merpdaberp

[merpdaberp]

So, I saw this image on Facebook, and it was supposedly showing what Queen Nefertiti would have looked like in real life:

Now, I thought this AI generated garbage was just truly terrible on a number of levels; first off, she looks wayyyyyy too modern - her makeup is very “Hollywood glamour”, she looks airbrushed and de-aged, and as far as I’m aware, Ancient Egyptians didn’t have mascara, glitter-based eyeshadows and lip gloss. Secondly, her features are exceptionally whitewashed in every sense - this is pretty standard for AI as racial bias is prevalent in feeding AI algorithms, but I genuinely thought a depiction of such a known individual would not exhibit such euro-centric features. Thirdly, the outfit was massively desaturated and didn’t take pigment loss into consideration, and while I *do* like the look of the neck attire, it's not at all accurate (plus, again, AI confusion on the detailing is evident).

So, this inspired me to alter the image on the left to be more accurate based off the sculpture’s features. I looked into Ancient Egyptian makeup and looked at references for kohl eyeliner and clay-based facial pigment (rouge was used on cheeks, charcoal-based powder/paste was used to darken and elongate eyebrows), and I looked at pre-existing images of Nefertiti (namely other reconstructions). While doing this, I found photos of a 3D scanned sculpture made by scientists at the University of Bristol and chose to collage the neck jewellery over the painting (and edited the lighting and shadows as best as I could).

Something I see a lot of in facial recreations of mummies is maintaining the elongated and skinny facial features as seen on preserved bodies - however, fat, muscle and cartilage shrink/disappear post mortem, regardless of preservation quality; Queen Nefertiti had art created of her in life, and these pieces are invaluable to developing an accurate portrayal of her, whether stylistic or realistic in nature.

And hey, while I don't think my adjustments are perfect (especially the neck area), I *do* believe it is a huge improvement to the original image I chose to work on top of.

I really liked working on this project for the last few days, and I think I may continue to work on it further to perfect it. But, until then, I hope you enjoy!

Remember, likes don't help artists but reblogs do!

[merpdaberp]

Super late to the party. But Hot Take, Beelzebub Should've been a Wolf.

Okay before you ignore this post, please read all of this. It has been bugging me since S1ep8 came out and the whole "controversy". This post is more like me just speaking my thoughts and hearing other peoples opinions. Also, this is not me fixing her design saying that they should change it.

Think of it me just babbling on about stuff.

I'm not gonna lie I never liked Bee's design. I find it under whelming and never really fit with the shows vibe. Honestly I think they could've done more with her design than what they went with in the show.

I think they really missed making her a wolf or a wolf/bee hybrid.

Wolves are a way better symbol of gluttony than foxes. Wolves have historically been seen as gluttonous animals due to their always eating livestock. There's a good article explaining this in greater detail. They also symbolize wrath, and we have seen Bees get angry, so I think it would be a perfect fit.

Also, if you ever watch a nature documentary about them hunting and eating praying animals, it's pretty gruesome. I'm not saying we need to see that happening; I'm just saying how that behavior would fit well with the whole gluttony symbolism.

Also, another thing about wolves is that they are social animals! They hunt in packs and they love to play with each other! Just look up Wolves playing, trust me its really adorable! Like it just fits for the whole party girl vibe and it also fits with here character. As she does care about people. Wolves do take there pack's livelihood very seriously. Also, it would fit well with bees because there also social animals. Like it would make more sense

Another reasons Bee should of been a wolf is that wolves can be really cute.

And can be really scary.

I know people like Bees full demon form. But it never felt intimadting for me. Like imagine wolf Bee full demon form snarling and growling. On top of that with all the bug features, Bee would look fucking scary. Thats just me tho.

Not to mention, dogs are descendent from wolves. So it be a cool detail that Bee made hellhounds and who happens to be part wolf. I know that sounds a bit to realistic but I think it would a neat detail.

Oh and would also really go full circle with Vivs Die Young music video, with Jay Jay. Idk I just find it more sweet.

So yeah, that it.

Thanks for listening to my ted talk.

[merpdaberp]

Ever since I finished Portal 2 for the first time. I've been wondering what an interaction between GLaDOS and Lain would be like. Also by Lain, I'm talking about Lain in the anime, not the game version, as I haven't played it yet.

Like low-key, their interaction would be pretty cool. They have a few similarities and they would talk about deep stuff.

Like picture this:

Lain was exploring the empty halls of Apertures offices. Mold and decay have crept in. Signs of animal life can be seen, plant life has also taken over. Yet she feels that someone or someone is watching them.

Lain hears a voice in the intercom. Robotic but feminine in tone.

"I see we have an intruder," GLaDOS said. "You are the first human to be-" GLaDOS didn't finisher her sentence.

Lain somehow has entered her chamber. She just appeared out of nowhere. It startled GLaDOS, "What. What are you?"

Lain stood there looking up at the giant robot. "I'm Lain."

Sorry, it sounded really corny. I'm writing off the top of my head. Probably edit after I post it.

But honestly, I just wanted to see other people's thoughts on this. I haven't seen it anywhere else on the internet so I was hopping people here would like to discuss it.

[merpdaberp]

EVERYONE PUT THIS GIF ON YOUR BLOG IMMEDIATLY IT WILL PROTECT YOU FROM THE VIRUS!!

this post was supposed to be about a computer virus but it has resurfaced both for ebola and now covid 

[merpdaberp]

yo who wants some Free Fonts

font designer yutaONE is giving away 151 display fonts in ~70 families for free today (august 1, 2024):

they're also available for commercial use but only if you follow them on twitter or instagram (which is weird but whatever lmao)

you can grab them all over on their Booth (pick the 0 yen option):

[merpdaberp]

Is it me or does freaky little scavenger kinda look like a rhamphorhychus?

freaky little scavenger

[merpdaberp]

I disagree with people defending the Chameleon's Backstory

So when Kung Fu Panda 4 came out there was a lot of mixed reception from fans. Some hated it, some liked it or loved it, and others found it fine.

Personally, I think it's fine, I don't hate it, but I don't like it either. It could've been worse and could've been better.

One thing that always bugs me about fans defending the chameleon's backstory is that keep mentioning the shorts and one animator saying not all dojos were as excepting. Which I have several issues.

1. We don't know if the shorts are canon or not. The shorts are character backstories. Especially in the secrets of the Furious Five and secrets of the scrolls. Fans would mention how some of the dojos didn't accept or respect certain species. They bring up Crane not being accepted because he is skinny and looks weak. That sure is fair enough. But the thing is in the same short we have Mantis kicking ass! Now we don't know much about how Mantis learned Kung Fu. This is another thing I'm skeptical of in the shorts especially Secrets of the Furious Five, as it was Po telling the stories as lessons to kids. So we don't know how accurate they are.

Then we have the secrets of the scrolls. People also brought up but it doesn't make sense as an argument. Like Shifu is a master and he's also small. We even see other Red Panda masters. People say when he gets mad at seeing the five as an example. But people missed the point. He was not mad because they were different species; he's mad because they weren't the people he asked for.

My rule is if it ain't in the actual movie then it ain't canon or brought up at all. Unless DreamWorks actually says they are canon but they haven't. Btw I like the shorts but I wouldn't take them too seriously.

2. People keep bringing up one animator on Twitter who says that not all dojos are as accepting as the Jade Palace. That would've been fine but like, the issue is that it's one animator.

We haven't heard from the others and not even the writers. Also, they said that Secrets of the Scrolls is canon. But my criticism is that she only worked on the fourth movie and not the previous ones. Unless it's her personal opinion or headcanon. But like I said if it ain't in the movie, it does not count. I wouldn't mind it if we saw a flashback to see it happen, but we never did.

Edit: I should also mention that there might be biases, as it is an actual animator, so of course they would defend their work but there also a Kung Fu Panda fan. I do not hate Abbey, btw, I just think we shouldn't take their word for it. The context was someone asking who would defeat Death from The Last Wish and the Chameleon. Abbey tried to explain it and gave a backstory that was never in the film. As a KFP fan, she used the shorts to explain it.

Now, as I said, there's nothing wrong with that; I just have an issue with certain fans using it to explain the chameleons' backstory. Especially since it's only one person saying it.

3. Even if the dojos rejected Chameleon because of her size. It still doesn't make sense because we already have canonically small masters. Like, we literally have a Master Rat that leads an army. We knew this because we saw the army's battle helmet at the Jade Palace in the third movie.

Heck, even in 4 Po mentions a Master Chipmunk. So how unlucky does the Chameleon to find the right dojo? There are probably dojos out there who specifically train small animals. Heck we even saw them in Secrets of the Scrolls of red panda masters (I know I just repeated myself)

So that's why I disagree with some fans. I feel like they're trying to make it sense in their heads, which is fine, but they acted as if this stuff was in the movie? Like in the film, Chameleons just said she was rejected because how small and lowly. Nothing else to flesh it out.

Edit 2: It's a big thing fandoms using fan theories and headcanons to fill in missing information, but using it to try to explain to another fan why their criticism is wrong. But that's not a good way to do it? Especially is you have much evidence to back it up and it seems more like they're just making it up, or just coping. I just hate when fans do that.

So that was my rant and stuff. I gotta go to bed. Sorry for any grammar mistakes.

[merpdaberp]

Fuck yeah

[merpdaberp]

Okay, this is pretty funny. Also Monty Python's the Holy Grail is goated!

I was going to post this when the second half of this was closer to being completed, but I've been busy elsewhere, and haven't had time, and I wanted to share this.

[merpdaberp]

@fuzzyyouthcreation, the "donation" account you reblogged, is part of a scam account operation. You can find more about it here: https://www.tumblr.com/kyra45/742772332577308672/scammer-pretending-to-be-in-palestine-v2?source=share

Thanks!

[merpdaberp]

"Now that is what I wanna see!"

-Soldier from Team Fortress 2.

[merpdaberp]

[merpdaberp]

Things that will make your computer meaningfully faster:

Replacing a HDD with an SSD

Adding RAM

Graphics cards if you're nasty

Uninstalling resource hogs like Norton or McAfee (if you're using Windows then the built-in Windows Security is perfectly fine; if you're using a mac consider bitdefender as a free antivirus or eset as a less resource intensive paid option)

Customizing what runs on startup for your computer

Things that are likely to make internet browsing specifically meaningfully faster:

Installing firefox and setting it up with ublock origin

adding the Auto Tab Discard extension to firefox to sleep unused tabs so that they aren't constantly reloading

Closing some fucking tabs bud I'm sorry I know it hurts I'm guilty of this too

Things that will make your computer faster if you are actually having a problem:

Running malwarebytes and shutting down any malicious programs it finds.

Correcting disk utilization errors

Things that will make your computer superficially faster and may slightly improve your user experience temporarily:

Clearing cache and cookies on your browser

Restarting the computer

Changing your screen resolution

Uninstalling unused browser extensions

Things that do not actually make your computer faster:

Deleting files

Registry cleaners

Defragging your drive

Passively wishing that your computer was faster instead of actually just adding more fucking RAM.

This post is brought to you by the lady with the 7-year-old laptop that she refuses to leave overnight for us to run scans on or take apart so that we can put RAM in it and who insists on coming by for 30-minute visits hoping we can make her computer faster.

[merpdaberp]

hot artists don't gatekeep

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.

[merpdaberp]

Rest In Piss Ai art. Rest In Piss.

[merpdaberp]

I need everyone’s best character advice. STAT.

[merpdaberp]