#effects schmeffects

[bubbledragum]

kinda sat on the update for a bit to get my feelings on it. big post, i'm sorry. i'm open to hear about what uses people have found for effects i'm not a fan of, though! i'd like to broaden my customization tastes, and i might be thinking too narrowly when it comes to uses they have.

Dragon Only

a few are really nice, and subtle enough that they won't deeply impact a dragon's appearance. foil, shimmerscale, and glitz are surprisingly neat, with glitz being on the more heavyhanded end but still makes for a fine alternative to the other two that would fit well on a few dragon concepts off the top of my head.

i'm not a fan of the void one as far as 'subtle' ones go; it looks too 'stock image' like for my tastes and feels like looking at one of those light projectors you'd buy for halloween. i'm sure someone has a use case for it. pastel pulse isn't great for me, either; its texture map is a grid of perfectly aligned circles of varying saturations, ending with some of them being warped and some swooshes with high contrast. the intensity of the pastel makes it really hard to see the effect, too, so it feels like another stock image situation. i suppose it'd make for an alright stained alternative if you needed to use the tertiary slot for something else, but it's so heavy on the pastel that it's hard to fill that role. maybe a smoother gradient could have made it an effective (ha ha) animated iri/shim. dearly departed is a super cool concept but the result is a little off. the foggy effect on the lower end of the image is neato, but it's miserable on dragons whose faces are low (mirrors, everlux male, female imp...), or are more top heavy so it doesn't show well. i'll probably get a copy anyway, and do have an idea of which dragon could use it. Apparel Only sheen absolutely could be used on almost anything. simple, effective, does what it needs to and doesn't overstay its welcome. it's personally the best of the bunch to me as an avid shiny-things lover (probably a crow). possessed possessions looks like it's best used on dragons with minimal apparel, since the effect heavily reduces the lineart visibility of each piece and can turn it into a big blob of purple slime. i wish it could be on select pieces instead of all of them, but it's one of those limitations we need to hope for a solution to. all the same, that big blob of purple slime is neat looking on some heavily dressed dragons if you coordinate the clothing right. also you need to imagine chicken/bird/snake/frog spirits. do it for your mental health. spooky chickens. All-Over:

sunrise, moonrise feels like it was their first attempt at something fitting the role of an animated skin, and it's so hyper niche due to the landscape part of the effect. a day/night cycle effect without the landscape probably would have had more use for a wider audience. it likely appeals to some of the folks who like landscape skins, though, and i live in fear of the ones who make it work really well. i can't tell if it's supposed to be an all-over one, though-- i can't see it affecting the apparel at all in its animations? (sidebar: living painting dragons seem like a neat idea that this effect can lean into) flutterby is really cute, though, and makes me excited to see what they do with the new system. i hope they can make effects similar to it most of all; gimme other little guys, or flowerfalls, or elemental effects like lightning, little meteor showers, or smouldering ash. floating books or NOTN living objects would be really cool! TL;DR: the idea needed more time to be polished, but i think it's an overall positive addition to the website. if they balance the kinds of effects they distribute (keeping in mind people who like subtler stuff as much as the grander ideas, as well as the spectrum between) and should they choose to expand their customization and layering systems in the near future, i can absolutely see this system being much more loved my the wider community and more users finding the benefits in it that suit their needs.

[yourplasticpal]

I really need Crowley to start painting his nails. Like, gold (and/or black, and/or red), yes, please, thank you, but this is a creature who really needs some pride colors in rotation. Accurate star patterns and moving cosmic maps. I'm talking impossible, shifting, miraculous colors and patterns. Celestial being self care!

Effects budget schmeffects budget.