#animation makes neuron activate

[randomositycat]

Artist/animator brain telling me to pick apart each episode for subtle differences in comparison to the show as a whole

What seems like it could be on model and what feels like it was pushing boundaries to developing a semi-new style for the anime

Rant under cut bc hi I do this a lot in my head,, and I could go through each episode and pick them apart but I've got e 17 on the brain so we'll stick with that for now and maybe I'll check out the older ones later

I only bring it up now bc,, well I didn't want to before

In e 17 (since it's the one freshest in my brain) the art differences I notice are purely in the chibi style, and minorly in the closer shots of characters

This shot specifically feels like it belongs to a different show! But still suuper super cute all the same!

And we go back to something more fitting with the other similar style shots from previous episodes! Not to say that it's all and all the same style every time, but again the differences are subtle and you have to look very closely to even say "huh, that's a bit different!"

I also noticed that usually they don't skip out of drawing fingernails? which sure most animes dont but it feels different here? If that makes sense,,

They really upped their detail game compared to other episodes! all the little things that pain me to even think about doing as an animator! The work put into some of these shots is super impressive! They even shaded the fake mole?? Come on!! The idea of doing what they've down with these shots makes me tired,, kudos to the artists for having the nerve

The fingernails stand out the most to me bc there is so much detail in them!

From the cuticle to the beautiful lighting and shading when she was applying make up to his face (I don't have a gift sorryyy 😣)

And we already know the eyes are beautiful, but my favorite attention to detail is Jinshi's eyes. Maomao never fails to comment on his beauty, and artistically it shows as much, emphasizing it to no end really, but he's so subtly feminine that I find myself studying his eyes quite a bit! His long eyelashes really draw you in...

You can see they dulled it down a little, for his Jinka disguise, but even then he's got such gentle eyes that could easily be mistaken for a woman's if he were to hide his face :) (looking at you Hunting arc, missed a chance! I'll tell you!)

Maomao's expressions in this episode really take the cake too LOL

There's no shortage of good maomao faces, especially not here >:)

As each new episode releases I'm just soooo enamored with how steady the improvement is! Artists finding their rhythm with the characters and sprinkling little things here and there that can go unnoticed but definitely enhance a shot! It's amazing!

And it brings me to talk about e4 which yes I agree is gorgeous animated, but im someone who prefers consistency rather than quality in my animated shows

(quality is good yes but to go from very fluid to standard fluid is jarring to say in the least)

I adore the fluidity in e4, obsessed with it. I was under the impression that an entirely different director + team was in charge (I wasn't wrong abt the director)

My favorite bits have to be the expressions,

And how each movement feels less like a show and more like a movie, like we got a spontaneous budget increase for this episode alone!

Lip syncing too, REALLY on point! I love angry Maomao and I'm a sucker for lip syncing any time!! When she was scolding Lihua's lady in waiting, the animators really hit every keyframe on the nose! (generally makes e4 dub a bit of a hassle for me to watch) I rewatch the sequence again and again because of how well done it is :) a spectacular moment indeed

Another episode with really fluid moments is episode 10, I think 🤔 when she confronts Lady Lishu about Fengming. The entire scene is wonderfully done, with Lishu's expressions and her ladies-in-waiting being excited to talk to Jinshi :) all things I gladly pay attention to

All in all the show has a gorgeous art direction 😊 I hope they continue to enhance it little by little with subtle things like everything i mentioned above

Makes an artist's heart flutter thinking about the dedication and care put into its production

[bergerhandcuffs]

idk ,I thought about it ,uhhhhhh,vergil booty

[little-shiny-sharpies]

Wishing a fun and spooky halloween to you and the dragons 😈🖤

Thank you very much!!! ‘Twas the funnest and spookiest hallow’s end ever enjoyed! 🕸️👻🖤🎃🖤👻🎃🕸️(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Audio from my favorite TikTok ever

[gainprincess]

Older women...~

[jovialtacosharkzonk]

Onomatopoeia go brr

Weird when you first start paying attention to animal noises and realize they don't actually sound like the words we use

[spirit-lanterns]

Ooh crap, genuinely forgot how big orcas actually are 😭

Maybe Black Swan is able to get some of the mechanic that work at the sanctuary to make some sorta.... water tank-wagon that she's able to pull Acheron around in with her immense strength, and when they reach certain place, then lifts her out, do that way we can still have the meme ref lmao.

Oooh, imagine some time when she brings Orcheron to see the vet outside of her area, maybe Black Swan decides to be a bit cheeky, snuff some water into her trunk, and then blast the vet with it! With the added bonus of, depending on what the vet's wearing at the time, maybe being able to see what she's got on underneath her outer "skins"

💋 Anon

Black Swan you sneaky woman 😭

After dousing you with water, your shirt becomes mildly see through and the hybrids just get an eyeful of your bra and stomach through the cloth. Animal brain activate, because the neurons in their brain are signaling “HOT MATE. ATTRACTIVE MATE.” and women like Cipher and Acheron are unable to contain their arousal.

Maybe Jade is watching from a tree with an interested gaze, as she thinks you’re about to shed and decides to “help” you with the shedding process, just as you do with her. “Oh, do you need help shedding, little one?” Jade’s tongue flicks out with curiosity, her hands gripping the wet shirt and suddenly yanking it off.

…Who knew the Vet had such a sexy figure under all that extra “skin.” 🤭

[arealtrashact]

HIYA! Just wanted to say that i've been following you for a while on insta and twitter and i just love your art! The flowy way in which you put your lines down and your composition choices have been an inspiration for me :] Im simply eating your art at any given chance C: Also, even if im not as much into the boys as i used to be a few years ago, seeing your fanart involving the show still activates that neuron in my brain that makes me wanna draw homelander again at least : ]] If i can pick any favourite fanarts from you, i gotta say that im in love with your doggy versions of the characters! I think they fit the characters really well and the way you use shapes in you character design only emphasises that. (overall seeing your animal versions of characters is super nice, finally someone who gets how fun assigning different animals to existing characters based on their looks and personalities is X] ) Have a good day/night yippie : D!

Thanks for sticking around !

Drawing human characters as animals is a habit I picked up as a kid ( while actively avoiding learning how to draw people . . . ) that I have yet to shed. I guess you can take the kid out of DeviantArt but you can't take the 'all-consuming urge to draw your favorite guy as a sparkledog' out of the kid.

I'm happy to hear that you like my characterizations, no matter how detached they are from their original counterparts •ﻌ•

You're very sweet.

[bethanythebogwitch]

Wet Beast Wednesday: elephant fish

It's the last Wet Beast Wednesday of fresh-uary, the month where I only cover freshwater species. I started the month with a fish and am ending it with a fish as well. The elephant fish are a group of very bizarre-looking fish known for their long trunks. More than just looking weird, these little fish are potentially quite intelligent animals, much like their namesakes. Let's nose our way in and learn.

(Image: Peter's elephant fish, Gnathonemus petersii, in a tank. It is a long fish with mostly brown scales except for white stripes on the back half. It's dorsal and anal fins are large and near the rear of the body, giving it al almost arrow-shaped profile. The head is long, with small eyes and a very small mouth. Under the mouth sprouts a fleshy, trunk-like structure. End ID)

Elephant fish are also called elephant-nose fish and trunkfish, among a number of other names. They are members of the superfamily Mormyridae, though not every Mormyrid has the famous trunk. There are around 200 species, which can range in length from 5 cm to 1.5 m in the largest species, Mormyrops anguilloides (which does not have a trunk). The typical elephant fish is a smaller fish with a forked tail, large dorsal and anal fins located near the tail, small eyes, mouth, and gill openings, and a long, trunk-like protrusion emerging from below the mouth. In most elephant fish, the trunk is a modified lower lip and is muscular and somewhat flexible, but has no skeletal support. This type of trunk has the amazing scientific name of schnauzenorgan. Some mormyrids have alternatively developed extended jaw muscles and mouthparts that form a rigid trunk with a the mouth at the tip, but these trunks are usually shorter than the schnauzenorgans. The skin of Mormyrids, but especially the head and trunk, are covered with sensory pits known as ampullary organs or ampullae of Lorenzini. These kind of organs have evolved multiple times independently in several fish lineages and the variety that Mormyrids have are called mormyromasts. The purpose of these organs is to detect electric fields created by other living things.

(Image: Campylomormyrus elephas, an elephant fish. It has a very similar body structure to the first picture, but is black all over. Its trunk is actually an extension of the jaw and looks like a tube with a tiny mouth at the end. A small fleshy schnauzenorgan hangs from under the mouth. End ID)

In addition to sensing electric fields, elephant fish can create their own. They are considered weakly electric fish, because they actively generate an electric field around themselves, but the electricity they produce is not strong enough to be used as a weapon like in electric eels and torpedo rays. The ability to do this has also evolved independently several times. The electric field is generated by stacks of electricity-generating cells called electrocytes that are located in the tail. The use of the electrocytes creates an electric field that surrounds the fish like a bubble. when electric fields interact, they alter each other, and the elephant fish detects these alterations with its mormyromasts, altering it to the location of other organisms. Because all animals generate a weak electric field as a consequence of muscle movement and neuron activity, the elephant fish can essentially sense the location of animal whose electric field intersects with its. The trunk being covered in mormyromasts makes it extra sensitive to electrical fields.

(Image: Campylomormyrus elephas seen from the front, better showing the mouth at the tip of the trunk and the small schnauzenorgan hanging from beneath it. End ID)

To interpret all the signals it receives, the elephant fish needs a large brain. Their brain to body mass ratios are among the highest of any vertebrates, slightly higher than that of humans and their brain to body oxygen consumption ratio is the highest of any vertebrate, three times that of humans. Though their brains are simple in structure, they are capable of advanced cognition. In one test, elephant fish were shown to be able to recognize objects with one sense that they had only examined with another sense. For an example of this, humans can examine an object with their hands while blindfolded, then recognize it later when able to see. This is thought to be a rare ability in the animal kingdom, only found in intelligent mammals like dolphins, apes, and rats, and was formerly believed to require a cerebral cortex, something elephant fish lack. However, the fish were able to visually recognize objects they had previously only observed with their electric sense. It is currently not clear how they do this. There is also some evidence that elephant fish near each other can share information by linking their electric fields. If one fish senses something, it can transmit that information to all other nearby fish by altering its electric field. This could be highly useful in predator avoidance, where if one fish detects a predator, they all do. Elephant fish in captivity have also been reported engaging in play behavior (a sign of intelligence) and, like many fish, can recognize individual humans. I wasn't able to find any information on their memories, but fish with much smaller brains that use less oxygen have been shown to have at least several months worth of memory, so I would guess elephant fish can do the same.

(Image: a group of 4 blunt-jawed elephant fish, Campylomormyrus tamandua, in an advertisement for an aquarium company. They have the same body plan as Campylomormyrus elephas, but with a shorted trunk. Their bodies are striped with yellow and black. End ID)

Mormyrids are a highly successful group of fish, making up about 10% of all species of freshwater fish in Africa, where they are endemic. Mormyrids can be found in virtually every body of water in the continent, though elephant fish in particular tend to favor slower-moving, murky waters with lots of vegetation. While capable of using vision to examine their surroundings, electroreception is an even more valuable skill in murky water. Their electric sense allow elephant fish to navigate and hunt in water other fish would be blinded in. Elephant fish are carnivores, but their small mouth restrict them to very small prey, usually zooplankton, insect larvae, and other small invertebrates. Some trunkless species have larger mouths. Trunked species use their trunks to poke around in vegetation and sediment, looking for buried or hiding prey. The schnauzenorgans are reported to be flexible and can aid in carrying food to the mouth in a similar manner to an elephant's trunk. Hunting elephant fish have been seen doing a 'dancing' motion, which is believed to be used for reorienting themselves to better detect prey. They are active mostly during dawn and dusk and spend day and night hiding in vegetation to avoid predators. Mormyrid reproduction is understudied, but they have mating seasons that coincide with the rainy season. It appears that water acidity and soil content help trigger reproduction. Some species will leave the main waterways to mate in temporary pools created by the rain. Thy to not appear to provide parental care to their eggs or larvae. Elephant fish are known to be difficult to breed in captivity, limiting our understanding of how they reproduce.

(Cyphomyrus psittacus, a species of Mormyrid without a trunk. It has the same body plan as the above pictures, but its head is round and looks much more like a normal fish, except for a small, fleshy bulb below the mouth. It has silver scales. End ID)

Mormyrids are known to be vulnerable to pollution and are threatened by habitat loss, pollution, and climate change. As a group, they are doing well, though individual species may be threatened. Elephant fish have entered the pet trade due to their unique looks, with Gnathonemus petersii, Peter's elephant fish, being the most commonly found in personal aquariums. The same species is also highly used in laboratory experiments studying electrogenesis, fish intelligence, and bioelectricity. The difficulty of breeding them in captivity has led to a marked for wild caught fish. Some of the largest Mormyrid species are used for food.

(Image: a group of Peter's elephant fish in an aquarium. There are two of a similar size swimming next to each other. Two smaller specimens and fish of a different species can also be seen. End ID)

[radaverse]

I still can't stop listening to it

finally

😈

(Context)

[xxacidnekoxx]

I stopped playing video games as a hobby because I would get....... Very very addicted to them ....... And I got really scared about that because there was a moment in my teen years where time went by and I only thought about ocarina of time to an obsessive degree and that spooked me a lot because I got really really obsessed with legend of Zelda to a terrifying amount that I was like okay I neeeeeed to like not do this hobby it will actually suck me up entirely 😭😭😭 I would have legend of Zelda thoughts constantly and dream about legend of Zelda a lot it was...kind of scary .. I don't really know how to explain it 😭😞😭😞😭 i actually put a lot of effort into stop thinking about it and thankfully I did that because im an animator now i can make my own legend of Zelda .. but yeah ..... I see an image of Nintendo 64 legend of Zelda and the neurons activate

[chestersbraincell]

You know, everyone always focuses on the visual aspects of the DNA species Sebastian has when talking about redesigns and stuff. But what about the things that aren’t visible to the eye?

•Anglerfish-some lie half-buried in the ocean floor waiting for prey, this could be used for cute burying headcanons for Sebastian! Like how he likes to bury himself under items/blankets etc.

•Blue Whale-Huge potential for the low frequency vocalisations, only natural predator is the orca, so might be scared of oc’s based on these?

•Great White Shark-again with the orca, quoting Wikipedia „larger sharks dominate smaller sharks, females dominate males, and established residents dominate newcomers”(doesn’t have to be in a sexual sense either), „generally very curious animals, display intelligence and may also turn to socializing if the situation demands it”, said curiosity if exentuated by brightly coloured items which they have a habit of nibbling to get a better sense for what it is, „Skin dosed with adrenaline would turn lighter, with melanocyte-stimulating hormone causing melanocyte cells to dissipate thus making the shark's skin a darker colour”, „have also been known to eat objects that they are unable to digest”, hunting behaviours include immobilisation/waiting for prey to bleed out, enhanced sense of smell, have toxic blood

•Silver Spinyfin-can see in color in very low light conditions

•Mantis Shrimp-live in burrows, so further fuel for the burrowing under items/blankets hc, use hands to either grab, smash, or spear prey, territorial and frequently in combat, can see ultraviolet, „can learn and remember well, and are able to recognise individual neighbours with which they frequently interact”, for all you shippers here’s a cute extraxt from wikipedia: „the mantis shrimps remain with the same partner up to 20 years. They share the same burrow and may be able to coordinate their activities. Both sexes often take care of the eggs (bi-parental care)”, can detect neuron activity, „Mantis shrimps have been observed landing blows on each other in what is thought to be a ritual fight to test each other’s speed and stamina. The shrimp will deliver blows to each other’s tailplate called a ‘telson,’ hugely tough pieces of armor that protect them from having their shells pierced” (from https://www.indoyachts.com/the-mantis-shrimp/#:~:text=Mantis%20shrimps%20have%20been%20observed%20landing%20blows,protect%20them%20from%20having%20their%20shells%20pierced. )

•Sea Snake-deadly venom, seriously I’ve not seen anyone talk about him having venom because of being a snake, like ever,

[unatkozorobotok]

“Koalas are fucking horrible animals. They have one of the smallest brain to body ratios of any mammal, additionally - their brains are smooth. A brain is folded to increase the surface area for neurons. If you present a koala with leaves plucked from a branch, laid on a flat surface, the koala will not recognise it as food. They are too thick to adapt their feeding behaviour to cope with change. In a room full of potential food, they can literally starve to death. This is not the token of an animal that is winning at life. Speaking of stupidity and food, one of the likely reasons for their primitive brains is the fact that additionally to being poisonous, eucalyptus leaves (the only thing they eat) have almost no nutritional value. They can't afford the extra energy to think, they sleep more than 80% of their fucking lives. When they are awake all they do is eat, shit and occasionally scream like fucking satan. Because eucalyptus leaves hold such little nutritional value, koalas have to ferment the leaves in their guts for days on end. Unlike their brains, they have the largest hind gut to body ratio of any mammal. Many herbivorous mammals have adaptations to cope with harsh plant life taking its toll on their teeth, rodents for instance have teeth that never stop growing, some animals only have teeth on their lower jaw, grinding plant matter on bony plates in the tops of their mouths, others have enlarged molars that distribute the wear and break down plant matter more efficiently... Koalas are no exception, when their teeth erode down to nothing, they resolve the situation by starving to death, because they're fucking terrible animals. Being mammals, koalas raise their joeys on milk (admittedly, one of the lowest milk yields to body ratio... There's a trend here). When the young joey needs to transition from rich, nourishing substances like milk, to eucalyptus (a plant that seems to be making it abundantly clear that it doesn't want to be eaten), it finds it does not have the necessary gut flora to digest the leaves. To remedy this, the young joey begins nuzzling its mother's anus until she leaks a little diarrhoea (actually fecal pap, slightly less digested), which he then proceeds to slurp on. This partially digested plant matter gives him just what he needs to start developing his digestive system. Of course, he may not even have needed to bother nuzzling his mother. She may have been suffering from incontinence. Why? Because koalas are riddled with chlamydia. In some areas the infection rate is 80% or higher. This statistic isn't helped by the fact that one of the few other activities koalas will spend their precious energy on is rape. Despite being seasonal breeders, males seem to either not know or care, and will simply overpower a female regardless of whether she is ovulating. If she fights back, he may drag them both out of the tree, which brings us full circle back to the brain: Koalas have a higher than average quantity of cerebrospinal fluid in their brains. This is to protect their brains from injury... should they fall from a tree. An animal so thick it has its own little built in special ed helmet.”

[tchaikovskym]

It was good in a way that that guy is really up to something in a topic that is interesting to most people and that he has evidence on what I only had hunches about

There is a ppt with transparent da vincis jumping jack man in the background with also a transparent neuron in front and the title is pure yellow in comic sans with shadow effect. This is about to be good

[herbalmutt]

Hello Satyr!

Out of curiousity - is there anymore media you are really into? What makes so said thing interesting for you even?

Hope you're doing okay! Remember, you are vaild and loved and if anybody will try to tell you otherwise, get the shotgun, we gonna kick some asses >:³

Have a great day!

You just activated the biggest neuron in my head I hope you’re ready eeee

- TADC

- Kinger. Just Kinger, he’s seperate from tadc itself

- Fantasy Life

- Gloomverse

- Gravity Falls

- Steven Universe

- Sally Face

- FullMetal Alchemist Brotherhood

- Black Clover

- The Backrooms

- Hyenas

- Furry Fandom

- Undertale

- Skyrim

- Fallout 4

- Maximum Ride

- Maze Runner

- Minecraft

- Into the Spiderverse

- My Little Pony

- Stardew Valley

- Dungeons and Dragons

- Fantasy Anything TBH

- Cottagecore Aesthetic//Homestead/Farm

- Demon Slayer

- The Promised Neverland

- Genshin Impact

- Wicked

- Rick and Morty

- Yuri on Ice

- ABO (The genuine universe and built society unrelated from sex)

- Five Nights at Freddy’s

- Attack on Titan

- Invincible

- Cannibals

- The Last of Us

- Horror

- Cookie Run Kingdom

- Friday Night Funkin

- Killing Stalking

- Mouthwashing

- Animal Crossing

- Epic: The Musical

- Ace Attorney

- HunterXHunter

- Hazbin Hotel

- Sweeney Todd

- Horses (Horse Girl)

- Creepypasta

- The Sims

- Pagan Religion

- Adventure Time

- Tokyo Ghoul

- Kaiju N.8

- Pokemon

- Mythical Creatures

- Herbology

- Witchcraft

- Greys Anatomy

- Grimm

- Animation Meme Community

- Digimon

I’m probably missing some things but these are everything I currently like or used to at one point but I’m not big into anymore

[iamthekaijuking]

As someone who has done significantly more research into animal physiology, evolution, and ecology, what have you find to be very correlated or acting as a prerequisite for higher cognition in animals. I have read of having a real brain instead of just ganglia being important, as well as a general brain-to-body size ratio correlating well (though it seems like encephalization quotient is better as a measurement). The fact that octopi are so darn weirdly smart, as well as being an entire Order (not just a Genus of even Family like I assumed before looking into it) makes me wonder about what makes their evolutionary history so distinct or gave sufficient prerequisite for their high intellect.

Obviously as someone who doesn’t actually have a degree in any of the fields I research and instead just have biology autism, I can’t say my answer would be 100% accurate, but I’ll try my best and if anyone wants to add to this they’re welcome to.

Higher intelligence is such a loaded and complex question that we just don’t have a definitive answer for yet, because there’s so much we don’t understand about intelligence itself! And it’s likely that higher intelligence itself doesn’t have a singular cause. There’s many different kinds of intelligence and traditionally “dumb” animals can be more intelligent than us in certain areas! But if I had to list things that could allow for sapience to evolve…

Endothermy or at least regional endothermy. In order for a brain to be very active and sapient it needs to have high cellular activity in its neurons, which a cold blooded creature usually has a hard time with (there are exceptions like octopus and tegu).

It needs to be a large somewhat long lived social animal that learns behaviors and can reproduce multiple times in its life, meaning that it can accumulate knowledge and has a method of transferring this to its young or young of the same species.

Obvious one but tool use (duh). A sapient species needs to recognize that it can use things separate from its being as extensions of itself to get what it wants. We can probably throw in the mirror test too.

Pattern recognition. ABSOLUTELY PATTERN RECOGNITION. A sapient creature has to be able to recognize things that are repeated and what they mean/are correlated to, and their brain needs to chemically reward them for picking up on it. Humans are the biggest example of this because recognizing patterns is so hard baked into us as a species that it’s literally everywhere in our society. Hell, one of the biggest theories for why we invented music is because we like recognizing patterns.

It essentially needs to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. It has to have selective pressure to think to survive. Maybe it has to contend with drastic seasonal changes and how to survive them, or maybe it needs to out-think predators.

High energy diet. A big brain needs lots of power and proteins. So a diet of meat, fruits, nuts, roots, sugars, etc. all of these have relatively high caloric value. Cooking food as well exponentially increases the amount of nutrients you can get out of it. Amino acids are curled up into different shapes because of their electrical charges and a lot of the energy that goes into digestion is spent just unraveling amino acids so that they can be transported and used. But if amino acids are exposed to high enough temperatures then they unravel on their own, so by using this little physics hack a sapient creature can get more bang for their buck.

Those are the things that I can hazard a guess can lead to sapience when all put together.

The reason why octopus are so smart is because they fall into that “rock and a hard place” category. They’re squishy, unarmored, and very tasty so they needed to outsmart their predators.

[querytheauthor]

Hello! I had a VERY hypothetical question for you, Dr. Pines.

Sooo... if you were going to hypothetically bring someone(s?) back from the dead, how would you do it? Does the Mary Shelly method work, or is there a more effective way? Details are much appreciated! (Again, this is hypothetical, I'm not going to use this knowledge if you do end up answering this, I promise. Not in real life, at least.)

-- ;)

Hello, ";)". The presence of the winking face makes me very suspicious of this question, but I will hesitantly trust your intentions.

In order to revive someone, you would need to reactivate not only the body's blood flow and production, but activate the neurons and functions of the brain once again. Personally, I would start by creating an optimal environment (37°c) for the body's animals cells to begin functioning once again, which would begin the hematopoietic cell's creation cycle of blood cells, as well as activate neurogenesis. However, this is a very experimental and precise science—if there was a surefire way of revival even a few hours after death, the human race would've resorted to it already.