#from a technical standpoint

[raett97]

hi hi hi I have thoughts and feelings about The Martian. I know a normal amount about it. pspspspsps

yeah hi hello polaraaace hi yes okay so another thing? i cannot get over how fucking. amazing. and brilliant and clever a decision it was to write 90% of the book as an epistolary

like. okay so obv Watney was alone on Mars for basically the entire book. the usual problem with having a character alone is there's no dialogue, and you end up with a lot of exposition, which can feel like information dumps and can tend to drag. by writing it as an epistolary and having Watney tell 'NASA' what was going on, the reader was told without it feeling like an info dump.

it also meant he could complicate or dumb down explanations as much as he wanted without seeming out of place. imply the science w/ minor explanation rather than science the science, which made it a lot easier to follow.

additionally, it really Did Something for the pacing of the story, and the flow and such. like i was thinking about it. right. and he could skip all the boring shit and Watney just reports the Major Event, Key Factors etc. to the logs. he just. skipped over days of digging or weeks of driving or drilling holes or any of the other hundred things that would have been slow and tedious to write out. and. summarised the interesting parts in as few or many sentences as required without too much depth. like. consider the drilling. he explains, in brief, that he tried to drill. it sucked bc the drill wouldn't catch. he chipped out a bit with a driver and the drilled and that went better and then he did it like a hundred more times. how long would that have taken to write out in full if it was 3rd person limited? how tedious? the lost time and the frustration and the problem solving? no, instead we get the problem, and then immediately what it took to solve. just. quickly. which meant each chapter was quick and snappy and set a really fast pace for the book from start to finish.

it also i think impacts how we view Watney as a character. like. you're not in his head. it doesn't go into what he's feeling so much. so i know when i think of his character i think of him as Brutally Pragmatic. Have problem? Solve problem. whatever it takes, and then it's only the next problem. and that's probably in part bc you're not in his head, only the logs. but it's also bc like. in the hab breach scene? he has a hissy fit at Mars (in the logs) and then the next log he's like 'okay i had my hissy fit now on to solving the problem'. it sets the reader apart and creates distance from him in such away that really keeps a humorous and lighthearted tone to the book that perhaps you couldn't if it was 1st POV or 3rd POV limited. but, still and despite that i guess, still my interpretation of him is brutally pragmatic. he didn't let emotion or despair at any point get in his way.

AND THEN. we get to the 3rd person limited sections, not epistolary, where we were watching the way the events on Mars were being viewed by earth and NASA. that was interesting to me. the POV change. it made it feel much more immediate, much more Real Time than the epistolary parts. we were there with Mindy, knowing what she was seeing when she realised Watney was alive. with Vankat as he had to tell Teddy. with the Hermes III crew as the got the Rich Purnell maneuver and had a choice. we got to see that, those key moments in real time.

ALSO, the 3rd person omniscient parts? god, i dreaded those. as soon as the POV changed to focus on a thing rather than a person i immediately started dreading what was going to happen next. it was like watching a car crash. knowing something was going to happen and being unable to look away. the hab breach scene? the Iris launch failure? the rover rolling? all of them fucking. preceded by a 3rd person omniscient POV. just. until a thing went wrong they were innocuous but that fact that Weir saved that pov for those scenes just mean that when they came up it was building tension and suspense anyway. just an innocent scene about how hab canvas is manufactured. about the launch of the Iris probe. about the weather and dust storms on Mars. totally innocent, nothing to see here....

and those scenes contrasted so dramatically with the immediate follow up of the logs.

like. the 3rd POV omn. is slow. dramatic. 'the canvas expanded for the last time. the hab breached.' juxtaposed with Watney's log which is a lot move lively. and then later compared with the quiet horror from Mindy or Vankat or something seeing it from the satellites and just crossing their fingers and praying. I think that aspect was really brought to life even more in the audiobook though, which is how i read it. like. serious kudos to Will Wheaton and his performance. i feel he did a lot of work and an amazing job setting the tone and the emotions of all the characters. the tiredness and the happiness and all the rest.

... okay i think that's all i have to say on this, unless someone else wants to weigh in. there's probably more i haven't considered and i'd love to hear your thoughts.

[goldenshrikecomic]

The backgrounds for the latest pages are absolutely gorgeous, amazing work, seriously stunning

I want to be super transparent about my process because I don't like to get credit when it's not due, especially in this current chapter where I started using stock images to tackle backgrounds faster:

In most cases I usually use one stock image per scene and tweak it and paint over it. And for headshots, blur tool is my beloved. Here's an example of the current scene with minimal paintover since snow scenes demand a lot less detail. I usually work on them more.

^ This was the first scene where I used a stock image.

The colors are usually tweaked, but I absolutely can't take the credit for most of them. I don't know, this might seem lazy to a lot of people who haven't drawn 300 pages before, but it has helped me tons to keep up with such a long-running comic. I tried making 3D scenes myself but with my attention span it wasn't worth it. That said, not every panel/scene uses stock images, but a lot of them do.

The photographers are always credited in the description of my pages.

[basilpaste]

"It wouldn't feel right to... do this without giving us both some time, I think."

〔Sif looks away from you.〕

"But!" You stumble over the word, "Um! Later doesn't mean never!!"

〔You clumsily reach for one of your earrings and take it off. Even when you sleep, you wear studs. It feels kind of strange to go without!〕

〔You're not sure why you picked up the chain in the House. But... it gives you the chance to do this.〕

〔You hook it through one of the chain links and carefully slip on the back.〕

"So... until we're both ready. Until we know for sure! How about a promise?"

"A promise?" Sif echoes.

〔With all the caution in the world, you slip the chain around Sif's neck. They don't flinch. And... neither do you.〕

"A promise to come back to it eventually. We have time."

〔You do have time! Real, moving, twisting time! To think about things!!〕

〔Sif clutches the earring around his neck and smiles shakily.〕

"A promise."

[death-rebirth-senshi]

#the havoc you can cause when you're a rogue Hawke with haste.

You finally get your hands on that flighty rogue that's been twirling around with his daggers and stick your sword in him and you think he's finished but the healer just waves his staff and the rogue gets right back and disappears into smoke before you can get him again.

I actually do adore the concept of "I'll show you why mages are feared!" and instead of a fireball Anders just undoes the blows you managed to get into this warrior and now she's looking healthy and revitalized while you're still tired and worn down. And then suddenly everyone starts going super fast.

[quietly-sleeping]

While clueless shen yuan in an A/B/O society is funny, I don't think we give him enough credit. He was chronically online, so he's come across A/B/O before.

And I'm not convinced that man never decided he'd read bl A/B/O because it was an alpha/omega pairing and that's basically straight right?

[sosadraws]

Shoutout to this mini animation that I made for an animation project, back when Temptation Stairway dropped. Such a shame that I didn't think of making this loopable, oh well.

Bonus old ENA art:

[purplebutwarhammer]

Know it’s redundant because of the whole night vision but I think Night Lords should be allowed a little echolocation, as a treat

[starstruckodysseys]

hang on i need to know how the g13/usha brain “surgery” would’ve killed KINGSKIN had it gone wrong

[daipeanutsaiban]

I absolutely love your tgaa ocs and characterisations! It brings about a lot of world building that I think the games should have had (even if, logically, it wouldn't have been able to fit amongst the actual storyline)

I also love that no matter how silly you draw Klint, I can still see his murderous tendencies sitting in his eyes. That may just be me though.

And also also, Mycroft is wayy too relatable. As someone who is equally anxious and avoidant of social interactions, it gives me hope. I love him, he's great

I do wish to know, however: what was Susato's and Kazuma's mothers like?

thank you so much!! i'm very happy to hear that :D and it's interesting you say that about klint, i do sometimes worry i'm drawing him too silly but it's nice to hear that his intensity still shines through! 🙏

aww, it's a delight that people seem to like my take on mycroft, thank you again!! 🥹🥹 i was extremely anxious as a child, so it's very cathartic to write him haha <3

oh, i have a LOT for yukari (kazuma's mother) but not nearly as much for ayame 😫 i did write about them a bit here! (warning for quite the long post lmao, but i talk about ayame and yukari towards the end of it) i also have a tag for yukari, but the short answer is that i designed her to contrast genshin, who i imagine to be more reserved initially (though not cold) and serious while yukari herself is playful and comes across as quite silly. still, she harbors a quiet strength and left a profound impact on kazuma, who prefers not talking about her as the memory of his mother slowly dying in front him little by little is still fresh in his eyes. as for ayame, she emits an aura of benevolence and zen, but is just as playful as well as a bit of a klutz. in contrast to yukari whom she met on the streets as a child, ayame is from a good family with ties to the asogi clan, and yukari both envied, admired, and resented her. i really want to do more with these two but i'm hitting a wall irt ayame's design as an adult 😩 i did draw her as a child before tho 👇

very old doodle and her clothes are too plain for my liking but i thought it'd be cute and awesome if her hairstyle was shaped like an iris flower.... :')

[the-sol-eater]

so far, the biggest conclusion I've gained from the responses to this post is that we desperately needed more timeline interactions like in 2020 and I do not understand why they're only relegated to birthdays now when they're such an important piece of Milgram's overall storytelling 😭

[window-on-the-west]

SNIPPET SUNDAY

Thanks for the tag @lostintheweave 🤍 I'm kind of afraid of tagging anyone else bc I'm afraid of attention again 👁️👄👁️ but if you see this and want to share a snippet of whatever you're working on, be my guest! And say I tagged you.

From Ategnatos:

Leonis laughed, a low burbling noise through sticky globs of red. “I should have known,” she said. A cough wracked her frame, and Giliath realized for the first time that she was small, very small in his arms. She shuddered something horrible and then he felt blood leak into his palms. “Mother,” was all he said. The words thudded like stones down an empty well. She looked at him and laughed again. “It was never going to be you,” she said slowly. She squeezed her eyes shut with a painful hiss. Clumsily, he pulled her to his chest and held her firm, a makeshift pressure to stopper the wound. Warmth bloomed from her heart to his, thick and red.  “I can save you,” he said. “If you let me.” “I will save us both,” she answered. And then she snatched the knife at his belt and turned it on him. 

[demodraws0606]

Here comes the most based route ranking ever

[mellorocket]

THEY GAVE JUMBA AND PLEAKLEY HUMAN DISGUISES??

[goopi-e]

you mentioned a romhack for oos- im super curious! what are your plans for that project, if i may ask? :o

Ah, nothing special story-wise, just a couple of dungeons to test what I'm capable of when it comes to level design and to learn to work with the editor. Here are some screenshots of certain locations that I like:

Though I had an idea of making a pseudo-backport of WW, where four seasons are replaced with four directions of the wind. I think this can be fun and more or less doable with my knowledge.

[walmart-miku]

GUYS STOP SAYING KUNIKIDAS DEAD. HES NOT DEAD THE TRISINGULARITY LITERLY SAYS THAT THE BLADE AND DEATH CANT HARM HIM. THEREFORE BY THIS LOGIC KUNIKIDA IS NOT DEAD. TERUKO IS NOT DEAD. ALL LIQUIFIED CHARACTERS THAT HAVE BEEN SLURPED ARE NOT DEAD.

THE TRISINGULARITY ADMITS IT THEMSELF (? itself? Himself? Does this guy even use pronouns?) HE IS A PERFECT WHOLE OF THIS WORLD. WHICH COULD MEAN THAT INSIDE OF HIM IS EITHER 1) VOID. OR 2) REPLICA OF THIS WORLD

SO ALL SLURPED CHARACTERS ARE JUST FLOATING IN THE VOID. THEYRE FINE GUYS

[belleski]

still trying to figure out how to render backgrounds :} [image description] A digital illustration of a jungle landscape, surrounded by mountains and cliffs. The left side of the canvas is taken up by a grey cliff face with a large circular tunnel carved into it, which is surrounded by smaller circular holes and clumps of plant life. Standing In the tunnel - there is a comparatively small alien that resemble a purple monkey with two tails, who is dressed in exploration gear and has a sombre expression. Beyond the cliff, there is a forest, with a few decrepit buildings peeking through the canopy. Beyond the forest, there is a row of mountains which also have large round holes drilled into them. The sky is a pale blue with distant planets visible - the largest of which has a large chunk taken out of it which resembles a huge bite mark. End ID.