coolcataetheryte

[coolcataetheryte]

After much deliberation, Zinnia has used a fantasia to become a miqo'te! (with the wolf ears cuz i think they're so cute, maybe she's a lynx or something) As much as i love Vieras, the fem Viera emotes always felt incredibly bland to me, and i found myself struggling to take pictures that i felt captured her personality. I will no longer have that trouble. I think i managed to translate her colors pretty well.

[coolcataetheryte]

The twins in each expansion. I needed to make a reference sheet to keep my brain straight.

They grow up so fast 🥹

[coolcataetheryte]

Comment or reblog with specific classes since there's way too many for one poll. Of course plenty of people level everything but for the lore of it, what do you consider the main one?

If you can't narrow it down to 1, how did you get to those 2+ classes? A reaper who discovered a love of song and became a bard? A botanist on a revenge quest after losing their family? A culinarian who couldn't find what they needed on the market and said fine I'll get it myself?

Optional prompts to think about: Did they grow up learning that class? Fresh in it in MSQ? What do they think of their guild, past or current? Are the class quests even part of your story? If their primary class is a newer one, do they feel bad about giving up their old primary?

[coolcataetheryte]

I made Zinnia into a wolf lady because i can lol (copied my friend cuz it was genius) I couldn't quiiiite get a perfect color match on the ears but in most lighting it's very very close

[coolcataetheryte]

[coolcataetheryte]

guess what time it is... XIV POLL TIME!!!

making you choose only 1 because i wanna see what role gets voted most, BUT feel free to elaborate in tags :) ik people hsve more specific reasoning for what they choose buttt im just really curious about what role gets the most lol. so just vote generally who you pick the most

[coolcataetheryte]

I wanted to talk about some really super simple photo editing for y'all that are vanilla on your screenshots/gpose in that you don't use any of those other fancy gizmos for character modding or any other fandangled thing but still want to add a little oomph. (Nothing wrong with those other tools, but many of just don't have the patience/skill)

I edit exclusively on my phone. I'm not gonna go to a computer for this, too much work, i'm lazy. I'm doing this from the comfort of my bed. I use Snapseed. It's free and has a lot of options for editing but i use some very simple tools in it mainly just to fix lighting. I'm sure there's similar free apps.

Lets use a shot of Joker here for example. This is the raw picture sent straight from my PS4. I have not done anything to it. Not a bad starting point but sometimes they are very dark.

What i typically use on every picture is first, go to tools>details. From there adjust structure and sharpening to your liking. I usually put mine around 40-ish. Here is the same photo with both of those settings applied, screeshotted in the app so you can see

It doesn't seem like much but there's already a difference in the vibrance. Lets move along. Press the checkmark at the bottom right to apply the changes.

From here i go to tools>tune image. I'll usually first hit the auto adjust (the little magic wand). That typically fixes the lighting/contrast/saturation/etc pretty damn well. If something looks off you can adjust those idividual settings. Sometimes it also doesn't seem like it makes much of a difference and that's fine, just adjust to your preference. If you don't like what it did at all, it dosn't save until you press the checkmark, so instead hit the X at the bottom left and it'll discard the changes. In this case, auto didn't do much:

Looks about the same. So now what i normally do is choose Ambience. On this same screen, press the little sliding list next to the magic wand in the middle, and choose ambience. I normally put mine around 30ish but do it to your preference. In this case, it was overcast in my gpose, so i ended up putting it around 50

That brightens it up pretty nice! You can actually stop here if you want but if you do want a little extra zip, you can do a bit more. This app has a tool called "glamour glow" get to it from the tools menu. It has some presets you can toggle through and usually one of them looks great, but you can also adjust it individually to your liking. Most of the time, i end up picking the 2nd (left) or 3rd (right) preset if i use this tool at all. I often don't tho

Basically it emphasizes the colors and gives everything a sort of dreamy fuzzy glow, which is fun sometimes. For this pic, i'm not liking the glamour glow, so i pressed the X at the bottom left to discard that change.

The other simple option, if you're not liking the glamour glow (or in addition to!) is to go to "looks" on the bottom of the screen next to "tools". This is actually where the app first takes you, and if you're going to be editing a lot of pictures in the same lighting, it does have a handy "last edits" option, that will apply the same settings from your last saved picture to your current picture. And that's typically great unless you want a totally different look. Here is the photo with the options i use most often from looks. Left to right: portrait, pop, accentuate

In this case, i like pop best. So i'll go ahead and press the check while on that option. And now i'm done! Hit Export>Save and now it's saved to you pictures for you to post wherever! A before and after:

And here's an example of a pic that was very dark that i edited in basically the same way, but no "looks" and i cropped it in a little using the crop tool:

And that's it! I hope this was a least a little helpful!

[coolcataetheryte]

Vierapril day 30: Farewell

[coolcataetheryte]

Something I'd like to point out about Estinien.

When you first meet him, especially if you haven't run the Dragoon quests, or even if you have, it's easy to think he's this gruff, stoic asshole of a dragon slayer, right? But the interesting thing is, he's actually kind. A lot kinder than he first appears. And you can hear it in his vocal tones.

Given that he wears the helmet of his Drachen Mail all the time, we can't rely on visual cues. You really need to pay attention to his voice. And it really begins to show when we go with him to meet Lady Iceheart, Ysayle that first time.

He's stressed, he's trying to get Nidhogg to back off the city, and it seems like he's being stymied at every turn. But when Ysayle tells him the story of Hraesvelgr and Shiva, he listens. And says, "I believe you." He's running out of time, both literally and figuratively, but he's trying.

His voice is gentle and kind. To the woman who who broke the magical wardings on Ishgard and enabled a massive assault to occur against the city. He lost brother and sister Dragoons in that fight. He could have raged at her for it. Instead, he chose to listen and to be kind to her.

That kindness doesn't come from nowhere. He is literally putting his ass on the line, trying to make himself a bigger target to Nidhogg, to keep him from destroying the city of Ishgard. For the many people that he's never even met. Because he doesn't want to see his home burn again due to Nidhogg.

And then he gets told by Hraesvelgr that every Azure Dragoon has died before they reached two score and a half years. In plain speak, before they reach fifty years old. He's thirty-two. He's running out of time. And even though he's a man on a mission... he takes the time to teach Alphinaud to collect firewood and how to build a fire. Something that keeps being referred to as we go along.

Because he didn't have to do that. He could have just done it himself. But he did because he could see in Alphinaud, the little brother that he'd lost. So, rather than snapping at him, he teaches and guides him. Being a big brother. Showing kindness.

Hydaelyn herself says that Estinien is a man with a heart filled with love. And he is. His gruffness just hides how kind he can be.

[coolcataetheryte]

Vierapril 28: Drifting

[coolcataetheryte]

Vierapril 27: Sad

[coolcataetheryte]

this truly is the stupidest game in the universe. quest titles in ffxiv consist entirely of jokes the borderlands writing team rejected for being too dumb. heart eyes

[coolcataetheryte]

Vierapril 26: Sky

[coolcataetheryte]

Vierapril 25: Trail

Her backpack is full of snacks

[coolcataetheryte]

Vierapril 25: Yearning

[coolcataetheryte]

Delphinium- with Estinien: what first date? They went straight to banging. With Aymeric: super awkward tea date that was mostly them smiling at each other

Joker- with Thancred: didn't know they were on a date until Thancred held his hand. Then he got all blushy and shy. With G'raha: a cute picnic and they were both aware lol. They were both shy but talked a lot

Zinnia: dine and dash with the rando guy that asked her out. No he didn't call her after she left him at the table

How was your WoL's first date?

[coolcataetheryte]

Delphinium: make some tea and soup. Rest. Nothing to see here

Joker: not the biggest baby but a bit whiny. Please take care of poor little sick bunny (and G'raha is more than happy to baby him)

Zinnia: coma

Your WoL is sick and...