shinydinosaurkingdom

[shinydinosaurkingdom]

this is so so important to me and mine, and I'm asking you to Do Something so I'll respect your time and keep it brief

in the UK, if 100k sign a a government petition it will be brought to Parliament and debated. y'all know this country is suffering from some 80s-style bigotry right now, and this is one symptom: almost 200k fuckholes have come together to force the government to discuss whether it is 'appropriate' to tell children that queer people exist. this is a big symbolic victory for them. and i am burning with fury.

please, if you're from the UK, sign this counter-petition so they can at least see how much of a minority they are. simply put, the attempt to put these bastards in their place isn't gathering enough steam. there are barely 2000 more signatures now than there were this morning (27th January 2023), and that isn't enough. i refuse to let these people feel even a moment of victory or satisfaction. please help.

[shinydinosaurkingdom]

Dear GOD it feels like forever!!!

First of all, I want to explain the picture. It's from a post that's gone viral recently. I found it funny and, when I finally felt the will to draw again, I wanted to put Levene in it. I know it's not funny out of context but I loved drawing it so shut up! Here's the post I'm talking about: www.tumblr.com/runcibility/704…

Anyway! JESUS. Who knew that one of the top five CGI universitys in Europe would have such a high workload of drawing?????? Like, It's a cgi course, but we've hardly done ANY CGI. I feel kind of ripped off to be honest. When I realised just how much drawing I was going to be doing, I stopped drawing in the evenings because:

1. I draw to try and improve my skills, but the amount I was doing anyway made that kind of pointless 2. I needed that time to do assignments So that's why I haven't posted anything recently. Next term should be better. There's only one drawing heavy unit next semester instead of two, so maybe I'll have the will to draw something then? I don't know. In the mean time, I decided to post SOMETHING for christmas. Merry Christmas everybody!

[shinydinosaurkingdom]

Hi Blogleech! I’m a CGI university student, and I think I can offer a unique perspective to this debate. A perspective that’s 1480 words long…. Jesus Christ I didn’t realise just how bad I needed to talk about this. 0.0

First, I want to say that I 100% understand where professional artists are coming from. The way AI art is being marketed to both artists and the layman, makes it seem like there is no artistic vision to the process. 

For anyone who isn’t an artist, let me tell you that artists are extremely pedantic. A piece of art starts as an idea, not just of a prompt, but as a vision (an artistic vision you could say). The pose, the environment, the colours, all of that is in our head when we pick up a pencil. 

So, when AI art dropped and took the artistic vision OUT of the artist’s hands, it was terrifying! No longer was the artist able to control a piece, instead, you type a prompt and let the AI do all the fun stuff for you and that’s just, so, disheartening. 

So last week, I was 100% against AI art. It added to my burn-out because it felt like nothing I was drawing mattered! I got major anxiety and I couldn’t sleep at night. However, one of my coping mechanisms is to look into what I’m afraid of, since it’s often the unknown that scares me the most. 

So, once I headed home for winter break, I took a dip into the AI art world to see what all the fuss was about and guys… artists and, by extension the artistic vision, aren't going anywhere. 

You see, most of the artworks you’ve been seeing form AI art have been using a discord extension called MidJourney. This is the software that AI generated comic was made with. You add it to your discord server and type prompts to generate art. It creates 4 small, blurry images first so you can choose which one you want to expand upon. You can retype your prompt with slight changes to improve the smaller blurry image until you have something you like, and then tell the program to export a bigger final version.

Sounds impressive doesn’t it? Well, what if I told you that this is actually shit. First of all, it’s subscription based after your first 25 prompts, and I think we all have similar feelings when it comes to subscriptions. Secondly, it can ONLY produce finished images!

“But ShinyDino, aren't finished images the only thing AI art can make” NO! Because there are more software in town and, with the right talent, can outcompete MidJourney at its own game. 

Behold, STABLE DIFFUSION! Now if you were to play around with the program for a minute, you’ll quickly realise that this software is just a shity MidJourney. However, this shit has an advantage that MidJourney lacks: It’s open source. Open source means that the internal code is open for anyone to copy and edit, meaning that coders from all over the world can build upon it and innovate like crazy. Which lends me it the program that I’m MOST excited for: AUTOMATIC1111

AUTOMATIC1111 (Yes, it’s name is in all caps) Is something that I like to call “Photoshop 2.0 ^ 10000”. It’s an interface for Stable diffusion that operates in your browser and it lets you do 2 things that I think will bring the artist back into AI art: Image to Image, and Inpainting.

Image to Image, unlike text to image, converts an image, sometimes as basic as MSPaint, into a more hi-rez image with a chosen style. It still requires a text prompt, but that’s more so the computer knows what the fuck it’s looking at and it can sometimes interpret what to do anyway.

Meanwhile, Inpainting is a function that lets you mask out a part of an image and re-roll your prompt, letting you fix mistakes in the image generation, like extra legs and wonky eyes. 

Now dear reader, I want you to partake in a thought experiment: It’s the distant future of 2024. You’re in charge of employing new concept artists to the studio and you have two digital portfolios on your laptop. Let’s say they’re on Artstation, just to keep it topical. The first portfolio is from an artist that uses MidJourney. Their page is PUMPED with art, the definition of spam, all very pretty and with different styles, all made in under a couple of minutes.

However, on the second portfolio, there’s a show-reel. It’s only a few minutes long so you open it up. You watch as the artist makes a quick coloured sketch. They then export that sketch into AUTOMATIC1111 and see the sketch get converted into a fully rendered illustration. But that’s not all! The artist then fixes the AI’s mistakes using inpainting, then exports it back into photoshop, adding post processing and effects and other little details that make the art pop. The video ends, and you scroll down, finding the final illustration, more detailed than any other concept art you’ve come across. 

Now tell me reader, who’s the employer going to hire? The guy who can type nice looking prompts, or the artist who knows both art and their software back to front, who can not just use the styles already provided by AI, but can adapt them and make them their own, and can edit their own images in real time to match both their own, and their directors vision. 

IT’S PHOTOSHOP GUYS!!!!!!!! SUPER SONIC SPEEDY PHOTOSHOP!!!!!

Artist + AI tools = an artistic monster that text to image propters can’t compete with!!! No longer do I see MidJourney as a threat to artists: I see it as the newest version of clip art! Something cute that can satisfy the layman, but not useful for the industry. It’s the artists, those that can build upon AI art that the industry needs.

“But shinyDino, does that mean that people will lose jobs if they can make more art in less time?” When, good reader, has that ever happened? NEW THOUGHT EXPERIMENT!!! 

You are a producer in an animation studio. Watching over the departments, you notice something about your background painters. Their productivity has exploded over the last 2 months, making an average of 12 backgrounds a day instead of 3, despite the fact that they’re taking longer lunch breaks. You get them into your office and ask them to explain, and they teach you about AI art and how they’re using it in their workflow to speed up the process. 

Now, dear reader. You have two options: The first is to fire all your background staff except for 2, and finish the studio’s project while saving money. This IS an option, especially in a financial recession. HOWEVER, if you do this, then you’ll be shooting your studio in the foot. 

Here you have employees who aren't being replaced by technology, but are using and abusing it for their own gain. You don’t fire these employees, you use them to compete against other studios! Make more impressive backgrounds! Wow the competition!

As Sony was innovating in technology, did they ever stop and say “Welp, good enough! Let's cut our art departments so we can put money elsewhere”? NO!!! They continued until they made graphics so realistic, basement dwellers finally learned what women look like!

Which brings me to the thing that I’m most excited for: I truly believe that AI art is going to bring us a “Visual Storytelling Boom” similar to the rise of the Indie game in the 2010s. Because AI art gives artists something they’ve never had before: Time. 

Hey artist! Have you ever had an awesome project pop up in your head that’s just too ambitious? Of course you have! 20 popped into your head the moment I asked that question. Well, that project is no longer ambitious. You can render an illustration in 10 minutes. You can make a comic page in a day.

An artist called realspacejunk on Tumblr recently released this illustration. They say it took half a year to create because of the insane amount of detail in the image… Now imagine that taking a week. Imagine a TV animated series in this style.

All those kids that grew up on Avatar can finally make the long form series of their dreams! CGI artists can render backgrounds in a similar vein to Arcane and focus on what they actually love: the Character Animation. As professionals make new gorgeous and complicated styles, the old and simple ones will be available to the everyday hobbyist, like how 8-bit is the go to style for indie-games. 

Next year, we are going to see a visual storytelling revolution! And you know what I’m scared of? What’s now keeping me up at night? The fact that art professionals are being scared away from using this new tool. It’s heartbreaking! I don’t want tech bros to be heading this revolution, I want the charge to be led by artists!

So please, Blogleech, if you find any of this convincing, spread the word. Spread the links and tutorials, the technology, cus I’m a student who’s wacom’s just died and waiting for a new one for christmas, but you have a platform! This is not the end of artistic vision. It’s just the beginning.

Okay this is driving me crazy: why the hell is it the “data source” that bothers you all about AI art? That aspect is the irrelevant one to me. The sources are impossible to deduce individually. It’s more obvious where human artists get their inspiration. It’s the concept of auto-generated art itself that’s awful regardless of its dataset. Why does anyone care what it’s scraping from when that’s invisible? I thought we were all on the same page that this is a genuine legitimate case of “technology bad.” It’s a technology that can’t do any good for anyone but lazy, greedy companies. Its existence itself is sad. A “more ethical datasource” won’t change the fact that meaningless pictures created by a nonsapient force will probably outnumber actual artwork some day, isn’t that what’s disgusting?

[shinydinosaurkingdom]

I pretty proud of this one. It took a while because I drew every blade of grass by hand. Big mistake. Should have made a custom brush. Oh well. This is my first concept for a fairy mound. I've recently come across the book "Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland" Which has been an AMAZING resource for fairy folklore. One of the things it made me realize (which I really should have done before) is that fairies should live underground, not in houses. So this is my first illustration with some fay from my comic. I think I'm gonna focus on landscape art for a while since: 1. It's a discipline that I need to practice since I've never been able to do it before now2. It's relativity quick for me to do compared to my character work. This will let me focus on my comic which I've completed all the character designs for accept for 1... Unfortunately it's the hardest. Wish me luck!

[shinydinosaurkingdom]

Selkies and Nuckelavees, living together, mass hysteria! First of all, I would like to announce that I'VE FINISHED SCRIPTING MY COMIC! I'm so darn happy! I want to get it finished before I leave for uni but with it being 24 pages long, It's gonna be hard work.  

As for the pictures themselves, they were pretty tough to do. It’s a scenario where Navin, the 14 year old Nuckelavee, is showing Levene, the 15 year old Selkie, around their ocean home.

The first image is of Levene discovering Navin in their most powerful form. While writing my comic, I had to give my magic rules while also making sure I respect the original mythology. I was inspired by the line in the original Nuckelavee story “(Nuckelavee’s) home was the sea; and whatever his means of transit were in that element, when he moved on land he rode a horse as terrible in aspect as himself.” I interpreted this as meaning that the Nuckelavee’s form in the water might not be the same as the one on land.

After writing my comic and really getting to know my magic system, I’ve decided that a nuckelavee’s magic is tied to the ocean in the same way that a Selkie’s is tied to their skin: They literally can't do magic without it.

So on land, Navin is very limited, while in the ocean they can shapeshift into whatever shape they want. The form you see in the first image is basically them chillaxin’, relaxin’ all cool. I’m pretty happy with the shape, though I think I need to experiment with colours more. I based it on a Pictish engraving showing two water horses, the Picts being an ancient Scottish people who fought against the Romans. The engraving is the 8th image down : https://oakandantler.blogspot.com/2013/04/pictish-art.html The rest of the pictures show Navin and Levene hanging out. I think I’m gonna keep the 3rd eye in all of Navin’s forms. Kinda just makes sense. The final image shows the fay saving sea creatures from an abandoned fishing net. Ghost fishing, the term given to fishing gear that still continues to kill sea life after being lost or abandoned, is something that I’ve been learning about over the last few weeks or so. And after writing a prequel comic about Navin and their origins, I think they would definitely do their part to remove what they could. With great power comes great responsibility, right? And Levene’s got her phone out so she can spread awareness. And... That's it! A lot of text but there was a lot of picture to explain. Wish me luck on making the comic. I'm already getting nervous XD

[shinydinosaurkingdom]

Friendly reminder that this blog is pro-choice and if you don’t think everyone should have full control of their own body, then kindly unfollow me right now and go to hell

[shinydinosaurkingdom]

(God it’s been a while since I’ve posted on tumblr. I have been active but only on my DA account, ShinyDino. I want to get back to posting, so here’s a new OC)

I'm happy to announce a new OC for my upcoming comic: Basil! I'm about 11 pages into scripting my comic. It's a prequel comic to show the origin of Cnaimhin, or at least how she came into the human world. Basil is a character I made up just to set up the incoming plot, but now, he's become an integral part of it and I love him so much! I don't want to spoil too much but I felt like I needed to design his character. My boy's just to precious! For some reason, I hate designing horses. Being a Pooka fairy, he can shapeshift, his main form being a horse. I was going to unveil that form in the image but I wasn't satisfied with the colors, so I'm keeping it hidden until I'm happy with it. I'm hoping to get the script for my comic finished by this week. I'm was aiming for 10 pages but, well, I'm already beyond that point. It'll probably be 20 at this rate. Whelp, more comic for you guys I guess XD

[shinydinosaurkingdom]

I spent some time studying other people's character styles and I decided to try them out on Gwyn, taking a chance to design her casual clothes as well. Most of my time was spent on landscape painting and, while I think I'm improving, I don't feel like they're good enough to post yet, especially when I have this lovely Gwyn to post instead. I promise that I'll start designing more characters again. I've already started on a horse design and it's coming on nicely.

[shinydinosaurkingdom]

Nothing much to show this week. Been spending most of my time copying other artworks which I don't feel comfortable posting. I decided to study some horses since I'm going to be designing the horse form of one of my OCs and I felt it appropriate. The Photos I used are linked bellow:

www.deviantart.com/illusorycal…

www.deviantart.com/gladhnes/ar…

[shinydinosaurkingdom]

After writing the outline for my story, I felt like I should do a little comic displaying some of my characters in action. And what better way to do that then Vine dialogue?

Since ghosts are an integral part of Celtic mythology, there would definitely be some ghost hunting episodes in this fantasy cartoon since Gwyn is a Witch in training. There dynamic isn't like this most of the time, but Cnaimhin (her familiar) is the voice of reason and Gwyn could definitely get cranky when hungry, so I felt this Vine would fit well. The Vine I used for the base of this is here

Artistically, this piece needs some work. I think next week, I'll explore some line-art styles, so I can't promise posting anything interesting next time. I do want to work on my outline's final draft as well as the clothes of my characters. In my story, Gwyn gives Cnaimhin her jacket to cement their friendship. I'm not a big fan of the jacket I drew, so I'll probably work on it some more. I also have nothing casual for Gwyn to wear. I whipped up that coat and jeans on the spot.

Also, I still have no idea what to call my story! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[shinydinosaurkingdom]

Not much art to show this week. I've been working on several studies, but non of them were successful, so here's a birb. In some unrelated news, I've finished my Fairy Story (I really need to think of a name for that thing)! Probably gonna go back to design more characters since the pilot's outline is fully written out. I do need to rewrite it though since some of the plot points come out of nowhere. I've been thinking of continuing my SpecZooSunday series. I'm drawing a lot more so maybe I could aim to do one creature a month as to not burn out like last time. Photo provided here: www.deviantart.com/cjcnightfox…

[shinydinosaurkingdom]

I know this won't be exciting to most, but I am so happy with this. This is the first time I've drawn a reptile and been happy with it. It took a while! Those scales took a looooooong time. But I've never done scales successfully and this gives me so many ideas on how I can quicken my work flow. The image I used for study is bellow. fineartamerica.com/featured/tu…

[shinydinosaurkingdom]

I think I might take a break from this story. I love it, but I'm getting into a studying mood right now. I'm not gonna abandon the story, I love it too much, I just get into certain mood with art. Right now I want to study birds but who knows what I'll post next week. Thanks for reading :3 I spent a lot of time this week developing the character designs of some of my OCs. I spent most of my time on Cnaimhin (the nuckelavee monster) and I think I'm FINALLY feeling okay about it. Especially the skull. I think I've got to a point where she is more appealing then terrifying. More sympathetic, you know? I think I'll work on the legs and colours a bit more, but for the most important bits, I'm happy with it.

Now for Levene (the blue selkie) and Gwyn (ginger), the main character. I drew them in their school uniform because I knew that it would be their hardest design. Felt that it would be easier to make their casual design after their uniform then the other way around. Pretty happy with them. I think I might make Levene a little bit wider, but I like her shape. SaurischianDesigner on DA had the idea of making her sleaves really long like a seal flippers. I love that idea but it would be very hard to do that in a uniform. Next time I draw her, I'll add it to her casual design.

And I really like Gwyn's design. It was hard to find the right colours for her, but I like her hair and expressions. Really personifies the personality I have for her.

I think I might take a break from this story. I love it, but I'm getting into a studying mood right now. I'm not gonna abandon the story, I love it too much, I just get into certain mood with art. Right now I want to study birds but who knows what I'll post next week. Thanks for reading :3

[shinydinosaurkingdom]

A continuation on the Witch story I'm developing, seen here: https://shinydinosaurkingdom.tumblr.com/post/641937438942560256/i-have-an-announcement-from-now-on-at-the-end-of#notes

Selkies are one of the most famous creatures in British mythology; fairies that use seal coats to turn into seals themselves. Interestingly, from the linked story below, selkies have an Atlantis like home under the sea with breathable air and the ocean as their sky. Looking further into the mythology, this might be Tir na nog, the timeless land of the dead, since it's sometimes called Tír fo Thuinn (Land under the Wave). Water is often seen as portals to the fairy world, fay and ghosts often being indistinguishable from each-other... looks like I might need to include some dead people into my story, Oh My!

www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/…

This is Levene, the new girl at school which accidentally starts off the entire story after Gwyn befriends her. (Gwyn's the main character. I haven't drawn her yet but she'll probably look like the second silhouette on pic 5) As for the character design, I don't like her human form. I LOVE her seal design, I feel like I hit jackpot with that one, but it's been far harder to have her character reflected in her appearance the way I want it to. Levene is a Selkie so I want her to be a bit chubby because, you know? blubber? It just makes sense, and it would add a bit more diversity to the case. But I've never drawn an overweight character before. I also want her to wear a coat because of the mythology, but clothing like that changes her silhouette so much I'm basically designing two characters (coated and un-coated) and trying to make them both fit the theme of selkie. And also, coats and weight adds size to a design but she's quite shy and I associate shy-ness with small-ness so I don't know how to put all of these aspects together and now her character design becomes stressful   The only thing I'm truly happy about her is her hair and eye-shadow. Her hair is meant to represent the waves, giving her a watery theme, while her eye-shadow replicates the markings from her seal form. You can see me try to develop her design through the numbers: the first few drawings show stylizing a seal from semi-realistic to cartoony, and like I said, I really liked it. Then I start working on her human form: First her head, which I didn't like. I then followed a tutorial by Proko on Youtube called "Character Concepting Process - Loose Sketch to Final Painting". I discovered the hair through this process but found the rest unappealing. On drawing 4 I drew her purely from how I imagined her which came out waaaayyyy too generic (every girl OC I have has that body type with a different hair style. I don't want my main cast to have the body diversity of Barbie dolls). I went back to basics on pic 5 by drawing her silhouette, then I made a line art version of the silhouette, and then I posed her. There is still SO MUCH I need to develop with her. If anyone has any ideas for her, I'll be more then happy to listen. I might work on her next week, might not, who knows. It you read all the way down here, thank you. I really appreciate it

[shinydinosaurkingdom]

Week 2 and I'm already in pain.

Yes, I know the arm looks weird. I know. I didn't realize until I'd already done the line art. Fuck me for trying to make scientifically accurate raptor arms.

Arms aside, I actually like most of this piece. I'm really happy with the line art and head shape. This dude has quite the backstory and I really want to draw some of it.                                                                                                          

[shinydinosaurkingdom]

I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT! From now on, at the end of each weekend, I will post at least 1 drawing I made that weekend... And the first thing I post is this abomination. Okay, okay, I know that, artistically, this pic is fine. It's just that, it wasn't how I wanted it to turn out. This was an attempt to make a character I've had in my mind for... 2 weeks now? Basically, I saw Wolfwalkers (gorgeous movie by the way) and got inspired to make a story using Celtic mythology. The premise is basically "You know those American magical girl cartoons in the mid 2000s? Like Winks and W.I.T.C.H? Well, it's that, but with actual freaky fairy lore." Like, the reason the fairy realm needs to be protected is because time is slower in the fairy world (which is a common trope in fairy stories) and when they saw WW1, they were like "fuck that" and closed the doors between the 2 realms, but still need Witches to keep track of the fay in the human world as well as preventing humans from entering the fairy world during Halloween, when the 2 worlds are closest. The witches need familiars to do advanced magic, familiars being fairies who make covens with witches. And, after some light research, I wanted one of my rag tag team of apprentice teenager witches and familiars to be a Nuclelavee because it's the coolest monster ever and... well...

Just in case you couldn't tell, this character is meant to be a protagonist. She's (I know, it's really easy to tell that she's a girl. Aren't I great at character design?) the one to get the main protagonist girl into the story, since she is on the run from a witch who wants to take her back to the fairy world. In the end, the protagonist saves them by making them her familiar, and the witch that was pursuing is like, "sure, fine. I'm getting too old for this" and makes them apprentices. While I like individual parts of the drawing, like the skulls and torso of the human, I hate how it came out so evil. Maybe I shouldn't have made one half of my main duo a zombie-centaur-water-demon with muscle instead of skin. It sucks too cuz I had a tragic backstory for her and everything :(

Welp, since I'm so disappointed with this piece, that means that the only way is up for this weekend thing I'm promising myself to do. I want to be one of those people that can post scraps onto the social media all the time, but I set my self up with impossible standards that I can't reach so I never post anything. WELP. TIME TO HAVE NO STANDARDS!!! FROM NOW ON YOU WILL FACE WHATEVER CRAP I'VE MADE DURING THE WEEK!!! Good luck!

[shinydinosaurkingdom]

I’ve completed this CGI painting a few days ago and I’m pretty proud of it. Decided to post it here as well, since I love doing this kind of CGI and I’ll probably be doing more