#trying to understand 3d figures a bit better

[thenegoteator]

lighting practice :D

[quibbs126]

And this here is today’s attempts at drawing Transformers, specifically TF One

I had this idea when I started today, since I knew the faces and noses were giving me trouble yesterday, to try this paintbrush style. The logic in my brain was that the movie was made in 3D, so logistically a more lineless style should work better, right?

I do admit, I think that the lineless style works far better in terms of the eyes and noses being the right shape, but I also admit my lines are probably a bit too soft and I may need to darken them. As well as get something good for the actual thin lines, since the paint brush on its own feels too thick, even at the lowest size

And you know what, since we’re here, does anyone have any Procreate brushes they can suggest for this sort of style? Right now I’m just using Flat Brush, but I wonder if I should use something else

Anyways, so this canvas was supposed to be more D-16, but partway through I figured I should try someone else to draw as well, so I decided Orion, so we could have the yaoi

Honestly my big problem with Pax here is that I don’t have a good comprehensive reference for him, while I can get by just fine with D-16. These were about the best I could get, and that last one I only got because these other two weren’t cutting it

I need high quality references of these characters, or at least specifically their faces. And I’m gonna need even more if I plan to draw Megatron and Optimus as well

But yeah, Orion’s here, and I was also having trouble getting the correct colors for him, because I’m stupid and used to flat colors. D was pretty easy considering he’s just greys, and a yellow tinted grey works just fine there as a grey (though I do admit I’m struggling with his eye color), but I feel like blue tinted Orion looks too blue by comparison. But I don’t know how to give him his proper face coloring without it being the same shade as D-16

I feel like my words aren’t making sense. But just get that Orion colors are a struggle. And still are, because I still don’t think that other grey is the right color

Also Orion has a significantly more complicated helmet than D, so that’s fun

I really wasn’t planning on Orion taking up so much of the space, but I needed to actually practice how he looked so that I could draw him easier. I had numerous attempts at D-16 prior, I could sort of understand his look, but I was flailing in the dark on Orion and needed the practice

I think another problem is that I don’t make him wide enough. But sue me, my character designs usually don’t have their bodies that wide/their heads that small. I’m working on it

I capped off this canvas by just deciding to make a small doodle of Orion kissing D, since why not and also I was too lazy to think of anything else to add

Where do we go from here? I have no clue, but hopefully it’ll go good

[sexhaver]

ive been playing Cassette Beasts for a minute and it never stops being funny to me how flagrant they are about making this "Pokemon but with features you didn't know Pokemon has always needed". off the top of my head:

super effective/NVE hits have added benefits/debuffs beyond just doubling/halving the damage (hitting Electric types with Ground reduces their evasion and speed, hitting Steel types with Poison gives them poison-coated spikes that do contact damage, etc)

legally-distinct-Pokemon will learn new moves while in your party without having to battle, and you can then straight up steal these moves from them and put them on a not-Pokemon you actually care about using, which gives an actual incentive to hunt down and raise otherwise fringe not-mons beyond completing the not-Pokedex

we all played the Pokemon Infinite Fusion fangame right? we know how fusions work? okay so this game has them as temporary per-battle things instead of permanent ones, which is only marginally less cool while being infinitely easier to balance around

attempting to catch something shows you the percentage chance of success so you know whether you just got unlucky or if you should save your Pokeballs-i-mean-blank-cassette-tapes

leveling up is tied to your not-trainer instead of your not-pokemon, so you don't end up in the classic trap where your starter is way overleveled and everything else is underleveled and then you hit a fight your starter can't solo and have to spend an hour grinding to get the weaker not-mons up to par (funnily enough most Pokemon Nuzlocke romhacks have already figured this out and give you infinite rare candies with the only restriction being that you can't level past the next gym leader's ace pokemon, because Pokemon fans have realized that grinding is the worst part of the game way before Game Freak has)

moves, not-Pokeballs, not-PokeCenter visits, and healing items are all bought using entirely separate currencies which stops you from trivially breaking the economy in half

the soundtrack, fittingly, is pretty good! the vocals were a bit much for my taste but there's an option in the settings menu to straight up turn them off (letting the BGM play on its own), which i've never seen in any other game and really appreciate

downsides:

on a game design level, i understand why can i only carry a max of 5 not-Potions and 1 not-Revive at a time - it's to put a limit on how far away from fast travel points i can get by just running away from everything and healing off damage. on a gameplay level, however, this feels pretty bad

the pixel art style is trying to look as much like Pokemon as possible without actually being Pokemon so the overworld sprites look more like beta stuff from Pokemon that they cut for looking too weird. i have yet to find a haircut that doesn't look bad

this is super petty of me but something about the bloom and lighting of the 3d environments combined with pixelated 2d sprites that still cast shadows makes me painfully aware im playing a video game. it's like they were going for the same aesthetic as Octopath Traveler but fell just barely short. i can't think of a better way to articulate this feeling but if you know you know

it does that really obnoxious half-assed style of voice acting where plot-relevant characters will sometimes (maybe every third or fourth textbox) speak the first two or three words of dialogue before trailing off. mashing through textboxes (as one does) means constantly getting jumpscared by "hmm"s and "haha!"s "okay then!"s

i get that they wanted to make the player feel involved in the story, and it has a pretty decent hook so far, but oh my god. the amount of dialogue "choices" that just transparently do not matter. you know how people memed on Fallout 3 and 4's dialogue choices all leading to the same outcome, to the extent that you were basically choosing between "yes" and "yes (rude)"? and you know how Bethesda would at least attempt to justify how both options led to you accepting the quest anyways, even if it was really dumb? Cassette Beasts has streamlined this process even further by making the options in most of their binary decisions so identical that they don't even require different followup dailogue before rejoining into the main conversation thread. a solid 2/3rds of the dialogue options in this game so far feel like checks that you're still awake. i know this is a minor issue because people aren't playing Pokemon-likes for the engaging "choices matter" approach to storytelling, and i did ignore it at first, but it's so pervasive that you really can't ignore it

[simaddix]

*Pay Attention - Part 2 - Tutorial*

I was about to go back to my business and quietly leave y'all with a word of wisdom but the very next package I opened raised my hackles. So here we go, hold on to your seat.

Disclaimer for younger/sweeter - followers - this has language in it because I'm pissed... I apologize in advance.

49,282 Polycounts. That's 50K for a fucking basket!!!

It's pretty, it's beautiful, and I downloaded it because it's everything you could want out of a basket of lemons... whoever created it did an outstanding job... for a movie production.

NOT PC GAMES.

So let's fix it - and let's hold our creators and converters to a higher standard or send them along to a different platform where they can create without our bitching.

First off, there's 3 or 4 ways you can check polycounts.

1 - TSRW under Mesh tab

2 - S3PE (Pretty sure you have to have an addon to do this - I'll try to find it when I'm done and add the link) Under MLOD, right click and go down to Preview. It'll open up a window and you can view the model and the polycount.

3 - 3D Viewer on your computer

4 - Blender or Milkshape

Now that we have the ability to check our polycount - we're gonna fix this mesh. I'm not going to show you how to package it, there are other tutorials for that part, but this is VITAL to having a healthy game, and honestly, being a creator or converter for this game. I do understand that you have to have the knowledge before you can fix a problem, so here it is - literally handed to you in a basket. I also understand that there are creators/converters who don't post polycounts because they're afraid people won't download it - that is inexcusable. If that's the case then you will eventually be boycotted by the players who know better.

Alright, so step one - you're going to want to get into blender after exporting your mesh. You're going open the modifier properties and add a decimate modifier (the wrench circled in red, and the add modifier drop down menu).

Keep it in Collapse, not un-subdivide. It's gentler on the mesh itself and you'll get a lot farther with it. You're also going to want your UV map to match what you're doing with your mesh, in case you need it for selection (I'll explain that in a minute) and have faces tagged so the selection is easier.

Now that you have that set up, you're gonna want to remove unnecessary vertices. See the shadows on the bottom of the basket? Here's how to fix that - hit tab, press A to select everything, and then go to MESH/MERGE/BY DISTANCE. This removed 16,900 loose vertices that didn't need to be there.

Go back to your modifiers and add an edge split modifier and hit apply.

Boom - no shadows.

Now that that is all done you're going to go in to edit mode (tab) and press L while hovering over what you're wanting to select. This is going to select all of the islands in your UV, and it's the fastest way (that I've found) to quickly select pieces of your mesh.

When you have your whole group selected (you can also figure out at this point what pieces need alternate textures or groups for TSRW later in your packaging process) you're going to hit P-Selection. That's gonna split whatever you have selected into a separate group.

Now, you can do that to however many pieces you see fit, but for this I'm just gonna stick with two - the lemons and the basket itself. You're going to click the blue Ratio box - and type in .5 and hit enter. That will collapse your polycount in half - (you can move that ratio box lower if you wish, but this way is the gentlest way possible and I've gotten better results. So play with it and see for yourself if you wish to. ) - Now repeat the process until your mesh starts to lose quality, I tend to stop there unless I can push it a bit further without making it look bad.

Now repeat that process with all groups.

Given that this particular mesh was such high polycount and an intricate mesh, I could only manage to get it from 49,282 faces (polys) down to 18,860. This is absolutely not okay for TS3 - and I'm using as a lesson rather than using something that I can get down to an okay level - because this is what you're going to run into when getting meshes that start in the tens of thousands of polys. THIS IS NOT MEANT FOR TS3, it's beautiful, yes, but you are putting people's equipment at risk by advertising a mesh for a 13 year old game without disclaiming that it's dangerous for it.

This tutorial will absolutely work for most objects, and I've used this process for a couple of years now with success, but you have to be able to decide what you're willing to put into TS3. We have all of these tutorials for reducing lag in this old as dirt game, but NONE of that matters if you're carrying objects like this - no matter how pretty they are.

If you need it that bad, figure out how to make a version of it that CAN look as good as this with a little less detail (think the spirals in the wicker that is actually meshed rather than just textured), or ask a creator to make something for you.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. If I have the time, I try to help whoever comes into my inbox. If I can't help, there is a hoard of creators out there that probably can.

So have fun, CHECK YOUR CONTENT, and keep your computer safe.

And creators/converters - do better.

Edit to add - to the creators/converters who do put out their polycounts, or a disclaimer of high poly/photo use only - thank you. I do understand the need for high poly objects for photo-op purposes, and I'm not here to attack anyone's preferred gaming style. I just want people to be safe while they play, as there are those who don't know what they're putting into their games. Let's help ensure that everyone has a chance to play whether they're experienced creators or regular game-players.

Edit to add 2 -

To add a bit of context - I was able to get the reduced mesh even further by removing some of the intricate details of the mesh, to create a simpler version. This is now down to 5,270 - and it could be lowered even further by removing the top of the handle - which is 1700 by itself because it's spiraled. So when you're dealing with a high mesh object such as this, pay attention to what's really adding weight, and if you can replace/remove it without taking too much away. The shadows can be fixed in gimp as well.

[foxwitchaine]

Which is your most hated character in Miraculous Ladybug?

I wouldn't say hate so much as strongly dislike, as it takes a lot for me to outright loathe a fictional character. More often than not, I have better things to spend my energy on than hating a fictional character.

But if I were to answer that, five take the top spot:

1.) Lila Rossi

I know. Surprising, isn't it. Well, it's all fun and games until you actually meet one in real life. And it's frustrating as hell getting those with the wool over their eyes to listen until it's too late. I have to emphasize that it wasn't originally part of the plan to redeem her in the early drafts. It was thanks to Rafe that I even considered doing a Lila redemption.

Lila had a lot of potential in the early seasons. Of course, that was before she was turned into a one-dimensional villain with little in the way of making her interesting. It says something that I got the feeling the showrunners were trying to make her hateable without actually putting in the effort while reading the Chameleon transcripts. (I had to stop reading to settle my blood pressure)

All in all, Lila is just a symptom of a bigger underlying issue regarding the show's writing. I personally think she has a very nice design, but it looks better in 2D than 3D.

2.) Gabriel Agreste

He's a severely underwhelming main villain. At the start, he had potential. But as the series drags on, it's become painfully clear that the showrunners don't actually know how to make a compelling main villain. He was surprisingly much more intimidating and better-designed in the pilot PV.

Gabriel also lacks the charisma you would find with iconic main villains such as Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII, the rogues gallery in the first Powerpuff Girls, Batman's rogues gallery, and so on. I could make a whole post about how to write Gabriel better, but I don't feel like resurrecting a dead horse.

3.) Adrien Agreste

The poster boy for wasted potential. When Rafe and I first started watching Miraculous Ladybug, Season 2 hadn't been released yet. He was nice, if a bit bland. Could have used some flavorblasting in both design and personality (he's a fashion model, for crying out loud. Where's his fabulous wardrobe?)

And then all the red flags in Seasons 3-5 started popping up.

As it stands, he's nothing more than a plot device to humiliate poor Marinette. And a mouthpiece for the writers' very skewed morality. We weren't going to redeem him at first, but then it occurred to me a fantastic way to strike a devastating blow against Gabriel. I won't say anything more since they're spoilers.

4.) Alya Césaire

Ohhhh boy. Where do I even begin with this one? Disregarding the racism allegations towards the writers regarding her character, Alya is just an awful best friend, plain and simple. While it's true that she's a go-getter who isn't afraid to go for what she wants, that same trait has pretty much been solidified into a toxic trait courtesy of her refusal to question Lila later in the show. Even after Marinette broke down in front of her and confessed her secret identity in Gang of Secrets.

I will forever hate that episode just for how entitled everyone was about Marinette's secrets.

When Rafe and I were brainstorming who to use as our civilian antagonist to fill in for Lila, it was rather telling that Alya was among our first choices. It wasn't our intention for her to fall as hard as she did in The Wolves in the Woods, but honestly? It was inevitable.

5.) Caline Bustier

She's a non-authority figure who coddles the troublemakers in her class. I'm restraining myself at the moment because I've had teachers just like her in real life. Who look good on paper and are the sweetest people on the outside. But their inability to discipline a class regardless of behavior does a lot more damage in the long run than many would care to admit.

Bustier is a character who I could have grown to understand if the writers handled her better. The biggest brat of the school is the daughter of the city mayor. That right there is a beautiful setup for interesting conflict. We could have gotten a plot where we had a good, caring teacher trapped in a terrible situation by her superiors. Which is unfortunately something that can and does happen in real life. Instead, we got an airhead who can't for the life of her understand this simple thing called nuance.

I find it very telling the fandom prefers Mendeleiev over her.

Honorable Mentions:

Principal Damocles: Too much of a spineless noncharacter to really care about

Tom and Sabine: I try to understand the parents' side of things given parenting is far from an easy task

Bustier's class: A mixed bag here, since I don't think they're necessarily bad kids

Mayor Bourgeois: Again, another mixed bag here since he's another spineless "parent"

Zoé Lee: Too much of a blank slate to have an opinion on

Félix Fathom: What kind of a name is that?

Master Fu: He was done so dirty in his backstory

Chloé Bourgeois: Another with wasted potential

[thenationaltreasuregazette]

The 2003 Script, Act 2b

Act 1 | Act 2a

We're breaking down The 2003 Script act by act!

In Act 2a, Ben stole the Declaration with less tension and more shenanigans, the henchmen are being picked off one by one, and Abigail is significantly less on board with this whole treasure hunt plan than in the final film. The news is reporting on an FBI manhunt for Ben & Riley, and on to Philadelphia we must go!

The FBI come to Patrick’s house and:

SADUSKY Your son's in a lot of trouble, Mr. Gates. He's stolen a National Treasure.

→ I don’t have any affection for Cinema Sins but…Role credits!

Also, Patrick repeats Ben’s line about needing to do something wrong in order to do something right, which is a sweet callback and suggests they both got the line from the same place. Ben’s grandfather? One of the Founding Fathers?

Philadelphia

The setup of this sequence is similar to the movie, with the following exceptions:

This whole sequence is framed by a reenactment battle taking place outside of Independence Hall.

Ben and Abigail have already changed clothes, and are waiting here while Riley gets the next clue. (They bond by pointing out inaccuracies in the reenactment.)

The schoolboy is one of several people Riley employs to decode the cypher. The next person he sends is a prostitute.

The FBI, not Ian, stop and question the prostitute when Riley solves the last piece of the clue and disappears.

Said clue is still “Pass and Stow” but the full riddle is:

“The trove unfolds for he who tolls Pass and…”

↳ lame.

Ben and Abigail aren’t wow’d by Riley figuring out that the clue leads to the Liberty Bell, but he makes no further attempt to impress them (i.e. the daylight saving time bit, which is one of my favorite parts of the movie.)

Both the FBI and Ian are on Ben’s tail throughout this sequence.

→ In the previous parts we talked about differentiation, and this is another place where that occurs between this script and the film. Rather than having both Ian and the FBI going at Ben and the gang, as written here, we get to deal exclusively with Ian until he gets the Declaration, then the FBI steps in to become Ben’s next problem. It might seem like having two antagonists would be better than one, but this is a case of less is more. By focusing on one antagonist, then the other, we get to explore the unique problems each pose for our heroes. (Like, the FBI isn’t going to kill Ben, and Ian can’t arrest him.) In this version, they blur together and neither one gets to shine. In fact, they start to feel like they’re almost working together to thwart Ben.

Abigail pulls Ben in for a Captain America: The Winter Solder-style fake-out kiss when they spot Ian and Shaw in the crowd. It means nothing, she swears.

Up in the bell tower, the clue isn’t a shadow, it’s a plaque commemorating the person who rang the bell when the Declaration was signed.

Abigail both knows about this guy and his plaque off the top of her head, which Ben doesn’t, and knows that the Liberty Bell rang E Flat. Damn girl.

→ I do like that this version gives Abigail and her historical knowledge more time to shine. However, as we will soon see, that comes with a price.

Ben pries the plaque up with the bayonet of a musket (that I think he took from the reenactors, but this part is unclear to me. Did you have better luck understanding it?)

The glasses are under the plaque. Riley is very unimpressed with this as a clue.

The Declaration was hidden in the musket barrel.

↳ clever, I'll grant them.

They unroll it, and Ben, then Abigail look at it through the glasses.

It shows a 3D rendering of a church and cemetery, with an X-marks-the-spot among the graves.

Riley has been griping that there is no X-marks-the-spot on any of the clues for the entire treasure hunt. He’s very excited that there is one here.

→ Overall, this script is much more genre-aware than the finished film. Once again, I think the film made the right choice. The script seems to be trying to lampshade all the places where someone could conceivably go “Hey, I’ve seen that in another treasure hunt.” It seems like it’s trying to defend itself against being derivative, but it’s those very mentions that feel most derivative of other stories. The final film just enjoys—and let’s us enjoy—the fact that it is a new entry in the Action-Adventure Treasure Hunt sub-genre without comparing itself (and thereby asking us to compare it) with previous movies.

Ian and crew catch them in the bell tower.

Ben and Abigail climb onto the belfry while Riley tap dances around gunfire as Powell shoots through the trapdoor.

Outside, Ben and Abigail are looking at a 20 foot drop onto the roof. Ben holds the Declaration while she jumps, then throws it down to her and jumps after.

Powell bursts through the trapdoor and starts shooting at them on the roof.

Riley “KIPS DOWN from outside the Belfry’s archway and…KICKS POWELL in the FACE!”

→ Because that’s a thing your tech nerd can usually do. Pretty cool though.

Outside, the Declaration falls, Ben and Abigail dive to save it, and they wind up with Abigail hanging off the building by the gutter, with Ben stopped on the edge of the roof. It’s a three-story drop to the ground, and Powell is coming. (He kicked Riley back through the trapdoor).

→ It is this moment, dear readers, that drove me to search my cupboards for alcohol during my first read of this script a few years ago. It was this moment that had me hysterical with gratitude that this is not the final version of National Treasure, and flabbergasted and appalled that this could have been National Treasure.

Ben, he um…

…he shoves the Declaration of Independence down Abigail’s bra, then stomps on the gutter so it starts to tear away from the building, leaving her to ride the thing down.

For what it’s worth, she is “aghast.”

There’s a whole lot more action now.

Ben tackles Powell to keep him from using the access stairs to get to Abigail, but

Ian and Shaw grab Abigail and throw her into a Corvette.

Ben, and Riley, now back from the belfry, run along the roof in the direction of the car.

There’s a huge gap between Independence Hall and its adjoining building, Congress Hall.

Ben jumps and makes it.

Powell jumps, misses, and fucking dies.

→ Again, we are picking off the henchmen like flies in this version

Riley watches Powell fall, looks away, and decides to take the stairs.

→ This is funnier if you don’t kill a guy to make the joke maybe?

Anyway, Ben jumps onto a tree, which lands him on a moving truck.

→ Why yes, we are doing another car chase.

In the Corvette, Abigail’s in the passenger seat, and Shaw’s behind her with a gun to her head. She tries to stop Ian from taking the document out from between her tits but she can’t.

→ Btw, the script is going with “bosom” to describe this all. As in

…And SHOVES it down into Abigail's bosom. She's aghast.

Not as aghast as I am though.

Ben jumps onto the roof of the Corvette and dodges some bullets, until Sadusky sees the situation and runs after them.

Sadusky has a shot at Ben and can’t bring himself to take it.

His finger tightens on the trigger…but…he…just…can't…do…it.

→ That’s interesting! It's a shade of the mutual respect Ben and Sadusky also develop in the final film, but much more dramatic. Clearly Sadusky sees something in Ben. Himself? A Purpose™? Stories he also grew up with?

Ian crashes into the reenactors. Ben reaches through the window and grabs the Declaration. Ian tries to stop him but Abigail bites him.

HOWEVER, Ian turns the wheel, Ben and the Declaration go flying. The reenactment horses stomp all over the thing, which is just in a plastic sleeve by the way, not a hard case.

Ben dives into the stampede but something something, Ian drives up and swipes the document.

Abigail ELBOWS HIM IN THE FACE, and Ben pulls her to safety right before Ian can find the last letter of “bitch.”

IAN You little bitc—

Then, Ben jumps on one of the reenactor’s horses, ready to chase after Ian and the Declaration...

...until Sadusky stops him at gunpoint.

Both Abigail and Ben are taken into custody.

→ Framing this sequence with the reenactment battle is a cool idea actually! It lets Ben literally live out the yankees vs redcoats battle for American independence. Is it a bit on the nose? Sure. But Ben stealing a (fake) British Officer's horse to chase down the Declaration is pretty badass so 'rule of cool' might win here. That said I don't this I miss this in the final film. I love how much more intimate they made this entire sequence.

FBI Interrogation

Sadusky questions Ben, and the call from Ian comes in off screen. For ever hour they don’t comply, Ian will cut off a piece of the Declaration and send it to them.

Agent Johnson believes Ben and Ian have been in on it together the whole time.

Ian calls again and we only hear Ben’s side of the phone call as Ian directs him to the Intrepid.

The Intrepid

Cue our requisite sexy shirtless scene of Ben getting wired by the FBI. (Remember, Ben’s in his 20s in this version)

The chopper is still a decoy, but it’s because they already think Ian is coming in it. Much less dramatic than the final version of the scene.

Instead of saying he found Door Number 3, before he jumps Ben tells Sadusky that Abigail had nothing to do with this.

→ This is unfortunately true. Abigail has more sass but less agency overall in this version, I would say.

A diver pops out of the water…and it’s RILEY.

Riley then does a BRITISH ACCENT because HE’S THE ONE who was calling the FBI while IMPERSONATING IAN.

→ I get that this is fun, but I really like that Ben and Ian are forced to work together, and I like that Abigail is the one making the plans to set up the escape.

Back at the FBI, Sadusky let’s Abigail out of her cell because he believes Ben that she wan’t involved.

→ ?? I mean that feels a little too easy but whatever.

And thus we move into ACT 3!

With any luck there will not be a six month wait between parts this time.

[nhaneh]

@lynxden assuming you meant cpu and not gpu then yes xD

it's basically some of the most memorable and fun moments I've had learning programming has been about doing things the Hard Way™ - doing things manually tends to require you to spend more time thinking about what the computer's actually doing to accomplish the things you ask it to do, which is inevitably a lot more work and often nowhere near as efficient or capable because it's pretty unlikely that you just happen to be smarter than the entire R&D teams they have at Nvidia or Unreal or wherever - but it does force you to learn stuff, at least on a temporary basis.

I mean look, when I first learned how to do proper programming that wasn't just faffing around in Qbasic or whatever, it was on Turbo Pascal in DOS some 25-odd years ago, and I'm kind of forever grateful that when it came to doing graphics, instead of just having us use the built in Borland Graphics API, the teacher taught us how to enter VGA mode 0x13 via direct DOS interrupts, and then how to draw graphics by writing directly to the part of memory that held the screen for that mode.

I still remember the address being 0xA000.

So when I decided I really should take another stab at trying to figure out how the hells matrices work for 2D and 3D transformations a few weeks back, I thought hey why not try doing all of this directly using the Win32 GDI API, BitBlt:ing a framebuffer into the graphics because then I'll also have to re-learn a bunch of stuff that I've more or less forgotten over the years. Plus, there's a part of me that kind of wants to try to take some time to learn at least a little more about software reverse engineering - see if I could ever get to a point where I might be able to look into whether some examples of old games or software that doesn't work so well anymore could be updated to work a bit better.

So, step by step I'm gradually working my way towards a software triangle rasteriser to see about poking around with all of that and I dunno maybe I'll make something small and simple out of it like maybe some vampire survivors-alike or something like the original after burner or maybe even descent or something, who knows.

For now it's mostly a whole lot of googling around, trying to wrap my brain around stuff that feels like I used to find it easier to understand than I do now, and basically just reminding myself why I liked doing some of this stuff, haha.

[cbedfordart]

Hey! Question from one wannabe game design graduate who is also an artist and wants to make their own (very simple) little game one day - how is it like working on a game set to release one day? Did u feel discouraged learning a new skill (?) after already being a pro artist? Was the game a random idea or have you guys been planning this since a long time? Btw super excited for Sorry We're Closed and I'm obsessed with the retro look and artstyle <33

Firstly THAnk you so much for being into Sorry We're Closed - it's my lil bby pride and joy so I'm glad someone out there in the wider world is looking forward to it! I'll try and answer your questions in order and not ramble too much! I'm a little older now, and gotten to that point where deadlines aren't so scary anymore. There's a point in which you learn to live with what you can make, rather than trying to make something that's not what's within your ability (which is why we always want more time to get better while we work). But after a while you just realise its better for the idea to be out there in the world where other people can see what you were trying to do! Admittedly i will do a lot of hours sometimes if i REALLY want something to be a certain level or if I'm particularly stuck on something , but a deadline keeps me realistic. It allows for the thing to be good and exist, rather than perfect and existing only in my mind. Learning a new skill was actually extremely exciting. I wanted to absorb everything like a sponge. I hadn't done any 3d modelling before 2020 seriously (i tried zbrush once in like 2015 and i kept crashing my computer lol). I just wanted to keep going because it was so fun seeing my creations come to life! I always dreamed of designing game characters and it was literally happening before my eyes. Also, the indiedev community is extremely kind, helpful and resourceful. There's lots of free knowledge out there, and people who are willing to talk to you and help you figure things out! Being trained as an artist honestly only helped the modelling endeavour. Having an understanding of anatomy helped my understand how I wanted to approach the form of my models - what needed to be shaped and what I could get away with painting on.

So my knight is about 934 verts/1,861 tris (sort of like a ps2 character) but painting can give some fun depth. I've found this method to be really tricky though as it's highly prone to unflattering angles - but thats partly cause I'm still learning and relying too much on my skills as a 2d artist I guess. This model I made a bit later on, the Sorry We're Closed models I made were far earlier before i really knew what i was doing so they rely even more on my painting skills

but I felt it was okay since we were going for a nostalgic game feel which means some funny deformities like this

but it's whatever, i think it's kind of cute lol. We started planning the game in 2020 as well, literally after I saw my partner Tom make a character model move around in Unity (it looked pretty terrible) so i said I'll make models and he would code. Then I came up with a story, and from there we came up with how the game itself would play. Game design itself is something we were both lacking and real experience in so that has been the biggest wall to climb so far but its been a really fun and rewarding journey so far. Anyway sorry for the ramble!! I really hope you get a shot at working on a project you really love and want to pour everything into!

[manyblinkinglights]

anytaur quarstion

Sorry im doing this thru a submission instead of an ask bc i want bigger text limit and also to insert images... clarity and allat. i hope thats ok...

Recently i got an actuual headset for vrc so that i could Physically Become the Beast of my Dreams. your rig is everything to me and makes me so so happy. ive wanted this forever. i cant thank you enough for this. main thing im having to fiddle with now in specific is forefoot pickup! didn't make much sense to bother with it back when i was desktop only but having tried it now with actual real hands, the whimsy is impeccable. hands still feel a bit weird though, and im almost certain i messed with something i shouldnt have in trying to set it up, so I thought it might make sense to ask you abt it considering you designed the system and probably have more insight! I'd try for figuring it out myself thru trial and error, but i am very new to vr and having to go in and out to tweak and rebuild avatar versions seems disastrously tiring. and i dont think i'd have much luck trying to fiddle with unity through a vr virtual desktop @~@ time is money....i miss unemployment...so I hoped this could expedite some of that trial+error+rebuilding time. maybe. god. longass preamble over.

point being: in the recent (~6mo ago...) setup videos you did, i feel like the "A" pose you got for your sample models is generally more "A" shaped than what my beast has procured. This may be on account of my beast being quite lanky and having long as hell forearms and quite short shoulders and upper arms. in addition, by default, just moving them down on the global y axis like on the script instructions, the SenseHand receivers end up in a weird position compared to the paws, atleast based on what i think i am picking up from the script instructions. image below.

please ignore the shit ass weight painting/distortion for the paw im new to doing 3d models, im honestly just impressed this thing exists at all.

anyways in the image (front isometric) the right paw (viewer's right not model's right) is set to the values you recommend in your setup video, and the other one is unchanged from default rotation just as a baseline i guess.

Anyways my real question boils down to: what might you recommend to focus on in tweaking forefoot pickup? would rotating thigh and/or shin pickups to better match an "A" pose make sense? Should I move the SenseHands on X axis to be more better "Held" like it says in the instructions? is it ok if the sensehands fall into the floor from "A" pose?

regardless, thank you for your time, dedication, and willingness to share both. this project has been living rent free in my brain ever since i first saw the vrc horse speedrun on youtube (exactly what i had been looking for after god knows how long looking around) and desperately checked your youtube page to see what else you'd been up to. i think that was around or just before when the LittleKitty port video was recent or new, so it's stuck with me for atleast 2 years and i hope to still interface with this rig for many more years to come! please dont feel pressured to a response either lol, i understand if you dont really have a good suggestion or answer. im sorry if i overwhelm you with wall of text. here is an image of the beast in action to hopefully warm the spirits MUCH LOVE!

[spadesncrows]

Hey ! I have a little question : how do we start drawing ? And, if we need tuto, what tuto do you recommend ?

Have a good day !

Lord almighty, I hope ur ready for the rant of ur life. Buckle up buster bc we are diving headfirst /hj

Ok so first things first, there’s really only one way to start drawing: grab a pencil, get some paper, and just go. Ik, it’s very anticlimactic, but the only way to really get started with it is to just start. It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, it doesn’t have to be some big illustration, just start somewhere. You don’t need expensive or fancy supplies, just a pencil and paper are great (or even just ur finger and ur phone if u wanna do digital!!)

Just remember: everyone starts somewhere!! Don’t beat urself up if it doesn’t look how you want it to the first go around. Art is just like any other hobby: you get better the more you practice, the more you get into the groove of it and the more you learn the fundamentals and building blocks of it. You don’t have to draw everyday, but drawing consistently does help.

Now let’s say u got ur paper & pencil, but nothing comes to mind. Here’s a few simple exercises that I personally enjoy as warmups and simple doodles to fill my sketchbooks:

𒊹︎ Shapes !!

- This is one of my favorite warmups bc of how simple it is. Draw spheres, cones, cubes, etc!! (Bonus points if you add a light source and do some shading as well <3)

- this can be rlly good for studying perspective using very simple objects and adding a light source can make it feel a bit more fleshed out. Plus, it’s always good to study how light affects 3d objects so it can be applied to full illustrations and the like later down the line !!

- to add onto that, learning how to draw basic 3d shapes can be very beneficial when moving onto more complex designs and figures, as it can make the area/object appear less flat and more fleshed out if that makes sense !!

Examples :

𒊹︎ Look at the world around you !!

- find different objects, buildings, etc, and take a picture of them.

- next, using that photo as a reference, try breaking it down into simpler 3d shapes

- Think of these shapes as the building blocks of the figure. They create a general silhouette and portrays the figure in its most simple form. Being able to break down complicated visuals into simpler shapes will make it easier to draw them from scratch !!

Examples :

𒊹︎ Find reference photos online !!

- Personally, I like sites like Pinterest or Instagram for this, but pls note that these aren’t ur only options !!

- some other sites include: Line of action and QuickPoses !!

- reference photos can be very good for studies, but you don’t rlly learn much if ur just copying off of it. While there isn’t anything wrong with that, I suggest trying to break it down. Try to understand the form in a 3d space. Like I said before, doing that will make it easier to draw from scratch and may even help when trying to draw it from a different angle

- reference photos can also be a very good way to get inspiration!! Whether it be for just one drawing, for a storyline, or for a whole production, if ur stuck on a scene it wouldn’t hurt to look at few refs to get a feel for what ur looking for.

Tutorials:

If there’s one thing to remember, just know that you don’t need to follow any tutorials to make art. Hell, u don’t even have to listen to my advice abt art either. There are no rules to art, so take everything I say as suggestion rather than gospel !!

That being said, tutorials are mainly there to help you improve by teaching you various fundamentals and techniques. In other words, to help you make your art look a bit more visually appealing or look like a specific style. There’s not exactly one set list of tutorials that every artist needs to follow, so you kinda just pick and choose depending on what you want to focus on!!

Here’s some tutorials I’ve seen and/or used before :D

𒊹︎ GOOD vs BAD Character Design: Tips & Tricks!

- a classic 🫶🫶, goes over various subjects such as color and shape theory in order to make characters and scenes more memorable. This can be especially useful if u intend to make characters & scenes for animation, but it works for other mediums as well!!

𒊹︎ Basic Color Theory

- pretty self explanatory!! Goes over the basic fundamentals of color theory and how this artist likes to apply it themselves. Color theory can be good to use to ur advantage as it can be used to set the tone of ur art, to show the general time of day, to draw ur attention to specific areas, etc!!

𒊹︎ Anatomy Quick Tips

- this is actually a playlist instead of just one video ^^ each vid is dedicated to different parts of the human body and tips for drawing them!! There are 15 vids total as of today going over stuff like hair, eyes, hands, backs, hips, etc.

If there’s anything I missed or anything anyone would like to add on, feel free to do so !!

[nikoisme]

Something that I always really like in your art is your use of shapes. They're simplified but still very believable if that makes sense. Do you have any tips on that? Or could you direct me to where you learnt that?

I'm glad you like the shapes! They're one of my favorite things to draw and see in art hahaha. I'm going to explain how I personally do them, so it might vary for others.

So when looking at objects, i do try to break them down in big shapes. I usually hold what i'm drawing as a 3d object in my mind, and then i just try to,,,, rotate it. It gives me a much better sense of how it looks. For example, if i'm drawing a head, i'm drawing it as a box - i can easily rotate a box in my head, so it gives me a stronger idea of how i want to draw it. Also i just try to feel something out. I can feel out the structure of my finger or face just by touching it. This helps me a lot for planes, which comes in handy when i try to render things.

Instead of looking at objects as a bunch of different, smaller lines, i try to break them down into bigger lines that kind of define a shape. For example, if i'm drawing a face, i'm not going to draw each individual slope or curve of a line. While it would look fine, i would have no idea what i'm trying to draw. I'm drawing lines, which are 2d, instead of shapes, which are 3d.

Here's a very rough example

(the angles are a bit different but you get the idea)

With the first one i tried to draw each little curve of the face, but in the other i just broke it down into big lines/shapes. While both look okay, the second one is much quicker to do and a bit more shaped. I want each line to count. So i have one line for the cheekbone, one for the jaw, etc. Also, most of my sketches are just a bunch of boxes, so i have shapes as a fundemental. Of course you can use any other shape, but i personally use boxes because they're the easiest for me to work with.

Then the one that definitely helped out the most was doing a shit ton of figure studies. Instead of focusing on the muscles and the details, my goal is to get the overall form down. For some reason i am horrible at drawing in large scale, so the figures are really small. And I just hold the fact that i want each line to count, breaking things into big shapes/lines and just rotating things in 3d in mind as i go.

These are super rough, and i can definitely spot some mistakes - but the idea is there. Almost each big muscle is a single line. If i have a good sense of the fundamentals, then i can build up on the rest of it.

What helps a lot is of course, practice. I have pages upon pages upon pages of just random poses and heads and other objects in slightly different angles. So something is bound to stick. Also getting a good sense of the fundamentals, aka anatomy. Skulls, muscles, facial planes, bones, you know the stuff. If you understand the fundamental rules, you can break them and adjust them however you like because you know how things are supposed to connect to make sense. Sinix on youtube has some really really great videos on the fundamentals of anatomy and how you can break things down into shapes! Also you can find those 3d references where you can rotate the thing you want to draw.

Also just do whatever shapes you like best! I personally prefer boxes (or squares and rectangled for that matter), i find they suit what i want best. The heads i draw are boxes, the fingers, the hands, the eyes - hell i will break a round object into boxes if i so desire.

Most of this is internalized at this point and became muscle memory, and honestly i never really paid it much attention. So apologies if this doesn't make much sense hahaha! Shapes in general are something i love seeing in art, so i probably absorbed some other things through osmosis (aka i just,, stare at things a lot. I will see a fucking lamppost and go "wow those are some really good shapes you have there" and in my mind i'm already breaking it down like "this is a cylinder, one big line for this side, a box there, some slopes and curves on the other side" so i can reference it from memory later). I mostly fouced on the human figure here, as that's something i draw the most - but this counts for literally any object! I could do figure studies of a chair, why not. My process is the same.

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2024-12-02

It's beginning to look a lot like December the second

Listening:

Got the soundtrack to Paradise Killer at last, which is all hits all the time. Hard to beat the first track for an introduction

Winter is better with hilariously out of place pop jazz.

I also read the artbook that came with this and it's really funny how much this game was made by like four people. Ruthlessly optimized development process by which we mean every corner that can be cut to make this a manageable workload was.

Reading:

Finished the Book of All Skies, which once again confirms that Gregan can write a good drama based on a semi-fantasy science concept.

One thing I like about Gregan is that his characters often only kind of understand the world they're in, which adds verisimilitude! I also don't know that much. If you asked me to talk about fundamental particles a lá Scale, you'd get a similar kind of "Well the last time I was really into this was six years ago, is it leptons or bosons, well, either way, the one that protons are, so yeah the strong force scales with..." kind of half assed kinda correct partially incomplete explanation.

Working through the ROS2 tutorials and reading a lot of things about robot architecture as a result. Now that I suddenly have 1.5 3D printers I don't need I'm going to be trying to hijack their control boards for Robot Shit.

Got back into The City and The City after putting it down for a while. Love an Okay Detective. Tyador is not an exceptional cop, he is definitely not a good cop, but he is, trying, so hard. Poor little meowmeow candidate.

Hard to imagine a book making a more pointed case about borders. I feel like having now half-assedly followed some Euro politics for a year I get the various weird right wing groups more thoroughly.

Watching:

Watched Miami Vice (2006) because I downloaded it at some point and was like huh sure.

This is a mixed bag. It's shot really well, it manages tone and pacing clearly and cleanly, the vibes are impeccable. The actual plot? Okay! There's gay and there's whatever these two have going on. I have not seen the TV series.

Apparently this is mostly digital? Pretty impressive for 2006, Clone Wars was only 2002, given how dark some scenes are, although I'll say we pick on DP's for lighting all black people like Moonlight these days but it's a damn side better than what we did before! Absolutely crushed skin tones in some of these scenes. A movie with a lot of very poorly lit black people.

Started and then stopped watching The Driver (1978) in Czech. It opens with a solid 15 minute car chase that works pretty well! Got distracted in the middle though.

Playing:

Very busy week here:

Got through a couple loops of Elsinore, the Hamlet time loop game where you play as Ophelia. It's okay! It struggles a bit with managing all the things you can do, and it lacks the best part of Hamlet, which is to say the text, but it's fun to mess with Hamlet and pull on weird threads. What happens if you convince Laertes to hang around. What if you don't let Polonius get killed!

There's an added story running the background that is novel to Hamlet, mostly to help make the Time Loop work out, which is okay except for the fact that it's really easy to figure out.

The game doesn't handle its information the best. Unless someone directly tells you something you often can't act on knowledge you see in the world, nor can you update other people based on things you've witnessed. If you follow an arc that makes Lady Gertrude leap from the battlements to her death, you can see this happen in person! But you have to wait for the body to be found, you can't tell the guards about this. It's a little odd.

Haven't hit an ending yet. Getting there.

Beat World of Goo 2, the 15 years later sequel to World of Goo. A noticeably harder game that is making a lot of references back to World of Goo, some fun new mechanics and generally much more complex levels that you have to make your way through. Also some very fun meta stuff that gets a little Stanley Parable Deluxe about sequels. Worth playing! But play World of Goo first, it'll make more sense, and it still holds up.

Started Cyberpunk 2077 which is... hmm. I chose Corpo because I find the concept of "Corporate ladder climber cast out on their own" to be a really compelling concept, definitely not because that's an anxiety I have. It's not like the medical program my new employer pays for costs more per month than I used to pay for a year of the one I used to have. Haha. Wouldn't that be silly. I love satire.

Anyway kind of miffed that they don't let you do the "build yourself back up" part of the roleplaying, I think it would be fun! I love roleplaying in my roleplaying games, I was looking forward to playing V as desperately holding on to the comforts of corporate life that she can no longer afford. Shame.

The gunfighting is good! One of my favourite parts of Cyberpunk the RPG is Friday Night Firefight, which is a tremendously deadly combat system. The gunplay is a little more gamey in here but you still go down fast and staying in cover and taking every advantage you can get is still important, at least as low level.

Why is there a crafting system. I saw that menu entry and recoiled physically. This is a city I exchange eurodollars for goods and services.

Making:

As mentioned, ROS2 tutorials. Many of my ESP32 projects end up reinventing message passing architectures from scratch so I figured I should just cut out the middleman. I will need to figure out a good source of embedded Linux ROS2 host, but I'm very interested in the MicroROS/ROS2 system.

ROS2 is a very *nixy approach to software, you have a lot of litle daemons and environment management and directory-heavy build system shit going on. I'm running this all in an Ubuntu Distrobox on my Arch system to keep it contained and happy which is working well.

Tools and Equipment:

You ever steam eggs? You should steam eggs. Steaming eggs is a very quick and efficient way to get boiled eggs without having to deal with a large pot of boiling water. It's much more consistent as you increase the number of eggs and you don't get any eggs bumping around in boiling water, so you can do it in very small pots or with a very large number of eggs.

A nice hardboiled egg takes about 12 minutes of steaming, and you can get a softboil out in 10 minutes. I've used bamboo steamer baskets and stainless steel vegetable steamers for this.

[mrslittletall]

Yesterday I finished the final DLC case of the second Ace Attorney trilogy and now that I finished all of it... what can I say? I can understand why people say the story of the games is a bit of a mess. Because it is. They clearly start it with trying to have a new main character, Apollo, but make the final case all about Phoenix' story and then in the next game they kinda fridge the new assistant, Trucy, in favour of Athena. I don't even think Athena is a bad character, but wow, I felt so sorry for Trucy. But I also feel sorry for Apollo and Athena, because in the end, they decided to make Phoenix the main character again. His story was told in my book. I heard the sales were bad because Phoenix' name wasn't in Apollo Justice (even though he plays a major role in this one) and yeah... Apollo's backstories as well... is... nobody ever going to tell him and Trucy they are siblings?! Will you just keep that a secret forever and ever and ever? Anyway, okay, the story is a bit of a mess, but still enjoyable. Especially the final cases had me on the edge of my seat and I liked quite a bit of character development of the new characters. The music was fantastic as well, as always. I never thought that I would get a new favourite Objection theme, but Apollo's blows it out of the water. Especially the piano version that acts as his character theme in Dual Destinies. The cases were really really fun. I actually think they were better structured than some cases in the first trilogy. Yeah, they might have been a bit more streamlined, but to be honest, in the first game of the first trilogy you always were moving around until you found the event that nobody pointed out would happen. The characters telling you where you should move next just erased annoyance and frustration. And I sometimes still was stumped in the cases and was like "Okay... I have no clue what the evidence is you want me to present" and sometimes I was like a step too far and was like "But this evidence woooorks! Oh, you haven't figured out the context yes, right? How do I get them theeere, I know the murdered and how they did iiiit." Well, whatever ^^ I had my fun with it. I also played the two DLC cases. I have to admit though, the last DLC case felt like a bonus "Phoenix and Maya vs. Edgeworth" again. Like fanservice ^^ A bit sad that I barely saw ship tease between Phoenix and Egeworth anymore though. Where has it gooone? Oh, also, the 3D models... the ones in Dual Destinies were so rough, Trucy looked so uncanny, but I really liked them in Spirit of Justice. Still, the hand drawn models were kinda iconic, so I was a bit sad to see them gone. Overall, good games, I enjoyed them. I get the criticism, but they are not awful. They are perfectly servicable and enjoyable.

[james-narchi]

Final Post

This is my final painting on the right and my collage on the left. The mood that I wanted to do was a moody whimsical, that while the colors are muted giving a slow, dull impression, the colors are also varied enough to make it unserious.

This is my word painting. I had some trouble doing the word painting having to redo my underpainting and my solvent and oil paint mixing together, but other than that I found this project interesting. It definitely doesn't look as 3d as my sketch for it but I learned about the process of oil glazing and the mistakes that could happen and I should avoid when and if I do it again in the future. I thought it was a bit of a nuisance having to apply oil briefly and then waiting for it to dry, but the whole process was still interesting. Seeing the color get strong and mix as you layer oil with it was really nice to see.

This is my updated color wheel and I found how adding the complement to mute colors and blending can add better shading to different parts of my painting as shown in the cylinder.

My abstract painting was quite simple so I didn't need to cut through my masking tape, but I did find the process somewhat nice seeing how square my square was and how nice the shapes came out looking in general. On my still life I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to use medium which is something that I still want to try out later in the future. During that project I also had a very hard time mixing my paint in order to get the color that I wanted, especially since sometimes because of how different the paint looked once it was put down the canvas. Using medium was something that was quite interesting to me and although I didn't understand it much, it's something I look forward to learning in the future.

Overall I really enjoyed the opportunity to be able to participate in this class. I had no prior experience to painting before this semester but I had a great time and discovered that it's something that I want to continue doing in the future. I had a lot of trouble during this semester but I hope the experiences, good and bad, will allow to me grow as an artist for myself.

[famous-pprophet]

I've been trying to learn how to draw and I love your art style so much I've been practicing by copying it (just in my notebook not like sharing it anywhere) as I love the way you capture characters and emotion but I was wondering how do you go about simplifying a character? I'm not sure if this makes sense but like what do you look for when taking realistic looking characters and translating them into a stylistic version?

Thank you for the ask! keep tracing and copying, its a great way of building the muscle memory and familiarizing yourself with breaking things down into shapes. It means a lot that my art is something that you wanted to use that for! https://twitter.com/meatgirI/status/1606375868959543298?s=20&t=ve-GgU0nMrUBRZnTj0kI3Q I would say that this tweet by meatgiri is a good way of finding different facial features and breaking the face/eyes/nose into shapes, and that its a really good way of getting started. However I also think that learning proportions and anatomy is a really good way of further pushing this skill. im going to explain it a bit, but if it feels overwhelming or makes art something thats not fun, you dont have to use any of it. youll pick up these things through practice and observation.

I like trace out these lines on my face. they follow these proportions that are applicable to almost all people. once ive got this figured out, i start to fill in the eyes, nose and mouth.

(some examples of characters... see how this rule still applies even though they look very different.

again see the tutorial i linked above to get a feel for breaking these facial features into shapes. this is what i would suggest to practice different types of faces if you dont have a super good understanding of facial structure

as you observe more in faces, you notice a lot of difference in face shape and structure. but this is a really good way to play with JUST facial features and maintain them consistently

if you want to get into facial structure, then you wanna start looking at the actual anatomy

try to picture where your face sits on your skull. this can help you decide how MUCH of the bone sticks out from under the face. if you are underweight, older, or have shaper facial features, youre going to see a lot more off things like cheekbones

so now even though im using the same skull as a base, i can still have a different face shape. because this person might be older, they have a stronger jawline, and their features are sunken in

and the cool thing is that this isnt just applicable from a 3/4th angle. the proportions are always like that!! they might change because of perspective or the angle but honestly at that point youd want to start trying to develop your sense of 3d space

this is just a really simple way of diversifying one single method of drawing faces. notice how i only used the one "base" shape

and here you can see examples of how their faces sit on the skull. obviously you dont need to be drawing perfectly anatomical skulls every time you draw a person, but it does make good practice to trace those shapes. basically training yourself to get better at observing different features!

you can get into even more varying features when you start to use different skull shapes too. all of these characters have different skull shapes and their features change depending on how they sit on that skull

here is a good demonstration of anatomically correct differences in skulls of different races. Obviously i tend to think of it as masculine/feminine rather than male/female, but this is a scientific model used for identification (which is based off of sex and not gender)

age can also play into your skull shape and facial proportions. combining all of this knowledge you can not only have a wide range of different characters, but you can also tell a story.

again the less fat you have on your face, the more sunken in your features are going to be. so you can tell your audience about your character just from this alone

this is a good example. its a soldier before and after war. you can see how the stress, trauma, living conditions, etc, have all changed how he looks.

obviously this is getting into the real nitty gritty anatomical aspect of it but i do think its a really good way to have your characters feel like they belong to the environment they are in. it also just further illustrates my point earlier, how you can have MANY different types of faces even if you are using the same base for all of them. again if this seems overwhelming, its ok! a lot of this is stuff you pick up via observation as you continue practicing. draw what makes you comfortable, draw what you think is fun, and start off simple. Also know that you really dont need to be going into such detail and drawing the skulls haha. thats really just moreso to demonstrate the fundamental understanding. Good luck with art, keep pushing yourself to learn more and draw what you see!! youll pick up on all these subtle details as you keep at it

[pokemon-npcs]

How do you screenshot your hgss game? Sorry, I know you must get this question a lot, but I recently restarted my hg save and I've been trying to figure out how to take screenshots :)

Hi! Sorry for the late reply (my laptop is currently broken and posting on Tumblr mobile is always more annoying to me). And I’m also sorry because I’m afraid that I can’t really help you there :/ Any actual screenshots on this blog from pre-Switch era games have either been grabbed from YouTube videos or screenshot while I was playing a game on an emulator. The rest are just photos taken of my GBC/GBA/DS/3DS screen that I’ve then tried to edit to look a bit better.

I think there are - or at least used to be - legitimate ways to take screenshots of your 3DS (something involving the Miiverse), but as I understand it it’s notoriously complicated.

But there are definitely ways to hack your 3DS to install a program that allows you to take screenshots out there. And ways to link your game to a computer, as I remember seeing pretty crisp Let’s Plays of X/Y when it first came out. And I know that there are people who stream content from their 3DS. I’m not very knowledgeable about all that jazz, though, sorry :(

Here appears to be a guide on how to stream your 3DS screen to a computer.

(Ngl, I haven’t watched this video all the way through nor tried it myself, but the comments seem favourable)