#my knowledge is zero for drawing backgrounds

[p-eztt]

I really want to practice scenarios to put some ideas into practice but, damn, dragon ball cities seem to be too much for my IQ

[noeggets]

felt like drawing my kids, sorta AU cause i drew them kinda different half my designs, i aged up the navi's sorta

information about them bc it's long and self indulgent from me talking to my friend

Enzan

Age: 11 (but turns 12 before Lan does making him slightly older and he will use this in a argument if he wants to)

I HC him french because of his english name they just moved to Dentech city at some point

Protoman

Age: in his 40's. 2 or 3 years younger then Enzan's father.

Backstory He was Enzan's mom's Navi (her name is Glace bc i watched the dub but apparently this website believes Enzan's english translated name is a swear word but his name on his wiki means Hot Blaze or something like that but it's french so his mom is french that is the HC i will stand on) i diagress, when she passed he was given to Enzan

other information: His Navi model was discontinued because it was buggy and glitchy, nobody could fix it (nobody wanted to try) so they just stop using whatever AI brain chip he has to make Navi's like him. He dislikes Enzan's father because he feels like he should have never got his original netop pregnant because she was sickly and giving birth is what ended her life he believes because she was ill he whole heartedly believes that what it was however the exchange was Enzan and he loves that child as his own, very rough relationship with Enzan's father

Lan

Age: 11

other information: His Mom and Dad are divorced because Yuichiro loves his work more then anything excluding Lan and Megaman he loves his kids. they are still friends and love Lan equally. Lan lives with his mom Megaman used to live with their dad in his testing phase but he's in Lan's PET so he lives with Lan and his Mom now. his original home is at Yuichiro lab, the PET and Lan's Computer is his new home he is able to jump to whichever he decides. His dad is Netopian/American

Megaman

Age: age unknown youth model - He hasn't existed that long but at the same time he was created to be around Lan's age

Backstory

created from the dna of deceased twin of lan hub. technically he is a twin but he isn't Hub he is a copy created with the DNA. He is not Hub tho.

other information: he doesn't understand social cues and tends to speak his mind, he is wiser then Lan but not knowledgeable in subjects people/Navi's his age should know about. He can solve complex problems and understand wrong from right but when it starts becoming being a world experience issue he can't really help you

Maylu

Age: 11 (older then Lan younger then Enzan, taller then Lan brags about it sometimes)

other information: American/Netopian, has whatever an american accent would be called in this world, she had a hard to learning Japanese but can speak it fluidly, cannot write it that well. Very chill at the same time the loudest person in the room if bothered. Likes this kid name Zackery in their school cough Zero COUGH he has a whole story that he is Willy's son who Willy turned into a Navi but nobody knows it yet

Roll

Age: youth model around 16 or 18

Backstory

Normal custom edited Navi from base youth model in stores no interesting background

other information: adapted the traits of being kinda selfish and needy. It's hard for her to stand not having her way, very girly Maylu did not make her this way she just developed a personality outside of her environment because she does not act anything like Maylu this is not a bad thing but it isn't a good thing either lol we love roll still

[dragonsdendoodles]

What do you think the children would watch on YouTube? What would their favorite youtubers and content be?

Oh god time to just scream my age on the internet

Also for the record if any of these people are problematic I don’t know about it or what happened my entire YouTube feed for the past six years has been Reddit stories and video essays I use for background noise when I draw so if I mention someone sucky I’m sorry I haven’t consumed their content since at least middle school

For starters, I think Emma, Millard, and Horace avoid it altogether out of principle. Emma and Horace because people are stupid and they cannot believe this is what modern entertainment is and Millard because he has ruined many videos by pointing out every inaccuracy he could find and he got sick of the cesspool of misinformation that is the internet.

Jacob has been watching Minecraft videos since the beginning of the damn site. Specifically he discovered iHasCupquake and DanTDM a couple years after joining the loop and now when he’s bored and in a time with internet access he watches Minecraft Oasis and DanTDM’s Custom Mod Adventures on repeat. Noor is the exact same way, but with life hack videos very obviously aimed at middle school girls that have stuff like painting staples with nail polish and sneaking candy into class via empty glue sticks. Think Wengie and SaraBeautyCorner. They actually grew up with this so it’s more about the nostalgia than anything else

Enoch likes history videos. And videos about games like War Thunder and World of Tanks. He also likes Vine compilations, discovered when Jacob and Noor were quoting vines to each other and Enoch joined with them having absolutely zero knowledge he even knew what that was. (Horace also begrudgingly knows what Vine was, but instead of saying “yeah I sure hope it does” to Enoch’s “road work ahead???” he goes “I hate you and everything you stand for” and Enoch laughs.)

Olive, Claire, and Bronwyn watch Gacha Life/Club/whatever the fuck they’re on now I don’t know anymore music videos and Vine compilations. Bronwyn is here for quality control. (Bronwyn’s favorite YouTube series is Rosanna Pansino’s Nerdy Nummies series, even though she has no idea what any of the references are. What she does know is that she showed Jacob the Angry Birds cupcakes and he demanded they be made that exact day.)

Hugh is fascinated by all this but has little to no idea what’s going on. He did however get very invested in Sanders Sides and is very impatiently waiting with me for Orange to be revealed.

Fiona also doesn’t know what’s going on but she thinks Warrior Cats AMVs and multi-animator projects are INSANE she loves them and gets very sad when Noor is helping her look them up and they find out yet another creator is problematic

[blradley]

intro powerpoint for that one whacky passion project of mine -

Do you enjoy unreliable narrators with a distinctive voice?

Do you like characters who have done genuinely bad things, and now have to Work Through All That while consciously choosing to be better?

Do you like characters who have redemption arcs dangled in front of them, and instead choose to be worse?

Then jump aboard a flying whale and set sail into no man's sky with

Voxalion Ilsair: Grave of Gods!

Cursed by a relic of their long-dead gods, Vox and Mavrik are bound to each other, life to life. If one dies, so shall the other – which is a problem, as Vox wants to eradicate humanity, Mavrik included; and Mavrik wants nothing more than to kill Vox, the lightning elemental who slaughtered her family. Their only hope of breaking the curse lies in the gods' tomb, located on a legendary lost island that rises above the endless Eversea. Mavrik and Vox embark on an expedition, braving skywaymen and sapient storms, so they can be free of each other – and commence their overdue duel to the death. But Mavrik and Vox aren't the only ones seeking the grave of the gods. When they cross a cult intent on claiming the gods’ powers for themselves, Vox and Mavrik learn that they have far worse enemies than each other.

Genre: adult solarpunk fantasy Suitable age range: 15+ (no explicit content but some swearing, violence, and creepy monsters) Status: with my wonderful agent for edits!

Image Descriptions:

Powerpoint slide with a blue sky background. Text reads: “HUMANITY HAD FALLEN. Unfortunately, they got back up again.” The quote is attributed to: Voxalion Ilsair, being a prat, as per the uzshe

Dark blue sky background, title of Worldbuilding Be Upon Ye. Text reads: Okay so hear me out. What if the gods created an amazing utopia where technology and magic were intertwined and humans and zstragi (fey forces of nature) lived side by side But then something went wrong. Their world ripped itself apart and the mountains crumbled and the seas rose and some monstrous force came and wiped out all the gods?? What if an approximate ten thousand humans survived in nine flying cities, situated across the drowned globe? And what if they began rebuilding their civilization – clumsily, desperately, devastated by the loss of 99% of their population? What if they were living in hollowed-out solarpunk temples to the dead gods, surrounded bydangerous artifacts that they didn’t understand, desperately scrabbling for survival on a hostile planet? What if, gradually, the tales of their past became warped by myth and conflicted retelling? What if the humans and zstragi were at war? And had been for centuries? Because, in their relentless struggle of survival, they began to consume each other? What if there were whispers that a treasure trove of ancient knowledge had survived the Cataclysm, hidden deep in zstragi territory: the lawless, storm-ravaged chaos of No Man’s Sky? A meme-drawing of a stick figure holding their head and looking perturbed while covered in sweat, is tucked in one corner of the slide. The caption reads 'okay that's enough world building'

Turquoise sky background. Text reads: TL; DR: In a world where land is a long-lost legend… Where whale carcass blimps, fat with helium, swim through an endless lightning-lashed sky… Where flying cities are beset by sentient storms… …an unlikely group of heroes embarks on an epic journey…

Pale blue sky background with a flying whale. Text reading: That's right! It's Voxalion Ilsiar: Grave of Gods by B. L. Radley

Piccrew of Vox, a blue-green skinned hairless inhuman being with pointed ears, sharp teeth, three eyes, and facial tattoos. Introductory text reads: Voxalion Ilisair, they/them Your humble narrator, providing you with a 100% trustworthy recollection of events ❤️ zero bias here. none whatsoever❤️❤️ (okay so maybe they’re a zstragi terrorist who wants to annihilate humanity) (what a shame it would be if, over the course of the story, they begin to question everything they’ve been taught hahahaaha) Ridiculously OP lightning zstragi who was raised to be a mass-murder weapon. Then they got nerfed by a little girl Now that little girl is all grown up. The divine artifact that tore away Vox’s powers also bound them to her soul – meaning, if she dies, Vox dies. Dammit. Tinkerbell-sized, with attitude to match. N#1 fear: becoming human

Piccrew of Mavrik, a white tan-skinned woman with short fluffy pale blonde hair, blue eyes, and half her face torn off, with lightning scars radiating out from the hole in her cheek that shows off her molars. Text reads: Mavrik Skarr, she/her Vox’s worst enemy. Their foresworn foe. Their nefarious nemesis… Okay, so maybe Vox killed her family and tore her face and (quite literally) broke her heart, and Mavrik swore she would have revenge First though, she’s gotta undo this stupid curse As a stormhunter, Mav is employed to slay zstragi like Vox Grumpy and stoic, she struggles to emote. prefers grunting to talking, and fighting to grunting Has suffered from heart problems since The Curse. Uses Vox as a defibrillator/pacemaker. Basically an unsocialized feral kitten who has 0 clue how to interact with anyone she isn’t battling to the death Juggling her desire for friends against her natural awkwardness, her lack of experience with other humans, and that dark, ugly inclination towards violence that whispers away in the back of her mind… N#1 fear: becoming a monster

Secondary characters slide. First piccrew is of Oliaris, a Black man with a delicate, pretty face, wearing expensive jewellery. Text reads: Oliaris, he/him Nice friendly guy who never did anything wrong in his entire life (I lie. there are atrocities.) (he is coming to terms with the atrocities. But it’ll take a while… 😉) Delicate pretty city-boy who prefers the finer things in life, but is living the Chronic Pain LifeTM instead Super-smart ex-scientist. why ‘ex’? haha don’t worry about that Gets dragged into helping Vox and Mavrik break their curse – but has an agenda of his own… Second picture is of Atticus, a white man with red-brown hair and freckles, in a labcoat. Text reads: Atticus, he/him SPEAKING OF EXES AND ATROCITIES - Has a somewhat turbulent past with Oliaris (they fucked. they absolutely fucked. they 100%, totally fucked.) Now he’s Oliaris’ bitter rival, racing to beat him to the grave of the gods and the treasure trove of ancient knowledge stashed therein Shy, awkward people-pleaser who just wants everyone to like him 😔 Don’t ask about the bloodstains. just. don’t. 🙂

Tertiary characters. First piccrew is of Sylvestra, a Black woman with similiar features to Oliaris. Text reads: Sylvestra, she/her Oliaris’s sister: a professional storm-hunter employed by Atticus who detests her brother. For reasons. Tries to be cold-hearted and unfeeling. isn’t very good at it. Deep down, she just wants her family back :c Next piccrew shows an Asian individual with long black hair and a tattoo on their throat. Text reads: Jagura, they/them Captain of a skywayman ship that terrorizes the vessels of No Man’s Sky Impulsive and friendly, but ruthless. Will rob you while chatting like you’re besties Here for a good time, not a long time xoxo Piccrew 3: a bulky purple inhuman creature with long pointed ears and tattoos. Text reads: Renzou, he/him Jagura’s loyal first mate Will rob you while apologizing profusely Protective and kind Humans are friends, not food! Fourth piccrew: a white boy with pale hair and very blue eyes. Text reads: ??? [no name or pronouns] Once upon a time, a boy crawled into the mouth of a dead whale. What crawled out was changed forever…

stormy grey background to the slide. text reads: One shared goal: To pilot their whale blimp safely through no man’s sky and find the lost grave of gods Conflicting ambitions: To undo a curse. to regain lost power to kill an old enemy. to restore reputation. To seek priceless treasure. To save the world – wait, what?

Quotes page, set against a blue sky background. Quotes are: ‘Zstragi ate humans, sure. But humans devoured us with equal impunity: crushing our heart-stones, shredding our life-force to add power to their grid and keep their impossible cities aloft.’ ‘As occurred approximately two dozen times a day, Mav got that look on her face that meant she was contemplating tossing me into the oceans and letting fate run its course. As also occurred approximately two dozen times a day, she decided against it. Grudgingly.She and I were trapped together. For better or worse, in sickness or health, till death did we part…’ “I spy with my three glowing eyes…” “Shut up, Vox.” and ‘The distant slurry of Mavrik’s thoughts slid against my own, lumpy with old memories. Dead parents, dead families. Dead-dead-dead; burnt from the inside out, eyeballs popped like squashed flies and tongues crisped to charcoal— Time was said to heal all wounds, but it couldn’t erase their scar. I awkwardly cleared my throat.’

Themes page, with a picture of several angel statues. Text reads: The way ahead is fraught with danger. Secrets abound, old  grudges flare, and hungry storms gather on the horizon… Themes: Humanity. What does it mean, to be human? Are some cruelties so great that the offender should never be redeemed? Equality. At what point do we decide that one life is worth more than another? Why? Family. How do you know when a bond is broken beyond repair?

Dark blue sky background, with text reading: What else have we got? #macguffins #unreliable narrator #enemies to…? #lovers to rivals #copious footnotes #corruption arcs #redemption arcs #multiple queer and disabled characters! #body horror #unique cultures #flying whales #solarpunk aesthetic #in-depth, innovative world building. A stick-figure meme sits in one corner, showing a character grabbing another person's shoulders and digging their nails in to hit blood, their face a grimace of pain. The text beneath reads: 'so much more world building'

[luckylolabug]

Spoilers and criticism for Veilguard under the cut! Don't read if you're not prepared!!! I've been sitting on this long enough to try and get my thoughts together on what my biggest problem with the game is and I think I figured it out (for me personally, anyways) so!

The biggest downfall for me is genuinely not really having a way to ACTUALLY get to know your companions. Most of their backstory information is tucked away in party banter, so you just have to kind of hope you happen to hear it while out running around with the right combination of party members. (I could get into how much I hate that I can only take two but that's a whole other thing.)

The issue with this is that it completely cuts Rook out of the equation at all. I can't really go around and ask my companions questions about themselves or their backgrounds. There aren't any conversation trees to get to know them, and I literally can't even talk to them unless it's something they want from me. Rook isn't even really part of ANY of the party banter out in the world, which is a huge bummer. It wasn't EVERY banter, but in Inquisition, there were many times you were actually able to chime in with your own response to whatever people were talking about. And you know what that does? It makes it feel like Inky is actually part of the crew. It feels like they're IN the conversations and their thoughts and opinions matter.

Meanwhile, Veilguard has several party banters where I feel like I'm interrupting a conversation and they're turning to look at me with drinks in their hand waiting for me to get lost.

Rook is like the CEO of a company while everyone else is making friends, and it's frustrating as a player. Even with codex entries that talk about the team doing stuff it's like. Why isn't Rook part of their book club?? Why isn't Rook part of their grocery lists in the kitchen??? Why isn't Rook included on the mural Manfred paints at the end of the game that's supposed to highlight how heroic everyone was?? (I know the answer to the last one is because everyone's Rook looks different, but come on. You could at least just have a hooded figure in the center or SOMETHING to indicate they're involved)

Nobody asks Rook questions about themselves, nobody really seems to care about them at all. There's so many points in Inquisition with Joesphine asking about your background or Cassandra asking about your beliefs etc. And that's just....not there??? (Don't even get me started on Rook randomly popping out information about their past that I have Zero input or knowledge of. Why the hell does my elf Veil Jumper Rook who HAS Vallaslin insist they were a city elf out of nowhere when talking to Taash??? Why don't I get the option to pick that???? What???)

Anyways, all of this to say is that it makes me incredibly sad because a big draw for Dragon Age for me is how cohesive the crew usually is as a unit. I dont expect everyone to be the best of friends (lord knows that my Cousland didn't get along with Morrigan at all, my Hawke had issues with Sebastian, and my Lavellan doesnt like Vivenne at all) but the difference is with all three other games I can point out directly which companions they're closest to, and how by the end of the game at least a decent chunk of them feel like a found family. And I just can't say the same for Veilguard because its like Rook is an afterthought and everyone else is besties. (Forreal though, as a Veil Jumper especially, would it really have been that hard to assume I already knew who Bellara was??? We're from the same fucking camp. There's like 40 of us. HOW does Rook not know who she is prior to the game deciding to meet her???)

[savvylittlecoxswain]

MASTERLIST

main/ao3: @waitingforsols

top gun/mota/aviation: @thatsrightice

band of brothers: @magnoliasforyourmedic (new!!)

BACKGROUND: I have zero rowing experience or knowledge prior to watching/reading tbitb. I do have a mechanical engineering degree with an aerospace minor, so I know what kind of classes the boys might take theoretically.

WHAT DO I POST ABOUT?

TBITB headcanons, prompts, writing ideas, fanfics I’ll inevitably write, rants, etc.

Quotes and interesting facts and pictures that I find online or in the book

Fanart (sometimes, rarely, I can’t really draw people lol)

FOR YOUR REFERENCE :)

Character Bio Presentation

Created by yours truly! Brief, but fairly thorough background information for each of the boys, specifically highlighting their personalities and relevant background info as described in the book. Here’s an example:

Al Ulbrickson Describes Each Boy in Article

Brief run down on each boy’s personality and the team’s dynamic, as described by Coach Al Ulbrickson

check out more tbitb writing references and my frequent tags below :)

Conibear Shellhouse

Floorplan blueprints, information, and video footage of the Conibear Shellhouse, the current Shellhouse used by the University of Washington Rowing Team (for my modern AU friends)

Coxswain Recordings and Analysis

This webpage by readyallrow.org is a compilation of dozens of videos of practices, head races, sprint races at both the collegiate and junior level, as well as videos from master and elite coxswains. At the end of on the list is a link to a post breaking down and conducting an in depth analysis on the footage.

Rowing Accidents

This is a list of rowing accidents compiled on the RowSafeUSA website. It lists details of rowing accidents in chronological order, and though it might not list every accident in history it is one of the most comprehensive lists I’ve seen.

FREQUENT TAGS

#boys n boats

where you'll find my h/c's, writings, blurbs, musings, rants, prompts, analysis, etc.

#real tbitb

any information or images or facts I come across that are related to the real story, not necessarily the movie

#wing au

stuff I’ve posted regarding my wing au WIP ft. some art where I just drew wings on top of movie screenshots because I can’t draw people

#hockey au

stuff I’ve posted regarding my thoughts on a hockey au, note that I will not be writing any actual fanfic for it

#bobby and his boys

#bobby and don

#coxstroke

[dingoat]

Tagged by @keldae - ty!! <3

🎶Last song: Dance With Everybody, Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors/The National Parks

🌈 Favourite colour: I can never answer this question in a satisfying way here have them all

📺 Currently watching: Haha right now Cougar Town is the dinner-with-TV show. My drawing background TV is mostly re-watching Dr Who though sometimes I'm more in the mood for something else so it gets interrupted here and there. I'm up to Midnight now though which is probably one of my whole entire favourite episodes so I'm pretty ready for that!

🎥Last movie: Watched Ad Astra last weekend. Wasn't bad but I much preferred 'The Martian' in terms of near-future space sci-fi, and 'First Man' for just... raw emotion about what it means to go into space.

🍩Sweet/spicy/savoury: Lemme just...

💖Relationship status: Married for a while <3

💘Current obsession: Not going away any time soon~~

💻Last thing googled: 'waffles' hahahahaha though if I want to look back at last thing googled before I googled expressly for this quiz... um... 'pegasus knight' which made me realise it's a 'fire emblem' thing which I have zero knowledge or interest in and was not what I was looking for hahahaha

no-pressure tagging... @cinlat @askshivanulegacy @tishinada @jazaesis @mimabeann

[k00299539]

Animation Brief 02 - Re-Invention in Storytelling

Above: Honse

So I can't really lie about this one, I was in some kind of fugue state this whole brief. I was struggling a lot with insomnia and found it hard to engage with school at all. I actually didn't even show up for like two weeks and learned third hand I was in a group with Summer and Zu, a group for what? I took to Moodle to find out...

Okay I didn't really take to Moodle, I kinda glanced through the brief and surmised we had to make a three minute animation of a classic nursery rhyme. Sounds simple enough.

I'd been in contact with Zu and Summer over Instagram so I wasn't totally lost but I skipped the day where we were supposed to script our animation. This meant I turned up the next day for storyboarding with a script ... but no Summer or Zu. Did I mention our group was literally assembled from the people who didn't turn up the day they put the groups together?

So basically I sat down with pad and pencil and went through the script. My goal was to abstain from editing or embellishing the script and just draw each scene as I read it, keeping track of how many scenes, shots and backgrounds we would need for an animation. I figured once I had the script made visual, the editing and alteration would come naturally.

Above: Boarystoard

Now, what you might be wondering is; "Why are you showing the storyboard before telling us the nursery rhyme?" and I have a good reason for that. I didn't know either. Actually that's not entirely true, I could surmise from the name "Spoon" in the script that the rhyme was probably "Hey Diddle Diddle" but I was beyond confused as to how that became such a sobering tale of war and grief.

At about this time, Zu showed up and I had the answers to most of my questions. As it turned out, it wasn't just a nursery rhyme we were given for the brief but a time period and a genre. So being the lucky number (group) seven we were, we got 19th Century and War Movie in this lottery.

Hey Diddle Diddle is such a fun little rhyme, unlike the all the other groups rhymes, it's a genuine nonsense poem with no accepted origin. To me there's something liberating and anarchistic about that, the reader simply has to accept the mental image of partying animals and bipedal cutlery. I think had I scripted the animatic without knowledge of the genre or period, I would've focused on the fiddling cat and the cow leaving orbit. It writes itself in my opinion; a violin soundtrack to the sublime image of the cow achieving the impossible. But it wasn't to be.

Anyway, in my absence Zu and Summer had collaborated on the story with Summer writing the final script I had received over Instagram with zero context. And honestly, they did a better job than I would've thought possible. Highlighting the line "And the Dish ran away with the Spoon" and turning that into a refugee escape attempt as the impetus for a story was genius. I like to tinker with everything but other than streamlining the story for screen, I couldn't find anything I wanted to change.

Above: Nonsense

Above is the nursery rhyme itself, the initial story treatment by Zu and Summer and the final script by Summer. To briefly explain the beats of the story:

Three competing empires (Dog, Cat and Bull) encroach on a peaceful land.

As the land becomes a battlefield, it's citizens flee.

Among them is our protagonist; Dish and his son; Spoon.

Spoon is tragically killed during their attempted escape as Dish watches helplessly.

Dish is overcome with grief, he formulates a crazy plan to bring down the three empires.

Dish travels to each empire, impersonating a messenger of another. He plays the three factions against each other through false alliances, culminating in mutual destruction.

Dish returns to the site of his son's death and lays down a bouquet of flowers.

If you compare my abbreviated story to the scripts above you can see how I edited them a little bit. I was mostly trying to simplify the story to it's essential elements, half because I think that makes for a better story and half because I wanted to cut our number of shots down to the minimum.

Anyway with both myself and Zu in school for once, we went through both our storyboards and combined them into one, having hashed out exactly how we wanted the story to flow on screen. Summer also did a pass on the storyboard but it wasn't til a couple of days later I got my hands on that version.

Above: Combo Storyboard

Although we still had yet to meet up all three in person, we were communicating the whole time through Instagram. Paul let us know the next step after the initial rough storyboard was make it into an animatic to figure out the timing and begin research for the final storyboard.

Zu did a quick pass on the first animatic in Adobe Animate, although I never actually saw it cause he sent it as an animate file and I couldn't open it lol. I knew from talking to him though that it was the storyboard with each frame lasting for about six seconds on screen to reach the three minute runtime. This gave me a helpful reference for later when I was timing the final storyboard.

Based on Paul's feedback we broke the research down into six(ish) categories:

Landscapes/Background Design

Apparel/Costume Design

Visual Aesthetic/Style

Character Design

Mise-en-scène/Prop Design

Miscellaneous

There was talk of us dividing up the categories between the three of us ... but honestly we mostly just did whatever and pooled our research together in the end. In fairness to Zu and Summer they handled a lot more of this stuff than I did. Summer came up with great costume designs and decided on the cartoon Over the Garden Wall as our main Visual Design inspiration. Zu did lots of research on backgrounds and the 19th Century in general, and handled a lot of the boring work like pinning our stuff up on the wall.

During this I was mostly refining the story, creating the character designs and finalizing the storyboard.

Above: Summer's Storyboard ... Summerboard

Having Summer's board on hand was a great help when putting together the final version. One of the most fun parts of this project was synthesizing our ideas together, and in that sense Zu and Summer were great to work with. We each had our own distinct perspective but we were all willing to collaborate. We were truly a film making democracy...

Anyway before getting into the final storyboard I first have to go over the character designs. This was an area me and Summer collaborated on, although somewhat indirectly. We both designed the characters and their costumes separately and then I tried to mix and match the two in the final storyboard. Most of the conceptual work belongs to Summer and the actual drawings were me.

Above: Some of Summer's costume designs

Another interesting bit of this project was how often I found that the three us came to similar conclusions completely separately. Like in the above there's a lot of small details in Summer's designs which also appeared in mine, despite us working independently.

Above: A man named Dish

I actually just remembered the above designs which were drawn at the same time me and Zu worked on the storyboards. This was before Summer suggested the Over the Garden Wall aesthetic. At the time I was going for a semi-realistic Naoki Urasawa type design. I love Urasawa's work but honestly Summer had the right idea, simple designs made for quicker drawing which allowed to prototype more freely and really polish our ideas in a way we simply wouldn't have had time for with more complicated designs.

That's also not even mentioning the fact that I think the cartoony designs contrast the sombre tone of the story. If you make the characters too realistic, you run the risk of becoming melodramatic. Animation has a great disarming power and oftentimes stories like ours hit hardest when the audience isn't expecting them to. With this all in mind I set about creating the final character designs.

Above: Honse and friends :)

From left to right we have:

A four high stack of Dish heads for measuring proportions.

Dish from behind sans body.

Dish from the side.

Dish from the front.

Dish from the front after the death of Spoon.

Spoon from the front.

The Cat Emperor.

The Dog Emperor.

The Bull Emperor.

A generic soldier.

The Horse.

The Owl.

I think the design sheet mostly speaks for itself. There are definitely a couple of things I'd like to have done given I had more time, like obviously drawing full turnarounds for the whole cast or settling on a colour design.

A couple of details I'd like to mention specifically; As seen in the older semi-realistic sketch, I really liked the idea of Dish having a distinct, separate design after the death of Spoon, as though he became a different person with the loss of his son. I tried to reinforce this with the gaunter appearance, stubbly facial hair, and the way his hair-swirl reversed direction (probably my favourite thing from the whole project). Spoon's shirt is oversized as it's a hand-me-down from his father. The Emperors have a full-beard split between them, as we decided to kind of code facial hair as evil in this project. The Emperor's designs are anachronistic in general, looking more similar to the 20th century Nazi Uniforms than contemporary 19th Century fashion. This was intended to be a bit of commentary on the nature of evil and how the progress of technology (or modernity) facilitates the horrors of war.

I'm running out of space here, so I'll finish this update in another post.

[shatinn]

Starfield 56/?

Dear Creator. You gave us these two lovely young girls and yet so little interaction with them. I really wish they are more then just background filler. (also why the need to make them near identical?)

Cora. She keep asking for books, and yes I can find so many on my journey, yet I can't give her any. A small inventory for books, max 20 limit would be so ideal. Also she ask if I read any book lately and I have zero chance to say yes or reason, I don't b/c you know mission after mission. If I can't respond, then these lines from her just empty time wasting moments. Would I like to take her on the survey task on planet with air and safe condition? Yes I would. Hoping a dlc or something. ( Cora get lost and need rescue or pirate captive need to free her. Something like that. I could keep going on how many missed opportunity. I know this game is not about raising kids but would add so much volume to the story of my oc and theirs.

Sona. We (Sara and I) 'rescued' her from her own home. Ripped from the nest of memories she made with her parents. We offered and she took the chance for city life. Again near zero interaction. Again, max 20 inventory the must. I would bring all the toys back to her to cheer her up. Digi frame with her own memory frames to fall asleep on. Yes pls. I would love to take her to shopping. She wears a same clothes. I wish to upgrade her gear. She jokes about take her on the ship but she is a child so not yet. (but Cora can. hmmm) To a surveying task for Constellation, she should come with me. She need to see and learn not just from books. The Constellation members ignoring her. Sara totally ignoring her. We brought Sona back because Sara wanted it. It is wise, I would want it too. Sara a good word makes wonders to a young soul. Doit! Sona is like a living ghost. Not a nice words when they pass her. A few words she stops me and I am happy for that. But that is it.

Now both girl. Both in the lodge. Why they have actually zero interaction. I wish to catch them giggle an gossip. Share knowledge or heck drag the grown up life and they pinky swear never grow up. I want them to get into little trouble. We can hear Sam tells Cora to clean her room, so it is possible to add small teaching of good behaviors to the girls. Or give me regularly drawings to take with me on my journey for 'mood support'. It is coded in game already. The girl on Cydonia can draw and she can give it to me to put them up to places. I want Cora's drawing on my home settlement on the kitchen wall. Domestic wish? maybe. After all she is my step daughter. Why not. I wish Sona draw me her happy moments as she grew up. I wish they are under my feet when I am back at the lodge. They are young full of curiosity and eager to learn. I wish they say something when I am crafting. Would I wish I can recruit or send Sona to an outpost? Yes I would. She would get the best of all. Sleep over party with Cora under grown up 'watch' Sam and I would have a crack out of it mingle with the girls. Adopt Sona? absolutely.

These things just a small part how I feel about these young girls. So much let down. Don't get me wrong, I love the game just wish these things would be in for my personal flavor.

[penguindrumblr]

Also, here's something else I requested from @/loyaldis, a continuation of that little Penguindrum+Digimon thing I got last year, and here's something Utena+Digimon related I requested from @/peach-artblog, plus my input that I made up something for Digimon inspired by Utena of course. u///u' And even more Penguindrum+Digimon related, my Digimon OCs inspired by Ikuhara in general (can you tell how much his works mean to me??), I requested from @/makkiah-draws, still absolutely love the work she put into them, but do feel free to give the artists I mentioned a follow here to show them your support!

Been a while since I've sent you something huh? But I hope everything is going okay for you where you are!

Hiiiii

My knowledge of Digimon is exactly zero, but it was nice reading about your ocs background and development process :) esp when I got to the visual references

[harbours-in-the-end]

my vpn might die at any moment so i need to speed things up but um. it is two days into my finals. cannot believe i am hlfway through i still have five months to go

and honestly i just really look forward to having enough free time on my hands to do what i want and actually create projects and stuff. heres a basic outline of what im planning on

-go through all my poetry to piece together a prtfolio (yes, even the ones from eighth grade) and try to get something published

-translate stuff.stuff being just plain anything i want.

-make a visual novel/game? with my friend im in charge of composing background music and the text in general(this is going to be hard because neither of us know how to code and/or draw)(but we have years and years of oc experience)(and i really need to work on writing original prose)

-which brings me to composing. i have not played the piano since i got into highschool because it just sort of triggers my wierd self esteem issues and i feel like a piece of trash but objectively speaking im not bad(ive played for ten years and passed abrsm grade 8 with a merit)(i was going to try arsm but then life happened and the pandemic happened and i fucked up my highschool entrance exam)and i still.have the instincts.and a passing knowledge of music theory

-im not going to do arsm. unless i have to teach kids piano for a living but i wont stand a chance against actual conservatory graduates

-write more logh fanfiction(i have at least six plots) and fix my ao3 account

i wont translate the yang does irregular warfare one ill just rewrite.it in english

-write original fiction. in both laguages. it is not a zero sum game

-you know how you have that one childhood dream which is kind of cringe. well mine was to write scps/translate for the international hub. which i did not do because the (peer review process? critiqing process) kind of scared me? but now that i am almost an adult i will try

which means i will try to enter the 9k contest(when it comes up) or the 4k on the chinese hub

-read more. for the sake of my own personal academical interests and for my sanity

-just. try new things in general. go out. see the sun. work out.

[heliopauseentertainments]

Pairing and 2 AUs: Jazz/Megatron (because I am predictable) or Megatron/Nickel (because it would be fun) - you choose.

Either way for AUs:

(a) fae, or

(b) academia (not a college AU, but the sort of thing where all the focus is on the professorial types - Oxbridge SCR/David Lodge style New Uni struggles/whatever)

I have basically zero knowledge of anything fae-related (it's not a cultural feature here), so by default I have to pick option B, but with the disclaimer that I don't recognize any of the the names you mentioned (beyond that Oxbridge is a portmanteau of Oxford and Cambridge).

Also, further disclaimer, as uni admin staff, my feelings towards faculty are... complicated at best.

This one is difficult to assemble.

The trick is finding departments where any of them would come into contact with each other.

I will make the following assumptions:

They are still robots in a Cybertronian cultural context.

We're using a loosely IDW1 continuity.

Academia on Cybertron functions at least somewhat similarly to real-world. I am using the US context because that's what I know, but I realize this is not universal. I.E. I'm using similar positions, academic divisions, fields of study, and issues.

The best I'm coming up with is if Nickel works with some department of Population Health (to keep in line with her medical background) and if Megatron were brought it in from a more statistics-based humanities (what would a Cybertronian equivalent be?) department (demography, social statistics, labor studies, etc.) for a data consult.

Jazz would almost certainly be working with a music and/or dance department. He probably even has a dual appointment.

Finding a department fit for Megatron is very difficult.

The bigger struggle is "who let Megatron into a university? who let him graduate and get a job?" because he would butt right up against the systemic discrimination against working class grad students and likely be forced out via dubiously legal black-balling from faculty not approving projects and/or requiring him to pay for mandatory activities and conferences out of pocket.

In a Cybertronian context, the biases against manual class mechs, even post-Zeta lifting fanatical functionism, would function similarly to the real-world working class bias, along with the black-balling probably actually being more overtly allowed.

I'm also struggling to see him actively choosing to work in academic environments, but the spite of "I am going to go be an asshole and do it anyway" is a good motive for him.

Alright, I've got two options:

Jazz/Megatron - Jazz with his dual appointment and Megatron having a tentative appointment in labor studies doing cross-disciplinary research on music's (and dance's) role in labor movements. This would also allow them to both draw on their strengths and experiences to reach a common ground.

Nickel/Megatron - Nickel requiring outside assistance to set up and account for certain social variables for a new project that is part of a government research grant and the only one available from the appropriate statistical or demographic department is Megatron. The focus would be their struggle to mesh their terse and obstinate personalities to actually work together and complete the project and keep that sweet, sweet grant funding.

Both actually have a lot more potential than I would have thought before noodling it through. It's hard to pick, but I think I'm actually going to choose option 1: Jazz/Megatron.

I think it could be a solid 10k or under one-shot. However, I wouldn't want to actually parallel too many real-world issues, so this is something I wouldn't ever actually write.

Title: Building Bridges

The description is already a good loose summary.

[madamemimic]

Just got fully caught up with Your Turn to Die. Thoughts under the cut!

Fucking loved it.

I first gave this game a shot two years ago and while I enjoyed it quite a bit, I found myself bouncing off because I wasn't a huge fan of the point-and-click adventure style puzzle solving.

Fast forward to today and holy shit am I glad I stuck with it. The shift in gameplay styles in each chapter is super novel and I had a ton of fun adapting to each of them. While I think the minigames could use some work (saving Gin from the cage and a few of the chapter 2 attractions were kind of awful), the overall gameplay loop is a lot of fun.

I think most of my grievances with the gameplay are because it's being made in RPGMaker MV. It's an engine issue - not much you could do about that at this point. Later chapters fix a lot of these issues by using the game's strengths (analysis, puzzle-solving, character knowledge) a lot more often than just "click on this thing before a timer runs out!"

Some of the logic during debates can be a little strange, too. A few times in the first two chapters I found myself getting really frustrated because, while I was technically finding potential arguments and item-statement matchups, they weren't the ones that the game wanted, so it counted them as incorrect. Also, not being able to draw statements out of characters without lowering the timer in the Gin/Q-taro minigame kinda sucked. However, I had none of these issues during the chapter 2 main game and the chapter 3 banquet, so overall the game improved on that front quite a bit.

Music isn't great, but it's one dude doing his best with garageband loops. At the very least, each song fits its respective moment super well. I'd love to see this game with an original soundtrack, though...

The art is great. Character portraits are super dynamic, character designs are super solid and memorable, and the backgrounds look absolutely fantastic. There are a few awkward character portraits (Q-taro and Gin's can be a little strange sometimes), but those are nitpicks. Game looks great.

The characters and story... hoo boy, where do I even start? I don't dislike a single character in this game, which was a shock coming from the Danganronpa series. The worst I can say is that some of the characters weren't super interesting, but that was only for like two of the dolls in chapter 3. Big fan of Keiji, Sou (Shin?), and Reko. Every character feels unique and feels like they have a place in the story. Even some of the first characters to die are given proper characterization as the story goes on, meaning that really any character can be someone's favorite.

Sara is a pretty good protagonist, too! I often have trouble relating to protags in these kinds of games, but Sara is fairly interesting in her own right. If she were a side character instead, I think I'd like her a bit better... but hey, she isn't, so I'm not judging her on that. She's a fine protagonist with lots of character.

The story has the highest Revelations Per Hour of any game I've ever played. God damn. You get zero down time, especially in the latter two chapters. I haven't been this surprised by a game in a long, long time. Fuckin' love it.

By the way: On my playthrough, I've chosen Reko over Alice and Kanna over Sou. No dolls have survived.

Overall I loved what there is of YTTD so far and can't wait for even more in the future! Also, Alice is trans and you can't convince me otherwise.

[thewakingcloak]

Thanks beyond thanks for the reply - you'll definitely get credit (or at least a big tip if i can ever finish this project and get it out there), because you're among those I've learned from, and coming from a position of zero education and no modern programming knowledge, I can assure you: it's been difficult to piece together an education in game design with an improvised curriculum, so every little bit helps. While most people who get into this come from a programming background end up needing assistance with the art and music ends, I'm coming at it from the opposite side of the spectrum: I've been composing, recording, and engineering music since the magnetic tape era and doing digital design/animation for just as long, so it's just the coding I have to really apply myself to and make myself learn. I won't lie: it's been frustrating, trying to figure it all out by reading manuals and various youtube videos, reddit threads, and yoyo forums because while I'm able to learn the functionality of the code easily enough and there are a lot of helpful resources out there in that respect, context is everything and it can be maddening, trying to figure out how to apply what I've learned in useful or practical ways. For example, I've figured out enough to know that data structure grids can probably help me overcome my current problem with collisions (like you, I began building my 2.5d environment from that exact Matharoo video and even managed to write a pretty decent place-meeting-3d script from the ground up... until, like you, I hit my current impasse of being unable to figure out how to handle multiple collisions at once... but, unlike you, every alteration i make to my code only creates more problems), but while I understand how ds grids work, I can't figure out the proper context in which to apply them as a solution to my collision problem. So, I'm giving up and resorting to reverse engineering - when it comes to a lot of things, I can usually figure stuff out if i can just see it working under the hood, so i hope that's true for ds_grid collision implementation. I'm telling you this because I downloaded your suite of 3d scripts and intend to try and figure out how to implement them, working backward. I honestly don't mean to steal all your work, as you've been more than generous in helping people like me by sharing it in the first place, but it's hard to resist using it as a basis for my education because the physics of your project and your design process and ideas (like self-skinning objects) are so similar to mine. I can assure you, though: I won't be simply copying and pasting your functions, because I have no idea how to use them or from where to run them... it'll be trial and error (already, in trying to structure a Shaun Spaulding-style collision code (might as well start with what i know and see what works!) using your version of place_meeting_3d, I immediately encountered a "variable not defined" error in the instance-place-3d script it calls... maybe because I'm substituting noone for null, which is a variable gm doesn't appear to recognize, or maybe not... this is gonna be fun). At any rate... thank you. Sooner or later, I'll get past the physics and into the familiar territory of writing, drawing, and composing... but without your scripts, who knows how long that would take me! Shoulda gone to college... oh well.

You're welcome, anytime! Gamedev is such a multidisciplinary thing that it's a LOT to try to do all at once, whether you're coming from a programmer position and aren't good at art, or an artist who doesn't know programming yet. College helps with foundational stuff, but what you're doing (researching and learning yourself and putting it into action) is a pretty powerful method and will carry you a long way

You're right, null is a macro I created to stand for noone. Hard to break my day job coding habits haha. It sounds like you're somewhat familiar with the debugger, but I highly, highly recommend learning it more (especially breakpoints and such) for figuring out stuff like "variable not defined". The GameMaker debugger can be a little misleading at times, but it's so much easier than all the guesswork. It's improving a lot in the latest updates too!

It's been a while since I've looked at my 3D collision stuff in depth (it kind of scares me now lol), but yeah, learning how the ds_list stuff works should help. It's basically just (if I remember correctly) grabbing a list of things the object is colliding with, and then checking whether or not they match up on the z axis. I don't want to necessarily say "collide" because it's not using the built-in GM functions for z-axis collisions, but it's checking the z position, height, and seeing if either intersect.

So basically: get a list of collisions on the normal x, y coordinates as a ds_list, then loop through the list and check for intersection on the z axis. If so, there's a 3D collision!

Gamedev is no joke, but you've got the right approach and you're making great strides, keep it up!

[callipraxia]

Books Read, May 2023

I've thought of starting a book blog before, but alas - I never have enough to say when I don't have someone to bounce off of, or at least can't figure out how to say it. Plus, I mostly read nonfiction, so...probably not the most thrilling reviews. In lieu of that...here's what I read in May.

Courting Scandal: The Rise and Fall of Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford - James Taffe

Jane Boleyn: The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford - Julia Fox

Young and Damned and Fair: The Life of Catherine Howard, Fifth Wife of King Henry VIII - Gareth Russell

Inside the Tudor Court: Henry VIII and His Six Wives Through the Writings of the Spanish Ambassador Eustace Chapuys - Lauren Mackay

Wolsey: The Life of King Henry VIII's Cardinal - John Matusiak

Cardinal Wolsey - Mandell Creighton

Remembering Wolsey: A History of Commemorations and Representations - J. Patrick Hornbeck II.

The Life and Death of Thomas Wolsey Cardinal: Once Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor of England - Sir William Cavendish

Obviously, I got 'on a tangent,' as I do sometimes. I've gathered this may have something to do with the ADHD, though not from particularly official sources, so don't quote me on that. In this case, it was partially a return to old tangents; while I'd not read the last three books on this list before, my reading journal indicates I previously went on a bit of a tangent on the subject of Cardinal Wolsey in February and March of 2021. I was also immensely pleased, in my Kindle recommendations earlier this month, to find a book on Chapuys; he was always one of those background figures in the historical fictions I read as a kid that I wished I knew more about. Gotta read his letters myself sometime, since it seems, from the Google, that they can be viewed online in English translation.

I'll give Lauren Mackay this: she's much more honest than a lot of authors are when she reached places where the information simply no longer exists, or at least hasn't been recovered yet. There was enough 'prose' to keep it interesting, but not excessive attempts to state things about the ambassador that she couldn't back up with evidence. This, I felt, was in sharp contrast to Julia Fox; I loved the descriptions of the court, the attempts to tell a story, and these things definitely have a place in history-writing, but here they were fairly blatantly...fluffy, I suppose. Now, I'm hardly one to complain of fluff, rather fond of soft things myself, but it was glaringly obvious, when she said Lady Rochford must have been thinking or feeling something, that she was essentially filling in the blanks with a story of her own devising. Sometimes the 'costume' of historicity the text wore was something it looked 'comfortable' in and sometimes it was quite obviously a poorly-researched French hood shoved awkwardly onto the head of an actress with zero knowledge of sixteenth century fashion and how to wear it, but there were always leaps from one point to another. In contrast to that, I felt that Gareth Russell balanced his reader-drawing prose fluff with his historical analysis much more adeptly when considering Catherine Howard; I've read his book more than once over the past couple of years and expect I'll read it again in years to come. I came away with no impression of James Taffe's work, alas, except that he clearly wrote his book as an exasperated rebuttal to Julia Fox; I was, unfortunately, very sleep-deprived when I read that, so I'll have to read it again sometime. My lack of sleep, however, is not why I read the rebuttal first and the book it was responding to second...even though I'd had Fox's book in my physical TBR shelves for several years and only stumbled across Taffe's the day I bought it. I'm told I've always had a tendency to do things in the wrong order and somehow make it work anyway, so why mess with a good system at this point?

As for one book being a rebuttal to another - here we come to one of my favorite things about reading history, which is to say, how often historians blatantly attack or support each other in their writing. In the last couple of chapters of Remembering Wolsey, I was irrationally delighted to see the author offer opinions on every book I read during my 2021 tangent as well as one of the ones I read this time around. It's amusing (to me) to sort of...get to know the different personalities: "hm, yes, I can see why someone would say that about Ives," or "yeah, I never did get Starkey's position on that, all things considered," or "ha, that was almost the exact same thing I said two years ago about Ridley!" It's...oddly cozy, I suppose.

Hornbeck was especially interesting as he wasn't writing about what happened - he was writing about the trends in how people have remembered what happened over the past few centuries. There were interesting thoughts on historical fiction throughout, especially near the end; that one may warrant a full independent review, if I can muster the energy to write it out. For now, however - there's all the reading I did in May.

[amikoroyaiart]

Hi!

Just wanted to say I LOVE your art!!!! The way you draw facial expressions is just AMAZING!

And I have zero ideas or knowledge on CoD but I'm starting to get invested in Ghost and Soap now ^^'' (Loved their Jedi designs!!!)

Ahhh thank you so much!!! I appreciate that a lot especially that I am trying to be better at facial expressions recently🥰 that's why you guys are getting so much doodles without background haha

No worries, two months ago I didn't even know COD has a plot and characters 🤣 I just thought it's a shooter game and that's it. Now I played two games, just for the plot 🤣 (I haven't touch for one second the multiplayers modes)

I love when people tell me they are more interested in them because of my art 🤣 I am glad you enjoy my new brainrot and the designs! I put a lot of thoughts into them 🥰