#the sfx is also amazing

[papsiguesss]

Peter Cushing as inspector Quennell in The Blood Beast Terror

[mechaseraph]

Nichiasa is so insane this week

[intoxicatinginsanity]

Y’all

I just saw Doug freaking Jones at my local Ralph’s at 10pm and I legit had to stop myself from squealing in line. Idk if he realized I recognized him, cause my ass legit kept glancing back at him every chance I could. Cause, ya know, I legitimately could not believe I was in the same space as him! Like I was walking in to grab a can of wet food for my cat cause we ran out and I was on my way home from doing delivery runs. I walked in with my little basket and saw this man with his cart and I was like that guy looks like Doug Jones. Nah there’s no way. Did a double take, oh fuck wait. No way. That’s fucking Doug Jones!!! My partner was up a few aisles from me, because I went to the pet section first when we came in and I legit stopped what I was doing and fast walked to my partner. And I was like “Did you see this guy?”, and he was like “No what are you taking about”. And I’m like there’s a guy here that I’m pretty sure is Doug Jones. And he was like “What no, why would he be here? You’re probably wrong”. He legit not fucking two minutes after saying that walks by us and I point at him discreetly and go “That’s him! You can’t tell me it’s not”. And my partner looks, squints and just stares and then goes ��Okay yeah that’s fucking Doug Jones”. And we proceed to fucking try not to be super obviously star struck in line the whole time haha. But yeah. Probably one of the coolest nights I’ve had in awhile. Wish I could have said hi but I was not about to bother this man who clearly just wanted to get groceries and go the fuck home. It totally made my whole week. He’s so freaking tall, like I knew he was tall, but goddamn he’s tall.

[stresskidz]

Tlou has some of the most amazing sfx makeup works i've ever seen, but that bite i swear i saw the edges

[jelloapocalypse]

Hi! I guess it’s ask time? Just wanted to say I think you’re one of the funniest people on YouTube; I have a playlist called ‘Emergency Funny’ and like half of it is just your videos.

I’m wondering, when you’re cold-reading a line, like in those streams of voice acting a video game while playing it, what are the small details, if any, that you look to to figure out how to read the line? I’m continually amazed how you manage to have near perfect delivery while never having read the line before. Sorry if this is worded confusingly I legit don’t know how to phrase it

This was sent months ago, but it's actually a very good question and talking about this might help people who like to voice games on stream get better at doing that.

For context, this is about our "fully-voiced" game playthroughs where we cold read an entire video game out loud.

One small thing I try to do that helps is pressing the "advance dialogue button" when the person speaking is about 65-70% of the way through their line. That way, if the next line is from the same character the actor has a chance to read it smoothly as though the lines were not separated at all.

If it turns out to be a different actor's line, this gives the new actor more time to skim the words as well as extra time for them to realize they're about to be speaking so they don't get caught off guard.

Doing this is actually kind of hard because every actor we work with reads at a different pace and the person actually playing the game has to keep that in mind. Oz, Vixen, Arim, and I can sight read most lines almost instantly. I've seen Oz and Vixen in particular read entire text boxes that were only onscreen for a couple frames. But, obviously, not everyone is that fast, so everyone gets different "advance the dialogue" speeds.

Ideally, if a game is well-written and the characters you're playing have a strong voice, you'll slowly fade into the character as you read them. You begin to feel the things they're saying rather than just reading words on a page. Once you hit that flow state, it becomes easier to process what they might logically say next. If you notice one of us make 2-3 errors in the span of just a few lines, it means we're probably not in that flow state.

Some games are also much easier to scan than others, usually because of their character poses.

A game like In Stars and Time has such incredible character portraits that you can usually tell the tone of the accompanying line within a few frames of a portrait change.

Loop (above) is an extremely suspicious and weird character, but voicing them was so much fun because I could always rely on the portraits and the font changes in the text to give me direction on how to play them accurately, even though I didn't actually know what their deal was until about halfway through our playthrough.

Coffee Talk also has very strong portraits that react in real time to the lines of dialogue. The framing can push characters smaller or larger in focus depending on how upset or meek they are, so it's very easy to react on sight and adjust accordingly.

Every time a game developer takes the time to painstakingly add portraits that match every single line, every time they add SFX to accentuate certain words, every time a font wiggles to tell you someone is speaking in a sing-songy way, that's all direction that the game's creators are giving you.

Another thing that helps is just media literacy. I think everyone on the channel is pretty good at that because, speaking frankly, I don't like hanging out with people who have bad media literacy, lmao.

The more media you consume, the easier it becomes to know how a story is going to go. Even a really well-written mystery usually has only 3-5 real options for an ending, and while you're reading games aloud it's a good practice to consider all of them equally so your reads make sense no matter what. You'll notice it's pretty rare something takes us entirely by surprise in a read-through.

Also, of note, it's much easier to notice specific foreshadowing and word choice in dialogue when you're reading it aloud as opposed to silently skimming.

A solid example is our fully-voiced playthrough of Trails From Zero, which actually happened on SurpriseRoundRPG a few years back and not my own Twitch or YouTube.

Minor spoilers, but the character above, Ernest, has some antagonistic interactions with your main party over the course of this game. He wants Ellie, the white-haired party member, to quit the police force (that's your group) and go back to working with him in the Mayor's office.

When Arim played this game solo he didn't really think much of this guy. However, when he played the game for us and we read it out loud, having lines like the one pictured above spoken aloud makes it kind of impossible not to notice that this man is a freak. Mo, his VA, ended up playing him as a manosphere incel weirdo because that's the vibe he was putting out, and, lo and behold, that's pretty much exactly the character he turned out to be.

There's a running theme on our channel where commenters are often surprised to see the game "play into our bits" and how we "accidentally predict things".

What's really happening is the reverse.

It's very, very rare that we decide to make up a bit from absolutely nothing. It's not a hard and fast rule, but I find we only make jokes and play up aspects of characters based on things that are already there. Hence that one time in Miles is a Robot when I said something awful and sexual as Ray Shields, Oz groaned, and I said "Hey man, I'll give him a different joke when the game gives me somethin' else to work with!" I didn't choose to make Ray awful and sexual all the time. That's just how he is, so that's the well we pulled bits from.

Because we only extrapolate from existing content and our "silly" versions of the characters onscreen are just exaggerated versions of what's really there, whenever the game gives us more info about them, the new stuff tends to be very in-line with the bits we've already been doing. It's not us being psychic. It's us being consistent!

It also helps that almost all the regulars on my channel have done professional voice work and have been doing some version of this for literally 10+ years. Practice makes perfect!

[xxautumnivyxx]

A team of absolute legends. Wrapping up Pax West 2024 and I couldn’t have asked for a more amazing group of folks to get to stand beside. Huge thanks to Larian Studios for allowing me the honor of being Karlach again and also to my Camp Crew for being so phenomenal. I cannot thank any of you enough for all of the things you’ve done and continue to do. Such a great found family of folks.

Emperor suit fx - @/keltonfx

Emperor - @/illusion_alchemy

Astarion - @/JusticeVanCho

Lae’zel - @/yuukingram

Shadowheart - @/manzirae

Amazing makeup and sfx by @/thewhitney_b

And to my Moon Ellis who puts up with me pulling my own hair out trying to put on 4 hours of costume and helping while also baby sitting me when I’m trying to put on my big girl pants and keep my head above water. I love you.

[belliesandburps]

I happened upon this lovely "rank your kink-variation" meme from this post here. So if you wanna participate, check out that link and post up your own version. I'd have reblogged for simplicity, but I wanted to actually elaborate each ranking instead of just relying on the visual to give a "why" for ya. ;)

Soda - 10/10: I love watching or imagining a character slugging a fizzy beverage down, getting a good ways through before pulling their bottle / can away, gasping, and then just letting out a HUGE belch from all that carbonation brewing in their gut.

Full - 10/10: Full belly needs to make as much room as possible, right? <3

Bloated - 10/10: Kind of the same as full, but I view bloated with more discomfort, and the burps building up more and more, as each one brings relief, which I adore.

Queasy - 7/10: I love those queasy sounding burps from characters who feel nauseous, and then eventually burp so harshly that they cover their mouth, worried they might puke. It's not for every character, but when it works, it works.

No Cause - 4/10: Eh. Random burps are fine, but don't really do anything for me since there's buildup, relief or real reaction to complement them.

Loud - 10/10: I love for characters to unleash LARGE, rumbling belches. The emphasis on the volatile volume is always what gets me most.

Quiet - 6/10: This is more a prelude to bigger burps than anything else. Like when someone needs to burp and lets out a small one first, or if they CAN burp loudly but try to mute them. There's an appeal to someone letting out a weak burp, but only if it's eventually rewarded with a bigger one.

Deep - 10/10: Much like volume, I associate depth with force, and I love it when a burp is so deep that the character or those around them can FEEL it.

High-Pitched - 8/10: I associate high-pitch with brassy and in the upper range for the character. I like them a lot, but not as much as just full-on volume.

Airy - 5/10: These are more when a kind of stale or dainty burp barely comes out of someone's maw. It really does depend on the situation and character for me.

Wet - 5/10: I associate wet with the really bubbly, slimy-sounding burps. Similarly, these are situational. Sometimes, it works, other times, it can actually be kind of gross and not all that appealing.

Burp-Talking - 10/10: I LOVE when characters burp-talk. Be it on-command for the sake of being obnoxious or a tease...or if they're bloated or gassy that when they try and speak, they end up belching their words out. Chefs kiss. No notes.

Long - 9/10: I love when a tremendous belch is occasionally one that rumbles out for an extended period of time. However, this gets a 9 because it's situational. A long burp that's a few seconds long is amazing. One that's 8 or so 9 seconds long CAN be wonderful if it's a really forceful one that starts really powerfully and just drags on. But sometimes, when you find SFX, the long burps are just monotone. And in literature, some people get carried away, saying a burp lasts over 10 seconds, and then it's just a joke and not appealing.

Short - 9/10: A short burp is the default for me and I love burps, period. They're the most versatile. They can be audible, quick, LOUD short ones, etc. But these don't get a 10 because they're not the ones that really linger in your head.

Multiple - 9.5/10: I love when a character lets out a large belch and immediately follows it up with another big one, or an afterburp or two. I also love the rapid-fire burps when someone forces out several in a row, back-to-back. But it depends on how they're described, and visually, I prefer the focus to be on one or two really solid belches or a big one and a smaller one. Too many all at once and it starts to dilute for me. I LOVE as many burps as possible, but pace yourself, darlings. XD

Shy - 8/10: I love shy burps. These are people who CAN burp, but really don't want to. Or someone who REALLY needs to burp, but is so well-mannered that they don't want to be impolite. They're precious...and eventually will let them out. >:)

Embarrassed - 8.5/10: This is essentially the same as shy, except, this is someone who lets out a REALLY good one...and is embarrassed beyond belief because they're the LAST person you expected to hear it from. Vil springs to mind. :P

Surprised - 8/10: I love these kinds of burps, because there's always the aftermath of covering one's mouth and muttering "Whoa...where did THAT come from...?" It CAN be embarrassed, or it can be amusement or just a general statement.

Nonchalant - 8.5/10: This is someone who burps freely and doesn't make a fuss out of it. If they need to burp, they'll burp and just move on. There's tons of appeal in that, but it's still contingent on the character for me.

Aroused - 10/10 (BUT...): Aroused is essentially someone with a burp fetish themselves letting out a big burp and moaning in both relief and arousal from it. Like they're getting turned on by their own burps. I write a lot of NSFW content for patreon, and depending on the character, this can REALLY do it for me, BUT...I do mean specific characters only. There are certain characters I love portraying as lewdly as possible, and they're the only ones this clicks for me with. Leona is NOT gonna get turned on by letting out a monstrous belch in the Prefect's face. :P

On-Command - 10/10: Self-explanatory. Someone so good at burping that they can do it on-command whenever they want, and they can let out some REALLY good ones with nothing but air in their stomachs. Yeah. I kinda ADORE that. <3

Visible - 10/10: I wasn't sure what this meant at first, but based on the users' "tummy jar meme", I'm gonna use the same definition. In other words, "visible" refers to a burp so intense, that the characters body has a physical reaction to it. Such as a really bloated character letting out so a ferocious belch that their belly actually ripples from the force of that burp. Yeah, that's some 10/10 goodness right there. ;)

Teasing - 10/10: Maybe all the NSFW stuff on patreon has infected my brain, but yes, I ADORE characters who are with characters they know have a burp fetish, and they use that for evil. Burping in their face, intentionally muffling a large belch and blowing the gas at them, or rubbing their stomach up and down and moaning how they have a big burp brewing. OR, preds who belch in the faces of prey to taunt them over where they're going. Adore all of it. The end. <3

Multiple People - 7/10: This is when you have situations where multiple characters are burping. I CAN love this, but it really does depend on the characters and the situation. Two overstuffed bois burping left and right? Sign me up. Two characters I love having a burping contest? Yes please. But, while appealing, if I personally have to choose between having multiple characters burping or focusing on just one, I actually prefer the latter since I like a specific character getting immediate focus.

Hope you guys enjoy and if you wanna participate, check out the link at the start of the post and download / reblog the original posters' meme for yourself! :)

[dogcircle-scans]

I'm really curious to know if you have officially dropped the manga. If so (and even if not obvs), I'd just like to thank you for so many amazing years of awesome translations. This manga may not be very popular in the west but I'm glad you kept bringing it for so many of us

Hey, sorry for just now seeing this even though this question was sent back in late November.

No, we haven't officially dropped the manga, and Idk if any group has picked up the series while I was gone. Emphasis on the "I" because our absence was not a consenting choice made by anyone else in this group. So if anyone harbors any kind of resentment, then do not direct it towards anyone but me. If we ever decide to officially drop the series, I'll make an official announcement on this blog. To be honest, I wasn't really gonna make much hubbub about a comeback and just post a chapter as if no time had passed. But, because I got this question and you were very nice about it. I'll give some insight.

- 🦙

The only reason I'm an active part of this fandom (any fandom now really) despite it being against my lurker nature and excessive anxiety issues is because I was encouraged to do so by a friend. If you know me from Discord, then you probably know that aside from running this blog, I'm leader of the scan group and owner of its server, I'm even an admin for the Natsume fan server which is its own separate thing.

I don't know if that sounds already sounds overwhelming, but just to scare you, I also proofread the scripts so the dialogue sounds natural and act as quality checker for each chapter. This means cleaning/redrawing sections of pages if the CLDR forgot or didn't meet the standard of quality I'm looking for. Similar with typesetting, I'll rearrange the text if I feel it could be done better. I'm also the main SFX person. When it comes to the scan server, outside of running and maintaining it, I also act as mod to make sure people aren't posting anything inappropriate or inoffensive + setting up bots and permissions.

When I was in High School and even during my early years of college, I could manage it cause I had the support and energy for it. Plus, my love for Natsume was scary intense. So when life got hard, I found that working on scans acted as a lifeline.

Then I had a messy fallout with the friend who prompted all of this, and things shifted. It didn't help that things in my personal life got really bad and more or less stayed that way for 2/3 years. And because of the association, and the guilt of falling behind, working on Natsume was no longer a stress-relieving activity. It became the source of my stress. I ran away because I was scared and overwhelmed. It wasn't healthy and it only made things worse, honestly.

But, I've been really hard on myself over this past year, and I finally reached the point of wanting to come back, but the guilt from being a deadbeat was still eating me alive. Then I got really sick at the start of this month, and I'm no lie, I'm still sick... but that gave me a lot of time to think and reevaluate all kinds of things. Because honestly? I miss working on scans and the collaborative aspect that I fell in love with because of Natsume.

And literally just this past Saturday/Sunday night, I sent a message to the group, apologizing for what I did and provided a similar explanation of why I did what I did. I trying it as just an explanation and not an excuse - I hope I was able to do that here too.

I told my group to give me several days before I actually start working on scans again, though, because it'll allow me to catch up with everything and figure out what needs to be done next, and it'll also give me more time to recover.

Thank you once again for being kind and understanding! I really appreciate it 🥹💚

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

The stars of fantasy drama Good Omens have teased an "even closer" relationship between angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and demon Crowley (David Tennant) when the show returns for season 2.

The original run, which released back in 2019, saw the unlikely duo join forces in order to prevent armageddon, with this follow-up tackling a smaller-scale story, according to creator Neil Gaiman.

Sheen and Tennant, who created the lockdown sitcom Staged between their work on Good Omens, spoke to SFX Magazine about how the relationship between their characters has evolved.

"What’s different in season 2 is, because of what happened at the end of season 1, they no longer have head offices that they have to report to," began Tennant.

"They are in a very different position. Whereas before they were trying to get away with things, now they are kind of free agents."

Sheen continued: "Although sort of fugitives as well. They are sort of in-between. But this amazing life they have created over a millennia, they are now able to enjoy in a slightly different way.

"They are not having to put on a front for their respective teams. There is a different kind of freedom.

"They have always been the only two beings who could understand each other’s position. Now they are pushed even closer together."

Tennant added: "[Crowley] only has one friend. He can only have one friend. That is the great liberation, and also the great prison, that they find themselves in. They have no one else.

"They have come to rely on each other more than they ever did. And more than they care to admit."

[fernsproutxx]

oh… i feel like i just gained forbidden knowledge, it’s not that hard to find if you really go looking though. it was amazing really, because it felt really cool and dumbfounding that this isn’t more common knowledge

but also makes sense, since not everyone gets invested in the lore of a small indie game development studio hahahah

(i've already shared this whole post's information at the wrong organ discord server almost verbatim, but i thought that the tumblr crowd might enjoy this too. i was told that i made some really good sleuthing with this hah)

it's about game files, textures, design details, and a previous project from the developers at wrong organ, which tie back into mouthwashing, at least in a subtle way in my opinion

it’s more about jimmy’s character design actually i know he was stated to purposely look like "your average joe" but personally i think there is more to it that wasn't mentioned, so strap in because this post is a little long…

okay… so!

some weeks ago i saw a post here on tumblr about an unused horse asset in the game files of mouthwashing, along with other multiple models and textures, and i thought it was interesting, but didn’t pay much mind to it

but yesterday i went around looking at the developer socials, as one does. first the wrong organ twitter account, which isn’t that hard to scroll at the bottom

i was looking at their mouthwashing memes really hahah

but then i saw in one of their old posts that someone asked about what happened to a shooter that was being developed, to which the account replied that it was sadly cancelled, and i thought “huh, i didn’t know about that, i wonder how it looked…”

cue more scrolling and a jump to johanna’s account

(she's wrong organ's co-founder by the way, obviously there’s people everywhere who don’t know this lol)

first i only looked at her retweets really, a bunch of outstanding mouthwashing fanart, but when i saw in passing mention that she also does art and i went "AWOOGA¿! FELLOW ARTIST SPOTTED"

immediate jump to her media tab so i could scroll from bottom to top

and oh boy

was i in for a surprise

remember the unused horse in the game files i mentioned earlier¿ YEAH THAT HORSE

well

going through johanna’s twitter gallery things started to connect, and man oh man… [VINE BOOM SFX]

my first thought was

"HUH… that reminds me of someone……… and i’ve seen that horse before…………… surely not"

but that wasn't it

also remember when only recently people was like just noticing that jimmy had a faint scar on his lips¿ which in turn ensued a ton of fanart that included that miniscule detail¿

man… it’s so fucking obvious now—

🤦

he’s a reused asset

WHICH MAKES SENSE BECAUSE TIME SAVING IN GAME DEVELOPMENT IS CRUCIAL

BUT BROOOOOOO HOW DID NO ONE KNOW THIS¿¿

it was hilarious when i shared this in the server because with this we finally knew where some of the emotes in there originated from, one of them being this protagonist's face hahah

here’s more about it for the curious

the thing had plenty of models and animations already made too like, dude…

the fucking hair texture

THE TEXTURE

reusing assets my beloved

it's a real shame that game got cancelled, it looked very cool…

here’s a funny tho (me when honse)

it even got to the wishlist stage, but ultimately it faded away 😔

anyways, horse rider with long rifle jimmy ancestor you will always be missed, see you space cowboy… and fly high

hope you enjoyed reading my 3am rabbit hole on this niche piece of lost media heheheh :D

[comicaurora]

Hi! I finally got the chance to read Aurora a bit ago. It's a wonderful story--all I was expecting and better! I was particularly amazed and delighted by the artwork and visual mechanics used to tell the story, so I wrote a post to yell about how cool it is and break some of it down. (No criticism, just praise.) I'm mostly a hobbyist, so I'm hoping I've done it justice.

That said: zero pressure to read it or respond to this ask. Normally I wouldn't send it since I tagged, but I know Tumblr's notifs are a mess and things get lost very easily. I've been in both the "one (1) word of praise will feed me for a year" and the "oh gods don't talk about my writing/art because anything that seems Off will break my brain" modes before, and I absolutely don't want to push or make you uncomfortable!

If you are comfortable, however, I wanted to ask about your use of what I'm assuming are Screen and blending modes in sound effect words. (I'm only guessing that's the technique, though, so I could be totally wrong about how it's done! I'm mostly experienced in image manipulation in Photoshop.) Making them semi-transparent over the actions is genius :) What inspired you to do that, and are there specific techniques you use to make it work?

Same questions go for using specific colors to distinguish different characters' words and actions. I really noticed it in the cave sequence with Falst and Dainix, since their colors are so vivid in the dark (ex. Falst's little swats and Dainix's swooping kick at 1.20.9). It lends excellent clarity to busy scenes.

Thanks! Have a lovely day, enjoy your break, and happy holidays <3

You're correct about the technique! "Screen" is the blend mode I use most often for sound effects. I stumbled on it mostly through trial and error - I love how sound effects add depth to a comic panel, but it's very easy for them to obscure the art in a way I find counterproductive, so "Screen" lets me put the sound effect directly over the origin of the sound while still letting it be visible through the word. Early chapters didn't have it as much-

Most of the sound effects in early chapters are just solid colors with reduced opacity if I'm feeling fancy. But I started figuring it out around chapter 8 and 9, because Falst is kind of a sound-effect-heavy guy, especially in his fight scenes.

In order to make sure they don't impede the visibility of the action, I'll often soft-erase the top or bottom half of the SFX to reduce its opacity while still leaving it readable.

I'll usually double that up with an outline on the SFX so it's still readable. This is an especially important consideration if the SFX goes over an area of the background that's very bright or glowing.

Color-coding the speed lines and SFX to the character or force causing them isn't a hard and fast rule, but I like using it (in part because it's a habit from the OSP illustrations, where every character has a single pop of color in their lineart) mostly because it sort of codes every sound to make it clear where it's emanating from, or the general feeling of the sound. Since I normally do character-colors for SFX, something like this stands out more jarringly-

Which it's supposed to, but a big lightning strike doesn't register as anything too worrying because it's just Tess up to her usual shenanigans.

It's also very useful for magic effects, because each form of magic has its own associated palette.

And when I had a very complicated fight scene in a dark environment, I used the texture pattern I'd already made for the monster to color its SFX, so when I Screened them onto the panels they didn't obscure too much while still communicating "this is something else."

Changing the weight, lined-vs-not-lined, and opacity of the SFX words also helps to communicate that not every sound has the same feeling. A strong motion is solid and aggressive, but a crackling, unstable sound is more ephemeral and staticky.

It's definitely been a process of learning as I go - looking back at the earlier chapters I can actually see when I first tried various tricks I now use regularly, like doubling and distorting an SFX to produce the effect of a camera-shaking impact. I haven't really seen any other comics that do it like I do, probably because most other comics follow a more traditional production pipeline where text bubbles and sound effects get locked into the composition early, before the inking stage, because traditional physical comics don't have digital-art layers to play with. Adding sound effects to a page is almost the last thing I do before exporting them, and that only works because digital art and layers allow for a ton of flexibility.

[toseeclearly]

Season one is complete, long live season one.

Parkdale Haunt was a learning experience. We made that show with only the vaguest idea of how creating an audiodrama worked. We just kind of did what we knew and hoped it would work out. And it did! We had such an amazing run. But that means you go into your next show with this quiet nervousness around it, will this be ok? Will people like it? Will they listen? You set a standard and then you have to live up to it again. I would be lying if I said that I never found that daunting as we ramped up into production.

But we're an independent show. We don't have to answer to anyone other than ourselves, so that means that we have to make the show that we want to make. In the end, every part of this is a labour of love, so we have to love what we're creating. And it's tiring, it is tiring during the depths of recording, it is tiring when the sound design is being put in and requiring Ian to spend hours upon hours carefully placing SFX, it is tiring when I'm sitting there, cutting hours and hours and hours of raw audio into something resembling proper dialogue. But it's so much fun. I am incredibly lucky to get to make another show with people I love and care so much about. What a joy! What a blessing. Creating art is terrifying but it's also wonderful. It's also terrible sometimes but it's mostly wonderful, and what luck to have found an audience for it. We can't make this stuff without our amazing cast, our phenomenal composer (hi Phil!), support from our friends and families, and the listeners who post and send us such wonderful comments and art and fan letters and everything else. I want to highlight the incredible and irreplaceable Andy Kelly's art one more time, he brought the show to life in a new way. And of course, to Emily and Ian, my creative partners but most of all my friends, none of this exists without the three of us. Forever thankful to be able to create and grow alongside you both. I know that I post about this stuff a lot, but I think it is important. Remember those who you create alongside. Speak their names. Thank them for their work. Everything we do is so short and fragile. Celebrate the good because someday you will only be able to look back. Create the things that you will later treasure. Hold close the relationships that make you better for having them. We are all but trees in fall, brilliant and delicate, colours that fade with the winter winds. Thank you for listening. We'll see you soon.

[felassan]

The Guardian interview: '‘Less Star Wars – more Blade Runner’: the making of Mass Effect 2’s Bafta-nominated soundtrack'

A blind audition, a fruitful collaboration, a tense creative fallout: composer Jack Wall’s journey through the Mass Effect universe was as epic as the player’s

Excerpts:

"“I had made a soundtrack for Jade Empire very successfully with BioWare before Mass Effect,” Wall tells me, when I ask how he became part of the team working on the original title. “Then, they put out an audition process for what the team was calling SFX, the codename for Mass Effect. It was a blind audition, and BioWare got the files back from a number of composers. The team would listen to all those different things and decide who nailed it the most for the tone or the feeling they were picturing. And I won that audition blind.” Almost immediately, Casey Hudson got to work on giving Wall the brief. “His mandate was ‘I want this to sound like 80s sci-fi music’. No Star Wars, nothing like that, more like Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, Blade Runner. Those were the main ideas.” Hudson specifically wanted to channel that vintage analogue synth sound that defined the science fiction of the era (especially in movies) and imagined the multilayered, multitextured approach from Tangerine Dream as the perfect accompaniment to the dense and complex Mass Effect universe. Wall explains that BioWare played him a piece of music written by another composer called Sam Hulick, who had also auditioned for the project. While Hulick wasn’t chosen to be the lead composer (because he was considered to be too junior for the job), Wall gave him equal credit on the soundtrack, thanks to his “incredibly important” contributions to key themes in the first game."

It wasn’t until Mass Effect 2 that the music really came into its own, becoming integral to the whole experience. Where Mass Effect has this almost utopian outlook, channelling the optimism of mid-20th century sci-fi to establish its universe, the sequel is darker. The end of everything is nigh. From the off, you’re told the final act is a “Suicide Mission”, and to get your affairs in order before you reach the point of no return. There’s a pervasive pessimism, and every second you play you can feel the suffocating inevitability of sacrifice closing in around you. It needed music to match. "“Right at the beginning of the development, Casey Hudson came in and said ‘I’d love to write the ending now’,” Wall says, “‘because everything’s going to culminate there. I want that to be the main moment that everyone remembers. He gave me some guidance, and talked me through what he wanted [players] to feel – which is always the best way to work with a director.” This track, aptly named Suicide Mission, may be the most important across the whole trilogy. It has a more orchestral bias than anything from the first game, and reflects the serious overall tone. It shows how rapidly Mass Effect matured from one game to the next. “It had to be epic, it had to feel cinematic, it had to feel ‘one man against everything’,” says Wall. “You needed to feel like you were saving the world, saving the galaxy, whatever. I came up with that main theme, and [Hudson] liked it pretty much immediately.” But before Wall and Hudson could start fitting the pieces together, there was some maintenance to be done. BioWare and Wall were unimpressed by how the music in the first game had been patched into the final product. “The transitions were terrible,” Wall says when I ask for examples, “and it just didn’t do justice to the music."

"“So, what we decided is that in Mass Effect 2, I would do all the implementation, which was something I’d never done before,” he continues. “I had an amazing assistant called Brian DiDomenico who worked with me in my studio every day; he sat in my vocal booth with a desk and a PC, and I would send him my tracks, he would implement them into the game, and I would do a play test there and then. And we would tweak it until it was really good … BioWare was known for only putting out a game when it was ready, and so things got delayed a lot, but fans were super happy when they got it.” Wall remembers finishing the game, noting that the whole ending sequence came through “in little tiny pieces of video that were spewed out by the game engine”. He took the files and fed them into a movie editor on his Mac, pieced the ending together, and edited Suicide Mission into it. He then wrote different endings to the track, reflecting the choices of the player. “It was the biggest mind-fucking thing I’ve ever done in my entire life,” he laughs. “And there was no one available to walk me through it, because they were all freaking out trying to finish the game. I handed it in, and they had to do a lot of massaging on their end in order to get it to work, but they did it … and the result is still one of the best ending sequences to a game that I’ve ever played. It was worth all that effort.” Wall did not return to score Mass Effect 3, the least well-received game in the trilogy. “Casey was not particularly happy with me at the end,” he says. “But I’m so proud of that score. It got nominated for a Bafta, and it did really well … [even if] it didn’t go as well as Casey wanted.” Talking to Wall, I sensing an almost Fleetwood Mac level of creative tension between him and Hudson; the duo made something amazing that would live in the hearts of sci-fi and RPG lovers for ever, but at the cost of some relationships. “Fallouts like that happen, it’s just part of the deal,” he says. “It’s one of the few times in my career that’s happened, and it was a tough time, but it is what it is.”"

[source]

[morrisredemptionarc]

what would the villagers get tiktok famous for!

OOOOOOH BOY OKAY first of all anon, i’m so sorry it took so long (years?) to get this done!! We did the classic "stopped playing stardew for a while and now i have my two weeks of obsession" thing going on rn Just doing the marriage bachelors in this post, but I have ideas for what some of the non marriage candidates might go viral for that I might make a second post for!

Abigail

Variety account, but lots of clips of all her gaming fails

She also does a lot of skits based off of the games she plays! No cosplay though, she just does the thing where she puts random things on her head to signify a new character :’)

Surprisingly doesn't post too much and when she does, there's not really a theme, so she doesn't keep a following

She's having fun with it though

Alex

Started by intentionally posting thirst traps

Has comments that are just variations of “GO WHITE BOY GO!”

Sometimes includes Dusty in his videos.

Also posts with his grandparents sometimes and the crowd LOVES it

I can see him posting videos of him cooking with his grandparents or just their daily lives

Elliott

He posted a video of the beach and flipped the camera to show his face

Booktok found him and deemed him their boyfriend

Eventually, Elliott got into the ASMR scene where he reads books on live in his cabin

At some point, he starts promoting his own books

People think he's playing a character but no, he's really just like that

Emily

Divination, specifically cleromancy!

It started off as people wanting actual readings and she'll do quick yes or no answers

But at some point, people started getting weird with it

Things we've learned from Emily's videos: aliens exist and don't want us, Mothman's ass really is that big, Bigfoot and Sasquatch and all the rest of those types of cryptids are part of the same family

Haley

Painting time lapses!

She doesn't do voice overs or any major edits

Just a speedpaint

Her face is actually never shown on the videos themselves

But she has a semi successful online shop where she sells her prints

Harvey

This was an idea that me, @doctordumptruck , and another friend talked about on our group chat, and something Moss posted about on his blog, but Harvey starts off with an educational account

It doesn’t blow up until he does a video where he demonstrates something standing up and all the comments noticed his dumptruck ass <3

When he first started, the quality of his videos were Not It. Maru now helps with the production of the videos

That doesn’t stop him from making responses with shaky camera work and harsh lighting from the clinic

Overall charming account, but there’s big dorky father energy there

Leah

She posts all her DIYs on her account!

Doesn’t really show her face much in the videos, but she does have a nice voice, so people stay for it

It's very low stimulation, easy to watch kind of vibes

GREAT for people who get overwhelmed easily!!

CEO of trust the process

Maru

Michael Reeves vibes, only more family friendly

It does still have the same energy though

Quick, fast paced, stupid inventions that are absolutely useless

Have you ever seen a refrigerator that launches cold brew at you in the mornings if you open it?

Sebastian has

He wasn’t even mad about it, just confused

She also just talks a LOT about space on her account

Penny

She’s a cosplayer 100% this is the ONE thing that she does for herself

She does keep her private life private, and most people who follow her don’t know what she looks like outside of cosplay

Absolutely amazing at sfx makeup! Every single character she does looks like a completely different person

Penny started cosplaying with characters from favorite childhood books, and some of the book series that Jas and Vincent have shown interest in

She actually surprises the kids sometimes by hanging around town as some of their favorite characters!

Sam

He’d start a band account with Abby and Seb

If you’re aware of the kpop group Seventeen, their tiktok account was recently set to private because someone set their account’s birthday as the debut day of the group so tiktok thought the account was a child’s.

Sam did the same thing with their first account and had to make a new one lmao

Sam is the one mostly on the account though and he does a mixture of skits based on his experiences with Vincent, short videos of him playing guitar, and various challenges he thinks would be fun

Sebastian

On his personal, he wouldn’t show his face much, but will update everyone on his frog sanctuary (imagine he has one even if he wasn’t married to farmer)

People would eventually figure out that he’s the same guy Maru pulls pranks on, as well as the keyboardist in Sam’s band

There have been attempts from the comments that he should do a thirst trap. He refuses to do so on his frog sanctuary account, but Sam convinced him to at least do a joke one on the band account

People still request them anyway

Shane

OKAY SO you know his 6 heart event where you can see him filming an ad for Joja Cola with Clint and Emily?

He started getting really into making short films

There's not really intros to his videos and they're all shot horizontal

A lot of videos flopped but Shane doesn't really mind

But then he posted a really short one featuring the big tree in the forests and people really liked that

And more and more people started requesting he film more of the town he lives in

Also he is GREAT at color grading

BONUS:

Maru's the only person in town who knows about Penny’s account. She helps with the props and lighting

Elliot and Shane started becoming friends too because of their accounts. They sometimes collab by bringing Elliot’s stories to life through Shane’s skills with filmmaking!

[witchexia]

Dr.Arias/Paradox/Pair of Ducks headcanons 2 !

(now that the 1st headcanons were KIND of a backstory for him, it's time for ACTUAL headcanons!!! all of these are in his human form!)

first thing ill start off with is his connection with simon glass! Him and simon are LITERALLY opposites (sun and moon, silver and gold, spring and autumn) ! amazing little detail LOL

simon considers paradox as his inspiration in the whole psychology thing, before simon was head of psychology he wanted to be an amazing psychologist like paradox! (guess it worked out HUH)

He's LITERALLY a fashion icon! carefully plans out his outfits!

and YES, he does repaint his nails on one hand and do his eyelashes on one eye!!! (Slight reference there ;-)

he also REALLY likes snake scale patterns! his belt has a snake scale pattern!

IM SO SORRY FOR CONSTANTLY MENTIONING SIMON WITH HIM BUT, his personality is super similiar to simon's!! he's more calm, professional, maybe even a little serious BUT he's still such a sweetheartttttt !!!!

MUSIC TASTE: 100% a depeche mode/molchat doma guy!!!! maybe even a bjork guy who knows (i cant really figure out his music taste ..)

in his free time, he likes to go on nature walks or when the season is right, he goes to the woods to gather mushrooms! did i mention he knows ALOT about mushrooms and forest stuff?

just like simon, he also keeps snacks in his desk and in a bowl on that desk, has made his office comfy so patients don't feel intimidated and has sedatives in his drawer!

HUUUUUUUUUGEEEEEEEEEEE FAN OF TEA!!!!!! i feel like he also makes 'tea wrappeds' (like spotify wrapped BUT with teas he drank in a year!) i think his favorite teas are: saint john's wort, lavender, rooibos, valerian, chamomile, catnip (pretty much any tea that helps with anxiety, stuff like that!)

forgot to mention that he's also pagan and practices witchcraft! his patients sometimes ask him why does he have a FUCK TON OF CANDLES IN HIS OFFICE, and his excuse is that it calms him and people down!

HE ALSO LOOOOOOVEEEEEEEESSSS INCENSE!!! his favorite scents are: jasmine, sweet frankincense, dragon's blood, lavender, sandalwood, rose, sandalwood!

On halloween, he goes ABSOLUTELY APESHIT!!! he goes to the craft store with simon to get AS MUCH HALLOWEEN DECOR AS THEY CAN! same thing for the equinoxes and solstices!

speaking of halloween, i think he would actually be SO good at sfx horror makeup! like people get HORRIFIED when he makes a sfx fake wound because people think its real!

stealing something that i have irl, but i think he has a protection windchime in his office! (windchime with black colors and protection crystals like black agate or obsidian!!)

[lxnabeetv]

A Marvel Newcomer's Thoughts on Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

>SPOILERS AHEAD<

After the... well, harsh... review I gave last night, it's time to watch Captain America. And dear God, that means it's also review time.

For starters, the Tesseract was brought in again. I had TOTALLY forgotten about due to the melatonin-inducing film that was Thor. This German not-see was... interesting. I recognized him as Hydra, as the Hell's Heaven map is, y'know, Hydra-themed.

To continue, this movie exceeded my wildest expectations. Amazing CGI, entertaining plotlines, explosions, snark out the wazoo, Bucky Barnes, stellar makeup effects, and Rockette-esque dancers selling bonds. What in the Kentucky fried fuck happened between Thor and now?? Thor was so mid, but this was so good!!

Plenty of snark, by Bucky, Cap, and the Colonel; plus, a hero that I could actually root for! Cap is clever, witty, and determined as hell. He has so many funny bits, including where he got beat up, asked about the bathroom, and asking Agent Carter about fondue-ing Howard Stark. Cap is also a badass for saving 400 men from a not-see prison just to save Bucky. Like holy shit, dude, you're a legend for that. Yeah, Bucky falls off a train later, but you did what you set out to do AND proved yourself in the process.

Johann Schmidt made for an INSANE villain. Very good performance and a very fitting demise to the Tesseract. Extra amazing SFX on him, especially when Cap hit him in the eye.

Dr. Zola was an oddly familiar presence on screen, thus causing me to turn to IMDb yet again. Toby Jones, better known to me as the voice of Dobby in the Harry Potter world (I am very autistic about Harry Potter). Speaking of Harry Potter, when Schmidt takes off his human mask, he looks like a cherry lollipop version of Voldemort. I told my boyfriend this and he started laughing so hard he had to mute.

Cap's design may be campy at first, but it was very adorable. The (maybe?) Rockettes were not expected, but very fun to watch. Cap knowing how to draw was something I didn't know I needed to know until I saw it.

Agent Carter is the fucking GOAT. Slapping that disrespectful asshole, snarking with Cap, and their kiss towards the end was a ticking time bomb I couldn't wait to see explode. She is so clever and charming and DAMN I saw the sparks fly immediately.

Slight side-tangent; the Colonel yelling that he wasn't also kissing Cap was fucking HILARIOUS. The Colonel was kind of an ass at times, but very wittily so. I enjoyed watching him and his snark.

I have two notes on my paper that both read "NO BUCKY :(" and dear God, this film was a rollercoaster of emotions. I was so excited that Bucky was showing up this early! And then heartbroken when he was captured by the not-sees. Then overjoyed (and amused) when Cap rescued him. Bucky and Cap have the most amazing chemistry and- oh wait, now he's dead for real this time(?). I am going to piss my pants in sorrow.

I had no idea Howard Stark would be making appearances in this. The vibranium shield, so iconic. Stark finding the Tesseract was unexpected, but it ties into Dr. I-Grew-Up-On-Norse-Mythology's appearance at the end of Thor.

My rating: 9.5/10. The ending was heartbreakingly beautiful. Cap coming back into 2011 was so sad, yet so sweet. The "recovery room" on the other hand was so fucking surreal to me. I wish we had seen more Cap and Bucky, but perhaps another time. I wish they could bring Agent Carter forward in time as well so she can be with Cap. They were AMAZING together. There were so many adorable callbacks, from "You're late" to "I had him on the ropes," which tied in well when Cap appears in the post-credits scene doing some boxing.

Alright, one last part that I almost forgot...

In the post-credits scene, I spotted Loki (who is apparently alive after jumping off the Bifrost), Hawkeye, Widow, Nick Fury, Thor, Iron Man, Cap, Mark Ruffalo as the new Bruce Banner, and....... Robin Scherbatsky from How I Met Your Mother???? I have no idea who the fuck Cobie Smulders is going to be, but I'm hyped as hell for The Avengers and whatever crazy villain they're gonna face next. Captain America very much recaptured my interest after the last two films were rated by yours truly as mediocre. What a fucking film. If I didn't have such dry eyes from allergies, I would've cried at least once. RIP Dr. Erskine & Bucky and please for the love of all things holy find a way to bring Agent Carter back.