#posting every render I made in 2023

[epicblenderartiste]

revamped Odysseus' Mythological design and the rig slightly between these pictures. Now there's less deformation in the mesh at the shoulders, elbows and fingers, which is better for closeups. Diomedes has those CW eyebrows. The second pic is based off of @wolfythewitch's Dio/Ody art where Diomedes is selecting him to go on a mission: "If I truly have to choose companion for myself, then how could I forget the divine man Odysseus, him, whose heart, whose brave soul is so ready for weariness and who the great Pallas Athena loves? If he accompanies me, we return both even from wild flames, since he's deeply competent in all plans."

I mean how can you not fall in love with him a little after that speech?

[t34-mt]

pilots have had an overall, fun fact. I don't think I've posted about them publicly for a while. freaks from moon sat'tchuckthuck (kyhuine given name in their study of astronomy on altuyur)

22-08-2024 edit: extra colors examples and an actually rendered version (oc)

you can view the evolution of their design under the cut ->

these have never been posted before because i thought they sucked, and also just because i didn't feel like doing it. several sophonts existences in the solar system are friend-only information atm lol

the first version has been posted on their first post, as much as i still like the mecha design by itself (despite the fucked up leg placement) , i think it should only have a single pilot, and i also don't think there was much thought put behind how people sit in there etc.. So it looks a bit awkward overall. their first design was just a quick doodle i need to draw as fast as i can before i forget the idea, so it's not good LOL. its wonky, very wonky.

this one is from march 2023, there isn't much change between the two but i still think they're interesting to have in the row. the clothes look awkward, i don't think i thought about how they'd be put on by the pilots, the layering, and so on. what used to be manipulator limbs look award too

this is when i was trying to make them more fun. i shortened them, made them longer and blabla.. but in the end, they just looked like corgis/ dogs to me and i wasn't satisfied with that. Not that i think sophonts can't look like x earth animal, this is just me wanting to feel satisfied with my own work and not wanting to make dog 2. i don't know the exact date of this drawing, but im assuming its in late 2023

in may 2024, the current design of pilots was made. funnily enough, it just came to me one day. My brain flashed an image and i tried to draw it as fast as i could. compared to the top drawing the limbs for carrying their youngs weren't finalized.

the crest changing between every drawing / versions doesn't matter. because their crest changes color constantly to communicate and speak with each others. like a sort of cuttlefish skin effect, i guess pilots can still be fully white. it's just their coat for when temperatures drops. But since their moon is going through an ice age their body keeps is disoriented constantly. Workers who stay outside all year will have a winter coat constantly. But people who work / stay inside all the time are in heated environment, thus their winter coat never start up. and so on with that

heres test of the freak with winter coat ->

their texture would be horrible, the end bits of their fur is harden, its so thick and packed and feel like velvet. even the non winter coat still feel like velvet

Despite the current design having longer legs, they're still small guys because that's more fun. Pilots are 100 cm (3ft) tall. you can pick them up (they might be sized wrong on the doodle whatever)

[skelotom]

So 2024 was kinda wild.

Below is the long-winded and sappy ramblings of a lich (me), so feel free to continue scrolling. I hope 2025 treats you well.

I didn't really start making art until March, but made nearly 200 renderings over the course of the year. I think I made maybe 10 total in 2023...so it is safe to say this year was more productive. I barely knew how to use blender at this time last year, I still barely know how to use it, but at least I know slightly more now.

Not every project was a wild success, I still have *a lot* to learn about making music. I also doubt my book will ever get published...but even just getting those projects done is a win.

I also met tons of people I never imagined I would talk to, let alone become friends with.

2024 hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows (I'll spare you specifics), but it is still miles better than my average year. I can't complain.

This year I will probably slow down with the renderings. But the posts I do make will be a bit longer. I like my longer form multi-frame comics and stories. I hope you do too.

I also have a day job that will start taking much more of my time. I really need to start studying/taking exams to get licensed as an architect. The six exams will suck. And studying will eat quite a lot of time. That will also suck.

Also shockingly, living a near completely sedentary lifestyle is not very healthy. I need to fit going to the gym into my life somewhere so I don't waste away completely. Being a skeleton irl is actually not very fun at all.

This year looks hectic, and kinda scary. Fascists are scary...But we'll get through it. Thanks for reading this far, and thank you for coming along for the ride.

Potential Projects for 2025:

-Online store with prints, buttons, and stickers

-Erin finally learns grease pencil in blender

-More short stories and comics

-Another attempted book? one that might actually get published? (more on this later)

-????

[star-dot-net]

i may have already posted this but this is a fic i started writing in december of 2023 and may start working on again

When he steps into the classroom, Mobius is immediately comforted. The room is cozy, there’s plenty of space for the kids, and there’s several bins labeled ‘fidget toys’. That’s the part that catches his eye the most— all of Sean’s previous teachers made him bring in his own, and even then, they often told him to put them away. He always feels bad about passing his autistic gene to his son, even though Sean usually gets along perfectly fine. 

As he surveys the room, a man emerges from a small door Mobius hadn’t noticed. As soon as he sees him, Mobius’s breath catches in his throat, eyes widening. 

The man is, presumably, Sean’s teacher. He has shoulder-length black hair, curled and pushed back stylishly. He’s wearing simple black dress pants with a white button-up tucked into them, and Mobius’s eyes are immediately drawn to a bit of exposed chest, the first few buttons apparently undone. He’s tall and fairly lean, face sharp and green eyes sharper, glinting with something that makes Mobius suppress a slight shiver. 

The man smiles and Mobius is stunned again, just as he was regaining his bearings.

“Hello, you’re here for Sean, correct?” the man says, extending a hand in greeting.

Startled by the accent that is decidedly out-of-place for Ohio, as well as every other aspect of this person, Mobius definitely takes a moment too long to respond, and he clears his throat awkwardly before responding.

“Ah— yeah, hi. I’m Mobius, Sean’s dad,” he says, taking a step forward to properly shake the man’s hand, and wow he was tall, an entire head taller than Mobius at least.

“It’s good to meet you, Mobius. You can call me Loki,” Loki says, tilting his head in invitation. He makes his way over to his own desk and sits, a tie and jacket draped over the back of the chair.

“Nice to meet you too…” Mobius replies faintly, dazed. Christ, Mobius, get your shit together.

“Sean’s a fantastic student. He participates in class regularly and…” 

Mobius is barely present, but he manages. He nods and pays enough attention to make comments about Sean here and ask a question there. He is 90% sure his gaze has not left Loki’s neck since they started talking, and is 100% sure the other man notices. He knows it’s highly inappropriate, but he can’t help it, and Loki does not mention anything. That means he doesn’t mind, or doesn’t realize, and Mobius takes either as a win.

There’s a moment where Loki opens up his laptop to look up Sean’s IEP accommodations, and there’s several stickers on the front, a few that Mobius recognizes. A band sticker, a few cats, and pride flags. He identifies one as the bisexual flag, but the other— pink, white, purple, black, then blue —doesn’t ring any bells for him. He makes a mental note to look it up later. 

By the end of the meeting, Mobius is thoroughly flustered, Loki’s charm rendering his people-skills practically impossible to utilize. Ah well, he thinks distractedly, you can’t win ‘em all.

Loki walks with him to the door of the classroom as Mobius heads out, and Mobius is hyper-aware of their close proximity.

“It was lovely to talk to you,” Loki says, eyes practically sparkling. There’s something in his voice, a lilt that Mobius can’t decipher. “I was looking forward to meeting the amazing people who raised Sean, and you don’t disappoint. I can see why he’s such a pleasure to have.”

Mobius fills with pride; he knows his sons are incredible, but it never hurts to hear. Then, the second part of the sentence catches up to him, and he winces slightly, producing a small smile that was most likely unconvincing.

“Yeah, well— it’s just little ol’ me raising two rascals, so…” he coughs then, averting his gaze. He’s not embarrassed about being a single father, but he can never predict how people will react to the information, and the thought of being in a situation he’s unprepared for always makes his skin prickle.

“Ah yes! Your younger’s name is Kevin, right? Sean brings him up sometimes. Mostly telling stories of him setting things aflame.” 

Loki’s genuine interest in his family warms Mobius to the core, offsetting the slight shock of Loki’s nonchalance about his single-parenthood. Although, I guess it’s probably more common in non-small town Ohio.

“Kids will be kids,” Mobius says, shaking his head amusedly and shrugging, as if to say ‘what-can-you-do‘.

Laughing lightly, Loki nods in agreement. A slightly awkward silence befalls them, and Mobius scuffs his shoe, realizing belatedly that it makes him seem like a schoolchild with a crush. He notices Loki’s eyes roaming his body, and cringes internally, wondering just how he must look to someone of Loki’s caliber; he hadn’t had time to change out of his work clothes before the meeting, so he’s wearing the tacky blue vest from his job. Keeping up appearances as a tired dad, he supposes.

Loki clears his throat, and Mobius looks up from his feet, not having realized he even looked down in the first place. When he slides his gaze up, Loki is holding out a small piece of paper. Mobius takes it, skimming the contents with his eyes only to find a phone number.

“My number,” Loki says, nodding to the paper.

“Oh- to contact you about Sean’s accommodations?” Mobius furrows his brows, a bit confused. None of Sean’s other teachers had given him their numbers, although Loki was different. Mobius’s confusion only grows when Loki grins, shaking his head.

“No.”

Mobius blinks at him, unsure how to respond. He knows he misreads situations often, so he decides to bite the bullet and ask for clarity; might as well get it out of the way now.

“Sorry, I’m not the best at the subtlety game, so correct me if I’m wrong, but… is this— are you flirting with me?”

(It is, by all accounts, completely socially unacceptable to ask; Mobius learned from his parents at a young age that his upfront nature was not proper. But he’s an adult now, and he’s a bit too tired to mask his social ineptitude.) Loki doesn’t seem bothered, though; his grin just widens, and he winks at Mobius. Definitely flirting, then.

“Text me sometime, will you?” Loki says, and just as Mobius is about to respond, his phone rings loudly, and he sighs. 

“It’s their sitter. I’ve gotta take this, but um… I’ll— I’ll reach out?” he says it like a question, like he’s not sure if he’s actually allowed to. Loki replies that he’s looking forward to it. Swallowing, Mobius nods in departure, answers the phone, and steps out of the classroom, head reeling.

—

[mesetacadre]

On Spain, Palestine, and socialdemocracy

I'm sorry to my spanish-speaking friends but this post is mostly meant for the various people who aren't that familiar with Spanish politics so they fully understand the context of Spain's recognition of Palestine, so it'll be written in English instead of Spanish.

Ever since the Spanish government decided to recognize Palestine, amongst other events, I've seen many friends celebrating. This is normal, of course, but the over-enthusiasm makes me think some of you are lacking context.

First, the arms trade. At least since 1995, Spain has sold arms, munitions, explosives, and vehicles to Israel, according to the government's own sources. The total value of arms and munitions exports since 1995 amounts to 36,616,066.21€ ($39,730,901) and 800,417.6kg (1,764,616.6 pounds). The total of "airships and spatial vehicles" amounts to 233,622,074.13€ ($253,495,704.46). Officials have repeatedly stated that, since Oct 7 2023, there have been no arms sales to Israel. However, in November of 2023, this website shows an arms export worth 987,000€ ($1,070,961.56) in the subcategory of "bombs, grenades, torpedoes, missiles". In December of 2023 there is another export with the same category as the last one worth 125,240€ ($135,893.85). The government has stated that the November export was made up of "medium caliber munitions without explosives" (which is weird that it was classified under bombs, grenades, torpedoes and missiles but whatever) and that it had already been agreed upon before Oct 7th. I'm sure that the Palestinians appreciate the munitions they are being killed with do not explode, and that the 552kg (1,216.95 pounds) of "gunpowder and explosives" exported in 2023 will also go very well with those non-explosive munitions. And, regardless, we all know that the Palestinian genocide did not start last October. This is also just the publicly available data, but I think we can trust them to be honest :)

For some context on the political situation. In July of 2023 we had general elections in which a coalition government was formed. The biggest party in this coalition is the PSOE, the president's (Pedro Sánchez) party, a socialdemocratic party that has governed on-and-off since the establishment of the current liberal democracy in 1978, this will be important later. The other member of this coalition is Sumar, a further-left socialdemocratic party that is itself a broader coalition of almost all parliamentarty "leftist" groups, such as IU (United Left) and the PCE (Spanish Communist Party, don't get too caught up on the name because their eurocommunist turn in the 60s has rendered then just another socdem party). The election was very closed and the coalition was almost not formed, and in the end PSOE had to reach an agreement with the pro-Catalan independence parties. All of this means that it has been a weak government without much cohesion, which in turns means every member of the coalition has been doing everything they can to reinforce their position. One example of this was Pedro Sánchez's letter contemplating resigning because of the verbal attacks he and his wife had been recueveing from the opposition. That letter forced every entity in the parliamentary and even some in the extra-parliamentary left to express support for Sánchez, and after announcing he would not be resigning, polling shows support for his government increased, though this is disputed by some and I'm suspicious of it myself.

Anyhow, this is important because the parties that make up the government are being very conscious about their support, more than usual. The decision to finally recognize Palestine (and I'm not even getting into the Palestinian National Authority, which is what they're actually recognizing) comes in this context of insecurity regarding their support, and comes after weeks of encampments and other protests in universities across the entire country. The continued arms exports, the delay in taking the decision and the context of the decision makes it quite obviously an opportunistic move to garner support. But is the recognition actually meaningful for Palestinians suffering a genocide? Barely. It might pave the way for Palestine's inclusion in the UN (the US will veto anyway) (and it's not like the UN can do more than stern condemnations). What does not change is the continuous arms exports since at least when export data was first published, and the commercial relations the government and Spanish monopolies have with Israel, all of which allow Israel to carry out genocide. And even if Spain had never sold even a grain of gunpowder to Israel, and even if no economic relations had ever been established, Spain is an important member of NATO and the EU.

A few days ago it was 43 years since Spain officially joined NATO in 1982 without a referendum, since polling showed only 18% supported joining NATO, and 52% outright opposed it. It was only 4 years later, in 1986, when PSOE carried out a referendum on remaining in NATO (note: the PSOE had gone from fully opposing NATO membership when they were in the opposition to defending it after winning the elections). The question was "Do you consider Spain remaining in the Atlantic Alliance under the terms agreed upon by the Nation's Government to be convenient". This question did not actually say "NATO" (OTAN in Spanish) and it did not make clear what people were actually voting on. 52.24% voted yes. One of the unwritten prerequisites for joining the EU in 1985 was to also be a member of NATO.

NATO is an imperialist alliance that has always defended the continuity of Israel, and its member states have always supplied it with the resources necessary to displace, opress, and kill the Palestinian people. The economic benefits of this fact permeates the economy of every NATO member state. The same goes for the EU, which is one of the most significant trade partners of Israel. And the increase of intensity in the genocide Israel commits is happening parallel to the EU's turn towards a military economy. For example, the European Stability Mechanism, founded in 2011, has given the EU member states 400,000,000,000€ ($434,059,923,120) to invest in the "defense" industry and the "green transition". The European Commissioner Thierry Breton said in early April of this year that "we need to change the paradigm and transition to the mode of war production", amongst other warmongering statements by European leaders. Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany have already expanded military service. This is all, of course, driven by the interimperialist war in Ukraine, but the investment in the war industry will undoubtedly continue to fuel Israel's occupation.

There is no group within the Spanish parliament (and very few outside the parliament) that even begins to question NATO and EU membership. The government can get away with this apparent pro-Palestine (more like two-state solution but that's beyond the point) posturing because regardless of Spain's own exports and positions, its membership in NATO and the EU will be the most relevant factor in its ties with Israel. Recognition of a nation as a "legitimate" country does not have a material effect on the Palestinians' situation, and the unquestioned participation in these imperialist alliances does. PSOE's slogan for next week's European elections is "More Europe". Do not let empty actions distract you from the real facts of Spain's unbroken complicitness in this genocide

[goron-king-darunia]

I wonder if you have a favorite Eg, Egg, and Eggy Eggtoberpost

Honestly, a style study of "Ed, Edd, n Eddy" for Eggtober would be interesting. (I did get your previous ask and am hanging onto it for ideas.) That said, if we're talking Eggtober from this year (2024) exclusively, I'd say anything by user @alkaline-noodles hit it out of the park. Their dedication and extremely photogenic egg dishes were really inspiring this year. There are still several beautifully photographed egg dishes that I want to immortalize in my own style. If it can be any year, user @cubicsoup did this amazing drawing of a raw egg in Eggtober 2022, and I still admire every bit of it! If we're talking overall, then anything by @quezify. As the Egg King and host of the event, Ruben just doesn't miss! Top of all time for me would be the Heart-Shaped Egg for World Egg Day. I just really enjoy how softly it's rendered. For this year only, it would probably be these fried eggs on green. Very classic and you can see that shift in style really exaggerating some of the choices that really make Ruben's style unique: that solid ring around the yolk, the rough pencil texture, and the organic shapes along with a common yellow and lavender contrast in the shading. The collection of some of their best eggs for this year's World Egg Day post are stellar though, and I love them a lot, but I'd never be able to pick just one of the bunch. The few egg on burger ones have been great too.

Some Honorable mentions from this year are users @arithetonberry and their squiggly eggs, @fivevotesdown and this gorgeous soft-boiled egg, @doradeluna's beautifully rendered, smeared over easy fried eggs, @kaehunterart's amazing rainbow-y fried egg in a very shiny pan, @quezify's redraw section from this year, @tiredyeehaw's crocheted egg throw blanket, and all of @nekko-took-egg-photos work this year, but especially this fried egg on noodles. We had lots of amazing participants this year. I wasn't able to finish all the art I wanted to in time this year, but I plan on finishing 31 egg arts this year. I just have a lot going on in real life and the world has been an ass this year. But I am trying to slot in art time when I can! As for favorites of my own, for this year it would have to be the bloody egg. Getting the hang of Krita has been a challenge, but it's nice to know I'm not tied to Clip Studio Paint to render art the way I want to. I think the bloody egg is the first freehand study I did this year on Krita where I've liked the end result and thought the process and result were a good analogue to working with the gouache brush on CSP as I had been doing in previous years. Favorite of all time is still probably Eggtober 11th of 2022. I started Eggtober in 2022 as a low-pressure way to get back into art after years of not being able to find time for it. I figured eggs were simple enough and I liked drawing them, so I might as well give it a go since I was trying to polish up my skills again for personal projects. The ramen piece for Eggtober 11, 2022 was the first piece where I really felt like I hit my stride and was able to put my ideas on paper more or less exactly how I wanted them. All art is a process of experimentation and discovery, but the way the noodles and mushrooms and egg and pork all came together in that piece just... really made me take a step back like "I'm not 100% where I want to be, and have a long way to go, but I finally remember what making art is supposed to feel like. I like this again." And I think my favorite for 2023 has to be the Pavlova. Another time where the process and product all felt smooth, like they came out how I wanted with minimal fuss, maximum learning, maximum flow state. I hope to keep seeing improvement in years to come. Eggtober has just been really great for keeping my artistic self-esteem up. Because even when I can't quite get the result I'm looking for, the community is supportive, and even when I struggle, at the end of the day, there is always egg. And Egg is pretty dang good, I think. 10/10 would recommend the chillest Drawtober challenge. 3 years strong! may this event persist for another 330 years at least!

[purpleglitch]

Snake Eyes!

(November 2022 - April 2023)

Silly project that took so many months to complete because I made it unnecessarily difficult for me LMAO. It was my first time trying a lineless art style and rendering(??) I need to practice more, plus if I do this nowadays I would do some stuff differently but aaaaa whatever I needed to post it now for my peace of mind D:

C!Dream is holding an eastern green mamba!! Very venomous snake, just two little guys chilling ^_^ ofc inspired by dream's snake speech I get goosebumps every time I listen to it

Also I really thought i was recording the timelapse on csp but turns out i never did so there's not footage :( BUT i made this gif showing off the layers 😎 it's very scuffed but I hope it gets the point across (??)

[brucebocchi]

Ranking every new anime I watched in 2023, Pt. 4: #5-1

hey, i just started a ko-fi for my writing and possible other creative outlets. this post will also be available there, so please check it out and consider tipping/donating as i'm currently between jobs. the tumblr version of part 1 can be found here, part 2 here, and part 3 here.

The list is complete! This took a lot of work but I'm over the moon to get this out there. Please consider leaving a tip if you've enjoyed reading.

Here goes, my top five anime of 2023:

5. Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead

Zom 100’s debut hit like a freight train, especially coming from a brand new studio. It had everything: Visceral satire of Japanese work culture, incredible animation, vibrant colors in unexpected places, clever cinematography, wish fulfillment for everyone who’s ever wanted to Stone Cold their boss, and most importantly: Zombie titties.

The premise is magnetic: When your job makes you feel like a zombie, an actual zombie apocalypse means certain freedom from the grind. Akira Tendo realizes that he can finally use the vacation time he amassed while being exploited and overworked at a legally dodgy black company, so he writes a bucket list of everything he’s ever wanted to do, with all intention of checking off every single line item before succumbing to a zombie bite. He manages to rescue his hunky fuckboy bestie from college, and they embark on a road trip across Japan to finish out the list, along with a beautiful, risk-averse tsundere and a big-tiddy German weeb. 

It's a perfectly fine elevator pitch, and a welcome break from the guns-and-grit quagmire the zombie genre has been stuck in for the past two decades, but what makes any good zombie-flecked media resonate is the human element, which Zom 100 delivers expertly. You’re quickly given reason to care for all the characters, their motivations are clear and relatable, and you want to see them survive and live out their dreams. But more importantly, you just want to hang out with them through their hijinks. It even delves into more serious matters, like what we owe our parents as adults, the ways isolation and bitterness can drive people to act out in their worst moments, and even the factors that push abuse victims to stay with and even return to their abusers. 

Above all, though, it’s a powerful (if extreme) story of finding joy in the direst circumstances. Akira, Kencho, and Shizuka are all kindhearted, well-meaning people whose situations kept them from what they truly wanted to do with their lives, and there’s something kinda beautiful to be found in them finding a new opportunity during the possible end of the world (Beatrix is a sweetie too, but aside from the whole zombie thing, she’s already exactly where she wants to be). The final arc of the season, in particular, looks you dead in the eye and asks you: If you were suddenly faced with the ultimate freedom, would you use the opportunity to better yourself, improve the lives of others, or do whatever the fuck you want at everyone else’s expense? You may not like the answer at first if you’re honest with yourself, and that’s okay. The world isn’t over, and there’s still time for you to be your best self.

Zom 100, unfortunately, fell prey to a cruel irony in the form of production issues. Bug Films is a new studio made up of a former team from OLM that was responsible for similarly gorgeous projects such as Komi Can’t Communicate and Summer Time Rendering. They clearly saw so much of themselves in Akira's workplace exploitation that they had to swing for the fences here. The firm he works for is named “ZLM” in this adaptation, for fuck’s sake, and he fully destroys his zombie boss in the first episode. But new studio or old, the anime industry is a grind, and Bug had trouble keeping up; animation quality did take a bit of a dip after the stunning first episode, and episodes were frequently delayed as the summer broadcast season wore on and ended without the entire seasonal run making airwaves. Hell, it was impossible to watch the final three episodes until just a few days before I could write this sentence.

For what Bug were able to pull off, though, Zom 100 is outstanding. The paintball-colored blood splatters everywhere are an instantly-iconic look that strike the balance between horror and spectacle. Everything and everyone looks gorgeously faithful to Kotaro Takata’s art, and delivers an appropriately cinematic look that the manga always deserved. I almost don’t know what else to tell you but that this show is a fucking blast.

There’s also a zombie shark. What more could you want?

4. Oshi no Ko

I spent a good chunk of 2023 just assuming Oshi no Ko was going to be a layup for anime of the year. Shortly after moving on from Kaguya-sama, I rushed to binge Aka Akasaka's subsequent manga in time for the anime's feature-length debut. I was taken in by OnK's bonkers premise and sudden dark turn and quickly fell in love with the characters, and my anticipation only grew. I had high expectations for the screen adaptation, but nothing could have prepared me for just how lovingly it all came together. This is as close to a perfect adaptation as you can find, and the same can be said about both the preceding and following entries on this list.

Oshi no Ko is an audiovisual feast. Doga Kobo cleaned up Mengo Yokoyari’s character designs just a smidge, but put just the right flourishes on them to make every single cast member instantly iconic. One look at Kana Arima’s eyes will tell you everything you need to know about the level of care put into the visual design of this anime. The performances are on point as well; though many of the main cast members are relative newcomers to the world of seiyuu, you can tell they truly came to understand the characters before they even recorded one line. I’ve already gushed about Rie Takahashi in earlier entries, but her turn as Ai Hoshino is easily one of the best voice performances all year. Takahashi makes a meal out of every single second Ai spends on screen and gives you every reason to care about her as a character.

Showbiz manga in general is obviously missing an audio element, and when an adaptation can expand on that aspect well, it can help turn even middling source material into something transcendent (see also: Rock!, Bocchi the). Music is central to Oshi no Ko, and the OP/ED combination is already iconic; YOASOBI’s “Idol” has had the best worldwide chart performance of any Japanese song ever, and the prolonged intro to Queen Bee’s “Mephisto” became a meme in Japan in the same vein as JJBA’s iconic use of “Roundabout.” Rather than taking manga characters’ word for it that someone is a terrible actor, we actually get to cringe along to an amateur actor’s hammy emoting. We get to see and hear what turned a fictional idol group into a national phenomenon rather than just see cute girls posing on the page. All of this is to say that while Oshi no Ko is an excellent manga, it needed a screen adaptation, and especially one of this quality.

Oshi no Ko deserves every shred of its success. I've never seen an anime make a splash this enormous with just its debut episode, even if it’s kind of cheating to say so because the first episode is almost literally a movie, and if I were to give an award for the best single episode of anime this year, it would be that one, hands down. Adapting the entire first volume into a feature-length debut was the correct move (mostly because it’s a tonal rollercoaster, and the Big Event that defines the entire story wouldn’t have happened until the fourth episode otherwise), and the investment paid dividends. The hype naturally died down a bit as the season wore on and settled into a more consistent tone and rhythm, but it remains an essential anime to 2023.

You may have noticed that I have said very little of what this show is actually about, and that’s by design: If you still don’t know the plot of Oshi no Ko’s first episode by now, I refuse to tell you: you need to go in blind. All I will say is that it is an idol anime that glorifies nothing. If you've read this far and still trust what I have to say about anime, I beg you to just take my word for it. It's an incredibly rewarding experience.

3. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

There's just something so wonderful about taking in an adaptation of a work you’re already familiar with and knowing, almost instantaneously, that every single person working on it genuinely loved the source material and relished the opportunity to bring it to life. Nearly every single member of the original cast is in the dub (including the ones who went on to be MCU mainstays), Edgar Wright is back on as executive producer, Anamanaguchi reprise their soundtracking duties from the video game, and even Bryan Lee O’Malley himself helped co-write everything.

That last detail is probably the most important thing about this entire production: It’s not exactly a secret that the original Scott Pilgrim comics are very imperfect portrayals of a very imperfect young man. I knew reading them at the time that the comic did not have a great grasp on relationships and the dynamics between men and women, and that was at a time in my life when I myself was pretty terrible with and to women. O'Malley has said that he would only revisit Scott Pilgrim if it was “the right thing” and that he was leery of a straight retelling of a work he has since outgrown.

So instead, we have the Rebuild of Scott Pilgrim, to put it simply. Takes Off is a completely new story that reexamines the Scott Pilgrim comics, movie, and even game without undermining what came before it. This series is not a repudiation of Scott Pilgrim (the character or the franchise)’s flaws, nor is it purely fanservice; it splits the difference perfectly. It’s both more mature and completely self-indulgent. This show so easily could’ve marched to the familiar discourse drumbeat of “Scott isn’t the hero here” or “he’s actually not a good dude,” but it instead focuses on what should always be the second half of that sentence: “But Ramona still sees something in him.”

Yes, Ramona Flowers is effectively the protagonist of a new work that doesn’t even have her name on it, and it tackles some surprisingly necessary questions: What was her responsibility in creating seven evil exes in the first place? What made them evil? Are they even that evil? This series opens up entire worlds of possibilities within the extended cast and gleefully dives into them. Though Takes Off may not flesh out every single character, it does take its time with several of the ones who really did need a little more meat on their narrative bones, and even gives some characters new roles just because it would be fun to see them in new situations.

I still cannot believe they got Science Saru to make this show. “They made a Scott Pilgrim anime” and “They brought back the movie cast” are already good enough fodder for that Vince McMahon meme, but “It’s produced by the motherfuckers who made Devilman Crybaby” had me falling out of my chair. The animation maintains O'Malley's chunky, cartoony character designs and works wonders with line weights and simulated camera effects to give everything a tactile, weighty feel, like it’s somehow (and very appropriately) splitting the difference between a comic, a film, and even a video game. There’s a wide array of visual effects that helps to place all of Scott Pilgrim’s influences further on its sleeve: Dynamic action scenes, camera depth and chromatic aberration, and our beloved pixel art inserts. It looks like every Scott Pilgrim, everywhere, all at once.

The live action film’s cast did a (mostly) great job reprising their roles for animation, and there are some wildly unexpected cameos in there. Voice acting is not quite the same as stage or film acting, but everyone pulls their weight, and dialogue feels far more naturalistic than your average anime dub. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ellen Wong and, surprisingly, Chris Evans are outstanding in their respective roles. I’m gonna have to watch this again in Japanese, though. Fairouz Ai as Ramona, Aoi Koga as Knives, and Yuichi Nakamura as Lucas Lee? Sign me the fuck up.

This is not an apology or revision of Scott Pilgrim the character or work, it is a celebration that still acknowledges and improves on the flaws. If you’re a Scott Pilgrim fan who’d been clamoring for a proper cartoon adaptation, Takes Off may not exactly be what you’ve wanted, but it may be what you needed.  Chances are pretty good that you’ve grown since the first time since you read, watched, or even played something with Scott Pilgrim’s name on it, and it’s a blessing to say that while the character may not have grown, Scott Pilgrim the franchise finally has. 

2. Jujutsu Kaisen, season 2

I’m so glad I picked up JJK this year, if only because I would’ve otherwise been caught in a mudslide of memes I didn’t understand.

Season 2 follows in lockstep with the manga from where season 1 left off, beginning in extended flashback with the Hidden Inventory/Premature Death arc, covering Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto’s high school life and the events that would eventually create the rift between them that came to shape Jujutsu Kaisen’s story. We see very different versions of Gojo and Geto here, much younger and more naive, but only marginally less powerful as they’re sent on an escort mission with the future of the jujutsu world in the balance. Because this is Jujutsu Kaisen, and because Jujutsu Kaisen is for masochists, nothing happens as planned.

We unfortunately do not get the precious slice-of-life hijinks the OP suggests, but if you watched season 1, you should know better by now than to trust an OP. While the initial arc does have its quieter and goofier moments (and some delicious homoerotic subtext), it wastes little time in declaring that this is a new version of the Jujutsu Kaisen anime: Lines are thinner, character models are looser, and action is buckwild. Two of the best fakeouts in the series happen in the span of five minutes. Those unfamiliar with the source material may have wondered for a bit why there needed to be a five-episode prequel arc to start the season, but the pieces would soon fall into place.

And then came Shibuya.

The Shibuya Incident arc was what made Jujutsu Kaisen a must-read in every new issue of Shonen Jump. It reset the status quo for the story and shaped it into something far beyond another “teenagers with special powers go to a school for teenagers with special powers” battle shonen. Needless to say, the hype for its anime adaptation was astronomical.

The Shibuya arc sets the stakes early: Nobody is safe and there may be no happy ending. Triumph is short-lived, and every threat is existential. Everyone who has been in the series up to this point plays a role, and you’re not going to like a lot of what’s needed of them. This arc punches you in the gut, repeatedly, and in between each blow is some of the most intense and innovative action you’ve ever seen. It will hurt, and you will beg for more.

I liked this arc a good amount in the manga, but by the end I was ready for it to be over. I didn’t get the hype around Toji, thought the deaths were cheap, and was so. FUCKING. sick of Mahito. Seeing it in fluid motion onscreen, though, everything just clicked for me and I couldn’t get enough. I fully get now why the girlies have been wetting themselves over Toji; the character modelers were HORNY horny this season. I see now how even the most unceremonious deaths fit into the narrative, or at least one will make perfect sense to me once Gege Akutami and I have a little chat :). And holy hell do I understand now that Mahito is one of the best shonen villains in the history of the medium, that sick bastard. Season 2 was my Rosetta stone for Jujutsu Kaisen; I see it all now. My sixth eye has been opened. Throughout heaven and earth, I alone am the literate one.

JJK’s second season has a markedly different feel from the first from a presentation standpoint, and I feel it’s for the better. Every aspect of the presentation is on point, and I want to call attention to the audio element: The production music, with a heavy focus on jazz piano, is wonderfully unique for the genre, and the voice acting remains top notch. These are banner performances from the likes of Yuichi Nakamura, Kenjiro Tsuda, Takahiro Sakurai, Asami Seto, and Nobunaga Shimazaki, but the performance that defines the Shibuya arc (and by extension the entire season) is Junya Enoki as Yuji Itadori. 

Enoki’s been great this year in lead roles in goofy works like KamiKatsu and Girlfriend Girlfriend (not to mention minor roles in Skip and Loafer and the vending machine isekai), so it’s no surprise that he continues to crush it as JJK’s protagonist; Yuji Itadori is a goofy dude. But the Shibuya arc, for as much ground and as many characters as it covers, is ultimately Yuji’s story as he is forced, time and again, to endure the cycle of the “suffering builds character” meme. His peers and mentors in the first season told him repeatedly that the life of a jujutsu sorcerer is a short and unhappy one, and he now has to shoulder that burden for everyone. Enoki nails every single part of a wide spectrum of emotions Yuji is forced to endure over the course of the Shibuya arc, be it determination, naive confusion, or just pure unbridled trauma. If this isn’t the best voice performance of the year, it’s top five at worst.

Like every major battle shonen release in the age of social media, this season has had its detractors. Reviewers at Anime News Network kinda hated the story, but that’s something you take up with Gege Akutami (and get in line behind the manga readers). I've seen people complain about the animation. Which, like. If you don’t like the new visual style, sure, fine, that’s up to personal taste. But if you think this season isn’t well-animated, you just plain don’t know ball. It may not have a cohesive look, but that was the draw for me: Season 1 was good, but at times I felt like it looked a little too rigid, a little too shiny, a little too samey. Season 2, especially the Shibuya arc, looks like everything. Sometimes it looks like an action film, sometimes it looks like Mob Psycho 100, and at points it looks, most crucially, like Akutami’s most iconic panels brought to life, stroke for stroke.

The varying styles weren’t an accident: Nearly each episode had its own director, and those resumes cover top-tier animations like Mob Psycho, Devilman Crybaby, Kill la Kill, Heavenly Delusion, Oshi no Ko, FLCL, even Akira and goddamn Golden Boy. While the episodes don’t look entirely consistent from one to the next, the variance is less jarring and more “holy fuck, what am I going to see next?”. The looser style of animation is what Jujutsu Kaisen always needed; Akutami’s art is very loose and dynamic, and his action panels are borderline inscrutable at times. Season 2 nails the feel of JJK to a degree that its adaptation always needed and lets its directors, storyboarders, and animators run wild. At times, characters will look like they leapt right off the page; others, they will look like something you have never seen before in your life.

It is unfortunately impossible to talk about this season without also bringing up MAPPA’s working conditions, and how animators were frequently overworked against nigh-impossible deadlines. It was an open secret last year as Chainsaw Man aired that MAPPA’s animation schedule was a meat grinder, but that came bubbling to the surface quickly as JJK’s second season aired. Word got out midseason that MAPPA had its animators sign NDAs about their work conditions, but complaints still broke containment and several staffers took to social media to apologize for their work looking incomplete, and some even publicly announced that they are leaving the studio. It is stunning that the finished product looks the way it does under such conditions, and I respect the animators for putting in such incredible work, but something has to give. Several major series suffered from major delays this year, some of which I gave significant praise, but MAPPA is lucky that all of JJK came out on time. I wish I knew what could push them to treat their workers with the dignity and respect (and pay) they deserve, but that’s a conversation that covers much wider ground than just anime.

MAPPA has already announced that the series will continue through the next major arc. While there is quite a bit of it that I would love to see on screen, I can only hope that the animators get to rest. For now, though, we can be proud of what they made under duress, even if some will forever wonder what it would look like if the staff were treated like something a notch above cattle.

1. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Fucking hell. This is why I watch anime.

I was curious about this one because a couple major anitubers I watch had reviewed the manga and were effusive in their praise. I knew the anime adaptation was on the way, so I decided to hold off on reading and see what the anime would be like, and with Keiichiro Saito (director of Bocchi the Rock! and key animator for Oshi no Ko’s instantly-iconic OP) at the helm, my excitement was piqued. That guy turned a B-minus 4-koma into an innovative hit comedy, so what can he do with a beloved source material and the backing of a legacy studio like Madhouse?

I've had so much to say about Frieren since the premiere, and I still have so much to say now, but to talk about what I love about this show is to talk about everything about this show. When the first four episodes dropped, I described it as “Mushoku Tensei without the baggage,” and I stand by that. There were multiple points throughout Frieren’s first cour where I'd nearly forgotten that I wasn't watching Mushoku Tensei. Every single element is on point: The animation is fluid and expressive, backdrops are consistently gorgeous, voice performances are quickly memorable, and the music is evocative and instantly iconic. This is, plainly, one of the most beautiful pieces of television I have ever seen on nearly every level, be it visually, sonically, or thematically.

The initial four-episode debut was a masterclass in establishing the setting, building emotional investment into the characters, and slowly but deliberately laying out the premise of the season to come. The titular Frieren is an elf mage who, for a very brief decade of her millennium-long life, lent her skills to an adventuring party to slay the Demon King. Though she helped save the world, she was never one for stuff like adulation or socializing, so she breaks away from the group to continue her hobby of collecting various spells and arcana. She regroups with them after 50 years, having kept in contact with none of them, only to find them older and frailer. The party’s leader, the hero Himmel, passes away shortly thereafter, and Frieren breaks down at his funeral, having realized exactly too late how important he was to her and that she’d never really bothered to get to know him as a person.

Some time later, she’s called by the surviving human member of the party, Heiter, under the guise of translating an old text, but soon realizes that he duped her into helping train the young orphan girl he adopted, Fern, as a mage. Upon Heiter’s death, Frieren and Fern head out together, carrying out odd jobs and retracing Frieren’s steps from the journey that changed her more than she realized. They soon learn from the other surviving member of the party, Eisen, that (ooh) heaven is, in fact, a place on earth, and that Frieren may be able to properly pay Himmel his final respects in person. In order to do so, they must make a trip to the north, past the Demon King’s castle. The story of Beyond Journey’s End is, quite literally, a nostalgia trip.

Frieren's story is one of grief and regret, but also how we can use those emotions as a way of moving forward rather than looking backward. Her history is a long one and her memories seemingly everlasting, but she uses them to pave the road ahead of her rather than let them shackle her to the past. This is best exemplified by Fern herself, as well as the other companion they pick up along the way in Eisen’s former trainee, Stark. Frieren can carry on the legacies of Heiter and Eisen by helping their young wards grow into the capable young adults they’re meant to be, while Himmel’s legacy lives on in the memories of the towns and villages he helped save along Frieren’s new path, and most importantly, in Frieren herself.

The degree to which Himmel truly mattered to Frieren becomes more apparent to her as the story goes on, and it becomes more evident in her actions. Himmel was a gentle, selfless (if self-aggrandizing) man who was every last bit the hero the modern world believes him to be. With every statue of him she cleans, every flower she plants in his name, every core memory that returns to her, we are watching Frieren become more and more like him in real time. You would expect a thousand-year-old woman to be pretty set in her ways, but we see her holding off on old, bad behaviors because of how Himmel would react to them back then. As Fern and Stark grow into young adults, we see her beginning to treat them the same way Himmel treated her. Frieren doesn’t realize it until later in the season, but it’s apparent to us early on that Himmel well and truly loved her, and I feel that it’s dawning on her that she loved him too and didn’t recognize it. That is tragic in and of itself (this show absolutely is a tearjerker at times and I will cop to getting misty-eyed as I write this), but there is something beautiful, well beyond my grasp, in being able to honor the memory and carry out the legacy of a loved one in how you treat those around you. I don’t think anything could have made Himmel prouder.

Frieren herself is a really goddamn good character too (and expertly voiced by Atsumi Tanezaki, best known for voicing Anya Forger in Spy x Family). Though she is portrayed as quiet and uncaring for the early part of the story, it’s been really delightful to watch her open up, and above all, inadvertently reveal that she’s actually just Really Fucking Weird. For as self-assured and put together as she always seems on the surface, it was great to learn that she’s just an enormous slob (she just like me fr), and any outward expressions of smugness or her offbeat sense of humor are always a joy. “Deeply weird person trying to act normal” is always fun, and there’s just something so consistently delightful about seeing someone so typically calm and intelligent get caught in a mimic chest every single time.

I still can’t get over how fucking good this show looks. Beyond Journey’s End features some of the most intricate, loving animation I’ve seen for stuff as simple as someone putting on a jacket. Action scenes are few and far between, but not a single frame is wasted when shit pops off. Not everyone is as detailed as possible at all times, and they don’t need to be, but everyone looks incredible when they do need to. It’s well above my pay grade to accurately say so, but this show could be a lesson in proper animation budgeting. I could go on and on and on, but I’ve written nearly eighteen thousand words about anime, so I’ll wrap it up. 

The debut season of Frieren will continue into 2024, and if the quality remains a constant, it could very well be one of the best anime of next year too. It has remained as MyAnimeList’s top-rated anime ever for its entire run, warding off the legion of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood fans. Frieren deserves it. I say with no hyperbole that this is one of the most perfectly realized things I’ve ever seen on television. This is an essential watch for anyone who likes fantasy anime, anime in general, or fantasy in general.

[kiruliom]

coin fight 2023!

what is coin fight?

have you ever heard of art fight? it's like that, but for liom/mogai!

there is 2 teams (sun and moon for this year), and you 'attack' a member of the opposite team by coining things you think they'd like :D

this is made completely for fun, and has no rewards besides some "I was in the winning team" graphics (userboxes, blinkies, etc.)

the event will start on 9/20 and will last a week, with an exception being if it's still active after 1 week.

instructions:

make an entry here!

make a section on your pinned post (or an easily accessible rentry page) with your team and what you associate with your identity (make it as vague or specific as you need, doesnt need to be gender exclusive)

reblog the associated team post (sun) (moon) so people who check the reblogs of that post looking for people to attack can find you!

find a person to attack and coin things you think they will like! tag the person you're attacking and me (kiruliom), and tag #2023coinfight. also it would be really nice if you could tell us the approximation of your points (eg. it's a 5th link on a friendly fire revenge chain? please tell us its 7 points. ( 5 base, 2 points deducted for friendly fire, 5th link means 4th revenge, so +4)) this makes my job a lot easier.

rules:

if you fail to follow the instructions above you will be reached out to, or if you need help just tell me!

please check if you fit the DNI of the person you'd like to attack, or if THEY fit YOUR DNI. to avoid awkward situations.

all flags and terms made will have a 5 point base value. for every new 'link' on a revenge chain it will have 1 more point added to it. non-gender terms get 2 more points added to them, to encourage non-gender coinings

the terms coined dont need to be unique, just need to have unique flags. you can make an alternative bigender flag for example and it'd count as valid for points. however you cant submit flags made outside of the event time, this is more of a trust thing though as I cant tell for sure whether the flag was made before the event or not lol

there is a 3 attack per day rule, to avoid spamming. any more attacks submitted for the day will be rendered null, meaning no more points will be added for that day, this includes revenges. attacks are counted by amount of terms and not the amount of posts.

coining non-disordered paraphilia, MUD, oculoid or transid terms will render those attacks null, which means you wont earn points for them. transpecies is the exception to this as it's an alterhuman term and not a transid term.

friendly fire (attacking someone of the same team), is allowed. however 2 points will be deducted. this is to encourage a "team rivalry" more.

you can only attack 1 user at a time.

please dont take advantage of my awful memory and math skills and cheat, this is supposed to be for fun and you need to do your part for that, yeah?

re-elaborating the point system so it's in one place:

base term (say, a gender made for someone of the opposite team) = 5 pts

friendly fire (attacking someone of the same team) = -2 pts off total

revenge (attacking someone back)= +1 point per link on chain, starting from 2nd link/'first revenge'

non-gender terms = +2 points

sorry it's so messy, this is the first time Ive hosted an event that needs heavy moderation like this. I hope to figure this out via suggestions and trial-and-error.

[epicblenderartiste]

In this child-Ody AU, he still insisted on listening to the sirens, but had Eurylochus tie him up below decks.

Then he was carried back to his bunk like the child he is. For halloween of 2023 I made these, and also one of Adult-Ody going through the same thing:

[gameyface46]

All my OneShot sketches/drawings from this year.

Look at all the Nikos! I keep forgetting that they have whiskers, though... darn it. Either way, I love the ones with the Kirby and Magolor, whiskers or not. Y'know, the funny thing is, I only got back into OneShot (I played it for a brief time in 2023 before thinking it was too eerie lol) because it was the featured article on Wikipedia a few months back. Thank you Wikipedia. I would have never fell in love with this game without you.

Also, probably the final Niko sketch of the year, which I'll probably render tonight or tomorrow, is this one.

Cute, aren't they? There's more to this sketch... but not yet. This is actually for my Art Appreciation class!

Also, the rest of the OneShot drawings from this year.

God I love all of these so much. I know they're not compositionally complex, but I still love them a lot. When I feel really down about my art, I really try to remember that 10-year-old me would be SO jealous of my art right now. Like, nauseous and stuff. I mean, that's what I do now when I see really good art, whether or not it was meant to make me feel that way. Ah, how I haven't grown. Enough about nausea. I love drawing a reasonable amount, it's a great hobby. Hopefully in 2025 I can add the other person that was supposed to go in the Niko pancake sketch.

Drawing is hard but it feels so good to be rewarded by something you can look at. Y'know that feeling, where like you like at your art and are like "I made that? What the hell?" Yeah I felt that way every time I finished one of these. Thank you, if you've been following me, for sticking around to look at my art! It's nice to know that people care about this kind of thing as much as I do.

Next year... god I hope I don't throw away my shot.

I hope to see you all on New Year's Eve for a final 2024 post... don't expect any art though... kinda swamped with class work...

[priintiisor]

uhh kinda forgot to post this for a few days but anyways- for the 2 people who care to read all of this

the struggles of making neglected space

part 2: somehow i didn t die making it

part 1

so, when i make animatics (or in this case a pmv, whatever), i usually have the idea for a while before i have the time and motivation to actually draw all of it, but i also have shit memory, so usually i make a little "storyboard", not really a proper storyboard, mostly just little extremly messy sketches (usually no one else can tell what s meant to be happening in them), not even to work out the composition, just so i won t forget what i wanted to go over which part of the song.

neglected space technically had a storyboard, from all the way back in october 2023 when i originally started working on it. i made it in ms paint one night and it s absolutely wonderful. you can see it but good luck making anything out

the colors mostly don t mean anything. i was losing my mind a little bit. the shots are numbered cuz i tried to count them to see how insane i d go drawing it

as you can probably tell from the previous attempts at making it, the idea for this pmv was always pretty similar to how it ended up looking (my composition ideas are and have always been boring), but a few shots had changed from how i d originally planned them out in that storyboard so i wanted to make a new one. i didn t have the energy for that however, so i made a sort of script instead. much like my so called storyboards, the script was mostly nonsense (it was just meant for me to not forget what idea i had). here s some of my favorite lines from it

(the things written in italics are the song s lyrics)

and my absolute favorite,

saint. just saint. that was the script for the whole part with saint in it (i just had the shots in my head and this was all i needed to remember what goes on this part. but still it s funny)

usually, i draw my animatics in the order in which the shots will actually appear in it (and either i edit everything at the end of edit every few shots as i finish them). however, i knew that i wanted to make this thing beautiful and fully rendered and it is 4 and a half minutes long, and that s a lot of work. in some of my other animatics (for example, i think it s really obvious in the fall) you can kind of tell at which parts i started to get bored of working on it, and i didn t want this to happen with this one. so what i did is i slip it into parts- exactly the way that maps work, each part was between 10 and 20 seconds long, there were 21 of them in total- and i did those in a random order. i don t remember the order i ended up doing them in, all i can tell you is i did the first part (the first 4 shots, up to the one with the title in it) last, because i had drawn those 4 times already and i was TIRED of them lol

you can still kind of tell on which parts i was tired (like, i m so mad, srs is in this thing for ONE SHOT and it turned out so bad, but oh well) but it s not a big section of it, so it s not as obvious

as for actually drawing it. there wasn t a lot of planning for how the style of this was meant to look. in fact it originally wasn t going to be this detailed- the first shot i did is the one with artificer in underhang (the "the air in here ages me ungracefully" bit) and i think you can tell that one is slightly simpler than the rest. i just wanted it to be really pretty and it got out of hand.

thing is. i m not actually that great at drawing backgrounds. half of the reason the backgrounds in this pmv are so good is because i VERY heavily refrenced from the game, because fuck it, this game is beautiful and it s my fanart i do what i want. but yeah, all the background were drawn constantly at a screenshot, all the colors in those backgrounds are directly colorpicked from the game. i m pretty sure you could figure out exactly which rooms i refrenced in each shot. you could play rain world geoguessr with this thing if you wanted to- the only exception is the shot with rivulet on "where doorways with no doors stage a ballet of leaves", that shot is meant to be happening in the remains of the gate to outer expanse (idk if you can tell in the final thing, but oh well), i stole the colors from the furthest point of subterannean that rivulet can go to but i just made up what it looked like (it s meant to be bits of broken metal because i m pretty sure it s implied the gate just collapsed into outer expanse?? idk i m not a lore nerd, i thought it looked cool)

i made this thing in clip studio paint and paint tool sai, i used 2 different programs because each one has one brush that i really like so yeah i just changed between them. mostly the characters were drawn in csp, the backgrounds in sai and then i did whatever fancy blurring i wanted to do in csp

and now, this is called the struggles of making this thing, so time for me to complain about very specific things no one cares about

for some reason i decided that i wanted to have the lineart be slightly blurry. how i achieved that is copying the lineart layer (sometimes making it a different color) and blurring it. do you know how annoying it is to do that to EVERY SINGLE DRAWING. especially the shots that were a little bit animated and had like 6 different frames.

the compositions in this are very basic, partially because the game is 2d so i usually imagine shots of it in 2d, mostly because i am incapable of drawing things in perspecitive. the one shot of the underhang gate with survivor and monk fucking tortured me i spent like 3 hours just figuring out how it should work. also i realised that shot doesn t actually make a lot of sense because realistically there would be a wall blocking your view from the angle but shhhh

speaking of my struggles with perspective FUCK iterator puppet rooms. it s literally a box with a grid on it. AND sloped edges, just to make it worse. sometimes you can kinda bullshit perspective but it s LITERALLY JUST  A FUCKING GRID. fuck that. shoutouts to my sibling who did the lines on some of the shots for me cuz i was struggling. but at least i now have the funniest answer to "what is you least favorite room in rain world". the "save me the ache of slow decay" shot turned out really cool tho. idk what possesed me when i drew that one (it s one of my favorite lines of the song when it comes to how well it fits rw so i wanted that shot to look really cool, so i m glad it worked out)

also at some point my sibling asked me if i want them to do some of the backgrounds for me because, and i qoute, "i m pretty sure you are going to die otherwise" (they didn t, btw, i was almost done eith it at that point and just went naaahhh i got this)

i also really like how the shots for the part with saint turned out (if you couldn t tell by the fact i have one of them as my banner thing on tumblr lol). idk, the snow was fun to draw

when i was figuring out which shots go where in the final version i realised that i had every scug in it except gourmand, and i love gourmand, we couldn t not have them, so i put them in the weird black bg white lines flashback sequence

what i did NOT realise however, is that srs is in this for one shot and sos is in this for one shot and nsh isn t. (not counting inv and nightcat cuz they re not real) nsh is the only character that isn t in this. and i just think that s kind of funny. next animatic s gonna be about them to make up for it :] (unless i give up on that animatic. hopefully not. we will see)

i never got so burnt out while making this thing that i gave up on it (again, i was kinda doing it so detailed just because fuck it i can) but after i finished it i was like I AM NEVER DRAWING A BACKGROUND AGAIN.

also. i drew these little guys. so fuckin cute. like i m sorry to be admiring my own drawings but fr i was editing this thing a few months after i d drawn it and looking at my drawing of pebbles like why are you so small. who let you be so small.

and yeah i worked a lot on this thing. as i said i basically spent my entire summer drawing this. the rule was that i need to do 2 shots per day (i did some math at some point that if i did that i d have time to finish it. i m not that bad at math, but still kinda surprising it actually worked), and mostly i stuck to that. i really wanted to make this thing. i think there were like 3 weeks in total where i didn t do anything. i think a shot took me on average about 3 hours, counting breaks? so yeah this is truly what i did this summer

and then there is editing! which i definitely didn t put off for 2 months- ok to be fair in october i was working on the terrible things animatic cuz i wanted to get it done for halloween but still.

i actually quite enjoy editing. i use a free program called kdenlive that sometimes just decides it doesn t want to let you use an effect and sometimes refuses to render things properly but it s mostly pretty good

i recently discovered how to use blur and. the blur abuse in this one was real. the blur abuse shall continue into the future.

also, sometimes i edit entire animatics on a single file. but neglected space is 4 mimutes long and there s a lot of moving parts, and i don t trust either my laptop or my editing program to not crash, so i edited it in parts, rendered those, and then edited them together. it was kind of a pain, but probably less of a pain than if it had crashed like 20 times and messed up the rendering

also!! the subtitles. god the subtitles. so i wanted to have subtitles because this song s words are kinda hard to hear sometimes and they fit rain world so well and i wanted people to appreciate my artistic genius- but also because in my head it was meant to be that some characters are saying some of the lines. and. i can t really make that obvious because these fuckers don t have mouths (insert ihnmaims reference). but they do have canonical colors that they speak in!! so i can use that, that s cool!! (side tangent btw it kinda makes me mad that people sometimes use colors to represent the iterators but they use pink for pebbles and blue for moon, like 

i know that s more obvious and the blue might be confusing otherwise but please!!!! they have canonical colors!!! that they speak in in the broadcasts and it s the color of their overseers and the funny lights come on guys!! use them!!!) (side side tangent fun fact pebbles has like 3 different shades of blue, there s the overseer color, and then the broadcast color is weirdly a lot more greenish, and arguably the rot might also blue cuz that s his color but it s a lot darker for some reason. and then there s also purple rot cuz why not. i just think it s funny)

anyways so subtitles- now, my editing program technically can do subtitles (i used it for the terrible things animatic), but.. it doesn t let me make them fade out and overlap and stuff.. we can t have this, i need my subtitles to be cool.. so what did i do? i wrote them out in csp and i saved each and every line of those subtitles as a png and put it in. there are 111 pngs just for the subtitles.

if there s any typos in the subtitles that s not on me, that s on my 3 friends who got to see it a few days before i posted it for not telling me

i maaaaayyyyy or may not have slightly changed some of the lyrics of the song in the subtitles- listen. from what i ve seen no one can agree on what the words in this song are. maybe there s official lyrics somewhere and i didn t look in the right places but istg there are just some lines where everyone says it s something different. mostly i just went with what i first thought it said

one notable thing however is that there is a line in the song that goes "slithers of wistful window gazes glint in borrowed light". i, for (probably obvious) reasons, first thought it said slivers, and i was like ah, works perfectly, it s sliver of straw. in my defense tho- i looked up what the word slither means in this context and.

so yeah i think i m allowed to change that one

so as i said i have a kind of stupid way of making animatics, i draw everything, then i save the parts as pngs and then i edit them together. there s probably better ways to do it but anyways. here is some numbers for you

unless i am failing at counting (very possible) in total this ended up having 85 shots. and other than the subtitles there are 443 pngs

the name of the folder where i kept all the files for this is called "another attempt at neglected space". obviously i had very high hopes i d actually finish it. other folder names include: "wooo", "kill me", "pngs (kill me p2)", "the wonderful world of pngs", "ruffles your whiskers are killing me", "kill me p3 (wait no saint don t-)", "for the last time, pngs", "yes" and the complementary "no", and "editing (god help me)"

so uhh.. i think that is all. thank you for reading my unhinged ramblings.

also this thing has like 5000 views on youtube now. that s insane. it s gotten recommended to me on my other account which i think is really funny. i was fully prepared for it to get like 20 views. i m so glad the people like it. every comment telling me about how it made them cry brings me indescribable joy, like yeah me too. i m just so happy people see the vision :')

as i said to my friends when they saw it,

also. i recorded almost the entire process of drawing this pmv. why did i do this? idk, i m insane, i thought we d established that. i want to speed it up and make it one giant speedpaint at some point. if i ever actually get around to doing that i might link it here. idk if anyone cares to see but i think it would be cool

[theeggoman]

I'm not a nostalgic person, I've never been a nostalgic person. I actively hate nostalgia. I don't want to live my life chasing the past. But I feel like the internet is just constantly getting worse and less usable and less fun. I created an entire full time independant art job from social media and even though my work has improved astronomically in the last year, my posts don't even crack 1k anymore. I feel like every time Tumblr makes a comeback with the art community or fandom spaces the way it used to be in it's heyday, yet another shitty update renders everything unusable and bans artists from posting ANYTHING again. Numbers aren't everything, but with A.I I don't get commissioned the way I used to, I can't just follow someone without a thorough background check, and if I am not constantly churning out "content" (because my passion and profession has been reduced to mass marketable content rather than the skilled digital illustrations and hand crafted comics and month long animations that I pour my heart and soul into,) the algorithms punish me and followers don't see my posts anymore, not to mention no one knew has been following me in close to a year even though my work has improved so much. I am losing work opportunities, losing sleep, losing out on the fun fandom internet communities I used to be so involved in before 2018. The internet became the only place to have community during Quarantine in 2020 and was immediately destroyed by ads and A.I and NFT bullshit and mass marketable consumer friendly clean slate bullshit. Thank god the people who support my on patreon are genuine art lovers who support artists, because I am making half the money I was last year at conventions while also travelling to twice as many. I did 16 conventions in 2022, and made the same amount of money doing 21 conventions in 2023. I can't keep up with the constant travel and sleep deprivation, but what choice do I have? I miss the freedom of liking art and knowing someone created it out of passion. I don't have any hopeful end to my rant, I'm just so frustrated and angry and tired and all I want is to be appreciated for my craft rather than seen as a "content" machine.

[simmerika]

🎄CHRISTMASTHETIC🎄 HOLIDAYS 2023 POSEPACK (FREE!)

Merry Crisis! I created this posepack because I was missing creating and I wanted to celebrate the holiday with you all! Please enjoy this free posepack that I created (and released) live on Twitch! This posepack contains 6 poses (5 really, 1 has an alternate sitting position) with some accessories and one without, all for you to take those aesthetically-pleasing photos of your Sims at Christmastime! NOTE: for pose #5, place the teleporter anywhere you want around the tree, it can go anywhere! You may need TOOL for those teeny adjustments or you can just play around with teleporters, but I didn't want you all to have to use a specific tree or anything. Enjoy your holiday season my loves, however you celebrate! ❤️

DOWNLOAD HERE (PATREON, FREE!)

You will need:

Teleporter Mod

Pose Player

Mug (mesh can be found HERE)

Mistletoe 

Candy cane heart 

Disclaimer: I try to make my poses while taking into consideration Sims' different body shapes/types. However, it is nearly impossible to make poses fit every Sim ever made, so you may experience gapping or clipping based on their body type and/or clothing.

SimmErika TOU:

✨ Do not reupload on ANY website

✨ Do not claim as your own

✨ Do not change the package files

✨ Please give credit when using the poses (@simmerika AND #simmerikaposes on IG: so I can thank you and hype up your posts)

✨ Use of my poses is allowed for blender renders, but please do not alter the poses.

✨ Violation of these TOU will result in a permanent ban from my Patreon, Instagram, tumblr, etc.

[mdverse]

md's fun silly little top 10(ish) arts of the 2023!*

*pretend there's a fun cute doodled banner here (i was going to make one earlier and then i forgor)

doing a lil recap of my top 10 15 (it was supposed to be 10 and i could not narrow it down oops) best(? this is subjective as fuck i guess it's more like my personal faves) drawings of the year! *the crowd cheers* (it’s me I’m the crowd)

15: paradise by the dashboard light! i hate to rank her so low bc i spent ages on her but it seems i don't love the result that much anymore so :/ a for effort for me tho this was ambitious

14: cheer girl loml <33 not my best art technically by far but i went way out of my comfort zone for the background and the art style (for no good reason really) (i just wanted to do a comic book thing bc superhero vibes or whatever) (it did not come out the way i was hoping it would bc i think i got too frustrated) and we simply must acknowledge that. atog did things to me that i cannot explain

13: barbie meme brittana! not my best britt but truly sooo fun to work on. there's nothing quite like finding a fun rendering process and then never using it again (i don't even remember how i coloured this but i like it)

12: cowboy barbie brittana <3 they look good, they're about to kiss, cute outfits, pretty sunset, probably went overboard with the rim lighting, what's not to love? a banger, i think

11: i say a little prayer! i think the background is. questionable at best. but this is still really fun! i think i got possessed when i got to the uniforms bc goddamn they look good

10: klaine?? on this blog???? almost unheard of lmao i truly did not think i would like this one as much as i did. i'd consider ranking it higher if i wasn't constantly Unwell over brittana but again, i'm biased, and no one here should be surprised about that

9: pre-wedding kiss my beloved! with how insane i've been over this kiss it could perhaps be higher. i am gnawing on my desk as we speak i'm not even sitting at a desk rn

8: rutherchang x black swan!! ohhh u guys i don't talk about this one enough i think it's so pretty i don't even remember how i did the colours for it but rhgfdkngd?? love her, love pushing the glee x bts agenda, if any of u gifmakers are interested in making a mike chang x black swan lyric gifset i will love u forever

7: colour wheel challenge! busted my whole tiddies and ass for this one fellas. labour of love etc etc i think staring at the bright colours for so long made my eyesight worse and i'm ok with that

6: mistletoe brittana <33 easily the best instalment of this series by a long shot! recency bias (and also just. regular bias) made me rank her much higher originally but technically she is not the most intricate piece so she must sit down here

5: prom queen kurt! dare i say a girlslay on my behalf? i think i dare. every time i see it i think i should do more glosters (glee posters) and then i don't. i could tho they would be really cool (source: dude trust me)

4: churro kiss redraw!!! genuinely Not Sane over this! never have been, never will be! redraws are like crack to me and so is this kiss

3: furtana!! i neglected them for far too long this year but if neglecting them results in art like this i may have to do it again

2: heart kiss <3 if we're being really honest and vulnerable in the chat tonight i think this is technically my best of the brittana kiss screencap redraw things i've done this year? which i did not see coming but i guess practice means refining the process etc etc so. it makes sense ig. mwah to them <3

1: black or white gcv animation <3 it's not what i would call my best drawing (bc it's, yknow, not just one drawing) but it is what i would call the product of a very obsessive thought and some frantic art sessions. objectively it's the coolest thing i've done this year so it deserves the top spot. i'm proud of it i hope to glanimate more next year. also this isn't art but it's a relevant post that i still stand by months later

[the-mspfa-200-favourites-project]

JADESTUCK

WE ARE AT THE HOMESTRETCH! Approximately ~16 fanadventures stand between me and meeting my goal, and I’m feeling so good after the latter half of 2022 that I think I might just do them all tonight. Maybe. Who knows. WELCOME TO 2023, THE YEAR OF REVIVAL! Everybody’s getting back into MSPFA, Everybody’s so EXCITED about the fandom, and oh yeah, HOMESTUCK BEYOND CANON is back with a brand new team that ROCKS MY SOCKS OFF every time they post an upd8. Life’s good. Life’s going to be even better in 2024, the year I am *currently* residing in, but since we haven’t technically made it to the end of that year yet (though we are close…) I have decided to call it quits and declare the end of this project in 2023. Okay. Enough pre-ramble (emphasis on “ramble”) let’s talk about JADESTUCK.

I can only assume, at this stage, that Jadestuck is what happens when you replace every single character with Jade Harley. I can only hope this is the premise, but probably it is not.

Hey author of JADESTUCK: stop saying you think you are bad at art. I am currently looking at one of the most detailed render of a beanstalk I have ever seen, that I could never do in a million years (on page 6, btw). You can’t draw me THAT and then tell me you are bad at art. You are not bad at art, author! Believe in yourself! Jade Harley would! And I do too!

Sadly, it looks like Bec is literally Bec in this comic, so my hopes about what Jadestuck actually is are dashed to smithereens. This is an unfortunate day for me, and my hopes. But fortunately for me, there was a gag that I snickered at, so that should be worth SOMETHING at least.

OH HANG ON MY HOPES ARE ON LIFE SUPPORT AND THE BEEPING NOISE HAS COME BACK…JADE VANTAS IS REAL AND THE WORLD IS BEAUTIFUL ONCE AGAIN…

Readers I think this one’s a banger and a half. It’s really funny. Especially one running gag. I won’t spoil it, because that’s not a good thing to do, but…it’s a really funny running gag. Top tier, in fact. Also it seems to be doing some interesting stuff with meta characterization???????? So that’s fun. Unfortunately, it’s inactive…but maybe, we can wish really hard, and it can come back to life and become “ongoing” once again!!!!!!!!