#what made me think it would be a good idea to work on an animatic a month before finals

[coolbattlegirl]

Blink, Blink 👀 ✨

[haza1ll]

animation for THE NEON VOIDD BABYYYY

this post is for @sugarpasteltmnt

‼️‼️MEGA YAPPING AHEAD PLEASE BEWARE‼️‼️

this might end up being really long and rambly and sappy but maybe not who knows.( it was) (and also featuring numerous spelling errors i am way too tired to fix and i am not re reading what i just wrote) SO. yknow how when chap idek..25(?) came out and i was all like “yeah so i made this animation for TNV and ill drop it when the fic ends” in your ask box? so. I FINISHED IT RAHHH. technically it has been finished since i sent that ask but ohhh my goodness did it need polishing. i haven’t animated in 4 years before that and omg it felt so good getting back into it but IDFK SOMETHING IS STILL NOT UP TO MY STANDARDS. i feel like i could have done so much more with it and i deffo wanted to but as soon as i told myself “oh yeah this is basically done” art block literally sucker punched me in the gut out of NOWHERE. I COULD NOT PICK UP MY I PAD. I COULD NOT DRAW. I WOULD STARE AT THE WIP ANIMATION AND BE UPSET BC I DDINT WANNA WORK ON IT AHH. that goes with saying. i kept having this thought in the back of my head “you need to finish it. you have a wip sitting. finish it. go do it. what are you doing are you STARTING ANOTHER PROJECT??? anddd yeah i got super distracted with other stuff and other projects and then i started spending my free time rewatching 2012 turtles and omg this summer has been a mess. i have all the free time in the world and i choose to be the least productive as possible with it even though i have a job that lets me literally sit on my phone and do whatever i want if no one is there. (i’ve brought my switch to work numerous times ☠️) what i was trying to get at is the fact that TNV has inspired a lot of the old me to come back and i lowk missed her. i really missed the point in all those words up there but im here now so whatever. BUT. TNV made me make a tumblr account, i got back in to animation AND digital art in general, got back into longfics that are ongoing, AND it also helped kickstart ideas for writing. i’ve got so many stories now!! you are such an inspirational person pastels i just- every time i read a new chapter of yours it made me wanna go get up and do something. i wanted to create something. because at the end of each chapter, i would think- “woah. a person out there just wrote this. they just sat down one day and committed. i wanna do that” so i did that. just huge thank you and shoutout to you pastel. like damn. idk no words from me here. just a bunch of platonic hugs and kisses and thankyouthankyouthsnkuou for this lovely heart wrenching but also sweet story. i love this fandom (tmnt) so SO much and i think it’s so awesome how interactive you are with your own personal NV fans. crazy how we’re all here because of a bunch of turtles. 

STUFF ABOUT THE ANIMATION:

okay i really like to talk and if you let me, i will run my mouth. this is the internet so im gonna do just that. so more words for you to read 😁. AHEM. so like i stated before in the genuinely scary mess of words up there, i haven’t touched animation in a while, like, 4 years a while. yes i’ve done digital art here and there along the years, i haven’t been doing it nearly as much as i need to to use some programs to their full potential. layers are still confusing, and don’t even get me started on multiply and all that jazz. shading never comes out right on digital for me, i gotta work that one out. so, for this animation, i decided to go with a very rough style. nothing needed to be perfect, i just wanted to live my little life of trying to experiment with a bunch of different things all at once in one short animatic. I wanted to do that little ball bounce thing all animation artists start with (i kinda included that with the key). i also wanted to have a go at lip sync (no hate it was my first time) and also timing the animation with the music. i wanted to see how smoothly i could move a figure in and out of and out of the screen as well, which honestly, i think that part might be my favorite. i think i did a good job, and thats what matters. the animation itself lost a bunch of quality on importing it- no clue how it happened but now the ending is grainy af. ignore that pls lol- but it was sitting in my flipaclip for god, i dont even know, 3 months now? i kept going back and forth on if i wanted to share it or not, so im throwing it to the wolves and i guess whatrver happrns happens and im good with that. yay. im actually rrwlly tired now sooo *leaves this absolute pile of words with a video attached at your feet and stumbles away quickly*

also i’ve genuinely never posted anything so i’m learning how to use tumblr too ☠️

[fleouriarts]

got bored living in the middle of nowhere so i made another hivemind animatic. kinda got tired of this one while i was working on it but oh well... hopefully you can all at least enjoy it ^__^

(link to it on youtube as well)

TRANSCRIPT UNDER THE CUT for anyone who needs it:

[groovy intro music]

D: When is McDonald’s gonna do the McGay for, uhh, the LGBTQ+ community month?

R: Wha-

D: They have a gay awareness month, right?

R: Pride month, it’s June-

D: Pride month, yeah, it’s June.

R: Yeah.

D: For pride month, McDonald’s should do a McGay!

R: [laughing] I don’t- I don’t think that’s-

D: And it’s like a cunty little McChicken, or something.

R: Nooooo, don’t say-

D: What?

R: Don’t SAY stuff like that!

D: A McGay, that’d be awesome!

R: A McGay is fine, just, the other part-

D: Think of how many people would order that!

R: I mean, of course-

D: “You guys wanna get some McGays for lunch?”

D: Me and the boys are going down to get McGays, for pride month, because WE ARE ALLIES.

R: I think it’d be good for allies-

D: Yeah.

R: - homosexual people, people of the LGBTQIA+ community-

D: Thank you.

R: - AND homophobes, I think would go get the McGay.

D: Yeah, and they’d like, give it to their friends, like with a Smirnoff Ice.

R: [laughs]

D: “Hey bro, I got you a snack” and they’re like “AUGH he McGay’d me, I gotta eat it now!”

R: “I gotta eat it off my friend’s ass!”

D: “I gotta divorce my wife, I’ve been living a lie!”

R: It’s gotta be a rainbow bun, right?

D: Something, yeah, I was trying to think.

R: Rainbow fries, maybe?

D: Yeah, I don’t know, cus gay people don’t really have a cuisine of their own.

R: Maybe it’s like- ooh! Lady Gaga Oreo McFlurry!

D: Sure.

R: That’s definitely good for the McGay Month.

D: Yeah, that’s alright with me.

R: [laughs] With you?

D: Approved.

R: What does that have to do with- what the hell?

D: I approve it. Any other ideas? … Declined. Don’t like that one.

R: I didn’t say one, so-

D: Yeah, you did. DING!

[groovy outro music]

[wily-art]

I haven't finished it yet, but I watched some of it, and skimmed through the rest (I will finish though at some point; when/if I have the time), and what I did see of it the "Undertale Insomnia: Something Isn't Right" Trailer looks amazing! Ur art and the looks of the characters and the Blasters is on point and great as always! And ur animation is looking awesome too! I think ur comic already had some cool gifs/small animations, but if not; it is cool to see animations from u now too!

The Paps's (both older and younger) and his Casters and/or the Blasters are looking great in the trailer u released!

And Asgore (I think) and the fallen human kid(s) look great in some of the animation WIPs and/or whatever too!

I hope someday to see some of the other Undertale cast in animation form, or at least some of the other Insomnia important and/or etc. cast members like Sans (could be both older or younger), Gaster - before or after getting goopifed, lol (though, I think he might be in this animation and/or at least the full? one), Frisk, Chara, more of Blasters and/or Casters, and/or Alphys (I have gained a soft spot for ur Alphys). Maybe Asriel and/or Flowey too?

Not mentioning Asgore or the kids here, because I think u might have some stuff/ideas/etc. with them already. And not mentioning Undyne either, even though it would be awesome to see her too, bc I don't think she has been in the comic too much yet?

Ofc, u don't have to do any of this. I know animations, and animatics even, can take a long time! Just seeing the Undertale Insomnia (one of my favorite UT, and maybe just in general, comics/series's!) cast brought to life even more through animation like this, has got me excited! ^^

Last of all; I just wanted to clarify, the animation release is just the trailer, and not full thing, or...?? I just wanted to confirm.

Heya! First off thanks! That little tidbit is just a teaser more than a full trailer. IT's definitely not the completed thing. I didn't want to give a solid release time due to genuinely not knowing how long this all would take (at this point a little over a year- Good god). But I wanted to share at least a little something since this whole project has been so all consuming- that from the outside world's perspective I've been more or less absent. It's kind of hard to be active with other things when a singular thing both eats a bunch of time but can't be shared since it's not done X'D. It's a lot of behind the scenes work and not much to show for it yet.

Other characters will definitely be getting way more time to shine in the comic moving forward since I finally hit a particular turning point. Also regarding animations I have a lot of ideas for the other characters and the fallen kids that all more or less tie into the same world in a "how did we arrive to this point" kind of scenario. But due to how long all of this takes and I can't promise how many of them I will get to. Or at least how quickly because right now I'm moving at a blistering speed of _not very fast_ ✨ That said this one with Papyrus is absolutely being released (hopefully later this year) because if I have only one of these in the system it's gonna be for this guy XD The other one that I absolutely want to do as another animated update for Insomnia involves Chara and Frisk to answer what exactly happened at the end of the last run before this one. I'm hoping that since I've learned a lot (this is my first animated project) that that one will go a lot smoother. An account of figuring out a lot of things I Was doing that made my life INFINITELY HARDER. Hope that answers things.

[the-burd-lord]

Playing around with Alastor’s design a little bit. He would still wear most of the same outfit he wore back then, don't fix what's not broken, but with an added suit jacket that's a bit too big for him. I need to make a bit of to at some point, but after his break up he draws on a pencil mustache to add on to his emphasis of having a new appearance while still staying in his time.

A post depression mustache if you will.

As for some of his creepy aspects I'm cutting out the voodoo elements of his character, and instead using the uncanny and analog horror elements instead (I am a simple creature).

I need to actually remake the color pallets for him and old Vox, but essentially they both start off as black and white or with grey like colors, and gain new ones after they split up. Vox becomes more saturated and Alastor becomes sepiatone, as while it's more colorful it's still is reminiscent of the past.

Now time for some of the silly rivalry bits:

I’d image they would have casual debates on the radio and tv that would soon devolve into insults and eventually nothing but 30/50s slang and Creole French that would last for hours.

I need to finish writing this bit, but basically Charlie sees it as a good idea to go on Vox’s talk show to promote the hotel and herself. There’s some lil rivalry moments between Vox and Al, but ultimately Vox doesn’t fully let his grudges get in the way of hosting a good show.

Even though they mutually broke up they still each regret ending the relationship, and as such covey their loneliness in their respective mediums. Vox making sad, gay movies and being so worn out after that when he watches them he doesn’t even know what he made.

And Alastor having a late night audio story about a turtle and a hare going on adventures. There are times where he’ll just start describing crushing regret and isolation, and he’ll realize that he may have gone a bit far and try to steer it towards more of a happy ending with Vox listening in on all of it.

Something something relationship meme with a sketch I’ll probably never finish. Also surprising, but also not that surprising, to me that in "Stayed Gone" they didn't go with the obvious joke on what to call his late night talk show.

The grrls r fighting!! But for real this time.

Been playing with the idea of Vox turning into pure energy when he's overly stressed, or just becoming a weird robot creature as form he can take as an overlord. It's probably going to result in a lot of sketches where I 𝘵𝘰𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 won't use Videodrome as inspiration (lie).

At some point I need to get a good animation program and just start making a bunch of animatics or animations cause I have so many song inspirations for these two.

Specifically one that I want to make a whole animation for is “(They Long to Be) Close to You.” Basically it’s just going to be them fighting interspersed with moments of them waltzing together. I think you can probably parse out the metaphors and connections I'm going for here.

Also me and a friend were talking about song inspirations and after I continually listened, watched, and worked (at least for me) on Hadestown we just replaced Hades with Vox in some of the songs.

🚨SPOILERS FOR HADESTOWN🚨

One stanza that I need to make an animatic for is in Chant Reprise, specifically 2:33-3:18 with the “I conduct the electric city” line.

This is going to become a bit of promotion for the show cause I love it so much. Probably my favorite musical ever! Also highly recommend listening to this version of "Chant," cause there’s a verse for Persephone and Eurydice that provide some cool reflections that reflect the original “Chant” in their verses.

There’s no direct references to any of the other characters, although you can add your own interpretations.

On that note here’s another song that reflects them. “How Long?” mainly with the “your pity won’t fit in my bed” lines, and when Hades and Persephone are actually singing to each other turning it into being about their relationship instead of the fates of Orpheus and Eurydice.

And a lil teaser for how they make up:

Will make another post about them. I have so many sketches WWHYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN’T ESCAPE EITHER VERSION!!!!

[mysteryanimator]

Ok so this a word ramble that I originally shared to a few folks, and then went “what the hell sure” and I’m sharing this here. Though this is more word ramble rather than structured then anything I’ve written analysis wise. The only reason why it’s less structured then what I normally do is because if I were to do this properly, I would genuinely go make a PowerPoint and multiple animatic examples to prove a point for a made up what-if 😭 I have to go be productive haha

Ok here we go

How we could have a Mizrak and Olrox intimacy scene actually work

This is hypotheticals I’m not actually trying to say it should be this way, I’m just really interested on this concept because it CAN work and it makes my brain excited. Also side point- you can also very easily achieve all of these scenes without a sexual intimacy scene as well, it’s honestly just up for can be portrayed and want needs to be conveyed to the audience. As long as the main ideas that need to be said are said!

I’ll preface beforehand too, this will be having Mizrak in particularly lean into a more positive viewpoint on it simply because I think we need more positive accepting sex scenes in animated queer scenes, especially with a repressed gay man coming to accept vampirism aka queerness. I think that’s neat in contrast to a lot of intimate scenes that aren’t so positive :D this also means a lot of it will come with my a lot of my own personal opinions!!

First of all, it would build an entirely new perspective on mizrak for us as an audience! There is so much we viewers that we do not know about him. Yet Olrox is so comfortable sharing alot of his emotional vulnerabilities to him, unlike Drolta in the graveyard scene. This type of physical intimacy literally has some baring their entire self to someone else. Nakedness is vulnerability. Mizrak is also a ‘warrior monk’ who wears armour. So you’re literally stripping him of not only his armour, we’re stripping him of the label he’s had since who knows how long. We go from warrior monk to just Mizrak. Every single scene of him in Nocturne is just defined by his monk title, never Mizrak. Which is also why it’s hard for a lot of us to imagine him in clothes other than his monk attire.

His monk attire is now however gone because drum roll. He’s a VAMPIRE. This is important I swear!

(Side tangent his ‘rebirth’ scene at the end of episode 08 when he’s revealed to be a vampire was unbelievably really fucking good)

He’s going to be dealing with a lot of self identity issues, his self image and how he feels about himself. He was already pretty repressed beforehand, and now all the walls are crashing down. Firstly as mentioned before, nakedness is a form of vulnerability. It would be such an interesting and unique way to showcase an acceptance of his identity. It’s both of his new identity of vampirism but also his identity of being queer. Almost as if having the reverse occur in the story of Genesis, where Adam and Eve become ashamed when they realised they’re naked. The opposite happening for Mizrak would be just interesting!

Another point is that we can explore Mizrak’s acceptance of vampire’s having a soul/life! I semi-explored the concept in an animatic not that long ago just because the idea just intrigues me sooooo much. I kinda want to explore it further but busy atm 😔, though I would genuinely make space and time to work on something like that regardless of what show/film it is. Emmanuel learns the concept that vampires/night creatures have souls, that they remember their lives beforehand when he turns Drolta into a night creature. It is totally up to audience interpretation if Mizrak recognises learns vampires have souls through this line:

“If you have a soul Olrox, and maybe you do, I hope it finds peace.”

However, through an intimacy scene, you could absolutely cement Mizrak learning then and there Olrox does indeed have a soul. Solely because, I’m going to get pretty NSFW here, Olrox is reacting to Mizrak, he’s reacting to what’s happening to each other BAHAHA. He’s getting emotionally invested in the moment, beyond the physicality, which could click something in Mizrak’s brain. There is a life to Olrox because that vampire is sweating and moaning HAHAHAH, which if he were to be truly soulless and lifeless, he would not be doing all of that. He’s a breathing, living person who has a soul. Ensue Mizrak accepting and giving in 🏃

Sure this probably happened between episode 3 and episode 4 in season 1, but for us to only see it now would mark an importance for Mizrak. It’s important for us as an audience to see this recognition because it will fundamentally change him and progress both their narratives. Every Mizrak and Olrox scene from episode 03 of season 1 to episode 08, something changes and something moves forward.

Speaking of life, Olrox has not been living. He’s depressed and traumatised. He’s the what-if he just killed the person who killed his lover dilemma for Dracula (thank you Tack for that!) He hasn’t lived since his lover died UNTIL Mizrak. I personally haven’t had seen so much life in him until he was fighting Drolta, saw Mizrak wounded and then started RUNNING??? It’d be really interesting conceptually to see Olrox be ‘alive’ in a much more safer private space, just between him and Mizrak!

This is also something you can very very easily achieve in 2-3 minutes, which is how long most of their scenes together are because they’re side characters. Or even less, 30 seconds it’s entirely possible to convey all of the above in little time. Power of visuals is important!!! Censoring is also not an issue too, I think you could censor this to hell and back but with smart and powerful storyboard choices from whoever gets the blessing to do it, concrete writing, you can actually have something that goes along narratively with the love theme in Nocturne and it’s positive influence on people. Mizrak’s self-acceptance and Olrox’s life reinvigorated. Of course everything beforehand has to build this up to this before it happens. Me, the brainrot person I am, recognises how hands are like a super important thing for them so it would be very cool to have that incorporated in somehow. Also, having the Olrox holding Mizrak from behind thing come up again, but with Mizrak accepting it properly and leaning back into him (or even Mizrak holding Olrox from behind) during a scene like this?? During a emotionally and physically vulnerable moment? Actual shockwaves I tell you, I think you’d have the whole fan base in tears.

There are nuances here, visual metaphors to play off, unique storytelling pathways it could go down, interesting characterisation you specific to sex and so forth!

Anyways that’s my proper ramble for the week, I hope you enjoyed my season 3 episode 6 pitch (massive joke I’m joking I’m joking, tho honestly would be so funny though if I could pitch something like because I will do my proper research, I will pull up statistics if I must and make visuals. Though I generally do understand how intimacy scenes don’t happen often, though Cativi winning an Annie award would prove to help strength the argument I’m making :D )

[b-r-i-n-g-x]

Hey there! I’m loving your shrek au. That artwork got me thinking of a great idea! What if I did a collaboration with all my followers on a animatic for the I need a hero scene! I would just like to get your permission on this project since you made the he’s a prince and I’m an ogre. Keep up the good work!

OF COURSE TAKE ME APPROVAL WAAA

honestly i feel honored that you consider making a big collaboration for my au its just brings tears in my eyes

CANT WAIT TO SEE HOW THE PROJECT GONNA GO!

[sleepy-pigeonn]

A Look Into My Hades Fan Animatic

I don't know to call this other than a collection of resources and reflections about the process of making the animatic. Hopefully it's interesting or helpful for someone. But feel free to ask questions if you'd like clarification/more info!

___

Inspiration (A non-exhaustive list)

It's possible that I've seen/read fan works that may have inspired me unconsciously, so there's no way I can possibly include references to them all. However, the ones I listed here are ones I recall looking back at repeatedly.

The fancomics "First Flight" and "Bonehead Boon" by Liana Sposto

Robbie Elliot Art's animation "Take Tonight"

Toastyglow's animation "Glitter & Gold" and PMV "This Year"

Storyboards posted by Paige Caldwell (@/papernewt) on Instagram

Zag admiring some of these beautiful fanworks.

The following sections are below the cut: References, Songs, Script and Thumbnails, Studies, Drawing, Editing, Random Facts

___

References

These were very helpful to creating the animatic!!

In-game references

Hades Wiki

3D Model of Zagreus by @/chunyou_ on Twitter

I also used screenshots I took while playing

General references

"How To Direct A Fight Scene" by Howard Wimshurst

Poses from the photo libraries of The Pose Archives and AdorkaStock

3D Model of Male and Female Heads by William Nguyen

I also just looked stuff up online or took videos of myself acting out some of the movements.

___

Songs

I thought of basing my animatic on any of the following songs:

"Icarus" by Bastille

"Dirty" by grandson

"Underworld" by CYPRSS *

"I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme)" by John Rzeznik

"I'm Gonna Win" by Rob Cantor **

"Could Have Been Me" by the Struts

They all have a varied degree of "Zagreus vibes" but I wanted a song that could be used to show as much of the game as possible. "Could Have Been Me" was the song that I could imagine more things for, so it is the one I ended up using.

* Look at this awesome Zagreus fan art based on this song

** Some of the lyrics for this song are so fitting for Zag but others are pretty ooc.

___

Script and Thumbnails

I've seen other artists annotate the lyrics to the song they are working with and attempted that here. But that process is a little confusing for me, so I kept these descriptions vague. It was helpful in keeping track of ideas, since some of them are faster to write down than draw. Especially for fight sequences.

I used Storyboarder for the thumbnails. I opted for this program because (1) it lets you add an audio file and (2) it has very basic tools. It can be used in a more nuanced way than I did. However, with 3 and a half minutes of frames to work out I needed something that helps me draft down ideas efficiently and without overwhelming me. And this was pretty good program for that.

The script and thumbnails happened in tandem a lot of the time. Think of it as brainstorming, both in vague writing and loose drawings. At this point I am trying to see if these ideas flow with the song, if they are readable, if they achieve what I had in mind.

___

Studies

Okay. So I am happy with my ideas. Now. How do I make sure the drawings are identifiable as taking place in the game?

This is where those in-game references came in handy. I looked back at my thumbnails and made a list of everything I would need. From characters to locations. Once I had these down, I made folders to make sure everything would be nice and organized.

I tend to avoid backgrounds like the plague. However, for some of these shots to work I need to give the viewer a sense of where the action is taking place. I know that I struggle imagining three-dimensional spaces while drawing digitally. So, using my thumbnails and the references I gathered, I did studies of all the locations I thought would be important using good old paper and ink. This also served to fine-tune shot compositions.

___

Drawing

The animatic itself was drawn using Krita. Usually, I worked on all the backgrounds using the studies as a base and then added the characters. My drawings started very rough for a couple of reasons. The main one was that with ~200 frames ahead of me I was afraid of letting my inner perfectionist get me stuck. I kept reminding myself that, being an animatic, the drawings could be rough as long as they are still readable. As I got more comfortable using Krita, I was able to create cleaner backgrounds.

Even so, I hit an art block around the two minute mark where I Could Not Draw. This is where I heavily relied on those References I Keep Talking About. They were my savior and are the main cause for the more "finished" look towards the end of the animatic. I think the best example of this was the shot featuring Thanatos. I was deep in the art block territory by the time I needed to go from thumbnail (top left) to final frame. No matter how much I redrew them, I didn't like how they turned out (top right). To work this out, I found references from The Pose Archives and used them as a guide (bottom left) to get a sketch that I liked (bottom right). I felt this look was more sketchy than I've would like so I ended up cleaning it. I followed a similar process for most of the frames following this one. As a result, the final frames of the video turned out cleaner.

___

Editing

Once I had all my frames ready to go, I imported them into HitFilm Express and made a composite shot where I basically just matched the timing of the frames to the music. Frames that have camera movements (like the very first frame) were made in their own composite shots. I ended up having to delete some frames so some sections didn't feel rushed. In the end, there's like 5 versions of the animatic because I kept making little changes. The biggest was adding Zag's dialogue at the beginning since I felt the video started up too quiet. I don't have any images for this stage. Please have this comparison instead.

___

Random Facts ✨

Adding color was a last minute decision, it was mainly because I thought a colorful sunset would be prettier. My original plan was to shift the gray tones of the background into more yellowish tones once Zagreus reaches the surface, but keeping everything monochromatic.

If you pause quickly on the very last frame you'll see I accidentally made Zag's leggings black instead of red. I was on auto pilot at this point. Adding color was worth it overall but so time consuming. My respects to people who do fully colored animatics.

I wish I made Meg a pinker (or blue) hue rather than purple. In my mind I saved purple for characters related to Nyx (hence why Hypnos, Than, Chaos, and Charon have shades of purple). But I guess it is a sweet detail because of how Meg confides in Nyx in the game.

I kept a log of all my progress. Apparently getting the thumbnails done took about five months (August 2023 - January 2024)?? Anyways I leave you with these entries.

___

Thank you for reading! I hope it goes without saying but I really appreciate all the support this animatic has received. All the hearts and comments and tags, they mean a lot.

[pinksilvace]

Back at you! Care to rank all Sagas?

oooh yay okay! I'm going to do this by order of preference

Cyclops Saga

Troy Saga

Thunder Saga

Underworld Saga

Ocean Saga

Wisdom Saga

Ithaca Saga

Circe Saga

Vengeance Saga

Cyclops - All around super strong. I get all of these songs stuck in my head frequently and they're all narratively fitting. Doesn't get me pumped as much as some of the others, but it's just so solidly good that I've got to give it first place. The pacing here also feels right.

Troy - REALLY strong opener. Those first few notes hit me and I knew IMMEDIATELY that I'd like this musical. I think all of the songs in here are strong but Just a Man is SO GOOD. Too good, honestly - almost none of the rest of the musical can stand up to it, which is an incredible boast for a second song.

Thunder - We talked about this a bit before, but it felt like a return to form when it came out. Suffering, Scylla, and Thunder Bringer are easily some of the best songs in the whole show, though I'm not really a fan of the others; they're a bit too on-the-nose for me.

Underworld - No Longer You CARRIES this album. Like, The Underworld is a very good song and Monster is... not for me, but I don't care because oh my GOSH does No Longer You slap. I need this to be the song every fandom adopts for animatics istg

Ocean - This placement was really difficult to decide. Let's be real, Ruthlessness completely outshines the rest of the songs, but everything in this saga feels like it needs to be present for the story Jorge wanted to tell. These songs are also each pretty unique and memorable... but Ruthlessness oh my GODS

Wisdom - My expectations for what I thought I'd like about this saga were completely inverted with what I actually like most from it. Love in Paradise is probably my favorite. God Games was a great idea, but I'm not sure it was given enough room to breathe; when convincing Circe to let his men go takes Odysseus four songs earlier on, having Athena convince six gods to end Odysseus' captivity in the span of five minutes felt... odd. Not saying I could handle it any better, but I think this plot point could have been adapted a bit differently. The Athena and Telemachus stuff is all really cute though!

Ithaca - I adore Penelope's voice. The Challenge is easily my favorite, but Hold Them Down is also really good. The rest... I have feelings about, due to how Odysseus' character was handled, which I'll touch on more at the end of this list. I think this saga in particular would gain a lot from actually being staged.

Circe - The more time that passes, the more I like this one, but I don't think these events needed to take up a whole saga when all it leads to is 1) Maybe kindness is good (something dismissed in the next saga), and 2) Here are the directions to your next location. Wouldn't You Like is my favorite song from this saga, but it could have easily been a line or two.

Vengeance - I don't think I've actually listened to this one again since it came out. The whole ramped-up anime battle thing doesn't really work for me. There are some other creative choices here I disliked that I'll elaborate on further down.

I definitely noticed myself enjoying these less as they went on, and I think it's because I've found Odysseus to be a much less compelling character since Thunder Bringer/Love in Paradise. What made Just a Man and No Longer You so great was Odysseus' internal battle between being a good soldier/leader and being a good man; I think that's a fantastic lens to look at this ancient story with. Then, once he chooses his own desires over everything else, he loses a lot of that complexity, which frustrates me because it could have been a cool modern interpretation if it felt like he faced any consequences. Polites' death had a much longer impact on him than all of the rest of his crew.

Those who've followed me for a while know that the Iliad is my favorite book; I reread it every year and have read four different translations so far. It's famously anti-war and filled with tragedy, and one of the most tragic aspects of it is the futility of it all; no matter how strong the heroes are, the tide of war shifts according to the gods' whims, and it's also up to the gods to decide who lives and who dies. This acts as both a way to point out how stupid the whole conflict is and shows a reflection of what indomitable forces the gods were (and are!) viewed as.

This in mind, I cannot understand how or why (Epic) Odysseus defeats Poseidon in a show of force. Beyond not making sense, it goes against Odysseus' character in the source material. In the Odyssey, this latter storm stirred up from Poseidon is one that Poseidon knows Odysseus is fated to survive; he just wants to make the journey harder, and Odysseus makes it through in a handful of pages at most. Odysseus' slaying of the suitors would have been seen as honorable; he'd have done it no matter how desperate he is when arriving at Ithaca's shores.

(Maybe my opinions wouldn't be so strong if he'd at least defeated Poseidon with a clever trick of some sort instead? Maybe the last saga needed a Monster reprise where Ody actually faces the reality of going home as he is. Idk.)

Overall though, I really enjoyed it and look forward to listening to the whole thing now that it's done!

[bluebunnysart]

(Chimera Teto x Android Miku WIP, another one, yeah, another one lol)

I may not finish WIPs but I can definitely start new drawings!! 😂Hahahaha ! I always try to make them chibis (for simplicity) but I also want to draw details/the full body, so of course it turns into a double full-body drawing that takes forever.... This isn't even the final lineart obviously but it's almost 5 AM again and I know I'm gonna fuss with this some more, so I guess here's a WIP so I can show off what I did at least tonight xD In case I decide to do other things in the meantime...

Tell me why I literally spent like 2 hours (fr) trying to draw Miku 'cuz Miku is hard asf to draw and challenges me to draw better 😂😂😂😂 Anyway (a long-ish) explanation of stuff under the read more 'cuz I don't want to take up people's dashboards. When I finally finish this drawing or the other one, I won't have to yap as much in the post too. xD

A series of things happened today that led to me creating this drawing. (Miku's prefinal lineart is done too btw, I'm just not showing her to you 'cuz no point spoiling the whole drawing lol, plus I might make changes.)

I went to the store for a brief moment 'cuz all my pens kept running out of ink and I was annoyed I didn't have any reliable pens and I wanted a pen to write a continuation to this AU, right.

When I went to the store, there was a song playing and I thought it sounded nice, what little I heard of it before I had to return to work. So once I left the store and was able to look at my phone again, I looked up this song through the lyrics I heard and I found it. And the whole song was even better than I thought: the lyrics and music are INCREDIBLY sweet and now I really like it. xD

Besides liking it in general as a song (this genre of song), I was ALSO super into it because I thought, "This is super End of the World AU-coded (Android Miku x Chimera Teto)" and it made me so happy, excited, and giddy lol.

Like, listen to this...

"When the cloud's above your head / And the sun's not breaking through / You know I'll be there to sing this song for you. / And it goes: / La la la / la la la la la~..."

This is absolutely something the Miku in my AU would sing. This is absolutely a song she and Teto would listen to together-- like, I could draw them listening to it together and that's actually practically what my drawing is lol. I could draw an animatic or make an MV to this song about them... I could make a comic where Miku is singing this directly to Teto and persuades her to sing it with her, especially the chorus (la la la) parts. I smile because in the first fic, Miku also goes "lalala~" (idk the number of la's lol), and it's not like what she sings is this or anything, but it's a small connection that I like. xD I literally discovered this song only today but this is absolutely a song Teto would have in either one of the cassette players or in the MP3 player. This song matches them and the AU too so Miku would absolutely sing it and like it a lot too. This song made me think of my AU and I was already excited/trying to keep writing more so I could get to the good parts, so finding this song made me really excited, ok. xD

Also I'm not sure how you WOULDN'T adore Miku if she sang something like this, especially directly to Teto (her only audience).

All the sweet lines and stuff made me super soft, so I put this song on loop and literally played it for hours. The whole time I was drawing too. It's just so cute and fitting and it's what made me create art for this AU again instead of making Turing Love fanart or one of the other dozens of ideas I have and whatnot. xD

That was a lot of words to explain what prompted this drawing in the first place when it wasn't planned in the slightest, but now I'll talk more about the drawing itself.

I was inspired by all the fanart I've received so far! It'll show in the final drawing. c: But when drawing this, I was looking at Slyvasta's art since I wanted to draw Slyvasta's version of Teto too. Teto is easiest to draw imo, so we've got the scarf, horn, wings, and tail. The pupils were actually added at the very end 'cuz Slyvasta's has sharp pupils and I thought that was cool and a good idea lol: this Teto's eyes can have sharp pupils (dragon/reptile-like) while Miku's eyes are more round yet robotic.

I was thinking about the flavor of tsundere that Teto is (in my AU) and this drawing was partially inspired by me wanting to clarify stuff about that. xD I did call her "cool, gruff, indifferent, etc." which is all true and does apply, but she's still playful and can be lively, even if she's been beaten down by exhaustion and gloominess, as I've mentioned. In other words, she never was a complete downer or anything (I know I said that before), but I wanted to clarify that she's not, like, the cold type who's ONLY frowning or who's grumpy either.

If I think about it, the "trying to act cool/indifferent" thing is mostly an act I think, yeah. xD Like, of course she'll frown or have a neutral uninterested expression if she's bored or she's been through annoying experiences (like starving or encountering various issues), but she's still kicking, if that makes sense. Like, the enthusiasm and zest for life isn't exactly there, but she's doing what she can to get by. I guess she's more of the type to distract herself and focus on other stuff so she doesn't get too existential? So it's not like she isn't lowkey depressed-- she's just the type to make jokes about it. She's basically original mischievous Teto but with some baggage she's carrying.

This might seem like a weird post now based on the stuff I'm writing LOL but I really did think about it, ok. xD The way to characterize her. And she has really valid reasons to be sad and everything, but she's not as harsh and edgy as her appearance implies. That's something that I really like about her: the gap moe lol.

So what does this mean in relation to Miku? Well, Teto is a pretty normal girl who's cool and nonchalant. She's probably arrogant in a cute way too, judging from her catchphrase and how she likes acting like a know-it-all and being praised/appreciated. But basically, the tsundere mainly comes out whenever she gets embarrassed.

The Teto in my AU can smile and has a couple of times, and she's nice because she helps Miku out before she even knows Miku that well. So....

She's probably the type to send Miku soft smiles without even realizing it. Like, she relaxes a lot and is happy or something and then her expression will turn so warm or gentle, I'm pretty sure. 🥰 Her tail and body language already gives her away, so I love the idea of her expression changing into a really affectionate one before she even notices or realizes it. She realizes she's been smiling the whole time after 5 whole minutes pass or Miku points it out and then she's like, "I-I wasn't smiling or anything?! (unsure why she's immediately denying it)" lol.

Anyway, THAT'S when the tsundere comes out. She isn't tsundere towards Miku unprompted, and even though Teto doesn't know how to deal with Miku YET, that doesn't mean Teto walks on eggshells around her or is curt/cold to her. Teto acts very naturally and herself-- she only gets tsundere whenever she's NOT acting like herself, aka being really weak or soft for Miku at different moments.

Her tsundere is a weak kind of tsundere too (unlike Neru, who isn't in this AU anyway), so she'll just get embarrassed or lie or act kinda awkward or prickly to hide her embarrassment (maybe a sharp word or two, along the lines of "Shush" and "Shuddup"), but in the end, she's a very cute and kind girl. 🥰 They both are 🥰🥰🥰

It might take me one or two more iterations before I'm finally satisfied with the final lineart, but this time, I made the time lapse longer, so you'll be able to see how I struggled to draw Miku for like 2 whole hours. xD

This, too, I want to color. I actually wanted to color my first drawing first, but then I discovered the song I mentioned earlier and it made me so hyped up that I wanted to create a whole new piece about it. Along with the other two songs that I associate with this AU, I was really happy to find yet another one. This song is cute in general too, so it was immediately added to my Motivation playlist. xD

With how hard Miku is to draw and how long drawing takes in general, it makes me even more impressed with Miku artists lol. Like, Miku is so demanding but I love her so of course I'll push through until I do her justice... I'm slow because I care a lot and want to do these two right, ok... xD Lineart and the like is more in my comfort zone, but I'll definitely tackle coloring soon; tonight's session only proves that it'll take longer than I expected/5 hours lol.

I'm not only planning to create stuff for my AU only-- I want to make all kinds of Mktt stuff. But I was really inspired by other people's art and this time, I even drew with their art in mind lol.

I have no idea how long it'll take, but I'll continue to make more art! To me, it's the clearest way I show/understand my love lol. I've been inspired seeing other people's art too, so I definitely wanted to draw my own....

Anyway, time to go tf to sleep. (it's 6 AM 😅)

[lucky-stone-me]

It's time to summarize this year!

This post is more for me personally than for the blog, to track my progress, analyze and consider my mistakes. To realize what I was able to achieve in the past year and what I can achieve in the future. I am grateful to everyone who has supported me all this time! Every single person who signed up. Or just the ones, who visited my page, viewed my work, liked, reposted or left comments. It was all very valuable to me! Thank you for being with me this year and I hope to see you next year! Happy Holidays!

Next up, I'll be summarizing my blog for 2024:

Total we have: 4 artworks 3 animations 1 meme 1 post

I just started trying to actively blog this year. I tried to have some sort of regular schedule in my head and post at least once a month some art/meme or some other post to keep the blog active. The priority, of course, was artwork. Unfortunately, as you may have noticed I failed. the drawings were very few and with big gaps in between. The reasons for these gaps were many factors, from trivial laziness and personal matters to lack of time and other problems. There are also logical reasons for the lack of content - it's that I decided this year to learn how to make animations.

It was a bit of a spontaneous, though expected, decision. I just didn't think the time for it would come right then. I had some idea how to do animation. I always wanted to learn how to do it. I had drafts of animations I started that I abandoned because I didn't understand how to do them. I didn't have the strength or experience to complete them. So I abandoned it for many years.

But still... Somewhere around the end of 2023, something clicked in me. I wanted to do something more than a drawing. That now I had more experience and I had the energy and time. That I was ready to make my first completed animatic. Simple, crooked, with lots of mistakes. But it was my little full-fledged project that was finished.

I did all three animatics in three different programs. Sometimes using one with another, when I changed programs and persistently trying to understand how the new program works right in the process of creating an animatic. Until I finally chose one that I'm happy with for now.

“Love me Again” was the first animatic that was made in exclusively one program, which you can tell by how fast it came out compared to other animatics. Although it's also not as detailed or colorized in comparison to others. But it goes longer than the others combined, it has more frames and still looks neat even with that sketchy drawing. That's a measure of progress in my opinion.

What would I like to do next year?

- Set up an art schedule. I won't push myself too hard, but don't expect anything supernatural from me either. I'm going to try not to bog down the blog as much as I have this year. In fact when I saw the gaps I was horrified ahhh. I'm going to set myself a goal of not dropping the blog for more than two months. Meaning, something every two months I will definitely post.

- Start maintaining at least one more social media account.

- Organize my tumblr page (update my avatar, write bios, and so on)

- Start drawing holiday themed art for holidays (at least some of them)

- Start drawing artwork for other fandoms Yes, Ena has been my main fandom, but I'd like to step outside of comfort and try my hand at some other fandom.

- To continue to improve in animation and drawing I liked the end result of the year and how I've progressed and want to continue to do so from here on out.

There are many more small goals, but these are the main ones for now, so hopefully in a year from now when I read this I'll be pleased with myself. Hi Lucky from the future!) Even if all of these can't be achieved, it's no big deal. We do it at our own pleasure and at our own pace. If not this year, it will happen next year.

If anyone is reading this, thank you for sticking around until now. I hope you're having a good day! Thanks for listening! See ya!

[xuune]

dropping this here because I kinda wish I'll snap out anytime soon from listening to the playlist you made for your last art, but here I am, booming 8:00, get me some, wyd, wounds will h.eal, and enclosed in my earphones at midnight. i think your music taste is fire, i'll give you that. mygods (ง •_•)ง

anw, I wanted to ask on how you decide and plan expressions/interactions for the characters when you draw your works? I always find your works to be so expressive. thanks in advance if you ever see this :OOO

p.s. I LOVE YOUR OCs, i think i'm in love with rael i genuinely wish they'll give me a headlock or smthn and i'll be happy p.p.s. i would marry your art if I could (i'm this fkn close 🤏 pls dont sue me)

(sorry for taking so long to reply, you'll know why once you read the rest of this lol)

im so glad that you had those as your faves bc those are some of mine too :D i've been seeing a few ppl rly enjoy 8:00, and if it wasn't for my friend recommending me that song, we wouldnt be here, and those drawings wouldnt have existed either, let alone the animatic i did

thank you for thirsting over my ocs, you don't know how much of a compliment that is whenever i see ppl react that way to them LOL. thats how i know i peaked with their design 😎 stay tuned for some other oc art, cuz im currently working on a piece for my friend's ocs. his ocs exist in the same universe as mine :)

i'll answer your question about planning expressions and interactions below, bc i have a lot to say about that:

when planning for expressions and interactions, i'm usually trying to answer a couple of these things:

what moment do i want to highlight

why is this moment significant

how do these characters feel in the moment, how to they react to each other, what's their motivations

what body language best answers the question above ^

basically, i'm asking myself "what's the scene?" -> "what do the characters feel in that moment?" -> "how do they act this out to convey that?" (that's how i was taught to read scripts for plays. you must understand character motivations before you figure out how to act their feelings out)

it's very important to have a good balance of body language and dialogue to convey the mood if/when appropriate, since sometimes strictly relying on dialogue to sell the moment w/o body lang or vice versa can tank the execution

i assume that you're more interested in how i planned the interactions for them sharing music? lmk if there's like specific ones, bc i can explain more for whatever else it may be

anyways, i start off with scripts of some kind. my scripts can be very barebones that just note a specific scene (i.e. "working at desk, listen to music together before class starts"), or that i build a moment based on a piece of dialogue (i.e. "better not queue anything lame"). here's the notes i made when i made the 8:00 animatic, since thats big on body language

i wanted to get down my main ideas first, which was figuring out the the lyrics i wanted to use paired with dialogue to match. i dont show my thinking much on some of my notes, but what i was getting at this:

story moment: dk connecting the context of the song to his intimate moment with bkg

key moments: waking up, playing with hands, eye contact w/ bkg

i didn't expand on the ideas for how those moments would look until i actually started thumbnailing for the animatic, which i showed briefly here. here's what i kept in mind for their expressions/interactions:

dk shies away from directly confronting bkg outwardly expressing his feelings for him via the song. he avoids it and changes the topic verbally to make the conversation lighthearted -> "what expresses avoidance?"

bkg is direct about his feelings, his actions and expressions must convey a direct confrontation, an attempt to make dk acknowledge how he feels about him thru the song and potentially get a response from him -> "what expresses straightforwardness?"

here's what i decided would visually answer those questions

the implications of character's expressions also factors in the circumstances of their situation. without the context, the execution tends to fall flat. if you didn't know that they were listening to a song that's all about romantic pining, then you probably would've been questioning why the fuck are they just staring at each other, or assumed that one is shy of the physical interaction when that's not the point; its the dawned realization and the acknowledgement of the other's feelings.

my other drawings for that thread followed the same kind of planning tbh, lol. all those drawings had the lyrics set the stage for how the characters are feeling, and i'd have to figure out what about their facial expressions and body language best matches the context of the situation. here's this brief example:

but yeah, that's generally how i plan for expressions/interactions. sometimes i just get a rush of interaction ideas that is centered on one specific question i want to explore, like:

what do their mundane parts of life look like?

how do they physically react to realizing their feelings for the other?

how is someone anxious about the other person's perception of them in the comic i'm drawing?

and then build off from there. hope that helped :D

[pincushionx]

U mentioned emo music for hunter art inspiration? I would very much like to hear ur ideas on that

Do you mean music as inspiration for art or what songs I listen to? I’ll answer both.

Songs that are more intense or darker subjects result in more “edgy” drawings while more happy songs that are more positive result in my more cute or wholesome art. It also depends on tone, that matters . The boiling rain drawing I was listening to stuff like set it off or get scared which are the typical early mid internet edgy songs like ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ or ‘sarcasm’ which resulted in a drawing I would’ve seen in deviantart or in a edgy 10 year old YouTube animation lowkey. That drawing made me laugh since it seemed over the top.

But it works when working in a Au with an angsty teen.

Though I don’t really associate Hunter with those songs because he’s not like that but that doesn’t really matter because when you have an obsession, you manage to put your blorbo through every song you listen to. It’s kinda funny.

Songs really do matter when drawing I think because it greatly affects what I’m going for. When listening to the emo bangers, my art style came out a bit anime-ish, while in a WIP I’m working on, the song Skeleton appreciation is the inspo so it’s going to a more depressing piece. Despite these both being more dark songs the tones are different which result in a different drawings, I often put songs on loop on certain drawings since a lot of my ideas stem from the media I consume, like music. I also imagine animatics which I may make in the future.

I have my own songs I associate different things with. For the late redemption Au it’s bands like Set it off, Get scared, Evanesence, MCR, ect. Not necessarily because I think the songs match him but because the frequent angry and hateful tones of the songs do. Like the lyrics aren’t exact but the rage is still the same if that makes sense.

Here some more songs of the songs i remember listening to during some of Late redemptions drawings. Everybody’s fool, going under by Evanescence. Evil people, Wolf in sheep’s clothing, Punching bag by set it off. Sarcasm, Don’t you dare forget the sun, keep myself alive by Get scared. Dead, house of wolves, Kill all your friends by MCR and others more. I might make a list of songs in the future.

Anywho, media affects the kinda of stuff you produce, my recent streak of consuming Horror and dark comedy movies has recently produced my new Au that’s just Hunter consuming flesh because of grimwalker biology. So yeah.

I definitely encourage people to consume media in all sorts of forms, books, movies, shows, music, ect. Not because it’s good to have a range of things but because it gives you more idea of what to put your faves through. My wise words

[yarart4ever]

yall please be warned of @Tigresslover7 ...

because can we talk about this one yall.

so recently, I made a fanfiction on my ff.net account (idk why it doesn't show on the front feed but if you wanna find it it's here as well as on my account) called Scandalous. a semi-wholesome, semi-steamy TiPo fanfic for me to indulge in. which yk, it's normal. it's okay to self indulge.

but there is a fucking limit.

if yall don't know, Tigresslover is a small creator on tumblr (and apparently now on fanfiction) who's main theme is to... you guessed it... basically be in love with Tigress from kfp.

now on it's own, there's nothing wrong with that, and ofc I wouldn't be talking badly about a small account who just simply liked a fictional character, I'm a small account that fangirls over fictional characters all the time, it's chill, we all do that.

but not at the fucking expanse of other people.

like if you look at this person's account alone, obviously they praise the Tigress art when reblogging it, which is appreciated for other small artists in the kfp fandom.

but there are times where this person would just see a TiPo fanart, take it, crop out Po, leave a caption about how beautiful Tigress is and just post it on their own account. no credit. nothing.

they literally morph other people's art, even little prompts people make (my art and my prompts included) and morph it to fit their own little picture.

I decided not to say anything about it and just move on at first. there were times where Tigresslover would reblog a prompt I make with their own prompt, writing it word for word, and just cropping out Po. basically stealing my prompt.

which, again, I did not say anything about, despite my discomfort of them basically stealing my idea. but I didn't see it as anything worth being upset about as, yk, fair, my own prompts were inspired (keyword: INSPIRED.) by other mainstream sources. so I let it go without causing flames. instead, I settled my discomfort by simply blocking them just so they won't copy my work.

and you won't fucking believe what happened next.

if you think I am bluffing on the copying before hand, I understand that. but please, I beg you to read my work that I linked above, with THIS recent work that came on fanfiction.net not too long ago. in fact posted literal DAYS after I posted my work. just look at them side by side. and see for yourself the true evidence.

oh. my. fucking. god.

when I tell you I am not overexaggerating when they copied my one-shot almost word for word-

literally the only change they caused to this fic is- you guessed it- taking Po out of the picture and inserting THEIR character in it.

I can understand if they were simply inspired by my work, fanfiction is so expansive and limitless, but there are bound to be some similarities within some works, I'm obviously not the first person who thought of this scenario as in fact I took inspiration of the plot in my story from a few saucy animatics I saw on instagram, but there is a HUGE difference between being inspired by something and just blatantly copying and morphing someone else's hardwork to fit a personal view.

so anyways, I flamed them in the reviews, and bc fanfiction.net is lagging with updates and has always done so, I am going to wait until it updates well enough so that I can report them for stealing.

the reason I bring this to yall's attention (if you're still reading which if you are, thank you for sticking around) is bc I know for a fact that I'm not the first and only person they have copied, I believe I even recognised rewritten and stolen work from fellow TiPo prompt accounts, and ofc I have seen them take many iconic TiPo artists in this fandom, crop out a good portion of it just to fixate on Tigress, etc. the only problem is that I'm probably not going to be the last they steal from, which is not good at all.

you may think I'm blowing this out of proportion, but I see great value in literature and art. I love seeing the effort, time and care fanartists and fanfic writers being poured into their works, and when someone takes their work, copies it and morphes it without even bothering to give credit, it's them just showing they're diminishing that time, effort and care. and that's not okay.

do with this information what you will, if you wanna block, report for stealing, or just go about your day as it doesn't affect you, I understand your actions either way. but I am personally going to report them. bc no one deserves to have their work diminished and stolen for someone else's personal views.

[ltwharfy]

"Bob's Burgers" Season 5 Episode Ranking Rewatch (Long Post)

So, I've been rewatching "Bob's Burgers" from the beginning and ranking the episodes using the spreadsheet that @babsvibes created! If you want to know why I'm doing this or how I view the 1-5 rating scale, you can check out my Season 1 post! If you want to check out any of the other seasons, I've been using the "bob's burgers episode ranking rewatch" tag for all of them.

Now, on to Season 5:

Average (Mean) Score: 4.57

Mode (\Most Common) Ranking: 5

Ranking Breakdown: 13 5s 7 4s 1 3

Season as a whole thoughts:

I'm so amused by how similar this season's average score was to Season 4- it's only .02 less than Season 4 (the current leader)! This certainly goes along with one of my main thoughts about "Bob's Burgers", and one the things that lead to me doing this rewatch: that it has been a really consistently good show. This was just another consistently funny season.

In the first couple of seasons, I mentioned my memories of watching the show as it was new and my growth as a fan. Here's my fandom memory tied to Season 5. This was during the time that Loren Bouchard and the case were going around doing Bob's Burgers Live" performances in theaters across the country- and I was lucky enough to see them at the Chicago Theatre on March 20, 2015 (I found an email about it. I don't have the date memorized!) And that might play into the rankings for two episodes in this season and one next season. At that event, they showed a completed clip of the then-unaired "Eat, Spray, Linda", an early animatic clip of "The Hauntening", and did a partial table-read of "Housetrap". So, those three episodes would probably always be 5s in my book just for that special memory. (Although, I also think they are really great episodes!)

Some thoughts on specific episodes (and feel free to ask if you want my thoughts on an episode I didn't comment on):

"Work Hard or Die Trying, Girl": Such a fun episode! So many great songs! But what it really made me appreciate this time was Courtney's character, and the development of her relationship with Gene. It would've been so easy for them to have just made her a one-shot character, or to have kept her as being his annoying ex, like she was in the first half of this story, but the end of this episode really marks the beginning of them being friends- and I like that they went in that direction! I think Gene kind of gets the short end of the stick when it comes to friendship- we rarely see him just hanging out with his friends like Tina and her group or Louise with Rudy and the Pesto Twins. But I think his relationship with Courtney is a sweet one that I have been underrating.

"Tina and the Real Ghost": One of my favorite Halloween episodes- I love that it's so offbeat for a Halloween episode. It's not about costumes or trick or treating or frights-yeah, it's a ghost story but the ghost is a pretty obvious joke and (as Tina points out at the end) it's really a way to tell us about the characters and their wants/needs. The scene in the butterfly garden will always crack me up. And I have a cousin named Jeff, so I love Louise saying it was the dumbest name she could think of for a ghost.

"Friends With Burger-fits": If you ask me what the most important episode for Rudy's character development is, my answer wouldn't be "Carpe Museum" or "Bridge Over Troubled Rudy" or "The Amazing Rudy"- it would be this episode, where we learn that he wants to be the bad boy of public radio like Elvis Mitchell. (I don't know if I am joking or not at this point.)

"Dawn of the Peck": Barely edges out "Turkey in a Can" as my favorite T-Day episode because I love Rudy and Mickey and I love the idea of them having T-Day dinner with the Belchers at the end.

"Midday Run": One of the sleeper hits of this season- I always forget how fun this one is! Just a great, fun school storyline! We learn more about Zeke and get the first reference to his crush on Tina. Rudy plays an interesting role in this episode as Tina's sidekick (and I think it's interesting that in "Fingers-loose", the next episode to focus on Tina as a hall monitor, Rudy doesn't appear to be one any more). Also, how come the fact the Bob's seen Edith naked doesn't come up more often? It just seems like it should.

"Speakeasy Rider": Another sleeper hit! I basically forgot about the existence of this episode, but it is fantastic! A great Tina and Louise in conflict plot! The introduction of Sasha! The One Eyed Snakes are back! Gus has a big role (how frickin' great is Gus?!?! I love him!) So much good stuff!

"Late Afternoon in the Garden of Bob and Louise": This is a mixed review 3. There are some things I really love in this episode. "Happy Place, Crappy Place" is a banger. Bob is so cute in his English lady garden hat, talking to his plants. And the scene where Bob and Louise make up is a classic. But I'm not a huge fan of the standard Logan and Louise dynamic of trading insults and antagonizing each other- and this episode has a LOT of that. So, this episode isn't really my jam. (But I know that a lot of other people love that dynamic and love this episode, and that's awesome! As the spreadsheet says, these are just my Personal Rankings, I don't claim to be putting out objective universal truths here.)

"Can't Buy Me Math": I love the way both storylines end in this one! The bowling alley scene is hilarious, and I love Bob stripping for Linda. One of my favorite aspects of Bob and Linda's relationship is that they are both pretty average looking people (I definitely have a Bob Belcher-esque body myself) but they clearly find each other hot as fuck, and the striptease scene really epitomizes that. One of the best Boblin moments!

"Adventures in Chinchilla-sitting": A great "the kids and their friends have an adventure!" episode, and a I love those. A particular highlight of this one: Gene's jokes at Tammy's expense. "We get it, you have email!" and "You're in 8th grade? I thought you were someone's mom!" I love how all the Belcher kids zing Tammy in their own, unique style. Also, "IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII wish my radio worked!"

"Housetrap": One joke I really remember cracking me up when seeing the tableread at "Bob's Burgers Live" was Linda's line about the clocks: "Spooky. They all stopped at 3:13. Oh, wait, they all moved." Not sure why that amuses me so much, but it does!

"Hawk & Chick": I actually posted when I was rewatching this one, but man, this is a fantastic episode! I honestly think it might be a top 10 or 15 episode for me. I knew it was a good, emotional Louise and Bob episode but I forgot how funny it was- Gene in particular has some good lines throughout! And I love Koji! There is just something really sweet and joyful about him; I hope they come up with a reason to bring him back for a third time!

Random Thoughts (stuff that doesn't affect the ratings):

If I thought of any random thoughts while rewatching this season, I don't remember them! So here are some memories of seeing "Bob's Burgers Live" at the Chicago Theatre:

Each of the cast members did a little standup set. I can remember a little bit from all of them except Eugene Mirman, although I do remember that he did some of the same bits from the Netflix special he had at the time ("Vegan on his Way to the Complain Store").

A Dan Mintz joke: "When I was a kid, I would always ask my parents 'who's your favorite kid?' And they would tell me 'we don't have a favorite kid' And that hurt my feelings because I was an only child."

John Roberts sang a song about how people like Linda more than him.

H. Jon Benjamin did a seemingly improvised bit holding a Walgreens bag containing a home drug test for cocaine that you can buy there.

Kristen Schaal did a bit that was, in part, a one woman show about Emily Dickinson. She also joked about attending Northwestern University in Chicago (along the lines of "So if you saw a weird girl mumbling to herself on the L back in 1998, that was me! You missed out on all this!")

There was an audience question part at the end and someone asked the cast if they would help him propose to his girlfriend. Which they not only did, but improvised a little skit about! I cannot remember the whole premise of it, but I do remember a bit where Eugene and Kristen were playing friends of the guy and girl respectively and were making fake small talk with them. Eugene to the guy: "Soooo....sports?" Kristen to the girl: "Soooo...bras?"

Well, thank you for travelling back in time to March 2015 with me! Who knows what I'll talk about in my Season 6 post! (Probably Season 6 of "Bob's Burgers"...)

[caelanglang]

Hihi

Can I ask you what program do you use for the animatic? And can you recommend any good program for practice? (I never used any of these programs, and they look pretty hard, so I don't want to pay yet for one, but I want to make something :c)

Hello! This might be a bit long but I hope I can help you with this (I'm holding your hand because this is also my first time doing an animatic so I have no idea on what kind of good pipeline there is to follow...) I apologize in advance if this won't be the most helpful answer :,))

okay so for the software. I use the ipad for most of my work nowadays... unfortunately, both apps that I use are paid—RoughAnimator and Procreate. I'll walk you down with how I do it. It is not the most efficient way but here's how it goes for me... :,))

Storyboard

I think the most important thing for planning something like this is having a clear vision of what you want to see. I started this animatic by brainstorming in my storyboards what I want to see in timing with the song and its lyrics. Here's an example of what I previously shared... [disclaimer: I did not follow the template so yeah, feel free to ignore the kanji characters]

you can see the outline I roughly made to tell myself what scene I want to show to what lyrics (I got lazy to write the whole lyrics down lol) and also added some notes like the movement of the character and camera pans etc.

here are the corresponding drawings to it (sorry if the quality is bad, I just screenshotted this from my gallery ><;;)

Drawing the Cuts

All of the drawings are done on Procreate. I use this software for most of my drawings now, mostly because I like the texture of the brushes there. At this point, I am not worrying about timing these drawings to the music yet but I am reassured since I already made my guide of that in the storyboards. Procreate also has an animation feature that helped me draw the breathing sequence.

Compiling and Timing the Drawings

Once I've saved my drawings to my photos, I move them to RoughAnimator. Here is where I time the drawings with the song. What I like about RoughAnimator is that it has its own drawing tools (I don't really like the brushes tho... hence, me using Procreate instead), it has a camera tool that allows me to pan across my drawings and also shows the sound wave thingy of the song that helps me with timing. It also allows me to easily adjust the exposure or how long a drawing flashes on the screen at my chosen framerate.

I would sometimes be unsatisfied with my initial drawings, leading to me going back and forth between Procreate and RoughAnimator to revise stuff. (which in my opinion is not efficient but I can't really think of any other way to do this...)

So yes. That's pretty much how I'm working with it so far. I am currently stuck because both Procreate and RoughAnimator have very limited features when it comes to panning images... I'm still figuring out how to do that but I'm thinking of moving to video editors for these kinds of stuff instead of relying on RoughAnimator...

I hope you aren't discouraged by this,, I know it isn't the best solution... If you are to follow this kind of workflow, I think a good combination of any drawing software (hopefully with an animation feature) and a reliable video editor to time it to the music (I recommend finding ones with camera pan and motion tween features) is sufficient enough for this.

If you're using an ipad like me, iArtbook is a good free alternative to Procreate with a good animation feature. I have yet to check it out properly but Filmora or Capcut might be a good video editor... If you're using a desktop, I think Krita is good for drawing and animating!

I'm so sorry again if this wasn't really helpful. I will definitely share it if I were to find a better workflow for this. If you'd like to have some storyboard templates, here are some I found on the internet!

I wish you all the best in your plans and practices!

(feel free to ask again if you have any questions, I hope this helps somehow :,))