#this line up is mostly for me to use as a reference image

[chiliger]

Growth phase progression of the cadets.

Edit: fixed a typo

(Close ups under the cut.)

[emiliaoleary]

Hooking rugs that look like dogs

Here's how I do it:

The process I use is called rug hooking (not latch hook or punch needle or tufting, though it is the forerunner of the latter two techniques). Rugs are hooked by pulling loops of fabric strips or yarn through the holes of a base fabric with a coarse open weave, like burlap, or linen, or rug warp. The loops are pulled through the fabric with a squat-handled hook whose business end is shaped like a crochet hook.  There are no knots and the loops aren't sewed down in any way.  The whole thing stays put just by the tension of all those loops packed together in the weave of the foundation fabric.

This isn't a true detailed tutorial but a walk-through of my particular process. The same information is on my web page, emilyoleary.com .

I hook with yarn, rather than with cut strips of wool fabric, which is what many rug hookers use.  I can get a looser, more organic distribution of loops with yarn than I could with wool strips, which are hooked in neat lines. 

Mostly I use wool yarn. In terms of yarn weight, I can use DK, worsted, or Aran.  If I'm using thicker yarn, I leave more holes un-hooked; if I'm using finer yarn, I hook more densely or double up lengths of it.  I particularly like using single ply yarns (like Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride or Malabrigo Worsted).  I don't keep count, but I think I usually use around two dozen types and colors of yarn per dog.  

This is my yarn wall in my apartment. Mostly brown and gray yarn!

I start from a small drawing in my sketchbook, then I head to FedEx office to use a copy machine, blowing up the drawing repeatedly and experimenting with how big the dog rug should be. 

After transferring the image onto my linen, I immediately go over it with Sharpie, because the Saral is really difficult to see and really easy to rub off.

The rug is held taut by a PVC quilting frame that I set on my lap.

I push my hook down through the fabric with my right hand and my left hand stays below the fabric and guides the yarn while I pull it up and through with the hook. Not every hole in the fabric is hooked. Hooking every hole would make the rug too dense. I do hook pretty densely, though-- If you pick up one of my rugs you’ll see they have a slight curl to them, which is because they’re hooked pretty tight. I'm using all different weights and types of yarn, so it's a challenge to keep the overall tension even.

I hook my loops at varying heights to create a very low relief. Sometimes I trim the loops to make them fluffier or wispier or to shape a particular part. I look at a reference photo while I work and pull out and redo sections a lot.

My q-snap frame can accommodate the growing dog rug. I have extenders to make it bigger and I can clamp around my hooking.

The back of a rug looks like lines of little stitches. The lines are little worm trails snaking around because lines of hooking are not supposed to cross over each other. It's important to start a new length of yarn rather than cross over a stitch you already made! I read this when I first started and took it to heart. It makes it much easier to undo and redo hooking if you have to (and I redo sections A Lot). It also keeps the back from getting too bulky and resulting in uneven wear on the back of a functional rug that gets floor use.

When I’m done hooking everything I turn the rug over and brush watered-down Sobo glue on the edges of the dog, making sure to get one or two of the outermost lines of hooking. I do a couple coats of this thinned out glue. I'm careful not to use so much that it seeps to the front of the rug. When the glue is dry I cut the rug out, but I don't cut so close that the loops don't have any linen to keep them in.

​ It generally takes me at least several months to finish one dog rug. My hooking frame and yarn bag are very portable (though bulky) so I can hook out and about at coffee shops or the library or a brewery if there's enough space and light.

Hooking in the wild makes me an ambassador for making things in general and rug hooking in particular. I answer people's questions and always emphasize how relatively easy it is to get started hooking. Sometimes I get anxious that other people will hook rugs that look like mine but better, but I think that working in a traditional medium means you should share your knowledge for the good of the craft.

[fandaniel]

[redacted] is a shard of hermes soul - a silly theory post by a guy who thinks too much about the fandaniel soup

warning: 7.2 spoilers and a bunch of reaching. this is mostly me gathering things to put together a full image to why i think this is the case. disorganized a bit??? sorry

before getting too deep into things, one thing that made me curious before the patches of dawntrail is the theme of death and grief and how we handle these things. even in the first half of the story, we learn cultural beliefs about dying and rebirth and what that means to others before we step into solution nine and living memory. secondly, possibly due to simply building media hype, yoshi-p had implied some relation to the convocation in dawntrail.

on the second half of dawntrail i had ended up as someone with a lot of interest in allag to see there was still allagan references all over the story despite there being no real reason to keep bringing them up in msq. the story, aside from possible side content, should be done after the death of fandaniel.

and there is a lot of things that really invoke elpis and allag mentality to me with how souls are 'used'.

i, for one, do not think it is as simple as throw away lines or imagery to invoke allag. plus theres these which i really didnt know where to put. it. from dawntrail.

how things are done in terms of memory wiping in alexandria/solution nine at this point haunted me from one line fandaniel says.

it would be completely in character for him to not want any one to remember the past, for how it haunts him.

story parallels from emperor xande and queen sphene and how amon and calyx both brought back a dead ruler to give their people some kind of hope.

now to the actual meat and potatoes of this post, directly comparing calyx to hermes/amon/fandaniel. firstly, starting with the patch name itself.

the idea that a shard of hermes is seeking somehow to by past death is not very surprising to me since it seems a way amon had tried to cheat around death for him and his people is cloning.

there is a thread here i think when it comes to discomfort in both to truly die, but if calyx can stop death, then there will never be decay in humanity.

this patch as well, we got old allagan gear for rewards for the fucked up lab dungeon.

aside, how the fake sphene behaves when calyx is controlling her reminds me heavily of how fandaniel acts in asahi's body. even when showing previews of 7.2. yoshi-p mentions how fake sphene's smile reminds him of asahi's face.

how a coworker of amon talks about him reminded me of calyx's line here.

this line reeeeally got me here. hermes thing the whole time was asking questions about death and living. and remember!

[just-call-me-by-yn]

TORNADO WARNINGS - spencer reid

Pairing: Spencer Reid x fem!reader Content warning: angst, first person pov (most of the fic), swearing, y/n used twice, micro mention of typical CM violence Word count: 2.4k Summary: years pass, but the love you have for Spencer doesn’t disappear. Even though he left you a long time ago and you haven't talked since… until now. a/n: my first truly angsty fic so please be gentle with me. I was playing with this concept for a while and finally got the courage to sit down and finish it recently. hope you like it!! 🤍

I’ve been thinking a lot lately, and I came to the conclusion that love is like a flower, it dies over time. But what if the hypothetical flower would be fake? What if it was made out of plastic or some other durable material? That would be true love. One that’s everlasting.

“When the last flower dies, I’ll stop loving you” he said with a shy smile passing me a fake flower bouquet. “I– JJ said it would be more romantic to give you fake flowers and say that phrase instead of giving you roses or some other fresh flowers, so I just-”

“They’re perfect, but just so you know, I will have to throw them away if they’ll die.” I replied, my tone was playful in hopes that it would calm his thoughts, which I simply knew were running at sonic speed.

The flowers made out of plastic lose color with time, the vibrance of the petals washes away and the pigment of the leaves turns into a gray-ish tone of green. But the reminder of what used to be great and strong, colored and saturated is still there.

My hand reached for the blend of fake flowers, a grimace appeared on my face. It’s been years since I’ve even talked to him. The thought came to my mind of how I shouldn’t feel this hurt after over half a decade from the break-up. I am well aware that I shouldn’t keep the flowers, not even when they bring me comfort on lonely nights, smiles on awful days, just to make me uncontrollably sob later. I know it isn’t healthy. They were the sign of empty promises. Lovely words from a liar's mouth. But I still couldn’t push myself to take them off the shelf. Throwing them away would also mean that my part of the promise would be broken as well, and I just needed that safety net to keep up the peaceful state of mind. They didn’t die yet. Sure, maybe a couple of leaves have broken off and the petals started to tear, but the fake plant was still mostly intact.

My heart didn’t feel like it was going to be mending any time soon. I wasn’t obsessing over Spencer, but when I had a rough day at work, I used to put earbuds in and play any old voicemail recordings he had left for me. The most beloved one was of him telling me how proud he was of me. It was recorded after I announced that I got promoted.

“It’s not going to work out” he muttered under his breath as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I am not interested in seeing you anymore.”

My whole body froze. Did I hear him properly? Was this a nightmare or maybe a cruel joke?

“Excuse me?” the question came out of my mouth faster than I could process it.

“I am sorry, it’s not because of you, it’s me. I just can’t continue this relationship.” he looked everywhere but not at me, which felt like opening a wound that hasn't had any time to heal.

All I could do was choke out a weak, surprised laughter as I blinked away the tears.

“It’s so cliché. You can hear it in most romantic movies.” my voice sounded like it didn’t belong to me, oddly strange.

“Actually according to Merriam-Webster the phrase was originated by Zachary Spence in a newspaper as a sporting reference, though it morphed into a break-up line in 1991, but it was widely popularized in 1993 by– what?” he answered finally giving me his attention, confused as why I couldn’t stop looking at him, but I was taking every second to let his image sink into my memory.

“It’s just that- I’m going to miss your constant rambling, the oversharing” The corners of my mouth twitched as I tried my very best to smile, even if it hurt like hell.

And I do, still, after six years, going strong with a hollow chest. The moment I took off the ring of my finger felt like a punch in the gut, though a little piece of me knew that he wouldn’t leave me without a strong, fundamental reasoning.

Now, every time I read an article about god knows what I keep asking myself: does Spencer already know that? What I tell myself, is that he is a walking encyclopedia, of course he would know. But I shouldn't care, right?

My friends repeat “life goes on” like a mantra, and my parents say “it’ll get better”. But it’s not that simple.

Not when we were planning our future together and all of a sudden it gets thrown, like pawns off the checker of a chessboard. Game over. Start again. Good luck next time… with someone else.

Of course our relationship wasn’t perfect. Though constant worrying probably has reduced my life expectancy by a long run, I would gladly rather live less with him by my side than spend eternity without him.

Then a sudden knock at the door shredded all the thoughts that occupied my head, just to replace them with a question of who could it be? It was already getting dark out early and chilly rain was hitting the windows, quickly running down the glass panes, making a calming sound.

I took one… two… three careful steps out of the bedroom, another five to the front door. My fingers touched the cover of the peephole that I was instructed to set up by Reid when I was living in my former apartment. His story about a 'murderous peeping Tom' case (which was my name for it) got stuck in my mind, so this item was the last thing I took from my old place and the first thing I installed in the new home.

A quick stare through the viewer made me stumble backwards, turn around from the door just to cover my mouth with a shaky hand and place the other arm around my stomach. Suddenly I felt the heat run through my body, that couldn’t contrast more with the weather outside. I felt sick. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and before I could regret the decision I was about to make I unlocked and opened the door.

And there he stood in all his glory though his face was drained of emotions, he had dark circles under the eyes and a shadow of stubble, quite honestly he just looked like he had seen better days. But it was still Spencer.

“How did you–”

“Garcia.” I nodded at his response. “May I come in?”

As a silent invitation I just moved away from the door frame letting him pass me in the threshold. I could feel my hands begin to tremble, my nostrils started flaring and then there was a bitter taste caused by his presence, that somehow felt like venom in my mouth. All I was thinking of at that moment was that I couldn't hold it in any longer, and that the best outlet I could think of was the door, which I slammed as hard as my strength would have let me. A loud thud filled the apartment making Spencer flinch and his hand to fly to his chest almost instantly.

“How fucking dare you, huh?” I blew up.

It was weird how quickly my emotions could change. I didn’t know that I could be this sour, until the time I heard him speak, telling me that his friend from BAU basically stalked me down, for him to walk right into my safe haven, and make all the ghosts of memories disappear and for him to stand there, flesh and blood.

“You have to hear me out. Please." He was very hurt, I could even hear it in his voice as he pleaded, but it didn’t make sense to me. At least not at first, not until he explained it to me later.

“Spencer, you broke up with me, and that was years ago. What? Did you come by to get a cookie for breaking my heart? Like goddamn it.” I was clenching and unclenching my hands, open hand to fist, again and again.

“Let me explain,” he pinched the bridge of his nose, as if the words he was about to speak were slowly causing him a headache “It wanted to protect you, and I am sincerely sorry for hurting you. You have to understand that it was all for your safety. It wasn't my intention to cause you pain.”

“What are you even talking about?” my anger was slowly washing away to let the confusion take its turn.

“I had too. There was this one unsub, when we started getting in his way he decided to target the people who were close to us . I got worried when he-” he paced around the room and he looked like he was struggling with what words to use to make it all make sense.

“When he what?” I demanded an answer.

“We found his letter addressed to us and you were on the list. It was a hit list. Breaking it off with you was the only idea I had besides trying to have someone watch over you when I couldn’t. If I told you, you would have been trying to find another way to make it work. I know you, y/n. You would try to fight and risk your life. I couldn’t let you be so reckless”

“And what took you so long to tell me about it? It’s been years” I grabbed my shirt right around the collar and crinkled it in my first. My heart was burning in an unknown sensation, that was something I couldn’t describe. I wouldn't be able to do it even now.

“He was on a run for all those years. Just leaving breadcrumbs. We finally got him a few weeks ago,” His eyes were looking everywhere but mine and it felt like agony, though it didn’t cut deeper than betrayal. “y/n you have to know I did it all because I care about you, and it hurt me as well.”

“You know, I never… never truly found anyone, I couldn’t move on and it’s all because of you. It’s because you wrecked me Spencer. Ruin me for everyone else. Because a piece of me still loves you. A piece of me waited, but-” He reached with his hand to touch on my arm “don’t you dare touch me! You have no right to just walk back in and expect me to act, as if I wasn’t lonely and feeling unwanted for over half a decade”

I couldn’t hold back tears any longer, saying those words made me finally acknowledge the feelings I felt for so many years. And it made me ache, like someone ripped my soul out, stomped on it solely to put it back into my body again.

“We were engaged for God’s sake!” I tried to stay calm. I really did. However, yelling out my feelings made me think clearer. “And I tried to be a bigger person, tried to give you space. Forget about it, but it’s hard, when you told me it wouldn’t work out, out of the blue.”

“I tried to keep you alive y/n! And I am genuinely sorry. I am not begging you to forgive me because I know it feels like it was ages ago when we were together. I just want you to consider us and try to make it through this.”

“You sound like a crazy person right now,” I shook my head in disbelief, my mouth flew agape “lying to me, hiding the truth when omitting the fact that someone was planning to take my life, one way or another… I fear this is not something I can get over Spencer.”

From the perspective of time this wasn’t the greatest fear of mine. The thing I was frightened by the most, was that I would give in too easily. I knew I was able to forgive him, deep down I was sure I would bend if he asked me again.

“Okay,” he nodded, almost like he suddenly dissociated himself completely from being present. It felt like he mentally disappeared though his body still stood tall in front of me. He was no longer confident in what he believed in after my words, like all his will to fight for the relationship that we used to have, exited his being with a single lonely tear escaping his eye. He wiped it off immediately with the back of his hand. “I better get going then.”

"I think it would be better for the both of us, if you did." The emotions started to settle in my gut. I couldn't make him stay.

"Alright. goodnight." he said those words, probably hoping this wouldn't be our last goodbye. "Just think about it, okay?"

I nodded as I opened the door before him. When he left the tears started to flow down my cheeks again. This time they were like waterfalls of my broken heart and they were running wild. I just dropped to the floor. The loud sobs were echoing through my apartment as I curled myself into a fetal position.

"So…" you started not knowing what else to say "what do you think?"

The woman on the chair next to you carefully removed her glasses and set them on the table, along with a notepad.

"I think this story you just told me is a very unique and tragic love story," she said confidently "and a very unfortunate one at that"

You shifted uncomfortably on the couch you were sitting on for the past thirty minutes. You were nervously playing with your hands and chewing on your already puffy lips. Dumping the trauma was tiring you even more than your lack of sleep, due to the situation you were still digesting.

"Then, what should I do?" you ask looking up at the therapist, expecting a clear direction.

"I am not here to tell you what you should or shouldn't do…" she said in a calm voice and took a sip of whatever was in her white mug. "My only input here is supposed to be helping you understand your emotions, however, I can tell you to trust yourself and what you decide to do, the instincts usually don't lie"

my masterlist ♥

[localplaguenurse]

quietly shuffles in on my hands and knees softly begging for some capitano fluff o lord and savior

I gotchu <3

Too Sweet

Notes: Mostly fluff but there is some description of Capitano's rotting body, but that's as far as it goes. Also a pinch of angst but it's like adding salt to sweets, it just enhances the flavours :3

While he is by no means fragile, not by a long shot, the Captain hasn’t been able to simply walk off his injuries like he used to. As time passes on, he requires more maintenance and care in order to heal from those wounds. Sometimes “heal” feels a little generous for what he has to do to recover. You fear for the day he’s delivered a blow he cannot bounce back from, or that all the things you do for him will one day stop working.

You push the thoughts of the inevitable down. Right now, the tender loving care you have for your husband is working, and it’s working to delay the inevitable. 

You reenter the bathroom, a jar tucked under your arm, and see the Captain, in all his towelled, scarred and rotting glory, sitting on the edge of the tub. While the sight of blackened patches meshed with blue veins still pains you, the shock has long since worn off. He looks up at you when you step inside, and though there is little change in his expression, his eyes meet yours with warmth. 

You offer the jar to him. “Could you be a dear and—”

He doesn’t let you finish asking before he takes the jar and immediately, effortlessly pops the lid off. He looks at the liquid gold inside before he hands it back to you. You take it and set it on the sink counter for a moment, just so you can push his hair out of his face. 

It was something you discovered by pure coincidence. You were seeking out advice for your own beauty routine, and had heard all sorts of praise for the benefits of smearing honey on your skin. It led you to do your own research on the matter, discovering honey is antibacterial and, when stored right, does not rot. This then led to you learning of its use as an embalming agent in some cultures. The puzzle pieces all lined up and snapped into place, and you bought the largest jar of honey you could find for your husband. 

You begin the process of gently cleaning his face. You had done this just half an hour ago so you could stitch the large gash in his cheek, so you’re making sure you haven’t missed a spot. You are careful where you touch; there are parts of his body that have rotted to the point the nerves don’t work, and the nerves surrounding them are often exposed and functional. His tolerance for pain may be high, but he still feels pain, so you apologize when you get too close and see his eyes twitch for a split second. It’s not a lot, but you take your time with it, and he doesn’t mind that.

The day you suggested this sort of skincare routine to Thrain, he was a little perplexed. Not so much by the science of it, he actually seemed interested when you regaled your discovery to him, but more by the mental image of you slathering him in honey. He at first told you such treatment would not be necessary, and that it would really be a waste of good honey to use it on him as his condition cannot be reversed and is not the same as cadaver rot, but he ultimately relented. He understood where your interests and concerns stemmed from, and while he had accepted this fate, he knew you didn’t like it. He figured there was no harm in indulging you for an evening, even if it felt uncomfortably sticky. The rest, as they say, is history.

“Was this not originally for you?” Thrain asks as you dip your fingers in the jar.

You scoop up a generous portion and turn back to him. “Yes, but your skin is much more delicate than mine. I can find other remedies.”

He chuckles. “Only you would describe me as delicate.”

You gently smear and spread honey on his forehead. “I’d bet good mora that your associates would call you delicate too,” you tell him, “if they weren’t so scared of you.”

“I know that you cannot be referring to the other harbingers,” he replies. 

“Maybe, maybe not.”

By now, the routine is pure muscle memory. You scoop up honey, you gently knead it into his skin, and then you repeat the process on another part of his face. You do not knead it into his exposed wounds and his rot. As the honey needs to set for a bit before you can wash it off, you begin the routine for his wounds. 

You take a moment to wash your hands so you’re not getting honey all over the bathroom again. With clean hands, you find the bandages and begin cutting them into adequately sized strips and patches. You then undo the hard work of washing honey off your hands by soaking (or rather, slathering) the bandages in honey. 

After the honey has set, you carefully but thoroughly begin cleaning it off your husband’s good skin. It’s a bit of a process, but you’re successful once more. As soon as that is done, you begin the process of applying and layering the honey dressings over his rotted, wounded skin. You continue mumbling apologies when you press into raw, live nerves. 

You layer on the final bandage, and pull your sticky hand away from his face. You observe your work, making sure everything is sufficiently cleaned or sufficiently covered. Thrain just waits for your okay to get up so he can try and get dressed.

He makes a noise in the back of his throat when you abruptly plant a kiss on his warped lips. You pull back, licking your lips, and grin. “Tastes sweet.”

He just smiles. “Surely not as sweet as you are, my dear.”

You lean in close again. “I’ll have to double check.”

[makrustic]

I want to start drawing landscape. Do you have any tips?

Took me a while to answer this (sorry anon)! Drawing landscapes for me are mostly just a matter of doing a few 'art studies' and a bit of imitating life. Here's a brief rundown of my process. I find that I learn best when I see a picture or a reference that really tickles my fancy, like these ones! First image for it's colors, and the second for it's composition.

And then I pull up the dreaded white canvas on start on a rough idea or just start dribbling out the basics: composition, a bit of color, general shapes, etc. If you have a hard time doing general landscapes, don't worry! Imagine breaking it down like this: You layer on some general colors and shapes; don't be afraid to make mistakes, you can always go back to it! Be loose and organic with it at first, we're not striving for detail yet, and just let that brush move freely. And once you got the shapes down, you can go back and forth in the canvas to start detailing. I find that it's best if you really look into how some things are "made". Like for example, how that patch of grass in your reference is made: 'is it layered? does it have some shiny bits in it that I wanna highlight? are the blades of grass sharp enough to individually detail or more clumped up together to just put in a sorta grassy blob?'. Also, don't be afraid to experiment a bit. Try putting some highlights around the edges to make it pop out more, or try putting small changes in the color you're working with; something that's close but still different, so that it compliments each other! Then it's just a matter of going forward with it; see what you like and what you wanna keep and imitate, see what you want to change or maybe just leave out on. Keep on detailing and going until you're happy with it!

This is a really brief rundown and explanation of a process that can be entire unique to each and everyone of us, and takes a bit of time and practice to pull off. But I believe in you! We all start from somewhere, sometime down the line; and that can start right now if you want it to! Goodluck to any artists out there who wanna try out landscapes. It's a fun and comforting process of organic and loose art that breathes in a lot of life in some people, especially me. Twitter | Prints | Ko-Fi | Patreon

[bonus-links]

mandatory directors commentary ask because I’m absolutely obsessed with them <333 I just think it’s really cool seeing what you put into each update it’s so interesting :)

OKAY BUCKLE UP

a kind of important piece of context that's probably missing for this conversation wake and tetra have is that they were dating and broke up fairly recently. it felt awkward to shoehorn in a line about it but there u have it. anyway that's why wake feels the need to ask tetra to keep an eye on outset in the first place. like she'd actually say no.

did u know tetra has this image of the hero of time in her room on the ship? this worked out very well for me having that in frame hehe. it's also where the sun motif in the "we're cursed" panel comes from!

i like the idea that wearing big fancy earrings is a part of formal dress across all hylian cultures, and outset is no different! these particular ones wake is wearing are based on abalone shells which i think make really beautiful jewelry :-)

i just want to call attention to this relationship chart panel. wake doesn't even know that the first thing slate did was put a sword to wolf's neck. he doesn't know how right he is

this location is the top of ganondorf's tower. it's a little bit more of a symbolic image than a memory tho. fun fact, when you look at this location in noclip tetra is just standing there without her eyes loaded in. spooky stuff

okay, now onto the big one. the flood scene! this is in fact a vision Loft had of the original divine flood that created the Great Sea, and Loft is putting the pieces together. The one in the middle is actually wind waker's hyrule castle, not a temple like i've seen a few people guess. i had this really strong image in my head of the flood starting by pouring out of Hyrule Castle. does this make sense logistically, given the barrier we see around Hyrule Castle implies it was saved from the flood? maybe not, but I couldn't get the idea out of my head, so in the comic it goes

we don't ever seen WW's castle town in the game, so I actually used OOT's castle town as a reference. I just really needed a reference for this or else my head was gonna explode lol. that's also OOT's death mountain, which is mostly just there to show the spread of the flood.

this ending bit with the flood is kind of intended to be a continuation of the Farosh scene on the bridge. Loft is going to continue to have and be reminded of terrible visions of the future, and that anxiety he has around that isn't going to just go away. But I really wanted a scene where he acts on what Slate told him on the bridge— don't pity this place. He snaps himself out of it and chooses to join the party.

another note on that last panel lol, the person who's waving to him is Rose, the pig lady from the bonus comic!

alrighty I think that's all I got for now

[eliza-forget]

Do you have any advice or tips with drawing? Any will help me I hope you have a good day

I think it would help to analyze references in the beginning, to build up a visual library

I was taught at university to first see the general masses, the silhouette. This method is called “general to particular”. And due to this stage, it is much easier for you to perceive the image, the composition as a whole, rather than running straight away to draw eyes, hands or other details

Starting with a silhouette also helps to create character designs in the future ✍️

Then you can already outline the construction, the middle forms. Again without small details, but you can leave a hint of them with the help of auxiliary lines.

I don't really work with tone so much at this stage, I just showed you how you can even use it to outline light shading (also common masses)

It also helps to do chopped, rough construction with a couple lines. I would generally advise practicing confidence in hand movements and understanding of general shapes. How clean your sketches are will help you navigate more easily in the future. And general shapes affect mostly how you can stylize body parts, how you understand their construction based on simple geometric shapes. It's a mistake to think that working with a reference is a one-to-one repetition of the original image. Artists use some kind of distortion of proportions, changing details or a little pose based on experience to make a character or work more dynamic

And then you can go into detail 💅

--------

I mean, already as in my experience I say that repeating or re-learning the base, which is lines, shapes, improves your drawing skill.

Because the faster you get through sketches, the faster you can move on to other stages of drawing, and still make fewer fundamental mistakes

And if you want to study anatomy, plastic anatomy would be the way to go for artists. I worked up my anatomy by looking at books and tutorials from the authors belowotome ↓

The authors of this book post tutorials using 3D models on Pinterest and ArtStation

I realized for myself that I am not a classical artist, that learning from the works and books of old academic masters is boring and not interesting to me. My approach is to analyze not only nature, but also 3d models. Analysis of 3d models helps with understanding of shapes in space, light shading and “what are occlusions” for game rendering ↓

Like this :D. But this is already relatively my old work and now I can do better, but I'm lazy

I hope my tips were helpful 🗣️

[vaos-studios]

2.0 Satellite Investors, aka the Kuiper Family! (1/2)

ngl this was very fun to make, the satellites didn't stand out to me at first when i got into ttcc but i think they're my favorite family now...except for the mafia part /silly

Gonna be yapping (a lot) about all their designs and headcanons i gave em below, starting from the oldest of the family to the youngest:

(i tend to refer to a lot of the satellites by they/them)

Cosmo Kuiper:

Head of the Family, and as expected the most experienced when it comes to perfectly legal activities and covering up their tracks.

Character design is modeled after a comet! The comet tail is unbearably cold to the touch, so much so it freezes and destroys anything that comes near it. He's burned through a couple hats...

Cosmo and all of the satellites contain some sort of freezing insulation that keeps them operating smoothly when they're not in a cold environment.

Not very visible in the image but Cosmo wears multiple rings that have the planets on them. Earth, Mars, Venus, etc.

Side note: I genuinely love that Cosmo has a good relationship with the Satellites. Originally I thought it was gonna be one of those "villain boss bullies his lackies" but this is so much more wholesome

Charon:

Cosmo's right hand man, the two have known each other the longest out of all the satellites. Substitutes for Cosmo when he's unavailable.

Has a rather silent and threatening personality. Never raises his voice unless he has too. The oldest and most responsible of the satellites, usually being the one that keeps them all in line.

Color palette takes from a black agate geode!

Character design was semi-modeled after an astronaut! I also learned (unfortunately way after I designed him) that he actually has the attack "Pecking Order" which is mostly only used by bird-coded characters, which is pretty cool! I'll think about giving him more bird qualities in the future.

Almost always covered in cold mist and icicles, mostly because he never leaves the freezer.

Charon has a shady past he never talks about, no matter how much the others pester him about it. The only clue being some old metal gauntlets he passed down to Kerberos.

The most physically intimidating of the Family, toons really avoid confronting him...

Charon now has a cheat called "Freezer Burn."

Hydra:

This guy might be my fav. Usually the one behind the reception desk and phone during operating hours. This may explain why so many toons complain of lazy service...

Color palette takes from a sapphire geode with gold veins!

Hydra's personality is rather chill and even-tempered. There aren't a lot of things that grind his gears but whatever happens, do not give him a reason to brawl. Hydra lives for getting his hands dirty when the opportunity presents itself, and it will get ugly.

Character design took inspiration from the mythological beast, the Hydra. Therefore, he has many serpent qualities! Hydra normally has 3 eyes, each eye belonging to a different serpent head. The longer the Plutocrat battle progresses the more heads/eyes he gains. When the number of heads hit 9, Hydra is defeated.

A lot of mechanical noise can be heard from under his coat...

He also has serpent fangs and a tongue (yes he can smell through this), as well as having a retractable serpent tail. The tail originally had a normal rattle at it's end but it froze over. Still works though!

Hydra's character of inspiration was Rattlesnake Jake from Rango, who undeniably might have the sickest character design I've ever seen (I don't have a lot of hills to die on but that's one of them).

Hydra now has a cheat called "Poisonous breath."

Nix:

Essentially the middle child. Does in fact own a hat and coat like the others, but Nix doesn't wear it often.

He and Styx are usually the ones seen managing Mozzarella Styx. Nix does all the numbers, checks all the inventory, and often helps Styx in waitressing whenever it's busy. (also takes turns being the cook with Hydra).

Color Palette takes from an amethyst geode!

Outside of the mafia business, Nix has in interest in stargazing and astrology. They own a pretty powerful telescope and occasionally goes to Dreamland to study the constellations. Kerberos usually picks on them for being a nerd (they have the closest age range).

( Character inspiration for Nix may or may not be Donatello specifically from ROTTMNT ) ( i have yet to actually watch the series but from the clips i saw it looks pretty good and the art style is a banger )

Kerberos:

On the younger side of the Family. Very rarely seen behind the reception desk, which if he is- it's best to just turn around and walk back out.

Extremely snappy and bad-tempered, it doesn’t take much to get on their nerves. And unlike Hydra, he doesn’t need an excuse to pummel you into the ground. He tries very hard to come off as intimidating and scary. Carries anti-toon spray, but honestly prefers beating people up.

Color palette takes from an emerald green dioptase!

Kerberos has 3 heads based off the mythological beast, Cerebus. Each head has different types of sharp teeth, and can rotate 180 degrees in both directions.

Actually the second satellite to be inspired by Rattlesnake Jake! This time it's only his voice though.

Inherited Charon's old metal gauntlets—they're huge, worn, and very heavy—but Kerberos revels in the power they give him. He looks for any excuse to bully toons with them. When he’s not wearing the gauntlets, he sports steel-knuckled gloves instead. He also wraps his forearms to make himself look more buff.

Kerberos's original job for Mozzarella Styx was being the janitor but he absolutely refuses to do this, instead he serves as security along with the Plutogram.

There is something Kerberos is hiding...and he'd rather die than tell anyone about it.

Styx:

The youngest of the satellites and the face of Mozzarella Styx Pizzeria (they love to brag about their name being on the front of the restaurant).

Styx has a very friendly and bubbly personality compared to the rest of the Family. Despite being the most approachable, they should not be underestimated. Because they work customer service.

Color palette takes from an blue celestite geode!

Being the main waiter and receptionist of the restaurant, they've become an expert in the field. And being Mozzarella Styx's first line of defense, they do a pretty good job of disposing intrusive toons ( Styx also carries anti-toon spray with them just in case ).

Despite how difficult it can get now, Styx really does love their job.

Styx is the one that spends the most time outside the freezer, and grew rather accustomed to higher temperatures. They're also the most critical when it comes to the quality of the food the restaurant produces.

Owns a hat and coat like the rest as well.

Plutogram:

The newest addition to the family, and a virtual replica of Cosmo. Technically Plutogram is genderless (y'know being a hologram) but I like to think they go by any pronouns

Despite only being a hologram with no mind of its own, the satellites like to consider Plutogram to be their own person. They like referring to them as "Big Blue."

While Plutogram's main purpose is to protect Mozzarella Styx during the night, they can take over any job necessary (Styx taught them how to cook).

This character's hat is modeled after a black hole and their cape takes after a galaxy (somewhat inspired by SU White Diamond's cape).

I'm also really guilty of giving this character several nicknames like: the 6th satellite, 6th secretary, Ursa Major, Orion, etc. One of my favorites has to be Donna though.

Plutogram has multiple modes, 2 of which I named Free-roam and Mimic for convivence.

Free-roam means the hologram has control over its own actions, and executes what ever actions it thinks will be beneficial to it's owner, in this case Cosmo. It can also be told what to do by others in this mode (toons can take this to their advantage).

Mimic means the hologram mimics what ever Cosmo does. While in this mode, Cosmo is able to speak through the hologram and will absorb any damage done to it.

Damn that was a lot longer than i thought it was gonna be, and this is only 1/2-

2nd part will be about The Satellites' dynamics / relationships with each other (spoiler it's mostly a sibling relationship lol)

[dawnatdaybreak]

EDEN 4164616D Lyric... process??

hello :) I wrote the lyrics for EDEN 4164616D on MACHINA MORI and a few other people are doing little lyric analysis/writing process things and I was like hey! I could do that! if you have your own analysis of these lyrics that might differ from how I wrote them initially: do not let my "official" interpretation make yours any less valid! feel free to share your analysis before you read this (or after!) if you want, I like to see what people think of my writing! but the main thing is that whatever EDEN made you feel, my intended meaning should not take that away from you

there are a few things I might keep a little secret for now because I might still be working on some lore that will be revealed later ;) but I'll talk about the main writing process and ideas I wanted to convey with this song in and of itself and you can dig into the lore later once it's done!

Giving content warnings for: Biblical imagery, talk of mortality and death. Analysis is all below the cut!

First of all, the little disjointed "a-a-a-a-ah" at the start was an intentional idea from me! I wanted it to sound kind of like a startup sound or like Rei was initializing her vocals for the first time. The background "ah"s later on were entirely Dav-P's doing though I cant take any credit for those! I can suggest you give them a careful listen though :)

The entire song is written to be directly from the perspective of EDEN's Rei, and I had something of a narrative in mind for it. It's a story as much as it's a song, and I put a lot of parallels in some of the verses between each other that I had a lot of fun with. I love writing I love words I love music I love this song!! I really am so glad I got to write it.

undefined Adam electric amalgam sparks intertwine in this vessel of steel sculpted in your image what am I?

This first section doesn't have a whole lot to dig into, it's mostly setting up for something later on and giving the impression of EDEN's Rei at initialization and how she feels (or rather, doesn't.) The use of the phrases "this vessel" and "sculpted" in place of the more human terms she will use for herself later in the song is very intentional! "Undefined Adam" is a very early lead in to the biblical imagery I used occasionally throughout the song, and also sets up the very basic premise of how Rei views herself and the world she is being born into: she is to humanity as Adam is to God, a new being made in the image of man as man was made in the image of God.

I cannot be one of a kind show me everything I want to feel the wind on my face the sea against my skin if you'd call it that

This section is largely also here to establish Rei's feelings, but she has a few more of them to dig into now! She is capable of want and what she wants is to feel, even if her wanting that shows she already has the capacity for it. She has this desire to experience the things that humans wax poetic about, the sea breeze and the waves on your skin. "If you'd call it that" refers directly to the mention of skin- Rei is a machine made of metal, so it's hard to really say if skin is what the surface of her body should be called. She's humanizing herself to an extent here, but she's also backtracking, putting that distinct separation between her body and a human body even though her initial instinct is to call them the same.

hello world teach me how to fly make me feel alive I don't know what am I? trapped in endless time

Hello, world! I was honestly worried that line would be a bit of a low hanging fruit and everyone was going to use it, but I couldn't resist it. And I'm glad I did put it in after! I'm pretty pleased with the second use of it but that's getting a bit ahead of myself.

This section is largely about Rei "waking up" more, coming to terms a bit more with her feelings and circumstances. She wants to learn what it means to be a person, but not necessarily "human"- there's still a big divide between her and humanity that should become clearer as the song progresses. "Teach me how to fly" is largely metaphorical here, but there might be something fun that comes of that in the lore later if you want to stay tuned for it ;) "Trapped in endless time" refers to the immortality of machines. Rei does not think her time on Earth will ever end, and while she knows that separates her from humanity she isn't really sure what that makes her.

hollow and heartless emptiness I can't fix somehow I find you reflect in me oh make me in your image divine light

"Hollow and heartless, emptiness I can't fix" is meant to show how Rei views herself here as empty and lacking in a heart in both a literal and figurative sense. She views herself as incapable of doing anything about this because she lacks the power over herself that her creators have over her. "Somehow I find, you reflect in me" is in reference to a common trope I may have borrowed for this, in which an android/machine's creators won't treat them with any sort of kindness or love no matter how human their creation is meant to be. EDEN Rei's creators view her as a means to an end and nothing more- her heartlessness is reflected in them. "Make me in your image" and its variations will be a recurring phrase, once again intending to draw on the biblical imagery of humans being made in the image of God. "Divine light" further refers to this- Rei views humanity and all of its facets as divine and unreachable to her without outside intervention.

the way I see you I want to be seen too strip away my inhumanity oh make me in your image heart and mind

This entire section is meant to establish how Rei wants to be seen as a person and granted the respect humans have for each other. She is made so similar to a human, but she is still not owed the respect being human commands, so she wants to be more similar to her creators. There is still a separation between her and them, hence, "make me in your image, heart and mind".

I cannot forget how she cried the stars in her eyes I want to know how did she catch the divine? is her dream lost to time? should I make it mine?

This is yuri by the way. The "she" referred to here is largely a secret for now, but she is someone Rei fell in love with, and she is also a machine. "How did she catch the divine?" may imply that this other machine actually grasped the human emotions Rei has been chasing... but "is her dream lost to time?" implies there wasn't a happy ending to this story. The main takeaway from this for tying into the rest of the song is this: Rei has loved someone, and that someone is now out of her reach.

hello world or is this goodbye? did I do this right? I don’t know why am I running out of time?

Hello, world! I actually wrote this section before the other hello world section, and "hello world, or is this goodbye?" is probably one of my favourite sets of lines I wrote for this song. This is meant to be a somewhat direct parallel to the earlier section- where before Rei was "trapped in endless time", she is running out now. She isn't sure how much time she has left or if she has any at all, and she doesn't know whether she's used any of her time existing effectively. There's meant to be just a bit of fear or grief in the lyrics here: where before Rei's "I don't know" was in the context of not understanding the world around her and being inquisitive about it and her place in it, it's now in a context of not being sure she lived up to whatever expectations she found for herself, and not being sure she has enough time to change any of it.

burn with a new flame agonizing outbreak I don't want this but I'll never escape unmake me in your image I won't fight

"Burn with a new flame, agonizing outbreak" refers to the sudden and painful experience Rei is having with her own mortality, and is meant to imply anger or hatred towards the creators who made her feel this way. "I don't want this, but I'll never escape" as well as the "I won't fight" is here largely because despite everything she is feeling right now and her newly realized anger, Rei is not going to fight the fate she sees laid out in front of her. "Unmake me in your image" is to indicate that Rei knows she is about to be destroyed, and she's accepted this.

poetic irony everything denied me finally felt just a moment too late unmake me in your image why do I cry?

"Everything denied me, finally felt, just a moment too late" is another of my favourite lines I wrote for this, possibly one of my favourite lines I've written in general. "Everything denied me" is emotion, "just a moment too late" is indicating that it doesn't matter anymore. Despite her acceptance of her fate, Rei is hurting. She asks "why do I cry?" which is as much a question of why she is literally crying as it is a question of why it hurts so much to feel the things she has viewed this far as divine.

tell me how I'm meant to feel tell me if my heart is real make me what I wasn't meant to be tell me why, god, why? tell me why, god, who then am I? tell me why

This section includes the vocals that continue into the last two sections and is meant to kind of be the last few questions Rei has about her creation and destruction. She was built with the capacity to feel, but what was she supposed to do with that? If she is able to feel, does that mean she truly does have a heart? "Make me what I wasn't meant to be" is her final way of rebelling against her creators: she still wants to be human, to be divine, even after everything. The final questions are to do with her death. "Tell me why" is a demand for answers to everything. Why was she made? Why does she have to be unmade? "Who then am I?" is the question of who she is now, but also who she was supposed to be from the start.

pre-defined Adam electric amalgam fingers entwine in my body of steel you unmake me in your image  scrap and wire

We get to revisit the first section now! This is a direct parallel to how Rei felt at the start of the song, while also showing that she is being disassembled in this moment. "Pre-defined Adam" in comparison to the earlier "undefined Adam" is to show that Rei knows now that who she was supposed to be was decided for her. "Fingers entwine in my body of steel" is meant to evoke the idea that someone is actively taking her apart in these last moments, and also parallel the earlier mentions of her body as "this vessel". Rei has come to view her body as hers, as opposed to just a vessel as she did at the start. "Scrap and wire" is simply what Rei knows she will become after she is taken apart.

mourning my own fate artificial heartbreak why do I love if I'm made just to hate? you unmake me in your image I don't want to die

This is probably my favourite section from the whole song I'm very proud of it. "Mourning my own fate" is fairly straightforward: Rei is about to die and she has to mourn herself. "Artificial heartbreak" mostly just sounds cool but also has to do with that grief, and in part to do with how Rei still doesn't view herself as human but instead as something else. "Why do I love if I'm made just to hate?" seems to be a line people really liked but unfortunately I can't say much about what it means here... it might have something to do with the circumstances around EDEN Rei's creation though! The rest is mostly more of the same and also self explanatory. Despite everything she has been through to reach this point, in her final moments Rei views herself as alive, and she doesn't want her life to end.

The scream at the end was also my plan and is meant in part to parallel the "startup sound" at the beginning! It's also where Rei dies, being fully disassembled by her creators. Although, maybe her consciousness could have escaped somewhere...? Been uploaded, maybe...? ;)

so yeah that was long and some of it was probably a lot more in depth than it needed to be but that's my writing process and main ideas for EDEN 4164616D! I really am proud of how this came out as a song and as a narrative, and I hope if you were interested enough in it to read this far you'll also be interested enough to keep an eye out for something that may or may not be related to it that might crop up either shortly before or after the MV releases!

if you're at all curious about anything else I didn't talk about here feel free to send me an ask about it!! I love talking about my writing process and seeing what people liked and disliked about what I made (and talking about anything else too!) so I'd be happy to see what people are curious about :)

[starmybunny]

hey there!! I LOVE your god designs OMGGG

How did you come up with them pretty god designs/are there any hidden references in them?? and do you have a Hestia design?

When I want to design specific god, I will take times designing them in my head first, like, what colors should I use, which part of them should be most focus, if I got the ideas, then I'll start sketching them

for example, Poseidon

Surfer dude vibe, with tan lines and tropical elements

His hair is the main focus of his design, his old design literally had water/bubble hair, the new design inspired by sandy underwater view, a little wavy/flowy like he's in underwater all the time

His accessories are fish nets or silver, because Zeus is using bronze, and Hades using gold, something, something trio stuffs

The hardest part is.. make him feel like he IS Poseidon, or atleast God of the Sea, not just random man with ocean elements, because people mostly have an image of Poseidon being middle aged man, to me who only able to draw twinks, it's tough 😭

For Hestia design, I just posted her days ago 💖

[jibitzlesscrocs]

How would reader tell Matt she’s pregnant again? How would Riley react finding out she’s gonna be a big sister?

can’t believe you predicted the next fic !! HAHA

matt sturniolo x reader

warning : pregnancy, mentions of loneliness, references of past chapters

the whole series and more

kid for the day pt. 6

in which, matt notices riley is lonely

It was one of those slow, rainy afternoons where time felt like it stretched just a little too long. The kind where the house was too quiet—no giggles, no arguments over sparkly aprons, no Mila charging through the living room like a glitter tornado.

Riley sat by the window with her chin on the windowsill, watching the rain fall with the kind of sigh that seemed too big for a four-year-old. Her princess dress was wrinkled, the tea party set untouched on the floor beside her.

“She asked me twice when Mila’s coming back,” Matt said quietly, standing in the kitchen beside you, arms crossed, watching her with soft eyes.

“She misses her,” you murmured, glancing over at him. “They’re thick as thieves lately.”

Matt leaned against the counter, quieter now. “It’s not just that. I think… I think she gets lonely.”

You turned to him, tilting your head. “She’s got us.”

He nodded. “She does. And we love her more than anything. But… it’s different. Watching her today, playing alone, making up conversations like someone’s supposed to be answering back. I don’t know—it hit me. She’s got so much love in that tiny body. She wants someone to share it with.”

He paused, his voice softer now. “And… so do I.”

You looked up at him, heart fluttering in a way that was familiar and brand new at once.

Matt stepped closer, his hand gently finding yours. “I think it might be time. For another little heartbeat in the house. A baby for her to grow up with. And for us to fall in love with all over again.”

Tears pricked the corners of your eyes—not from sadness, but from the rush of love, from the image of Riley as a big sister, from the sound of Matt’s voice wrapped in hope.

“You really want that?” you asked.

He smiled, brushing his thumb over your knuckles. “Yeah. I want it for her. I want it for us. Another bedtime story, another highchair at the table. A little more chaos. A little more love.”

You leaned into him, already picturing Riley holding a baby sibling with the gentlest hands, showing them how to sprinkle pretend cupcakes, how to roar like a dinosaur.

“She’d be the best big sister,” you whispered.

Matt kissed your temple. “She really would.”

And in the other room, Riley pressed her nose against the foggy glass, humming to herself, completely unaware that the next chapter of her story had already begun—with love, with laughter, and maybe, just maybe… with a brand-new teammate on the way.

It started with quiet conversations.

Pillow talk, mostly. Whispers in the dark while Riley was asleep down the hall. “What if we did?” Matt would ask, his voice soft against your shoulder. “What if we tried?”

You’d laugh sometimes, teasing, “You mean right now?” But deep down, your heart was already unfolding around the idea.

Trying started with nervous excitement. Calendar apps. A fresh box of ovulation strips. And Matt—bless him—reading articles like he was prepping for an exam. “Did you know pineapple core helps with implantation?” he’d say seriously, handing you a bowl of chopped fruit like it was some ancient fertility offering.

You tried to keep it light. Sometimes it felt like a game. Other times it felt like a prayer.

And through it all, Riley was blissfully unaware. She played doctor with her dolls and lined up her plush animals, tucking them in like she was already practicing.

“Why are you taking another test, Mama?” she asked one morning, her curious eyes peeking around the bathroom door.

You smiled, heart thudding. “Just checking something.”

Matt knelt beside her. “Mama might have a baby in her belly.”

Her eyes lit up. “LIKE A PENGUIN?!”

“Uh—sort of,” Matt said, trying not to laugh. “But less feathers.”

The first two months passed with no news. You caught Matt staring at the unused onesies you kept folded in Riley’s memory box, trying not to look disappointed.

Then, one rainy morning—early, before the sun even had a chance to peek up—you stood in the bathroom blinking down at two pink lines.

Your breath hitched. You blinked again. And again.

Matt stumbled in seconds later, still groggy. “Babe? You okay?”

You turned, test trembling in your hand. “Matt.”

He blinked down at the stick, then at you.

Then he screamed.

Not loudly. Not dramatically. Just this quiet, emotional little yelp like something sacred had just been handed to him. He pulled you into his arms, practically crushing you against him.

“She’s gonna be a big sister,” he whispered into your hair. “Oh my god. We’re doing this again.”

The aftermath was a blur of joy.

Riley insisted on making the announcement with a drawing of “her baby,” which looked like a smiling potato. You put it on the fridge like it was a Picasso.

Matt read your pregnancy app updates every morning like they were breaking news. “Today the baby’s the size of a kiwi,” he’d announce at breakfast. “Not to brag, but I grow excellent fruit.”

And when the nausea hit hard in the first trimester, he became a one-man support team—holding your hair, rubbing your back, bribing you with toast and saltines.

At night, Riley would talk to your belly. “Hi baby. I saved you my shiny rock. And if you want my bunny, we can share.”

Matt would just watch with that look—that soft, overwhelmed, completely in love look.

“Thank you,” he’d whisper to you sometimes, like the words weren’t enough. “For saying yes. For this life.”

And all you could do was kiss him, hand over your heart, already full of everything yet to come.

taglist: @courta13 , @sunkissedsturniolos , @ivysturnss , @imsoborediwannadie , @emeraldsturns , @beabadoobeelvur , @moth-feeet

MAI’S STORE

omg yall … i’ve had this in my drafts for the perfect time to post this as a surprise but yall are too fast with the request…. HAHA but yayyyyy dad!matt gets another baby… or is he ?

[mithrandirl]

i always get questions when i do a split gifset, and it's a deceptively simple process so i thought i'd try to show how i do it! i don't know if these types of gifsets have a more universally recognized name, but that's what i call them so that's what i'm going with.

i'm going to write this assuming you have a solid familiarity with photoshop and making gifs, but please feel free to send me an ask if anything is unclear. i use video timeline/smart objects so will be showing that (here's a great general tutorial on giffing with timeline). i will also be talking A LOT about gif dimensions, so first let's briefly go over the limits and theory a little bit.

a 1 column gifset can accommodate gifs 540 pixels wide

2 columns = 268 pixels each with a 4 pixel gutter between

3 columns = 177, 178, 177 pixels with 4 pixel gutters

i'm mostly going to talk about 2 column split gifs here (what i will refer to as 2x1 from now on - 2 across and 1 high), but the process is the same for 3 column (3x1) and so on (1x2, 2x2, etc).

so, why would you even want to make a gifset like this? i mean, let’s face it, generally, bigger is better for gifs on tumblr, and there are obvious incentives to 540 width gifs over 268 or 177/8 width, especially since the upload limit went to 10MB. but even 10MB isn’t much when you’re talking about high quality footage. gif making is a constant balance between quality (whatever that means to you: frame dimensions, sharpening, coloring, etc) and file size. split gifs are a cheat to that limitation >:)

i personally believe an untapped frontier of tumblr gifmaking is playing with dimensions and time. that sentence makes me sound like an old-timey sci-fi villain, but you get the idea: gifmaking is an art and there are many fun and interesting ways of exploring the medium. you can do a lot with 268 pixels! longer frame loops to gif longer scenes unbroken, bolder coloring on a wide shot you don’t want to pare down. and, a shorter x axis means the y axis’s bang goes a lot further on a buck. also just if you have a 2 column set but only 5 gifs so you need to make one take up 2 slots. there's a lot of reasons but the most important one is it's fun :) here are some examples of other split gifs i've made: x, x, x

this isn't so much a limitation, more of a shift in how you think about gifs, but it's important to remember that each gif should ideally be doing something still. when making split gifs, it’s easy to pick a wide scene without thinking about how it’ll be split down the middle, and then you’re left with a lot of something on one side and a lot of incongruous nothing on the other - or you're left with a person cut in half awkwardly in the middle. so while a split gif can still be a whole scene, you shouldn’t ignore the break and what it means to the bigger picture. now this is personal preference, but i like to play with the break and make it a part of the gifset. mirrored movement, subjects trapped on either side but still talking to each other, a bird flying from one side to the other. fun with frames! it can be another way of drawing attention to specific images/moments/feelings happening within the same shot.

SIMPLE SPLIT GIFS

to more narrowly define what i’m calling “simple split gifs,” it’s one set of frames split down the middle into two separate gifs that are meant to play concurrently, side by side.

first thing's first, crop your gif and uncheck delete cropped pixels if it is not already (very important). i'm cropping it to the 1x1 size, in this case 268x350. if you need to see how the full size will look, you can try it out with 536 first. but this one is pretty easy, this is the exact center of the frame (the left boundary of this crop is the center line) and both their heads fit within their respective 1x1 crop.

then color as you normally would. if your scene is very different one side to the other, it might be easier for you to color on a wider crop and then either crop again or copy paste your coloring to the smaller crop version. i do that with the 2x6s, but it's usually not that big a deal to color the 2x1s with just the small crop on your canvas at the time. this scene is very symmetrical, both in movement and colors, so i'm good.

now the fun part! once you've got one side how you want it, save/export as you normally would. at this point i also like to make a mental note of how many frames there are.

so i have 49 frames and it's still only ~3MB! this is just an example that i picked from my rotk fancy set, otherwise i probably would have made this gif longer.

then onto the other side, so i ctrl + z my way back to my smart object video timeline. to get to theoden i just drag and drop the smart object 268 pixels over. since this one is in the exact center of the image, it even helpfully guides me (this can get annoying if you are NOT giffing the center of the image fyi, but you can always manually go pixel by pixel too if you need to with your <- -> keyboard buttons. just always remember where you started and count accurately). i can never move around my smart object without hiding the adjustment layers on top of it, so you'll see me do that in this screen recording.

see how it corrected me when i dragged it a few pixels down by accident, and with all those pink guidelines? sometimes photoshop is good 😌

then make sure you still like the coloring, adjust whatever needs to be adjusted, but watch out! don't make any major changes because it still has to match the other side. and export again.

what we perceive as 1 series of frames chopped down the middle is just 2 separate gifs with the same frame rate. when tumblr loads the images, it will run concurrently in the post (even though it never does in the draft post 🙄). and that's it!

COMPLEX SPLIT GIFS

again i'm making up terms, but i call anything with more than 2 components a complex split gifset. i've tweaked some things in the process as i went along, but this is generally how i did the lotr series. these sets are basically just many split gifs with transitions. and here's where endurance becomes a factor :) there's a lot of prep done blind. but if set up well, it will be fairly easy to pull together by the end.

first i decide on my dimensions, using my upper bounds to determine how big i'm going to go. since lotr has very nice large file sizes, i can go pretty big without sacrificing much in quality. i decided on 3 rows of 350 pixel height gifs and it's worked well for me. that means my biggest gif will have a total height of 1050 pixels - fun! you could also do 8 rows, with two 2x2s or just a series of 2x1s that transition to 1x1s. there really is no limit to this except your imagination and source material.

i cap everything i'm going to use before i even open photoshop, then do all of them at once. uncheck delete cropped pixels, then i make my gifs! this is where i spend 90% of the time on this set. every gif should be the size of the smallest 1x1 gif (268x350 for me). i make all 10 into a fully colored, separate psd. (and then i usually go back through all of them a few times to get the colors to match better 😅) for the bigger ones (2x1: 536x350 and 2x6: 536x1050), i just crop them as if they were 1x1 but always thinking about how they will look when big. this gets tricky when i do the big one :) my lazy workaround for that is to basically make it twice: one cropped as it will be and one full size for me to color. then i copy and paste all the coloring layers onto the small one and voila, i know that the coloring in the upper right slice will also look good on the bottom left slice 1050 pixels away because i saw it on the full size version.

coloring is probably the biggest thing i'm thinking about with this kind of set. the whole idea is that these gifs are using the same colors, more or less, throughout each phase. even with the 1x1s, they're still part of a larger color concept, and they should (🤞) work with each other.

in a pinch, i like to eyedrop a color from one gif and add it as an accent to another. one of my 1x1s had a much more muted color palette originally, but i wanted it to have deeper blues and yellows to complement the 1x1 that would go next to it, so i added some gradients on lower opacity over it, color picked from other gifs i already colored.

i keep my coloring and the smart object in separate folders to help me in the final step of combining everything, and then i trim everything down to my lowest common denominator of frames. you might think you need to keep frames pretty minimal if you're doing 3 phases with transitions like this, but there's more room to work with on a small gif, in terms of file size. i usually do 30-50 frames for each phase, with the assumption that i'll be adding a transition on each side of each gif that will eat up some frames (i usually do 4-6 frame fade transitions). for the rotk set my final frame count was 129 and i never went over 8MB on a gif, so there's plenty of space play around with things :)

and then, combine! whatever order you start with, you are stuck with (unless you're getting even more complicated, but we won't go into that lol). for these sets i go small 1x1 -> medium 2x1 -> big 2x6. i like to think of it in phases from this point on. small is the first phase, then medium, then big. then i put in the fade transitions, chopping up the first phase gif so the last one will fade into it, restarting the whole cycle seamlessly. i'm just doing a quick and dirty fade here, but here's a tutorial if you want more explanation on transitions.

at this point i save this psd as its position, "top left" or whatever (usually it's a psb by this point too 🥲), just in case i need to go back to it. then i export this first gif and move on to the rest.

it's the same concept as a simple split gif: drag and drop the smart object to the new position, but now there are multiple phases to keep track of. folder organization has been key for me to keep everything straight. i move through the gifs in a backwards S, starting with the top left. but you could go any direction, just gotta stick with it and remember your counts. in my case, i'm always thinking of 268 pixels over and, for the 2x6, 350 up/down. it's a tedious process, but it goes quick (apart from waiting for photoshop to load each time you export).

i did this series as a color concept aesthetic kind of thing, so my theory was by using the same-ish colors throughout, that would save me in the end when it came time to export. there's only 256 colors max to work with on a gif, and that's usually what gets me over the 10MB limit. but as i said, i have never even gotten close to the size limit on this series. it's pretty hard to reach the limit on 268 pixels, but not impossible. (i did run into that on the emma set i did, and that was hell. but also not an impossible fix in the end.)

and that's it! if you try any of this and have trouble, i'm happy to help if i can but mostly this is a "click around and see what works for you" kind of process. and feel free to tag me on your split gifsets :) i love seeing them <3

[goneatlas]

while i'm here (feeling some type of way over TAD lyrics again) i might as well finally write down things i've thought of whenever i listen to Not Yet/Love Run (Reprise)

none of these are by all means very coherent but well here goes:

part 1 - looking at the lyrics itself (not for the whole song just the first couple of verses)

in the chorus of the Not Yet part of the song, when joey sings "sing me awake with a song about pirates", he's referring to verse 1 and verse 2 where madeleine was singing about pirates, whereas he was singing "it seems to me that you can't sleep"

verse 1 of the song: in its entirety it seems as though madeleine is singing about being pirates, pillaging lands and sailing the seas, but i think it could also be read as a bid for a lover's attention, the reason why she's waking him up in the dead of night probably. "by hook or by crooked look give me land" the crooked look play on words here makes me think that she's saying that even though he might disapprove of being woken up, she'll still make that bid for his time (give me land).

the line "one fist holds a lighter, the other your hand" is fascinating to me. mainly because it reminds me of this line from a fic that said "i stand at the precipice of peace, in one hand i hold a knife, the other, a gift." so it makes me wonder whether it was meant as something like that (connection in one hand vs antagonism in the other) OR if it might be just be threat (i have your hand. and also a lighter) but the image of threat is mostly because of the witcher (rience burning jaskier's hand) and because of the next line "the ohs of your screams still echo in your dreams". BUT it's also most likely that what that lines means is that madeleine's character woke joey's in the middle of the night, so the lighter provides them the light as she leads him by the hand to "go on adventures" (play as pirates)

when the song goes, once again, "it seems to me that you can't sleep" the song softens once more, and to me it really brings forth the image that joey's persona is still sleepy from being woken up, as opposed to madeleine's almost manic energy of someone who hasn't gone to sleep at all

verse 2 continues with the song about pirates. "grab the stroud and we'll roar come and get us" the stroud, if we're going by the pirate imagery, would be the sailcloth, but in reality, that stroud must be their blanket. she woke him up to make pillow forts, "but instead we'll build a den out of pillows"

"the wind picks up up up and i'll never let you down // it's time to fight don't be yellow-bellied // hold the bar at hurley's hurly-burly's, give em hell, give em hell" sounds to me as though these were "the things we'll do today" i.e. facing their fears and their pronlems but they don't end up doing that, they've just. made forts

part 2 - stuff i noticed in the song that's real neat to me

when madeleine sang "if my old mum could see me now oh how she'd howl she'd howl" she's howling in the background

during the Love Run part of the song, when the lyrics go "let the world come at you, love, like distant toms a-drumming" the drum beat starts and it's rhythmic right, but then when the lyrics go "let the world a-tumble love" the toms also go a-tumbling, because the toms represent the world. idk it's fun to me

yeah i did say none of these were going to be coherent it's 3am. anyways think about Not Yet being about them not facing their fears, holding each other's hands in the pillow fort (having fucknasty unemployed sex? 😭 what did joey mean by that 😭) and Love Run's about how the world is catching up to them

[twst-hottest-takes]

I sent that ask about Malleus's treatment being unfair and now that it's over I'm going to make my point more clear, since it seems it wasn't last time.

Malleus's crimes:

-Putting people to sleep on a wide scale

-Less injuries that a *sports* tournament (according to Epel)

The other overblots' crimes:

-Attempted murder, including targeted murder and wiping out *all life* (aka murder on a wide scale)

Malleus's consequences:

-Accidentally killed his own father

-Physically maimed

-Magically disabled

-Losing the entire foundation of who he is and having to rebuild his identity from scratch

-The trauma of his actions

The other overblots' consequences:

-Riddle was socially shunned for a while (and even this is shown mostly in other media, not the game)

-The trauma of their actions

Meanwhile the other overblots say that Malleus deserves further punishment (to which Crowley thankfully points out they have no right to speak) as does a fair chunk of the fanbase. How does this make any sense? Might I also add that the only ones who ever apologized for their actions are Riddle, Vil, and *Malleus.* So why is it that Malleus is seen as being so much worse than the others? Why is Malleus called a monster, a living disaster, and the enemy of mankind (all things said in canon) and nobody else has anything similar said about them? I'm not arguing that there shouldn't be consequences, I'm arguing that the scale of it does not align with twst's previous messaging and themes. Whether or not Malleus's consequences are fair in general is one thing, but in comparison with our previous standards it's wildly unfair. And yet people are still calling for more, and fans are being rude to Diasomnia fans about it. It simply doesn't add up.

As for Silver, nowhere did I say Silver should pay for his father's crimes. I said that his *father* never earned the right for his image to be restored because he stood idly by against what he thought was wrong. Silver shouldn't have to be used to restore his *father's* image, when that image doesn't align with who Silver is.

Dear Anon,

I was writing a well thought out and sincere response essay to your initial take, but since you're back and doubling down I'm just going to tell you why you're wrong.

WARNING: The following response is pretty rude. Malleus gets everything he had coming to him and here's why. . .

No, really.

This is going to sound "mean."

You didn't even bother to address the questions I presented in my previous response.

You aren't going to like this.

Stop scrolling. . .

WHAT PART OF, "MALLEUS DRACONIA IS CAUSING A WORLD-ENDING MAGICAL CATASTROPHY," DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?????

The story established that PEOPLE WOULD DIE if the spell wasn't broken. Malleus had absolutely no intention of stopping what he was doing. He didn't stop at just Lilia, or the party, or the school, or even stop at Sage's Island. He was going to curse the whole of Twisted Wonderland. If he wasn't stopped by force EVERYONE WOULD HAVE DIED, and you're trying to tell me that it's not as bad as Riddle (whose overblot never affected anyone outside of the unbirthday party), Leona, and Vil (who's rampages were contained to a sports stadium) because he "Wasn't trying to hurt anyone"? Because "No one actually ended up getting hurt"?No. I'm not going to feel bad about the sentient manifestation of a mass extinction event being referred to as, "The enemy of humanity." If something or someone is threatening the entire population of the world (including beastmen, merfolk, and other fae) then he is in fact an enemy of everyone under threat, REGARDLESS OF WHAT HIS INTENTIONS ARE. You ever hear "The road to hell is paved with good intentions"? Yeah. That. Malleus didn't want to kill people, but that's effectively what he was doing and ignoring that fact is blatantly irresponsible. On a better day? Everyone's fear of Malleus is largely misplaced and of course calling him an enemy of humanity would be inherently prejudiced and way out of line. BUT THAT WAS NOT THE SITUATION AT THE TIME AND YOU ARE IGNORING THE THREAT HE VERY MUCH POSED IN FAVOR OF BABYING HIM OVER HIS INTENTIONS!

Let's recap here: MULTIPLE PEOPLE TRIED TO TALK MALLEUS DOWN AND GET HIM TO STOP OF HIS OWN ACCORD. Pray tell, dear Anon, what should they have done after that? You want to compare overblots? Let's compare overblots.

Every prior overblot in this story has been resolved by every nearby available person beating the ever loving snot out of the guilty party until it was over. As a result, five out of six previous overblots were ended within an hour of them occurring. Idia at the time was an exception and had been overblotted for several hours by the time he was knocked back to his senses. In the case of the Tartarus crisis, they even used STYX most powerful anti-blot weapons (the thunder spears) to attack the Shroud brothers because it was necessary to use potentially lethal force to stop the phantoms from breaking out of the facility and effectively save the world. THEY DID WHAT THEY HAD TO DO AND THEY DID NOT HOLD BACK! THEY DID NOT KNOW IF THEY COULD SAVE IDIA! In this way, Malleus is being treated EXACTLY like the other overblotters. When Malleus Draconia overblots, they tried the usual tactics. They tried to collectively overpower him at the farewell party and no one could touch him. Everyone was helpless to stop him. They all fell to his magic quick as winking. Malleus Draconia has TERRIFYING AMOUNTS OF MAGIC. So when he won't listen to reason, WHAT IN THE NINE HELLS ARE THEY SUPPOSE TO DO TO STOP HIM FROM ENDING LIFE ON THE PLANET AS THEY KNOW IT?

. . .

I know.

How about something they've been doing since the start of the story?

TAKE AWAY HIS MAGIC!

You know, what Riddle's signature spell does? What he did to Grim in the prologue? What he did to Leona when confronting him about the sports sabotage? Remember how in order to STOP RIDDLE FROM KILLING PEOPLE Trey overwrote his signature spell so that they would stand a fighting chance? Remember when the previous overblotters (and Grim) were immediately dressed in anti-magic collars to avoid issues when they were brought to STYX to be vetted? It's almost like we established that this is a thing people do in Twisted Wonderland do to handle magical emergencies.

Truly and honestly, what are you supposed to do when one of the five most powerful mages in the world poses a threat to your very existence and those you love? Try talking him down AGAIN? It makes complete and total sense to try and make Malleus weaker. How are they supposed to fight and beat him to stop the world as they know it from ending when he has access to the UNHOLY AMOUNTS OF MAGIC that they have repeatedly established he has? That they have been bested by repeatedly. NO ONE IN ON OR OFF OF SAGE'S ISLAND HAD BEEN ABLE TO TOUCH HIM OR DO ANYTHING AGAINST HIS POWER FOR DAYS! HE HAS BEEN OVERBLOTTING FOR DAYS WITHOUT A STOP TO HIS EXPANDING SPHERE OF INFLUENCE ENVELOPING THE WORLD! Cutting off his horns was a perfectly valid step to take because THEY QUITE LITERALLY HAD NO OTHER OPTIONS!

As for leaving him dismembered and disabled. . .

First off, let's remember that I just pointed out that the fate of the world was resting on that decision, and they had no other choice.

Secondly. . .

You have got to be kidding me.

Are you really comparing Malleus losing a PIECE of ONE of his horns to someone losing a limb? It's not even like losing your pinky finger! It's maybe sorta kinda like getting a nail torn out. HIS HORN WILL GROW BACK.

"But magic is second nature to fae so it IS like losing a__"

Shut up. No it's not.

He can still use magic. HE IS NOT DISABLED!

Oh no! One of the top five most powerful mages on the planet can't casually use magic to deal with every element of his daily life and fix every minor inconvenience he's presented with anymore. He might have to struggle to do things now. WHAT EVER WILL POOR MALLEUS DO NOW THAT HE'S NOT EXPONENTIALLY MORE POWERFUL THAN ALL HIS PEERS AND TEACHERS!? I GUESS HE'LL JUST HAVE TO GO TO SCHOOL LIKE EVERYONE ELSE! HOW DARE HE BE HUMANIZED! HOW DARE THIS PRECIOUS TRAUMATIZED MAGESTIC PRINCELY OVERPOWERED DRAGON IN HUMAN FORM BE FORCED TO LIVE LIKE THE COMMON FOLK!

I guess he'll just have to learn to see things through the eyes of his peers and have a new perspective on life he wasn't privvy to previously now that magic isn't something he can fling around casually. Seriously. How dare Malleus be given character development potential when none of the other overblotters were treated like this. IT'S SSOOOOOO UNFAAAAAAIIIRRRRRRR!!!1!1!1!1!!

Oh yeah, do you want to keep comparing him to the other overblotters? Because with how much of his horn he lost, he's about as disfigured as Leona. You know. The guy with the scar? Malleus has a scar now, however, unlike Leona's, Malleus' scar will disappear.

Have I mentioned how Riddle was in the same boat of abusing his power because he thought he was doing "the right thing" because he was also traumatized as a child? Riddle is so weak by comparison and caused so little a comparative fuss that a punch to the face and getting hassled by his dormmates is justice by TWST standards (we all know this is a writng problem for this game in general, right?). And you REALLY don't want me to mention how every other person who overblotted acted out of their minds with rage and pent up emotions as they did violent things that they ordinarily wouldn't consider while Malleus was oddly lucid and could actually consider being talked to while he cursed the world. Malleus was destroying the world and in enough of his right mind to consider stopping. But no, Malleus is the one being treated unfairly.

Dear Anon, Malleus Draconia has always been an extreme character. He's always been extremely powerful and used his magic flippantly with little regard for how others feel about it. His overblot caused an extreme situation that the rest of the cast was forced to take extreme measures to deal with. Him being treated "differently" from all of the other overblotters is DIRCTLY PROPORTIONAL TO THE DANGER HE POSED. On the extreme scale Malleus is working on, he is certainly not worse off than any other previous chapters' final bosses. So, no, I don't care that people called him mean names when he was slowly destroying the world. I don't care that his magic was "nerfed" and now he has to come down off his high horse and live a little like everyone else now. And I really don't care that fans are asking for more justice to be done JUST LIKE THEY DO WITH EVERY OTHER OVERBLOTTER WHO GOT OFF WITH A SLAP ON THE WRIST! WE DEMAND MORE FROM ALL OF THEM! Malleus is NOT an exception.

"Thank you for your take."

And yes, saying that Silver should not have his heroic moment as a knight in shining armor because that armor was worn when committing war crimes IS devaluing Silver based on his father's sins. Being a knight in shining armor is completely in character for Silver (AS A FREAKING DISNEY PRINCESS), and the fact that he is doing a good thing is meant to CONTRAST with his father who did bad things, NOT absolve said father of wrongdoing. The same tool that was once used for evil is now being used for good. IT'S POETIC!

[sporeclan]

Hellooooo! I’m working on a clangen blog of my own, so I’m going around asking my favorite clangen blogs some questions. I’m happy to get answers to whichever you feel like answering (or none at all if you don’t feel like it!)

What program and file size do you use?

If you use a font, what font is it?

How far ahead do you recommend playing?

Do you have any advice for layouts?

Do you have any tips for lighting/drawing fur?

Do you have any tips for making cats look more unique?

If you do backgrounds, do you have any advice for creating them?

If you use them, where do you recommend finding reference images?

Hi!! :D

1) I use Clip Studio Paint! Unfortunately not a free program, but I'm very very fond of it. Definitely recommend it to anyone who has the money! My file size is about 1680px wide, I believe? With varying heights. I definitely wouldn't recommend doing it that way, but it's what works for me so :')

2) I made the font myself, actually! Highly recommend doing that tbh, it's a happy medium between getting something handwritten looking without having to spend a thousand years writing haha :D There are probably a hundred websites out there that let you make you own font, but I used Calligraphr

3) It depends! For me playing to about 12-15 moons ahead with a minimum of 6 moons works really well with my style and workflow. Makes me able to cobble together these small interpersonal plotlines while also letting me occasionally play and get new drama to get invested in these characters all over again about. But if I were going for something with a major overarching plot, I would probably go a lot further ahead, if not straight up take the playthrough as far as I'd want it/until a game over just to not risk rng screwing with my plans

4) I would suggest looking up comic panelling tips in general for a better explaination than what I can offer, but I'll try to explain my basic process :'D I mostly go by heart, but I do like to sometimes follow this rule of thumb I like to call the 'Z'

When we read text, we learn to go from left to right, then back to left at a slight diagonal to get to the next line. By following that simple shape when placing characters and especially text, it makes it flow much more naturally to us. And when your pages flow well, you get to break that flow when you want a scene to feel more tense! I tried doing that with the last two panels of the page above and I really liked how that came out :D

Another couple of tips is 1) try not to make the panels too uniform 2) if you want to use two panels for one scene, slanting the side of a panel can make it feel like they flow into each other better, like matching two puzzle pieces if that makes sense 3) small overlapping panels are great for reaction shots and so fun to do!

And lastly, don't be afraid to break the panel border!

It can add a lot of momentum and impact if used right! Plus it's so fun to do <3

5) No sorry, I don't do lighting/shading in my comics at all :'D

6) I have a couple posts here and here describing my own process a bit! But otherwise I'd like to refer to whisper-cats' response to this same prompt, it's pretty in depth and I think they give some really solid advice here!

7) Not particularly, just find a style that works for you the best. I don't do a lot of backgrounding, but when I do, it's in this lineless limited palette style because that's just my favourite kind of background to make

I do highly recommend trying to limit how much time you spend on a background. Don't burn yourself out on one panel because then you'll never wanna finish the whole page!

And for 8), I dont use references so sadly I can't give you any good recommendations there either :')

I hope any of this made sense, lol! Good luck with your blog!