#trying to figure out how to get this preset to look good

[futurelabs]

still birthday mode 🎂

[marblerose-rue]

ermmmm (sneak peek)

[abbysimsfun]

Sims In Bloom: Generation 2 Pt. 108 (New Year, New Friends...)

New Year's Day. A time of hope and renewal: this is how Heather and Conrad chose to meet the changing year. Unfortunately, a new year still meant trying new foods with Lavender was a chore, but this morning, Conrad forged ahead with a jar of peas.

Outside, Heather worked away at an easel she'd always ignored. But Ash's interest in art, and her friend Spencer's recent raves about the pastime, must have encouraged her to give the artistic outlet a try.

Before she left with Neal to return to Henford, Daisy checked in with her daughter while she painted what looked a little like an abstract olive.

"How have things been for you and Conrad lately?"

"They've been good," she said, but a hint of trepidation marked her voice. "He's still stressed, but the police detail's doing their job discreetly enough Ash hasn't noticed them - even after that prank call."

"Conrad will figure it out. Something will crack the case open. New year, new hope. Right?"

Heather nodded. "Right."

Inside, Lavender glanced up at her father with betrayal after they both learned she disliked mushy peas, so he switched to a more reliable plate of Oaty-O's - which she got all over her face, instead.

"You're a mess," he laughed, lifting her from her high chair to clean her up.

That evening, Ash returned home from San Myshuno, and he answered the door for a local boy doing a town survey for a school project. His name was Isaac Harms and he was much bigger, but Ash was outgoing, and he answered the boy's questions about local activities for kids until his parents called him inside to get ready for bed. Ash had school in the morning, and the young genius needed a good night's sleep before he returned to school with his friends on Deadgrass Isle.

(Isaac glitched out using an adult tablet totally autonomously and I wanted to share it because it's so weird, but I'm treating it as canon because he's five or six years older than Ash and I wish we could have kids who grew taller over time, or just a preteen stage. But I recently downloaded redheadsims preteen body preset so we'll see how that works out when I have sims the right age.)

In Henford-on-Bagley, Heather's sister Hazel greeted the new year alone at the Gnome's Arms. Her wife, Nicola, had gone to bed early after grading papers all night, but they'd spent most of the holidays together - and hated it. Hazel needed a night out.

Without her.

She ordered a screwdriver from the pub owner and bartender, contemplating her life as she thumbed the rim of the glass.

"Is this stool taken?"

A pretty blonde smiled when Hazel snapped out of her ennui. "No. No one's sitting there," she stammered, as the blonde held out her hand.

"My name's Suri. Suri Romeo."

"Hazel Nesbitt." (It's actually Moody-Nesbitt but oh.)

Suri glanced at her ring finger. "Is your wife here tonight?"

"No...She's sort of a homebody."

"And you're more of a...body magnet?"

Hazel nearly spit out her drink as her lips curled into a foppish grin. "You're not from around here, are you, Suri."

"I'm from San Myshuno, but my mother was from Henford and I moved here recently to learn how to be a great chef from my grandmother Clara."

Hazel perked up. "Clara Bjergsen? My parents took me and my siblings to her farm-to-table bakery after each one of our graduations. It was tradition."

Suri smiled. "I'm sorry I never met you there. I came out to stay with them and work a few summers while I decided being a chef was my calling."

Hazel laughed. A calling. Suri seemed young - twenty-one. Hazel was only 24, but at Suri's age she'd just started at the mayor's office. She was a newlywed and the rest of her life seemed so exciting. But it hadn't panned out as she imagined, and now she was here, sitting in a bar imagining what it would feel like to pin Suri against the wall and- ...She stopped herself.

"I hope this doesn't seem too forward, but I'd like to give you my number. Maybe you could show me around Henford sometime. As a friend."

Hazel smiled, and they exchanged numbers just as she spotted the local reverend and her sister's old friend, Everett Pancakes, come in from the cold. "Hey Laura! Got any leftover cottage pies for the church bake sale tomorrow?"

The bartender finished mixing a drink and smiled. "I'll give you three cottage pies if you'll also take this fish pie off my hands. I'll never say no to a Finchwick Favour, but I'll never eat one of those pies, either."

Everett laughed. "Hand it over. If nothing else, we'll feed it to the llama."

With Suri's number in her phone, what would be unhappy Hazel's next move? ->

<- Previous Chapter | Gen 2 Start | Gen 2.1 Summary

Gen 1 Start | Gen 1 Summary

NOTE: Hazel's next move will have to wait for the Cozy Celebrations posts. Originally planned them for one day on Christmas Eve, it's now three days long instead of too much at once, and starts on Sunday! We're hanging with the Nesbitt-Gordons for the rest of the week. Tomorrow is reserved for Lavender to become a toddler, and Conrad gets a phone call...

TOWNIE TREE NOTES: Sofia Bjergsen says hi! Suri's mom was actually at the Gnome's Arms this same night and I pretended she wasn't. But Suri is the daughter of Sofia and Sergio Romeo, granddaughter of Bjorn and Clara, niece of Elsa. The Bjergsens have been in the save this whole time and, until now, haven't crossed paths with the Nesbitts.

Sofia moved from Henford to San Myshuno as soon as she graduated high school but never quite made it. But she's happy, and raised three children with Sergio in an apartment in the Fashion District. She and Sergio are nearly empty nesters now, with Malachi graduating high school soon-ish; Suri is the middle child, sandwiched by brothers Camden and Malachi.

[charbies]

I love your coloring style! I struggle so much with painting color, do you have any advice for cohesive color schemes, or how you go about picking what colors and values to use? Do you always use references?

Yes!!! Ok so for a long time I struggled with color too, I would get stuck and give up on whatever I was working on because color just didn't make any sense

truth is, I don't think you can get very far with figuring out color without first figuring out VALUES

So when we color first and then desaturate the left pic, we get a very boring, flat pic, limited values. Middle pic and right pic are 2 examples of grouping values by foreground, midground, and background to create more contast & dynamic layouts.

Case in point; contrast shows our eyes where to go. Our eyeballs like having clear focal points, it makes a good drawing that much more satisfying to look at within its borders.

2 layouts for values that I personally like are dark foreground on light background, and light/dark foreground on midtone background.

once I have a value study I like, I start laying color in by applying a gradient map. Drawing programs will have presets, but I highly recommend learning to build your own gradient maps. From there I'll tweak the hue around until I find undertones I like (more on that later)

NOW LETS TALK LOCAL COLOR. I define local color, aka "flats" as the color your character is "made out of." Basically ask yourself what colors are your character, if your character was sucked into a vacuum where there was no organic source of light/shadow/sun/etc that would influence the local colors.

Once I have local colors, I use a new layer set to overlay and "lay" the local colors over the gradient. Local colors we want + gradient undertones + dynamic values = cohesive colorssssss

Now one thing I want to mention about color in general is, when I started doing digital art, my brain would "icon-ify" colors and pick colors based on an object's "information" (e.g. frogs are green). As a result, I'd pick a lot of saturated colors in the upper right quad of my color picker, and this would limit my color pallets quite a bit.

Now that I'm more well-versed with values, I've intuitively gotten better at picking local colors in other quads and on parts of the color wheel that go against object "info." In general, I like picking local colors that are warm & earthy.

Additionally, you can always use overlay to create cohesion if you're trying to go for a certain look/feel that's tricky to manually pick out on the color wheel!

Last 2 things I'll mention are I avoid using a large amount of default digital "white" in artwork. This white literally does not exist in nature, it's like a vacuum to the point where these "clouds" just look like holes in the pictures here. I highly recommend looking at examples of traditional underpainting & using undertones, this was a gamechanger for me since I learned how to carry a traditional technique into digital art and it greatly improved my digital art

References I always use references, for 2 reasons: 1) I have a tough time conceptualizing whole ideas in my head and can't draw most things from memory (womp womp). 2) I legit do not practice anything ever, oops, I am usually learning at least 1 new thing every time I draw, so basically it'll be like "ok time to learn how wolves work" and this requires references lol. I'll use photos or hostages (ie my partner lol) for anatomy & poses, pinterest & posemaniacs are fantastic for this.

Anyway that's every silly little thing I could think of to say lol. I've done digital art for 10ish years, I'm fully self-taught, take that as you will lol. Thanks for asking this, hope it was helpful! :+)

[eliluvschan]

Blame it on the Mistletoe

pairing: bang chan x reader

word count: 904

warnings: -

genre: fluff

a/n: Merry Christmas everyone <3

i stormed out of my house and into my car after a bad fight with my boyfriend, Sung-ho. i am furious at him. he comes home very late, every night, drunk as hell. then shouts at me for nothing in the morning, and other than that i'm gonna break up with him anyway, because i think i'm in love with someone else. but that someone doesn't know i like him and as far as i know, he doesn't like me back either.

i slammed the door shut and drove over to Bang Chan's house. my best friend for over fifteen years. he's been by my side since we met and probably cares about me more than that piece of shit known as my so-called boyfriend.

we met when we went to the same elementary school until he moved to Korea when he was thirteen and always comes back to Australia around Christmas to be with his family.

i parked my car in the driveway and got out, breathing in the cold air, and then shivering. i grabbed my present from the backseat and tightened my muffler from around my neck. i made my way to the front door and knocked. he invited me to Christmas dinner with his dongsaengs. like every year. the door opened, revealing Hannah.

she smiled at me, before he attacked me in a hug. ''Y/n! i missed you so much!'' he squeaked out. ''i missed you too, Han. how have you been?''

''good, i just debuted and i'm excited for what's more to come!'' she says as we walk further into the house. we talk some more as she takes my coat and we walk through the hallway to the living room.

i follow him to see a beautiful tree decorated with everything. it looked perfect. except the golden star at the top was missing. and under the tree stood Chan himself. one hand on his hip and the other holding the star as he looked up.

''Channie!'' i called. he turned around, smiled hugely and scooped me into his arms. ''i missed you!'' he said. ''i missed you too! 4 months went by too slow!'' i pout as he laughs. i smile at his adorable laugh and his beautiful brown eyes sparkled. in case you haven't figured out, Chan is the person i'm in love with.

''Hey, Y/n!''

i turn around and hug the rest of the Bang's. they are like family to me and i love them all so damn much. Chan turned to me. ''hey, can you help me with this?'' he held up the last piece of decor. the star.

''sure, what do you want me to do?''

''get on my shoulders and put this up please?'' he asked.

i looked at him. ''o- okay.'' i said reluctantly taking the star from his hand. he grabbed my waist and lifted me on his shoulders. i felt a chill run down my spine as his chin brushed against my thigh. i put the star up as Hannah and Lucas cheered.

he put me down and thanked me. i smiled at him and went to help Mama Bang set up dinner.

—❀— 

Jack, Jessica, Lucas and Hannah were still in the kitchen. doing the dishes, putting stuff back whatever. Chan and i were sitting in the lounge, staring at the tree.

''i'm gonna break it with Sung-ho.'' i told him.

''really?'' is it just me or did i really hear hope in his voice. ''why?''

''he- he treats me like shit. comes home drunk every night, shouts, and does a lot of other things.''

''he doesn't hit you does he?'' he picked up my preset from under the tree.

''nope. not yet anyway.'' i told him as he shook it, trying to figure out what it was.

he opened it, and took the beanie i had gotten for him. he made a duck face. ''yeah, i like it too.'' i laughed. ''where's mine dork?''

he put a finger on his lips. ''shh.''

we sat in silence for a while.

''Y/n?''

''hmm?''

''come here.'' he said standing up and bringing me close to the tree. ''make a wish?''

i looked up at him. ''what?'' he asked. ''hey, it's Christmas. don't be a joy-killer.''

i shrugged and closed my eyes. 'i wish the idiot next to me would like me more than a friend'.

i opened my eyes to see Chan standing very close to me, smiling softly. he pulled me closer to him by the waist and backed into the wall behind me. he smiled at the ceiling. i looked up and saw it as well. mistletoe.

i smiled back at him and then i don't know what made me do it, but i leaned on my toes and pressed my lips to his. i slowly kissed back, pulling me closer to him. i pulled away and rested my head in his neck. he rested on top of mine.

''i love you, Y/n.'' he whispered quietly. i just smiled and kissed his cheek. who knew wishes came true this soon? he kissed my forehead. ''what are we gonna tell the others?''

''i, uh.'' he looked around, we were still pressed against the wall. he looked up to where the mistletoe was hung and his expression cleared. he looked down at me.

''we'll blame it on the mistletoe.''

~

[trickstersaint]

Screaminggg saint person I just read your apple taste in the throat as sin poem and I love it so I have a childhood experience to share bc I think the vague themes will make you writhe

So! Ever since I was a child I thought The Fruit™ was a fig! And I felt probably the same way you did whenever you ate an apple as when i ate fig newton's bc of this at like 6🤷 tasty but also [grows up in the church].

Anyway, that one lil story in the bible with the fig tree where jesus is having a very human moment and got caught in 4k withering the tree out of hanger then covered his ass with bravado+temple talk had stuck with little me from this, so to ramble: the life and death that goes into a figs growth and how even in paradise there was hunger, how it exists even among the divine, and that you have to give yourself whole to it like a fig wasp (it will kill you in the end) (or do you choose to die for it) (was there ever really a choice or is it nature to find something bigger than yourself and sacrifice your life for it) and that religion only lives on bc we do but who is to separate the temple from the tree thats barren that will outlast us like a legacy to all we could've been if not withered before its fruiting season? And what of the tiny wasps when the time comes to pollinate but the tree is gone, what of the next generation that burrowed their way out of the fig/divine and what life cycle is there to choose after? Were you born into it all or is it only where your mother died? andandand?? Screams I hope this gives you inspo for more writing or that you at least enjoyed the vibes of me being insane abt figs and what it means to take of the forbidden fruit and the withering of the fig tree lol

Also princess Diana and Gerard as a saint has been rattling around in my brain and I'm going nuts plz elaborate on what they mean to you I'm dying to hear ur thoughts in depth on that

my friend is also really into the fig tree story... beginning to think that raised-christian people only have a few preset bible concepts that they come preloaded with obsessions around. the two genders... fig and apple... anyway saying that even in paradise there was hunger is crazy. i need to write more about adam and eve they drive me insane. y'all ever think about this line from an article about adam and eve that i was reading for a research project a year ago and only posted on my main account where almost none of you guys would have seen it

she is trying desperately to encase herself within the divine framework... jack katz "The Social Psychology of Adam and Eve" save me. save me... anyway...

mmmm on princess diana and gerard way as saints. i find it interesting the way that people idolize her both as an icon of kindness and charity and also as a martyr; for the people who are really caught up in the image of her, i feel like it's absolutely as much about the fact that she died as it is about the good things that she did. not to say that people make her a christ figure lmao but if you REALLY wanted to get into it you could draw some parallels between the way that people talk about jesus interacting with the lepers and diana shaking the hand of someone with aids. and then to take this figure that you are idolizing for their selflessness and good works and to say that she was murdered is like. very evocative of martyrdom i think. these are not personal beliefs of mine i just find it very interesting to look at how people talk about her. personally i think the cultural obsessions around figures like princess diana and marilyn monroe, especially because they're women, are only ever going to grow parasocial and focus around the image or the idea of a person rather than fostering an interest in a historical figure. which. i mean. hey. me and saint sebastian for real :|

um. and then to further implicate myself in this social phenomenon. i am a freak about gerard way and i am not to be trusted around images of them in joan of arc armor or a cheerleader dress. liable to burst into tears or start speaking in tongues i think. i've been too transgender and too into my chemical romance for too long to be anything near normal about that particular person. seeing them in the joan of arc costume made me feel so crazyinsane about religion for so long that i sat down and wrote that first saints quiz. um. and you know actually i do have a poem about the way that it makes me feel so you can just go read that before i say something that's going to make me sound like i have a genuine religious fixation on that guy with like. a wife and kids. see also: trickstersaint poem "there's this feeling i get that i can't describe".

[vaggieslefteye]

hi! your gifsets are so beautiful, but do you mind if i ask HOW? how are they sooo sharp and clean and unfuzzy? i'm so discouraged about making gifs becos mine always end up looking like they were recorded with a potato :(

I sold my soul in exchange for powers To sum it up very quickly, I basically sharpen and denoise my screengrabs while they're still videos. I render them with those new filters applied before putting them in photoshop to turn them into gifs. Once they're in Photoshop I just ensure that my coloring is bright yet there's not too many colors going on in the color table, otherwise the diffusion makes them look terrible. I also use the Smart Sharpen feature when sharpening my gifs. I'll have a longer explanation under the cut.

I will say it took me a while to figure out what works for me here. Before I even posted my first ever gifs I spent a Not Normal amount of hours for an entire week before just trying to get them to look decent and not so washed out and grainy and sad.

I can be bad at explaining things so I will do my best. It's basically a combo of 4 things. I got a high quality torrent of Hazbin at 1080p. For Helluva, I actually screen record the episodes myself, and the recent episodes actually come out the best since they release them in 1440p. Having the highest quality base video is very important.

I get my screengrabs in Vegas Pro 18 using the torrents/videos, I have been using Vegas to make videos and edits as a hobby for years, so it's what I'm most used to using. I also have the Boris FX Continuum pluggins.

First, after I crop and neatly place all the clips I wanna use in a set together, I apply the pluggin's Sharpen feature.

After that, its Denoise feature.

I have presets I use for those but I tend to have to manually adjust them every time depending on the scene, which probably does not do much in the end but I am a stickler for little details. Once I am happy with how they look I render them, then import them to Photoshop. This helps the most, I think. I'm still learning but from what I was looking up, every gifmaker giving advice always said it's most important to have the clearest and highest quality starting vid before importing into Photoshop or your program of choice to make gifs.

Once they're in Photoshop the things that help me the most, I have found, is:

Smart Sharpen

Good coloring

I like the way Smart Sharpen works as opposed to the standard Sharpen feature. But I always sharpen at the very end of the process, right before exporting gifs. And with coloring I just try to make sure that the color palette doesn't have too many different colors going on, otherwise the diffusion makes it look SO, so grainy. I use a combo of different filters every time but I recently figured out how to use Selective Color and that one is really good at adjusting the finer details of certain areas.

There are a couple other small things I do but I'm gonna be a lil selfish and keep those magic tricks to myself, teehee. What I explained here is the bulk of it, honestly.

[thepettymachine]

Lame question, but I've been trying to figure out how to pose my TS3 sims for portraits - do you have any tutorials on how to do that? Or maybe links to others? Your stuff always looks amazing, it'd be awesome to learn how to do it as well

It's not a lame question but a good question to help you learn. If you are looking for a basic how to guide I recommend modfrenzy's guide to posing because they provide a good explanation of what you need, the technical how to do it, what cheats are recommended, etc.

Also graphic settings for the game are a factor. Mine are on the highest setting for sims as well as I'm using a Gshade preset so my game looks different in general.

If you're interested in how i do it, I sorta left a "how to" down below.

So when I take photos, I've really just combined other simblr's processes and just put my spin on them.

This is my basic lighting set up in game. I use @nectar-cellar's set up as a guide for my ideal.

This is what it looks like in Tab/ camera mode. After selecting the pose and before I'm about to take a screenshot, I turn the camera the long way or make the camera vertical ( SHIFT + A or SHIFT+ D). I got the idea from noelyely or now @tau1tvec

So it goes from this:

To this:

I get up all in my sims face and take photos. I'm just focusing on what I want reflected for my sim's personality so I choose poses and expressions that suit them. I take MULTIPLE shots from different angles and with different poses.

When I get into editing, I have to turn the photo right side up. Use some photoshop magic and then boom!

She done.

That's all I be doing. I hope that helps!

[doshi-sukiru]

What program do you use to paint? Looks cool!

I currently use Krita!

It's a free art program that you can download, and you can also make animations on there as well (I would recommend looking at a video to understand how that works bc I couldn't at first)

In all honesty it reminds me of the Microsoft art program they used to have back in the early 2000's when computers were big and chunky-

There are a lot of features you can use on here to help yourself learn the basics on here (again, highly recommend watching different videos for support bc some of these things I couldn't understand myself-)

A good example would be one of the lucifer pics I made a month ago with my current workspace-

Each layer shown has it's own place to make that glorious man, from lineart to simple colors to highlights and shadows and even my signature (still trying to figure out how to make a brush for that-)

overview is a good thing for me because I am always doing something wacky or different out of curiosity and usually it never turns out that great, so I use it often to be sure whether or not it looks good.

Brush presets (which I can't remember if that's in the default or not-) are very helpful, especially when you want to use different brush packs from the default set and/or you want to add new brushes to use. e.g. I use the first brush (the one in blue) as my sketching brush, and the other brush (The one that's white) as my lineart tool. These are below:

You can download these brush packs as well as other kinds of brush packs if you search krita brushes (Do note some are paid brushes so check beforehand!)

To get this program you can just search up krita program, and you'll find the download option on the first link:

If you have any questions you can ask me!

[specialagentlokitty]

Mr Evershed x student!reader - ghost

Please can we have a part two of ghost? 👻❤️ - Anon💜

Part two:

You wondered to school the next day, hands in your pockets and you looked at the police car parked in the parking lot and you smirked to yourself.

“Didn’t think he’d have the balls to do it.” You whispered.

“Think they’ll figure it out?” Sam whispered.

You glanced to your friend and shook your head.

“Nah, they’re still trying to figure out whether ghost is a teenager or not. I’ve been keeping up to date on the investigation since it started.”

She nodded her head and you two carried on walking towards the school only to be stopped just before walking in.

“I’m just grabbing students as they walk by for a chat, so you mind?” The officer asked.

“No sir.”

He smiled and gestured for you both to follow him and you lingered back and leant towards Sam.

“Play it cool.”

“What do I say?!” She hissed.

“Just follow me lead, okay? I got this Sam.”

She nodded and you both walked into the conference room, taking a seat next to one another, opposite Mr Evershed and other two officers.

The one that led you in stood by the door.

“Good morning Sam, (Y/N).” Mr Evershed smiled.

“Morning Sir.” You both replied.

“I’m detective Jones, these are officers Johnson and Ryan, do you mind if we ask you both a few questions? You are free to say no if you want to.” The woman smiled.

“That’s fine Ma’am.” You politely replied.

“Yeah that’s cool.” Sam said.

She nodded and pulled out a notepad.

“So, can you both tell me where you were two nights ago?” Jones asked.

“We were at my flat, doing some homework.” You said.

“What kind of homework.”

“Maths, it’s due in today.” Sam said.

“Can we have a look?”

You both pulled out your homework sheets and Jones took them and looked at them.

“They’re the exact same.” She said.

“I may have copied Sam, I’m not good at math.” You grinned sheepishly.

The woman laughed softly and handed them both back and wrote a few things down on her notepad.

“Do you two know anything about the party?” Mr Evershed asked.

“No sir.” Sam said.

He looked at you and you shook your head and he sighed a little bit.

“You’re not going to be in trouble if you do, I just need to know who organised it.”

You shrugged a little.

“We don’t know. Like I said, we were at mine.”

“Do you mind if we contact your parents and ask them?” Jones asked.

You hummed a little.

“You can but I’m not sure you’ll get very far. They both work out of town during the week, so usually it’s just me. Sometimes the little old lady next door comes by, but she doesn’t know how to work a phone, I don’t even think she has one.”

The detective nodded her head and they asked you a few more questions.

“If you hear anything will you please let me know you two?” Mr Evershed asked.

“Of course sir. You smiled.

He nodded and dismissed the pair of you and you walked out, and Sam grabbed your hand, pulling you down the hallway and out of view.

“I really think someone’s going to say something, you’ll get into load of trouble.”

“Sam, relax. This isn’t my first run around, alright? I’ve done it before.”

“You have?”

“Course I have, why you think am so good at it.” You snickered.

She grinned a little and you both went about your day, and you watched as the officers wondered the schools during break and lunch talking to people.

They were still there when you finished, and you decided to leave them a little preset.

Walking past Mr Evershed and officer Johnson, you brushed the fingers of your left hand against the door as you passed.

“See you Monday!” You beamed.

“Have a good weekend (Y/N).”

You wondered over to the gate and did the same thing to the gate and they carried on watching as the students left.

“Unfortunately we don’t have anything to go on. We’ve spoken to most of the students and no one is telling us anything.” Officer Ryan said.

Detective Jones walked over and she stopped, taking a step back as she looked down at the door.

“Someone’s definitely saying something.”

She gestured to the little sticker and Mr Evershed frowned.

“They walked right past us?” He asked.

“We’ve had access to a few files of the mystery party thrower, Ghost likes to taunt. It’s like a game to them. Completely harmless but a nuisance to say the least.”

“Can’t you get prints from it or anything?” The headteacher asked.

She shook her head.

“They’re smart, there’s going to be no prints there. Maybe we can look at the camera footage.”

So they did, but they still didn’t see anything even after watching it a few times.

You grinned to yourself as you stretched a little, grabbing your spare bag, you stuffed some cans into it and pulled the black hoodie over your head.

You kept the mask around your neck as you swung the back over your shoulder and walked through the building until you were outside and you looked around before pulling it up.

Jogging down the street, you took a few shortcuts and found the wall you were looking for and you set your bag down, pulling the cans out you gave them a shake and quickly got to work.

Mr Evershed was driving home when he noticed the figure spray painting the wall and he slowed his car to a quiet halt.

You weren’t stupid, you knew he was there, you saw him out the corner of your eye driving past.

Stuffing the rest of the cans into your bag, you closed it and tossed it on and turned around.

Mr Evershed froze slightly and you shuffled a few steps to the side.

“Right, enough games. Who are you?” He asked.

You said nothing and you ducked under his arm, still spray painting as you dodged his attempts to stop you.

Once you were done you ran around him to confused him and hopped up a fence, using it to climb onto a higher wall and you crouched down as you looked at him.

You rested your arms on your knees as you both stared at one another.

“I’ll call the police again!”

You shrugged a little.

“Do you know me?” He asked.

You thought for a minute before nodding your head.

“Do I know you?”

You grinned a little more under the mask and slowly nodded your head.

“Why are you answering my questions?”

You didn’t reply to him.

“Is this a game to you?”

You nodded.

He sighed, crossing his arms over his chest as he looked up at you.

You stood up, copying his stance.

“You’re a student aren’t you?”

You gave a another nod of your head and he furrowed his brows a little as he looked up at you.

You stood up and gave him a bow, then you looked behind you before looking at him again, giving him a little salute as you tossed the empty can to him and jumped down on the other side.

Spinning around you jogged away with a grin on your face and he picked up the empty can and looked at the massive ghost art on the wall.

Sighing, he got back into his car.

The whole weekend he tried to figure out who it was, but he couldn’t. And he couldn’t just jump to conclusions about who it would be.

Going in on Monday, he made his way straight to his office to find Mrs Carter waiting for him.

“Mandy? Everything alright?”

“I heard you have a bit of a ghost raver problem.”

“Do you know who it is?” He sighed.

“No idea. But I’ve had a few run ins with them before, mainly them running away from someone. All I can tell you is that they’re a nuisance, they’re not a threat though. They’re no way dangerous.”

“How can you be so sure if you don’t know who it is.”

Mrs Carter sighed a little as she sat down and he did the same thing.

“I’ve been keeping up to date on the investigation, they probably have too.”

“I swear they’re taunting me Mandy, it’s a student at this school.”

“How can you be sure?”

He frowned a little.

“I can’t be sure, but I think it is. And they’re mocking us all.”

“Have you thought maybe they’re doing this for attention? Maybe it’s a cry for help? Maybe it’s just a little bit of entertainment for them. They’re just a masked person who throws parties, nothing more.”

With that, she left and he frowned as he carried on trying to wrack his brain for any idea on who it could be.

He didn’t know any student that would do something like this but could also be so careful and smart about it all at the same time.

Most of his students lashed out in anger, or withdrew from everyone. He had never had to handle something like this before.

You on the other hand walked into the school, hands stuffed into the pockets of your jeans as you smiled at the officer stood at the front.

“They don’t seem like school regulation.” He said.

“You don’t seem like a teacher.” You mused.

“Well, im sure she’ll say the same thing.”

He pointed behind and you looked at Mrs Carter, giving her a half wave and she rolled her eyes a little at you.

“You know the drill (Y/N).”

“Of course I do Miss, im going. Good to see you again!”

You headed to the office and knocked on the door waiting to be invited in.

“(Y/N)?”

“Wearing jeans.” Was all you said.

“Have a seat.”

You nodded and sat down and he carried on scrolling through his computer for a few minutes and you scrolled through your phone as you waited for him.

You scrolled past a news article about your artwork and you smirked a little bit, something that didn’t go unnoticed by Mr Evershed as he caught a glimpse of the artwork on your screen before you quickly locked your phone

[mxrp-official-steve]

Your Msparp re-build update: Your Feedback edition!

So! Over one week ago, we dropped the early beta for the msparp rebuild. We let it run for a week, and then we begged with napkins tied around our necks for you to FEEDBACK US.

I now stand before you with a suspiciously feedback-shaped belly ready to go over the data! If you want to see the changes we're gonna be implementing going forward in reaction, scroll right to the bottom!

THEMES

Ok so this is genuinely pretty funny to me. You guys really like the themes despite them being almost entirely unedited defaults that came with the assets we're using. Good to know, though! I was kind of considering deleting this question. Of note many of you want better dark themes and less bright ones, which me and Hex took note of.

LAYOUT

Despite the website being almost exclusively canned assets right now, I figured I'd gauge reaction to the style. As you can see, it's a positive-leaning 'meh'. This is pretty understandable. I did however notice that many of you were asking for a theme more similar to the most-recent MxRP layout in the open forum segment here.

I have an idea for this. A shoulder to tap on, you might say. Keep your eyes peeled in the future- specifically when we get all the features put in and can start putting the makeup on this pig.

THE NEW CHATBAR

Pretty heavy 'meh' present here again- just with a heavy lean towards positive. This is good! Especially since the WYSIWYG editor launched with the bugs we were initially delaying it to try and avoid- of note most of the changes Hex made during the week were Workarounds. Editing this thing is a bitch and will continue to be up until the bugs are patched up- after that Hex can REALLY cook with fire and mold this thing to our liking. The new editor was one of the main things we were taste-testing you guys on here- and with this we've made the decision to keep it barring any like, completely catastrophic incompatibilities or bugs that like, completely break it or something.

POLL; BBCODE OR HTML/MARKDOWN

This one's pretty clear cut, don't you think? You guys want your BBCode back.

So we're gonna work on that!

When the chatbar bugs are fixed, Hex is going to start looking into converting things so they run BBCode instead. It's gonna take a lot more custom work (because BBCode is, to be blunt, ancient) but it's not nonviable. Don't worry- the shortcut buttons will be staying, and ideally so will the the ability to linebreak (because it rules)

It would also be smart of me to bring up that choosing BBCode over HTML actually makes a lot of things a ton easier- for example! Quirks were gonna be a bitch fuck and a half to integrate under an HTML standard. But if we swap back to BBCode, it's gonna be, to quote Hex, trivial. Hopefully it'll save enough time to outweigh the custom work!

GITHUB USAGE

Lol no y'all didn't. No y'all didn't y'allre goofy that 9% is fake only like four of you have lmao.

WHAT COMES NEXT

Unsurprising numbers go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

We have nothing to report on this yet. BUT it's nice to know that my guess was on point- Presets came out by a FAT lead, with random search in the immediate second place. The random search feature is intrinsic to how parp works and its identity as a website, but it's also gonna be difficult to implement and test (expect a big announcement when it's ready so we can stress it against y'all). This is gonna be our guide going forward, though we wont be following it exactly (as mentioned above, some things are gonna be easier than others, and if Hex wants those to take priority to get them out of the way I'll trust their judgement on it.

TL;DR

You guys like the themes, like the WYSIWYG editor, and you want BBCode back and character presets. These are things that're being worked on once the big with the WYSIWYG editor is resolved!

Again, thank you all so much for your support. We know the beta was rough, but you guys stuck with us and gave us your honest feedback! The beta will be staying up for the foreseeable future so we can live-deploy features and let you guys test them out.

[invenblocker]

Completed the Paldean Pokédex. So here's where I can give some thoughts on Pokémon Scarlet.

Pros:

I was skeptical on the idea of a fully open world Pokémon main series game (and I'm just generally not too much of a fan of the Open World trend), but Scarlet did make it work pretty well.

Any part of the story orbiting Arven, i.e. the HM hunt and the game finale, was pretty good.

They fixed some of the issues I had with Sword, such as items marked as favorite becoming unfavorited if your amount of that item drops to 0 for any amount of time and the overly linear map designs (granted, that one's a given).

We finally get to customize our character during character creation, which is a massive upgrade from having to pick a preset look, and then needing to wait until the game gives us colored contacts and access to a hair stylist.

Terastalization is a pretty good mechanic.

Larry is fantastic. He deserves a bullet point. Sadly, he uses Flying Types in the Elite Four, so I'm still waiting on GF to give us a Normal Type Elite Four member.

Good main game content. Granted, I did spend some time dicking around, but the game still managed to give me 30 hours worth of activity before rolling credits.

Gym leaders are pretty well implemented as generally well respected figures within their cities' communities.

Cons:

While open world is mostly well executed, it would have been nice if at the very least the Gym leaders scaled their teams based on your progress. This concept is even hinted at with Katy mentioning that she goes easy on challengers because she's typically the first gym they tackle, and an open world structure would have been the exact time to actually capitalize on this idea.

A lot of my issues with Sword are sadly still here, such as the removed moves, a pretty poor bag UI, dexit, no berry farming, no GTS.

The box system doesn't work too well.

No chain battling facility? Am I just unable to find an obvious facility, or does this game not have a dedicated facility for battling series of trainers with level and team restrictions? Even Sword had the Battle Tower.

I don't particularly care for the soundtrack this time around.

I like IV breeding, but the ease with which bottle caps are available, this game is actively telling me that doing so is a waste of time, which doesn't exactly feel nice.

Tera Raids have a lot of issues. I like how they offer a more fast paced to the point version of Max Raiding, but the menu has issues, and there's times where we just have to stare at the screen as nothing happens on either end.

There's a lot of general presentation issues: shadows blinking in and out of existence, camera clipping through terrain quite often, dev cubes just being visible for some reason, stone textures looking like they're some sort of flowing liquid when you get closer to them, etc.

Performance: Why can't a battle just start when I challenge a wild Pokémon? Like, I just stare at it for a couple of seconds and then the battle starts. Do you really need to load the entire battle system each time or something?

Random crashes. In just 100 hours, I've experienced 3 crashes and 1 hardlock.

I've completed the game. Let me wear something other than my school uniform already.

All in all, this game is a huge step up from Sword, but it kinda falls apart when you compare it to some of the other big titles on the Switch. Game Freak really does need more time and resources for the games in this series, but sadly the Pokémon company has a plethora of other media that is reliant on them pumping out new games at this pace, which sadly means that we'll likely never again see a main series game not be rushed.

I'm kinda expecting them to try and push a Battle Frontier/Maison/Tree/Tower like facility in a paid DLC at some point during this year, which... would kinda suck to see them axe a feature only to offer it as DLC later.

[nsokolow]

Little Weasel, Big City: Chapter 15

“I’m telling you, Leilani, it’s kinda nice to see a familiar face here. Now I might have one at work!” Travis commented as he pulled away from the curb.

“Oh, right! Thanks!” Leilani, who sat next to him, gave him a quick nod.

“So, Travis, uh, when are we gonna be there? This farm’s gotta be a good deal away from this area, since it’s full of buildin’s and cement and stuff.” Duke picked up an open bag of chips and ate from it.

“I’m gonna drive us to the train station, then we’re gonna take the train to Meadowlands. I’ll call a rideshare service to pick us up after our train ride,” replied Travis.

“Huh, haven’t been on a train in a while,” Duke remarked though a mouth full of chips.

“Really? How come?” Leilani looked back at Duke.

Duke shrugged. “Eh, just haven’t had a reason to. I was busy tryin’ to make it big time.”

“Well, you might succeed this time, Duke. This Daring Do job pays pretty well. Some of the animals there are kinda scary, and I ain’t in love with the commute, but it pays well. Besides, I don’t have to be at the farm very often.”

“I do need money! I’m so glad to hear that!” Leilani exclaimed. Her heart swelled with pride at her acting skills.

“Great!” Travis approached a STOP sign.

“Hey, Travis, do you mind if I turn on the radio?” Leilani asked.

“Yeah, sure. Just don’t change none of my presets.”

“Yeah! Let’s jam out!” Duke threw his fists in the air. “What kind of music are ya into anyway, Lei?”

“Well, usually pop or country; singers like Gazelle and Taylor Sheep.” Leilani began flipping through radio stations.

“Oh, I like those two! I’m partial to rock and rap. My favorite rappers are Lil’ Yakky and Kodak Bear. I kinda like Emu Nem, too.”

“Wait, you don’t know what kind of music each other likes? How long have you two even known each other? I mean, you’re married!”

Leilani stopped pressing the button. “Uh…well…honestly, we haven’t really known each other that long, but, when you know, you know! You know?”

Leilani saw Duke raise his eyebrows.

“Oh, well, I guess I get it. On me and my ex’s first date, we talked about what kind of music we liked. Maybe that’s unusual. I dunno.”

Leilani pressed the button two more times and stayed on a station that played a Gazelle song. A first date. Something she never had with Duke. She liked Duke, and she was pretty sure he liked her too. After all, he liked her enough to marry her, so he must have seen something in her. Despite his shiftiness, he cared enough to tell her that he contributed to the plantings of Daring Do. She suddenly wanted to have a first date with him so much. To just have fun together without her trying to get her new life together or them trying to figure out where some strange plants came from.

“Wow! This is awesome!” Duke, on the train, laughed as he grabbed onto a pole and swung around it. “I should do this more often! I don’t even care how long it’ll take until we get there! This is awesome!”

Leilani, standing at a pole next to him, had a hearty chuckle at his excitement over something nobody else seemed to care about.

“Hey, weasel!”

Leilani and Duke both pricked up their ears. They turned around and saw an elephant sitting down.

“Yeah, you with the black getup! Instead of taking your meds like I suggested, you got yourself a boyfriend to act stupid with!”

Travis dropped his mouth open as he looked back and forth between the weasels and the elephant.

“We just started takin’ our meds but they ain’t gonna take affect for a while. It’s called Get-A-Life-Exitine!” Duke took his toothpick out of his mouth and flicked it at the elephant’s trunk.

The elephant grunted and returned to her phone.

Leilani stared at Duke and slowly smiled. “Wow! That was awesome!” Leilani walked over to him and held onto the same pole.

“Oh, uh, well, thanks!” Duke softly chuckled and scratched the back of his neck. “I mean, he was a jerk, and I ain’t crazy about ableism. I mean, I know you ain’t disabled, not that that’s an insult.”

Leilani continued to smile as she narrowed her eyes. “Well, I appreciate it.”

Duke sighed. “Listen, Lei, I’ve been thinkin’…maybe once we have time and everything, and once I get my first paycheck, I could…take you out somewhere? My boss said the paychecks come every Friday.”

Leilani’s heart jumped. “Oh, uh, yeah! Sure! I mean, we don’t have to wait until you get money; we could do a picnic or go to the beach or something.”

“Well, uh, great! How about a picnic?”

“Great!” Leilani grinned and held a thumb up.

Far away in the meadow, Leilani saw rows of brown and neon green, accompanied by what was either a white tent or house.

“Is that the place?” Leilani asked.

“Yup,” replied Travis, “Come on. I’ll introduce you to the folks.”

Leilani inhaled and exhaled a trembling breath. This is actually happening. We’re actually going through with this. No going back—

She suddenly felt Duke’s paw on her shoulder.

Duke grimaced and gave a small, high-pitched laugh. “We’ll be okay!”

Leilani took a deep breath before they followed Travis down the hill and to the farm.

“Hey y’all! I’m back! Got some prospective coworkers with me.” Travis announced.

The array of animals watering the rows of Daring Do looked up from their watering cans.

“So…how prospective are they?” A deer narrowed his eyes and pointed a hoof at the clearly nervous weasels.

“Oh, pretty prospective. They just got married, and they’re in desperate need of money.”

“Yeah!” Duke put his arm around Leilani and walked ahead of Travis. “You ain’t got no idea how much my wife and I need this job! We’ve really hit upon hard times!” Duke’s anxious demeanor quickly calmed. “So, you got like, a manager we can talk to or somethin’?”

The deer rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine. I’ll go take you two to our manager.”

[drawtectives-correct-quotes]

TCOTSA and Accessibility

Making a game as accessible as possible is extremely important. However, I am just one person. And while I'm trying my best to make my fan game more accessible to those with disabilities, it's also important to check in with my audience to make sure nothing is forgotten and if I'm implementing something incorrectly, or worse, offensively.

The engine used to make this fan game is RenPy. Although RenPy does have accessibility options, there are two problems with it:

It's not accessible to access it whatsoever

It doesn't cover everything

To get a better understanding of what I'm talking about, take a look at the default accessibility settings page:

First of all, you're probably wondering how I even got to this menu. You may even be baffled if you've played RenPy-based games before (i.e. Doki Doki Literature Club before it was remade to be ported to consoles) and you had no clue that this menu even existed.

That's the main issue I have with this. The options are good for basic presets, but you have to know how to even access it in the first place. I only learned of this while messing around with the game's main menu. If you select "help", the last thing it tells you is how to access the accessibility menu.

So unless you stumble upon a visual novel for the very first time and truly have no idea how to play through a visual novel and therefore need help on what keys to press and what they do, you'll probably never know that if a game is made with RenPy, it'll have an accessibility menu that's accessed with "Shift + A". And even then, most people just stumble through their first visual novel without checking the help screen out and instead just press a bunch of random keys until they figure it out themselves (or maybe that's just me).

That's the one thing I want to tackle first before anything else in regards to accessibility in my game. I want to make it easier and more known that there are indeed accessibility settings for those who need them. My current idea is to make a main menu selection that takes you to the accessibility menu when you click on it, no key combinations required.

Now, back to the menu itself.

The settings within the accessibility menu are pretty good. They cover the basics, such as dyslexia and TTS. However, as an individual who doesn't need those things, I have no clue how useful/helpful they are. For example, is Opendyslexic a good font or is there another font that is more universal among those with dyslexia?

As for self-voicing/TTS, this is something that I need to work on in the back end of things. While by default it's pretty good, I did some research and learned that there are ways to make a TTS version of the game just as enjoyable as a non-TTS version. That sounds super obvious reading it now, but as someone who doesn't need TTS, it's never crossed my mind. For example, by adding alternative lines of dialogue for TTS to read so that it doesn't fumble on certain words is a great solution. This is in addition to adding alt text to custom images that may otherwise not have any alt text for the TTS program to read.

Other things I want to focus on are:

Color-blindness options

Shaking/flashing toggles

As you can see, the list is short. On one hand, that's good because that means I don't have a whole lot to work on in this category. However, it also makes me worry that I'm missing things.

This is where I ask for your help as an audience. Are there any accessibility settings you would like me to add? Any that need modifying? Please let me know!

If you would like to read more about visual novels and accessibility, I highly recommend you check out this blog post over on itch.io!

[eldritchsurveys]

1216.

Is your closet disorganized? >> It's not disorganised, it's very organised, it just looks chaotic because it's a small wooden wardrobe that I have to somehow fit all of my clothes into. I can't figure out a way to make it look any better than it does. Have you ever been to Times Square? >> Many, many times. I have fond memories of being there in the wee hours of the morning with the crew. We were all so far removed from what is considered "normal" life, including "normal" reckoning of time... it is enviable. Being domesticated may indeed be safer and healthier, and I don't think I want to go back to that urban-wildling lifestyle (I don't even think I could, I'm not suited for it anymore, and so much of it depended on frequent drug use which I definitely cannot do anymore, physically and otherwise), but sometimes... sometimes, the nostalgia and the complicated grief that perpetuates it is overpowering.

Do you like to cuddle with your S.O. or do you prefer your space? .

What TV shows do you watch on a regular basis? >> Nothing that is currently airing, but I'm leisurely making my way through about 10 shows right now -- Riverdale, Stargate SG-1, Twin Peaks, Person of Interest, The Wire, Frasier, Vanitas no Carte, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Fruits Basket. Oh, that's 9 shows.

Have you ever accidentally left something valuable at a shop before? >> Not in recent memory.

Does it make someone a racist if they’re not attracted to a specific race? >> That is not how I understand racism. Attraction can indeed be informed by one's prejudices, but on the flip side, there are plenty of bigots who are also very into the idea of fucking the people they're bigoted towards. Who someone wants to fuck is not at all a reliable litmus test for whether they respect those same people and the cultures they belong to.

What makes your life remarkable? >> I don't know. The fact that I exist at all, I guess.

Are you putting off doing anything that you really need to get done? >> Not right now. I'm actually kind of shit at procrastination, sitting in that state of anxiety and dread is actually more painful than just doing the thing.

What is the last thing you scribbled down on a Post-It note? .

What are you currently listening to? >> A MyNoise preset to block out upstairs noise.

How would you react in discovering your best friend was seriously obsessed with you? >> I don't have one of those, but in general, I'd need more information than this. What connotation of "obsessed" is being used here? For example, if by "obsessed" you mean they're just super into me in a way that is more on the limerence/romantic ideation side of things, that's fine, I suppose. We'd have to talk about what that means for our relationship, and it could either be a good or bad thing, depending on how I feel about them and how well they manage complicated feelings, I guess. But if by "obsessed" you mean they want to eat my organs, well.............. honestly, that's not a dealbreaker either, I wouldn't entirely mind being part of a Hannibal/Will type dynamic-- My point is, context matters. Also I may end up setting myself up to be serial killed one day.

Do you care if your produce is organic or not? >> I don't, except in the sense that I don't want to buy organic products because they cost more.

Do you have any children? If so, how old were you when you had them? If not, do you think you ever will? >> I do not and I never will.

Do you eat meat? >> Infrequently, but yes.

Do you get enough calcium? >> I don't know. I haven't had labs done in a long time.

Do you think before you act or speak? >> For the most part. Sometimes my responses come from a deeper place than my cognition.

Do you have a SwagBucks account? >> I do, because shit like that is my only source of money.

Are you nosy? >> I can be. I like knowing things. Not even for the sake of using the information for anything, I'm just a curious motherfucker.

Do you always try on clothes before purchasing them? >> I hate doing it but I have to. Off-the-rack clothing is my enemy. Is there anything in your closet with the tags still on? >> There is not.

Are you happy with the size of your bedroom? >> I am very happy with it, it's so big.

Do you add people you don’t actually know on Facebook? >> I don't do that.

What’s your favorite condiment? >> Hmm. Hot honey, maybe. Or umami seasoning. I put those on almost everything. Honourable mention to chili crunch oil.

Would you even want to know how much of your life has been spent online? >> As mentioned, I am always curious about things so sure why not, but I don't think this information would be useful in any way. Do you shop at American Eagle? >> I do not.

List 5 things you’re afraid of: >> Incarceration, prolonged terminal illness, idk.

Have you forgotten anything important recently? >> I completely forgot that I saw a whole ass ballet earlier this year. This is really becoming a running theme.

Would you say you’re an honest person? >> I would say that I am much more likely to be honest than I am to be deceitful, mainly because there's rarely times when being deceitful would be of greater benefit to me. However, it would be a mistake to assume that I will always be honest about everything, ever.

The last Facebook message you received from the opposite sex, what did it say? .

What does the nicest message in your Facebook inbox say? .

Is your best friend single? .

What color was the ink of the last pen you wrote with? >> Black. What does your pencil-case look like? .

Where was the last place you went that was totally new to you, as in, it was the first time you’d been there? >> Hmm... the food pantry I started going to, maybe?

When was the last time you used someone else’s computer? >> February, when I built Sparrow's PC.

Who do you dislike the most? Explain what you dislike about that person. .

What’s the longest you’ve liked someone without doing anything about it? .

Do you use straightening irons on your hair? What brand? >> I do not.

What’s the relationship status of the last person you talked to? .

Is there anything you would like to complain about? >> Not right now. What’s the first line of the last song you listened to? >> "Two hands on the back wall, we're going through your mind." (Royal Thunder, Floor) Think of the person from your past that hurt you the most. Is there anything you would like to say to that person? .

Does your mom like the last person you kissed? .

Now your cell phone, what color is it? >> Black.

Last text? Who was it from? .

Do you use your speed dials? >> I do not.

What was so special about today? >> Nothing.

If somebody tried to steal your best friend’s boyfriend/girlfriend, what would you do? .

What was the last thing you said to your mother? .

When was the last time you cried? >> This morning? Literally, I cry so often that I can't even keep track anymore. Wait, I think it was last night, actually.

Has anyone made you upset lately? >> No.

What are you looking forward to? >> Uh... hmm. Nothing, I guess. Various video game releases, maybe? But not really, because I just think about how I can't afford them and I'm like "oh yeah".

Does anyone completely understand you? >> Can Calah does.

Ever stayed up all night on the phone? >> I have not.

Do you miss your past? >> See my answer to the second question for a glimpse into how I feel about times long gone.

Do you have a reason to smile right now? >> Sure.

Are you a forgiving person? >> *shrug*

Do you say sorry first? >> I don’t apologise at all. If I’m inclined to be contrite about something, then I’ll show it another way.

Do you like cats? >> Not as a rule. The general obsession with cats irritates me on a visceral level, which I can't explain but I just have to live with. There is sometimes an individual cat that I will like -- Sparrow's parents have a cat named Sophia who is my bestie. (She's a calico, I tend to vibe with calicos. Similar temperaments, you know.) Has someone promised you something and broke it? >> Probably.

Did you kiss or hug anyone today? >> Well, there was Can Calah, as usual. Does your phone ring in the middle of the night? >> Even if I were to get some sort of midnight robocall, the fact that my phone is set on perma-Do Not Disturb would prevent me from knowing until the morning. Is there anybody you’re really disappointed in right now? >> There is not.

Have you ever lost someone you wish you didn’t? >> I’ve been upset about a person’s death in the past. But I’m not entirely sure I wanted him to not be dead. I just needed to adjust to the fact that it happened. Are you anything like you were a year ago? >> I’m something like I was a year ago, sure.

Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom? >> That'd be a fair description.

Would you rather spend a day outside with friends or inside alone? >> So, only one of these is an option for me--

Think back to this time last year, were you happy? >> I was whatever I was.

Has anyone upset you in the last week? >> No.

What should you be doing? >> There’s nothing specific I should be doing right now.

Describe how you feel right now in one word. >> Neutral.

What would you do if you found out one of your friends was going for the person you liked? . Do you prefer drinking water from a bottle or a sink? >> Tap water is free, I prefer the free water.

Will you ever run away and get married in Las Vegas with no notifications to either of your families? >> We did not do that. Well, I mean, I don't have a family, but Sparrow's family was definitely present at the wedding, which was incidentally in a different popular wedding destination (New Orleans).

Have you ever thrown your iPod in anger? >> Back when I had iPods, possibly. I definitely did it with CD players.

Who did you last have a heart-to-heart conversation with? >> God, I would love to have something like this. Besides my dialogues with Can Calah, which are always heart-to-heart.

Do you believe that there’s good in everybody? >> This good/evil concept is of no interest to me.

Has anything happened to you within the past month that has made you mad? >> Possibly?

Would you ever get a tattoo? >> I have three, so the answer is obviously yes. I would also get more if I could.

[mi5019tomberry]

Adding Sound 1

I was told I needed to go back and add some sound for this project to fully finish everything on and these were the ideas I jotted down for each shot.

This is the multitrack of the final audio in Audition, this is everything I used for the audio above. I'm quite happy with how it turned out, just as an audio sample it sounds pretty good, the only bit which doesn't quite work when paired with the video is the fact that the voice over in the shot of Elon Musk doesn't match what he's saying but its just something I can keep in mind the next time I try something like this.

This is the sound for each shot, I had to re-familiarise myself with audition as I hadn't used it in a few months but I feel like I managed to get a better understanding than I had before. Previously I've overdone sound effects in my projects so I tried to hold back a little with this one and finding some music to go along with it prevented me from going too deep into unnecessary details because sometimes the sound effects are really underwhelming whether they make sense for the shot or not. I had the most difficulty with the third shot because I was trying to figure out a way to make it seem more like a dream sequence to better match the visuals and I was getting a little carried away testing audio effects in Audition but adding the music put a stop to any more wasted time.

The song above only had 2 views at the time that I found it but it had the right sort of ambience for the video and after cutting it up and shifting things around to match the timings in the video it worked great. I also used the other video above for the hologram sound effect to keep things simple which you can listen to in the audio above.

This is the final audio that I used for the hologram projections, the intro hologram sound is probably too loud but it sounds alright for the most part in the end.

This is some of the experimenting I did whilst trying to get things to sound right, I tested out a bunch of different effects most of which I didn't really understand but I found that some of the echoes worked great, adding a sense of scale to the video making it feel a little more unnerving. It was mostly the 'Weighted Echo' presets which I used in the video because they added that sense scale I was looking for. I got the voice overs from the videos above to make the visuals hit a little harder almost like snippets of a future on the horizon.

This is the area where I got a little lost trying to figure out the audio for the third shot. The whispering screams of the previous shot sounded great but I needed to find a way to transition to the flower without it falling flat (which is how it felt when I just let the screams fade out). I'd decided I needed a sound to break up the transition a little and I chose the sound of a Sonoran Desert Toad which is a toad that has psychoactive effects on human so I thought it would be a good segue into the dream sequence and it also fit nicely with the lily pads and flower visuals making things seem a little more swampish with an additional meaning on top. I tried four different effects to make the sound seem more dream like but all of them were just too overbearing and the plant growth sounds I used weren't sounding great either. I ended up deciding to use the video above of an increasing heartbeat because it felt quite fitting to the shot. I had intended the feelings shot to be a little more open to interpretation and based it on a species of flower which is deemed as both beautiful but also has the potential to be invasive, not knowing which direction AI could head in it felt like a good fit for an abstract portrayal of AI and the nervous beating heart over the top of things making the shot make a little more sense.