019. It's been so cool watching our camp and the festival grow and change each year. I had never been to anything remotely like Wasteland before I got involved in the Mad Max fandom, and now I can't imagine it not being part of my year. Australia...maybe someday.

Q: Tell us about a current WIP or planned project.

A: While I've been writing in the Venom fandom lately, I do plan to come back at some point and finish Closer, a story I really liked writing that I just haven't gotten time to get back to. I also have a few lingering MMFR projects that will hopefully be completed later this year.

Thank you @fuckyeahisawthat

#Mad Max Fandom Creator Spotlight #Mad Max Fandom Spotlight #fury road fandom #Mad max fandom #mad max fanfic author spotlight #mad max fic #fury road fic

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musicoccurred · 4 years ago

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Mixtapes

The mixtape, a word that is dependent on who's using it and when. I'm middle-aged and came up in the 80s and 90s so it means something different to me than a kid today or a band camp rapper. Having said that, let's take a look at the different usages of mixtape and see if we can crown a winner of the top type of mixtape.

For those of us with achy knees and patches of gray in our hair, a mixtape was, first and foremost, actually on a tape. Now there were themes involved just as there are now with some of the others I'll mention in a bit. For instance, every Sunday there was Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 radio show. I would often drop a blank cassette in my boom box and hit record. I would then go watch TV in the living room and keep an ear out for the telltale 'click' of the tape running out. I'd run back to my room, flip the tape, and hit record again. You have to understand, before the internet, geez that never not sounds old, the radio ruled. Even with albums, cassettes, and later CDs you still listened to the radio all the time. That's why I love XM so much, there's something about having someone curate music for you. And even today with every song available at the tap of a finger there's something awesome when your jam comes on the radio. It just hits different. I digress. So now at the end of the countdown you have the top 40 songs of the week, or however many you had enough tapes for... You can now make a mixtape of your favorite tracks. Radio also had "Request and Dedication" shows where you could call in and request a song and give a little dedication to your amore. You could record that and toss it at the beginning of the mixtape and good things happen. Another type would be artist specific. Say you were a Michael Jackson fan, you could take Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad and make a tape of your favorite songs from each. Another would be genre, when I was first getting into blues and jazz, I'd borrow tapes from my Mom and friends to make mix tapes. And last but not least, the mixtape for your love interest. These were the ultimate, you'd diligently record songs from the radio and mix in a song or two from either an artist she didn't know or an obscure song from a known artist to show you were a deep brother. You weren't done yet! You'd then work hard on the label and of course the note to go along with those 10 songs that perfectly sum up your feelings for that person. On a side note, I'd like to take this opportunity to say if you were the object of my unrequited affection and received one of these, I apologize. Unless you liked it, then, hey girl.

Next up we have the burned CD mixtape. It is the evolutionary cousin to the cassette mixtape. While it took a while for CD burners to become ubiquitous, they eventually showed up, primarily in PCs. What was lost in recording from the radio was picked up by being able to download from Napster and pass along. Additionally, you could write or draw on the CD itself and the labels, if you went that route, were larger for track listing and any other info you wanted to toss in there.

Now we're moving on to the streaming portion of the discussion:

Note: I'm using playlist and mixtape interchangeably here.

One step removed from the burned CD and what seems lightyears beyond the cassette technologically is the custom, personally curated playlist. This can be a playlist you do for yourself; I have several in Spotify. I will sometimes dump an entire artist's collection in there to shuffle, or perhaps include only the tracks I like best. I also have one for jazz and one for funk called 'greasy.' But in the spirit of this piece, I'm thinking of a playlist that you create for someone else and share the link with them. I actually like this, not only can you send them a custom mix of songs that can express how you feel about them, but you can update the playlist anytime. It can be romantic or simply sharing new tunes with a homie.

Next, we have the algorithmically created playlist. When you sign in Spotify (I'm assuming other services offer similar features) and you get the daily list or the multiple "just for you" selections, this is what I'm referring to. Spotify uses the data from your listening habits to create playlists with songs from artists they think you'll like. It's pretty accurate with a few swings and misses. I have to say I'm a fan of including these playlists as well as listing other artists similar to the one you're listening to. I've discovered so many new bands this way. Alternatively, there are playlists that are created based on other factors. I work out with playlists on Spotify and XM such as Hip hop workout or Lithium Workout. These are likely created based on a beats per minute count. Some don't really fit the workout but have a faster beat. Overall, I like this style of mixtape/playlist.

Finally, we have the artist mixtape. This is generally hip hop but isn't necessarily limited to any specific genre. I relate it to an EP being released prior to an LP back in the day. Some of these have very rapid turnarounds, like a day or two so sometimes the quality of the mix isn't that great but topically it's right on time.

So how do these rank in terms of which mixtape format is best? Let's find out!

5. Artist Mixtape - This may be one of those "not for you" cases but I'm not a fan of most of these I've heard. Some are pretty good, but most feel rushed or worse, don't have a cohesive feel to the tracks. The ability for artists to drop tracks near instantly is pretty amazing and I do like the idea of it. We'll see how that continues to develop.

4. Algorithmically created playlist - While I use these pretty much every single day, they lack the human touch - hello, algorithm - which is what makes the mixtape great.

3. Burned CD - I probably surprised you here with this at number 3. I do think it has a lot of strengths and is still a physical object that gives the human touch. But there were some issues. If you're old enough to have gone through the burned CD era, you'll know the pain of burning a CD for it to simply not work. Sometimes the person you gave it to had a CD player that wouldn't play those or you needed a CD -R or +R or RW, it was awful.

2. Personally curated playlist - While fully digital and not that personal this does have the ability to add and remove songs as you go. Plus, when you email the link to the person you can toss in a nice note about how you thought about them when making it.

1. Cassette - I mean come on, it's called a mixTAPE right? Clear winner here. Yeah, I'm old but there was something about it.

Epilogue:

I listen to either streaming music or records. I'm resisting the urge to get back into cassettes even though I have a couple decks and tapes. My cassette collection didn't survive growing up. Honestly, I have no idea where they went. I still have my CDs but before I would play a CD, I would stream it. There's something human about playing a record or a cassette. We are a touching, feeling creature and it means something to flip that tape over or to hold the liner notes on a record. I think that's lost on the younger folks. As everything is digitized and available on a screen it loses some of its meaning. I like buying concert tickets online but man, there's something about lining up at Macy's or JC Penney's or wherever your ticket office was and buying a physical ticket they handed you. When I have the option, even if it's a couple bucks more I still try to get physical tickets. In 20 years, I can look at that stub and remember the show, I can't do that with a barcode on an app.

What's your favorite format or mixtape/playlist?

-js

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annieheatherw · 4 years ago

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The Multi- Verse: Evaluation

Some artists that I feel contributed greatly to my work’s final outcome were:

Tom Philips- A Humument

Tom Philips was one of the leading artists in my ideas for the illustrated books, and I think I did a good job on taking only inspiration from his pieces, and while you can see the links to his style, I feel like I have taken it very much in my own direction. This can be seen especially in my book of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’.

Peter Bankov

While he may have only inspired me for a few of my postcard designs, I feel that he is one that can really be seen in my digital work- especially in my first two photoshops. I think that I was inspired by the way that he isolated images (like eyes) and I took that theme and ran with it.

The Tomato Project

While this is still only in the realm of the digital work I did, I still feel that their style can be seen in my photoshop work, as I mimic the layering of the text, and the bright colours that correlates with them.

To sum up the concepts of my work, all that really needs to be said is that it mostly came from the book that the project was based on: The Yellow Wallpaper. The imagery in the book is just so vivid to me that it is not hard to create the vague picture in my head onto paper. I think that this can be seen from the very first creation of mine, massive piece of work where I just wanted to create what I saw myself in the paper. This is a good point- the way that I work now has changed immensely because since I was working from words and not from pictures I had to just get drawing and creating rather than stressing about if something was perfect. The way that I had to work during this project was a massive jump from the usual and I had to have faith in my ability to draw and work with abstract ideas rather than my ability to realistically paint from a picture, which is something that I will likely carry through my art infinitely.

I have always been a practical person rather than someone who has to be detail oriented, so if I get an idea for a piece I have to do it right away, and so there weren’t any decisions to be made in that respect- if I start down the path of thinking about something and trying to make a decision, I would never get anything done because making choices is always a struggle for me.

A lot of the time I had to work with wallpaper, which wasn’t the best to draw on with fine liner as it just slipped off, so when I used it for the second time in the book I had to use biro, even though there is a purple tinge, so I could create a little more of the depth that I wanted. Furthermore, I think that the biggest process I learnt or had to cope with was the photoshop tasks and digital manipulation. I experimented with layering and physically collaging to digitally collaging, and I enjoyed it because it was a departure to what I usually try out. I have learnt that I am better than I expected (so not to doubt myself as much), and I now have a love for scanning images onto a computer- which I’m sure will continue on my blog.

On Thursdays, we worked on a lot o experimental techniques that were outside of our comfort zones, and I learnt quite a bit about how it is best for me to work- i.e. trying not to get stressed about decision making and just getting on with it- and how I can do the task but add my own twists, as seen in the Asemic writing task, where I chose not to include colour, and adding tone where I wasn’t necessarily told to.

A piece of off site work that I think resonates with me the most is the book I created, or the similar style piece that was on a larger wallpaper piece. The reason for this is because it might not be technically brilliant, but it is really the first time that I’ve created characters in my head and transferred them onto a page in terms of a greater idea, where it has worked successfully. This chain of outcomes made me realise the small ideas that I come up with can be transferred and made physical, even there are no reference pictures or similar work that I’ve seen.

A piece of work that I have done in college that I feel is most impactful is the first digital postcard that I did, where I was trialing something that I never thought I would go anywhere near, and yet I was really happy with the end result. It really gave me the confidence to go further with my digital manipulation.

In my head, I would love my style of work to be published in a ‘children’s book gone wrong’ format. I would love it to be a book bought by the masses, in a futuristic Black Mirror episode type situation, where for instance the book actually comes alive and takes over or something, who knows. I also loved the Asemic writing, where we were trying to communicate to the future communities, and I think it would be really cool to have that work in a gallery or museum millions of years in the future, where it is actually something that cannot be understood, and is now a historical artifact.

10 words to describe my postcards:

Intense

Graphic

Vibrant

Busy

Haunting

Dynamic

Mysterious

Dark

Loud

Trippy

Soundtrack:

Virile- Moses Sumney

Rank and File

Ordinary Pleasure- Toro y Moi

Minors- Toro y Moi

Fireworks- Animal Collective

My Work Space (Messy and Cluttered)

Here is presumably where the magic happens, mostly. A lot of my smaller work and blog work is done at this desk, and if I am working larger I will move downstairs to a bigger table or if I don't make it that far I will work on the floor. I bought a cheap piece of material from eBay to use as a tarp over the table to minimise the stress I cause my parents on a regular basis.

An example of my process:

Theme: The Yellow Wallpaper

Research: Pokras Lampas

Development: Screen Print, Asemic Writing

Final Outcome: Digital postcard based on quote ‘sprawling flamboyant pattern committing every artistic sin’.

As I have already mentioned, something that I can do now that I could never do is that I have basic photoshop skills. I can now create simple collages, experiment with text and change colour tones of a picture.

My final outcomes are exemplary of how I have gained confidence in my work, and how I have experimented with all of my different on site work to make cohesive postcards. My initial ideas were to always focus on the patterns of the wallpaper, and to only explore the yellow and the creatures that lived there, but as I developed my collages and understand the book better, I understood that there was more to the story than just the wallpaper- I wanted to embrace the high intensity of her emotions, the complex fragility that she faced as a trapped woman. I think that is ultimately why my postcards ended up being quite dynamic and busy- because I was beginning to understand how frantic she must have felt. I think I did a good job in terms of the fact that now I feel like I am at peace with the book, and that I have done all that I can do with it, for now. I am satisfied with that aspect of the project. However, if I am ever going to do a digital based project again, I hope that I will try to take my time more with the collages, because this time I feel like I didn’t go all the way with them- and they mean so much for your digital work.

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junker-town · 4 years ago

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20020: Questions and answers

The world of 20020 is a very strange one, and people are right to have questions. Jon answers some of them here.

I don’t know if I’ve ever had more fun working on a project than I did with 20020. It was a long time in the making, as was this website, Secret Base. We intend this to be a place where we tell stories, whether they happened last night, a hundred years ago, 18,000 years from now, or some nightmarish video game realm that exists outside of time. In that sense, 20020 doesn’t define this place. Secret Base is the place where something like 20020 can actually live. I don’t want to get too overdramatic; Secret Base is a website where me and a bunch of of other jerks make shit we hope you’ll like. It’s a place I love nonetheless.

I started planning 20020 about three years ago, and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t just writing a sequel to 17776 for its own sake. This time I wanted to piece together a single, cohesive story, rather than a series of loose vignettes. I also wanted to explore certain themes more specifically. What happens to the concept of time if time becomes infinite? What defines a “good game,” and can it be laid out completely by accident? Who are Americans – specifically, these Americans, us? What the Hell is this place, and what was it? What would we do with ourselves if we actually got everything we wanted?

I tried to make something bigger and better than 17776, rather than just bolting on another installment. Personally, I feel like I did, but ultimately, those of you who have read it can be the judge of that. At any rate, thank you so much for reading. I know it was a big ask of you – not only is it roughly as long as a book, it’s a mashup of two things that typically don’t go together. A lot of you came in with zero interest in American football, and a lot of you came in without any particular inclination to read a work of science fiction where humankind never explored space because it was too boring.

A couple of people deserve an extra-special thanks here. Graham MacAree edited the piece from start to finish, and help me close as many logical loopholes as we could, picking out every time a player broke a rule, or one rule was inconsistent with another rule. Throughout the whole process, Graham was totally bought in, and was always in favor of making it more weird over less weird.

Meanwhile, Frank Bi engineered the entire thing so it could actually exist on the Internet. I’m still amazed that some of these pages weigh upwards of 50 megabytes, and yet they scroll completely smoothly without glitching out and slowing down. Frank also built an app on the back end that allowed us to easily format things like dialogue.

Anyway. Earlier this week, I solicited any questions you might have had about 20020 – why I made it, how I made it, how the game works, or literally anything else about it. I received a few hundred of those, and while I couldn’t get to all of them, I’ve answered as many as I could. Thanks so much for sending them in.

* * *

I haven’t read it yet - is it good?

– Anonymous

yeah

20020 feels a lot lighter than 17776. Why did you decide to go with that tone?

– hali

It’s interesting to me that it struck that tone with you, and I’m actually glad it did, because at some points the story actually felt slightly darker to me than 17776 did. I had a couple of priorities this time around.

The first was to continue to avoid what I hopefully avoided in 17776, which was writing some kind of morality play. I am tired of reading stories and watching shows that are trying to teach me some kind of lesson. I’m a grown adult! You’re a television, I don’t want to learn concepts like “right and wrong” from you! Fuck off, loser!

Instead, I mean 17776 and 20020 as open-ended explorations of themes and concepts. It’s so great to see people walk away from them with different ideas. Some people see this post-scarcity eternal playpen as Heaven, some see it as a completely nightmarish existence, and some see it as a sometimes-promising, sometimes-unsettling in-between. Far be it from me to call it one way or the other.

when designing The Bowl Game, how bogged down did you get in rules/technicalities? a game of this scale seems so hard to effectively govern, and many readers seemed to get stuck on rules technicalities that didn’t affect the plot much. i guess a better way to phrase this question is: did you develop the rules of the game first and then write a plot around them, or did the rules emerge naturally as you wrote?

– Victoria (@dirtbagqueer)

This was by far the toughest part of the whole thing. The field itself actually inspired the entire story.

Early in 2018, a few months after finishing 17776, I had a little bit of time in between major projects, and that’s when I started drawing up the fields. The geometry and weird aesthetic of it fascinated me. At the same time, I had absolutely no fucking idea what to do with it. I wanted it to make some sort of sense somehow. I wanted to design actual good, solid gameplay within it, but I just could not figure out how to do it. Over the course of two years, I would occasionally open it up and stare at it, practically begging for some kind of solution to present itself.

It never did, and my stupid ass finally got the point: this thing is a tribute to chaotic, senseless institutions. It’s a monument of the absolute nonsense that spews forth from ostensibly rational architecture. Like, imagine the most grating, insulting, senseless corporate drivel you’ve ever heard. To me, this that in the form of a football field.

It all clicked from there. Who would come up with such a bewildering and obnoxious thing? Obviously, Juice would. He’s amused by the literal interpretations of things and he delights in inanity and chaos. I needed Ten to hibernate, because she loves well-considered, intelligent gameplay, and she would have shot him down at every opportunity.

From there, I just wrote the rules in accordance with what I felt would be the most interesting story. After looking at San Diego State’s sad little field, I realized I wanted them to star in the A-plot, and I’ll admit to writing some of the rules in service of their story.

Chapter 4’s Georgia Quarterback is introduced to us by screaming into a phone for a pizza that never gets to him. It’s the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time and I have to know, was there something or some things that inspired it?

– @Kay_N_B

That guy’s ripped straight out of real life. I used to work at a call center doing tech support for an Internet service provider. Legend has it that if you simply yell REPRESENTATIVE or SUPERVISOR to an automated system enough times, it will get you off hold and talking to someone more quickly. This was definitely not true, but it didn’t stop people from trying.

On one occasion, I picked up the phone to a woman yelling SUPERVISOR! SUPERVISOR! SUPERVISOR! SUPERVISOR! over and over and over. She was yelling it so loud that she couldn’t hear me. Or, more likely, she was just holding the receiver to her mouth without actually holding the speaker to her ear. At any rate, I just could not get through to her. After about two minutes of that, I hung up. Sometimes I wonder how much longer she sat there yelling like that.

Is Lori from the Illinois chess chapter the same Lori who talked to the Durabos in the Koy Detmer chapter in 17776?

– Ale

She is! Not for any particular reason, other than that I liked the idea of bringing someone back. She’s named after my fourth-grade teacher and ninth-grade science teacher.

Why do trains still run on diesel fuel and how does this not affect the climate/environment?

– Vince

In this universe, humans have learned how to perfectly synthesize fossil fuels that are environmentally harmless. (That’s why I was fine with Nick just carelessly pouring gallons of diesel fuel on the ground while he was fueling the train.) In my optimistic view of the real-life future, I’m sure we’ll opt to solar power or some other environmentally benign solution, but these peoples’ insistence on fossil fuels reflects what does and doesn’t change about you if you live for thousands of years. If there are no coming generations to prod you along and find solutions of their own, how much would we really be compelled to change?

That’s a foundational theory of this story, however right or wrong: change happens generationally far more than it does internally. Once we grow up, the cake’s baked. With no generations to come, there are no more agents of change, and we’re the same old slobs. I’m going to want to smell gasoline when I mow the lawn.

What would happen if a team relocated its stadium? Or repainted the field within their existing stadium at a slight angle?

– Dave

Another fundamental theme of this story is that humanity, or at least America, is very, very preservationist. Architecturally, very little has changed, because there’s a sense that if things change, they’ll never truly get back what they once had. Whether or not that’s healthy is entirely up for debate.

Someone in the 20020 thread (apologies, can’t find the comment and don’t remember who it was!) had the idea of one school building an apparatus underneath their field that would allow it to rotate. This would be both fascinating and an absolute nightmare to calculate/write, but I loved that.

How did you create the animations and videos and such with Google Earth?

– @xyleb_

Google Earth allows you to import image overlays and slap them over the terrain. It took me a long time to figure out how to get 111 image files to stretch all across the country without the frame rate slowing to like three frames per second. In the end, it was a matter of making the field image files just about as small as possible (20x1 pixels) and stretching them from coast to coast. Given that Google Earth was never intended to do anything like this, I’m kind of stunned by how well it worked.

How do you choose the names for the players? Are they based off people you know or do you just make up names you think sound cool?

– Arp1033

When it comes to naming characters, my biggest screwup was naming the Georgia Tech quarterback Connor O’Malley. Conner is a very, very college football quarterback name, so I just bullshitted a last name that I thought would fit. Not only is Connor O’Malley an actual public figure, he’s actually a guy I’m a fan of and have been aware of for some time, and yet I somehow never connected those dots until a reader pointed it out.

I tried to give lot of consideration to the naming of characters. Since I prioritized representation, I did want to signal that certain characters were Black, or Hispanic, or Asian. Sometimes this was because I felt it was essential to their character, and sometimes it was just for the sake of representation.

In a couple of circumstances, such as the UAB Steamroller poster in which I named literally 125 characters, I partially relied on name generators. Even with those, you have to be careful. At first, I used one that allowed you to generate names that are traditionally women’s names, or more typically Black names, or Asian names. So I was like, all right, give me 50 women’s names, and it returned a bunch of names like Heather and Sally and et cetera. Yes, of course there are Black women named Sally and Asian women named Heather, but if they all have such names, that doesn’t feel entirely representative. So I requested 20 typically Black women’s names, and like six of them were Keisha. All right, cool, thanks! In that case and a few others, I just ditched name generators entirely and took first names from people I’ve known personally.

If I recall correctly, in the 17776 q+a, you talked about Nines identity a little bit and how you wanted to include an NB character in your stories. In this story, is Nine using they/them pronouns a decision they have made to identify as NB?

– Anonymous

Yep, Nine is non-binary. In 17776, Nine was non-binary simply by virtue of only having been conscious for a few days and not even having the time to examine or consider it. But now it’s been a while, and they actively identify as NB.

do you plan on bringing back any other space probes, like hubble in ‘76?

– scotty

Yes! I’ll spill the beans on that now. Hubble was originally going to appear in 20020, but there was just too much other stuff to get to. He’ll be seen in 20021.

how do you manage to find the “non-dull” part of each of the stories you write? like how do you find the newspaper clippings, names, etc?

– Carter Briggs (@carter1137)

Before I started writing, I spent two whole months just scrolling across every single field. If I hit a town, a lake, a mountain, or even a road with a weird name, I’d stop and search the newspaper archives to see if I could find anything interesting. This was definitely a test of Nancy’s sentiment in 17776 that you can’t walk ten feet in American without running into a story.

Technically speaking, it turns out that this is more or less true, but the vast majority of these stories are UNBELIEVABLY FUCKING BORING. As far as a lot of town are concerned, if anything interesting ever happened there, it sure as Hell didn’t make the papers. I’d say a good 10 percent of old newspapers are just, “Mrs. Hubbard took a trip here to visit her sons.” Just a 19th-century proto-Facebook check-in app. But one time out of a hundred, I’d find out about the James gang’s forgotten stash, or the Stannard Rock Lighthouse, or the escapes of Eugene Jennings, and it was all worth it.

I feel really, really gratified by those. I’m not so sure anyone has explored American history the way I did – by literally drawing lines across it and following those lines. It’s a very silly, stupid way to do it, but if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have found some of these things that would otherwise have been lost to history.

What do the probe’s voices sound like over the phone? Synthesized? Uncannily human? Like a Siri kind of thing?

– Anonymous

They sound human, yeah. How exactly they sound, I can’t say, but I can kinda hear Juice. Despite being French, I hear him as a fast-talking, hyper-charismatic, high-energy Southern dude, like some guys I grew up around. Think some weird amalgamation that’s reminiscent of Matthew McConaughey and Chris Tucker.

what is the answer to nines postscript(what happens when a ball is on a intersection)

– Anonymous

So when a ball is on Field A, and it crosses Field B at an intersection, the scoreboard doesn’t change. It still belongs to Field A, and only transfers to Field B if the player makes a turn.

What do video games look like in the year 20020? Do they still make new games or do they just kind of permanently update the old ones, like an MMO or something?

– Ben

This is not necessarily canon, and is just my real-world feeling on the matter seeping out: the real frontiers in gaming aren’t about graphics or technical ability or anything like that, they’re about creativity and art. Like, Breath of the Wild? That plays at 720p on my Switch, and while it’s artistically breathtaking, I think that strictly from a technical perspective, it could have been made 10 or 15 years ago. And yet it’s probably the greatest video game ever made.

Was there always an intention to do multiple parts (17776, 20020, 20021), or did that evolve as you wrote? What does the idea generation stage look like for a story as massive and out there as this one?

– @stxnmxn

When I finished 17776, I knew I wanted to write a sequel at some point, but didn’t always imagine it in two parts. As recently as this summer, I’d planned on writing it all at once before Graham and I decided to break it up. I’d just found too much stuff to condense it into one thing.

Did you have fun writing it?

– benfrosh

yeah

ballground & ballplay — how did you think to link them to this story? were you looking for them? when did you make the connection to the fields?

– @heysihui

That was an unbelievable coincidence! Clemson’s field just ran across both of them. I knew for sure I wanted to talk some about indigenous peoples, and I’ve long been fascinated with the seemingly far-flung concept of replacing war with sports. It was just the perfect opportunity.

I loved how in 20020 there are so many smaller stories being retold, some of which even affect the larger story. Of all the places big and small visited over the course of 20020, which location had your favorite historical event? I think mine was the 1910 Emory Gap runaway train.

– @jj_jjjjj_jjjjjj

The story of Eugene Jennings takes it for me. I was so profoundly touched by the story of a guy who had an incredible gift for escaping. He wasn’t an evil person, he was just born into a world he wasn’t compatible with. I think lots and lots of people like him have lived and died, and I hope we don’t forget them. You can barely find anything about Jennings on the Internet; his story could only be found in old newspapers. I’m honored I got to tell his story. I sure as Hell won’t ever forget him.

first of all, thanks for making an explicitly lgbt couple, one where the romance is directly shown, part of your main cast for 20020. did you really give much thought to it, or was it a decision that felt natural?

– jijo, @optikalcrow

Part of the reason I wrote 17776 in the first place was to take football, which I view to be this spectacular, fascinating thing, and imagine a world where it’s opened up to every single type of person. A long while back, a friend and I were talking about football. He’s gay, and he supposed that while football seemed like the sort of thing he’d like, he never got into it growing up because he “never got the invite.”

So I did that as a means of sending an invite. More generally, I really liked the idea of making a gay couple the main characters because I almost never see that anywhere, and if I do, it’s probably a story about them being gay.

As I did last time, I wanted to represent people completely matter-of-factly. I don’t delve into the experience of being gay, because I don’t have valuable perspective to offer there, but I did want to establish Nick and Manny as fleshed-out, imperfect, warts-and-all human beings. Sometimes they argue, sometimes they make a bad call, sometimes they say stupid things, and sometimes they’re unsure of themselves, just like everybody else.

who is your favorite character to write for?

– @mwuffie

It was a lot of fun writing Nick and Manny’s pointless arguments. Mimi was great too, since she was inspired by a few people who are very close to me. But Bryce, the new Troy recruit from Chapter 10, might be my favorite.

I grew up around so many guys exactly like Bryce. A young guy who’s not sad, really, just mopey. He’s an asshole in a mostly benign way. He seems to want to do nothing but just sit in a parking lot smoking menthols and leaning against his Nissan, and mumble something about wanting to challenge someone to a street race but never, ever actually doing it. He doesn’t seem to actually like or dislike or want anything. You have absolutely no clue what makes him tick or what ever motivates him to do anything, or whether he likes you. He’s just kinda there, but you get the sense that he’s perfectly content. He fucking rules.

I also enjoyed hate-writing Chess Guy. I never bothered to give him a name because he didn’t deserve one. When Graham first read that chapter, the first thing he told me was, “I fucking hate chess guy.” Mission accomplished.

juice mentions in ch 7 that he worked with indigenous tribes to get permission for fields/players to cross native land (which, of course, all of america is native land). some tribes said no — are these tribal lands OOB and/or handled in the rules?

– lily b.

Yep, for the indigenous peoples who did not grant permission, those portions of the field are out of bounds. Some also have special conditions – for instance, a limit on how many players can be on the field at the same time. These changes aren’t reflected visually on the map for two reasons: first, I couldn’t quite figure out how to do it from a technical sense, and second, I didn’t think it was particularly important or appropriate for me to guess which tribes would and wouldn’t grant permission.

Why hasn’t technology really developed that much? Besides the nanobots, there really isn’t anything else. They still watch/follow games through normal tv’s/radios. Just wondering how boring this must be for anyone not involved in the football games.

– permian triassic extinction event

I think old people just like what they like and don’t need much more, and these are the oldest people in history. Just like folks from decades ago were perfectly fine with their three TV channels and crossword puzzle, I think we’d be okay with an eternity of, I don’t know, online gaming.

Not to be a downer but at times I felt almost guilty about this future with nothing left that needs to be done while we live in this society that’s a total hell-hole for so many. Did you have any feelings like that while writing? Is there a message here linking our harsh reality with the immortal 20020 world that went over my head?

– Anonymous

These times are full of struggle and defeat. The thing I want most and believe in most for this country and this world are things I might never get to see for myself. But god damn it, I will imagine them. It’s practice for the real thing. I believe that one day we’ll actually have the world we want, and we’d better have a plan when that day comes. What are we gonna do with it?

Is it pronounced 20020 or 20020

– Mylograms

20020, yeah.

Any other questions? Graham and I will be hanging out in the comments sections for a while, so feel free to yell at us down there.

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zvkydesign · 2 years ago

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5 Character Design Tips for Creating a Winning Game Character

Are you an aspiring artist looking to make your mark in the world of character design? Or maybe you're a writer who wants to add a little pizzazz to your latest story by creating some amazing characters?

Either way, this guide is for you! Character design can be incredibly rewarding, allowing you to bring your unique vision to life. Let's dive into the steps involved in designing a character that is used by top game concept art services.

Step 1 - Brainstorming

The first step in character design is brainstorming. To begin, ask yourself questions like "What kind of character do I want to create?" and "What sort of qualities should my character have?" After you've come up with some ideas, start sketching out potential designs.

Don't worry if they don't look great at first – the goal here is just to get your imagination flowing and get a rough idea of what your character will look like in the end.

Step 2 - Refining Your Design

Once you've got a few sketches on paper, it's time to do the fun part – refining! This is where you'll really start bringing your character to life. Think about how each design element interacts with one another and how that contributes to their overall look.

Consider elements such as facial expressions, clothing choice, posture and more to give them depth and personality. As you refine your design, remember that every detail matters – even seemingly small things like hairstyle or accessories can go a long way toward creating an interesting and unique character.

Step 3 - Find the Right Tools

When it comes to creating artwork, the tools you use don’t necessarily make or break your success. In most cases, you can accomplish the same outcomes utilizing both traditional and digital mediums – the only difference is the production speed.

It is possible to replicate certain art styles like watercolors on a computer, but they often look best in their original luster. Ultimately, your aesthetic preference and that of your client will heavily influence what tools you decide on.

That being said, no matter how advanced your equipment may be, it cannot compensate for poor concept development or fundamental shortcomings in your artistic skill set. So it is important to hone those skills first and foremost!

Step 4 - Do not underestimate thumbnails

Thumbnails are an important babbling point for creatives. From small previews of images or videos on the internet to sketches in the traditional illustration world, they are useful tools for professionals and hobbyists alike.

Thumbnail sketches allow a video game concept artist to draw out several ideas without committing to a finished piece of artwork. This ensures flexibility when moving through creative processes.

Step 3 - Creating Your Final Piece

Now that you've refined your design, it's time to create your piece! Start by drawing out each individual element of your character (such as clothing items or facial features) separately before putting them together into one cohesive image.

If needed, use reference images to help perfect certain details or get inspiration from other artists' work. When you're done, take a step back and admire all the hard work that went into creating your very own unique character!

Conclusion

Congratulations on completing this guide on how to design a character! You now have all the tools necessary to create any type of character imaginable – so what are you waiting for? Get creative and show off those skills!

Whether it's for a comic book series or just for fun, designing characters can be incredibly rewarding when done right. So go ahead – get designing! Who knows? Maybe someday we'll see your characters featured in their own stories! Good luck!

Try us now if you are looking for the best concept art services. We have the dream team of artists for game art services that can put your concept to life. Trust us; we are the best among video game outsourcing companies.

#Game Character #concept art services #video game outsourcing

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thepuckwholived · 7 years ago

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Album of the Day 11/13/17 "Houses of the Holy" by Led Zeppelin Rock 1973 Led. Zeppelin. Led. *Insert expletive*. Zeppelin. Arguably the most legendary rock band this side of The Beatles to ever exist, and, without a doubt, one of the most influential on music as a whole. Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham not only left a mark on music history, they branded it with their symbols permanently. However, it can be hard to nail down what exactly makes Zeppelin so legendary. You can hear the music - those infamous "Stairway to Heaven"'s and "Immigrant Song"'s, and be in awe of them, but it is not uncommon for a Zeppelin listener to draw blank when it comes to articulate description. That is why albums like this one, 1973's "Houses of the Holy" are so important to understand Led Zeppelin. After the world-shaking success of their first four studio albums, all self-titled, Zeppelin had the money, renown, and experience to test out any experimental idea they had in full confidence, and "Houses", being the first studio album to follow the self-titled albums, shows a maturity not seen in any other Led Zeppelin album, and may just be their best. Thematically, "Houses of the Holy" is noticeably different from Zeppelin's previous works. In each of the self-titled albums, there was an obvious, easy idea behind each of the songs. "I" and "II" were barn-burners, crashing out of the gate with hard-hitting drums and screamed choruses. "III" was an approach steeped in Blues influence while still being ironically Zeppelin, and "IV"... well, it's more complex. "IV" was really the beginning of this new, more subtle Zeppelin. Cuts like "Black Dog" and "When the Levee Breaks" on that record are still exciting and fairly representative of Zeppelin, but they're more patient, more rhythmically complex. They bookend the record. In the middle, you have "Stairway to Heaven" and "Going to California", two cuts completely unlike anything Zeppelin had produced before then, bearing acoustic chords that feel so, so much different than anything presented before that point. Not to mention "The Battle of Evermore", which is a ballad about The Lord of the Rings. Yes, this is the same band. It is vitally important to point out these differences and developments in order to justly explain the awesomeness that is "Houses of the Holy". "IV" was more of a testing ground for these ideas than anything. That's obvious. It isn't a coherent mix so much as a incredible-sounding compilation of these ideas and more advanced but familiar rock cuts. The songs are all masterful, but the formation leaves something to be desired. It is to be expected - the band was taking a risk and a creative side-tour, much like on "III". "Houses of the Holy" is the result of this experiment. It is the perfect melding of folk and rock Zeppelin, in addition to even more genre exploration. The difference? A definitive feel. "Houses", firstly, is succinct. Forty-one minutes makes it the second shortest Zeppelin album, only topped by the outtake compilation of "Coda", Zeppelin's last album released after two years after the death of John Bonham. This makes "Houses of the Holy", in reality, the shortest Zeppelin album that was a cohesive studio effort. This shows. "Houses" blazes through its runtime. Dull moments just... don't exist on it. It doesn't feel bloated like "Physical Graffiti" (as good as that album is), or even slightly overstayed like "I". It has this perfection of flow that keeps me coming back again and again. I wonder, sincerely, if this mastery was a coincidence or a deliberate effort, and I lean on the prior as the more likely. Either or, the record's flow is astounding and mesmerizing. It should be obvious to you that a "perfect flow" is entirely dependent on the songs within it, and "Houses of the Holy" delivers. Massively. "The Song Remains the Same" is a kickass opener, but immediately distinct from other famous Zeppelin openers. It has this oceanside feel, as does the rest of the album, that gives it a relaxed feel, even though it is rock. Personally, "Houses" is an album I frequently play to relax, despite it being a Rock album. Deviating a bit, this strange feeling in the album, that "relaxed" feeling, is due more than likely to expert production. Everything is tuned perfectly. If you have the pleasure of listening to this record with even slightly above-average audio equipment, these touches become obvious, even moreso if you listen to the remaster, which I wholeheartedly recommend. The mixing of the drums (which take more of a backseat this album, although still essential), guitars, and, especially, the keyboards and vocals, all make for a comprehensive listening experience unlike anything in Zeppelin's catalog. This mixing is another reason why the album's flow is among the best of all time, of course. Apologies for the tangent - back to the track listing. Next, "The Rain Song", a love ballad that sounds like waves subtly crashing in (again, this album is one of the most relaxing pieces of music ever made, please try it in this context), is just... lovely. It's a song about devotion, and finding someone you can hold as a "torch", or praise as "sunlight". This sentimentality is beautifully represented in the acoustic chords here. After this, we have "Over the Hills and Far Away", one of the more well-known cuts. The chorus here is wondrous - wanderlust defined. In fact, that's a good description for this song lyrically as well - the search for fortune, and how fun it can be. "The Crunge" follows - a funk track. Yes, seriously. It's funk. The keyboard here grooves up and down as Plant arguably raps about a love interest, and it is infectious. I wonder if the track has influenced any funk artists? I imagine it could have - the keyboard usage and the rock stylizations may have truly inspired some funk artists to experiment, and they could have inspired modern hip-hop. Who is to know. Anyway, the track is exceptionally strong, and an excellent example of Zeppelin integrating their experimentation with their unique style in a seamless manner. Moving into the second half, we have "Dancing Days, another infectious tune. The driving chords give the song this sense of motion - a rock dance track. Again - experimentation seamlessly integrated. "D'yer Mak'er" is ANOTHER amazing example of seemless experimentation, this time with reggae. Yep. Reggae rock in the mainstream. Zeppelin obviously took influence from Ska artists, as the movement was in full swing, and reggae's massive popularity boost was just on the horizon (Bob Marley's "Exodus" was just 4 years off). This track is arguably the most famous from the album, but almost all of the tracks are "arguably the most famous". I would argue that only "The Crunge" and "The Ocean" didn't become massively popular and associated with Zeppelin, even the next track, my personal favorite from the album, gained infamy. "No Quarter". Jesus, how do I describe this song. It is... menacing. "Gimme Shelter" but darker in every way. "Paint It Black" but somber and not inspired by the Vietnam War. It's utterly mesmerizing, and, again, that epic flow returns, as "No Quarter" is strangely a perfect followup to "D'yer Mak'er". There really is NOTHING like this track anywhere until the rise of post-rock in the /late 90's/. MAYBE "Welcome to the Machine" by Pink Floyd hits a similar vein, but other than that? Nothing that I know of even thematically close to this track until Swans and Godspeed You! Black Emperor in the late 90's and beyond. Seriously. The track is ahead of its time to a mind-numbing degree (Two and half DECADES between this album and Soundtracks for the Blind by Swans), and I love it more than any track here, as amazing as they are. The apocalypse given bluesy form is the only brief description I can find for this track. Following that... still can't find the words for it, is "The Ocean", a somehow not alienating followup to "No Quarter". It's this great, bluesy, beach rock Zeppelin classic that sums everything up. It's catchy, enthralling, and the perfect length. Led Zeppelin's "Houses of the Holy" is, obviously, really, /really/ good. The flow found here isn't replicated by any previous or later Zeppelin project, and the perfect mixing of Zeppelin's experimental ideas into a more standard rock framework is still staggering. Not to mention that all this occurs within a sharp forty-one minutes. Its contents are some of the most well-known rock songs of all time, and a notable portion of them were massively ahead of their time or expanded upon already existing genres to create entirely unique songs that have yet to be replicated. It will remain as my personal favorite Led Zeppelin album, and maybe yours too. Score: 10/10 (Honorary - nitpicks exist with almost every album, and the few I have with this one [a few tiny pacing issues on some songs] make it a 9.9, but it's an honorary 10. Real 10's /do/ exist, but they are based on personal preference, mind you. This /is/ just my opinion) Best Track: "No Quarter" Highlights: "The Song Remains the Same", "Over the Hills and Far Away", "The Crunge", "Dancing Days", "D'yer Mak'er", "The Ocean" Least Favorite Track: "The Rain Song" (It's just a /teeny/ bit too slow at times. I still LOVE IT but when you're dealing with near-perfect tracks even a minor nitpick can land you a tier below) Recommended Albums: 1.) If you loved the album as a whole, another good example of rock with amazing experimentation is The Rolling Stones' "Let It Bleed", another album I could discuss for ages. 2.) If "No Quarter" is as mesmerizing to you as it is for me, I'll recommend Godspeed You! Black Emperor's "Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven" from 2000. Post-rock is as close to a label that "No Quarter" will ever receive, so a landmark album from said genre with similar apocalyptic themes may be a good place to start if you want to hear more songs like "No Quarter".

#Led Zeppelin #album of the day #Robert plant #John Paul Jones #jimmy page #John Bingham #no quarter #houses of the holy #10/10

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sliceannarbor · 7 years ago

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Camden Shaw

Cellist The Dover Quartet Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Photo by Carlin Ma

SPECIAL GUEST SERIES

Camden Shaw is cellist of the Dover Quartet, a string ensemble dedicated to bringing the tradition of string quartet performance into 21st century relevance. Since its formation in 2008, the Quartet has performed more than 500 concerts spanning North America and Europe. The ensemble will open the 2018 season with a European tour, including a debut at the famed Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, returning only days later to appear at Carnegie Hall with acclaimed violinist Janine Jensen. Throughout the years, Camden has collaborated in chamber music with such renowned artists as Daniel Hope, Leon Fleischer, and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and maintains an active career as a soloist with performances of the Beethoven Triple Concerto with the Artosphere Festival Orchestra, where he also holds the principal chair. The ensemble recently released their debut recording Tribute: Dover Quartet Plays Mozart (Cedille), paying homage to the great Guarneri Quartet, with whom the Quartet studied. A new documentary about the ensemble is also in progress, focused on the life of young classical musicians and the sacrifices and joys that come with a successful career. Other Quartet members are first violinist Joel Link, violinist Bryan Lee, and violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt. Camden graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2010, where he studied with Peter Wiley. When Camden is not working, you can find him enjoying a cup of coffee with friends or in a secluded cabin somewhere, sipping bourbon. He resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

FAVORITES

Book: The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt

Destination: The Pacific Northwest

Prized possession: My Zygmuntowicz cello, made in 2010.

THE QUERY

Where were you born?

I was born in Ashland, Oregon.

What were some of the passions/pastimes of your earlier years?

My whole childhood, I was obsessed with sailboat design. I come from a family of sailors (both my parents and my sister now live on boats full-time), and I loved the way boat designers have to synthesize aesthetics with functionality. I spent countless hours pouring over hull designs. There's something magical in curvature, and I think it's that same sense of curvature that makes musical lines beautiful as well.

What is your first memory of music as an experience?

I remember falling asleep at one of my parent's concerts (they were both musicians) when I was little. I had a twitch in my sleep and accidentally kicked the back of the chair in front of me; the woman sitting in it was not amused. That’s when I first knew that listening to music was serious business.

Why does this form of artistic expression (playing the cello) suit you?

I love the playing of an instrument because it challenges every single part of my brain. Physical skill, intellectual understanding, and emotional intelligence are all tested daily, and I love that. In terms of quartet playing, I love the collaboration of different artists to create a cohesive vision, and I find that the interpersonal relationships in a quartet are helpful in learning how to speak purposefully but with tact.

What is the significance of the name “Dover?”

We’re named after the piece Dover Beach by Samuel Barber. Barber is one of the most famous alumni of the Curtis Institute of Music, where we founded the Quartet as undergraduate students. Barber also wrote Dover Beach for himself to perform with the Curtis Quartet. In a way, “Dover” is a sneaky way of showing our relationship to Curtis.

How did the Quartet begin to reach its mark nationally/internationally?

That’s a tough one. I think the road to enduring success as a performer comes down to pretty much only one thing, which is making audiences happy. However, for that to happen, you have to appear in front of audiences. This can happen for any number of reasons: personal connections, winning competitions, etc. I think winning the Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2013 really raised the demand for the Quartet, and at that point it was our opportunity to lose. Thankfully, I think we’ve left our audiences happy enough that we are still booking gigs- that’s really all one can hope for as a musician.

Is there a performance that remains most memorable, even today?

Our debut at Carnegie Hall will always be special in our memory. It had been a dream of all of ours since childhood, so having that dream become reality was surreal. We really tried our best that night, determined to make the performance deserving of the memory we knew it would become.

What did you enjoy most about your performance with the Quartet on A Prairie Home Companion in November, 2016?

Seeing the ease with which the pros on Prairie Home performed was inspiring. The sound effects guy - holy cow! I had no idea those sound effects were created live with actual physical objects. None of it is done digitally with sound files. Also, knowing that we were being heard by a sizable part of the country was awe-inspiring and a little scary.

Why is Barber's Adagio for Strings significant/what does this piece mean to you?

The Barber Adagio is a feat of composition. Barber’s use of a quartet to convey that kind of orchestral sound is astounding, and he also creates one of the most tragic pieces in history while using mostly major chords - something that often goes unnoticed. Something about that piece is magic, and it is even closer to our hearts knowing that Barber walked the same halls in the Curtis Institute that we did as youngsters.

How is the Quartet's commitment to sharing its music with underserved communities as part of Music for Food important to you and the other members of the ensemble?

It’s easy for artists of any kind to profess the power of their art for good - but often this remains a beautiful sentiment, unrealized. We’re increasingly aware of the responsibility of the artist to use art to raise awareness, and I think the power of music brings out a generous spirit in people. It connects us to one another, and we become more aware of humanity of a whole when we experience great music.

What is your favorite piece of music and/or composer?

This is a TOUGH one, and frankly it changes every year or so. This year, my favorite piece is Verklarte Nacht by Schoenberg. I think it is one of the most beautiful experiences, in terms of manipulating conflict and resolution, of any piece.

What music can we find you listening to in your down time?

I listen to a lot of folk music, Bob Dylan and the Canadian Stan Rogers are a few of my favorites. I also deeply respect and love the music of the Dirty Projectors, an indie band that’s really more like Beethoven than might meet the eye at first.

From where do you draw inspiration?

For me, there’s nothing more inspiring than watching a human being achieve greatness and mastery in whatever craft inspires them. When I see Olympic athletes training and competing, that’s beautiful. Someone creating a startup and growing it into a successful company is beautiful too. I guess I get the most inspiration from people going after their dreams, whatever that might be.

What are you working on right now?

I had a bit of a revelation recently about the left arm; that efficient movement is so complex and so hard to describe in words, that the best way to replicate it is to trust the aesthetic of the movement. In other words, producing machine-like precision might rely more on the movement of dance than the movement of machinery: nothing is as consistent as our aesthetic vision.

Who in your life would you like to thank, and for what?

There are too many to thank, truly. But I’d like to thank my colleagues, who work so hard and from whom I’ve derived so much inspiration.

#doverquartet #music #camdenshaw #cello

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greg38mcall · 5 years ago

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DIY Sliding Closet Door

A while back we did a lot of work on our teen boy's bedroom closet which included widening the doorway to allow for a large, built-in storage unit. His room isn't all that large or "roomy", so maximizing his closet to allow for both drawer and hanging storage was extremely important and has proven to be a great way to give him more space for reading, working on projects, having sleepovers, and doing his homework. We knew there were so many benefits to widening the doorway to his closet, but then the problem solving began in terms of how to cover it all back up.

There was a bit of planning and troubleshooting and decision making that went on with this project. Here are a few of the things we had to work through: To keep the trim or not? That was the question. I decided that if we kept the trim around the door, that it ultimately should be completely covered by the door when it was pulled closed. But that would also increase the size of the door by about 4-5 inches in width, and the door was already measuring pretty large. The alternative was to remove the trim, but that would require more drywall work and some fussy refinishing. Before making a quick decision, we thought we would install the rail to get a good idea of how far away from the wall the door would hang, and if the trim would interfere with it at all. Bryan easily had the rail installed in less than an hour and didn't even call me in to help (using the included installation instructions). Yay Bryan! Except I was instantly confused by the placement of the rail. He used the large bolts that came with the rail kit and installed them directly into the wall studs. Which made complete sense. But, this meant that the rail didn't go all the way to the corner of the room (it was just an inch or two short). If you want to be extremely specific about the rail placement, then you actually need to install a ledger board into the studs first, and then the rail can be installed anywhere into the ledger. Bryan knew I didn't want to use a ledger board if I could help it, so he just assumed going into the studs was the answer. But then I wasn't sure if I loved that the hardware didn't land exactly into the corner. And that led to another decision to make. We now knew that the door would hang out enough to clear the trim, so the trim was going to stay. But before making any more decisions regarding the rail placement/ledger board, I wanted to construct the door and see it on the rail. The advantage of a ledger board is that it gives you the flexibility to install the rail hardware wherever you would like. It also allows the door to hang even further away from the wall/trim. The disadvantage is that it is another distracting element that adds to the entire setup (although painting the board the color of the wall would minimize that). When coming up with the design for the door, I had a couple of inspiration pictures saved that I continuously referenced. This one and this one were my top two favorites. They both had a diagonal design that was trimmed out in a classic style. My son also really liked the design and gave me the thumbs up. With the hardware installed, we now knew how the rail system worked, where we wanted the wheel hardware to attach to the door, and the maximum thickness the door should be. Quick Tip: We taped a couple of pieces of paper together that were scaled to the exact width of the door that we had planned to build. Then we drew the top trim boards based on our measurements and "installed" the paper on the rail with the hardware. This was a GREAT way to visualize how the door would cover the closet door casing and also allowed us to confirm that the boards we were planning on using to trim the face of the door would line up nicely with the hanging hardware. I like to visualize things before completely committing whenever possible. Finally, my last but largest concern that I had was that the large door would be too overwhelming due to the smaller size of his room. The door was going to be just over 4' x 7' and I just didn't know of any other options in terms of closing off that wonderful opening we created. I told myself that sometimes larger things work best in small rooms to create more visual interest and to help balance some of the smaller accessories and knick-knacks. I also figured I could paint the door a similar color to the walls so that the pattern could be the focus, and the color would more or less fade away. Now that we had worked through all of those points, it was finally time to start building that dang door!

4' x 8' x 1/2" mdf board

1" x 2" x 8' primed boards

1" x 4" x 8' primed boards

5/16" x 5 1/2" pine lattice boards

large paint sticks

miter saw

circular saw

wood glue

brad nailer

paintbrush | paint roller

barn door hardware

door pull

cordless drill

speed square

wood putty | sanding block

Because our opening plus trim was over four feet, we talked through a few ways to achieve that width with as little wood as possible (to keep the door from getting too heavy). We began with a 4' x 8' piece of 1/2" thick MDF because the actual dimensions are 49" x 97". If we were to trim out the edges with 1" x 2" boards, then we would be exactly where we needed to be. With that in mind, we thought we would construct something similar to our son's DIY headboard project.

Because the rail was already installed, we had the exact measurements we needed and began by cutting the height of the door accordingly. Then I got to painting. I decided it would be easier to paint the back of the board, and the edges of the top boards, before assembly. I am telling you, doing this first was a major sanity saver later on! It made putting that final coat of paint on the finished door SO MUCH EASIER not having to get my brush down inside of every last groove.

For the diagonal pattern we used 1" x 4" primed boards that we cut to length. What is hard to see is that we drew a couple of pattern lines lightly in pencil to be sure our first few pieces went in exactly where we wanted, as those pieces would set the stage for all of the remaining cuts.

To affix the boards to the MDF, we covered the back of each board in wood glue and used our brad nailer and 1" brad nails.

We used a speed square along the edge to draw our cut line, everything was cut at a 45-degree angle with our miter saw.

While purchasing material and paint, we noticed some extra-large paint stir sticks and thought that they would make for the perfect spacers. And they did!

After we got going, we cut, nailed, cut, nailed, cut, and nailed... All the way until the entire door was covered in diagonal planks.

You may notice a couple of final pieces where the spacing doesn't look right, and that is because those areas were going to be covered by the decorative trim on the face anyway, we just popped boards in for backing. Also above you can see how we trimmed the perimeter of the door with the 1" x 2" boards we purchased. Bryan ended up ripping each one to be exactly flush with the depth of the mdf board plus the diagonal pieces. Again, we added those boards to get the door just wide enough to cover both the closet opening and the closet door casing. This also added a nicely finished edge on each side of the door. To finish off the design, I found some light-weight pine lattice moulding at Home Depot. It was the perfect width to frame out the door and hit the rail wheel hardware juuuuust right.

I know, I know... This is that awkward middle stage where it is hard to see just how amazing it is going to look until it is all painted in the same cohesive color. But first, I had to fill every last nail hole with putty. And then I went over the entire door a second time just to be sure there were no pits. And then a lot of sanding everything nice and smooth.

This step was worth every bit of time it took to really achieve the best finish possible.

The color I went with is Benjamin Moore Wales Gray. I felt like it was just different enough from the walls (Sherwin Williams Nebulous Cloud), and complimented the ceiling (Benjamin Moore Blue Dusk).

Once the door was up, I decided it wasn't worth it to move the rail to the corner of the wall and add a ledger board behind it. The fact the rail stops an inch short isn't all that obvious because the edge of the door goes right into the corner. Plus, the details on the door steal the show!

The rail is able to support up to 225 pounds, and our door came in under that so we could scratch that worry off of the list, and the stoppers on each end are completely adjustable.

Although the door still cleared the trim without a ledger board, we ended up having to inset the bottom bolt of the door hanging hardware into the back of the door to prevent it from rubbing against the white closet door casing. I found the handle hardware on Amazon here. I like that it is substantial and coordinates with all of the other matte black hardware throughout his room.

I put together a little motion shot of the new door opening and closing because we are just so excited to finally have this project checked off of our list!

As far as the organization goes, you can see that it is maintaining nicely! The only change is that all of his clothes have basically doubled in size. Oh! And we actually swapped the bottom shoe tray with a drawer we took out of our pantry cabinet (hoping to share more about that soon). We like that the drawer hides the shoes (yet they can still breathe), and that it can serve a different purpose all together down the road. You can read every last detail about his closet organization here.

Here is a shot of the door closed. It does leave a blank space to the left and I haven't decided if I want to do anything there yet (we could add something up to the thickness of the door trim without any issues, but are OK just leaving it for now). The color of the door works really great with everything else he has going on, and although the door is quite large, we all love the addition and interest it has added to the room.

I have one more big project I want to take on in this room (a DIY headboard), and then it will be FINISHED. Oh, what a feeling!

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You can catch up on our previous teen bedroom posts below:

Teen Boy Closet Planning

Patching the Walls and Carpet

Bedroom Progress: A Blank Slate

Quick & Easy DIY Drawer Organizers

Teen Workspace with DIY Wall Shelf

Organized Teen Closet w/IKEA PAX System

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from IHeart Organizing http://www.iheartorganizing.com/2020/01/diy-sliding-closet-door.html

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elddansurin · 8 years ago

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there’s a pretty good character development questionnaire going around my dash right now, so i took the liberties of filling the entire thing out on my own time, because buddy, you gotta make your own destiny.

1. Who’s the oldest character of yours that you still use? I had to give this one some thought bc my gut reaction was to say Tuo, but it turns out the answer is Falshavo, because I can explicitly remember drawing him in the hazy, far gone year of early 2006 when I was taking a drivers ed course. He started out as either some bastard of a Silent Hill fanchar, or a heavily SH-"inspired" character, and I think he could have at best been called a demon? I was like 16 when I made him, cut me some slack. In any case, Fal has changed very much over the years, most recently into an original species that can best be described as something visually between a satyr and a manticore, but is actually neither of those things. For quite a while he was based out of my one world, Undecim, but recently I decided he and his ilk would be better suited to my OTHER world, Aphelion. As far as motivations go, he's swapped from evil/crazy/malevolent to a much more nap-based personality. Two things that haven't changed since I've made him, though, are that he's blind in one eye and doesn't talk very much. So there's that.

2. Who’s the oldest character of yours, defunct or not? That honor goes to Jonathan, who was definitely and absolutely a FF7 fan character back when that game was new and I was still in my larval stage. He morphed into a mental illness coping mechanism as my childhood went on and he's just had a whole lot of interesting/embarrassing iterations, but I guess that's to be expected of a character I made in fucking 1997. That said, I retired him a few years ago. Tried briefly to bring him back, but I just wasn't feeling 2.0, so I didn't force it.

3. Has creating a character ever made you realize something about yourself? I was GONNA say no, but then it just dawned on me how much time I spent creating gay male characters in my early teen years before THAT realization caught up with the rest of me. I'm not going to say the characters themselves were involved in the inevitable personal revelation (they weren't), but more than anything I just think it's proof that pieces of my brain do not always work as a cohesive whole. I knew before I knew, so to speak, and it showed up in my characters.

4. Any minor characters that have either taken over or branched off into their own stories? UHHHH Your Boy Kolja was initially a primary antagonist in Mikhail's storyline, back before I decided to fundamentally retool a lot of things about Mik's whole deal. But I'm nothing if not predictable, and I'm a guy who loves a good villain, so I ended up making Kolja FAR more fleshed out and engaging than the actual protagonist of the story. Same thing kind of happened with Anzo, who was initially kind of an offshoot wildcard character in the horrible and confusing political landscape of that entire bed of storylines. But uhhh, that didn't last.

5. Do you prefer to make human, animal, monster, or _____ characters? Why? My characters are all unambiguously human/humanoid. Even the monsters are going to have recognizably human faces because I have a hard time getting emotionally invested in a character otherwise. I'm really not sure the reasons for this. There's a few exceptions, ofc, but not many. Peeling off for a sec, in regards to making characters in TES settings, I definitely am biased toward the elven races because if I wanted to make a human character, I'd do so in own properties. Also the human races in the elder scrolls are kind of... underwhelming...

6. When creating a character, do you come up with the visual concept or the written concept first? Written concept, almost every time. The rare exception is usually with minor and/or lore-based characters, like gods or monsters, since I rarely explore those characters as deeply as I do the regular types. But if I'm making Just Some Dude, I'm probably going to have a full written concept drafted out months to years before I ever get a concrete idea (much less an actual depiction) of what he looks like.

7. Do you have characters that you know you’ll never use, but can’t bear to get rid of/recycle? I'm going to have to go ahead and call back on Jon for this one, largely based in both his history and his significance to me and my own development. He was my primary, go-to character for such a long time, I don't think it'd do him justice to ever properly put him out to pasture or recycle (and I'm a chronic recycler, so that's saying something). He kind of exists in a creative limbo, and that's where he's gonna stay.

8. Is there a character that embodies your good traits, or traits you wish you had? Good traits? In all seriousness, probably. Nothing I am consciously aware of, so cop-out answer on this one. I'm also not really one for wish-fulfillment characters, so that's a no on "person I wish I was" aspect, sorry.

9. Is there a character that embodies your bad traits? Several characters? Which ones and what traits? HAHAHA hoo boy. Gavriil is the embodiment of my general shiftlessness and crippling self doubt, Tuo embodies my crushing depression and self-destructive tendencies, Ludo represents my reoccuring fear that I’m stuck in circumstances so far beyond my control that I ought not bother to try and change, and I'm not even gonna TOUCH on which of my boys were created as blatant outlets for trauma. There's a fun little game for you, try and figure that one out yourself.

10. Is there a character that explores your interests or fetishes (orrrr is that just all of you characters)? Uh, flat no on the "fetishes" part, but yeah, most of my characters tap on my significant interests in some way or another. Most concrete example I think is Desoto, who I designed (or, well, redesigned if we're getting technical) when my interest in astronomy was at its peak, back before I realized physics is something I'm terrible at and makes me cry/change my major in college. I still love astronomy and astrophysics on a conceptual level, but the second you break out equations, I'm gone. My Boy Desoto, though, I have designed to be significantly more likely than me to do math, so good for him. Funny enough? I've never made a character who's into geology. You know, my actual field. Go figure.

11. If you have characters that embody certain traits of yours—good or bad—has writing them changed how you view those traits? Has it affected you in any way? Not really, at least I don't think so. I might wake up in the middle of the night with a better answer screaming to my forebrain, but my gut reaction is a no. I tend to go into writing something with fixed views, and I can't recall an instance of me suddenly deciding "hey, actually this thing is good/bad and I never thought of it this way." I've definitely started viewing the characters themselves differently after starting a project, but never really the traits they personify.

12. Do you fantasize about being any of your characters, or are you more detached? Definitely the latter. I'm not shy about putting pieces of myself into the characters I make, but at the same time, I really do not see myself in them, nor do I wish to. There's a firm level of detachment in that these are my creations, and rarely do I mold the sort of character where I can in good conscience think "yeah, that's who I want to be." A big part of this is that my character creation/world building habits are and always have been rooted in maladaptive daydreaming (and I have only recently figured out the terminology for a phenomenon I was otherwise well aware of, funny how that works), and that has always been based in me trying to distance myself from who I was (and at times, am). I don't want to put myself into new shoes, I want to focus on someone who isn't me, but has weird, tenuous connections to me. If that doesn't make any sense, pretend that it does.

13. Do you create playlists for your characters? No, and that's based mostly in the sad reality that I stopped seeking out new music years ago. That, and I've never been much of an audiophile, so there'd just be so much overlap in any playlists I created that honestly, why bother. That said, I will occasionally listen to something and think "holy shit, this is ___". First example that comes to mind is Motorhead's Dust and Glass, which is very much the anthem for Ludo. Do me a favor and listen to that song, and you will know everything you need to know about Ludo. Also, I’ve got a handful of songs that make me think very much of Gav, but most recently, I decided that Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street is a good song for him. Like, also for me? But mostly Gavriil. It can be both.

14. When writing for specific characters, is there anything you have to do to get into the right mindset? I've gotta be in the right mood, and that's all it comes down to. I'm still trying to figure out the secret to writing something that's counterintuitive to my mood, but I'm not there yet. I know the answer is "just fucking do it," but here's an idea: shut up? I dunno. I'm a very flaky content creator.

15. Which character is your guilty pleasure? Right now, it is absolutely Gavriil. For a long time I had such an issue with allowing myself to have characters based out of properties that weren't my own, so I started out feeling very self-conscious about putting so much time and thought into Gav. I have since made like eight or nine more TES-based characters in his wake, but some residual sentiment still lingers! See also: I still am too self-conscious to publically share the story I've been writing with him. I'm not sure if that's rooted in me playing in somebody else's sandbox, or if the story itself is coming out of a place of extreme personal vulnerability (I wrote the bulk of it during my recent Complete Mental Breakdown™). Or maybe I'm just self-conscious about my writing in general. Who knows! But at the end of the day I absolutely love Gav and I'm having so much fun working with him. Before him was Kolja for many years, and Tuo before that. Don't get me wrong, I still adore the both of those guys, I just have a new focus for the time being.

16. Is there a character of yours who’s a real struggle to write/draw? Why do you think that is? Right now, definitely Anzo. He started out very different from what he's become, and at the end of the day, I'm still not sure what exactly I'm trying to do with him. I was/am trying to write him in a story, but it's been proving very difficult because I'm just not sure what I'm trying to accomplish with him. Initially, his core concept was based very deeply in a revenge fantasy that had gotten out of control (I mean, it was a justified revenge fantasy, but that still doesn't make it healthy, my dude, my guy). but then I started thinking a bit more about the major events in his life, and if I was making him react believably enough to what he'd endured. That, and by this time I was in some genuine, bonified darkness in my own life, and that started leaking out into the character and story very much. Now I'm stepping back and wondering, is this where I want it to go? If the answer is no, then where SHOULD it be going? I don't have an answer to that yet. So he's a hard character to write, at least for now.

17. Which character is the easiest to draw/write? I wanted to say Kolja, based in how enthusiastic I was for him for such a long time. I could tell you his story from birth to death, and there's only a few small threads that are still unclear in my mind. Unfortunately, this level of enthusiasm has left me with the understandably daunting task of, you know, actually writing it down. There's SO MUCH to sift through, and it's like scaling a damn mountain. It's all there, I can see the whole thing, but fuck me if I'm not in for a climb. I started in on it late last year before retreating to work on something on a bit... smaller of a scale. Gotta work my way up to that. That said, the actual easiest character to write right now is, again, Gavriil. Part of it is that enthusiasm I have for him right now, and another part of it is that his story is based on the main quest of Skyrim which, lets be honest, is an underwhelming plot on the whole. So the plot has already been written out by someone else; I don't have to worry about that. Neither do I have to worry about actually depicting the entirity of said plot, because it's not actually an interesting one. And honestly why are you reading a story of a character from Bad Game Skyrim if you don't at least have some cursory knowledge of how that game's plot goes? The interesting part- to me, at least- is the effect it has on my character. That's what I've been focusing on, and it's been fun.

18. Is there anything you really wish you could do, character-design-wise, that you feel is outside your current skillset? A concept that you wish you could pull off but are uncertain about? Visually? A lot. There's a lot that's outside my skillset, because I don't know how to fucking draw. That's why I shy away from drawing characters who, say, I imagine to have unnecessarily complex tattoo designs. Not only do I not feel like putting in the time to actually depict that, but I also lack the talent to properly do so. It also kind of neuters what I can pull off for some of my more outlandish designs, namely gods and monsters. Kjelchaikhan is the only one of the gods I've drawn so far, and not coincidentally, he also has the easiest design to deal with. I started in on trying to draw Tsenmaer before I realized holy shit, the way I picture her in my head is so far beyond what I'm capable of actually doing. I'm not even going to fucking touch on Archaeos, because that design is going to be... even harder!! Conceptually, not so much. It sometimes happens on a small scale, such as how I've designed Ludo to be a boxer when I know little about boxing and I don't honestly care to learn. But at the same time? His story is based far, far more heavily in the shitty circumstances of his life and how he's trying to worm his way out of that than in the actual "punching dudes in the head for money" thing. That was more a tool to tie him in with the questionable, shady shit that I needed him to be shackled to. "Underground boxing circuit" just sounded like as good of an idea as any, so I figured why not. That aside, most anything I want to write about ends up being something I'm either familiar with based on personal experience, or at the very least am interested in researching for story purposes.

19. What’s more important to you: visual design, unique personality, a trendy character aesthetic, etc? If you’re not sure, then what’s the first thing you usually nail down in a character? Definitely the personality and basic concept. I very much enjoy crafting characters that are fleshed out and generally believable, and I am very much terrible at designing them on a visual scale. Do all my characters end up looking the same? Yes. Does this bother me? No. If it did, I'd fucking do something about it. What's important to me is who a character is when you boil away all the set dressing. Who is he on a conceptual level? What are his motivations? His basic structure? My character creation process is me sitting down and saying "I want to make a character who embodies these basic traits, and is based on this core concept," then building from there. Visual design is always, always an afterthought.

20. Do you ever plan to do anything (comic, animation, etc) with your characters? Or are you just happy to have them? For the most part: Nope! My characters exist primarily to make me happy and give me something to think about when I'm tired of thinking about myself and my life. There's a few that I'm working very much to translate into stories, but even then I hem and haw over whether or not to actually share the content I produce. Part of it is I'm much more self-conscious about my writing than my art. Used to very much be the other way around, up until I stopped considering myself an artist. Now I just kind of shit drawings out from time to time, and if people think they're terrible, that's because they are and I put no effort into what I do. It's the other way around with writing. I very much put effort, care and detail into my stories. More than bad reception, I fear no reception, which is to say that I'd put so much effort into something, put it out there, and go completely ignored. I have no issues with "you suck/your work sucks," but absolute indifference cuts me pretty deep on matters like this. So yeah, that's a significant obstacle between me and content sharing. That, and assuming I did find any degree of an audience, putting my work out for someone else's scrutiny makes it SIGNIFICANTLY harder to go back and retcon. And boy oh boy, I am a notorious an unrelenting retconner.

#OCs #god fucken bless anyone who actually made it through All Those Words

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