yelling-at-apes

[yelling-at-apes]

REMINDER: Commissions for donations to the people of Gaza are still open !

You can find my Email address and my full Gallery here

[yelling-at-apes]

[yelling-at-apes]

ARK Realism Community Hub... 2!!!!

@yelling-at-apes​ and I have been working on revamping our currently-existing server to be much more streamlined and linear, and now that it’s in a decent state, we feel comfortable sharing the link!

In this server we discuss ARK lore, theories, and other various forms of brain rot. We have also implemented a Roleplay channel and intend on doing group roleplays! Bring your OCs or Canon character interpretations, we’d love to see them!

Before making yourself comfortable, please read the rules and make an introduction in survivor-data. See you there, Survivor!

https://discord.gg/2B4JmsXg

[yelling-at-apes]

The fact that Wildcard actually went ahead and gave money to charity rather than to just make a colorful little logo, like how so many companies do, genuinely brought me a lot of joy. 

 Have a safe June, everyone !

[yelling-at-apes]

If y'all make the preg fetish bug get in the game i am actually going to slit your throats.

[yelling-at-apes]

[yelling-at-apes]

I love having interests that I would never ever recommend to any of my friends ever

[yelling-at-apes]

@yelling-at-apes​ helped with this funy chart :^]

[yelling-at-apes]

hello ark community

[yelling-at-apes]

Do you think dinosaurs had lips?

I've been hearing arguments about weather or not they did, and just want to hear your opinion on the matter.

TLDR: Dinosaurs had lips. There is no legitimate reason to think they didn't, outside of maybe spinosaurids, which were mainly semi aquatic and very piscivorous.

"Perhaps instead of asking ‘does this animal have lips?’ we should ask why they should not have them." -Mark Witton [link to his post below]

The main "arguments" i see online about this mostly focus on comparing dinosaurs and crocodilians, however this connection makes very little sense, and most people defending that idea nowdays are whiny JW/The Isle/ARK/etc.. simps looking for any crumb of excuse to complain about change to their precious nostalgia-bait beasts.

The only actual paleontology sources for those claims are very few, and come from the kind of people who also think Nanotyrannus (known to just be juvenile Tyrannosaurus) is a valid genus, so, basically, still not the most reliable sources.

It's not even really that hard to understand why liplessness is implausible speculation, and how pop culture is the direct cause as to why people are so defensive about it:

The only modern vertebrates to have exposed teeth do not specifically share a common ancestor, instead, exposed teeth have convergently evolved in fish, crocodilians, and even some cetaceans, all of which are aquatic, and feed primarily on fish (though not even all fish-eating animals have exposed teeth). There is no reason to think that dinosaurs were basally lipless, nor that they would convergently evolve that very specific adaptation (with the exception of spinosaurids), since we know that both dinosaurs and their ancestors were fully terrestrial, and not especially piscivorous (outside of spinosaurids).

The final nail in the coffin is that theropods depicted with their upper teeth showing also most often have teeth that are way too long, as the artists do not take into account the fact that teeth have a tendency to slide out of their sockets during decomposition, making them appear longer than they actually were in life. Basically: All of that is very bias towards making dinosaurs more "monstrous" and ""iconic"", rather than professional and factually accurate.

An example of this in saber-toothed cats

notice how the teeth on the first image have an odd split in color, the darker bit would be inside the socket in life [image source: BoneClones]

The second image is an example of a smilodon drawn with this decomposition quirk in mind. The length of the fangs is true to life, and looks natural. [image source: Gabriel Ugueto]

The third image is an example of a very poorly rendered smilodon, which of course ignores the tooth loosening in favor of making the fangs more cartoonishly monstrous. [Source: REBOR]

The idea of theropods not having lips wasn't actually any more popular than lipped theropods were in media until 1993 and the release of Jurassic Park, in fact, some concept art for the T. rex depic it with proper lips covering all the teeth, like a lizard's (albeit the most popular one shows it snarling, which is unlikely to have been possible, but i'm not sure that was known at the time).

Also note how the main target on those "arguments" always seem to be the same, those being T. rex and other large theropods, very rarely does this kind of talk focus on smaller theropods such as dromaeosaurs, which, oh so conviniently, were properly lipped in the JP franchise, and remain as such in most media.

So, basically: Dinosaurs that do not have beaks should be depicted with lizard-like lips by default because having lips covereing all teeth is the standard for vertebrates, and liplessness, full or partial, a very narrow, very specialised exception.

Here's a very accessible but more professional post by paleontologist and paleoartist Mark Witton about the subject: http://markwitton-com.blogspot.com/2016/10/exposed-teeth-in-dinosaurs-sabre-tooths.html

[yelling-at-apes]

Oh, cool, instead of making a new page for the winners, they straight up erased all the votes, meaning no one who made a thread can see how many votes they were at, or what the ranking was.

[yelling-at-apes]

Only one day left to vote, posting it again just for good measure, and with finished art this time around.

https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/forums/topic/620912-ambulocetus-species/

Hey, so ARK is taking suggestions for creatures, it turns out ! 

I made a thread for Ambulocetus, because it was what i instantly thought of when thinking of a fitting new creature (that isn’t another theropod, at least), it would be, like, super if people who can could upvote it.. No pressure though, genuinely !

https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/forums/topic/620912-ambulocetus-species/

[yelling-at-apes]

Progress is slow, but it's going, mainly struggling with lighting and shading placement and color, shading and lighting are really not something i'm good at, however i did figure out how to texture the body itself and it's now going quite smoothly !

I am using texture brushes in order to make the process faster (Credit: both are from Aaron Blase’s Directional Fur Brushes), since i am very innexperienced with realism, though after that piece i’ll try to go without them as i normally would when painting, as i don’t want to become too reliant on them.

Hey, so ARK is taking suggestions for creatures, it turns out ! 

I made a thread for Ambulocetus, because it was what i instantly thought of when thinking of a fitting new creature (that isn’t another theropod, at least), it would be, like, super if people who can could upvote it.. No pressure though, genuinely !

https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/forums/topic/620912-ambulocetus-species/

[yelling-at-apes]

(Warning for Genesis 2 Spoilers ahead)

Figured it might be neat to show this around! It’s the direct image seen of Rockwell’s transmission in the Genesis 2 cutscene, ripped from the game with UModel. It seems like a trace-over of the Animated Series Rockwell design, but much older with facial hair (but no mutton chops, which is odd).

Whether this is a direct redesign of TAS Rockwell’s design or proof that the design shown is a younger version of him, I do enjoy this design a lot! I hope it appears in TAS, as much as I’m not too interested in it due to certain designs and other personal reasons.

[yelling-at-apes]

@dennys-sky-terrarium

I was told about your design theft, unlike you, i have better things to do than check your blogs and archive everything in a desperate attempt to #cancel you. 

I called you out because you stole my shit, plain and simple, you drawing the thing a bunch doesn’t make the idea or design yours, and i specifically asked you not to use my stuff.

Also if you’re talking about Neddy’s server, i’ve been in there for literal months, and i’m a patreon. Do you think i, like, only dwell my own server or what ?

Stop thinking everything is about you and maybe don’t use other people’s designs if you don’t want them calling you out on it.

[yelling-at-apes]

Some old art for a creature that I think holds up very well.

This is Shoelaces, a Sinotyrannus Xena owned in an early draft of The Cluster Chronicles. The mouth/neck frill is more or less a grounded version of the JP dilo crest.

I’m planning to incorporate her back into my story, but I don’t have a clue where yet.

[yelling-at-apes]

Testing lighting and texturing, hopefully i can make it look wet and horrible !

Also added a color region map !

Hey, so ARK is taking suggestions for creatures, it turns out ! 

I made a thread for Ambulocetus, because it was what i instantly thought of when thinking of a fitting new creature (that isn’t another theropod, at least), it would be, like, super if people who can could upvote it.. No pressure though, genuinely !

https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/forums/topic/620912-ambulocetus-species/