#so the first thing i did on Gleba

[e17omm]

Things to do on Gleba:

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[alexanderwales]

My early impression of Factorio: Space Age are extremely positive, though it's much more geared toward veterans than I would have expected. I guess sushi belts aren't entirely mandatory, but I don't know how you would get by without them. They are easier now, but there are other mechanics that take things up a notch.

Mild spoilers follow, but it's not really a spoiler kind of game, and the UI seems very ready to give you all kinds of information about places you haven't been and things you haven't seen.

It's got a ton of content, the game design is overall fantastic on several levels, the music has been great, and in general I'm just a huge fan of it.

I am curious how well it holds up on repeat play, since a lot of doing a blind playthrough is figuring things out, and after you've figured them out, a lot of the gameplay is gone.

One slightly negative note, at least for me, is that the early game felt much too longer when I just wanted to get to space, and I kind of wanted … I don't know, an accelerated start option, not necessarily something like Faster Start, but a few technologies researched and maybe a tiny starter base or something. Setting up a furnace stack by hand is not something that I feel like I really need to do again, but I did it for the first SA playthrough, because I wanted the default expansion experience. I did kind of regret it in the end though.

I made it to deep space science in SE, so that's the point of comparison for me, and this is far far less of a grind, along with far more interesting challenges. The cheap rockets that can't carry a lot really incentivize building up a proper base on each planet, one that can make its own buildings and infrastructure, which is neat, and thankfully on all but Gleba (and Nauvis) you don't really have to set up permanent defenses against enemies, which can be a bit of a pain if you want to get on to the next thing. I set up defenses on Nauvis, and that was a time sink, but with the enemy expansion mechanics it was very very necessary. I think next time, rail world setting might be better, but I don't know how that would change the other worlds.

I think the thing that I admire most about it is that they really worked hard on making sure that each planet was very very distinctly different from the others, that each planet had some kind of new threat that was very different from the others, that each planet had gameplay mechanics that were very different from the others ... and it all works wonderfully, at least so far.

There are a few things that I wish were in the expansion, which aren't (at least as far as I know), and some of those are a matter of creative vision, some are a matter of development time taking forever, and others are just engine limitations. The spaceships are ... I mean, they're fine, but it's very clear that they're using the "surface" class, which is what I would have expected, but still means that there's none of the cool space stuff like docking procedures and ships that split apart and spinning up for artificial gravity. It's another interesting challenge in terms of game mechanics, but it's definitely aesthetically the worst of the new things.

The spaceships do not particularly look like spaceships, an issue which I think could have been partially solved by having new spaceship wall sprites and requiring the spaceship to be enclosed. The rocket engines look incredibly cool when they fire up, but then you look up at the gun turrets just sort of clinging onto this platform, and it seems a bit jank. But it's also the thing you probably spend the least amount of time on overall, since the ships get built a few times and then never looked at again, moving between planets without much intervention once the design works well.

(The space map is also a bit of a disappointment. I wasn't expecting orbital mechanics, but ... actually, I think I would have liked some kind of simulation of it. Launch windows for shortest time between planets would have been cool. Some circuit-readable calculation of how much thrust/time it will take, which rises and falls with the motion of the planets?)

But yes, overall, very positive on the expansion. I think there are a few kinks that aren't quite worked out, but in my opinion they're nothing major, just some features and mechanics that aren't signposted or a few wonky UI elements.

[meadow-roses]

Hi! I hope you're doing well! I've been meaning to reach out to you for a while but I'm always so nervous! I wanted to tell you that I'm always so impressed by your animations and I wanted to ask if you had any advice? I would like to learn but I have no idea how to begin. How do you go about it and how did you start learning this process? Thank you very much and I hope all is well!

Hello!!! First off I want to apologize for it taking so long to respond to you- we had a lot of autumnal food storing to do and I was short on time. Animation is something I'm very passionate about and I wanted to give you a thorough answer because I would absolutely LOVE to help you get started in animating!! If there's anything I don't cover, or if you have a more specific question, feel free to send another ask and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. :)

I didn't really do much to get started, I just kinda jumped in with photoshop cs5 (I DON'T recommend doing that LOL 😂) I wanted to make an animated series with my brother so I just started working on the trailer which is like 30 seconds pffft. Since then I've just been learning as I go picking up stuff from watching movies closely. I've still got a lot of basics to figure out like thumbnailing a sequence before you try to animate it, and timing charts (which is what I'm trying to work on now hehe)

My biggest piece of advice for you would be to just jump into it! I think there is no advice that can get anyone started better than to just start doing it. I know that can sound daunting, but there is no better way to get better at any form of art (drawing, writing, singing, etc.) than to just start. You'll learn the best by learning from your own mistakes, as hard as that can be. XD

You can start with some simple exercises to get the hang of moving something, like animate a ball bouncing or a hamster doing a backflip- just whatever sounds most do-able to you. (Do yourself a favor and don't start with a walk/run cycle though. They seem simple but are actually one of the hardest things to animate lol Be smarter than me. XDD) Just start small and work up from there. Go from animating a ball to animating a blink, then animate something turning it's head, saying something, waving, flapping wings. The more animating the more you'll catch the hang of it and drawing the motions will become intuitive. In general, just don't be afraid to try- and if it doesn't look right, don't give up! :D

Richard Williams book, "The Animator's Survival Kit" is a wonderful resource for getting started animating. He walks the reader through the very basics, and then the fundamentals of animation and how to apply it, like squash and stretch and takes. I was able to find a copy at my library and then later bought one off Abebooks for around $12. I haven't finished the book but I did peek ahead and see lip syncing and walk cycles and other wider motions.

I've found a lot of art programs come with an animation system built in. I don't know what program you're using, but I personally love the one for Krita. I find the entire program intuitive and easy to use (that's also my drawing program XD), and the animation window is seconded only by ToonBoom (the current industry standard software which is also EXCELLENT just pricey. You can get a one month free trial for each of the three versions if you want to test it out. Unlike Krita, ToonBoom can make 2d puppets and do "flash" animation.) If you are having trouble with digital animation you can still practice with traditional sketches, I made a tutorial thing for a friend on that here. Flipbooks are something I've heard of working? Like animating on a pad of sticky notes, but I haven't been able to get that to work well for me but you could try it!

If you have any more specific questions I'd love to help you however I am able! Here are some of the resources I've found useful:

Again, I can't recommend enough Richard Williams' book "The Animator's Survival Guide" (an animator trained by Milt Kahl) if you want to understand the basics and are still confused where to start. Also Frances Glebas' (a renowned director) storyboarding book "Directing the Story". Both of those books have been immensely helpful and I can't wait for the free time to read them more and put to action the lessons! XD

Here's a link to James Baxter's (my animator hero lol) youtube account, where you can study snippets of a master animator's work: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt2iDOfRW1WWu5SxgJJpP1g

I've also found following accounts of animators on instagram has been a help, they'll often post "breakdowns" of shots explaining why they chose what shapes and how they decided to pace motions and stuff like that. jakeleeanimation this dude posts a lot of studies of disney animations kenduncan9 director of the studio that animated Tarzan and Hercules, among others pumbaaguy animator of Kronk and Pumba! framebyframe_animation this helpful account slows animations down and really walks you through the forms and pacing johnpomeroyart worked on Pocahontas and Atlantis, likes teaching people animation! theanimationart explanatory username lol XD AND OF COURSE aaronblaiseart who has retired from animating to TEACH animation and was also trained by the original disney pioneer animators. He does have a website where you can buy a course, and while it is pricey it does often go on sale. I haven't caught the chance to watch through all the episodes yet but I was able to purchase the series for $10 last year.

Also I seriously mean it, if you have any other questions feel free to ask. XD There's so much info I'm not sure where to start or what would be most helpful for you to get you started. :,)

[action]

#BlackExcellence365 Artist Spotlight: Asaph Luccas

We’re back with another #BlackExcellence365 Artist Spotlight! Meet Asaph Luccas (@asaphluccas), a Black Brazilian portraiture artist who has been uploading his art to Tumblr since 2012 (!). We got to talk to him a bit about his career trajectory and Negritudes Brasileiras, his documentary about colorism in Brazil. Read on below.

Your art focuses on highlighting dark-skinned women and men in São Paulo. How important is it for you to highlight the Black diaspora as an artist?

Actually, I try to portray a lot of the diversity of blackness. I mean, not only in shades but in shapes, sexual orientation, hair, style…I love drawing people and with time I saw how powerful art can be so I started adding more and more variety of people in what I do. My art helps me to understand and be proud of who I am and by that, I hope it catches on the people seeing it.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to be an artist and filmmaker? How has Tumblr been a place for you to find your voice? 

I'm Asaph, a 24 years old Brazilian multidisciplinary artist. At heart I am a visual creator, painting what I live through my lens. It's really awesome to answer that question because I started posting my art on Tumblr when I was 17! Tumblr had a huge influence on my trajectory as an artist because it was the place where I connected my art with other people. You can actually see all my growing as an artist and as a person of color scrolling through my archive. First, I used to draw mostly white characters. I created what people made me believe was the "art beauty" and that came with years and years of self-loathing and trying to fit into white standards. It only started to change when I connected with my roots and started studying more about racism in Brazil. You see, we are more than 54% of the population but when you turn on the TV there are no black TV hosts, no black protagonists in the telenovelas. So I stopped trying to portray something that I'm not, something that doesn't represent the reality of the place I live,.

What communities do you identify with both online and IRL? 

I'm black, a really femme gay boy and I lived almost my whole life on the Brazilian periphery. This holds such an important part of who I am. Most of my friends are also black and part of the LGBT community and we started a film collective named Gleba do Pêssego and get to create films together talking about marginalized identities that usually we don't see being represented here. We as queer individuals get the opportunity to create our own families and also create our own references, so my support system is basically friends and other Brazilian artists doing great things right now, such as Edu Reis, Oliv Barros, and Ione Maria.

How did you come up with your featured piece and how might this relate to the broader conversation surrounding the #BlackExcellence365 campaign? 

I started my Black I-d series because I didn't have [any] other illustrators to look up to and inspire me to draw black characters when I started. I wanted to inspire younger artists (including myself) to know that drawing black people is beautiful and YES, we can be artists! As a light-skinned black person living in Brazil, a country where most mixed people spend a lot of their lives trying to pass as white and where there's almost no representation of the variety of the black experience, I had to find a way to say "hey, there isn't one way of being black, we came in a lot of shades, shapes, colors, and souls and we need to be represented!" and I'm so happy that I got to inspire people with it.

Your documentary Negritudes Brasileiras examines the conversation around racial identity and colorism in Brazil. Why was that documentary important for you to create?

In our journey we make films bringing light to marginalized identities and this year we got to make a documentary with Nátaly Neri, one of the biggest voices in the young black community right now, about racial identification since Brazil is such a racially mixed country. I got to say everything that my paintings couldn't, exploring my art in many ways, and I'm proud of what this represents.

What are some of the challenges you face as an artist and a filmmaker? 

Support. Definitely support. Emotionally because when you grew up poor you're not allowed to dream about being an artist, about being a filmmaker. Education in those areas is so expensive that must of us can't afford it and we have to teach ourselves how to do everything. By not being part of the academy, a lot of times people don't see us as real creators. Financially because I have to work on other things to provide for myself because it's so hard to live as an artist/filmmaker here and that means I don't have the time to invest as many other artists have.

Thanks for chatting with us, @asaphluccas!

Tumblr artists, what kind of challenges have you faced when making your art? Can you relate to Asaph? Make a post, tag it #BlackExcellence365, and share it with the community.

[oftachancer]

Day 13: Love Marks (14 Days of DA Lovers)

The lazy patterns of fingertips roving his back roused him even as they played a tactile lullaby upon his flesh. “Good morning,” Dorian murmured; he tested the whole truth of that statement by opening one eye. The light through the casement was that gray feather softness that could have been early morning or snow-flocked afternoon in the winter-cloaked southern city. The sort of light that found one lost in timelessness. In that light, Tristan was alabaster; firm nearly-white planes of muscle honed by loving chisels and hammers into a miracle of smooth velvet over stone. His hair rumpled from sleep looked like spun sugar, wildly tangible and intoxicatingly edible.

Tristan blinked slowly, cat-like, no more pleased at the prospect of waking than Dorian himself, a frown playing at his lips as he studied Dorian’s back.

“All well?”

“Hmm,” Tristan hummed, a nasal sigh, playing gentle chords upon his person with calloused fingertips. “Puzzle.”

“What is?”

“Quod spirat tenera malum mordente puella;” Tristan sounded the words slowly, imperfect, and Dorian felt a slow-rolling catch in his chest.

“You’re hungry?”

Tristan’s eyes, sharp as cut sapphires, flicked to meet his. “So it is Tevene. I thought it was.”

“What is?” he asked again, amused.

The fingers tapped lightly down the length of his spine. “Quod de Corycio quae venit aura croco.”

He dabbed his tongue to his lips, fighting a tremulous, too revealing sigh. “Oh?”

“Vinea quod primis floret cum cana racemis.”

Dorian shivered, skimming his own fingertips over Tristan’s clavicle; the air suddenly bright as it touched his palate, the words caressing his mind as surely as Tristan caressed his skin.

“Gramina quod redolent quae modo carpsit ovis.”

He bit the inside of his cheek, turning away to rest his other cheek against the pillow. Was one supposed to feel their heart so clearly? The gentle tripping cadence of it? The language of his homeland on the lips of his lover. His lover, who, only the night before, had been slick with sweet sweat; earth and spice, as he was describing. Dorian and the lover he had shared again. Three times now, they’d succumbed. Three times three. Once could be a happy error in judgment, easily brushed aside. Twice was amusement, for the sake of memory. Thrice… three times was dangerously close to becoming a habit.

“Quod myrtis, quod messor Arabs, quod sucina trita, Pallidus Eoo ture quod ignis olet…”

On fire was right. Vacillating between warmth and searing heat. Pleasant, oh, very pleasant certainly, but he couldn’t help wondering what it meant. It was far too early for thoughts like that- if he should have them at all. But watching them together, his thoughtful lover laughing and cavorting with his decadent hedonist accomplice while Dorian looked on. Touched. Tasted. Allowed himself to be drawn into and between them like thread into their loom.

“Gleba quod aestivo leviter cum spargitur imbre, Quod madidas nardo passa corona comas…”

“Tristan…” Dorian murmured, heart tight, turning again to watch Tristan’s lips move over unfamiliar words; he brushed his thumb over one pale, beautiful nipple until it began to pink and tighten. “What-“

“Hoc tua, saeve puer Diadumene, basia fragrant. Quid si tota dares illa sine invidia?”

His fingers stilled. Tristan lifted one pale brow without effect. Genuinely curious. “It isn’t that simple,” he whispered.

“What?”

Dorian searched his eyes. “When did you start studying Tevene anyway?”

“About a month ago.” His cheeks warmed in the morning light. Afternoon? Evening? “What does it mean? What I just read?”

“Read?”

“On your back.”

“On my…” Dorian frowned, sitting up on his elbows to peer over his shoulder to see in the mirror. Words scrawled, calligraphic, across his back in black marker. “What in Thedas?”

“I should have warned you…” Tristan smiled in the reflection, kissing his shoulder. “Aran has a thing about drawing on people.” He turned onto his stomach and eyed his own back in the mirror, similar handwriting scrawled across his shoulders and cascading down his spine. More Tevene.

Ask him to read your shoulders to you, my friend. He’s been working on improving his pronunciation and it would mean a lot to him for you to tell him he’s coming along. You mean a lot to him. I don’t know if he’s told you. Sometimes it’s hard for him to speak the things that mean the most. Sometimes I think I see you worrying about that, so I thought I’d be a pain in the ass and tell you, just in case. This is nice, eh? Hope you enjoy the poem. You smell really good. Wish I could stay. You’re both bloody beautiful.

“Only a month?” Dorian spoke slowly. Carefully. “You have an excellent grasp of the pronunciations.”

Tristan flushed, resting his cheek on his folded arms as Dorian traced the note. “Really?”

“Truly. It is... an unexpected pleasure to hear my mother tongue from your lips.” He watched goosebumps raise beneath his fingers, texturing text. “You didn’t have to trouble yourself.”

“It’s no trouble. I want to learn to speak your language.” Tristan’s gaze slipped shyly away. ‘You mean a lot to him,’ the words flexed as he moved. “That’s okay, isn’t it?”

“Very much so.”

“Good,” he breathed. “Good. So what does it say?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Dorian smoothed golden hair from the back of Tristan’s neck and kissed the tender skin there.

“...it’s not a dirty limerick, is it?” he asked, suspicious.

“No.”

“What does it say then?”

“Your boyfriend wanted us to know that we smell good.”

Tristan laughed. “In as verbose a way as possible, I guess?”

“He is certainly… periphrastic.”

“There’s a word. Remember when you thought he was quiet?” Tristan glanced up, eyes dancing. “You can never trust a linguistics major to keep things simple.”

Not simple, Dorian thought. No. But clear. He was beginning to have a great deal of clarity where he’d been confused before.

———What’d the Latin Say?———

A poem by Marcus Valerius Martialis, 1CE (translated by me and Google, interpreted/interfered with by me):

That breath of an apple when a young girl bites into it;

The perfumed effluence that comes with saffron;

The first vines, in the spring, blooming with clusters of new flowers;

The grass, sweet-scented, newly nibbled by a lamb;

The odor of myrtle, of the Arab spice, blended with

Pale eastern frankincense, on fire;

Or lightly sprinkling summer rains on freshly turned soil beneath

The crown of your hair slicked, aromatic, with muskroot...

As all these, your kisses, boy Diadumenus, are fragrant.

How much sweeter if you were to give them without embarrassment?

[goldenleaffilms]

The idea and planning behind Ami & Gurumi

Act 1 – Gurumi is born

·        We establish an atmosphere of a rainy day and a young woman named Sally is busy doing some housework. Once she’s done she starts crocheting. Once she’s finished Gurumi is made.

·        After Gurumi is created he springs to life and explores his current room until he bumps into Ami

·        They develop a friendship and visit the entire world around them.

Act 2 – Ami and Gurumi are lost

·        While exploring they end up lost in a dark place, Ami is terrified that she won’t be able to leave

·        Gurumi finds a way out. After escaping he learns he was made as a gift for a friend of Sally’s

·        Ami while disappointed she want’s to make his last day here a good one so they dance around with Sally’s other crochet creations to celebrate his new ownership

Act 3 – Goodbye Gurumi

·        Both are interrupted by Sally coming back and picking up Gurumi

·        Ami is sad but happy for Gurumi that he’s going to a happy home

·        They say their goodbyes and Ami returns to her crocheted friends.

 This is a very ambitious project to make for only 3-4 months. Animation especially stop motion takes twice as long which is why the animation aspect of the film will be 5 minutes long and the live action sequences will take up the other 5 minutes of the film. I was able to find a free program to make the stop motion sequences and during the rest of December until the beginning of February I’ll hopefully have all the animation sequences ready and then start and finish the live action sequences during the last month of filming and then edit the entire thing. Budget wise this film will not use up much money since I already own a professional quality camera and a tripod that can achieve different angles. There’s only going to be one location in the entire film due to the current COVID-19 restrictions, how I’ll make this work is by using one location for the animation sequences and one location for the live action sequences. Majority of the footage will need to be filmed when it is bright outside because of the location being very dark even with lights on. However, I could work this out through editing by adjusting the exposure and maybe use my chosen aesthetic to help give the film that autumn style look.

 3-month plan:

December 2020 – During December I will be working on the character models for the two main characters and add more animation screen tests to test out the models durability and steadiness when manipulated for animation. When making the models through crochet I will need to purchase the right yarn for each character, cotton yarn which is the most used type of yarn fibre for making these dolls would cost £1.89 per 50g ball and since both of their designs use 4 different colours of yarn it would cost £7.56 to make these models. Regarding equipment there won’t be much of a budget since the camera used and the tripod are owned by me and have not been borrowed. Once both script and models are ready filming will begin after Christmas. I’ll be using different lighting for each sequence and will need to calculate the approximate time it will take to make one minute of stop motion animation. I predict before the end of December I will have finished at least a 30-second sequence of the film.

January 2021 – During production I will have finished the first sequence of the film. Each set used will take place in my own home in case of any further self-isolation due to covid-19 soon. I will also be in contact with my voice actors that will be in this short film from the narration to any background voices. By January they should be done with recording their lines and send them over via email to me to add during pre-production. During this time I’ll also record the first live action sequence of the main character Sally doing her chores, There will be a lot of editing involved in the live action sequences since I will be the only one working the camera, acting as one of the characters, editing and the sound design.

February 2021 – In February I will be working more on the animated sequences. I’m hoping by February at least half of the film will be ready and I can continue working on the second half of the short. During this time I’ll be getting the end credits song ready. The song I’ll be using is Tonight You Belong To Me by Christina Perri but to avoid potential copyright issues the song will only be in instrumental and sang by me. Each day I will work on 30 seconds to 2 minutes of animation depending on any circumstances that might pop up during February half term.

 The idea for Ami & Gurumi came to me after I took up a crochet hobby and I thought it would be a fun idea to make something related to crochet. By September I found out my late Nan passed away and it was a sad time for all of us. While she was mainly did knitting she also dabbled in a bit of crochet and after her passing I decided to take the idea of crocheting along with one of my favourite film techniques and create a cute and heart-warming story in dedication to my Nan. I went with the name Ami & Gurumi, now some may be confused on the Japanese sounding names and that’s because the two characters named are a pun on the word ‘Amigurumi’. Amigurumi is the Japanese art of crochet doll making and has been a popular form of crochet in many parts of the world especially in the US and the UK. The aesthetic I decided to go for in this short is an autumn warmth theme, not only because it’s a personal favourite aesthetic but I want the audience to feel that warm and loved feeling.

 Bibliography:

Celtx Blog. 2020. Write The Script: 5 Basic Steps - Celtx Blog. [online] Available at: https://blog.celtx.com/write-the-script-5-basic-steps/ [Accessed 9 November 2020].

A + C Studios. 2020. How Long Does Stop-Motion Animation Really Take To Make? - A + C Studios. [online] Available at: https://www.aplusc.tv/blog/stop-motion/making-stop-motion/ [Accessed 8 November 2020].

Blog - Explainer Video & Whiteboard Animation | By Video Explainers. 2020. Time To Create A 5 Minute Animation Video. [online] Available at: https://videoexplainers.com/blog/5-minute-animation-video/ [Accessed 8 November 2020].

Perri, C., 2019. Tonight You Belong To Me (Sing-A-Long). [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwKgvmuo2sg [Accessed 9 November 2020].

Williams, M., 2007. Amigurumi Knitting Tutorial (Plus Free Patterns!). [online] DIY Life. Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20140511182953/http://www.diylife.com/2007/08/07/diy-definitions-amigurumi-with-tutorial/ [Accessed 9 November 2020].

Beckerman, H., 2003. Animation: The whole story. Allworth. pp 10

Marx, C., 2010. Write your way into animation and games: create a writing career in animation and games. Taylor & Francis. pp 192

Mou, T.Y., Jeng, T.S. and Chen, C.H., 2013. From storyboard to story: animation content development. Educational Research and Reviews, 8(13), pp.1034

Mou, T.Y., 2015. Creative story design method in animation production pipeline. In DS79: Proceedings of The Third International Conference on Design Creativity, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Glebas, F., 2012. Directing the story: professional storytelling and storyboarding techniques for live action and animation. CRC Press. pp 330