#AND WHAT A FUCKING RAD ART STYLE

[gremoria411]

How to get into Gundam

Because fuck it, I was gonna do one of these sooner or later anyway.

So you want to know what this Gundam thing’s about, maybe you like the mecha design, maybe you caught part of an episode one time and want to catch up, or maybe you saw a nice piece of Chamuro fanart and want to go to the source.

But there’s so many shows and timelines that it can be quite daunting on first look, so this guide is intended to give a rough overview.

I would however like to stress two four things beforehand however:

This guide is not intended as “The One True Way” or anything. There’s no harm it coming into it a different way, and these are only my own opinions.

There’s nothing stopping you from just watching one show and leaving it there. You don’t have to watch every single show going, even I’ve only seen most of these, not all. Gundam typically has variations on similar themes - it’s very nice watching multiple shows because they complement one another, but it’s not necessarily required.

I am very much an insider looking out here, so let me know if there’s any details I’ve missed.

I’m not gonna recommend these on a “if you like X, then watch Y basis”, mostly because I don’t personally find genre recommendations helpful, so I’d recommend picking based on promotional material (vibes, if you will).

I’ll be using this chart, supplied by the excellent@l-crimson-l, to illustrate everything.

Gundam as a whole can principally be divided into three sections: Universal Century (or UC), the Alternate Universes (AU’s) and the Build Series.

The AU’s are below the light blue line, near the bottom of the Chart, the Build Series is within the bright green line at the top-right corner of the chart and UC is the big line in the middle. We’ll talk about each of them individually.

The AU’s

The Alternate Universes were conceived as a way to get away from the continuity-heavy nature of Universal Century and provide an easy jumping-on point for new fans. The AU’s are standalone and require no prior knowledge, and are thus an excellent place to start. Honestly, I’d recommend quickly searching some promotional materials (like posters) and just going with the one you find most appealing based on that. They are (in production order):

Mobile Fighter G Gundam (1994)

New Mobile Report Gundam Wing (1995)

After War Gundam X (1996)

Turn A Gundam (1999)

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (2002)

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (2007)

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE (2011)

Gundam: Reconguista in G (2014)

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans (2015)

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury (2022)

There’s side series and movies and other things besides, but these are the mainline shows, if you will. I have specific notes on a few of them:

Witch From Mercury - It’s of a shorter length than is usual for mainline shows, so consequently it’s a much smaller time investment than the others.

Mobile Fighter G Gundam - While undeniably rad as hell, I would recommend watching another AU first. G Gundam differs from its stablemates in a few key areas, and I find it helps to have a contrast to fully appreciate those differences.

Gundam AGE - is probably the only one I wouldn’t recommend. I didn’t like the art style and the technical explanations just got on my nerves, so I stopped watching.

Turn A and G-Reconguista are technically part of UC as well, but it’s not really crucial information so don’t feel like you have to watch UC first (I’m only including this detail for completionism).

I’ve found all the AU’s I’ve seen to be pretty good, so I’d say that which one you start with really just comes down to personal taste.

The Build Series

Is just kind of doing its own thing. The Build series is basically Buy Our Toys: the series. It’s got a far lighter tone, and I’ve had cause to compare it to pokemon prior. It’s also chock full of references and in-jokes to the other series.

Build Fighters and Build Fighters Try are the ones I’d recommend - they’ve got actual stakes and the fight scenes are really good.

Build Divers and Build Divers Re:rise I can’t recommend - I just find Build Divers aggressively boring. Build Divers Re:Rise is just okay - neither standout good or particularly bad. Its main flaw is that it’s a sequel to Build Divers.

The OVA’s are pretty much bad across the board - I’d particularly recommend avoiding Gundam Build Metaverse.

Universal Century

Universal Century is the big main timeline of Gundam, and is the timeline the original Mobile Suit Gundam from 1979 takes place in. There’s a tendency among certain fans to place UC as the one-above-all of Gundam, but I wouldn’t really go that far. It’s all pretty good, but I wouldnt really say one timeline is better than another (save personal preference, anyway).

Because UC is so big, it can be subdivided a couple times. The primary division is “Mainline” UC versus everything else. Basically there’s four-five shows in Universal Century from which everything else flows. As long as you know roughly what happens in these shows, then you can watch basically anything else in UC and have a good idea of what’s going on. These are (in order):

Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) - sometimes called Mobile Suit Gundam 0079.

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (1985)

Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (1986)

Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack (1988)

With Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn (2010) as a nominal fifth (honestly I feel like you could argue either way).

The rest of the shows are:

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (1989 Three-Episode OVA)

Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (1991 Movie)

Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (1991 Thirteen-episode OVA)

Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (1993)

Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (1999 Twelve-episode OVA)

G-Saviour (2000 Live Action Movie) - nobody ever talks about or acknowledges this one, it’s just here for completionism.

Mobile Suit Gundam MS Igloo (2004-2009 Three OVA’s with three Episodes each)

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin (2015 Six-Episode OVA, adapted from the Manga of the same name)

Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt (2015 Eight-Episode Series, adapted from the Manga of the same name)

Mobile Suit Gundam: Twilight Axis (2017 episode, adapted from a light novel of the same name. Later rereleased as Gundam Twilight Axis Red Trace, with additional footage)

Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative (2018 sequel movie to Gundam Unicorn)

Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway (2021 ongoing movie series, very much adapted from the novel Hathaway’s Flash)

Most of the other series relate to events in the aforementioned “mainline” shows in some way, but a lot of the sidestories set during the One Year War require very little introduction (Thunderbolt, 0080 and 08th MS Team). Similarly, works set in “Late UC” (F91 and Victory Gundam) carry on from the other series thematically but don’t have any plot connections, so they can all be watched without any background knowledge of the rest of the Universal Century.

Compilation Movies

Just a quick note here - many of the Gundam series have compilation movies, where either a whole series or part of one are compressed down into a movie. While each movie compares differently, they usually boil down to this: Compilation Movies usually have worse pacing, but really nice animation.

One of the great things about Gundam is that different shows offer variations on themes, so seeing how different characters react to similar situations, or how different settings change their approaches can make it incredibly rewarding.

I haven’t seen enough of SD Gundam to make any sort of recommendations there, and Manga is something I might touch on another day.

EDIT: Oh hey also: You can watch a good chunk of these on YouTube, for free, officially. The Official Gundam.Info YouTube channel rotates the series shown on its channel periodically. I think it’s got F91 and SEED on there currently? But it’s had Wing, 00 and Witch From Mercury before. Also all of the Build Fighters series are there.

So yeah, that’s a thing.

[goron-king-darunia]

Eggtober 30th 2023

"Mimicking the Master": Fried Egg on Magenta.

(Clip Studio Paint, Custom 6B Pencil brush. ? Colors. ? Time. A labor of love.)

Made a point of giving @quezify's style a serious try. Eggtober 1st, 2023 was a quick attempt to learn and practice for the most part. This was a combination of directly studying and experimenting. Eggtober 1st was more about "glance at the inspo, notice the vibes, make it your own." This was much more about "pay attention to what these techniques accomplish, try to copy the specific things you like, and then see if you can iterate."

I do still need more practice since I'm not used to this process but for a first, real, non-traced and non-direct study, (as in I wasn't trying to replicate a specific piece one-to-one) this went really well. Not 100% sure what I was going for with some of my choices, but the over-all impact has a lot of what I love about @quezify's style.

3rd Egg I did for the day. Queued for the 30th so I have time to plan the 31st. Not sure what it will be but I'm looking forward to it.

I hope @lady-quen's breadbugs love this stylized eggy!

And even though he's been tagged twice, one more ding for @quezify, inimitable, even while I study that style. The master of eggs. I've loved watching your work all month and I loved taking a crack (pun intended) at actually pegging down what you're doing. You're fucking amazing, Ruben. One last egg for the month! We can do it, bud!

But first, speedpaint.

You can tell I'm really not used to using brushes that are so opaque. I gotta practice doing gradients with opaque brushes like this. Or maybe I need to turn down the opacity on the pencil brush. Or maybe I need to blend my style and Ruben's a bit more?

Whatever it is. I'm somewhere short of where I want to be in terms of a style mimic. Not that I want to steal @quezify's style per se, though it is rad as fuck. More that knowing how it works and what this method of drawing produces is a useful tool to have. After all, half of art is inventing stuff and the other half is aping stuff you like, whether that's real world references or copying from masters. So I might need a little more practice, but the blob-tacular shading and the hatching and the use of shapes as texture are all definitely tools that are going in the tool bag one of these days. XD

Been an honor drawing for everyone. I look forward to next year!

[also-fours]

the hi-fi rush situation really bums me out.

we had this game that looked super unique, everybody loved it, it won tons of awards

and then it barely got any marketing, feels like it only got as popular as it did thanks to word of mouth and the initial shadow drop, was deemed a "failure" despite selling what many companies would consider a success back in the day, (because it didnt sell call of duty numbers, probably.) and then its studio got shut down

the studio was just starting to spread its wings, start making shit that could inspire their peers, other devs, to start making different things and experiment

and they fucking killed them

it's gone

i mean, maybe they'll make their own studio, i've heard something like that's happened a couple times with the yooka-laylee devs and sonic mania's dev team

but i dunno

as much as i love games like spider-man and god of war (and i mean literally just those two, like, anything else sony does aside from ratchet and clank im not into) i wish they didnt worry so much about modelling photorealism

the obsession with stuff like that is what's made game development so expensive and unsustainable at this rate

i know this is tumblr so the first reaction im gonna get to saying something like "i like spider-man and god of war" at least in my circle is "GOOD GLAD THAT IT'S BECOMING UNSUSTAINABLE FUCK THEM" but like. i actually like what these games had to say and what they brought to the table.

"spider-man had nothing to say it's just a stupid marvel game cash grab and god of war is a generic over the shoulder game"

if you're going to tell me something like that, kindly, please don't interact with this post

like, please?

thank you

anyway, i want games like that that...don't have to upgrade their graphics every time and. waste everyone's time.

genuinely with how they both looked in 2018 i'd be happy with them just. not changing the graphics at all

but uh. sadly sony knows their audience, haha

there'd be hell to pay if they did that

(i hate mainstream gamers)

and as for everything else that xbox and playstation are doing right now, i still want them to do something different

and microsoft killed off the developer that could've inspired others to do that

soooooooo fuck. what now. are we just gonna be stuck in this position forever.

probably not, i mean, again, with how expensive games like spider-man 2 have gotten to produce and the amount of people in and out of the industry screaming that you gotta CHILL THE FUCK OUT, we won't stay like this forever

it might get better

maybe when we get a new series of spider-man games they can have a visual style similar to spider-verse, wouldn't that be rad?

...i mean. judging by the leaks, they might already be experimenting with that...

or something like shattered dimensions have y'all seen that game? looks fantastic, go look it up, they made four different dimensions of spidey and all of 'em have their own unique visual style inspired by their books

sorry im getting off topic

im juat rambling at this point

i just hope people learn the right lessons from hi-fi rush.

and that the people who made it find a way through and can still make great things

thats what i hope for at least

...anyway at least we still have fortnite and its really fun art style--

[theinstagrahame]

This is the post where I show off the stuff I've gotten in the last month-ish. And it's been another good one!

(I mean it's always a good one, I have excellent taste)

Coffee and Chaos: I'm tickled by the concept of a coffeeshop AU, and I know that this game isn't explicitly for that. But it's also not *not* for that. Comes in a like conference-style folder, with all the bits you need to play tucked into the sides, which is also a great presentation that I felt deserved a shout-out!

Far Horizons Guide to Cults: I'm friendly with some Far Horizons folks, but wanted this book because it's awesome. A book containing notes and pre-made cults that have goals and drives beyond just "Be A Cult". I am intrigued by the occult, and I hope this gives me more nuance.

Neurocity: Picked this up on vibes alone, but I'm hearing more and more rad things about the creator. It's dystopic, a little cyberpunk, and the book is dripping with style. Can't wait to dig deeper.

You're In Space and Everything's Fucked: Station and Struggler's Guides: The title alone sold me, but I like what Dinoberry Press puts out in general. This is a solo survival space horror game with a cool respawn mechanic. I also splurged on the fancy version because the covers are very cool.

Dead Belt: The pleather folio for this honestly is what sold me, but the game itself is really cool. Salvage ships by laying out cards, exploring, and managing your air and tool resources. Try not to die. I haven't really succeeded at that last part yet...

Exquisite Corpse in the Maggot's Keep: Technically, this isn't a TTRPG, but it's go so many TTRPG folks in it that it might as well be. It's a choosable path adventure written by a variety of people in (if I remember the pitch) exquisite corpse style.

Best Left Buried: Throne of Avarice and In Calamity's Wake: As we already know, I'm a SoulMuppet fan (as in, I've written for their other big series, Orbital Blues). The main book, Throne of Avarice, was written by a creator whose work I've been trying to get more of. I haven't read Best Left Buried as fully as a game, but I am really excited by the excuse to dig in.

Between Clouds: I like air islands and big monsters and found family. Partially, I grabbed this because a friend got really excited about it, and it seemed like it could be fun to run a campaign with them, but I'm also curious about the Year Zero Engine, and glad to see people using it.

Kitchen Knightmares: Grabbed this as an add-on for the You're In Space crowdfund, but I'm glad I got it because it's loosely inspired by This Discord Has Ghosts In It, and that game rules. I might be able to pitch this to my friend group, who enjoyed Discord Has Ghosts.

In a Mirror Brightly/Handbaskets: First off, plug for the RTFM podcast, because it's very good. This two-games-in-one book is created by the two hosts of that show, who are great designers and seem really lovely. But, two wildly different vibes in a single volume is a great idea.

You Meet in a Tavern, You Die in a Dungeon: I've been following the creator for this since some of my earliest days in the RPG scene, so I was happy to help make this a reality. Feels very tropey, and I mean that in the best way possible.

In Other Waters: Tidebreak: Honestly, I have barely scratched the surface of In Other Waters, the PC game this is based on. But this is a Mothership solo hack that returns to that world, and it had me curious based on that pitch alone.

Aaand because I'm a doofus who forgot to include it, here's one more book! PLUS A guest appearance from my new desk mat.

Teeth: Been into Forged in the Dark lately, and as much as I enjoy Monster of the Week, the pitch for this seemed like it was more my speed. You're monster hunters, trying to keep the occult under wraps, while keeping secrets of your own. Plus, horror comedy!

The mat is the cover art from Friends at the Table's current season, Palisade. It's an Armor Astir campaign following up on some of the characters from their Partizan series.

[nerves-nebula]

well if we’re talking about how you’ve affected us in your inbox…

Your art has been so influential to me, both in terms of style and the way you handle topics like csa. If I hadn’t stumbled on your turtles AU, I don’t know if I would have ever started publicly making art about abuse. The phrase ‘molested kid swag’ was the first time I had ever really seen csa talked about in a way that didn’t treat it as some world-ending worse-than-death thing, and that was just. Groundbreaking, to me, the idea that it was just. A thing that happened, which sucked but wasn’t beyond comprehension.

And tbh your blog just mellowed me out a lot as well. Like so many of my beliefs were shaped by posts you’ve reblogged, and I’m definitely a happier person for it. I’ve been following you for, fuck, what must have been years now, and I don’t think I could list all the little ways this blog has affected me. (Overwhelmingly positively, if that wasn’t clear.)

I’m realising this might come off as weird, but I think you deserve to know that you’ve probably substantially altered my life. In summary uhhh you’re rad 👍 buh-bye

🥹 that’s so cuteeee thank you for telling me!!!

Wow I can’t believe I’m an INFLUENCER now who has INFLUENCED YOU. I think I’d usually say it’s concerning to let a tumblr blog influence you too much but you seem pretty happy about and I don’t think I’m TOO weird so I’ll just leave that alone.

Besides it’s not like the majority of my opinions aren’t ones I got through exposure to new people online so like. Meh. It’s not like I’m dictating your life or nothin.

Also I WISH I could claim molested kid swag as a nerves original. But I got it from a mutual haha.

Anyway I’m in class so I should stop being on tumblr but!!! I’m glad you’re happy :)

[autisticgaypirates]

hey hey heyyy welcome to this wonderful world of one piece!! just a couple things about me :)

- 19 year old girl from the u.s.

- art student!!

- aquarius sun, cancer moon, virgo rising, and enfp-t ... if you even care

- d1 anxiety haver (please give me a break) and probs autistic idk i'm talking to someone about it i promise

- lover of cashews

- always at ellie and mason HOUSE 💜

- i fw acubi style HEAVYYY

- bisexual but i'm more into rocky than rihanna if you catch my drift

- i'm also human guys!!! i feel many things!!! if you ever need to reach out to someone please please please don't be afraid to talk to me, everything stays confidential and anonymous :))

ok enough about me here's stuff about the actual blog

- mostly just gonna be bs that pops into my brain... most of the time it's not spellchecked thoroughly and is literally written in my notes app so if nothing's perfect, my apolocheese

- my favs are ace and zoro so please send a LOTTT of those guys

- i'll do nsfw, in fact i love nsfw please ask for it ... however i won't do it for luffy because he's a child compared for me and i don't feel comfortable with that (everyone else is chill though i think.. idk based on this you guys can probably tell who's of age and who's not)

- i also won't do chopper in any romantic sense. as a friend? fuck yeah he's so rad i'd love that, but anything beyond a bestie ... seek help 🙁

- i'm honestly not even that far into one piece, i'm at the very very end of skypiea 😭😭 please go easy on me and don't ask for anything post time skip

- NO SPOILERS LALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU (i got everything spoiled for me already)

- i'll take drawing commissions!!! i'm not that comfortable with digital art but i'll gladly create stuff for you guys :D the price definitely depends on what you ask for and the complexity, like tbh if you just ask for a sketch of sanji wearing cat ears i can do that for free, but more complex drawings that are gonna take some effort and pizzazz, then we'll chit chat don't even worry

[degeneracygenerator]

I will keep complaining about Getter Robo High's translation status until someone does the whole thing or I die, whichever happens first. It's not terribly long as manga goes, and has high quality raws easily accessible online. It may seem confusing as to why I care so much about a manga I can't read, considering dubiously canon Getter spinoffs can be extremely hit or miss. Let's go over the bullet points:

"High" is a strange romanization of "Hai," a mahjong reference. Not only is this a strangely mahjong-oriented mecha manga, but the three main characters are adults. It is not in high school, as the name would imply.

This is the only Getter manga I know of that stars three women (rather than men) as the Getter Machine pilots. They are a feral gambling addict, a sadako-styled horror ghost, and a buff robot woman.

The robos are genuinely unhinged but rad feminized variations on the original designs. As a mecha fan I say this with my whole heart, these really feel like someone wanted to fuck the robot, and I love them for it. Speaking of which,

Drill Jill.

Back when I was a teenager, I read quite a lot of hentai scanlated on the internet platonically. My first tumblr was actually an immature, edgy and frankly nasty little hentai blog that I'm happy to have nothing to do with anymore. But that means that when a particular name pops up on the art for an official Getter Robo manga, I have a fun little story to tell you.

Drill Jill is a hentai author, first and foremost. I won't speak to his character, because I don't speak japanese, but know that he specializes in noncon (or "mind break" as the online hentai community would call it) manga. Specifically, he often replaces violence with sex scenes, expressing a battle or argument physically, with a clear victor and plot resolution at the end.

The thing that makes his name really memorable to me, however, is his paneling. Granted, some pages are difficult to follow, with the busyness of the art and complete irreverence for panel borders, but their flow usually remains intact. At times, it can really feel like every single page has something to appreciate and analyze. I haven't found another artist who does it quite like this, in any genre of comics.

I can't say for sure, but I'm guessing that Drill Jill was hired to do the art for Getter Robo Hai because of his multi-chapter genderbent Getter Robo doujin, in which girl versions of the three original Getter Machine pilots get into some situations i'm sure you can predict if you've been reading up to this point. But a love for more than just weird fucking bleeds in through the edges of each chapter.

Hopefully it's immediately obvious here: Getter 3 reaching for the third panel. The beam blasting through the entire second page. The sword cutting through two panels, foreshadowing itself. These are CONSECUTIVE pages. The ero scenes are over in this chapter, but so much was still poured into these moments.

It's a hard sell to recommend people hentai, much less this kind of potentially upsetting hentai, just to gush at its paneling and page composition. So I'd like to have something a little more safe for work to suggest, and a cool robot story as well.

Keep in mind as well that Getter Robo Hai is drawn by Drill Jill, but it is not written by him. Rather, the story is by Bingo Morihashi, the scenario writer for Devil May Cry 3, 4, and 5. I'm not enough of a fan of that series to really gush over it in this post, but that may be an interesting lil detail for u (;. It's the writer and artist together who make this comic what it is, and folks who don't speak Japanese don't have access to that right now.

If you still don't care, maybe you never will. That's fine, we all have our own passions. If you do care, YELL WITH ME, SPREAD THE WORD, RAISE FUNDS FOR TRANSLATOR COMMISSIONS, FORCE EVERYONE TO LOOK AT GETTER 1'S FAT ASS AND BANKO BENIMARU'S SHARK TEETH.

Thanks for reading! After all my talk about paneling and writing, I still would just really like to read a cool robot story about evil women. I think everyone deserves that. So I'll leave you on the last two translated pages of Getter Robo High as of this post. This is what we're missing.

[village-for-rambles]

hiii i remembered this again and i’ve scattered into pieces on the floor. i am SOBBING /pos

https://www.tumblr.com/floryeet/666703587373662208/trick-or-treat

no clue what you’re up to now, but just know that 2021 was one of the wildest years i’ve had online, and i’m very grateful for everyone i met during it, including you teehee 💕 i remember i liked to talk to u bc,, idk you just gave me good vibes!! and it made my day whenever u said hi 👋 i hope ur spreading good vibes even today 🕺

there was this one time we were talking abt art styles and u associated mine w the first three notes of the minecraft theme. 🫵 that was and STILL IS one of the best compliments i’ve ever gotten on my art btw fuck you /aff 🖕🔥🔥

here errgghhh i brought a bag of nice things lemme just—

[throws confetti on u]

i wish u kindness and good health and warm hugs and yummy food and just in general a rlly rad time for the rest of ur life 😎 ily ville /p

FLORET I'M IN LOVE WITH YOUUUU GAH /p

I don't have a clue what I'm doing either if I am honest but I think about my moomtuals ALLL THE TIME because YOU GUYS... I don't know who I'd be without you all. A lot of my formative fandom experiences were on that discord server lolol.

YOU ROCK!!! AND YOUR ART ROCKS!!! AND I HOPE YOU LOVE HOW YOUR LIFE TURNS OUT FOR YOU BECAUSE YOU DESERVE ITT

Whatever you r doing now I love you for it :] Thank you Floret!!!!!!

By the way that art is OLD. I feel the need to show you what three years (whadda hell,,,,,,,that post is almost three years old,,,,) of improvement has done for me so HERE is an updated Castaway JUST FOR YOU

(Plus a version without trinkets because I enjoy how this turned out)

CONFETTI YIPPEEE

[sealegsagain]

Organ(iz)izing

So I'm going to put down some goals. PLEEEEZ I'd like to get to some of them ---------------------------------- 1. Personal timeline for AC. org.. My first post. Notable parties etc. When did the website start? When did it end? What other crews were connected and active?

2. Email Kev. Mention Phil and how awesome the 95 brockout set was and the art in massive magazine. Mention the news articles. Ask how he entered the rave scene. Mention the Bios. Ask how M left (if it isn't evident enough from what I find in the mailing list archives).

2.5 When did people start mixing Dnb with hardcore? Was it Pendulum's influence? Was it the Luna-C Supaset? 3. Do Smirk's timeline.. when did he go to LA and manage phusion? When did phusion close?

4. Ask Jen about the planners

5. Save fun rave Ascii in text file

6. Talk to Erik Ek about the mailing list stuff

7. The old way of picking up strangers via mailing list? Why is this not done these days

8. MAYBE reach out to Alex while I still can

9. Mention the difference between the "net crew" and raves at large.

10. The dress of various ravers.. when did kandi enter the picture in the midwest? which styles were more west coast?

-------------------------------------- Archiving: Find SOME WAY to pull my sms messages off my old phones and onto an hdd Try the facebook messenger takeout file again. Emails in my hotmail- Find a way to save these. -------

Unrelated archives:

Gosh going through my folders is gonna be such a fucking chore.

But a new ILLUSTRATION/ART photo by artist would be RAD

Some Y2K fonts and assets would be extra extra rad.

[sumplysilly]

what are some inspirations for your art style, it's super fucking rad and i'm curious :3

Derrick j wyatt & my sick twisted imagination

[veil-jumprope]

I don't think i've ever blocked so many people in my life

but now i can venture into the DA tag and not get bombarded by people who weren't even going to buy this game in the first place??

i'll see the fucking coldest takes reguitated from reddit by someone with no dragon age on their page and i'm like ??? what skin do you have in this game??

anyways, i'm a little confused on the "fortnite" take. tbh, i've never played fortnite so i looked up graphics and it doesn't look like it at all. i think borderlands was a closer comparison, just with borderlands being more extreme. and borderlands looks rad as fuck so again, i'm down for the art style change. stylized will ALWAYS look better, especially over time.

[tomatosoupgroup]

HELLO ALL hai

ok so this is gonna be a quick one

i didn't get much done this week

and unfortunately, this may become a bit of a trend

In a few days, I will officially graduate from high school. This is ABSOLUTELY unreal to me. Like it's finally happening but I almost don't want it to (except I also REALLY do. High school sucked.)

Another factor that might complicate things is that I'll be starting college soon. And that may take priority. Sorry.

I really appreciate your patience thus far, and I hope you will be able to maintain said patience.

BUT ANYWAYS enough with all the personal stuff!!!!! lets get to the new stuff!!!!

first of all I AM REDOING THE BATTLE GUI

remember that Danger! graphic from a few updates ago? it had a distinct graffiti-esque style.

i thought that style fit the battle theme well. why? here's why.

graffiti art is often associated with crime. (not meant to be a diss btw, graffiti looks fucking rad) crime is associated with danger, danger is associated with fighting. (word association! hooray!)

so yeah. i'm kinda tired so im gonna end it here

sorry for the short update. i'll see what i can do this next week, but no promises

love you all

-Callie

[justlikethefish]

An idea for the void

So, I was thinking, right? I do that from time to time. It’s not always advisable, but it happens.

Anyway, I was thinking about Youtube, and how I watch a lot of it. I probably watch more Youtube than anything else, to be honest. I watch lots of stuff on there, but my favorite thing to watch is usually terrarium builds, followed closely by aquarium/fishkeeping stuff, and after that, I think it’s probably herp stuff—like reptiles, amphibians, that kinda thing.

I watch a ton of this stuff. It started off when I was working night shifts at a shitty hotel a few years ago. It was one of those weird jobs where you’d spend maybe 80% of your time doing jack shit, but then the other 20% of your time was like, blind fucking panic because some idiot was trying to sneak a mastiff to their room through the emergency exit, or because Afro Man is in your hotel, and that’s not really a bad thing, but meeting Afro Man was the absolute last thing you expected. Anyway, it was a shitty hotel with lots of crazy moments, and it turns out that terrarium builds were like my own personal Bob Ross. They just chilled me out immediately. I fell in love.

Then I started actually making the things, and let me tell you, I’m not very good at it, but I love it.

Wait, okay, so back to how I watch a bunch of this on Youtube. I mean it, I watch a lot of it. Enough that  it’s really easy to notice some patterns. So, with fish and reptile youtubers, it feels like there’s a measure of community there, right? These folks will reference each other, bump into each other at conventions, drop in to do a project together. It’s not every video or every creator or anything, but you see it.

Terrarium youtube? Not so much. I’m not sure if it’s a matter of location making it difficult or something else, but other than really rare occasions, each channel sort of exists by itself, in it’s own little walled garden, its own, dare I say, sealed glass container, keeping it isolated from the others like it. Now, each creator is different; they’ve all got their own styles and personalities, their own techniques... but at the end of the day, they’re all doing the same (super rad) thing (that I absolutely love). There’s a lot of shared technique that goes into making this a whole genre of thing, even if they’re all mostly concerned about their own corner of the hobby.

Second... A lot of these videos kind of act like you’ve never seen another one like it. On some level, they’re almost all tutorials. Each one will give you a bit of information about selecting your container, about making your false bottom or drainage layer, about making your own substrate from from a similar blend to what most other terrarium makers use, about choosing your plants and moss, about lighting and watering (or not watering).

That’s great if you’re just dipping your toes into the art form, but if you’re a stressed out, ADHD-addled night owl desperately trying to wring dopamine from videos of jars being stuffed full of dirt and leaves, it’s a little weird to be told how to do this for the first time four or five times in a row.

It’s just kinda weird to me how each channel almost pretends that they’re the only one you watch, and each video pretends it’s the first one you’ve seen.

And so I wondered, like... what if that wasn’t the case?

What if you dispensed with the tutorial? Maybe not entirely; you could leave it in the description, you could put text on screen for people to follow if it is their first time or if they want to compare notes between your video and someone else’s.

It makes sense to me. Videos where people talk into the camera while they’re getting ready for the day or eating huge amounts of food are totally a thing, aren’t they?

I don’t see why you couldn’t do that with a terrarium, other than maybe it would be kind of niche within a niche, but that could be fun. Heck, why not go further? My first idea was to just talk about whatever the playlist was going while the terrarium was being built... That’d be fun, sure, but it’d be a little awkward with copyright and all.

Okay, so don’t do that. Or at least don’t stop there. Just... get weird with it.

“Today, we’re building a terrarium and talking about what an asshole Axl Rose is.”

“Today, we’re building a terrarium and talking about house cats.”

“Today, we’re making a terrarium using only fittonia species and discussing Rancid’s 1995 punk rock opus ‘...And Out Come The Wolves’ (don’t @ me)”

“Today, we’re planting a five gallon aquarium for orange neocaridina shrimp and reflecting on grief and how to process all the things that remain unsaid when those we love leave us behind (and also random facts about goats because that other stuff is really sad).”

“Today, we’re making a waterfall paludarium and discussing Albert Camus, absurdism, and why one must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

And like, you don’t have to completely forego discussing what’s happening on screen. You could have fun with that, too. You could, I dunno, acknowledge the existence of everyone else who is also doing this hobby you love, right?

"So, we know how this goes. This isn't either of our first rodeo. I've got the ingredients for my soil on the screen, but let's be honest, you're already just going to use the recipe from SerpaDesign or Worcester Terrariums.

Anyway, the craziest thing about about Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland is probably...”

Yeah, I dunno. I don’t have much beyond this What If?, really. I think this sounds fun, and I want to watch it, so someone should do it.

[toastess-with-the-mostess]

Let's Rewind! Toast watches Voltron: Defender of The Universe (1984)

I now have access to pretty much every animated version of Voltron and now after around 7 years of being a Voltron fan and amateur archivist, I'm finally sitting down to watch (or rewatch) every Voltron show to see how it's grown over its legacy, starting with Dotu!

Season 1, Episode 1 - Space Explorers Captured

Starting off strong, the intro is pretty cool in my eyes, no wonder this was burned into so many kids heads when it was airing It also reminds me of Danny Phantom and how the backstory was in the opening, same thing here to get into the action lol

It's Hunk and Keith! NOT, the first shots we "see" of them aren't actually them! It's reused footage from Vehicle Voltron of the characters Jeff and Rocky, you can tell by the uniforms (and y'know faces)! This feeds my hc that the boys originally were part of the explorer though >:D

I love the way this art style, or like any 80s-90s anime, draws space, it's so pretty like CMON Also, I never realized that the boys got to Arus WHILE it was being taken over, I swear I remembered that Arus was already a wasteland so-to-speak by the time they got there

GOD SVEN'S DOPEY ACCENT IS SO NICE TO HEAR, I'VE MISSED IT SO MUCH I did notice that the city destruction image was later reused for Balto, which in the original GoLion anime is from Earth's destruction! NOT THE EIFFEL TOWER JUST BEING DESTROYED WHILE KEITH IS SAYING THE ARUSIANS GOT TO SAFETY MY GOD I KNOW TOO MUCH

First look at the pilots! Very 80s from what I think the vibe is, but also very personalized! Knowing their character traits, it fits them pretty well for the most part

"This isn't the first time [the team] has been in a tight spot" NOT THE FIRST TIME, YOU SAY? INCH RESTING

"[There was a legend that a castle of lions] held the secret of the super robot Voltron, Voltron could save them" YOU'RE PUTTING YOUR FAITH IN A LEGEND THAT MAY NOT EXIST?? LIKE EVENTUALLY THEY'RE RIGHT BUT OOOOO IS THE GARRISON USELESS, ESPECIALLY BECAUSE THEY ONLY SENT A TEAM OF FIVE INTO AN ACTIVE HOSTILE TAKE OVER ignoring the fact that they said they were too far to help anyway

The team literally got captured and yet the dialogue they chose was "we need to eject, it's better than crash landing, let's go!" ??? I think this was reused dialogue from episode 2 that they just plugged in

What a rad design for a villain, like he looks so fucking cool. I generally forget that he's reptilian almost vs his barbie doll looking son Maybe the subspecies of Drule he's a part of is reptilian! Holy shit Zarkon's eyes started flickering, is this guy cybernetic too??

PIDGE'S SQUEAKY TOY VOICE IS STILL SO FUNNY TO ME AND IT'S EVEN BETTER BECAUSE HIS VA (Neil Ross) ONLY TOSSED IT OUT FOR SHITS AND GIGGLES BUT THE PRODUCERS LOVED IT SO MUCH THEY FUCKIN KEPT IT

My god is the voice acting funny, Commander Yorak's weak grunt when slashing at slaves is everything

The Doomites are VERY different looking compared to Zarkon or even Lotor, probably another subspecies of the Drule race This time they look kind of batty? Yeah, that's it

I wonder what era their clothing is inspired by, obviously there's some creative liberty, but a lot of these clothes scream nobility to me also screams clowns but shhh lol

"What should we name this new robeast your Majesty?" "Uhhh Blue" Really had no creativity with this robeasts name guys

More really cool alien designs, I have to remember I can let loose when designing other species lol

Oh interesting, I thought the team fought alongside the rest of the slaves in the ring but Zarkon saved em for last Also, the fact that the guys were legitimately branded is insane, the dialogue makes it seem like they were all separated for it, but I refuse to think they'd let any of each other get taken away for it also they're called tattoos not brand, definitely censorship

ah yes Pidge's mad hops. Knowing he's from Balto, this is just telling me that my high gravity hc for the planet was right because there are only a few but very specific reasons why he'd be able to do that and being human ain't one of em

"Ugly virds" -Sven again some of these line deliveries are so funny, like every single one of svens just makes me laugh

the sound effects for Pidge jumping back down is also peak comedy oisndv

Lance's sass is always welcomed on this blog omg, the moody tendency is showing from his GoLion counterpart

"We're space explorers and we need space!" CATCH ME CRYING MYSELF TO SLEEP, THERE'S A REASON WHY THAT'S ON THE DESC OF MY BLOG NOW

If you hear laughing it's me LMAO

But actually, though, they're being treated kind of well in terms of being captured. The team never fights in the arena and when they're pretending to sleep as the guards are coming to take them over they just leave them be and reason that the boys will fight better tomorrow

those are some weak ass bars if Hunk can bend them

[Lance hands Keith a rock] "Don't miss" my humor is broken, and I'm laughing too much at a simple line

Hunk being afraid of heights is such a human characteristic to give him, and I mean that like it really feels like he's a person by giving him something that lots of people find silly or even relatable! (like me ha)

Their plan to escape was going level by level down with rope, except Keith fucking GETS DOWN WITHOUT THE ROPE It's ok, they hitched a ride ON A GIANT FLESH EATING BIRD THAT SWOOPS AT THEM

Hunk slips off his bird and reaches for PIDGE OF ALL PEOPLE TO GRAB HIM, but somehow that doesn't dislocate the poor boy's shoulder and they both go PLUMMETING TO THE GROUND AND SOMEHOW SURVIVE THE FALL Hunk lands in a pile of bones which OW and Pidge BOUNCES OFF THE GROUND BECAUSE OF HOW HARD HE HIT IT if that doesn't kill em, fucking nothing will good god Everyone else lands fine though, bastards lmao

Keith is Catholic™️ confirmed

Animal lover Keith over here being kind to mega vultures "I'll alvays think they're veutiful" -Sven You literally just called them ugly but ok

PIDGE'S KAZOO PANTING I CANNOT LMAOO They're running in formation (kinda), how cute!

Oh they really are all trained Sven and Keith knock out some guards with kicks Lance straight up tosses one without a sweat Hunk is also kicking but he's taking more down by himself AND PIDGE STARTS CHOKING A GUY OUT FROM BEHIND 10/10 would love to see more hand-to-hand combat

Straight up murdered a few guards by taking off in the slave ship, but shh they're robots it doesn't matter AND THEN THEY DESTROY PART OF THE CASTLE WHILE TAKING OFF AMAZING

Pidge sees a lion statue with a castle behind it and immediately just solves part of the legend that really shouldn't be a legend, the part with the castle anyway

So the team knows of the legend, meaning they were sent on a wild goose chase for basically nothing except that they did FIND IT Fun.

I think it's funny that they're describing Voltron before the split as a defender of justice but in GoLion he was literally the most egotistical bitch that after taking down basically everyone in a fight to prove his strength he got nerfed into those five lions

Episode over! Looks like I'm doing one episode per post with how much I'm talking lol That's all the time I have tonight for the rewind, but tomorrow I have a lot more free time, so maybe I can get like 2 more episodes at the very least

[asummersday]

11, 19, 40

11. what’s something neat you’ve learned while doing research for something you were writing? also, how much do you worry about doing research in general?

i dunno about a specific neat fact, but i know so so much about New York City bridges and the subway system. so much. i did a bit of intensive research on abandoned nyc subways for no reason other than i thought "abandoned metro stations just sound rad as fuck"

generally i like to be as accurate as i can in my fics. i actually really like doing research and once or twice ive actually done intensive research only to come out of it and going "wait, i dont ACTUALLY need to know that"

in general, i like to stick close to reality (when i can lol) but im not usually too worried about getting a few things wrong. im sure at least once ive written someone getting an injury theres no way they could walk off, only for said character to walk back into the fight

19. what are some books or authors that influenced your style the most?

anything by Maggie Stiefvater. i LOVE her books and i absolutely love her writing. the hunger games have also inspired my writing style a lot (my tendency to keep to shorter sentences especially). and the secret history by Donna Tartt. that book is absolutely incredible. the characters are insufferable <3

40. best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten.

im really shy when it comes to my writing, actually, so i don't usually share my writing with people irl except my sister. not to mention i have terrible memory so i can't really recall the last piece of feedback ive gotten? sorry :(

yeah no i just did it all on my own without feedback and little outside help. writing (and all forms of art) require practice more than anything, tbh. the best thing you can do is keep writing. you will get better at it. (thank GOD i did. i am haunted by writing docs from when i was 14.)

thanks for the ask!! and sorry for the late reply, classes kept me busy lol

ask game

[triflesandparsnips]

Wait wait wait, l gotta reblog this again because according to the notes important historical information has been lost--

"Garden of Hope" is from the sequel to James Gurney's Dinotopia, both of which are huge full-color coffee table books of painted "journal entries" (and some story too I guess sure) of an adventurer/scientist who accidentally found himself on a mysterious island where sentient dinosaurs still existed and humans and these dinosaurs created a shared culture together.

If there's a plot, I definitely don't remember it-- the first one, at least, is mostly just an examination of daily life and lots of awesome worldbuilding.

To answer some quick questions:

the art is Victorian in style because the story is set in the Victorian era, when travel journals were a popular genre

in real life, the timeline is: Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park (1990), James Gurney's Dinotopia (1992), Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park (1993)

this is why the dinosaurs don't have feathers but they do have rad af colors-- scientifically, we hadn't discovered the feathers yet (1996 for the possible impressions, 2016 for an actual fossilized feathered tail) but the theory that they were related to birds had been around for a while and bright coloration that mimicked modern avians was a hot new way of portraying them at the time

and why so many dinosaur-related works all at once? because dinosaurs are amazing

Furthermore:

no this is not creationist bullshit

yes there is a written dinosaur language based on 3-toed dinosaur footprints that looks like cuneiform and that you can translate in signs and messages throughout the book

and yes I begged my parents to buy me a copy and promised to clean my room immediately if they did

and yes obviously I lied I absolutely lied I was too busy writing SECRET DINOSAUR MESSAGES to deal with such petty matters as "bedrooms" and the cleaning of same, who do you take me for (it better be "a deeply obsessed dinosaur kid" because GUESS FUCKING WHAT)

...anyway, it's bullshit to cut out the dinosaur because it stinks of art elitism and the belief that a piece can't be meaningful if there's a fantasy or SF element to it AND it ignores the entire point of the piece: the hope that a world can exist where fundamentally different peoples can nonetheless create a shared and beautiful life together.

Garden of Hope - James Gurney (detail)