#this was originally gonna be naming specific artists but there were so many

[boygirlctommy]

idk how many posts i have left but before i continue the spam i love you dsmp artists for ever and ever and ever and ever

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Dilophosaurus wetherilli

Debut: Real Life, Circa The Early Jurassic (roughly 280 million years ago)

Hi I'm gonna talk about my favorite dinosaur now and you're gonna like it! Or maybe you won't, I don't know you! But y'know what I do know? Dilophosaurus!!! It's my best friend. They named it after the fact that it's got two (di) crests (lopho) on its head and also it's a reptile (saurus). A big reptile at that! In fact, it was the largest known animal of its time to walk the land in North America, and was almost certainly the apex predator of its environment, the Kayenta Formation (located across several of what are now the South-Western United States).

As you can see, this size chart demonstrates that the largest specimen discovered was about 7 meters (23 feet) long; no Tyrannosaurus rex, mind you, but still far larger than... some popular depictions might lead you to believe.

Also contrary to what some popular depictions might lead you to believe, Dilophosaurus would not have required the use of various biological mechanisms such as, for instance, retractable neck frills or venom-spitting to take down its prey; mechanisms which, mind you, are exclusively seen in animals as methods of self-defense, and would therefore only serve to scare away potential prey items.

Speaking of prey items, this stunning piece by Chase Stone depicts a pair of Dilophosaurus as having just brought down a prosauropod (a name for early sauropod relatives). Dilophosaurus did in fact live alongside at least one prosauropod, Sarahsaurus, the Holotype specimen of which bears tooth marks very likely left by a certain two-crested culprit! On that note I want to address another prevalent misconception in regards to life reconstructions of this animal...

On the left we have a (frankly hilariously sock-puppet-like) restoration by a sadly unknown artist, and on the right is another absolutely breathtaking rendering by Chase Stone. As you can pretty clearly see, the way the crests (among other things) are restored is very different between the two! For a long time, the crests were restored as seen on the left: very thin, and with a little protrusion jutting out of the back. This is due to something called shrink-wrapping, a trend in paleoart exemplified by the omission of tissues such as muscle or fat when reconstructing the animal, leading to much of the skeleton being visible through the skin, particularly in the case of the skull.

Stone's restoration, on the other hand, wraps the skull in a much more naturalistic-looking amount of soft tissue, and completely envelops both crests in a keratinous structure, much like the casque of a cassowary or a hornbill (in fact I believe the coloration is actually referenced specifically from a knobbed hornbill's beak).

This is due to the fact that the crests were likely a kind of bony core which would have supported a larger keratinous structure as is to be expected of... sigh... horny structures such as this. Stop smiling. Don't you know there's no fun allowed when you're learning about things? That's what school taught me, anyway. Ahem. As I was saying, the original shape of the crest was extrapolated from incomplete remains, which you can see a restored illustration of above.

Also worth noting is the inclusion of a thin, fluffy covering of feathers along the head, neck, and back of Stone's restoration. This is entirely plausible, as the current consensus is that dinosaurs and their close relatives, pterosaurs, were descended from a fluffy common ancestor due to the fluffy-feathery coverings seen in both groups being found to be basically the same stuff!

I could go on about so many things, like how tremendously fucked up and addled with tumors and infections the Holotype specimen was, or how we have a trace fossil which seems to preserve a Dilophosaurus sitting down in the mud like a big dumb bird, complete with an impression of its butt, but I trust that if these things pique your interest enough, you'll seek them out on your own time. Just remember not to have fun, because as we all know, fun is the one thing learning should never be.

[heavenlycloud]

vintage chanel: jennie x fem! reader

warnings: suggestive, swearing

a/n: i was gonna post this the night of the event but school and time got away from me so here it is a few days late. there might be some typos.... sorry

the met gala wasn’t a new occurrence to you after your first invitation when you were freshly eighteen. back then, your attendance made headlines as you had become the youngest guest to attend that year. even more headlines followed when you were handpicked by karl lagerfeld as a muse for the house of chanel. over the years you became a known figure within the fashion industry while dominating the western music industry. the level of success you’d reached in a few short years was recognized by numerous awards, accolades, and several gold and platinum album titles to your name. even with the musical success, you never forgot that fashion was really your claim to fame many years ago. hence why you graciously accepted a met invitation every single year. 

to many, the met gala is a star studded night where you get gussied up in clothes from top designers in high fashion, meet other A-list celebrities, and do whatever the hell you do inside because nobody seems to know. in reality, it was waking up at six in the morning then getting ready all day, walking a red carpet, answering the same 5 questions from reporters who hopefully remembered your name, then sat through what felt like the world’s longest and most awkward dinner. the only highlight of the event was finding out that one of your friends was only two tables away from you, rather than the usual five or six. overall, the real fun started at the afterparties which you always ended up being roped into attending then drunkenly leaving hand in hand with some supermodel you met that night. 

you sat in a suite on the 15th floor of the iconic Mark Hotel as your stylists, makeup artists, and management and PR team bustled around to make sure you were ready for tonight. the theme was Karl Lagerfeld, the designer that picked you as his muse years ago. your outfit was a handpicked piece designed by the esteemed german courtier. originally worn by linda evanglista in the Chanel Ready to Wear Fall/Winter 1991-1992 in Paris Fashion week. the entire morning was doing small interviews for Vogue and other fashion media outlets that get most of their press from this event. there was a smile on your face as you told the camera before you, “i’m super excited for this evening because i don’t think many people know i’m attending the event. i’ve been trying my best to keep it on the down low, but i think people are going to figure it out before i get to the carpet.” there was a small laugh followed by your words that trailed off on the end, specifically because you knew of a certain someone that was hoping just this once you wouldn’t show. 

“unnie, did you see the headlines?” the thai idol asked with urgency in her tone that made her member’s heart race. the older woman hesitated to answer, but she went silent as she read the headline that appeared over the banner at the top of her screen:

UPDATE: Y/N TO MAKE APPEARANCE AT THE 2023 MET GALA

jennie stared at her phone and lisa cautiously prompted, “are you okay?” jennie took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before saying, “why wouldn’t i be? it’s whatever. she gets invited every year, i don’t know why this would be any different.” she paused for a moment then abruptly commented, “i have to go. i’ll talk to you later.” the younger woman gave a weak smile, “okay bye, i’ll talk to you later.” in a sudden bout of frustration jennie tossed her phone across the room onto the bed then brought her hands to her forehead as she mumbled, “fuck…” there were light taps on her hands as her makeup artist silently chided her not to mess up her perfectly made up face. for the next hour she remained silent until she had to put on a smile for the cameras and fans that swarmed the porte-co·chère of the hotel down below. 

the car ride to the carpet was dead silent as jennie tried to soothe her nerves before enduring the next eight to ten hours on her own. through the deeply tinted glass jennie could see her security team waiting for her to step out of the car. one of the staff members assigned to her for the evening warmly assured her, “take as long as you need, miss kim.” she gave a curt nod and a hushed thank you before holding the door handle for a moment. one of the security guards pulled open the door and held a hand out to assist her out of the large black SUV. 

cameras flashed and fans shrieked and screamed as they desperately tried to earn jennie’s attention from their barricaded sections that flanked the entrance of the carpet. the idol waved and smiled for the cameras as she’d been taught to so many years ago, her smile turning genuine when she laid eyes on a familiar petite brunette. the young influencer passed jennie a mic and asked enthusiastically, “how are you?” with her eyes glued forward for a moment too long, jennie replied, “i’m everywhere. this is my first Met…” emma asked in slight surprise, “first Met?” the korean singer nodded and continued answering the quick questions on her current feelings. she laughed as the younger girl somewhat awkwardly yet genuinely shared the same thoughts of being nervous and anxious before such a large event. for just a moment jennie glanced to her right thinking she saw someone she knew. her blood ran cold when she realized she did know the person- you looking her way with the same narrowed gaze that dripped of venom and honey that had her spellbound from the first time. 

a smirk tugged at the corner of your lips after seeing the affect you still had on her after she supposedly stopped caring about you. for the fun of it, you shot her a wink before turning around and kissing the cheek of the interviewer that was speaking with you. jennie flinched ever so lightly then laughed awkwardly in a futile attempt to play it off. she quickly thanked emma for the interview then rushed off to the usher that was to guide her along the carpet. the remainder of the carpet went by in the blink of an eye. largely in part to the fact that she disassociated for the entire thing, only regaining awareness of her surroundings as she was ushered inside. 

jennie followed the usher to her table where her placecard was sitting daintily with her name handwritten in elegant calligraphy. she sat down gracefully beside another supermodel she’d yet to learn the name of then introduced herself politely. as more guests filed in, she couldn’t help but scan the room in search of you. the open seat beside her with a placecard that read a simple RESERVED made her stomach twist into knots. underneath the white tablecloth she bounced her leg anxiously, desperately hoping nobody around her noticed the soft clicking sound around the table. another usher made their way to her table and she took a breath of relief when she saw dua lipa approaching with a warm smile. however, the feeling was short lived when the albanian singer bent down and kissed her cheek with a slight pout. she explained quietly, “hi love, i wanted to come over and tell you myself that they’ve moved my seat this evening. but i’ll catch up with you later, alright?” jennie tried to answer as quickly and politely as possible to get in her question of who was taking dua’s place. 

the question was answered before it could even leave jennie’s lips when she heard you speak from over her shoulder, “thank you so much for understanding, babes. have a great evening and we’ll chat later!” you sat down beside jennie and greeted the other guests at your table which you were seemingly familiar with to some extent. the idol shifted beside you and you gave her what appeared to others as the warmest and welcoming smile, “jennie it’s been a while hasn’t it?” the woman saw through you as if you were made of glass, yet she refused to cause a scene at the Met Gala of all events. so, she plastered on a smile and hugged you back, “it has, how have you been?” she humored you in conversation and did her best to wiggle her way out of exclusively talking to you by roping the other table guests into the conversation. however, no matter how much she tried, you always managed to turn the topic exclusive to the two of you. jennie wondered how nobody else around her could see the lack of genuinity in your eyes, that you were intentionally toying with her like some game. but then again, why would anyone suspect you, a known sweetheart, of such a thing. 

you smiled to yourself as you did small things to get under jennie’s skin and give her the attention you craved. wether it be a hand trailing along her thigh or lightly hitting her foot with your own beneath the tablecloth. seeing her clenched teeth and smiles that faltered for just a split second were all the reward you needed to spur you on further. the moment that you all were dismissed to look around the museum exhibit, jennie was on her feet and eager to leave your side. you made no effort to follow her immediately, instead you found a handful of familiar faces and did your rounds to those you both did and didn’t care for…you did have a reputation to uphold anyway. an hour passed and you finally had eyes on jennie once more, she stood alone in front of a mannequin with yet another vintage Chanel piece. you watched her from afar, taking in the way she stared at the clothing with a genuine admiration and curiosity. the sight made your heart flutter as she reminded you of the first time you both met years ago. 

the feeling of warmth that bloomed in your heart ran cold when you saw some random man approach her. from his outfit alone you knew that he was someone’s plus one or an influencer that purchased his own ticket for the event. the way he stared at jennie with almost a sense of hunger and desperation made your skin crawl. you slowly made your way across the floor, wondering if she would actually need someone to intervene. her smiles were polite but you could see the way her eyes flitted from his with nearly every word she spoke as if she was searching for an escape. the stiff mannerisms of hers came to a halt when the guy attempted to place a hand around her waist, making her flinch out of surprise. without hesitation you rushed to her side in less than three strides. 

you slipped your arm behind her waist with ease, the familiar feeling bringing a genuine smile to your face. turning towards her you kissed her cheek, “hey beautiful i thought i lost you back there.” she looked up at you, a flash of fear still lingering in her gaze prompting you to pull her closer to your body. the guy in front of her tried to continue his conversation but you cut him off, “she’s with me. i expect that you’ll be returning to your table now, yes?” if looks could kill the young man would have been gone yesterday. he grew nervous with you, of all guests, standing over him, so much so that he couldn’t even utter an actual apology before literally running off. 

jennie continued to stand in your hold with her hand toying at the heavy gold belts wrapped around your waist. you remained silent as you lightly took her shaking hand into your free one, “jen?” she continued to stare at the same spot on the ground as you prompted once more, “jennie?” the idol snapped out of her trance and pulled away from you, “thank you for that…” she watched as your features softened in a way that made her heart beg that she cave into you and give you the type of attention she used to. your tone changed with the next words you spoke, this time they were genuine, the same way you used to speak to her, “yeah…of course, Nini.” her heart raced at the last word, so familiar and nearly made her crack but she internally put her fist down. she wasn’t about to start this, not now and especially not here. she backed away from you as if you were a burning flame that was moments from losing control. the singer straightened her posture then said coldly, “don’t call me that.” she turned on her heel then hurried off to go talk to another A-list supermodel that probably didn’t remember what group she was actually from. 

throughout the entire rest of the night jennie avoided you like the plague, no eye contact, no words exchanged, it was like you were invisible to her. the main event ended and the after parties were getting ready to begin. one of your managers found you and rushed you to meet your stylists where you were changed for the second look of the night. keeping with the theme, you wore a long sleeved white tweed top, black pants, and a large gold chanel belt. the look was worn by beverly peele in the chanel spring 1993 show. chunky gold bracelets adorned your wrist while the belt quite honestly felt like wearing a weighted hula hoop. nevertheless, you were guaranteed to be the talk of the night once again. 

TipToe by Jason Derulo blasted over the speakers in one of the many rooms within the multi-million dollar mansion owned by some uppity tycoon on the Upper East Side. the lights were off with the exception of burnt orange neon lights that barely lit a damn thing in the room. despite the windows being open, the entire house felt hot as hell with all the sweaty bodies of drunk and high supermodels, singers, and A-list actors. you watched who danced alongside you, trying to avoid meeting strangers with wandering hands and lustful gazes. as you skimmed the crowd around you, a tall blonde dragged a small black haired woman to dance with her. once again your interest peaked at seeing jennie in the perfect place for you to make another move. 

the bass of the music thrumed throughout your entire body as you danced your way over the now cluster of girls with jennie. you threw an arm around one of the women’s shoulders and shouted over the music, “Kenny!” the supermodel turned to face you and her face lit up as she pulled you into a hug, “Y/N!” jennie slowed her movements to the beat of the music as she watched you talking to the girl next to her. the nerves only lasted a minute because a second later she was pressing herself against Hailey Baldwin with her head resting on her shoulder and wrapping the blonde’s arm tighter around her torso. the unsuspecting model simply laughed and kissed jennie’s temple as she swayed to the beat jennie set. just as you began to look away, jennie opened one eye and smirked when she saw your dissatisfied expression  and pretended you were invisible all over again. 

you grew impatient and slowly slipped between Kendall and Hailey which they welcomed without question. jennie tried to keep Hailey against her but your arm slid between their bodies and Hailey switched positions with you to dance with Kendall. jennie began to make a move to leave but you pulled her back flush against your front. the gentle touch of your fingers ran down her arm making goosebumps form on her skin. you chuckled lowly and said into her ear, “come on now, dance with me.” the warmth of your body against hers was a feeling she thought she’d forgotten but now it was as if you’d never left. she turned to face you, gaining some control back before she attempted to make her leave, “i don’t want to dance with you.” her voice was saying one thing while her mind and body said another prompting you to ask, “are you sure because the way you’re holding my arm on your waist is telling me otherwise.” 

jennie glared at you through those cat-like, chocolate brown eyes and thick black lashes with a gaze that made your heart race. she watched as your eyes crawled over her body with such a hunger that she would have gagged if it was anyone else. you pulled her closer to you, closing the gap between your bodies and for just a moment she almost gave into your touch. once again she backed up and swallowed thickly, “i’m doing just fine with my friends here.” you stared at her unfazed then glanced over to Kendall and Hailey who were lost in their own offbeat two step to Alone by Kim Petras. god, jennie wished she could kiss wipe that stupidly perfect, coy smirk off of your face. a few people around you both noticed that you were no longer dancing and instead standing in a confrontational position before jennie. she looked at the hand she was still holding to her body and sighed as she turned back around, dancing against your front, “i’m just not trying to cause a scene.” you laughed lowly into her ear, “whatever you say, angel.” 

you held her slender waist to your body and the hand that rested by her leg into your own, lacing your fingers together with a smile. jennie slipped her hand out of yours and you tsked quietly, “and about your friends- you know goddamn well none of these girls give a fuck about you, they just care about the title you carry. they’re all up on you just to take a picture and use it to get an extra million likes and comments. you’re wasting your time staying around them because after tonight it’s gonna be like you two never met.” the idol hated to admit it but you were 100% right. when it came to western celebrities, they heard the name BLACKPINK in tandem with one of the members names, and they were immediately trying to befriend them for clout. it was evident in the way they called jisoo by the wrong name, never pronounced rosé with the proper accent, just plain forgot lisa’s name, and how at least 12 people tonight called jennie ‘jenna’ instead. despite that, she was completely used to it by now and expected ingenuity from the celebrities that she met overseas. 

the singer shot you a side glare and you frowned to mock her, “don’t give me that face, just admit the fact that you know i’m right.” jennie rolled her eyes and asked in annoyance,  “and what if you are? why should i care about any of that?” you answered simply, “because you and i both know you aren’t enjoying this right now.” jennie swallowed thickly as your breath ghosted the shell of her ear and she lied straight through her teeth, “i don’t know what you’re talking about, y/n. i’m having a good time.” this time your tone was slightly harsher but in a way that made her stomach erupt into butterflies, “jennie cut the shit, i know more than anyone what you look like when you’re enjoying yourself.” heat rushed to her cheeks at the implication of your words, memories filling her head only making her blush deeper. 

you felt the way her body began melting into your touch and she slowly started giving into what she both desperately wanted and knew she shouldn’t do. she shook the thought from her head and turned back to face you, once again fighting internally with herself to walk away. the way your eyes transfixed on her was no help but then you uttered the words, “come on mama, let me show you a good time…for old time’s sake.” jennie clenched her jaw and you leaned your forehead against hers, without even realizing it her arms ended up over your shoulders. the feeling of your fingers trailing up her mini black dress made her stumble, making you wrap an arm around her waist once more. her voice was weak when she tried to reply with confidence, “i-i don’t think-” all you had to do was raise one eyebrow and give that same damned smile to get her to cave, “just for tonight.” immediately you smiled the million dollar smile the world fell in love with as you led jennie through the crowd to find a place in the 32 rooms of the oversized mansion. she held onto your hand until you rounded a corner and pushed it open before pressing it closed with her back against. she hated how easily she gave into your wishes but she couldn’t help it with the way you felt her up with ease, making her get lost in all that you were, making her feel like you did all those years ago. 

[ms-moonlight-inn]

WEEKLY TAG WEDNESDAY

Thank you, my darlings @jrooc @mybrainismelted @energievie

—

Name: That Bitch

What is the most listened to artist in your music app of choice this month? The Rolling Stones? (how the fuck did that happen?)

What song do you know all the lyrics to? Any song? Or a Stones song? Any song, off the top of my head, The Cure's "10:15 Saturday Night" & "Doing the Unstuck." By the Stones, ugh, I don't think I know any of their songs all the way through. Eep! 😬

What song do you pretend to know all the lyrics to and sing along to even though you don’t? Oof, so many. One that comes to mind right now is "Echame La Culpa" by Luis Fonsi & Demi Lovato.

If you were to be crowned Queen/King/Royalty of listening to a band or artist, who would that be? Rancid.

What band/artist surprises you the most on your frequently listened to artists? I have no idea why the fuck Alanis Morissette continues to pop up on my random, also Maroon 5. At least I can say Taylor Swift pops up on my frequents 'cause I share my profile & people listen to her music. But the other two? 🤷🏻‍♀️ Why? 🤦🏻‍♀️

Favourite line from a song (or one you have been thinking about lately? One of my all time favorite songwriters is Jarvis Cocker. He has a way of turning a phrase that I find absolutely captivating.

In the song, "Seductive Barry," he wrote: "I will light your cigarette with a star that has fallen from the sky." Which is not a new phrase, but the way he uses it within the context of the song makes it ✨ special. ✨

Guilty pleasure band or song? Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam's "Can You Feel the Beat," & "We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off," by Jermaine Stewart.

Okay let’s talk fandom music:

Fave band or song you’ve discovered from a Fan Fic? I think the one that's stuck with my the most has been "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" the Daniel Duke version of the song originally done by The Proclaimers. It was used in AllThatMatters' fic The Ghost of You and Me.

Fave Fanfic Playlist? I like clicking on to playlist to see what's on them, but I can't think of any memorable ones right now. I think for me I have clearer memories of songs that are attached to a specific moment in a storyline or that are suggested as a play-along during a chapter.

Fave Gallavich song? "Pink+ White," by Frank Ocean.

Do you listen to music recommended by the writer or an included playlist? If there is a song that is recommended in the beginning notes, I will listen to it while I'm reading or before I am reading if I am using the screen reader while I'm driving. I don't always get a chance to listen to everything, but I do like to hear a song or two in order to get into the atmosphere the writer's trying to create.

What song do you think is Gallavich coded? Oof, so many. Gimme a sec...

Well, on the angst side, I've had Beck's "Lost Cause" stuck in my head.

What’s a bop you want to share with your mutuals today?

🎶🎶🎶

Tagging @ian-galagher @sleepyfacetoughguy @creepkinginc @iandarling @transmurderbug @deathclassic @jademickian @blue-disco-lights with no pressure to play. Also, if you haven't been tagged, feel free to join. 🤗

[usergif]

hi! i’m user ames tattooine, and i’m gonna go over how to cut footage out of a scene. i’ll talk about rotoscoping—what it is, its history, and how to mask with the rotobrush successfully. i will also briefly go over how to use the pen tool to mask in after effects.

though this is pretty comprehensive and info-heavy already, there are still things i don't go over! but it should be a guide fit for beginner-intermediate after effects users.

YOU WILL NEED:

adobe after effects (minimum version cs5 / anything released after 2010)

basic knowledge of the interface and workflow, including but not limited to: compositions/precompositions, keyframes, and how to use brush tools

time. a lot of it

patience. more of it

also, before you click "read more," please note that this is about 3000 words long. definitely recommend viewing it in your browser. with housekeeping out of the way, let's go!

WHAT IS ROTOSCOPING?

very simply put, rotoscoping is a tracing technique. physically, it’s a little like using a selection tool on video. conceptually, things are slightly different, and that’s due to how it was meant to be used—but like many artistic tools, rotoscoping was transformed by contemporary artists / editors / animators / etc to become the versatile thing it is today. for mainstream giffing and video editing purposes, it is most often used as a way to mask footage out. see:

UNDERSTANDING ROTOSCOPING

the main thing you need to understand is that rotoscoping was meant for animation. not masking, not giffing—hand-drawn animation. in its early days, animation was clunky and generally unnatural-looking; not due to stylistic decisions about motion, but because artists were mostly guessing at how a movement would be divided into frames between point A and point B of any given movement. then, in 1915, two brothers named max and dave fleischer stuck a projector to a table, attached it to a car light, and beamed that light onto a block with tracing paper attached. they’d then take the image produced onto the tracing paper, trace out the figure (in the first case, dave dancing on top of a roof in front of a white sheet), and repeat this frame by frame to eventually trace an entire scene. the animated character would be drawn over / match the traced figures, and bam, animators suddenly had a HUGE shortcut to imitating real life movement in drawn scenes. (or, more accurately, only max and dave did, at least until the patent expired lol)

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR ME??

well, maybe not much if you don’t care to nerd out like i do, but it should absolutely inform the choices you make re: scene selection. dave and max used a white sheet for contrast and added a car light to their apparatus to enhance that contrast when they were tracing. if you try to rotoscope a scene that doesn’t have much contrast to it, you may not come out the other end with much success.

but remember: the tool wasn’t created so that you could cut your blorbo out of a scene, it was so that artists could trace movement for funky and weird animated characters in the 1920s. over time, and as tech advanced, people realized that if they completed half the rotoscoping process, they would have an isolated scene from the original footage. aka, they could mask out background footage. sprinkle in a little web 2.0, accessibility and increasingly easy use of tools from the mid-90s onwards (and the implementation of the rotobrush tool specifically after 2010), and we have a fascinating study of how tools can be transformed from their original use to do things that are different but equally valid. and yeah—2010. it’s mind-boggling to think about the leaps and bounds we’ve made with editing tech in the last 10-15 years alone. i digress.

ROTOSCOPE =/= ROTOBRUSH

so here’s where you might be like, jesse what the fuck are you talking about dot jpg. i’ll try to be concise: rotoscoping is the method. rotobrush is ONE of the tools you can use to rotoscope. i have a little issue about terminology that i won’t get into, but what people want to do in gifsets and video edits with the rotobrush is MASK. they are using the rotobrush to mask away footage, the same as if they used tape to cover up sections of a canvas. it’s easier, however, to think of it in the inverse—taking specific footage out, rather than snipping background away. imagine i have gingerbread dough, and i want to cut it into stars or various shapes. one thing i could do is take a knife and a stencil and physically cut out my shapes; another thing i could do is use a cookie cutter. the rotobrush tool is like a cookie cutter if it was driven by machine learning, involved way too much math and programming for personal comfort, and also was incredibly inelegant. the former method can be done using the pen tool, which is more time consuming, perhaps, but it lends itself to accuracy because it’s all done by you, the artist. i will be going over both methods.

THE ROTOBRUSH METHOD

fucking finally! we’re in after effects! first thing of note: my interface looks like this. yours, unless you also went through a sony vegas envy phase in 2015 and then modified your existing cs6 interface to be as inconvenient as possible, does not. don’t worry about it—the tools you need are located in the same place, and if ever i use a panel you can’t find, just click “window” at the top (both in mac and windows) and click what you need there.

step 1: select your footage, and be selective. and boy, do i mean be selective, or else you are in for a world of irritation. you want a scene that has naturally high contrast between your subject and your background. you want a scene that doesn’t have erratic movement, or if it does, you need to have the frame rate to support that movement. similarly, your background shouldn’t have too much movement either.

(what is erratic movement? well, let’s say your footage is 24 fps, and a character moves their arm between frame 0 and frame 12, or half a second. if the arm is moving incrementally throughout all 12 frames, or every 2 frames, that’s workable! but if you have a still image for frames 0-3 where the character’s arm is in one position, then another still image for frames 4-6 where the character’s arm is in a vastly different position—that’s erratic movement. after effects will not process that easily.)

if you’re masking out footage of a human (or humans), then for your own sanity, choose a scene that doesn’t have a lot of flyaway hair. finally, you probably don’t want a scene that’s too long! for this tutorial, i’ve got this shot of my baby boy.

notice how he’s dressed in dark clothing against a very light background? how his hair is mostly flat to his head, and how there’s nothing really that could have erratic movement? the background is a little busy, but it doesn’t seem like anything that’ll mess up the rotobrush’s calculations. as a bonus, the subject is relatively large and details around the edges aren’t too detailed! this is the kind of footage that’ll give you an easier time.

note: when i say “calculations” btw, i really do mean calculations. the algorithm takes the brush tool set to “constant” and predicts “edges” based on things like contrast between pixels, relative position of where the brush was used, etc. this is why it can be really convenient, but also why it can be prone to error. as i said: inelegant.

step 2: isolate the scene in a separate comp, whether that be through creating a separate composition manually or just precomping your existing one. the key thing is to have workable start and end points that automatically pop up when you enter the layer so that you don’t have to wait hours for each unused frame to load. this is what i’ve got now:

step 3: enter the layer by double clicking it in your timeline. you should see a separate panel pop up at the top here…

and what looks like the entirety of your footage here.

fret not! this is simply how layers work in after effects: they’re non-destructive, so you can add modify it to your heart’s content, and the original footage will not change. kind of like smart objects in photoshop, if you want a comparison. that is to say, yeah, in this layer, you DO have the entirety of your footage; in your composition, however, you’ve cut away all but 3 seconds of it. the point of step 2 will be apparent in one second when you do step 5.

step 4: equip the rotobrush tool. that’s the blue icon here on your tool bar (turns blue when you equip it).

step 5: go to the beginning of your composition and vaguely trace the outline of your subject INSIDE the footage you want by clicking and dragging (like any other brush tool), like so:

the line doesn't have to connect, mine just does. you’ll notice that the "rotobrush and refine edge" effect is automatically applied, and if you zoom in on the timeline from step 3, you’ll also see that the start and end points of your workspace have been automatically set to fit your composition.

after you release your click-and-drag, you should see a pink outline appear around the selection.

you can change how you view your selection by hitting the buttons down here to toggle different alpha view settings. and if you didn’t know this already, alpha means transparency. i personally like switching between the pink outline and the alpha overlay setting—the former makes it easier to see the smoothness of my selection, and the latter makes it easier to see if i’m missing footage / provides a starker contrast.

step 6: refine the initial selection. if you have experience with tracking, you can think of this as a “master frame” where you’re defining the parameters that will go on to be approximated for the rest of the footage. reminder that you are manipulating an algorithm when you use this tool, so you want to feed it data! this means clicking and dragging to collect any missing footage, or holding option / alt while you click and drag to remove footage. if you see jagged lines (like around his hair here), you can make it smoother by tracing inside the subject around the area and removing footage from the outside around the area—basically, telling the algorithm that This Is Where The Edge Is And I’m Moving Around It.

step 7: click play and let footage propagate. once it’s done, it should preview and look something like this:

if you’ve done everything right so far, then your outline shouldn’t be jumping wildly around or anything—for the most part, it should stick to a good 80-90% of the footage you want! the more solid foundation you have that doesn’t need (much) fixing, the smoother the mask is going to be.

step 8: refine the “problem” frames. you can click through frame by frame and see where things go off the rails. for me, it’s anakin’s right (so my left) shoulder. basically repeat what you did in step 6 and add / take away footage as necessary to refine the edge. VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTE WHEN REFINING: the algorithm calculates edges FORWARDS. that is to say, if you make a change 2 seconds in, that change is only going to make modifications from that 2 second point onwards. it will not make a change backwards, meaning that if a problem starts to show up, you need to fix it from the root onwards and teach the algorithm that This Is Where The Edge Is. if you don’t do this, then you will end up going backwards frame by frame fixing the same mistake over and over again, and it will look wonky because you will redraw in different places. i have had students do this and spend hours in misery. be patient: work from the start and fix as you move forward frame by frame! don’t jump forwards and backwards if you can help it.

step 9: fiddle with the effect settings. now that you’ve basically gotten your mask as neat as possible, you can play with the actual effect itself. just quickly, i’ll explain what i think to be the most important things (and the other settings, you can experiment with on your own):

version: 2.0 is their latest and ostensibly “most improved” version from the 2020 update, though if you don’t have the hardware that can take it, you’ll end up propagating frames for Hours. version 1.0 is perfectly adequate, and at times even more efficient than 2.0. up to you!

invert foreground / background: select the footage around your subject rather than the subject itself. can be very useful!

reduce chatter: chatter is the shakiness of your outline from frame to frame. when things get ugly—say, when you use the refine edge tool—is when your outline is jerking around every frame, seemingly unable to find an edge, like so (to the extreme—yours will likely be smaller twitches):

(also, this is me warning you right now. if you use the refine edge tool, you will triple your workload trying to actually refine it, and it will still look weird. if you insist on using it, be sure to work with a tiny brush size and stick as close as you can to the edge of your selection. this thing sucks and does not behave like it does in photoshop. LMAO.)

for the luke gifs, i had my feather at 10, my contrast at 90, my shift edge anywhere between 10 and 40%, and reduce chatter set to 100. these will vary greatly depending on the look you’re going for and also how neat your existing selection is. (at vague claims like this, i often hold a blinking neon sign at my students that says "REMEMBER MARSHALL MCLUHAN? THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE? FORM AND CONTENT ARE INEXTRICABLY LINKED? CONSIDER THAT AND BE PURPOSEFUL IN YOUR DESIGN CHOICES PLEASE")

overall, the effects controls you see are very much like the select and mask feature in photoshop! you can play around with it and see what the other settings do, but those under roto brush matte are the main ones imo. and that’s all there is to it! you can render out your composition, or you can nest it in another composition if you’re working all in after effects, or whatever. for those who are slightly more advanced in ae: i wouldn't recommend using twixtor after masking to slow down the footage (if anything, risk the compression and add twixtor before, then render and import back and mask), but you can definitely adjust the time keyframes without impacting the quality of your selection. or you can sit and admire your genius and the power of c++.

THE PEN TOOL METHOD

this method is less a pain in the ass and more just.. very tedious. also jsyk, it works better with animated content (cartoons, anime, etc) and less so with live action just because of like, hair. i totally recommend being in a discord call with friends while you do this method because it is an absolute vibe and distracts you from how mind-numbing and boring editing actually can be lol

step 1: select your footage, and be selective. maybe not as particular as you had to be for the rotobrush method, but it should still have mostly the same elements. erratic movement isn’t so much an issue. i’m using the same scene as above for convenience.

step 2: isolate the scene in a separate comp, whether that be through creating a separate composition manually or just precomping your existing one. this is mostly for workflow reasons, but some people hate working with a lot of compositions, so it’s up to you if you want to work in the original composition with your whole footage.

step 3: duplicate the layer. you should have something like this now:

step 4: equip the pen tool, highlighted in blue here (turns blue when you equip it)!

step 5: on the top layer, create a mask around the very edges of your subject, starting from the beginning of your selected footage. you should end up with something that looks like this. i wouldn’t bother with curving your lines, just because it can be harder to move around (especially when you’re making video edits and masking out action sequences and whatnot). if you toggle the visibility off and on your bottom layer, you’ll see that you’ve masked out the rest of the footage, and everything else is transparent. woo!

NOTE: if you haven’t already, go to your preferences and make sure that this is toggled off. you want to be able to add and delete vertices at will without changing the mask path in previous frames!

step 6: hit “M” on your keyboard, or use the dropdowns on the uppermost layer to reveal the mask 1 dope sheet.

step 7: create a mask path keyframe at the first frame by clicking on the stop watch. your station should look something like this:

step 8: go forward frame by frame until the image changes. this may be by one frame, two, or sometimes three.

step 9: deselect your layer, then select it again. the mask outline should change from square vertices to circular ones.

step 10: click and drag to move the vertices so that they align with the edge of your subject again. feel free to zoom in and out as necessary! you’ll notice that keyframes are created automatically when you make changes, so don’t worry about manually inputting them.

repeat steps 8 to 10 until you’ve finished :) this is why it’s time consuming and annoying :))

bonus options: you can shift the edge of your mask by fiddling with mask expansion. mask feather will feather around your mask, and mask opacity will change the transparency of the footage outlined inside the mask. less sophisticated than the roto brush matte settings, but they work great!

annnd 3000+ words later… that’s it! that’s how you cut footage from a scene using after effects. i hope this was informative! if you have any questions, feel free to send an ask to usergif.

xo ames, signing off 🖤

[djservo]

HI CAS! 😁 it’s that time of month again… 🎄🎅❄️☃️ are you a christmas music enjoyer? what’s your november reading looked like? what are the final books you’ll read in 2023? any wintery vibes these are all important questions

I always think I've become indifferent to if not completely turned off by christmas music but just last weekend my coffee shop was playing 'christmas (baby please come home)' n I was like hell yeah this song rules...... & one time my crabby hater coworker put on springsteen's 'santa claus is comin to town' for me + that was such a kodak Magic Of Christmas moment for me I was like wait the grinch really does have a soul.... im a sporadic xmas music enjoyer merely by happenstance 🧘‍♀️ + my november reads were magical!!!

Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag

wanted to pair this with Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection by Julia Kristeva as a brief little study on representing/projecting and relating to terror but this one was so apt that I thought it'd be best standing alone and allowed to sink in for the month. really interesting/important points about the origins of the 24 hour news cycle + "the CNN effect" + a mass desensitization to the suffering of others, disheartening but necessary things to understand especially now when every feed is so casually interspersed with it. and ofc Sontag is just so graceful with her framing of ideas that I think this is quite an accessible read to those who've never ventured into philosophy/theory

Manila Noir edited by Jessica Hagedorn

MILF (MAN I LOVE FILIPINOS)!!! learning that I maybe love crime fiction? or maybe specifically written by Filipinos bc the Philippines is kinda the perfect place for so many intersections/dissections of class and power and exploitation and all the things that make crime/mystery so juicy to me. the selection here was so strong, I think I ended up shelving something by each of the contributors I could find english translations for. so many women too which rules x10000. also saw that this is part of a series of 'noir' collected works based around a specific area (like SF, Brooklyn, Mumbai, Istanbul, etc) which I think is a super cool concept and I can't wait to track down the others. think this is gonna have to be a noirvember tradition

With my Dog Eyes by Hilda Hilst

read this in one sitting before a wedding so it's admittedly a bit of a blur/I didn't get to sit with it as much as I should have bc Hilst's prose is so dizzying (in a good way!!!) but I've asked for one of her translated works for xmas so I'll defo be giving that one my full + stoic attention 🧘‍♀️ I can vaguely remember the shape of the story but what most sticks out to me when reflecting is really specific phrases... the gold of your name — an armless embrace of you — sado-slippery I’m sweating and laughing... I'm empty of anything good. Full of the absurd.... just really gorgeous syntax and images and I can see why Hilst + Lispector's styles are compared so often

Live Through This: On Creativity and Self-Destruction edited by Sabrina Chap

admittedly wanted to hate this from the very start with Amanda Palmer's intro ugh like I braced myself for this to be some corny contrived #AngryWomenInArt but I ended up adoring this and hating myself for my initial haterisms.... women in art is actually so real..... really great + diverse selection of artists (I was worried this would be overwhelming white + cis + het but luckily it wasn't!) and it honestly didn't even occur to me to read this as like a guide on how to work through/with creativity, but rather glimpses into other artists' processes and journeys with their own creativity (I initially picked this up for Eileen Myles I think). so personal and honest and inspiring because of that intimacy and honesty. felt good when I recognized some of the other names too, but ofc added a bunch to my TBR as well. made me miss rookiemag and generally a time when feminism didn't seem so glazed in layers of girlboss irony + terfism real bad </3

Smaller and Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan

MILF PT. 2!!! another Filipino crime fiction win.. I did see the reveal coming the moment the character was introduced but all the build-up made it worth it. I loved that no form of power was safe from criticism—sleazy priests/prominent figures from the church, useless police, sensationalist media, mayors blind to the true needs of their community, the smaller and smaller circles (hehe) of unchecked trauma and abuse, the ways these all tie together to inevitably harm those without a voice or pedestal.. does such a great job shining a light on the hypocrisy and corruption of it all which isn't specific to the Philippines but from the few Filipino works I've read, it really does feel like a reoccurring core theme. with such a vengeance too! watched the movie adaptation last night which cut out a lot of the good/necessary stuff in my opinion but the vibes + casting were spot on so it was just cool to see the gritty world come to life in that way

Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector

BONK this was everything to me like exactly the kind of writing I've been aching for since I was a teenager........ a similar blissful dizziness that I felt reading Hilst — gorgeous sensual painfully moving prose, it's wild to me that a work of fiction could hold this much introspection, each character's state of mind so crystal clearly expressed you can't help but feel a little lost in it. and this is her first book??? I'm thrilled just thinking about how she could possibly hone her craft in later works, I'm so excited to see for myself. this is a sidebar but I pretty much lost all my steam for creative/fiction writing during the pandemic and randomly pushed myself to get back into it in october and between this + Hilst's book I rly do feel more inspired than ever..,. crazy what some beautiful & dreamy sentences can do to you!!

i DONT want to prematurely toot any horns but I think I may actually reach my original reading goal of 50 books this year? just started the last book (Something Wicked This Way Comes) in the 'dark boyhood' trio I planned with my friend and it's going by super fast (probably because it's a childrens book basically LOL) and then I checked out Nana vol 1 & 2 bc I found out my library randomly has them (despite never having anything else I'm ever looking for... like ok) and I usually whiz through graphic novels. I think I may read Powers of Horror as mentioned earlier to balance out the fiction, and I downloaded a few free books by Palestinian authors from here (free to download til Dec 5th) so I'll choose from one of those.. maybe end the year with some poetry, all of which isn't necessarily wintery but simply reading my lil book w a hot drink is cozy enough <3

[mcytblraufest]

Hi hi!! I'm very excited to see a reverse-bang is happening! I'm already in way too many fandom events but oh well what's more lmao

ANyway! I wanted to ask, for the artists, does the AU we draw have to be something completly new, or can it be one we've drawn for before? If we've drawn it before does it matter if those drawings have been posted elsewhere? (I just want to be sure 'cos I have a few ideas and some are for AUs I've played with in the past and others are for AUs I haven't really touched yet)

Also! Once we're paired with our writer, can the artist share ideas for story or whatever that they might have had for the au? Or is it just like 'here's my art, good luck!', giving the writer free-reign. And can we do more art for our writer than just the original drawing?

Okay I think that's everything, sorry for the rambly questions😅

Hello! No problem, we're happy people are excited!

The question of if you've posted about the AU before hits two snags, kind of.

The first one is anonymity. If you think that anyone who sees this AU will automatically know who submitted it, because it's a famous named au that people know from your blog— that would probably not be best to submit. I know art styles are often identifiable, but sign ups are still supposed to be reasonably anonymous. But if you've barely talked about it, go for it!

And the second one is the question about if a person has to consume like fifteen pieces and an essay to understand your art— that's not gonna work. The art pieces have to stand alone, whatever piece(s) you submitted. So if you have fifteen sketches in your drafts about this, but you can just make an awesome finished piece, then again, go for it!

So as long as your art will not immediately de-anon you and can stand along, submit away!

Once you're paired with the writer, you can share more ideas for story and brainstorming if you want, that would be awesome, but from a modly stance they're considered non-binding. The only information the person has to work with is the submitted information on the sign-up form. We want to make sure that the writer is jumping off of the art the artist provided, and any work they do is following from it and inspired by it, but after that point the writer does still have creative control over their own work. In the same way that last year we didn't want writers to be doing like— art orders that they'd only be happy with specific art— we want to make sure that artists are not doing fic commissions where they're basically ordering a fic to their specifications.

Which is way out beyond the edge of what you asked, I know you were just like "omg if I have extra ideas can I share them", and the answer to that is yes, but I just wanted to share the like end point rule of that from a mod standpoint, if you have creative differences. While you are absolutely free to share the ideas, we love the idea of collaborative brainstorming and that's one of the purposes of a big bang and the joys of working in teams, the writer can come up with their own ideas too if they want to, cause they're the one posting the work. So like in practice probably your writer will love to hear more ideas and work with them, in the same way that artists working with writers were happy to get extra details about what people looked like and what they were wearing (that happens with most events that I've seen). But at the end of it the person posting the fic gets final call about what goes into the fic, as long as they're adhering to the information posted in the sign-up. So yes absolutely you can be a brainstorming partner— but you're not a creative director— but being a brainstorming partner is awesome, go for it! Any amount of extra collaboration you can do with your partner rocks.

And absolutely you can do more art for your writer than your original piece! I know I've heard some artists talking already about how they intend to submit art, get matched to a writer, and then draw art based on the fic based on their art. We're gonna get nested art. Which absolutely rocks. If you want to do something like that, fill your boots, I can't wait to see what you come up with.

The baseline is that a big bang is about collaboration and working together with people. If you want to do *more* collaboration and working together with people, that's absolutely awesome and go for it.

[ell-vellan]

You know what I miss?

(I'm gonna show my age here with this very specific and niche memory but bear with me. Or don't, whatever!)

Back when I was a kid, middle/high school ish, I frequented Gaia Online. I'm not even sure how to really describe that site (if you remember it, help me out here) but it was mainly an anime-esque forums where people could make different communities about a million different things, but it wasn't just forums. You had an anime avatar that followed you around the site, a currency you used to buy dress up items for your avatar, mini games and a a marketplace. Pretty sure there was some kind of stock market.

This was my online home for years.

I landed, somehow, on the Adoptables forums. Shops, technically, for people to "adopt" pets and then roleplay with them together. Some were original make believe worlds - one of the more popular I can remember was a world of wolf packs with their own lore and setting.

Specifically I remember being active on the Lion King RP forums called I think Shadows of Africa? The artists who ran them would sell colored lineart of lions in the style of the movie, with a little info card that displayed their name and the owner (you).

You couldn't roleplay with other people until you officially had a character through purchase, gift, or contest prize.

Each lion was unique and people gave them names from African languages (that was a rule). People formed entire prides and had special forums just for them, with rosters of who had what character, where you could "hang out" with others in your pride. Your lion would be able to age from cub to teen to adult after you had roleplayed a certain amount of time and applied for it with the artists. Your characters could find mates and breed and the artists would (for Gaia currency) remix the "DNA" of your two characters and you'd get a random number of cubs you could "give away" to friends or even hold contests for others who wanted to play.

I was just thinking about these communities and how much I loved everyone there. How much work these artists put into these communities, often without any real compensation except for pretend money. How elaborate they were. Giant games of pretend with strangers online. I did SO much writing on those RP forums, I actually feel in retrospect like it was a safe place to cut my teeth on writing and it was literally from the point of view from an OC Lion King character.

And there were so many shops like this.

I'm sure there was toxicity in some aspects of these communities, but I don't remember it, at least not to the level of toxicity the Internet gets to now. Maybe it's my rose colored glasses.

But every Christmas, these Adoptables shops would open up for people to Secret Santa gifts to your friends: a randomly colored gift, the .jpg or whatever sent to your inbox, that you could post in your profile or your journal. And on Christmas day, the artists would update all those images, and the wrapped gift would be replaced by a unique pet, randomly created for you by whatever colorists were working for the shop.

Like YES okay I understand how very childish it sounds now. Maybe even cringe.

But I've never found another sort of community like it. (Maybe discord, idk, I was too old and busy to get into discord when it came out.) So many artists doing so much work, just for others to play with pretend pets with their online friends and write silly stories about them together. These were people making dozens, hundreds of unique designs by hand, as far as I'm aware. Their workload had to be stressful. They were probably doing this in between studying or working real jobs.

But to this day, every Christmas, I think about those Secret Santa gifts. And every year I miss that excitement of logging in first thing to see all your gifts 'magically' hatch into adorable little creatures that were unique and yours.

This post doesn't have a point except I'm in my mid-30s and I still miss my online friends that I used to play pretend lions with in middle school. And nothing else has quite matched the very specific excitement of those secret Santa gifts becoming 'real' on Christmas.

And I'm so, so thankful to all the people - likely college students and adults - who did all this work just for fun. And I wanted to share this memory of some old communities that I still think back on fondly. I hope they're doing well in life, wherever they are.

[oh-my-may]

Hey there

Hi, this is my reintroduction to tumblr (kinda).

I go by May on the internet, it's some weird nickname I made of my real name and goes back to my first gamer tag on minecraft...

I'm currently 22 years of age, which sometimes makes me feel incredibly old on the internet? At the same time I seem to come across many other people my age who go through very similar struggles as me lol

I curretnly work fulltime as a waitress. I'm European so I get paid a proper wage there, and the work with my coworkers is very fun and comforting. I'm not always the biggest fan of other people, but being a people pleaser and having the ability to hide my true personality behind a "nice" facade makes my job possible and bearable. (jk aside, I really like my job)

Hobbies include:

reading (I always say that, but I barely ever pick up a book. Just spent most of my early teen years absolutely ramming through a shit ton of books. I still really enjoy reading, but I barely find the time to do it. My tbr list is endless)

gaming (I'll dip my toes into anything that's not an ego-shooter, my PS5 is one of my most treasured possessions)

watching movies (last year I dragges either my sister or one of my friends to the theaters at least once a month. Doesn't mean I'm a movie critic or anything, but I really like watching movies and I might just share some takes on it on here)

anime (just a select few, the most famous ones. Life's busy when you have a fulltime job and still have other hobbies, but I'm currently on my first watchthrough of One Piece! Will definitely post about this from time to time)

listening to music (realizing I have very basic hobbies bc my parents never urged me to pursue anything specific when I was a child, but anyway: I will listen to almost a bit of anything, but Taylor Swift and Ghost were amongst my most streamed artists on Spotify last year. Do with that info what you will)

writing. I did start with writing fanfiction, first harry potter, then boybands, then kpop, then anime. Most important to me was always my original idea though. I know many people have things like this. A few years ago I thought I'd actually go with trying to publish something. Now I have revised and rethought the whole thing. I barely write, but it's still in the back of my head all the damn time. I always think about writing, but doing the actual thing rn seems impossible.

As I'm writing this I realize how pathetic I feel doing this, beacuse I have this awful feeling no one is gonna respond and I'll end up regretting this so much that I'll delete it. Thank God the internet gives me the opportunity to be anonymous.

Anyway, the previously mentioned hobbies lead to my (current) interests that I'll most likely post about, so if you're into one or more of these things as well, let's chat!

in terms of games: Currently playing through Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and generally FF7 is probably a huge hyperfixation of mine and has been for years. I've just arrived in Gongaga on my playthrough and I'm loving all of it. The game caters to all the expectations and interests I have in games. It's just so insanely beautiful and makes me tear up every couple hours idk

on this note I'd like to mention that I dipped my toes into FF14 but since I only play on Playstaion now, all the commands are overwhelming to me. I'm definitely planning on playing FF15 and FF16

Kinda cringe but I swear I'm normal: Genshin Impact. Have been playing since early 2021, once had a pretty unhealthy relationship to this game, but I was mentally not doing well during that time. Having a fulltime job changed my perspective on the game. Now I'm a casual enjoyer bc I love the open world and characters, and I love to get into the lore, so I might post a few theories and stuff on here

On that note: Honkai Star Rail. Same company, but it took me way longer to get into the game. Really enjoying it now though, although I am struggling with a bunch of battles. Save to say, I am NOT playing the game for the meta lol

One Piece! As mentioned, I started my watch of it last year in summer just before the Netflix live action came out (work bestie talked me into it). I'm quite literally at episode 500 rn. Had to stop for a while at around Thriller Bark bc the first few episodes didn't quite do it for me. Now I try to watch a few episodes before sleep everyday :)

Other anime that I am different levels of unhinged about: Jujutsu Kaisen, Attack on Titan, Bungou Stray Dogs, Demon Slayer. The basics, I know. Just don't have the time to watch a lot while other life stuff happens, you know. OP is the main thing rn, and until I am kinda up-to-date with that, everything else will have to wait lol

In terms of book stuff I must admit I keep going back to communities and fandoms I was a part of when I was a teen lol. This largely refers to stuff like Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugho, The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater and All for the Game by Nora Sakavic

Right now though I am more interested in reading some classics and other stuff. Read Britney Spears' biography last year (within the span of one day, I wanna add), currently I'm reading a chapter of Crime and Punishment once in a blue moon. I'd like to read more stuff like that in the future, but everything at it's time ig

Other fictional universes I was once quite unhinged about: Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings. Both communities are kinda dead atm though. I'm still in the process of reading the books (which means I last picked them up over a year ago. But believe me, I'll get there, eventually.... someday)

In terms of music as I said I listen to almost anything. Not a lot of rap and techno, though. I like stuff with lyrics I can sing along to and feel deep within my bones. I wouldn't call myself a "fan" of any particular artist, I was very unhinged about musicians as a teen and I have learned my lesson. Now I just listen to the music without caring too much about the artist themselves. I used to really like 5 Seconds of Summer as a teen, then I moved to Kpop. Now I barely keep up with either but just listen to the stuff I did back then

I think that's basically it for now? The most important parts about myself. Stuff I like to talk about, so if you like some of this too, maybe come talk to me? I wanna get to know people here after all, and I have learned this is probably the best way to start.

I don't have many conditions for friends tbh. I'm 22, so anything between like 19 and 26 or so is fine as long as the vibes are good :) I don't care about genders and all that, personally going by she/her. I'm a Taurus, in case someone wants to know. Last time i took the test I was an infp-t (still think it's pretty accurate but it's been a few years nd I heard that test isn't as accurate? idk)

Other things you should maybe know is that English is not my native language, so excuse any mistakes you might come across lol. I dropped out of university. My profile picture kinda captures my most basic features.

Anyway, feel free to hit me up, I love talking to people on the internet and I really look forward to this reinvention of my account here and actually talking about my interests and reposting stuff I like :)

If you have any questions, just ask!

Until then,

May

[vampstel]

Hi Vampstel, I hope you are doing well!

This is gonna be a bit all over the place and I am so so sorry.

What inspired you to start making art? And what influenced your art style?

I can’t remember if you have said this anywhere but I’ve been a long time fan of yours and you are why I’m now posting my own work on tumblr instead of crappy Twitter (No offense to anyone uses it it’s just really mean to smaller artist like myself and it’s hard to get stuff out there especially original work)

I cannot wait for your next video. I love your Draw with me series. I’ve been enjoying watching your work every time I need a helping hand with lore or just general background noise to keep me entertained

You have no idea how much I inspired to be like a inkcreable artist like you (Yes the pun is intended I think you would know what the ink is referring to. (For anyone who doesn’t know it’s Bendy and the ink machine. I love Alice Angel so that’s how I kinda know that franchise)

I remember when you made your oc Laurence Winters? I think that’s the character inspired by Sammy Laurence. I am so sorry I can’t rewatch to correct myself I have terrible memory. As soon as you had said you were into demonology I was shocked when you grabbed the Bendy reference. It isn’t often I find an artist that likes the same stuff I do. So that was cool to know!

I am so sorry that this makes no sense and it’s all over the place. I really love your work and I really hope I can learn more on how to story write from you in future draw with me video. I really hope you will keep going (Make sure you rest and take care of yourself don’t overwork yourself!)

Hi Katie!! I’m doing very well actually, and I hope you’re doing the same too ^_^

No need to apologize about the messy ask hehe I don’t mind at all!! But to answer your questions…

A lot of things have inspired me to start drawing. It’s mainly my passion for cartoons that drove me to pursue art. I was really into Spongebob and Tom & Jerry as a kid and would regularly draw them whenever I could during school. I started interacting with fandoms pretty early on in my childhood and seeing so many big artists (specifically those on Tumblr, Deviantart, and Amino) made me really interested in learning digital art.

I think I started drawing digitally around 2016 but only took it seriously during 2018. I wasn’t all that good with drawing so I used Gacha Life as a base to help during my first years. Which… I guess you could say my art style is inspired by it? I don’t know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It’s really hard to say what influences my style since I don’t have heavy inspo you can point out. Honestly, any artist I follow or talk about is someone I’m inspired by. LavenderTowne and Dreamalgia are the ones that come to mind first though since I adore their work :P

I’m really glad my content’s entertaining and helpful to you!! It’s always a delight when people say that especially since I doubt my own capabilities with content creation sometimes lol. After all, I kinda just throw crap at the wall and see what sticks. I’m the most unprofessional YouTuber ever 😭

But yes, Lawrence is my OC that’s inspired by Sammy!! I think it’s very obvious since they’re basically the same person, but just in a different font. Bendy has been a longtime special interest of mine, actually. I’ve been fixating on it ever since the first chapter of the first game came out. A lottt of my characters are inspired by the characters in Bendy. Joseph Sinclair, for example (and I’m sure you can tell from the name alone), is inspired by Joey Drew. Especially when he used to be a sleazy villain archetype until I changed him into a dorky mess.

I have another character by the name of Thomas Huxley (again, obvious name) who’s sort of inspired by Thomas Connor. I’ve shown him on Twitter before but here he is since I’ve never shown him on here before!!

Honestly, most of my characters are just inspired by other existing characters lol. But Bendy is definitely the biggest influence I have on my work. Literally love that franchise so much I could ramble about it all day if I wanted to.

Other than that, thank you so much!! I won’t overwork myself but hopefully (fingers crossed) that Draw With Me will come back soon. I have tons of ideas for the comeback of that series and I can’t wait to show it all soon :3c

[naranjapetrificada]

3, 11, 15 and 18 for the music ask! 😊

3: A song that reminds you of summertime

This is just such a bright and "sunny" song that I can't help but associate it with summer. Specifically summer riding in my mom's car with the windows down. Shanice is so fucking cute and sweet in this video and honestly, she should have been a much, much bigger star.

11: A song that you never get tired of

This whole album could probably be the answer to this question, but it's even truer of this song specifically. Believe me, I've tried.

15: A song that is a cover by another artist

Okay so I'm probably about to piss off a lot of OFMD fans, but I prefer Maxwell's cover of "This Woman's Work" to Kate Bush's original.

Listen, Kate is indisputably a queen. Maxwell would certainly agree with you about that. But as a Kate Bush song, TWW is good but not amazing (to ME) because she has better songs.

As a Maxwell song though? It's transformed by his ridiculous vocal range. I get chills at that part when he drops however many octaves and the drums start up. Also idk, there's probably a "Black person raised on Black music" bias here. I like some fucking soul in a song like this. Sue me.

Now, I wouldn't change a single thing about The Innkeeper, up to and including the Kate Bush version of this song. But if we're talking about the one I'm gonna seek out to listen to on its own? Sorry.

18: A song from the year that you were born

I want everybody to pick this question because there are so many good choices. But for the moment I'm gonna go with the one that made me say "FUCK YEAH" out loud when I saw it was a possibility because a reaction like that speaks for itself.

She actually had two singles that year so this was a tough choice because I do love "No One in the World" a lot, but ultimately I had to go with the more iconic song.

(This shouldn't have come as a surprise I guess because I named the second chapter of my longfic WIP after a different Anita Baker song. Part of me feels like my devotion to her makes me seem older than I am, but the rest of me doesn't give a fuck because she's incredible.)

This was fun! Let's keep playing! Pick a question or questions from this list and shoot me an ask with the numbers 😊

[witchlingsandwyverns]

Hello, it is your secret holiday gift giver back for more!

First on the fic side: I would love to know some of your favorite Feysand fanfics! Your #1’s, your comfort fics, anything you want to share. And if you’d like to wax poetic or tell me more about why you love them, even better!

Next: you are such a fabulous artist! I love love love your art. I was wondering about who some of your favorite artists and influences were?

Hope you are having a great week!

❄️⛄️🌨️✨

Hello hello! Oh man, okay I'm gonna do my best to answer this, but please be patient and reach out if the answer doesn't satisfy 😬 (I'm answering while traveling so pls forgive spelling errors)

🎨 art inspirations: burgebug got me into book fanart, but ive always been inspired by arthur rackham, toni diterlizzi, scott fisher, charlie bowater, rovani cai, abigail larson, jw cooper, becky cloonan... theres literally so many - I am absolutely SPOILED for art at my job (I get to drool over amazing artists each day) and am always finding new artists to follow.

📚 fanfics: this is hard because I'm honestly pretty new to fanfic (I just got an AO3 account this year! Very baby) and while I have some fave authors, I am still very much in the discovery phase?

Some authors I've enjoyed: velidewrites, beaumaismortel, headcannonheadcase, thelonelybarricade, separtistapologist, to name a few. I originally was going to AO3 for fics of pairings that we haven't seen a lot of yet (elucien, eliriel, gwynriel, azris, etc) and am only now starting to dip my toes in the Nessian and Feysand sector. Admittedly, I have not read a lot of Feysand. 😅 (I'll have to go through my bookmarks and edit with authors and titles for a more specific answer!) But all of what ive liked so far has been AMAZING with character voice/tone, sassy banter, and intriguing plot. I love stubborn rivals/unlikely alliances, enemies to lovers. I am so far from picky - I love when authors have fun, I feel like that cheeky joy comes across in their work. But cannot emphasize enough, I am also still VERY NEW to fanfic and wholly welcome any recommendations!!!

To summarize: YOU LITERALLY CANNOT GO WRONG SANTA, I AM GOING TO ADORE WHATEVER YOU MAKE 💛

[jonny-b-meowborn]

Dude I had a Mechanisms dream again and I'm going quite insane and also I am upset at my body for waking up at a very bad moment for no reason at all much earlier than I'm supposed to get up.

Basically I was at my cousin's, she lives in a very big city. It's summer, so there's a lot of festivals and shows and all that, both huge expensive ones and small in random locations. There was some sort of small unknown artist festival in some theatre or pub or whatever that was going to last a few days. Unfortunately I couldn't afford it even though it was fairly cheap, but they had an artist I wanted to check out on the first day. So since I couldn't buy a ticket, I decided to sit by the building where it took place and listen through the walls and windows, and in the end I had a pretty good time.

The next day, I'm thinking if I wanna do the same thing even though I didn't know any of the other artists, when it turned out that the Mechanisms are gonna play there, a decision made last minute because of some planning issue, there was an empty slot between other bands or something? But in that dream it wasn't the actual pirates, but it wasn't just straight up their actors either, something kind of in-between, they weren't their fictional characters but they weren't exactly real people, I'm not sure what was the deal with that. Like, it wasn't the real man Jonny Sims, it was still Jonny D'Ville, but if Jonny D'Ville was just a regular guy. Either way, the mechanisms died a few years ago and this wasn't supposed to be a huge reunion, more like old friends playing a couple of their songs together. So of course I wanted to go see them, but I still had no money, so I decided to do the same trick as before and sat near the door to the venue a little while before they were supposed to begin. In the end I managed to somehow sneak in unnoticed, and the place was pretty empty, no one really cared for this festival. So of course, since there weren't that many people and no one noticed that I entered without a ticket, I sat in the first row. Eventually the mechs entered the stage, which was just a designated area of the floor in the main room on the same level as the audience. Not every mech was there, there was a bunch of people I didn't know at all, because not every original band member was able to come. They didn't have their costumes either, instead wore casual daily clothes. It seemed like the decision to play there was really last minute. There was Jonny, Brian, Tim, and I think Marius. I was, obviously, extremely excited to see them, even if the whole band couldn't be there. They weren't going to play a whole album, just a couple random songs from across their discography. I remember that when they started playing due to some dream bullshit my sister was suddenly in the audience with me? They started with Old King Cole, and it was great. I don't remember the next song, but it was one of the ttbt ones.

And then, almost everyone left the stage except for one person I didn't know that was supposed to play a few very rare unreleased mech songs, and in the meantime the rest of the band just hung out in the venue. So because it was a dream and some dreams are pretty much just fanfics that your brain unconsciously writes, Tim and Brain sat next to us. And like I said, they all were something weirdly between the immortal space pirate character and the real person. Like, they were all still fictional characters, but they weren't these specific characters? Kind of like if they were actually immortal guys with silly names and their silly personalities, but the space pirate part was made up. Anyway, these two sat next to us, and I tried extremely hard not to fangirl all over the place. We all were watching the short solo performance, and at some point my chair turned into like an office chair on wheels or something, idk dream logic. Gunpowder Tim was sitting slightly behind me, and I wanted to casually roll back to kinda have him in my field of vision while he's there, for fangirl reasons. But I accidentally rolled my chair across his foot and I panicked, I just hurt the guy I was a fan of, he's surely gonna leave because of that and he'll hate me. I started apologizing, but he was just like, chill literally nothing happened my toes arent made of glass it's not a big deal. I still felt horrible though so I kept saying I'm sorry and if there's anything I can do as an apology. My sister was just kinda laughing at me for embarrassing myself, Brian didn't have any big reactions, he was more focused on the performance. Tim eventually laughed that as an official apology I could write a letter to his character. He said that half jokingly but I got excited at the opportunity to, as I put it then, write a lil bit of fan fiction on request of the og creator, so I agreed. He was like, cool, then write it right now. It kinda seemed like he wanted to like, embarrass me further but not in a mean way, more in a playful friendly way. So I produced a piece of paper and a pen out of nowhere and started writing something with the paper on my lap, hurrying before the main performance resumes and they all go back on the stage. While I was working on that Tim moved his chair closer and I shit you not he leaned his head on my shoulder and watched my writing. I was, of course, internally screaming and exploding. Like he was fully leaning on me while I was writing a silly letter to the character he played. It felt like he was very aware of how much I was fangirling in my mind and making me flustered amused him.

Aaaand that's when I woke up. I have no idea why, it was 5:40 in the morning, I'm supposed to get up in like two hours, there wasn't any noise that woke me up or anything, but in the last couple days I've been waking up weird early. Just sucks that it happened while I was having a very silly nice dream lmao

[sinners-go-to-drink-the-wine]

Tag Game To Better Know You! Send this to people you'd like to know better!

I was tagged by: @andtherestishistory13

What book are you currently reading?

Dark Archives by Megan Rosenbloom! “A librarian’s investigation into the science and history of anthropodermic bibliopegy; books bound in human skin.” I’ve just started it, but its absolutely enthralling. I’ve always been interested in the history of corpse rights as it pertains to bodily autonomy in minorities. 

What do you usually wear?

Flowy black skirts, little tops with lighter layers and long flowy sleeves, also typically in black. And lots of silver rings and necklaces. Think Stevie Nicks but goth.

How tall are you?

5′3 {though I feel I should’ve be taller.}

What’s your star sign? Do you share a birthday with a celebrity or historical event? 

I’m a pisces! & My birthday is International Women’s Day!

Do you go by your name or a nickname?

Just my first name, though my family often calls me my first+middle, or just middle name. 

Did you grow up to become what you wanted as a child?

I had a lot of different ideas of what I wanted to be as a kid, but I’m still an artist and humanitarian, so in a way yes.

What is something you’re good at vs something you’re bad at?

I’m pretty good at picking up different art mediums that interest me. I’m not good learning different languages, I’ve tried and failed many hahahaha.

If you draw/write/create what’s your favorite thing that you’ve done created? 

One of my favorite original paintings, came to me in a dream. 

Dogs or cats?

I’ve grown up with dogs, but I want my own cat some day.

What’s something you would like to create content for?

I don’t have a specific subject in mind, but I definitely want to start painting again. Maybe do commissions or something.

What’s something you’re currently obsessed with?

...other than GVF? foraging, baking, my eclectic fashion/decor sense. Social issues; currently doing a lot of research displacement of native americans.

What’s something you were excited for and turned out to be disappointing?

I was gonna try and travel this summer, but I have to focus on moving out and potentially finding a job with more hours, idk if that counts since it hasn’t happened yet.

What’s a hidden talent of yours?

I use to sing opera, and horseback ride (english style), I’m also pretty flexible cause I did ballet for 8 years. None of these have day-to-day applications though hahahaa

What’s something you wish you had at this moment?

an apartment. money. a cat. a girlfriend.

If you’re up for it, I tag: @star-boxer @satans-helper @kkdarling @lunaindigoraven @jake-kiszkas-smirk 

[attichoney4u]

Note: The characters presented there are inspired by @allbeendonebefore's work and they have no intention to mock you, rather to entertain you.

Hello again. In my previous post, I talked about the regional unit of Aetolia-Acarnania. Here, I'm gonna present some of its important cities. Starting with the capital itself…

Artistic choices: As with Aetolia and Acarnania in the previous post, I based her design from one of my aunts. Specifically, I made her tall with brown hair. I originally intended her to have scars all over her body, from the three Sieges (that we are going to talk about later) that took place in her city, but I ended up finding this idea over-the-top and she has fair skin. She is famous as a fish farming site, so I gave her clothes that make it easy for her to access waterz like boots, shorts and a plain t-shirt.

Messolonghi (as I prefer to call her) is the capital of Aetolia-Acarnania, despite not being its biggest city (Agrinio holds this position). Think of it like Edmonton and Calgary's case in Alberta, Canada.

It's one of these greek towns that has associated itself with the Greek War of Independence, a War that lasted from 1821 to 1829, and ended with the Greeks receiving their freedom from the Ottoman Empire.

To name, during that war, three dramatic sieges took place there. The first two (in 1822 and 1823) were unsuccessful, but the third was devastated for the Messolonghians.

Let's start from the beginning. Messolonghi is a city protected by a chain of small islands and its lagoon from the sea, and by a wall and the marshy terrain from the landward side. Additionally, it emerged as a fishing and trading settlement. All these made her a place in a vital position and that's why the Ottomans attacked her.

The reason the first two sieges were unsuccessful was due to the fact that the Ottomans focused solely on cutting connections and food from the land and thanks to the town's history as as a fishing and trading settlement, the residents could supply themselves via the sea route.

On the third time, however, the Ottomans came with a much stronger navy, cutting connections from both the land and the sea. The siege lasted till the spring of 1826. The Greeks had grown devastated and weak after a long and suffering winter without supplies, even going as far as to eat dogs, cats and mice from the streets. The residents looked skeletal and you could see corpses on the ground.

It was then that the Messolonghians decided to burst out of the gates and attempt to lead the women and children to safety. Meanwhile, those who were dying and/or too sick were piled into houses packed full of gunpowder to blow themselves up when the Ottomans arrived to kill them.

On the night of 10 April, the Greeks realised their plan, having to face an army of Ottomans who were informed about their escape. 10,000 emerged. Only 1,000 Greeks made it alive.

It's one of the most popular and important event of the Greek War of Independence, as it moved thousands of Philhellenes across the globe, who came to support the Greeks and it inspired works of art, like "The Free Besieged", a poem written by our national poet, Dionysios Solomos.

Here's an unofficial English translation I found on the Internet:

A silence as prevalent as death reigns over the plains

a bird speaks, takes a seed, and the mother envies it.

The famine blackened the eyes. The mother is swearing onto the eyes.

The good soldier from Souli stands aside and cries:

"Lone dark rifle, why do I hold you in the arm,

for you are a burden to me and even the Muslim knows ?"

April and Eros are dancing and laughing together,

and as many blossoms and cores come out, so many weapons enclose you.

A small white hill of sheep yells in movement,

and gets thrown deep within the sea again,

and merges its vast whiteness with the beauties of the sky.

And into the waters of the lake, which it reached in fast,

a blue butterfly played with its shadow,

that felt its sleep within the wild Fleur-de-lys.

The petite worm is also coming on its age.

The nature is magic and a dream in beauty and grace,

the black stone and the dried up grass are vast golden.

It spills itself with a thousand faucets, it speaks on a thousand languages:

"Whoever dies today will perish a thousand times."

The theme of the poem is about temptation and it's easily obvious on the last lines, where beautiful euphemisms are used to describe nature. One could ask "Who would want to die in such a beautiful day?". But as history (or to be more precise, this episode) showed, the Greeks preferred death over becoming slaves of the Ottomans.

In this drawing, you can see a mother about to commit suicide after having killed her kid (which is seen lying in her left arm), in an attempt not to end in the arms of the Ottomans.

The Garden of Heroes, a place dedicated to important military and political figures of the city, particularly from the Greek War of Independence.

Oh, I forgot to say that Lord Byron, a famous English poet and Philhellene died there.

Honestly, I feel like I talked too much about the Greek War of Independence…

On an unrelated note, she's in a rivalry with Agrinio, the biggest city and Economic Centre of Aetolia-Acarnania, but we will discuss it later (honestly, if you're following me for a while or if you've read my #athens and thessaloniki adventures posts, you will have noticed that we Greeks don't exactly get along)…

Artistic choices: I based her body type and hair from my mom, as she grew up in a small village near Agrinio. My mom doesn't smoke, but I made her a smoker, since, as I stated in the fun fact above, Agrinio is known across Greece for its tobacco production. My mom has participated in this when she was a little girl and she has a lot to tell me about it��� Plus, she isn't redhead, she's actually brunette, she just likes to dye her hair red (just like my mom).

Enjoy a video depicting the production of tobacco. My mom showed it to me and said its pretty accurate to what she did when she was little.

https://youtu.be/E-F_iOQ88Ds

Agrinio is the biggest city of the regional unit of Aetolia-Acarnania and its Economic Centre. It's not the capital however. It's a similar case like the one with Edmonton and Calgary in Alberta, Canada.

It has acquired one of the worst reputations among greek cities, as a city that you "should avoid at all costs" and its residents as people you "should avoid at all costs". Here, I'm going to dissolve this ugly reputation or at the very least, try to justify it.

Agriniots in general are seen as "savages" that speak terribly greek. The reason for this is because, unbestknown for the majority of non-Agriniots, the people who claim to be from Agrinio aren't from Agrinio. They're from nearby villages, they just say Agrinio to help the listener locate the place. And because villagers have this reputation as being uncivilised and because every village speaks with a different accent, Agriniots earned the aforementioned reputation.

They're also in a rivalry with Messolonghi. The best way I can describe it is like this:

Agrinio: I'm the biggest city and Economic Centre of this regional unit! Why is SHE the capital?!

Messolonghi: I deserve this title because I'm an historic city!

Etc, etc

Artistic choices: He's a lobster, because his name "Astakos" in Greece means lobster and I thought it was funny. However, I don't know how he got that name. I searched information online and I didn't find anything about Astakos being famous for his lobster farming.

Nothing to say, except that it's a nice village to stroll and have dinner if you ever find yourself in Greece. Plus, I liked this building when I visited it.

Artistic choices: When most foreigners think about us Greeks, they think of slightly tanned people with brown or black hair. This is to a great extent true. For this reason, I wanted to create a character that looked less "Greek" and more "foreigner" just for the fun of it. She would be woman, have blonde hair (for the record, there're Greeks who have blonde hair, but there're huge brown hues on it. I wanted her hair to be pure blonde) and blue eyes. And that's how Nafpaktos came to be!

During the time she was under the Venetian Republic, she was named Lepanto. It's also the place where the Battle of Lepanto happened. You probably have heard it at least one in your life, as it's one of the most famous naval battles, and if you're Spaniard, it rings a bell in your ear.

It's considered of vital importance to the Europeans, since it marked the turning-point of Ottoman military expansion into the Mediterranean. Miguel de Cervantes, whom you might know as the author of Don Quixote, participated, where he severely injured his arm. In fact, there's a statue of him lifting his right arm, the arm which he used to write several famous literature works.

She's also the second biggest city of Aetolia-Acarnania after Agrinio.

That's all I have to offer. Have a good day (or night depending on what time exactly you're reading this post) 😘. The next post is gonna be the last about the Aetolia-Acarnanian Gang!

Sources:

A small part where I list all the sources of my information:

For Aetolia-Acarnania:

https://el.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%9D%CE%BF%CE%BC%CF%8C%CF%82_%CE%91%CE%B9%CF%84%CF%89%CE%BB%CE%BF%CE%B1%CE%BA%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%AF%CE%B1%CF%82

https://el.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%99%CF%83%CF%84%CE%BF%CF%81%CE%AF%CE%B1_%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%82_%CE%91%CE%B9%CF%84%CF%89%CE%BB%CE%AF%CE%B1%CF%82

https://el.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%99%CF%83%CF%84%CE%BF%CF%81%CE%AF%CE%B1_%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%82_%CE%91%CE%BA%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%AF%CE%B1%CF%82

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aetolia-Acarnania

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aetolia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aetolian_League

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acarnania

For Messolonghi:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missolonghi

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_siege_of_Missolonghi

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_siege_of_Missolonghi

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_siege_of_Missolonghi

https://el.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%9C%CE%B5%CF%83%CE%BF%CE%BB%CF%8C%CE%B3%CE%B3%CE%B9

https://el.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%88%CE%BE%CE%BF%CE%B4%CE%BF%CF%82_%CF%84%CE%BF%CF%85_%CE%9C%CE%B5%CF%83%CE%BF%CE%BB%CE%BF%CE%B3%CE%B3%CE%AF%CE%BF%CF%85

For Agrinio:

https://el.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%91%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%AF%CE%BD%CE%B9%CE%BF

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrinio

For Astakos:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astakos

https://el.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%91%CF%83%CF%84%CE%B1%CE%BA%CF%8C%CF%82_%CE%91%CE%B9%CF%84%CF%89%CE%BB%CE%BF%CE%B1%CE%BA%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%AF%CE%B1%CF%82

For Nafpaktos:

https://el.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%9D%CE%B1%CF%8D%CF%80%CE%B1%CE%BA%CF%84%CE%BF%CF%82

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nafpaktos

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lepanto

https://iaitoloakarnania.gr/2020/04/to-agalma-toy-thervantes-sti-naypakto-o-don-kichotis-kai-i-schesi-toy-me-tin-ellada/

[aesthetic-bastard]

Media Interaction 2023

March

Before Dawn - this is a doujin featuring Kyon and Itsuki Koizumi from the series Haruhi Suzumiya. The anatomy isn't the best at times but it makes up for it with its writing. I appreciate that most of the dialogue in this doujin is narrated by Kyon which is faithful to the source material and I found the narrative about closeted homosexuality to hit really hard.

Algorithm - this is yet another of the many English-translated Kyon and Koizumi doujins I read through this month. The art is very nice but the dialog is just fucking ass, to be honest. I don't have very much to say about this one there was no impression left on me besides the art style which is unfortunate. I did find out later after reading this doujin the artist that made this went on to publish their own original works under the pen name Mikiyo Tsuda which I found hilariously inspirational.

Boy Meets Boy - another doujin featuring Kyon and Koizumi. This one was fucking awful I genuinely felt like I needed to brush my teeth or take a shower after reading it. I really DO NOT LIKE when consent is ambiguous or vague and this is unfortunately a common trope in yaoi doujins I have noticed. The art was also incredibly extreme to the point where it humored me to look at how awful, depraved, and dirty each illustration looked. After reading this one I genuinely felt like I needed a few minutes to recover.

I Don't Understand Adults - another Kyon and Koizumi doujin. The art is kinda janky and hard to understand what's being illustrated when looking at the panels. Kyon and Koizumi have been dating for a month but Kyon has an encounter with Koizumi 7 years from the future and it puts a strain on his relationship. I'm not very fond of angsty tropes so this one was very mild.

Game Boys - this is a short comic series featured in various issues of Genus Male, a male-only spin off of adults-only furry anthology comics. For gay furry porn, this is a very interesting and genuinely good comic about early 2000s online queer culture and self-expression in role-playing communities as well as the struggles of closeted homosexuality in real life. This was actually well written and illustrated and didn't solely focus on gay furry sex. I found a majority of the dialog to hit pretty hard and I think this is a very fascinating retrospective on early furry culture and homosexuality within such communities like furries, role-playing and gaming.

Genus Male Issue 1 - a lot of the art featured in this first comic anthology is excellent but most of the writing accompanying any of the short stories is just kinda mild. There was one short story that really stuck out to me though because it portrayed sex work in a way that wasn't incredibly demonizing but that was my biggest takeaway from reading the first issue.

Super Tecmo Bo - this is an album featuring The Alchemist and Boldy James. This is genuinely an excellent album from start to finish and another rare occurrence of enjoying every single track on an album. The use of samples is mesmerizing and I really like that each track crossfades into the next. I think this is gonna be another one of the top albums I've listened to this year I can not stop going back to it.

Secret Meeting - this is a doujin featuring Char Aznable and Garma Zabi from Mobile Suit Gundam. This is probably the most outstanding quality doujin I have ever read so far which is expected from this particular circle (GOMIX) and the most satisfying depiction of this specific pairing. There is just so much that I adore about this doujin I got really lucky to purchase a physical copy of this because the other Charma doujin released by GOMIX is no longer available for purchase online unless it were to be sold second hand which I highly doubt I'll find any time soon. (as I went back to edit this before publishing I scored a physical copy of this second hand weeks later after typing this in my drafts) The art is extremely attractive and identical to the original manga for Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin. There was a small note from the artist on the first page and what I could piece together from the shoddy Google translation on my phone is that they highly recommend reading volume 11 of the origin because "it's literally BL". The artist also stated they are very partial to the universal century timeline which I think is just very cute of them to state their own personal preference within the Gundam franchise. Something I'd like to add that is just a very special personal preference for me regarding any fan works like this is when either of the characters say "I love you" to each other. When Garma tells Char how much he loves him after they both climax that shit is the world to me.

Rooster Fighter - this manga series is still publishing so from what I've read up to the most current translated chapter I think this is the most stupidly fucking awesome thing I have read. The art is very detailed and the world-building is genuinely good??? I sincerely love how chickens are illustrated in this manga. I'm hoping to pick up the first few physical copies that have been released so far in the US since a lot of the online fan translations I've found vary in quality. The only thing I have to point out about this series is that there is a lot of NTR... with chickens...

Side Trips - 1967 debut studio album by American band Kaleidoscope. I liked maybe a maximum of 2 songs off this album and struggled to hit the skip button when listening to the rest. The genres used on this album are all over the place and made it feel like whiplash to listen to each track. My favorite track on this album would be Keep Your Mind Open

At Home - 1969 second studio album by Dutch rock band Shocking Blue. I liked a few songs from this album, which was about it. I enjoyed any track that particularly featured the use of a sitar as an instrument but besides that, I can tell this is another one of those one-hit-wonder type bands. My favorite track on this album would be Love Buzz

The Addiction Of Wanting To Touch You - another doujin featuring Kyon and Koizumi from Haruhi Suzumiya. genuinely very mild but the English translation is at least legible. This artist chose not to use screentones or any sort of shading that fleshes out the characters so I am puzzled looking at each panel trying to understand what's being depicted. Something that is a constant theme in these doujins with Kyon and Koizumi is whenever they start to make out they instantly say "did Haruhi wish for this" implying that Haruhi Suzumiya is a fujoshi and she wishes to see two men kiss each other.

Genus Male Issue 2 - the illustrations are nice as always but a lot of the stories in these comic anthologies are just weird wacky hijinks that end with gay furry sex so nothing really stuck out to me in this issue besides the art.

Hetalia Axis Powers - wow this has aged horrifically. From racist stereotypes to far right Japanese nationalism to fujoshi bait to historic revisionism to weird jokes about incest. Its revisionism is so all over the place the most I obtained from a history lesson is cringe. The jokes in this anime are about as racist as a G4 host getting ready to review a MegaTen game. There is not much left for me to discuss about this series when going back to it and watching it in its entirety.

On Air - this is a doujin featuring Char Aznable and Garma Zabi from Mobile Suit Gundam. The art in this was so cute it almost made me EXPLODE!! The dialogue and interactions between each character are very sweet and everything I want to see depicted with a pairing that's special to me which is very rare when reading a lot of these kinds of fan works. I am hoping to find this doujin available for purchase online since I really like it enough to add it to my collection.

Hetalia World Series - no different than the first series (very bad) but way more boring. There is a large focus on Eastern European countries but all of them have identical designs with atrociously revised history that doesn't accurately represent any of their personalities. I often found myself really bored watching this series when the attention wasn't on such countries as Japan, Switzerland, and Lichtenstein. I did really enjoy the Nekotalia segments and I wish there were more of them.

Evil Empire - 1996 second studio album by American rock band Rage Against the Machine. Very excellent hardcore album from start to finish there is not a single track I don't like and the sociopolitical commentary is still extremely relevant nearly 2 decades later.

Hetalia The Beautiful World - the new art style of this series is hideous and the fujoshi bait is at full throttle. This series in Hetalia is surprisingly less racist than the first two and the historical revisionism is toned down a bit because there's barely any history at all. This series was evidently different than the first two and no longer featured any sort of segments and cutaways which surprisingly made the pacing go even faster but was still a mundane watch-through. The overall drastic change made it feel less like a funny web series and more like 5-minute shorts made for TV despite still being classified as an ONA. I think this is where Hetalia really began to die out as both a series and a fandom.

Meeting Place - this is the prequel to Before Dawn, a doujin featuring Kyon and Itsuki Koizumi from the series Haruhi Suzumiya. The narrative about online gay relationships hits very hard just like the sequel and is probably the best fan work I've seen written with this paring that doesn't reek of homosexual fetishization. I've grown rather fond of this artist's style as I read more translations of their works and I'm hoping to purchase some of them to add to my collection.

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam - overall excellent saga within the Universal Century Timeline. I don't think I have ever engaged with any media that has had such an honest nonoffensive sincere depiction of autism which made this series more personally impactful to me than the first. I enjoyed the focus on character drama in this Gundam series and I surprisingly felt very emotional about the romance Kamille shares with Four which is very rare for me to experience when a series establishes love interests. I think what makes Kamille and Four so likable as lovers for me is how sincere and direct their feelings are for each other which overlaps with the depiction of Kamille's autism. This series was very intriguing to me, especially with the introduction of cyber newtypes and that any prominent character classified as a cyber newtype was very autistic coded. There were also a lot of new excellent mobile suit designs in this series and I never really expected to take to the gunpla aspect of this franchise because man do I need to add more of those little colorful plastic fellas on my wishlist.