#Assignment 5: Patterns from Particles

[honeydroops]

Assignment Name: Patterns from Particles

Tools: Unity, Procreate, iPad

Desc: An abstract effect representing the feeling of forgetting a good dream after waking up.

Feedback:  I feel with this project I was a bit too ambitious with my concept. The way I approached this each shape I drew represented an emotion/effect one feels after they wake up from having a good dream, but they can't remember what they dreamt about that was so pleasant. The "fluff of fantasy" is seen the most during the gif as the fantastical fluff that makes up a good dream is what draws a person to their dream world rather than fantasy. The "flames of imagination" are what drives your dreams and they fade out and fade in as you're trying to piece together your dream. Lastly the "weighted memory loss" has the most realistic effect with a little added gravity that grounds the person back into reality once they inevitably forget their dream. I like how my vision turned out, even if there was a lot going on, because it still comes from a place of thought, however I feel I could have coordinated my color pallet better.

Link to Ref: https://www.pinterest.com/honeydroops/patterns-from-particles/

[satoshi-mochida]

Multiplayer mech action game Mecha BREAK announced for PS5, Xbox Series, PC

Gematsu Source

Seasun Games has announced multiplayer mech action game Mecha BREAK for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC (Steam). A release date was not announced.

Here is an overview of the game, via Seasun Games:

About

Mecha BREAK is a multiplayer mech game that allows players to choose from diverse mechs, customize appearances, and battle colossal war machines on treacherous terrain. Get ready for the ultimate showdown—blitz, brawl, and blaze!

Key Features

-Gameplay Modes – Choose from three-versus-three, six-versus-six, or Battle Royale modes for intense battles and survival challenges.

Six-versus-Six Battlefield Mode – The game features different mid-sized battlegrounds like “Eye of Misra,” “Mercury Shipyards,” and “Cape Blanc Observatory.” Players are randomly assigned to these battlegrounds, forming squads to complete missions. In the six-versus-six battleground, tactical decisions are crucial, including cover, strategic retreats, and baiting enemies. Choosing the right team tactics at the right time is key to winning.

Mashmak – Form a team of three or six players to execute combat missions. Utilize your piloting skills to defeat enemy mechas, or employ strategic coordination for seamless victories and game-changing maneuvers. You’re in full control. Immerse yourself in a 48-player battleground, where you’ll encounter ambushes, hostile resistance, and the looming threat of colossal weapons. Navigate lethal pulse storms, skillfully evade pursuers, and claim victory alongside an abundance of spoils.

Three-versus-Three Arena Mode – Three-versus-Three Arena Mode offers the ideal platform to showcase your exceptional piloting skills. Navigate intense combat with agile evasion of incoming missiles, while seizing strategic moments for decisive strikes. Your precise maneuvers will be the key to victory, propelling you towards becoming an ace pilot.

-Character – Customize paint jobs and create your own unique mecha. The appearance of the mechas’ weapons can be customized. You have the ability to personalize the weapons, shields, and wings, allowing you to tailor each mech’s appearance according to your preferences. Each mecha is divided into over 120 color modules. This allows players to create unique color combinations. Through battles or purchase, players can acquire common or rare paint colors. The game also offers a wide selection of patterns and decals for you to choose from, so you can personalize your mechas to your liking.

-Battle Experience – 1) Aerial and ground combat combined for a dynamic engagement. 2) Intense close-quarters brawls. You will experience a thrilling sense of speed, firepower, and strength as you control a 12-meter-tall mecha from a third-person shooter perspective. Engage in battles against other players in various battlegrounds while accomplishing difference mission objectives.

-Mechs and Pilots – Unlock a wide array of mechas and exclusive pilots, each with their own unique backstory. Each mecha is equipped with distinctive weaponry and serves a specific role, such as sniper, brawler, attacker, defender, or support. Coordinate with your squad members to maximize your advantages and secure victory.

World Setting

The Catastrophe – Triggered by a massive coronal mass ejection, the Catastrophe occurred as supercharged particle flows impacted Earth’s magnetic field. Collisions between highly active thermal mantle plumes and the crust led to earthquakes, volcanic activities, and the eruption of EIC.

EIC – Scientifically known as “Corite,” Eruptive Inorganic Carbide (EIC) emerged from geological disasters during the Revival Era. EIC manifests in towering mineral columns and hazardous mines formed by volcanic activities. With immense technological value, this enigmatic mineral possesses wide applications in the energy and tech industries, making it vital for post-Catastrophe reconstruction. However, it also poses a severe health risk and remains humanity’s greatest threat.

Epoch of Biped Strikers – After the Catastrophe, Lunarians invented bipedal machines as the primary mode of transportation. These walking vehicles were designed to navigate lunar terrain, surpassing the limitations of traditional vehicles. Eventually, they were weaponized, leading to intense conflicts among powerful mechanized soldiers called “Strikers.” These adaptable armored units replaced conventional vehicles and showcased their dominance in resource struggles. The third-generation Strikers emerged as the elite among their kind.

BREAK – “Third Generation Strikers,” often referred to as “Mind Projection Type Strikers,” use the power of the EIC supercomputer “Cubrain” to form a neural link between the human brain and the Striker unit. This concept, known as Mind Projection, is the cornerstone of their operation. BREAK Strikers take this technology a step further. By taking into account the pilot’s physiological indicators, they surpass previous synchronization constraints. This enhancement allows the Striker to deliver a significantly improved performance on the battlefield.

Moonbow – Moonbow is a powerful independent force, operating globally utilizing their airship of the same name. They deploy the formidable BREAK Strikers to address various EIC-related crises and explore the truth behind EIC.

Conflicts – Moonbow confronts persistent threats from EIC and the malice of humanity. While BREAK Strikers are more than mere weapons, they often become a necessary means while facing unavoidable conflicts.

Marcens Pandemic – The Catastrophe released EIC debris, contaminating the Earth’s atmosphere. High EIC concentrations result in plant mineralization and the fatal Marcens Disease in animals. Regions and cities transform into lifeless “Marcens Zones” through high-purity secondary Corite crystallization. Today, these zones rapidly expand via deadly EIC Pulse Storms, while humanity remains oblivious to EIC. Is EIC a natural disaster or something more sinister?

New Terrain – The Catastrophe shifted Earth’s tectonic plates, altering its landscape. New rifts and straits were formed, while mountains rose and landforms crumbled. Islands were engulfed, and volcanoes emerged, inflicting immense devastation upon both ecosystems and societies.

New Paradigm – As a response to Corite pollution, cooperation gradually became crucial, leading to the emergence of the Culturia Alliance, the Cygnia Union, and the Thalassic Federation. Meanwhile, the Lunarians proclaimed their independence under the name of the Commonwealth of Lunar-mare amidst the chaos.

New Conquest – EIC is an indispensable resource for science and commerce. Various factions are congregating at the largest Mercens Zone, Mashmak, preparing for an intense upheaval. The Catastrophe reshaped landscapes and disrupted the global order. Amidst recovery and Corite pollution, the Vulturia Alliance, Cygnia Union, Thalassic Federation, and Commonwealth of Lunar-mare emerged. Despite risks, these factions vied for self-interests. A storm is brewing in the largest Marcens Zone, Mashmak.

Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery.

Announce Trailer

English

Japanese

Korean

Traditional Chinese

[aaronhaoyangtang]

Aerosol transmission-case study of COVID-19

       On January 24th, I and my friends arrived at London and were ready to embrace the wonderful trip. I was happy and unhappy the same time because I had numerous lab reports to be finished during the trip. I wished the deadlines of the assignments could be postponed somehow. The wish was soon granted because of the ‘flu’ outbreak in Wuhan, China. Happy I was at that time, but I did not expect to be grounded in the following year. On 11 February 2020, WHO announced “COVID-19” as the name of the disease and “SARS-CoV-2” as the name of the virus. Three years after outbreak, the COVID-19 pandemic is still raging on a global scale. One of the most important subjects that both government and scientific community are constantly working on is the transmission of COVID-19. This blog provides a general introduction about the transmission of COVID-19 by reviewing multiple research papers and make them complement each other.

       To understand transmission of COVID-19, we need to learn about the concept of aerosols, droplet transmission and airborne transmission. Bioaerosols are particles suspended in the air that originate from biological sources. When we cough and sneeze, a large number of aerosols distributed over a wide size spectrum are produced. When we sing, talk, or even breath, we also produce a large number of aerosols, but smaller in size. Aerosols larger than 5 um are named coarse aerosols. Aerosols smaller than or equal to 5 um are named fine aerosols. The size boundary also distinguishes droplet transmission as the transmission of coarse aerosols from airborne transmission that describes the transmission of fine aerosols. Large respiratory droplets fall before evaporating. The contaminated surface might lead to transmission by indirect contact. Fine aerosols are able to remain in the air for hours and can easily travel 20 meters away from their origin. SARS-CoV-2 was also shown to remain infectious in aerosols for hours. Numerous research reported a much larger proportion of RNA was detected in fine aerosol samples and a smaller proportion of RNA was detected in coarse aerosol samples.

       Three dominant influencers of COVID-19 transmissions are ventilation system, environment, and social distancing.

       Ventilation effect is affected by ventilation rate, airflow direction and airflow pattern. A high ventilation rate is recommended because it decreases virus concentrations and increases turbulence levels in the indoor environment, thereby lowers the infection probability. In December 2021, another outbreak of COVID-19 occurred at Xi’an Xianyang International Airport raised heated discussion on whether the ventilation system of the airport promote the spread of the virus. Though the statement was denied, one research did point out that the temperature difference (high temperature on the first floor and low temperature on the second and third floor), fan coil air conditioning, and one-way flow of personnel in the corridor could promote the spread of virus aerosols from first floor to upper floors. Therefore, the ventilation system needs to be carefully designed in response to potential outbreaks.

       Environment is complicated to be analyzed in the spread of viruses as it include multiple factors such as temperature, humidity, wind speed, etc. In general, the activity of SARS-CoV-2 decreases with an increase in temperature. Study found that SARS-CoV-2 can survive for 14 days at 4°C, 1 day at 37°C, and only 30 min at 56°C. The activity of virus-carrying droplet is negatively related to ambient humidity. Aerosol transmission can also be affected by wind conditions such as wind speed and wind direction. There is no general observation. Case study in Jakarta, Indonesia, affirmed that low wind speed was accounted for high COVID-19 cases. Case study in Turkey, on the other hand, claimed that windy weather promoted spreading of COVID-19. In addition to the meteorological factors, even air pollution can affect the spread of COVID-19 cases. Virus transmission is complicated, isn’t it?

       Another influencer of COVID-19 transmission is social distancing. Many countries including US advocated a 2-m social distancing between people. A study found that wearing masks could reduce the risk of infection and shorten the necessary social distance to 0.5 meter. However, other study points out penetration of small aerosols through the mask or aerosols following an air current around loose side opening could lead to spread of virus despite of social distancing. Therefore, it is hard to define a “completely safe” social distancing.

       Complicated might COVID-19 transmission be, suggestions are simple and commonly agreed. Tips are wearing masks, doing outdoor activities, keeping social distancing, equipping indoor places with good ventilation system, etc. With lessons learned from COVID-19, I believe we would do better in coping with potential virus outbreaks in the future.

References

Li, C., & Tang, H. (2022). Comparison of COVID-19 infection risks through aerosol transmission in supermarkets and small shops. Sustainable Cities and Society, 76, 103424.

Liu, X., Huang, J., Li, C., Zhao, Y., Wang, D., Huang, Z., & Yang, K. (2021). The role of seasonality in the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. Environmental research, 195, 110874.

Reinhardt, É. L. (2022). Transmission of COVID-19: a brief review of droplet and aerosol transmission routes. Revista Brasileira de Saúde Ocupacional, 47.

Tellier, R. (2022). COVID-19: the case for aerosol transmission. Interface Focus, 12(2), 20210072.

Zhang, Z., Li, X., Lyu, K., Zhao, X., Zhang, F., Liu, D., ... & Xu, D. (2023). Exploring the Transmission Path, Influencing Factors and Risk of Aerosol Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 at Xi’an Xianyang International Airport. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(1), 865.

Zhao, X., Liu, S., Yin, Y., Zhang, T., & Chen, Q. (2022). Airborne transmission of COVID‐19 virus in enclosed spaces: an overview of research methods. Indoor air, 32(6), e13056.

[dianeyang]

Assignment name: Patterns from Particles 

Tools: Unity, Procreate

Description: A visual representation of the taste and fragrance of toothpaste 

Self-valuation: 

For this assignment, I made 5 types of sprites to visualize the taste of toothpaste. There are two kinds of “mint spice”, which are representations of the spicy but refreshing taste of mint. One is more regular-shaped and the other one is more hand-drawn, both change over time according to a gradient from nattier blue to cyan, giving the particle system more dynamics. There is also “sting & glisten”, a big sharp white star shape representing the stingy taste and the synesthesia sense of glisten that comes from the stingy taste. There’s also a bubble shape (foamy sensation) and a flower shape representing (floral aftertaste), both of which appear less frequently in the particle system, as they are more subtle compared to the spicy and stingy feeling. 

[kynori]

assignment 5: patterns from particles

tools: mac, canva (yes, canva lmaooo)

description: the feeling i tried to capture: what it feels like to chew 5 gum drink water with ice in it! made two versions and idk which i prefer

ngl, for me drinking ice water is lowkey kinda intense and it feels like being smashed in the face with cold but also the cold is Traveling and now your whole chest is cold (which can be pleasant on hot days, don't get me wrong). so:

the blue circles represent the calmness and flow of the water

the different colored stars represent the intense cold and frozen-ness of the ice and how it's a sharp and pointy flavor

the grey and white tumbling star/circles represent the lingering cold of the water

feedback: i do agree with all the shapes i chose and how i chose to represent this feeling. however, i think the actual animation part is clunky - i really struggled with unity so i did a few workarounds and paid the price lol

[inkflown]

Assignment 5 - Patterns from Particles

Feeling: getting burned by accidentally touching a hot pan

Particle breakdown:

Many pronged star: surprise

Simple star: surprise & frustration

Squiggle: regret and then sadness

[joeabdelsater]

Assignment 6: Part 3

Garment Creation and Simulation

The first step is to import the T pose non animated FBX file into Marvelous Designer.

Patternmaking:

During this first stage is when I create all the pattern pieces for my digital clothes. I draw all pieces of the outfit in the 2D view panel, align them correctly in the 3D view panel, and sew them accordingly using the many tools that the software offers. It is always important to flip normals when pattern pieces appear to be darker in the 3D view.

Figure 7 - Marvelous Designer Patternmaking

2. Simulating:

The second stage is to simulate the garments on the static character while constantly adjusting the fabric properties and settings. Once satisfied with the way the clothes look, I decrease the particle distance value to 5 to add more details and I set the thickness to my desired value. (If the pattern pieces have no thickness set them to “double sided” for the texture to show on both sides).

I then open a new Marvelous Designer file and import the Alembic animated character into the scene. I go to frame 0 and save it as a pose.

Figure 8 - Marvelous Designer Fabric Properties

I reopen the previous Marvelous Designer file, start simulating and then apply the pose from the library where I saved it (what this does is prepare the clothes in the pose of the animated character without having to reset everything and readjust the pattern pieces). After that, I import the animated Alembic character file and transform the topology of the clothes into quads (right click > Quadrangulate). I then set the simulation quality to 5 instead of 1 to prevent simulation errors, and I press on record to bake the animation on the garments. If this is not done, you might get results like in the next photo.

Figure 9 - Simulation errors

3. UV fitting:

When the animation baking is over, I open the UV panel and fit all UVs into one tile so that they don’t get separated on export. I also make sure no UVs are overlapping to prevent issues in the texturing stage.

Finally, I select all pattern pieces and export them as an Alembic file with the settings shown in figure 11.

For the purpose of optimization, it is important to simulate and export two versions of the same clothes with two different “particle distance” values (resolutions). The version with the lower particle distance value will act as a low-poly mesh, and the one with the higher particle distance value will act as the high-poly mesh.

This is useful to be able to bake the details of the high-poly garment on the low-poly one when texturing inside of Substance Painter. In that manner, you can use the low-poly version inside of Unreal while preserving the details without having to increase the size of the Alembic asset files created.

Figure 10 - UV fitting Marvelous Designer

Figure 11- Marvelous export settings

[wisdomrays]

TAFAKKUR: Part 330

OLFACTION: SENSING THE SCENTS: Part 2

E-NOSE TECHNOLOGIES

The sensor is the e-nose's key element, and the sensor type is its defining characteristic. There are 5 types of e-nose sensors, as follows:

Optical sensors: Optical fiber sensors work through fluorescence and chemoluminescence. The tube's glass fibers contain a thin encoated active material in their sides and at both ends. As VOCs interact with the organic matrix's chemical dyes, the dye's fluorescent emission changes the spectrum. These changes then are measured and recorded for different odorous particles.

Fiber arrays with different dye mixtures can be used as sensors. These are fabricated by dipcoating (binding a plastic solution to a substrate), micro electromechanical system (MEMS), and precision machining. The main advantage is that this adjustable tool can filter out noise. Also, since many dye forms are available in biological research, sensors are cheap and easy to fabricate. But the instrumentation control systems are complex, which adds to the cost, and have a limited lifetime due to photo bleaching (the sensing process slowly consumes the fluorescent dyes).

Optical sensors are sensitive and can measure low ppb (parts per billion); however, they are still in the researach stage of development

Spectrometry-based Sensors: This group consists of a molecular spectrum-based gas chromatography (GC), an atomic mass spectrum-based mass spectrometry (MS), and a transmitted light spectrum-based light spectrum (LS). The first two can analyze the odor's components accurately, which is a plus. However, their use of a vapor trap to increase concentration can alter the odor's characteristics. LS devices do not consume the sample, but do require tunable quantum-well devices. GC and MS devices are commercially available, while LS devices are only at the research stage. All spectrometry-based sensors are fabricated by MEMS and precision machining, and can measure odors to a low ppb level.

The GC tube decomposes the odorant into its molecular constituents, and MS forms a mass spectrum for each peak. The spectra then is compared to a large precompiled database of spectral peaks to classify and identify odorants.

MOSFET (Metal-oxide-silicon field-effect-transistor): The basic principle here is capacitive charge coupling. In other words, VOCs react with the catalytic metal and thereby alter the device's electrical properties. The device's selectivity and sensitivity can be fine-tuned by varying the metal catalyst's thickness and composition. MOSFETs are micro-fabricated and commercially available, but can measure only parts per million. They can be manufactured by electronic interface circuits, which minimizes batch-to-batch variation. However, the gas produced by the VOC-metal reaction must penetrate the MOSFET's gate.

Conductivity Sensors: The sensor types used here are metal oxide or conducting polymer. Both operate on the principle of conductivity, for their resistance changes as they interact with VOCs. Metal oxide sensors are common, commercially available, inexpensive, and easy to produce (they are micro-fabricated). Their sensitivity ranges from 5-500 ppm. However, they only operate at high temperatures (200°C to 400°C).

In conducting polymer sensors, VOCs bond with the polymer backbone and change the polymer's conductivity (resistance). They are micro-fabricated together with electroplating and screen printing, are commercially available, and can measure from .1 to 100 ppm. They operate at room temperature, yet are very sensitive to humidity. Moreover, it is hard to electropolymerize the active material, which makes batch-to-batch variation inevitable. Sometimes VOCs penetrate the polymer chain, which means that the sensor must be returned to its neutral and reference state-a very time-consuming process.

Piezoelectric Sensors: These devices, which measure any change in mass, come in two varieties: quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) and surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices.

QCM sensors have a resonating disk and metal electrodes on each side. While applying the gas sample to the resonator's surface, the polymer surface absorbs VOCs from the environment. Thus its mass increases, which increases resonance frequency. As the U.S. Navy has long used QCMs, this technology is familiar, developed, and commercially available. A QCM sensor is fabricated by screen-printing, wire bonding, and MEMS. Althoug it can measure a 1.0 Ng mass change, its MEMS fabrication and interface electronics is a major disadvantages. QCM sensors are quite linear in mass changes, their sensitivity to temperature can be adjusted, and their response to water can vary for the material used.

MEMS techniques should be handled carefully, for the surface-to-volume ratio increases drastically as dimensions approach the micrometer levels. Measurement accuracy is lost when the increasing surface-to-volume ratio begins to degrade the signal-to-noise ratio. This problem occurs in most micro-fabricated devices. SAW devices have much higher frequencies. Since 3-D MEMS processing is unnecessary, SAW devices are cheaper. As with QCM devices, many polymer coatings are available. The differential devices can be quite sensitive. However, interface electronics require more complex electronics than those of conductivity sensors for both QCM and SAW sensors. Also, as the active membrane ages, resonance frequencies can drift and so must be detected for frequency by time. SAW devices are commercially available and sensitive to mass changes at the 1.0 pg level.

PATTERN RECOGNITION

Any e-nose's primary task is to identify an odorant and perhaps measure its concentration. After the signal processing step comes the crucial step of pattern recognition: preprocessing, feature extraction, classification, and decision-making. A database of odors must be formed for comparison purposes.

Preprocessing accounts for sensor drifts and reduces sample-to-sample variation. This can be done by normalizing sensor response ranges, manipulating sensor baselines, and compressing sensor transients.

Feature extraction involves dimensionality reduction, a crucial step for statistical data analysis, since the database's examples usually are subject to financial constraints. The higher dimensionality caused by sensor arrays is reduced to relevant pattern-recognition information and thus extracts only significant data. As most dimensions are correlated and dependent, it is better to reduce dimensionality to a few informative axes.

Feature extraction usually is accomplished by classical principal component analysis (PGA) or linear discriminant analysis (LDA). PCA is a linear transformation that finds the maximum variance projections and the most widely used technique for feature extraction. But as PCA ignores class labels, it is not an optimal technique for odor recognition.

LDA seeks to maximize the distance between class label examples and minimize the within distance, and thus is a more appropriate approach. LDA is also a linear transformation. For instance, LDA might better discriminate subtle but crucial odor projections, whereas PCA can remove the high variance random noise in a projection.

The classification stage identifies odors. Classical classification techniques are KNN (k nearest neighbors), Bayesian classifiers, and ANN (artificial neural networks]. KNN with, say, 5 nearest points will find the 5 closest matches from the precompiled database. The closest match will be assigned as the tested material's odorant class.

Bayesian classifiers first assign a posterior probability to the classes in the lower dimension and then pick the class that maximizes the predetermined probability distribution. ANN is closer to biological odor recognition. After being trained by the odor database, it is exposed to the unknown odorant in order to recognize the largest applicable response odorant class. The classifier estimates the class and places a confidence level on it.

In decision-making, risks and application-specific knowledge are considered in order to modify the classification. All decisions are reported-even a nonmatch.

CONCLUSION

As this article indicates, we can expect great progress in this area. And with each step forward, science and technology will continue to point toward the Greatest Artist's most subtle designs and allow us to appreciate them better.

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

20 first lines

tiggity tagged by @sybilius

i think the only people who regularly write fanfic are @bronanlynch and @loldinson ? feel free to do it if the spirit moves you, people who aren’t bronanlynch and loldinson

i can’t say i’ve written twenty things in the past two years for assignments or NOT for assignments but we’ll see how far I get

1.  The day after the Second Battle for Hoover Dam, five exhausted people and a cyborg dog dragged themselves downstairs to the lobby of the dead Mr House’s big dead hotel. (odd diversity of misery and joy, weird fuckin fallout: new vegas and the good the bad and the ugly crossover, briefly Blondie POV and then mostly Angel Eyes)

2.  He whirls, and gives Milo a grin that’s...that’s just all fang, and a more honest Milo would have admitted the delicious hopeful excitement that grin gave him. (a simple creature of physical exuberance, a scene from a dnd one-shot I played earlier this year where we were all vampires)

3. I am an astronomer. The moon is my wife. (a brief oral history of the Fair Folk in space, as remembered by Stella Maris , a little urban fantasy thing i wrote three calendar years ago)

4.  I wasn’t supposed to know anything about horses- I was only the entertainment. ( GETAWAY-Being an Account of the Diamond of Ra Incident, as Related by Miss Charlotte Queensbury and Set Down by an Unknown Admirer in 188-, something I wrote in TWENTY FUCKING THIRTEEN when steampunk was the new hot shit and was somehow published in my high school’s lit mag.) 

okay that’s everything that’s on ao3 here is some unfinished/unpublished stuff

5.  “No.” said Arcade, flatly. “That’s barbaric. We’re putting you under for this.” (next blondeyes installment perhaps? in a doc titled ‘what the fuck am i doing with my life’)

6. Six pulls the sword out of the package and looks at it doubtfully. “Now I can see the value of having a machete, but a sword? A real sword?“ (i don’t even know. also in a doc titled i don’t even know. this is the only thing in the doc, which is maybe cheating.)

7.  She was close enough to hear the flickering tings as it wobbled back and forth in frequency. Couldn’t be too far gone- the frequency range wasn’t broad, maybe five hertz at most? (a post-apoc YA novel I write three pages of every nanowrimo)

okay now we’re getting into papers not intended for publication that I wrote this year. the PDR i worked on doesn’t....have a real first line? so i shall not include it.  

8. “Acceleration due to gravity, namely g, is an important physical constant that many other constants rely upon.” (”Measurement of g, the local acceleration due to gravity” redacted]/Bros/[redacted]

9.  This data analysis uses particle tracking methods to observe the behavior of an autonomous robotic vacuum of the Roomba 570 model as it travels around a square room, aiming to extract information on the patterns in its motion.  (Determining robotic vacuum trajectory from initial conditions, Bros/[redacted]/[redacted])

10. “ “Keeping the lights on” is a common turn of phrase use to encompass many financial anxieties. Fear of the dark and fears about keeping your family in a safe and functional home are paired in this phrase. “ (policy brief on greening the electric grid)

[hypeathon]

RWBY - Volume 6, Chapter 10 Production Analysis

Previous Volume 6 Production Analysis Posts:

Chapters one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight & nine

The first RWBY episode of 2019 also marks what seems to be the beginning of the last act of this volume. By now, this usually means action sequences and coordination and entanglement between various characters. But how does all of that hold up in this chapter’s presentation?

Since the first scene in this episode involves a cooperative operation between the main cast and Saphron’s family, now is as good of a time as any to go into one character in particular. Adrian is... a fascinating character to put simply, though it’s not just because of what he’s capable of but also because of how he exists. Though not common, models of kids and animals have existed before in the show, but never a fully rigged model of an infant. The closest instance there was of one prior was in the premiere chapter of this volume and even then, the model wasn’t really moving at all. Given his body size, it would not be surprising if Adrian’s model was entirely key-animated which can potentially lead to some awkward motion to make a baby’s fidgety nature look and feel right. But not as much has been needed out of Adrian’s animation outside of a few giggles and small gestures, with one exception of course but more on that in a bit. One last note, Adrian has an actual “voice actor” despite not having any audible words named Lucella Wren Clary who is actually lead producer for volume 6, Joe Clary’s baby daughter.

Going back to Adrian’s animation, the whole opening scene with him, Saphron, Weiss and Caroline was animated by Colin McAtee, Alex Hoyle, Vince Cappelluti and Hannah McCravy. Most of these animators, have been mentioned before through these analyses with the exception of Alex, who confirmed to specifically have done the cut with the Nubuck guards trying to tend to Adrian’s fake crying whereas Colin supposedly animated the cuts that came right before and after. Colin also stated that Kerry Shawcross gave them quite a bit of freedom regarding how to animate the characters. Since Kerry became the main director of the show back in 2015, he has been accused of having a draconian grip over what animators are or are not allowed to convey, namely with fight scenes. This has stemmed from some critics wanting a justification to point fingers at someone for not having certain aspects of the show be as ideal as they want without needing to spend time fact-checking. The reality is that Kerry will always have a vision for how he wants a given scene to be expressed, he simply needs to as the director. However, he is willing to let any animators assigned to a scene (as well as storyboard artist, camera layout artists and whoever else involved) to provide their own creative input to depending on the scene. With some exceptions, he’s actually more easy-going with action sequences than dialogue ones, the latter involves the animators being more precise with character acting (and the animators themselves don’t usually mind it either). So to see confirmation that he gave the assigned animators more creative freedom with the Adrian distraction scene is an interesting change of pace.

In the next scene at the cliff side, there is concept art accompanied with a couple of set design notes. First is, “boulders cover path & jut up from rock wall along entire cliff side” while the other says, “Path width: 20-30 ft, tree height: 30 ft”. In the first place, these design notes are likely to provide details for environment modeling team to maintain the dimensions and key features of a given setting. That said, these same pieces of information can also help give an idea as to what is in store for the story from here on. Between the boulders and trees, they may potentially serve as cover for the main cast once they start fighting Cordovin’s mech. It’s also possible that the height of the trees specifically may serve for another fight within this episode, but more on that later. One other quick thing to mention are the splash effects at the bottom of the cliff side. Splashes have been done before in the show, but given the setting, it’s appropriately presented with more nuance.

Taking a moment to skip ahead, this is a good opportunity to touch on the visual effects in this episode a bit. More specifically, the effects when Cordovin fires the warning shot from her mech. There is a lot of great timing with the build-up where the ball of energy swells up in small bursts within the cannon while a shock wave releases to help sell that effect. The small shock waves themselves also dissolve into particles which were an interesting touch. The swelling ball also has two bits of animation going on in which the layer of roundish shapes give off a backspin while the slender pen-stroke like shapes spin to the left. The best comparison to make would be the way veteran animator of the Pokemon franchise, Masaaki Iwane, animates effects such as explosions and flames. Iwane very similarly uses that swelling build-up effect in many instances such as this sequence in Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back and this one (about 54 seconds in) from Pokemon: Spell of the Unknown. Describing all of this is frankly very difficult but that is simply a testament to how intricately handled the visual effect itself is from just one cut alone. This is not even counting the next cut of when the cannon fires. From then on, there is an extended swelling effect from the ball of energy as well as small sparks appearing in the form of particles and streams. Once the cannon does fire, we see a couple of split-second white flashes on the screen. This is honestly the only part where a small opportunity was missed to capitalize on the effect and apply something called impact frames. They are basically effects in the form of a few frames that are inverted in color to make a sort of flash to help give off the sense of impact as the name suggests. The white flashes from when the cannon fired almost did something like this and could have benefited from adding say, a more blackened silhouette of the mech and the burst from the cannon, similar to what was seen in these stills which may have come from this sequence in Naruto Shippuden.

Despite calling the lack of impact frames a missed opportunity, it’s also nitpicking, as it doesn’t take away from the outstanding work done in just one instance. It is hard to tell how much of each aspect of the moment was due to the visual effects team or the compositing team or whether 2-D Effects artist, Myke Chapman had any part at all in say, the sparks all over the control panels in the ship Weiss and Maria hijacked. Regardless, this is the most creatively handled work from those departments done yet, outmatching that of the electricity swirling around Hazel’s arms in volume 5 or Cinder’s wind column in chapter 5 of this volume.

With all of that gushing of the effects out of the way for now, let’s rewind back to a scene with Maria and Weiss being found out by Cordovin. In terms of animation, there was one bit of confirmation from Nyle Pierson and what he contributed to this episode, that being the comedic and now meme-worthy part where Maria is chewing cashews. If you recall, Nyle was also the one that confirmed to have animated Ruby’s reaction to seeing Jaune’s sister as well as Blake and Yang treading through the snowstorm to the shed. With three confirmed sequences, this should help give a small idea of how he animates. His timing with character acting can be a bit comparable to Hannah Novotny’s in terms of how he applies small bits of anticipatory action before body gestures or head shifts. That said, they don’t approach animating mouths and eye pupils the same. Where Hannah is more likely to shrink the pupils and makes a snarl mouth shape when say, characters get angry (in fact, she may have animated Cordovin threatening Maria through the intercom), Nyle keeps pupils fairly dilated and the mouth movements can be similar to characters in various Sonic the Hedgehog games. 

One aspect of this episode’s production that has been neglected are the storyboards and that’s because there was not much to highlight. Or rather, it was a struggle to find anything to bring up. Part of the problem was that aside from a couple of having establishing shots that make note of the terrain of the different characters and Qrow being framed at certain moments to show him being opposed to everyone else’s plan, the visual direction felt standard overall. There was one fairly clever instance of Qrow blaming himself where the main cast were several feet away from him, only for Ruby to wind up in front of him a few shots later after talking some sense into him (along with an interesting “misty” effect likely from the compositing). Other than that, not much else. That is not meant to be taken as a criticism so much as an observation. Not every episode needs to hit it right out of the park, as this one served as mostly a build-up episode. That said, there’s also the matter that in this episode, there were six storyboard artists which makes this and chapter 2 the most credited. This is strange because usually, an episode will vary from 3-5 storyboard artists and the number is never really dependent on episode length either. Chapter 3, the longest episode in the series (not counting credits) had only Rachel Doda, Kevin Harger and Mari Yang credited while chapter 4 which served as a transition episode, ran only at 13 in-a-half minutes and had all of the previously mentioned names as well as Emily Little, making for four artists. It’s honestly unclear as to why this type of pattern occurs aside from maybe scheduling. 

Moving on to the last segment of this episode, we have the start of a fight sequence between Blake and Adam. As much praise as there was with the effects from the cannon fire prior, the moment where Adam launched his attack at Blake was nothing to sniff at either. The attack came with everything expected from what Adam has done before where the screen dims and parts of his body glow. But this time, some black and red-colored spark effects were added which have never been done before and thus gave off an extra menacing feel. The effects of the slicing wave were also a little different from his character short where in that instance, it felt more like a stream of wind. Here though, the shapes are more defined with a heavy blur layered on top. Then there’s the animation. The only animator confirmed to have had a part in Adam and Blake’s fight this episode was John Yang who very likely animated this segment, though it’s unclear whether he animated anything after that though. John has been involved with the show since volume 5 and some of his previous sequences include Blake firing on Ilia which came prior to Kim Newman’s sequence, Oscar vs Leo, Ozpin vs Hazel, and part of Maria vs the bandits. In the chapter 1 production analysis, I speculated that he may have done Oscar leaping from train car to train car to get to Dudley. After some observation, I’m more convinced that he actually animated Qrow’s initial fight against the Sphinx Grimm and Ruby and Weiss helping Oscar defeat the Manticore Grimm. The way John times movement is with a brief but explicit sense of anticipatory action before each strike and movement is suddenly unleashed. The movements and strikes feel swift but intense in ways that feel a bit similar to animation director for volume 6, Joel Mann. In fact, John’s sense of timing can be compared to animator Yuya Takahashi who depending on whp you talk to, is known for contributing to various fan-favorite sequences in both Dragon Ball Super and Fairy Tail.

All of that aside, one last thing of note towards the end of the sequence were the cold-air effects when Blake and Adam spoke their lines, likely done by the compositing team. This was a neat touch in that it helped indicate the temperature of where they are. It’s one of those neat attention to details that along with the dust particles showing through the light in Lionheart’s office in chapter 1 of volume 5, many viewers would not think of acknowledge but none-the-less add a touch to the atmosphere.

That marks the end of this production analysis. This one was admittedly a bit more scarce and scattered in terms of what to talk about, but the parts that were noteworthy through the presentation definitely had much to breakdown. With the first of what seems to be a set of action-oriented episodes out of the way serving as build-up, we seem to be in for a bit of a wild ride as teased by assistant lead animator, Melanie Stern. Here’s hoping that there will be quite a bit more to touch on through the production of the next chapter.

[writesandramblings]

Secret’s End - Chapter 6

“Fruit of the Poison Tree”

Table of Contents

A/N: Sometimes the missions you don’t go on are as important as the ones you do.

<< Ch. 5 - Laugh It Off Ch. 7 - If You Never Ask >>

Ensign Zahra Hasimova shook like a leaf. There were pieces of security officer on her face. There were pieces of security officer on her face.

It was supposed to be a simple historical survey, cataloguing some cave paintings left by a primitive species, a few hours of fresh air and sunshine and then back to the confines of the ship. The creators of the cave paintings had gone extinct several thousand years ago. From what, they did not know, but Hasimova suspected the answer to that question was directly related to the bits of security officer on her face.

Now it made sense, Saru’s ganglia.

“Could be anything,” said Dr. Channick, scanning the valley with her eyes more than her tricorder. “Viral contagion, supervolcano blocked out the sun, their choice of building material.”

Channick, Hasimova, and a security officer were standing on a rocky outcropping partway up a cliffside near the end of a ravine. A picturesque valley of trees and fields stretched out in front of them, seemingly untouched by industry or society.

The truth was hidden in plain sight. The rock in this region—and across much of the planet—featured abundant veins of cinnabar, a striking red mineral classically used on Earth to produce the color vermilion.

Cinnabar was also notable for another reason: it was as deadly as it was beautiful, with high concentrations of mercury. The locals, oblivious to the risks, had used the material extensively in their architecture, creating towns that, in their heyday, must have been startling gems of red jutting up from the landscape. A few thousand years of sedimentary deposits later and the only signs left of these structures were areas of unusually poor plant growth, like the treeless void of grass in the valley below. The locals were long gone but the poison remained.

“Maybe they had a limited diet and starved when there was a blight,” continued Channick. Offering medical theories as to the fate of the natives was her flimsy justification for getting off the ship and enjoying the scenery.

The security officer waited for them to finish taking in the view and offered Hasimova a hand down. She smiled in thanks and he smiled back.

They picked their way along the wall of the ravine, deposits of gravel crunching beneath their feet. A broad smear of silty mud ran through the ravine’s center, suggesting that when it rained, the whole area became a river of significant depth and danger, with rapids and undercurrents capable of dragging a person under and slamming them into the rocky walls with enough force to pulverize. At present, the greatest danger was to their uniforms. The security officer’s shoes and pants were already caked up to the knees from some earlier muddy crossing. Channick and Hasimova had beamed down onto the same side of the ravine as the cave and were spared the need to repeat this indignity.

The cave was a gaping maw in the wall. It had likely formed as the result of an eddy forcing enough water against one spot to form a depression in the rock. After a millennia of repeated flooding, the depression had grown into a pocket, then a cavity, and finally a wide, open chamber with broadly sloping walls, its apex a good twenty feet above their heads. It possessed the slight chill and faintly clammy smell of a place that knew no sun.

A second security officer greeted them from inside, their escort’s partner. “Take a look,” she said, shining a light up onto the ceiling.

The paintings were high along the ceiling and walls. Strange humanoid figures, gesturing as if in welcome, or perhaps warning, because a wave was not a universal hello. The figures highest up were full-body while the ones further down were cut off at waists and knees, the pigment on the lower half of the walls long since washed away.

There were abstract markings, too. Spirals and burst shapes, a pattern of diamonds perhaps intended as constellations. Hasimova imaged them and made a note to compare the patterns against stars visible in the planet’s night sky.

“Pax is gonna be so jealous,” said the male security officer. Hasimova smiled to herself. She might have suggested Paxton accompany them, but his shift had not yet started and she wanted to be the one to index the paintings. Being assigned to the bridge as an ensign was an amazing opportunity she intended to make the most of. When these images went back to Starfleet’s archives, her name would be listed on the files and her analyses would be the initial launching point for further investigation.

“There’s one in every crew,” Channick remarked under her breath. Hasimova looked over at the security officers. The female officer was eating a protein bar. She offered her partner half and he predictably declined. The current generation of Starfleet-issue protein rations was infamous for its unpalatable flavor profile and equally long shelf life. Many people thought a willingness to eat the bars increased your chances of away team duty. Even this was insufficient incentive to convince most officers to eat the rations outside of anything but the most dire of survival situations. A friend of Hasimova’s had eaten one on a dare and declared it “pure poison.”

“I’m gonna go do some more scans,” said Channick, which was probably code for going hiking. “Try not to fall on a rock or have a medical emergency.”

“Just pictures,” promised Hasimova.

The female officer volunteered to accompany Channick. The doctor declined the company and repeated her warning not to cause any medical emergencies.

“You be careful,” said the woman. “Watch out for the Jabberwock.”

“If I find any lifeform bigger than a rabbit, it’ll be a miracle.”

“Yeah, this planet is pretty dead,” noted the male officer.

“Saru didn’t come down. You should’ve seen his ganglia.”

There had been, prior to the initial beam-down, an incident. Standing in the transporter room, moments away from mission commencement, a ganglia reaction had frozen the Kelpien in place. This was not the first time it had happened, either. Three previous incidents of varying severity had necessitated replacing Saru on the away team roster at the last moment. Today marked the fourth.

Channick was entirely dismissive of the suggestion. “He thinks every planet is dangerous. It’s an evolutionary reaction to stress, it doesn’t mean anything.” A reaction sometimes strong enough to merit a medical exception, but Channick’s data had yet to reveal a conclusive correlation between the ganglia and mission outcomes. Most missions entailed some level of danger and occasionally the danger was fatal to someone. Saru’s ganglia in no way guaranteed a fatal outcome. She intended to talk to him about the issue this afternoon because enough was enough.

“Still,” said the woman. “Keeps your comms open.” Channick feigned a salute and exited.

Hasimova continued her imaging. It wasn’t enough to just get the pictures, she also took detailed material scans. The redder pigments contained cinnabar, of course.

The male officer wandered over to join Hasimova. “Do you think they looked like us?”

“Humanoid, at least, Beyond that, I can’t say.” The paintings were too crude to have any discerning features.

“Stop bothering her, Hack,” called the women.

“I’m not! Am I?”

Hasimova smiled. Hack had a thick head of dark brown hair, bright brown eyes, and a square jawline. “No.”

“See? We’re just having a conversation.” His partner rolled her eyes and went to stand guard nearer the entrance. “You’ll have to forgive Geri. They don’t train us security officers in manners. They think it’ll interfere with our ability to fight off threats.”

“Oh? So what do they train you to do?” asked Hasimova coyly. None of Hack’s subsequent boasts had anything to do with Starfleet training programs.

He was outlining an escapade involving drinking most of the available alcohol in a small Icelandic town when there was a thud from the cave entrance. Geri was on the ground, already in the process of trying to get back up. Hack rushed to her side.

“I just... had a sudden wave of vertigo,” said Geri.

“I’m on my way back,” said Channick over the comms.

“I think I’m okay.”

“Probably that protein bar you ate,” suggested Hack.

“Probably,” said Geri, sounding unconvinced.

“I told you not to eat—”

Something pulsed across the surface of Hack’s skin, like a wave of subdermal fire. He started to fall.

He did not hit the ground. His skin seemed almost to glow and then suddenly there was a wet, sucking sound as the surface of his body exploded in a spray of fat and muscle and every other element of soft tissue, the force sufficient to shred his uniform. Most of him landed on the ground, but enough of him landed on Hasimova and Geri that calling the spread of slime and cloth at their feet a human corpse was not accurate in the slightest.

Hasimova stood there, shock-still, her mouth open, feeling the dribble of viscous fluids down the side of her face.

“Doctor!” shouted Geri. “He exploded!”

A moment later, so did she, with the same pulsing ripple of energy across her skin.

Hasimova did not close her mouth fast enough. All the many words of her communications training failed her. Over the comms, all Channick could hear was her screaming.

“A parasite,” concluded Channick back in the relative safety of sickbay. “In the mud of the streambed. It was underground, so it didn’t show up on surface scans. Wouldn’t normally be a problem, but...”

Geri and Hack’s legs had been coated in mud from crossing the ravine. Hidden within the silty particles were hundreds of desperately hungry microscopic parasites. Exposure to a new food source switched them from a dormant state to one of rapid reproduction. Coupled with the human immune system’s failure to identify the parasites as a form of invasive tissue, the parasites had been able to lay millions of eggs in their new hosts. The human circulation system did the rest, spreading the eggs across every corner of the human body.

This situation was not intrinsically fatal. It turned out the parasites were easily filtered out by the transporter’s protocols once identified, but the security officers had been down on the planet for a few hours, enough time for the things to reproduce en masse. Then, when the density of eggs was at a critical mass, an enzymatic reaction caused all the eggs to hatch at once.

“Is this what wiped out the native population?” asked Georgiou.

“Maybe. Chances are the natives weren’t affected by them the way we are. The DNA of the parasites has an... explosive reaction to human DNA.” Even if there had never been any pieces of security officer on Dr. Channick, the sight of Hasimova standing there covered in splatters from both was not easily forgotten.

“It is unfortunate you were not there,” said Georgiou.

Channick bit her lip. The reaction had been so immediate, her presence would not have made any difference whatsoever. The real misfortune was that Channick had been playing archaeologist and scanning the geology of the area with her tricorder rather than the officers.

“I will have to put this on your record.”

“I understand, captain.”

Georgiou considered her chief medical officer. None of them had identified the danger in time to avert this disaster except perhaps Saru. “Perhaps we should put more stock into Saru’s ganglia.”

“Yes, captain,” said Channick.

“Do not worry. You have an exemplary service record. That this mistake has cost the lives of two of my crew is a tragedy, one that we will prevent in future. It will not end your career.”

With that, Georgiou left Channick to mull things over. Channick was having a hard time deciding what felt more insulting to her, the suggestion she cared about her career in the wake of this or the idea that it could have been predicted by Saru.

The correlation to Saru’s ganglia remained unclear. Yes, Saru’s reaction prior to the mission had been extreme enough to excuse him from beaming down on a seemingly routine task and two people had subsequently died, but on a hunch, Channick tested the parasite’s DNA on a sample of Kelpien DNA. It was entirely nonreactive. Whatever danger Saru had been sensing, it had not been danger to himself.

Inconclusive, she decided. And tragic.

There remained a question as to the parasite. The nearest computer terminal was blinking with a prompt inviting her to name the newly-discovered species for the report. There was no way she was going to name it after herself. The victims deserved a memorial, but there was something macabre in the idea of naming something for the first people it killed, and also the question of which officer to name it after. Ensign Harold Tackett had died first, but Lieutenant Geraldine Combs was higher-ranking and had a longer service record. Channick pressed a finger to record a prompt response but remained indecisive. “Com-Tack’s parasite?”

This was how the seventh planet of the Tonnata system came to be mistakenly labeled as “Comtax” for the next six months until someone in stellar cartography corrected it, and the parasite was labeled as “Comtaxan” in an even smaller error that never was.

It was normal for Saru to feel like all eyes on the ship were upon him, but today there seemed to be evidence to support this. Furtive glances, hushed whispers, and he could easily imagine what they were saying. He knew they were going to die.

If only he had. He knew something was wrong before the away team left the ship, but as with so many other times his ganglia reacted, he did not know why until after the tragedy. His ability lacked any clear prescience. Always there was an edge of uncertainty.

Despite this, Georgiou had taken him aside at the beginning of his shift to inform him that from now on, he should keep her appraised of his gangliar reactions. “You are a more potent force than I realized,” she said, and he thanked her and swallowed the fact he was more embarrassed by his ganglia than anything else. Captain Georgiou would never flinch in the face of death the way he did. Perhaps, he told himself, he could take solace in the fact his affliction could be of use to the captain. The idea was mildly reassuring.

His ganglia were not being particularly reassuring right now. The sensation of being watched was uncomfortable enough his only intention on his mid-shift meal break was to secure a serving of blueberries and retreat to a quieter place to eat them. He stood waiting in line for his turn at the food dispenser, his gaze stalwartly on the floor.

“You sick freak!” screamed Hasimova from the far side of the room, accompanied by the rough bray of a chair scraping across the floor. Saru’s head jerked up.

Hasimova was standing next to a seated Paxton, two trays of food on the table. Hers contained three-quarters of a sandwich and his a bowl of oatmeal. Hasimova’s hand jerked with uncertainty. Then she grabbed the bowl of oatmeal, upended it into Paxton’s face, and stormed out.

On the far side of the mess hall, a lieutenant commander from Paxton’s shift slowly clapped. Ignoring the derision, Paxton wiped oatmeal from his face and flicked the clumps onto his tray. Most of the congealed mass of food had landed in his lap by way of his chest. He did what he could to remove it. Another lieutenant at the next table offered him her napkin in pity.

Wiping down the chair, Paxton picked up both of the food trays and brought them to the service area. Then he came and stood behind Saru in line.

“Lieutenant,” said Saru uncertainly.

“Lieutenant Saru,” said Paxton, disarmingly neutral.

“Is everything alright?”

“Um,” said Paxton, squinting. “Are you asking because you want to know or are you just being polite?”

The answer was that Saru was being polite, but to say as much would ruin the intent. Saru sidestepped the question. “Ensign Hasimova seemed to be in distress.”

“I did get that impression.” It could have been a joke, but Paxton’s expression was grimly intent.

Saru reached the front of the line. He placed his order with the computer. A moment later, Paxton did the same at the adjacent dispenser when it became available. “Oatmeal. Bananas and cinnamon.” Their orders appeared at the same time and they both started towards the main entrance, awkwardly halting as they realized their destination was the same. Saru motioned for Paxton to go first.

This was all the encouragement Paxton needed to initiate a conversation. “Was it bad that I threw away Zahra’s sandwich? I didn’t think it was right to leave it there on the table. But maybe she’ll come back for it.”

Somehow, Saru doubted Hasimova was going to return to the mess hall anytime soon. “I do not think it matters. There is no shortage of... sandwiches.”

“Good point. I wonder how long I have to wait until I can apologize.” Paxton began to eat his oatmeal as he walked.

“That would depend on what you need to apologize for.”

“I asked her what it looked like when Hack died.”

Saru maintained his stride despite the somersault his mind took. “Why would you ask that?”

“That’s...” Paxton’s brow furrowed. “If I could see what it looked like, then it would be like I was there.”

Saru slowed to a stop. “I almost went on the mission.” He reached a hand up towards his head, fingers hovering inches away from his ganglia slits.

“Why didn’t you?” It seemed like Paxton was the only person on this ship who did not know.

“I sensed death.”

“Oh.”

They stood there, uncomfortably still and silent until Saru asked, “Why would you wish to see death?”

Paxton shoveled a spoonful of oatmeal in his mouth and gulped it down, “It’s not that I want to see death, it’s that I wish I could’ve been there with Hack. He’s my friend. If I can picture it in my imagination, then at least in some part of my brain, I was there.”

Humans were really alien, Saru decided. He knew firsthand the visuals of his kin being butchered as food and that was something he would rather not have seen. He resumed walking and Paxton followed his lead. “The reality of the situation would likely not be the comfort you imagine.”

“Maybe. But not knowing is worse.” They arrived at the aft turbolifts and waited. “I was thinking of asking the captain if I could go to the memorial service.”

“I am sure she would allow it.”

“He has a sister, Evelyn.”

There was nothing really to say to this statement of fact. Saru offered the vaguest of platitudes. “I am sorry for your loss.” The turbolift arrived. A crewman stepped off. Saru and Paxton stepped on. “Deck five.” Paxton said nothing; his quarters were on the same level.

It was a short ride. Not short enough—the sense of shared confinement drove Paxton to resume talking as Saru tentatively ate a blueberry.

“He was my best friend. I wasn’t his, but he was the best one I had.” The lift doors opened.

“Perhaps you should speak to someone,” advised Saru, exiting the turbolift with a single graceful stride.

Paxton did not move immediately. “I’m sorry. I’m being weird and bothering you and you don’t even know me. Sorry.”

Saru stood outside the turbolift, staring at Paxton, trying to contextualize this behavior. It was very different to the reactions Morita and Yoon had displayed over the death of a man, by Morita’s own admission, they barely knew. It was also markedly different from Paxton’s confident exuberance a week ago when he had assailed Saru on the subject of the lului language. There was something tragic in the loss of that innocence. “You are... not bothering me.” It was an awkwardly difficult statement to make, since it was untrue.

Paxton exited the lift then, gaze downcast. The door closed behind him and the turbolift hummed off to its next destination. “It’s fine, I know I’m annoying. The common denominator in my lack of friendships is me.” Despite the body language, his voice was entirely unsentimental, verging on introspectively curious. “My reactions are a little... off. Eventually the novelty of my weirdness wears off and people realize they’d rather hang around with someone who falls within ‘acceptable social parameters.’” He used the hand with the spoon in it to mime half a set of air quotes. “And then they disappear. I wonder if Hack...” He fell silent. Contemplating whether or not the sole person he still labeled a friend would have ceased being his friend if only he had lived long enough was an immensely depressing train of thought.

Saru looked at the bowl of berries. “I believe you are describing the normal rise and fall of social relationships. Friendships are largely based on proximity. A change in shift, posting, or interests, and it becomes very difficult for either party to maintain the requisite interactions to continue as ‘friends.’”

Paxton looked up. “Really? It’s not just me?”

The rigid lines of Saru’s face seemed to soften slightly. “Entirely not.”

Encouraged, Paxton set off down the hall and Saru did the same, catching up to the much shorter human in all of two steps. Despite the improvement in Paxton’s demeanor, his conversational bent remained bleak. “It doesn’t change the fact everyone leaves in the end. It’s inevitable. You can’t fight the future.”

Saru tilted his head. “The future is not yet determined.”

“Isn’t it, though? The present is the culmination—the logical conclusion of all the events of the past. Our decisions are based on our experiences, so given the same history prior to this moment, we will always choose to do exactly what we do, the way we do it.”

Lalana had said something similar to Morita and Yoon. Events are a cumulative result of all events which came before them. Paxton’s interpretation of the sentiment was a little more extreme.

It was an extreme Saru had encountered before, in a science course at the Academy. He had not been brave enough to voice his own opinion at the time, but in the years that followed, he had developed a response and was now prepared to present it. “Determinism is a philosophy which fails to anticipate the unpredictability of quantum mechanics. If the atomic reactions which govern the firing of neurons are random, then it is possible for a multitude of outcomes even given identical circumstances.”

Though Paxton had not been in the class with Saru, he had also had this discussion before and jumped right to a counterargument also mentioned in Saru’s course. “Assuming the randomness of quantum reactions is sufficient to overpower the psycho-neurological programming on the macro level.”

“An unresolved question of scale,” allowed Saru. “If I may, there is a relevant analogy on the macro scale. If we were merely a product of our genetic programming, then I would not be on a starship. I believe in free will, Lieutenant Paxton.”

“So people have a choice and choose to tell me I’m a freak?” Saru had not foreseen this consequence of his assertion. He was at a loss as to how to respond. Paxton stopped in front of one of the dozens of doors along the corridor. “This is me.”

Saru said the only thing he could think of in reassurance. “Ensign Hasimova was in distress. I am certain she did not intend to refer to you unkindly.”

“It’s okay. It isn’t the first time someone’s called me a freak or a robot and it won’t be the last. Water off a duck’s back, right?” This time, the words were resilient, but the tone verged on upset. Paxton’s emotional state was consistently opposite the content of his remarks. “I’m gonna change. Thanks for walking with me, lieutenant.”

“We were going in the same direction,” said Saru, downplaying the charity. He was unsure what the idiom about the duck meant and had no interest in learning the particulars.

“Then I guess it’s a friendship of proximity. Beep boop!”

Saru stared.

“Sorry,” said Paxton, smiling weakly. “Robot humor. See you later.”

“Lieutenant—”

Paxton froze with his hand on the door controls.

“It would be advisable to attempt an apology to Ensign Hasimova tomorrow. You should never leave an apology too long.”

“Okay. I’ll do that.”

The door closed. Saru stood alone in the hallway, wondering at the whole conversation. Even if Paxton failed to meet the definition of proximal friend rather than mere acquaintance, Saru hoped his words had provided some consolation to the other lieutenant. He hated the thought of anyone around him suffering as a result of a misunderstanding. He set off towards his own quarters to finish the rest of his break in peace.

There was another possibility. Perhaps most people did form enduring social bonds and Saru was as odd a duck as Paxton because neither of them had much in the way of long-term friendships.

Maybe it was for the best. Deep space exploration was a high-risk undertaking and having friends meant potentially losing them in a very permanent sense.

In light of Georgiou’s newfound admiration for Saru’s ganglia, Channick debated the merits of calling the Kelpien in, but at the end of the day she was the ship’s chief medical officer and she had her own conscience to answer to. “Lieutenant Saru to the medbay.”

Saru arrived with wringing hands and worry written across every inch of his posture. “Dr. Channick, is there something wrong? My latest medical scan, I thought there might be an abnormality—”

Channick held her hand up for silence. “Your scan was fine. That isn’t why I called you in. Lieutenant, I need you to hear something, and I need you to really take it in, understand?”

Saru’s head jerked in alarmed confusion. It sounded like he was in trouble.

“Your ganglia. You had a bad reaction before this last mission and didn’t go down, and I signed off on that. The mission turned out to be dangerous, yes, but every mission is potentially dangerous. Every moment in time is potentially dangerous. I want to make one point here, and that is what would have happened if you had gone down to the planet.”

Saru recalled Lalana saying something similar during the battle with the pirates. There is nowhere in the universe which is safe. He found himself thinking of the lului regularly, wondering where she was in the universe and what she was doing, but far be it for him to bother her.

Channick picked up a biological sample dish. It contained a quantity of dirt. She opened it. “Put your hand in this.”

Saru tentatively complied. It was just dirt.

“This dish contains the parasites that killed Lieutenant Combs and Ensign Tackett.”

Saru’s hand jerked back. His whole body pulled away, his limbs tensing as he fought the urge to leap blindly backwards. Only one thing kept him in place. For all that he knew he should be afraid, nothing in his instincts had alerted him to danger.

Channick closed the dish. “No ganglia, right? Because this parasite isn’t dangerous to you. Just the people around you, provided we fail to take precautions.” She pulled the medical gloves from her hands and dropped them into the nearest receptacle.

The tension abated. “The danger I sensed, the coming of death... It was not my own.” It wasn’t always. Saru’s ganglia were perfectly capable of reacting on behalf of others, as they clearly had in this instance. “Perhaps if I had stopped them from going down to the planet...”

Channick took a deep breath. This was not the point she was trying to get across to him. “Saru. You are the most cautious and thorough science officer on the whole ship. When most people would logically stop looking for something, you keep checking. That’s why I know, if you had been down on that planet, you would have found the parasite.” She imagined Saru would have checked under every stone, leaf, and twig and still balked at the idea of issuing an all-clear.

Realization seized Saru. He clasped his hands and straightened to his full height. That made it even worse. There were two ways he might have prevented their deaths. “I am... more responsible than I realized.”

“No, don’t go there. The responsibility is mine. I should have had this damn conversation with you weeks ago. I’m your doctor and I could have run my own scans down on the planet. None of this is on you. Besides, we can’t change what happened.”

Channick seemed to be taking all the blame on herself. Saru knew what Lalana would have said on the subject, that no one person was more responsible for any given outcome than another, but it seemed to him that of the thousand, tiny million interactions that had led to the deaths on Tonnata VII, more than a few of them belonged to him and Dr. Channick, and Saru’s rejection of Paxton’s determinist philosophy further meant the two of them could have changed things if only the past were changeable.

Saru folded his fingers gracefully together. The past was over and done. “But we can change what happens going forward.”

There was something in the way Saru said it, an unusual certitude to his tone. Channick relaxed. Most of the crew had mixed feelings about their resident Kelpien and his many idiosyncrasies, but Channick knew there were several ways to define intelligence and her favorite was “the capacity to exceed evolutionary instinct.” For all his fears and struggles, Saru was a highly intelligent officer.

“Wash your hands,” she told him. “Those parasites will kill most anyone else here.”

The third planet orbiting Bepi 113 was a maelstrom of trionium gas and electrically charged particles. Drifting a safe distance away, the Shenzhou was witness to an impressive display as ribbons of plasma discharged across the atmosphere in a pattern not unlike the way the genetic incompatibility had danced beneath Ensign Tackett’s skin—a similarity known only to Ensign Hasimova, who repressed a shudder as she observed the phenomenon from her post on the bridge. Her nominal acceptance of Lieutenant Paxton’s apology had not extended to providing him the requested description.

There was no way to beam down through the atmosphere to investigate the anomalous readings coming from the planet’s surface. They would have to take a shuttle. As the away team donned EV suits and the engineers triple-checked the shuttle reinforcements, Saru could not repress the violent reaction of his ganglia.

The ensign beside him eyed the ganglia nervously, reminded of Tackett in an entirely different way. This felt like the prelude to Tonnata VII all over again.

It was hard to miss the staring. “Do not concern yourself, ensign,” said Saru.

“But...”

“If there is danger, then I will assist in handling it.”

The ensign relaxed. If Saru was willing to go down there, there was no reason for any of them to be worried.

There was plenty of reason, of course. The ensuing chaos of another mission gone dangerously awry entirely justified the appearance of the ganglia, but when the unstable electrical field produced a series of dangerous plasma waves that threatened to fry the shuttle and strand them on the surface or worse, Saru deflected the waves away from their position by polarizing the trionium gas around the shuttle, rendering it anathemic to the charged particles, and they all made it back to the ship in one piece.

Chapter 7

[fuertedevelopers-stuff]

Useful tips to help you create good habits as a web designer

A great economist said that over twenty years prior. Today there are more than 644 million dynamic sites on the Web and website specialists turned into a focal piece of any organization’s promoting methodology. This all makes website specialists popular.

Assuming you need to turn into a website specialist, yet you have no clue about where to begin, this aid is intended for you. Beneath you’ll discover a bit-by-bit guide that assists you with understanding the fundamental information and abilities you’ll have to construct a fruitful vocation in website architecture.

1. Learn website architecture hypothesis

With regards to learning another discipline, it’s fundamental to learn essential standards first. Very many planned sites adhere to severe principles of UX plan — they have great convenience and decent visual allure. A decent UX configuration will make guests stay on your site while an awful one will make them head off to someplace else.

Before attempting to make something you need to gain proficiency with the guidelines of how sites ought to be coordinated. Any individual who needs to turn into a website specialist ought to figure out how to make clear and vigorous data engineering. UX and UI creators help in the customer experience plan.

To make an eye-getting website architecture, it’s fundamental to learn the shading hypothesis and the essential standards of the visual pecking order. There’s a fantastic plan movement considered Day by day UI Challenge that guarantees that you’ll improve as an architect in 100 days. Check it out!

2. Figure out how to code

It will be difficult to work in the website architecture industry without knowing any of the programming dialects. It’s feasible to make a site utilizing web designers like Wix or Squarespace. Yet, you will battle to know the potential outcomes of the web when you work just with website manufacturers. Realizing how to code will give you a lot of advantages. For instance, you’ll have the option to shape a significantly more exact thought of whether your plan is plausible.

You need to have the essential abilities in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and CSS (Falling Templates). HTML sets the design and content of the page, while CSS characterizes the styling alternatives. I suggest instructional exercises by W3schools: instructional exercise on HTML and tutorial on CSS.

It’s additionally desirable to learn JavaScript — it’s quite possibly the most sought-after programming dialect. It’ll be a lot simpler to make progress in sites utilizing JavaScript. Significant learning stages give admittance to JavaScript courses for free. Look at it as a prologue to JavaScript courses by Codecademy and Udacity.

3. Get the right apparatuses

In each industry, becoming familiar with the fundamental instruments is the initial move towards progress. You can’t anticipate being a fruitful website specialist without knowing the business standard devices.

However, since website architecture is an expansive discipline, website specialists must be comfortable with various parts of the plan, for example,

Graphical plan. Notwithstanding that visual depiction and website composition are two separate fields, website specialists frequently need to jump into visual communication to settle a specific plan issue. Hence, figure out how to utilize a designs supervisor like Adobe Photoshop. The most widely recognized assignment website specialists do in illustrations editors is picture altering — resizing or trimming pictures so they fit appropriately inside explicit spaces or compacting pictures so they’ll be more reasonable for web seeing. Here is a brilliant instructional exercise for Photoshop by Tutorials.

Prototyping. Prototyping is the foundation of website composition. At the point when website specialists have strong prototyping abilities, they don’t need to hang tight for the last website architecture to approve their presumptions; all things being equal, they can approve their plan choices in practically no time. Look at Mockplus, an amazing asset for prototyping. Utilizing Mockplus it’s conceivable to make a completely intuitive model in minutes.

Coding. As I’ve effectively referenced, website specialists ought to see how to code. Get yourself a decent code proofreader like Radiant or Particle.

Prototyping in Mockplus

Website specialists additionally need to get comfortable with mainstream CMS (Content Administration Framework) — programming that is utilized to make and oversee advanced web content. CMS makes a technique of content administration substantially more agreeable for the site’s proprietors. While there are many various CMS accessible available today, there are three driving CMS — WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. Having active involvement in one (or all) framework is fundamental. You can begin with basic exercises, for example, presenting minor changes in the webpage’s plan and move to further developed exercises, for example, making a format for a site or fostering a module.

4. Learn essential Web optimization rules

Part of being a popular website specialist is having the option to accomplish something beyond plan. Sites must be organized such that makes them amicable for clients as well as for internet searcher bots. Web optimization is a course of webpage enhancement that has an objective to make better online perceivability of a site. Website specialists should zero in on “normal” advancement by working webpage hand’s presentation, enhancing it for various stages, and focussing on content — making it significant for the intended interest group. Such exercises can assist with expanding the site’s rankings with web indexes. Peruse The Total Novice’s Manual for Website optimization and 15 Guidelines for Ruling On the Web Indexed lists for more data on the Web optimization theme. A Web Designing company is responsible for improving the designs of your company over the web.

5. Assemble a propensity for testing your plan consistently

The course of website architecture requires assessment and investigation of completed work. Architects need to test a site to be certain that pages load rapidly and a site is available both for work areas and portable clients. Today it’s a lot simpler to take a look at that. You can utilize apparatuses like Google Pagespeed Bits of knowledge.

6. Further develop your relational abilities

Web planning is infrequently a small-time show. Regardless of whether you work in a major plan office or a little plan studio, cooperation is inescapable. Website specialists need to speak with customers, engineers, or different creators consistently. That is the reason website specialists ought to figure out how to introduce their work in the best light.

7. Watch out for coming patterns

Motivation is fundamental for all innovative individuals, and website specialists are no exemption. Website specialists ought to be acquainted with the most recent website composition patterns to comprehend the always changing requests of web guests. It’s prescribed to go through 30 minutes every day on watching the best plans.

8. Join website architecture networks

The most ideal approach to take in is to gain from the best. It’s critical not exclusively to join website architecture networks yet, in addition, be a functioning part:

-Join well known online networks like Sitepoint or Uxmastery

-Follow web specialists like Sara Soueidan, Brad Ice, Jeffrey Zeldman, and Jesse James Garrett on Twitter.

In any case, remember about disconnected exercises. Zero in on acquiring disconnected contacts. Recall that numerous extraordinary positions are accessible just for reference. Subsequently, join neighborhood meetups and gatherings and begin gathering significant contacts. Meetup is an incredible asset that assists you with tracking down an applicable movement in your locale.

9. Look for study and figure out how to repeat

Configuration is an exceptionally abstract matter, and website architecture is no special case. That is the reason when planners make something they need to look for input from others — different originators, partners, clients. You can find out about methods of getting criticism from the article The Significance of Getting Incredible Input in Website composition.

It’s additionally fundamental to keep away from the scourge of imaginative compulsiveness. A large portion of the creators are sticklers; they attempt to make things ideal right from the primary endeavor. In any case, it tends to be difficult to accomplish this objective particularly when you as of late joined the website architecture. Along these lines, don’t stress a lot over making your plan wonderful the first run-through. It’s in every case better to make something unmistakable and get input on your work from genuine clients as opposed to investing a great deal of energy cleaning something just to understand that your plan choice was not spot on. Perhaps the best thing about website composition is that sites can generally be improved whenever.

10. Zero in on making your portfolio

To employ a website specialist, organizations or customers should be certain that a web originator has every one of the necessary abilities to accomplish the work. That is the reason when organizations/customers search for a planned originator they need to see unmistakable consequences of their work, not simply to hear the inside and out comprehension of the planned hypothesis. The most ideal approach to demonstrate your website architecture abilities is to make a solid portfolio.

In any case, what to do on the off chance that you don’t have any models for your portfolio? Start this cycle by making your very own site. Make a virtual presence for yourself as an expert — show your abilities and level of craftsmanship. Flavor your plan with components of personalization (add something exceptional to your site, something that can be found uniquely on your site).

Source:

https://fuerte-developers.medium.com/useful-tips-to-help-you-create-good-habits-as-a-web-designer-c23056aff2da

[anotel-rwbyoc]

Charcoal Carapace

“Unlike you, I’m not afraid to spill blood, if it meant protecting those I love. I don’t have many of those.”

Name: Charcoal Carapace

Nickname(s): Cole (Sphene, Satsuma)

Colour: Charcoal black

Age: 19

Birthday: December 29

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Demisexual

Handedness: Ambidextrous

Complexion: Brown

Hair: Black

Eyes: Red

Height: 180 cm (5'11")

Weight: 58 kg (127.9 lb)

Aura: black with water droplet like particles

Occupation: Student (second year)

Race: Snake faunus

Fanus Trait: Scales

Affiliation: Haven Academy

Team: CSMC (Cosmic)

Appearance

Charcoal is tall with a very slim, rectangle body. She has a long face with red, monolid eyes, and thin eyebrows. She has shiny black snake scaled on her cheeks, back, hips, and thighs. Her long black hair reaches to about her knees, and curls up at the ends. Her long bangs are split in the middle and are tied together at the back of the head.

In her main outfit, her face is covered by her black scarf and face mask. Her grey conical hat has her symbol stitched into it at the top, and is tied to her head with a black ribbon. Her grey shirt, sleeves, and pants all have black edges. She also wears fingerless fishnet gloves, along with fishnet sleeves and socks. On her sleeves and pants she has light grey patterns of her emblem. Around her middle is an obi styled belt with a bag at the back. On her left side she has her black sheath for her sabres, hanging off of the belt

Personality

Charcoal is mysterious and soft spoken. She isn’t very expressive, and appears nonchalant and uninterested in conversation, which makes it hard to approach her. She’s calm, relaxed, and keeps a level head in even the most dire of situations. If she sees that a problem has risen she fixes it calmly, but will not be afraid to resort to violence if she believes it is necessary. Manipulation isn’t out of the question either. She gets stressed if she hangs out in crowds for too long, and it isn’t weird to see her quietly slink away from a social event.

If you approach her and she doesn’t know you, she will be suspicious about your motives. She will not trust you, not for a while. If you can prove to her that you have her back, then she will begin to open up to you, kind of. It’s not much. She’s independent and does not like relying on others to help her, instead, coming up with her own solutions to reach her goals. She’s incredibly passionate about her interests and training, but only shows this to people who are closer to her. You might get an actual response from her if you ask anything about her collections. She loves collecting anything interesting that catches her eye. In actual conversation, she’s a little awkward. She answers straightforwardly, and doesn’t quite understand social cues. If she’s given space to find the right words, she communicated well enough. The only person so far to have her undying loyalty is her sister, who she protects with her life, and worries way too much about. She does have a compassionate side, she just needs to loosen up a bit.

She will completely avoid and stay silent towards anybody she doesn’t like. The likely hood of getting any kind of personal information, or even just normal information from her is close to zero at this stage. At this point, you might as well give up on her.

She expects nothing but the best from herself, her studies are no exception. She may over work herself for school, especially for combat. She will spend hours trying to hone her skills alongside school work, which isn’t very good for her health. She will use all of the knowledge she has gained in a fight, and make her own plans.

Likes:

Cool looking shiny stuff

Pumpkin

Reading

Cold weather

Magic shows

Sweaters

Eggs

Video games

Nature

Children

Dislikes:

Crowds

Hot, sunny days

Hawks

Bandits

When her sister walks around without her permission

Wasting time

Coffee

Vegetables

Urban cities

Strangers

Semblance

Geyser- Charcoal can make water rise out of the ground like a Geyser. She can only make geysers right underneath her, or right next to her. In order for her to activate her semblance, she needs a source of water underneath her. If there is no water underneath her, then tough luck. She cannot stop an actual geyser, but she can make it rise earlier. Using an already existing geyser uses up less aura.

Weapon

Kame and Hebi- Two Sabres with handguns as the hilt

Fighting Style

Charcoal uses her speed and semblance to out maneuver her opponents, often by playing keep away by creating geysers underneath her to give her the higher ground. She may shoot her opponents with her guns from that height. She will dash to her opponent with her sabres once she finds an opening, then run back out when things get tough. Basically, she uses a hit and run tactic. She may use her semblance underneath her opponents to surprise them.

Backstory

Charcoal was born into a very poor family in a little cottage away from Wind path, in the mountains. Her mother died when she gave birth to her, and her father died from sickness when she was 2. The one who took care of her was her Grandmother, a retired Huntress, now running a hot spring and Inn. Since they were tucked away in the mountains, business was tough, but they made do. Charcoal helped with the inn, and learnt some fighting techniques from her grandmother. Living in the mountains mean more grimm, and with living close to a shady city like Wind path, self defence was necessary. She lived like this until things changed at the age of 15.

She was walking back home from Wind Path when she came across 5 bandits with a young, green snake faunus, arguing about wether to skin her scales or sell her. Unable to watch the young girl struggle, Charcoal covered her face, and approached the bandits. She challenged them to a duel for her, only realizing too late that she was no match for a group of bandits all at once. While she was tossed around, she thought about another way to save the faunus. At this rate, she would be too injured to move, or worst case, die, and the faunus would either be enslaved or dead. If she attempted to run away with the faunus, who knows what the bandits would do. Chase her? Ambush her in Wind Path? Attack her home? There were too many risks. She didn’t want to resort to it, but she begged for the bandits to stop. When they paused, Charcoal offered all of the lien she had with her from doing odd jobs and helping her grandmother for her entire life, in exchange for the faunus girl. Thankfully, it was barely enough, and they were left alone. Charcoal had just enough strength to carry the little faunus back to her home. She expected her grandmother to punish her for wasting money, especially on bandits and buying a faunus, but, to her surprise, she was forgiven. It was to help a fellow snake faunus, she did the best she could in her circumstance. Since the Snake faunus was an orphan, and did not remember her name, she was adopted by the two, and given the name Sphene by Charcoal. The two became inseparable sisters.

With Charcoal’s failure in combat, she wanted to help her grandmother more, and those in awful situations like Sphene, and decided that following in her grandmother’s footsteps would be her best option, becoming a huntress. She had her eyes on Haven academy, but she would need more combat experience since she didn’t go to a combat school, not to mention she’s going to need way more money. The first was easy. She took her training more seriously under her grandmother’s wing. The latter was going to be more difficult. At the rate she was gaining last time, she wasn’t going to make enough. She decided to take a more, questionable, approach to earning money. She was next to Wind Path after all. She figured that she could repay all of the trouble she was going to cause once she became a huntress. She first took up a few jobs exterminating grimm, then once word got out about her skill, she took up the more lucrative job, assassination. She was picky with who she was hired to kill but she got the job done. It was messy at first but as she continued her training, the more skilled and precise her kills became. The only one who knew of her extra job was Sphene.

Finally, she had what it took to get into Haven Academy. She was able to prove her skill as a huntress, and got into the school. She was ready to face the school year alone, or so she thought. Aside from the whole “assigned to a team” thing, she unknowingly brought Sphene with her to to Haven. Though she was upset at first, having at least one person she knew put her a little more at ease. Charcoal was teamed up with Cream, Satsuma, and Moonstone. In the entrance exam, she was paired with Moonstone.

After the fall of Beacon, She resumed her travels around Mistral with her teammates, and Sphene, during their summer break. Currently, they are stopped at her family’s Inn, which has gained more traction with the help of her teammates.

Relationships:

Cream- Since Charcoal is not the leader of the team herself, she was skeptical of Cream as the leader. She eventually learnt to respect her skills, but does not agree with her black and white views. She fears what she would think of her if she found out what she did to get into the school. She thinks Cream is too nosey, but is glad to be accepted into the team. When Cream comes to her for advice, she does her best to help. Wether it succeeds is another story

Satsuma- Charcoal was not too fond of Satsuma when they first met. She recognized his passion and ambition, but kept her distance until Satsuma started to fight with Cream and Moon. No one seemed to be taking his side, so took it upon herself to be by his. She empathized with his insecurities, and now lends a ear whenever he needs it. She is also incredibly grateful of Satsuma to help her out so much with finances and supplies. She insists she repays him, but for now, it’s talk and whatever attention he seeks

Moonstone- Charcoal thinks he’s absolutely adorable, but can’t express that properly. When she tries it comes across as intimidating, or awkward. She wants to try and talk more, but with him being so quiet as well, she doesn’t know how. She relies a lot on outside input to respond to. For now, she just enjoys his company in silence, even if he is skittish and shy.

Sphene- Charcoal’s adopted, little sister is very dear to her. She protects her with her life, maybe too much. Sphene often leaves the house to go exploring, which frustrates Charcoal to no end. No matter how many times she tells her not to go out due to how much attention she draws, she goes anyway. Charcoal understands that she is far more outgoing than her, but she doesn’t want to see Sphene in the hands of bandits or anybody 

Trivia:

Alludes to the madame white snake from Chinese legends

Also alludes to the black turtle from the four symbols

Sphene used to live on a camping site until Satsuma offered his Mistral house

She is a very light, and restless sleeper

Charcoal has a large collection of random shiny bits she found on the road. She tends to hoard things

As the poorest member of the team, she’s jealous about how getting into the academy must have been so much easier for them, or so she thinks

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[yorkshireword]

Anna Halprin’s dance deck, built outdoors on a wooded hillside among the redwoods at Kentfield, in Marin County, California, between 1951 and 1954 with Lawrence Halprin, her husband, an architect, landscape designer, urbanist, and ecologist, is an architectonic arrangement that transformed dance practice, just as the free plan and the Dom-Ino house designed by Le Corbusier revolutionized architecture.

Lewis: “[The Deck] did not become an object in the landscape, it became part of the landscape and that is very different. The fact of its free form, which moves around responding to the trees and to the mountain view and other things, has been a premise of mine ever since.” 2 Anna Halprin declared that they had to break with the proscenium arch and with the role assigned to the dancer. From this site, for more than sixty years, she has been developing innovative dance pieces, and today she is still producing therapeutic movement rituals. 3 By her own account, she started by simply getting rid of all her old schemes, and she had to start over with new ideas about how her own nature and the nature around her were linked. That was where she started to develop a new approach to movement.

The proscenium arch can be regarded as a social construct that separates audience from performer; it is also what emphasizes the visual setting by giving the spectacle its own time, separate from daily life. For Anna Halprin, the experimental approach is based on the fact of inhabiting the present. Dance is not about itself but about us. She has a collective conception of dance, in which audience and dancer work together. 

Anna Halprin was keen to break with modern dance, reckoning that its project involved constructing bodies on the basis of the choreographer’s canon, merely replacing social constraints but without freeing them. All dancers end up looking like Martha Graham. Martha Graham said that it took ten years to make a dancer, and Marguerite H’Doubler riposted provocatively that it took just ten minutes. Anna Halprin extends this teaching by letting everyone have mastery of movement. Unlike body dressage, she tries to encourage everyone’s creativity in processes making it possible to go beyond the conformity of behavior. The performances of “tasks” brought on stage, and hailing from the everyday, discontinue the fabric of the dance spectacle, just as the Cubists’ use of newspapers created a heterogeneous break within the pictorial surface.

In this respect, the move from choreography to “scoring” — otherwise put to collective creativity — marked a decisive turning point. Formalized by Lawrence Halprin in conversation with Anna Halprin in 1968, the “RSVP” feedback loop describes this creative process. It has four components: an assessment of living and environmental resources (R); the composition of a score called Score (S); valuaction, an evaluation of the work in the form of a report on experience which causes the Score to progress (crits, dialogues, commenting and coming to consensus) (V); and the performance itself (P). A communication feedback system.

In the 1960s, the novel approach of the situated body, dancing through breathing and impulse, ushered in the field of collective performance, as a counterpoint to modern dance. Anna Halprin’s contribution to dance, in this regard, is as important as John Cage’s to music. The musician promoted silence, but Halprin initiated “non-dance.” Cage introduced the notion of prepared piano in such a way as to bypass the institution of the range predefined by the mechanical object, while Halprin, for her part, acted on the stage space that constrains the movements of the body by freeing it from its limits via a natural and social exterior.

In Stockhausen serves Imperialism, Cornelius Cardew emphasizes as much:

The Music of Changes in fact bears a strong resemblance to capitalist society, as Cage envisaged it in 1951; that is, as simply the sum total of its individual members who merely proceed on their own way, according to their own dictates. Each particle of this universe appears to be free and spontaneously self-moving, corresponding to the free bourgeois producer as he imagines himself to be; events consist of their collisions and are the product of internal chance. However, a mysterious cosmic force holds all those particles together in one system; this mysterious force is simply the capitalist law of supply and demand. 5

Halprin does not subscribe to this kind of reform simply with a visual goal; there is also a political project. In his book Stockhausen Serves Imperialism, Cornelius Cardew makes a clear analysis for music:

What aspects of present-day society are reflected in the work of John Cage? Randomness is glorified as a multicoloured kaleidoscope of perceptions to which we are “omniattentive.” Like the “action” paintings of Jackson Pollock, Cage’s music presents the surface dynamism of modern society; he ignores the underlying tensions and contradictions that produce that surface (he follows McLuhan in seeing it as a manifestation of our newly acquired “electronic consciousness”). He does not represent it as an oppressive chaos resulting from the lack of planning that is characteristic of the capitalist system in decay (a riot of greed and exploitation).

2) Janice Ross, Anna Halprin: Experience as Dance, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007, p. 104.

5) Cornelius Cardew, Stockhausen Serves Imperialism, London: Latimer New Dimensions Limited, 1974.

https://flash---art.com/2020/05/anna-halprins-dance-deck/

legendary Mount Tamalpais dance deck

Anna Halprin’s dance deck was built in collaboration with Lawrence, her husband, the landscape architect, urban designer, and ecologist, between 1953 and 1954, in the redwood area of Kentfield, California. From this site, Anna Halprin, born in 1920 in Illinois, has been developing innovative dance pieces and performing therapeutic movement rituals for more than sixty years. As she says, “I began to simply shed all of my old patterns, and I had to start anew with new ideas of what is the nature within me and how did that nature and my nature interface. That’s where I began to develop a new approach to movement.”

The Halprins’ dance deck presented a landscape score, establishing dance techniques based on observation and awareness. The “task performances,” in particular, were a means of attending to the conversation between one’s body and a specific environment. These exercises formed the basis for a range of collective acts, “movement rituals,” such as blindfolded walks, and workshops with students, including Trisha Brown, Simone Forti, and Yvonne Rainer. The kinesthetic experience and collectivity that this interstitial space offers can be traced back to the beginnings of modern dance.

Responding to what’s there in the environment, the character of the environment. THINK OF LANDON’S USE OF PILLARS AT SEAN KELLY AND JAMES FUENTES. Influenced the shape of the deck, in Larry’s design, which literally juts its perimeters to allow trees as they stand (and, famously, incorporating holes in the floor to allow existing trees to come out) but then necessarily also influenced Anna’s choreography - the point became art EXPERIENCES rather than merely art PIECES.

Sourcing movement from everyday tasks, chance, and improvisation and using scores as her primary compositional frame, Halprin has mined the social and spatial potential for shifting dance beyond the concert stage and traditional choreographic constraints. The turn Halprin took from concert dance to works prioritizing ritual, healing, witness-participants, and community building. DEMOCRATIZE

Planetary Dance, Halprin’s most widely presented participatory work, operates at this tension point between individual expression and assimilation into a collective (or singular) body. 

[real-kim-rachel]

The Workable Components of a Over head Traveling Crane | This Incredible Benefits of Having This particular Crane System

An overhead traveling crane, in addition known as a bridge crane, is commonly made use of for commercial load lifting. Overhead traveling cranes could be classified while electronic overhead traveling (EOT) crane or a rotary over head crane. The electric over head is the more typical on the two and typically obtained in industries. They can be fully electrically operated by a control necklace, radio/IR remote or even from the cottage attached to the crane itself. Rotary overhead crane systems are another type connected with overhead crane system, which possesses one end of its bridge-mounted, which is on the fixed pivot, while the other end is sustained on an annular track.

Typically the basic types of overhead traveling cranes can consist of overhead running cranes, beneath running cranes, single girder bridge cranes and double girder bridge cranes. Over head traveling cranes are usually engineered within four typical configurations. You will see on overhead cranes they may have a new remarkably detailed control program, which in turn is specific to be able to doing day to moment assignments with the overhead crane system. The controls on a great overhead traveling crane will be the crane pendant, variable frequency drive(VFD), radio remote control, power supply, enclosures, also NEMA 1, 13 and 4. Controlling the particular Over head Traveling Crane Generally, typically the pendant is mounted within two ways together with can be attached to a sliding track system. The pendant can likewise be attached to this electric trolley lifter by itself. When mounted to the electric power trolley hoist, there will have got to be an user beside it to maneuver and operate the products to move the forces that require to move. Typically the pendant will be engineered to be able to perform certain functions associated with the crane that will be should have been controlled manually. The particular au cours de will control each and every purpose and configuration coming from the bridge travel, cart direction, in addition to lift rate. Not limited by these characteristics and designs the pendant can do a great deal more. The variable frequency get is definitely used solely to management often the motors of typically the crane. As soon as controlling overhead travelling crane will always be made by a varying frequency. A chance to set custom rate and let the equipment boost and even reduce smoothly will end up being dependent on the particular various frequency of the motors. Pendant pushbuttons have a pair of different speed controls in the same way used with the shifting frequency drive. One press button retains the speed and the other can often boost. The crane will begin to decelerate when it’s controlled by the pattern braking system that is definitely programmable into the variable frequency commute. Radio remote control controls can function wirelessly, nevertheless uses radiofrequency and will not be immediately sent into the crane. Broadcast Control Safety The radio stations controls have different security features, that will permit the driver to function safely at some sort of length. Also, multiple marque can easily be controlled in as soon as with the same radio handheld remote control. The power supply is the electric assistance available in the constructing, when the crane or substance management equipment is currently being manufactured can operate coming from. Enclosures might be gauged for certain varied programs plus environments, as they shield other electrical pieces and also they have three important levels of protection. NEMA 1; this enclosure keeps the assistance crew and operates protected from electrical components and avoid them from being electrocuted. NEMA 12, Has typically the same capabilities yet will keep oil, filth, water, particles and other debris away of the interior power components. Lastly, NEMA 5, which can be employed in indoor and outdoor could protect the enclosure via leaking if it obtains really wet while presenting a higher level regarding protection from things such as, engine oil, dirt, liquid, and dust. These types of settings are highly needed plus play some sort of critical part in the way a over head traveling crane will function.