#you learn a lot on stream

[elodee]

So Doc had a belly button piercing when he was younger

[d8tl55c]

orange with a diamond sword.

rage.

shiny blue tip towards green's neck

where he lies knocked down in the grass.

orange takes perfect care of this sword - it's his best. even a brush of the tip cuts.

all see him, and remember

and flinch.

orange raises his sword over his head.

it would be a killshot.

the rest are too shocked, angry, worried by how angry, stalled by cognitive dissonance to act.

the blade falls.

he stabs the grass, deep through the roots and soil and stones below.

orange storms off, leaving his best sword behind.

red sees.

remembers.

follows him.

blue is frozen down in the flowers by the pool.

yellow gathers blue. his scattered pieces, so to speak, come back together briefly from her coaxing.

green, trying to salvage it, approaches them.

laughs- wrong- jittery, measuring in his mind the distance orange's sword was from his neck... less than a short blade of grass

(tasted horrible)

but the show, the show, the show must go on.

he smiles, opens his arms wide with bravado.

"it was just a-!"

"get back," blue barks.

he's angry, but it's wrong.

he's angry and something else, something which rises and intensifies and sharpens the details as much as it swirls them.

it's just green, green and his insensitive gags, and a nice cherry forest under the sun.

it feels too warm, too bright, too dangerous.

"but," green approaches.

blue backs up.

green has less of blue's trust than that zombified hoglin.

yellow steers blue away, glaring at green.

"just LEAVE IT," she says. less loud than the others, but the most stern.

green wilts, alone in the clearing.

"we need a break."

red finds orange hiding behind a cherry trunk a few minutes away, trying not to mutilate too many flowers.

upon eye-contact,

they remember their own thing... in the desert. the lush caves. it got bad before. good on him that he left to cool down.

red is twitchy, too. can't unflatten the cat ears, so frustrated.

what to do?

red offers a duel.

orange accepts.

1. normal duel?

or

2. cat duel? lol.

mostly unserious from the beginning, they crouch to all fours and leap and swipe at each other. tussle and roll and work up to that genuine, playful competitiveness.

it always devolves into tickling. red gets orange to laugh. orange retaliates by scratching red under the chin. this instantly paralyses him. /pos

that was fun, and red is happy now

but...

orange wishes it was this easy with green.

he huffs sadly. still furious!! mostly sad.

orange tries to get up and do something.

red, purring, pins him to the ground for a snuggle.

orange struggles.

red deliberately-accidentally kicks him in the head while readjusting.

so instead of jumping into some fool plan

they get comfortable

and talk.

red is a little better at hiding it... (or suppressing it...) but he wishes it was that easy for green too.

if you try to hold green back,

he might just drag you through the mud with him.

blue is more fragile.

he never liked pranks, much less...

he can't even think about it. everything's fuzzy. focusing his eyes makes him more dizzy.

the pink looks darker, swims together into a uniform texture, red red red and the trunks are the same dark purple of the brick and he's falling-

yellow doesn't know what's going on, but she suspects that blue understated back then,

"oh yeah! and i got knocked into the lava pool, haha. wow, that hurt."

so she's approximately half-ready when he stops walking.

she halts too. "you okay?"

blue squeaks.

yellow steps in front of him.

he grabs her shoulders, like she's a ladder dipping into the-

ah. lava. yep, definitely some unresolved trauma there. she spots the bark color of the cherries and nods, theories forming in her mind.

the blue sky sure is a different color.

. .. ...

oh!

Yes!! there are zero cool colors in the nether, except for that dark teal fungus biome.

"hey, blue."

blue is still clinging to her shoulders.

"check out the sky right now."

he trusts her, so even while unsteady, his head jerks up. "whh...?"

slowly, his eyes begin to focus through the clouds.

it's overcast, but only the Minecraft version of cirrus clouds that let the deep blue atmosphere peek through.

it's a perfect Minecraft Overworld day.

the delicate pinks and greens of the trees compliment an endless pool of sky.

this is the opposite of the hard, brutal Nether.

blue's grip on yellow loosens.

she gets worried for a moment- but it's then clear it's because he's started to stand on his own again.

she pats his shoulder - his "good side," he jokes, the one that spent the least time cooking in service of the baby piglin - and leans against him.

he leans back.

a few minutes pass.

"i need to get that checked out," he laughs softly.

"yeah," yellow sighs. "you really do."

[beeduoo]

originnssssss who remembers origins i Loved origins

[aibouart]

i drew a streamer i started watching recently who was playing LN1~

their name is obakechan !

[dataglitch]

What was your first freelancing experience like?

Hmmm I had to think back since it's been a real long time since, but it was difficult yet absolutely rewarding. Since I'm wasn't used to things like deadlines and working with teams when it came to art, I had to quickly adjust to meet quotas and make sure the art directors/overseers were satisfied with the work and ofc, had to take critiques when necessary. This differs from the usual commission work, but if you're looking into getting into the industry, it's definitely necessary to improve not just your art skill, but communication and getting used to following guidelines more effectively. But yeah my first gig was the Transformers card game, so that was pretty neat to do! :'D

[crescentfool]

so you want to use OBS

hello! i’ve decided to compile information on my OBS setup and some resources that have helped me along the way.  this is mostly for personal reference, but maybe others can make use of this information!

some notes before i get into it:

i use OBS for both offline recording and (twitch) streaming. any footage i record is edited using DaVinci Resolve 18, which is free.

most of my OBS captures are of video games (through a USB capture card, specifically elgato), and the occasional screen/application capture (like clip studio paint, and sometimes PC games).

as such, the information here is reflective of these experiences. this post is not comprehensive to all of OBS’s features- this is just an overview of the settings and configurations that are most relevant to me.

with that out of the way, all the information will be under the cut!

Basic Setup

file format:

how to change: settings -> output -> recording -> recording format -> press “apply” once finished!

I save most of my recordings as .mkv files- it supports multi-track audio! i prefer .mkv over .mp4 because if your power goes out, you still have a recording to work with. 

.mkv files can be read by DaVinci Resolve without an issue- but for Adobe software, they'll need to be remuxed to .mp4 within OBS! (file -> remux recordings -> press the … to select a file -> press the “remux” button)

video resolution and framerate:

how to change: settings -> video -> output (scaled) resolution

my obs canvas is @ 1920 x 1080p (16:9)

i switch between 720p and 1080p as needed! if you're concerned about space, you can probably just go for 720p. i also record at 30 fps, simply because that’s what my capture card supports.

video bitrate:

how to change: settings -> output -> encoder settings (located in both the streaming and recording tab) -> press “apply” once finished!

bitrate is a bit of a doozy to explain, but the most important thing to know is that bitrate affects your video’s quality. lower numbers = lower quality, while higher numbers = higher quality. 

generally speaking, you'll want higher bitrate when you're recording things with high depth of information (e.g. you’d want a higher bitrate for something fast-paced like splatoon, compared to a slower-paced game like animal crossing).

my video bitrate is either set to 3000 or 4000 kbps! and here's some of my other (related) settings while i'm at it:

you can put your bitrate at much higher values than me if you're a stickler for quality- but keep in mind that a higher bitrate means:

bigger file size

more information to upload (when streaming)

your computer will need to encode more

i’d recommend reading twitch’s guidelines on encoding, bitrate, resolution, and framerate to get an idea of what values to pick. for people who are doing offline recording or streaming on a different platform, i suggest googling the appropriate resources!

multi-track audio:

this is mostly applicable to anyone looking to do video editing!

multi-track audio basically allows you to separate your audio sources (e.g. discord, game audio, and your own microphone) into different tracks. 

this is an immensely helpful tool because it lets you adjust audio levels in post-production (editing). some examples of how this can be used:

increasing someones microphone volume if they speak too softly

increasing/decreasing game audio

muting swear words/sensitive information

completely muting voice call + microphone if you want to upload a no commentary video

and more!

to set this up, take a look at your audio mixer panel, and press the ⚙ icon. this will bring up advanced audio properties.

by checkmarking a track box, it puts the audio on that track. to make the above screenshot easier to digest:

track 1 consists of ALL three audio sources- desktop, elgato, and microphone.

track 2 only has the microphone audio.

track 3 only has desktop audio (i use this for voice calls)

track 4 only has the elgato capture card audio (game audio). the volume has also been lowered so that any speaking voices can be heard clearly.

tracks 5 and 6 are unused.

you might be wondering, “why do all three of these have 1 checked off?” this is what i call the universal audio track. i recommend having a universal audio track for a few reasons:

when you stream from OBS onto twitch/youtube- you have to select ONE audio track.

it’s also a nice backup in case you didn’t separate your audio correctly.

if for whatever reason you need to move around your individual audio tracks in editing, the universal track acts as a nice reference point.

mark off your audio tracks for each audio source as you see fit! once you’re finished with the advanced audio properties, go to settings > output.

for the streaming tab, you’ll want to have the number of your universal audio track selected. in my case, that will be audio track 1.

for the recording tab, checkmark all the audio tracks that are applicable to you (in my case, audio tracks 1, 2, 3, and 4). by default, only audio track 1 is selected.

if you don’t check off the additional audio tracks in the output > recordings section, you will not have access to those audio tracks in editing, and you won’t be able to edit your audio tracks independently of each other. so don’t forget to do this! 👍

custom browser docks

custom browser docks are a great tool for when you’re streaming and want to have access to your twitch chat and/or activity feed! (or if you wanted to have some other web browser on OBS).

to create one, go to docks -> custom browser docks.

you’ll be given a table interface that asks you to put the dock name and URL. for streamers who want to have chat and alerts available, do the following:

on twitch’s homepage, go to the upper right and click your icon

then, click creator dashboard

once you’re on your dashboard, go to stream manager

click the vertical “...” on my chat OR activity feed.

press “pop-out chat” OR “pop-out activity feed”

copy and paste the link into the table back into OBS

press apply once you’re done

click and drag the docks around at your leisure to put them where you like!

if you ever decide you don’t want to have something on your OBS dock (or want to bring something back), go to the toolbar, click “docks,” and click the appropriate dock!

third party things

a section of optional things that you may enjoy having.

streamlabs alerts

this is basically for anyone who streams and wants to have their chat and/or follower notifications visualized on screen!

streamlab alerts can be added to OBS by adding a browser source into your scene, and the specifics can be customized on streamlabs itself. it’s pretty self-explanatory, so i’ll just leave a link to streamlabs website, where you can log in using the streaming platform of your choice: https://streamlabs.com/

discord overlay

this is a browser source that can be set up to show people who are in a server's voice chat and who speaks. i recommend this to people who make multiplayer content- it can help viewers distinguish who is who but also it can be helpful in editing.

to set this up, go to https://streamkit.discord.com/overlay, click “install for OBS,” and after logging in with discord, go to “voice widget” and click the server and voice channel you want.

you are able to apply CSS if you'd like more control over the visuals, but the standard layout tends to work fine for me! a search of “discord overlay css” on youtube can help you get more information.

veadotube mini

this is a pngtuber software that a friend recommended to me! no webcam is required- mouth opening and closing is based on your microphone input!

you can download it here (it’s pay what you want!): https://olmewe.itch.io/veadotube-mini

for a proper tutorial on how to use it, i recommend checking out the app's documentation, which you can read here: https://veado.tube/help/

source record

have you ever wanted to stream something with a chat overlay/layout, but wanted your recording to ONLY be the gameplay? or maybe you wanted to record BOTH your gameplay AND your webcam so that you can have a crisp zoom-in on your webcam!

source record is a third party plugin that can help you with that!

the general gist of source record involves applying the “source record” filter on either a scene or source, and customizing the encoding settings accordingly. the exact details of how to set it up is beyond the scope of this post, so I'll just direct people to this video instead (it was very helpful to me):

⚠ a quick note about source record: this plugin can be intense for your computer. be sure to do test recordings and the like to see what your computer can handle (and see if the recordings come out the way you like). it took me a few tests before i settled onto something i liked!

you can download and install source record here: https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/source-record.1285/

vdo.ninja

have you ever wanted to do a collaborative video or stream where you feature someone else’s video on your stream? or maybe you’re doing a multi-person streaming event! vdo.ninja is the perfect tool for you!

vdo.ninja turns your OBS virtual camera into a browser source link- which your collaborator can add on their stream! this is a new tool that i’ve added to my arsenal recently- since my friend and i are planning to stream a side order challenge together! i’ve still got to iron it out a bit more, but i like what i’ve used of it so far.

try it out for yourself at their website here (with documentation and demos available on the homepage!): https://vdo.ninja/ (no downloads required!)

ok! i’m set up! what now?

and with that, that’s all of the settings and tools that i thought would be worth mentioning! while most of my setup was written with video games in mind, some of these plugins and setups may be applicable to other types of videos (e.g. tabletop gaming with a physical camera)!

now that i’ve outlined all these settings, i have one more thing i have to say: regardless of what you're using OBS for, do a test recording before doing anything “official” with it. this recording can be as short as 30 seconds. it’s a good habit to develop that can make sure your streams/recordings turn out the way you want them to!

here are the kinds of things i like to check! it’s not an exhaustive list, but this can be a starting point:

video:

does my video look the way i want it to (and can my computer handle that)?

can my computer handle the load of encoding? - OBS will note in the bottom if the encoding is overloaded. if it can’t handle it, turn down your bitrate or adjust other encoding settings (e.g. i had to toggle psycho visual tuning OFF because it was causing lag)

this is especially the case if you're recording PC games- you don’t want to have slowdown on either your game or the recording!

audio:

are my audio sources (e.g. desktop audio and microphone) correct? - if you plug/unplug devices a lot, be sure to check this (settings -> audio).

are any of my audio sources muted? - make sure you don’t have anything on 🔇 if you don’t want it to be muted! otherwise the audio will be lost forever… (i lost my friend’s VC audio once… it was sad)

are my audio tracks separated properly? - requires you to boot up your editing software, but it's worth doing! for the test recording, just have something from all your sources playing at once, and see if your editor has things separated into tracks.

can i hear the voices clearly? or does the music and/or game overpower them?

if for whatever reason your OBS crashes, or you want more information on anything “critical” or “warning” worthy in your set-up, you can go to help > log files > upload current log file > analyze. crash logs currently can’t be analyzed by the log analyzer- but they’re a valuable tool when asking for help on the OBS forums!

and that’s all! for real, this time. i hope that some of these tools and settings can help anyone wanting to get more out of OBS. there’s definitely other things i didn’t touch upon (e.g. audio filters for noise compression, suppression, etc.), so i suggest doing your own research and trying things out!

happy recording/streaming, and thanks for reading! ✨

[shannonsketches]

something something foils moving in opposite directions Goku's always happy to seek and fight stronger opponents because he spent most of his life being the strongest guy in the room and Vegeta wants to be the strongest/is always exhausted to find stronger opponents because he spent most of his life having to navigate his survival around the whims of the strongest guy in the universe room and so Goku has a foundation of safety and stability and so spends his time craving challenge and adventure and Vegeta has a foundation of challenge and adventure and spends his time craving safety and stability and the overlaid section of their venn diagram is that the only way they know how acquire and maintain those things is through battle

[shuploc]

i discovered your blog about 10 minutes ago and i am speechless at how masterful these portraits are... and it only takes you 8 hours of drawing on average?? *confused noises and gestures*

my question is : how do you get lighting and color so right every time? do you use many references for lighting? are there any tips you don't mind sharing with a fellow digital artist? x)

Yes, I very much do use reference! It really depends on the piece, but sometimes I'll only use the reference as inspiration, other times I'll completely base the whole piece around it.

In terms of lighting and color specifically, I tend to go with the light source as it appears in one or more of the reference photos, but color is never based on anything and is always something I end up spending pretty much 30 mins to an hour on at the very end. I don't want to toot my own horn in any way, but after a while, you kinda just get an eye for it, y'know. If the colors or the lighting is pretty nice in the reference, but it needs more oomf, I'll try and figure out what's making it looks so nice and amplify it. But yeah, the secret is definitely to use reference!

Thank you so much for asking though, and I'm really glad you like my stuff! 😊

[afniel]

Realizing that I went and wrote a bunch of intentionally aro relationships and my partner was like, "Idk, it seemed like normal relationships to me," and I was like, "I mean yeah it's not that different from ours, I guess, I was kind of going for 45° off from 'normal' romance," and they're like, "Okay, but ours is also pretty much like that," and I'm like, "Yeah, true," and now I'm like, damn hold up, are we both some kinda arospec and THIS is how we figure it out? Because I wrote a long-ass fic about intentionally queer-coded (among other things) robots? Life is weird, man.

Like I've been prone to extreme long-term crushes on a very few (mostly unattainable) people over the years, but I wouldn't have known what to do with them even if they worked out, and cough my ex was not even one of them. I just kind of assumed I was failing to feel a thing I was totally supposed to feel, there, and quite a lot of that relationship emotionally was me going, "Okay, I care like This, but I think I'm supposed to care like That? I'm pretty sure he cares That way. I'm not sure I do, but I mean, there's really only one way*, so maybe I'm just misreading this and actually I do care like That, I'm just bad at it."

*This was me being very incorrect, it turns out. There's all kinds of ways to love someone. It's a very inadequate and nonspecific word.

When I confessed my feelings (which I'd been sitting on for a year) to my partner, their reaction wasn't to be particularly romantic about it. In fact they told me they'd help me move to California if I wanted to. And after I got over my initial confusion of being kissed on the forehead (which is also not super romantic as a gesture and I couldn't decide how to even read that so I kinda skipped over even trying for a while), I was thinking, Awesome, that is a yes. They have promised to assist me with difficult stuff, and said nothing at all about emotions, because that's not a big deal anyway. The important thing is that I can rely on them and vice versa. Cool. We are basically together forever now. Which ended up being true. I just never moved out and now it's like 13 years later, go figure. But that's not what I think actually passes for reciprocating feelings for most people? Worked great for me though.

Anyway I feel like I have accidentally learned something about myself, lol. I guess romance is okay I guess, like it's not repulsive, but seriously, it's WAY more satisfying to me to guess someone else's Quiplash answer because you know they know you would think it's fucking funny, and you do, and because you think it's funny and you're well aware they know your type of humor and you know theirs and that you wouldn't expect them to use "cum" as an answer because that's not usually how they roll, so of course that is the only answer they can possibly give, which is instantly evident to both of you with no conversation whatsoever on the topic. When you got just one brain cell and it's quantum entangled with their just one brain cell so you have a lot of null discussions where nobody has to say anything but it's fully understood anyway, that's The Dream, if you ask me. And like I don't really think that's romantic by the usual definition. You can have that with friends and family, too. But that is what it turns out I prioritize in relationships, which I'm starting to feel like isn't what the majority of people are here for?

TFW it's hard to tell because I've been assuming I'm totally alloromantic so everything I experience must be typical totally alloromantic stuff too, but I'm starting to think it isn't maybe? But how do I even tell, this is like being colorblind, lmao.

[aquaquadrant]

In the recent ZITS Mario Party stream, Tango withered away in one of the games

Time stamp from Zed’s stream: 35.58

REAL SHIT?? 👀

🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️

[yb-cringe]

Hey are you fluent in Portuguese or is there a way to get subtitles like in qsmp days cause I can’t get them to work on Pacs stream and I’d love to know what’s happening 😅

im not even kind of fluent in portuguese--

pacs stream has subtitles in english and then wait for streamers to upload their vods or for them to end up on unofficial vods, then you can just hit autocaps and vibe.

[gibbyslounge]

things im still not over (as someone who was mostly inactive since mid 2021):

mask and change my clothes!! i dont think i was active on tumblr when change my clothes was released, but the way i ascended when i heard his soft sweet singing voice <33 mask is my favorite song of his and it still makes me emotional to think about what the song meant to him. his creativity is one of his greatest strengths and i am endlessly happy that he found a way to share more of himself in a way that he really enjoys

DREAM TEAM MEETUP tbh i really did not know if these days would ever come. its so so so crazy to think that florida man dream texas cowboy sapnap and british george are really all living together and existing in the same space. seeing them be THEM irl is still very surreal and makes me pause for a second without fail. so so much of the community centered around them not having met each other irl

DREAM FACE REVEAL!!!! this one i REALLY HONESTLY didnt know if it would ever come, just because the courage it takes to face reveal after building one of the largest audiences is fucking crazy. i thought that even if they did end up living together, dream might’ve found that he is happy to just be with them and not want to face reveal anymore. ig never doubt dream- he’s such a “go big or go home” type of person. i love him regardless but now he is also a big bear who wears cat beanies and has the prettiest eyes and im emotionally attached

dream pics before his face reveal with a big emphasis on suit pics, swt halloween, and strawberry dream. his white hoodie posey pose and the ones with the blanket and patches have a permanent home in my heart but these had me convulsing and i didnt get to gush about them here </3

[b4kuch1n]

hi it's me. bulletpoints

job has concluded! barring sudden expansion on the project I think that's gonna be it for my work here. six character cards in total! this leads to

wrists are bit fucked. I'll be putting that thang (creen tablet) in da closet again for at least a month while trying to hold as few heavy objects as possible for the time being

why one month deadline? well it's bc I made an artfight account. I'm fucking doing it this year on god I'll kick anyone's ass I'll kick my own ass. I'll post a link to my acc a week or so before the event starts, meanwhile I'll keep updating my roster and cleaning up this cardboard box I arrived at their door in. do u guys have a spare pair of suspenders I have a really funny joke to make

will be doing it on the creen tablet, unless I make enough to get a new graphic tablet that works with SAI2 inbetween. on that note

ink comms should come back sometimes next week babeyy I need to get back into da groove! miss my G pen it feels like I was close to something last time. I wanna get back to it. but also

I'm writing a fic now. tis the season it seems this happened last year too. but I'll try my best to not disappear off the face of the earth for 3 months running again lol I'll do my best to pace myself, since this is gonna be one of the heftier writing things.

sk8 people and another very specific subset of people will be pleased to know it's a sk8 Real Steel AU. if this means nothing to u carry on. have a good day. to the five people still here I'll probably be brainposting abt writing this so don't be surprised if that comes up here and there

circling back a bit I'm currently 120 USD away from the graphic tablet I wanna get, so that'll be what the ink comms are going toward. otherwise if u enjoy my art and have a spare doller to buy the baku a coffee I'd absolutely appreciate ur support! not mandatory but I'll definitely be very thankful! especially bc

I'll probably phase out the redbubble store some time in the future. at the very least I'll probably stop uploading new things on there while looking for alternative. ohh baby they are doing some wild shit and I want off the ride please. please

but yeah. that's the current plan for things. I've accepted that comics happen when they want to, and I have faith they still want to see the sunlight some time this year. meanwhile we keep busy keep training keep recovering! thank u for ur patience. have a good night take this sharp object

[musical-chick-13]

I did NOT spend five fucking years breaking my back and my brain getting a degree in this for people to say that musical theatre is corny and useless and inherently shameful.

[taylorswiftshipsbyler]

I didnt feel like writing a card for my mom's bday so instead I decorated the box that the chocolates I always get her come in☺️☺️

also. I can name all of the flowers/plants on here.

milkweed

lavender

sword ferns

jasmine

goldenrod

sunflowers

some random mushrooms in a plantain plant (plantains are actually really cool weeds that might grow in your yard. you can use them to soothe bug bites!)

violets

snapdragons

bleeding hearts

aloe

clover(like the little flowers)

virginia bluebells

and honeysuckle!!

and then there's also little bumblebees that I drew to fill up the empty spaces

[skeletalheartattack]

"BLJ" actually stands for Biden Long Jump <isnt sure if youre aware of mario 64 speedrunning technique backwards long jump

and if joe biden was put into half life 2 he'd do an "ABH", as in: Accelerated Biden Hop