#How to Create Visual Effects in Blender

[twinsimming]

Energy Drinks by Twinsimming 🥤

This mod adds custom Energy Drinks to a new type of vending machine.

This is a script mod that can be placed in your Packages folder. It was built and tested on 1.69 but should work fine on 1.67.

Requirements

The Sims 3: Late Night

The Sims 3: Seasons

The Sims 3: Supernatural

The Sims 3: University Life

Overview

Soda-Lightful Vending Machine

Energy Drinks

Side Effects

Flavors

New Moodlets

Soda-Lightful Vending Machine

- Price: §1250 - Category: Large Appliances - Includes all 11 original swatches + 1 recolorable option (3 channels) - Poly Count: 2346 - Originally created for The Sims 4 by RAVASHEEN, converted to The Sims 3 by me

Like the vending machines that came with University Life, sims can Buy Energy Drink, Shake Machine, or Slam Machine.

Energy Drinks

Teen and older sims can purchase energy drinks from the Soda-Lightful Vending Machine for §5 each.

Energy drinks boost the Energy need, give sims the custom Energy Rush moodlet, and remove any moodlets related to low Energy (Tired, Sleepy, Exhausted, Buzz Crashed, etc.), similar to drinking coffee, but the effect lasts twice as long (6 hours instead of 3 hours).

Drinking multiple energy drinks in a row will boost how long the Energy Rush moodlet lasts, as well as increase the moodlet's value, up to 18 hours and +30 mood.

Once the Energy Rush moodlet expires, sims get the custom negative Energy Crash moodlet.

Side Effects

If your sim goes more than 24 hours without another energy drink, they'll start to suffer from caffeine withdrawal and gain the custom negative Craving Caffeine moodlet for the next 2 days. Drinking coffee, tea, barista bar beverages, or another energy drink will remove this moodlet.

Drinking more than 2 energy drinks at a time also carries the risk of a sim being electrocuted and dying.

Teens and Elders both have a 5% chance of being electrocuted, while YA have a 1% chance and Adults have a 3% chance.

Flavors

There are 8 different energy drinks to choose from. 6 provide flavor-related moodlets from the snow cone machine from Seasons and the bubble blower from Late Night. These moodlets last for 4 hours.

From left to right in the second preview photo:

Charged Cherry (Cheery Cherry)

Pineapple Power-Up (On a Beach)

Lightning Lemon (Laidback Lemon)

e-Lectric Lime (Lucky Lime)

Blue Raspberry Blitz (Raspberry Romance)

Gigawatt Grape (Gleeful Grape)

The Unidentified Fizzy Ooze energy drink replenishes Alien brain power, but makes non-Aliens nauseous.

The last energy drink is called Mystery Flavor and it works like the jelly bean bush from Supernatural; including carrying the risk of death, so proceed with caution.

New Moodlets

Energy Rush: Given when sims drink an energy drink, lasts 6 hours, +10, +20, or +30 mood

Energy Crash: Given when the Energy Rush moodlet expires, lasts 7 hours, -15 mood

Craving Caffeine: Given when sims go more than 24 hours without another caffeinated drink, lasts 2 days, -30 mood

Tuning

All of the tunable values can be found on the mod download page under the header “Tuning”.

Script Namespace

If you want to turn a different vending machine into an energy drink vending machine, open your desired object in s3pe and replace the current script name with the following:

Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.Twinsimming.EnergyDrinksMod.VendingMachine

Conflicts & Known Issues

This is a new scripted object, so there shouldn’t be any conflicts.

All of the drink cans are different colors when placed in the world and during the drinking animation, but they all have a red can icon when placed in a sim's inventory. I'm not sure how to fix this right now, but that should be the only issue of note.

Credits

EA/Maxis for The Sims 3 and The Sims 4, mesh by RAVASHEEN, Visual Studio 2019, ILSpy, s3pe, Notepad++, Sims4Studio, TSRW, Blender, Milkshape, Gimp, and Script Mod Template Creator.

Thank You

Thank you to RAVASHEEN and everyone in the Sims 3 Creators' Cave Discord!

If you like my work, please consider tipping me on Ko-fi 💙

Download @ ModTheSims

[cellray]

Can I ask what program or process you use to make your spirals?

I had a little search using the search function on your blog, but as we know Tumblr is terrible at searching.

And I've been trying for a little while (read like 5 years) to find how to make spirals.

And I've never found something that gives me the options I want

I came across one of your spirals just a few minutes ago and dived into a couple of your blogs

And once I've had dinner, I'm going to be diving a lot deeper.

But yes, do you have a program or a system that you use that you'd be willing to share?

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Plum ^•^

Hihi! I personally use Adobe After Effects to create my visuals, but that's quite an expensive option for most people so I know a lot of friends who would recommend Gimp or Blender instead, both of which are free!

I think your best option is to just pick any software and play around with it, see what you can create! You'll find it's surprisingly easy to make a shape rotate and find it spirally and fun to watch ✨

[obvdrc]

What software do you use to...

create your models?

texture them?

animate them?

What is your process for doing the above?

What are your visual influences/inspirations?

What got you into 3D art?

All that asked, I am now rediscovering how good your models are despite having followed you for who knows how long, lol. I look forward to your future masterpieces.

Hello!

Pretty much everything is in Blender except textures, those I do through Aseprite with a Blender-Aseprite plug-in called PribamBase.

Its mostly the usual process of modeling, unwrapping, texturing with the plug-in, rigging, animating with a simple IK rig, rendering, and sometimes doing a little color adjust/filter effects through Krita.

My biggest inspirations would probably be between retro game aesthetics (PSX, etc) and Valheim - which was my initial inspiration into poly-pixel style 3D but 3D stuff in general has been a hobby of mine since I was just a little tiny person.

Thanks for the question and for checking out my stuff!

[thebramblewood]

I thought it might be fun to do a little behind the scenes for the last story post! You guys might be surprised how little actual editing was involved. I mainly just crop, add brightness and saturation, clean up any small bits of clipping or weirdness that bother me, and then add captions! Do you want to know what actually took me the longest?

This hair had some problem areas that showed up in live mode but not CAS. It's such a tiny thing, but it annoyed me, so I had to touch it up in nearly every screenshot. Luckily, the darkness of her hair means I didn't have to do a perfect job.

The effects were all done in-game. Lilith has the alluring visage vampire perk, which creates the red haze and mind control spiral. Unfortunately, Helena crossed her path too closely, and rather than set the shot up again I used the clone brush in Photoshop to edit out the effects around her head (vampires who can successfully do mind control on other vampires are exceedingly rare). By the way, I later figured out a quick and dirty method for dispelling unwanted visual effects on a Sim is to remove buffs in MCCC.

As I've mentioned, I had to shoot the attack scene twice. The first attempt was too dark, the location wasn't very visually interesting, I was in an area of San My where I had less camera control, and I used the Effects Player, which ended up being less eye-catching (hey, sometimes vanilla is the best option!). They would have worked to get the point across, but I think you can really see how I learned and improved upon my vision!

These comparison shots are all uncropped and unedited, by the way. Reshade/Relight truly does the heavy lifting. I've also gotten better at finding an angle I like and sticking with it, even if that's only because I don't want to adjust Relight all over again, lol! Speaking of angles, that last shot was done using the Dutch angle trick I learned in this tutorial by @surely-sims! First-person camera is actually super useful for storytelling. If you don't already know about this head-turning trick, it'll change your life. It comes in clutch for changing the eye line of a posed Sim since I'm not always great at getting that right in Blender.

Anyway, I don't know if anyone will find this super helpful or interesting, but I'm always open to questions about taking and editing screenshots, even though I feel like most of what I know has just been absorbed through osmosis and trial and error!

[the-lazyyy-artist]

Thoughts on Blue Lock's Season 2 Finale: Horror, Inspiration, and Pride

The finale has finally come, marking the end of Blue Lock's breathtaking arc. This has been one of the most awaited moments in this sports anime as it has brought such a big hype in the manga. To see the tense moments be animated on our screens is something to be excited for, and the climax and the definite end of the arc are all laid out in a cinematic sequence in episodes 13 and 14.

Now, I am a new fan. Started watching and reading the manga last August 2024 and like everyone who has started before me, we all have waited for this moment. Sure, we all had our complaints, our opinions, our observations on this season's animation, but one thing that we can all agree on is that these episodes were created with such care and attention with how they interpreted the manga in a cinematic way.

One thing I've always looked forward to in this part of the series is how they would interpret Rin's emotions, his desire to destroy his brother at a maximum level, and how he killed everyone in the field. He's a monster, we all know that by now. But to witness the birth of his destruction is something that made me scared. I am not saying this as an understatement. It IS scary. The animation, the art, the effects, the music, everything played a beautiful role in bringing his rise to his flow in such an exhilarating way.

I think one of the moments that I loved during his rise to his flow was the sequence of Rin's thoughts of Isagi getting in the way, and realizing Isagi has always been there for him, as well as the others on the field since the exhibition game started. The different ways everyone called him were cute (Rin, Rin-chan, Rin-kun, Heibon) and I appreciated it more while wearing headphones. But the cherry on top was the glitch in the sound effects and how the scene distorted into a glitch, analog horror type of moment. Fuuuck. I never thought Rin's flow state eyes would look like a blender's blades. Kôki Uchiyama did an amazing job at bringing Rin's voice to life. God!!

My most favorite part of the manga is the silence of the pages during the Itoshi brothers' one-on-one on the field. The way I just flipped through it, reading the details in every move they made, it made me hold on to the edge of my seat... and to fucking see that play out now, to just hear the crowd cheering, to just see how ruined Rin looks, to see how collected Sae was. Oh my god. I have no words but amazing. The waaaay they added the snowy night scene during their brief conversation before the final match-up. Amazingly executed on-screen and amazingly interpreted in a way that exceeded my expectations. It was beautiful!

The Trance Chain. The fucking Trance Chain. Bachira's flow, our little dancing bee. The back-to-back defense. The fucking jazz music that I always really liked whenever Aiku's on the play. The wings that always appear when Shidou makes a move. The announcers are out of words at how everyone's play is on the next level, fighting for the last goal. The silly goofy moment of Barou and Nagi head butting to stop the ball. The whole sequence during the final 1 minute of the game. The Celebratory Goal and the Interview that marked Isagi as the star of Blue Lock.

It was all so... I have no words. In the end, I felt like a proud mother seeing everyone play their best on the field, seeing Isagi and Blue Lock win, and seeing Aiku acknowledge how these kids will change Japanese soccer forever, this season has raised my expectations for the next arc. And how can we even forget Kunigami and Kaiser at the end of episode 14, hmm? Our kings are finally here.

In the end, they delivered what this manga deserved: a well-executed animation of one of its best arcs. The music that accompanied every scene, the voice acting from everyone in the series, and the sound and visual effects, they were all so perfect. Kudos to the whole team behind these episodes!

I hope they deliver more than this in the third season.

This really was our Blue Lock.

[ending-the-cycle-ask]

Out of curiosity, what are you studying in college? Are you an art student :0?

Technically, yes! I’m studying Animation and Visual Effects! ^^ Its a four year program, and I’m mostly learning 3D Animation, like CGI and stuff! Meaning I’m learning how to model, rig, and animate, mostly in Maya, with some 2D fundamentals like anatomy and composition sprinkled in :) I’d been learning how to model in Blender for about a year prior, and I’ve been having a great time, so I wanted to study it full-time. I’ve been doing 2D art my entire life, a regular fine arts program wouldn’t be able to teach me what I want to learn, I feel. 3D is a completely new world for me, where I can really bring my characters and ideas to life. I’ve already been using it to create some future assets for EtC! ;) So, yeah! It’s been pretty great so far! I should really show off some of the stuff I’ve been working on on my art blog sometime :)

-Mod Mello 🍓

[highgroundanimations]

How old are you?? What made you decide to dip your toe into animation?

As of now (2023) I'm 26 years old, next birthday is on January 24. 😁

Also great question! I'll go a little more in-depth below if anyone's interested. 😊

I've been interested in animation, art & story-telling in general ever since I could think! Starting with drawing & crafting a LOT in kindergarten & making flipbook & stopmotion/brickfilm animations in elementary school. Eventually got into shooting fun little shortfilms with friends & adding visual effects to them (those films were WEIRD, but soo fun to make! 😄).

That got me more & more into 3d animation as a hobby which turned into a career once I finished school & started a 3 year apprenticeship as audio-visual media designer at an advertising agency (I was 16 back then). After that I worked there part-time as 3d generalist for 3 more years while starting to freelance on the side. Eventually made the jump to full-time freelancing & that's what I've been doing the past 4 years.

Love the creative freedom of often times being booked as "one man studio" by my clients & the variety of projects is fun! Advertising has to move fast & you're never stuck with one project for too long.

Being a freelancer also makes it possible for projects like Tukk Tales: The Rescue to happen, because I get to chose what I want to work on & when I want to work on passion projects (as long as I'm not broke lol).

And of course one of the biggest sources of inspiration & motivation throughout this journey was our beloved Wars in the Stars! ⭐⭐ I've been a Star Wars fan ever since elementary school & been drawing characters from it constantly, especially droids & clones. And then came THE CLONE WARS! I don't think I would've followed through actually teaching myself how to use 3d software back in 2008 if I hadn't seen the Clone Wars movie around that time. A full-CG, stylized show with my favorite characters in my favorite era? Sign me up! I was so intrigued by how a show like that was made, I HAD to find out!

If you have seen my Youtube channel, there are still some The Clone Wars animation videos on there, from back when I just started learning how to use the 3d software Blender: https://www.youtube.com/@HighGroundAnimations/videos

So The Clone Wars kept me going, inspired me to learn this, to be able to create my own scenes from that universe. But then, eventually you want to grow beyond that, so I wanted to try other styles, other ideas & especially once I started working, I just didn't have as much time for personal "fun" projects anymore. So very little Clone Wars from now on. Fast forward a couple of years, it's the pandemic & the perfect time to go back into hobbies! The animated Star Wars shows have progressed & met a new bar of quality with Clone Wars season 7. What an inspiration! I really wanted to try & see what I could do with all the skills & knowledge I had accumulated since last time & a project like that seemed like a great chance to further strengthen my skills as generalist. So that's when I started again, December 2020 & the name High Ground Animations was born, along with a dedicated Instagram, a renamed Youtube channel & more. No Captain Tukk yet, or any plans for a shortfilm, all that developed during the many months after that. But I've been at it again ever since & there are no plans for stopping anytime soon! 🤘

[enniewritesathing]

The Process

As storytellers, there are so many pieces of our craft and I'm curious how you would rank each step of the process. Rank each of the following on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 lowest, 5 highest): Setting up the scene (building sets, decorating, etc) Posing the sims (creating / find poses, and setting up the sims) Styling the sims (cc hunting, time spent in cas) Writing the dialogue/story Editing the photos. Send to three other story simblrs and get to know more about each others favorite and least favorite part of this crazy process!

I was tagged by @cakepoppresent (thank you :D)

Setting up the scene (building sets, decorating, etc)

(3). I have okay building skills and it's usually not anything too big or complicated, so I don't mind this at all. If I can use a building that's already been made and I can findangle with it, that's fine.

Posing the sims (creating / find poses, and setting up the sims)

(5). It's the reason what drove me to make my own poses is that I just like to make them. And how I want it instead of trying to find it (which, given most of ideas that I have, would be damn near zero.) Do I bitch about making them? Sure but it's really out of affection, lol.

Posing 1-3 sims isn't bad. But 6? That's too damn much, that really tested my patience with making them AND setting them up because someone wants to move! No!!! It's like herding cats!

Styling the sims (cc hunting, time spent in cas)

(2). I am fortunate to even have some of the CC that I have in the first place; I use a lot of niche objects or CAS things and I know for a fact that it would be a big pain in the ass finding it, if it exists. A great example is that one heart cc. like who tf is out here using it? Or having the visual effect of someone's head detached from their body? exactly.

(this sounds very unhinged, holy shit.)

Writing the dialogue/story

(5). I have ideas. I have thoughts. There are times that I feel like I'm going against the grain here with how I present things or the subject matters it involves sometimes, particularly the one I'm wrapping up on. I held back the first time I did it (and it flopped hard and yknow, put me off for a bit); a few years later, I had the itch to try again and thus a big part of why I'm doing memory management, to do that part justice.

(and not to🎺 but holy shit, what I did with it was nothing short of amazing. Asunder may be my favorite part of it and not because it's the bloodiest. okay maybe)

They're for me first but I also like to share. I know it's not for everybody (lord knows it's not) and I've accepted it. It's unique, it's different. This story is a little fucked up; it's not typical (?) werewolf angst.

I also realize that no one's gonna tell it like I do and I think that's important.

Editing the photos.

(1.) Editing sucks. It just does! Unfortunately, that's a major part of simblr! People say "oh it doesn't matter if you do it or not." Yeah, it does. You gotta make it ~pleasing~ or looking a certain way. I am constantly second guessing myself on my skills. Are they better than what it was before? Have I learned some cool shit on my own to pull something off? Absolutely. But I don't think I've ever gotten a comment on how the pic(s) look stylistically. My Blender renders are basic as fuck. Best I can do is a gradient background.

It feels like there's little payoff in me doing it. There were a few parts in the story where I'm like "oh this fucks" with some effects and... crickets. The finger twitch. The eyes opening and looking. The screaming; the breathing oh my god are you serious.

most you'll see me do with it is PS actions. I don't do g/reshade.

(sigh) lol. anyway, I'm tagging @pink-chevalier, @stargazer-sims, @dandylion240, anyone else who hasn't done it yet or wants to :3

[heliotr0pic]

Ahhhhh thank you for showing me step by step how you created Jetfire’s wings. You’re so nice :) I saw your completed TC model on mechncheese’s post and it is SOOOOOO lovely! It has a painterly look to it and it’s so pretty to look at. Did you export his model into a digital art software (like Krita, Procreate), paint him, then export him back into blender thru UV unwrapping?

np!! :)

so no actual texturing was done with his model, it's all material nodes!

im unsure if you're referring to how the cloaked tc model (which i sent in before but you could be talking about the non-ask post they made with the model so Hmm) has grime is or just his general cel shading, so ill cover both here :)

(another read more post!! yayyy)

here's his cloaked version's cloak and the nodes for it!! it uses the same shading style as the rest of his normal model so it'll kill two birds with one stone

to break it down:

this is the base material! for the basic cel shading effect ive separated the material into HSV and hooked the Value up to a color ramp set to constant so it darkens/lightens in steps rather than gradually :) the hue and saturation are kept the same as the base shader so the material remains affected by the lighting

if you want this alone for the material, you'd just hook the color value from that last Combine Value up to Surface on the material output

next up! the Grime

the grime gets its own material and goes through the same process as the base cel shading does (in the box at the bottom)! on its own it does not layer with the base material, so there's noise set up to help make cutouts of the grime material onto the base material in the following Mix node :) i have the noise stepped like the cel shading as well so it has a sort of layered effect to it

the grime's Noise Color Ramp Color value goes into the Factor, the Grime Cel Shading goes into B, and the Base Material goes into A!! this will be the first layer that goes into the next Mix node later :)

next up are the little energon splatters on his cloak, which is set up similarly to the grime :)

the only difference is that the color ramps are a little different and ive got the noise texture set to 4D LOL

then i make another Mix Node to mix it with the first Mix Node and make the second layer over the other materials

the Result of the Grime+Base Material Mix Node goes into A this time while the Blood Cel Shading goes into B!! with the factor being attached to the Blood Noise :)

then you connect that into the Material Output and bam!!!!!! funky textured cloak (seen at the top of this post)

this may have been more than you asked for but id already written a solid portion of the post before i realized you might really only be asking about the cel shading HAHA sorry if that's the case

OH fun fact when i started messing with the materials i wanted to make something that looked sort of like Risk of Rain 2's shading style because i really like how that game looks visually :)

starting to ramble a bit but there actually is a plugin that allows you to hook up krita directly to blender (im pretty sure) so you can edit textures live!! so if you want to manually texture a model yourself that's probably super convenient to have, i recommend looking into it if that's something that interests you

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Justice Warriors

Today (May 22), I’m keynoting Public Knowledge’s Emerging Tech conference in DC.

Tomorrow (May 23), I’ll be in TORONTO for a book launch for Red Team Blues that’s part of WEPFest, a benefit for the West End Phoenix, onstage with Dave Bidini (The Rheostatics), Ron Diebert (Citizen Lab) and the whistleblower Dr Nancy Olivieri.

The internet did not create Matt Bors, but the internet would be a much poorer place without Bors and his acerbic, scorchingly funny webcomics, which he publishes at The Nib (a site he founded), amongst some of the web’s most iconic humor:

https://thenib.com/

Founding The Nib and creating a home for all those great webcomics would be legacy enough for one creator, but Bors monumental accomplishment with The Nib is topped by his savage creation, Mr Gotcha, the single most effective rebuttal to the most annoying Reply Guys on the whole internet:

https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/

Dayenu: if he had only founded The Nib, it would be enough. If he had only created Mr Gotcha, it would be enough. But Bors continues to amaze and delight. In Justice Warriors, a graphic novel he co-produced with Ben Clarkson, we get a distillate of all the weird, crazed things both grotesque and lovable about the net of a thousand lies:

https://membership.thenib.com/products/justice-warriors

Justice Warriors is what you’d get if you put Judge Dredd in a blender with Transmetropolitan and set it to chunky. The setup: the elites of a wasted, tormented world have retreated into Bubble City, beneath a hermetically sealed zone. Within Bubble City, everything is run according to the priorities of the descendants of the most internet-poisoned freaks of the modern internet, click- and clout-chasing mushminds full of corporate-washed platitudes about self-care, diversity and equity, wrapped around come-ons for sugary drinks and dubious dropshipper crapola.

Outside of Bubble City is the Unoccupied Zone, which is very much occupied with a teeming assortment of motley mutants, themselves gripped by endless crazes, fads, and trending subjects. The Uzzers are Bubble City’s hated underclass, viciously policed by the Bubble City cops, who mow them down with impunity, crying about their impending PTSD as they work the trigger.

Justice Warriors is a cop buddy-story dreamed up by Very Online, very angry creators who live in a present-day world where reality is consistently stupider than satire. As Bors told Cy Beltran in Comics Beat, “The current moment is so many things at once, it’s an omni-crisis of politics and attention — that’s what felt important to tap into, that sense of frenzy you can barely keep up with.”

https://www.comicsbeat.com/matt-bors-justice-warriors-interview/

That’s the feeling of Justice Warriors, all right. As Bors puts it, they tackle “social media derangement, celebrity culture, investment schemes, mass movements, and A.I.” in a tale with more sight-gags, densely packed literary references, and savage takedowns per page than anything you’ve ever read.

The art in this book is spectacular, styled a bit like those ultra-busy Al Jaffee full-page MAD Magazine spreads, or the Moss Eisley Cantina, or the wild alien scenes from Ben Hatke’s YA classic Zita the Space Girl kids’ graphic novels:

https://memex.craphound.com/2012/06/25/zita-the-space-girl-delightful-kids-science-fiction-comic-thats-part-vaughn-bode-part-mos-eisley-cantina/

But Justice Warriors is grosser, busier, and more frenetic than any of them. As Bors describes it, they created “a chaotic mutant-infested city that tops the most sensory-overloading cities in all of comics and animation.”

Justice Warriors is a mind-altering experience. If you liked Bubble, Jordan Morris and Sarah Morgan’s apocalyptic comedy podcast/graphic novel, you’ll love Justice Warriors:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/21/podcasting-as-a-visual-medium/#huntr

This is a comic book the internet needs. In a century, when our mutant descendants wonder how it all went wrong, they can use Justice Warriors as a Rosetta Stone to make sense of the detritus of our civilization.

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in DC, Toronto, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/22/libras-assemble/#the-uz

[Image ID: A panel from Justice Warriors depicting a mob of motley mutants protesting over the financialization of bread. One shouts, 'Stabilize the economy!' Another shouts, 'Bread is not money!']

[sirfrogsworth]

So, I guess Justine has appointed herself one of the main advocates negotiating the use of A.I. within the film industry.

I don't know how else to say this... she is a ditz.

I used to follow her on Tumblr. I even gave her kids laser eyes. And then I started seeing bad take after bad take. And it is disconcerting when someone with mostly progressive ideology veers into poorly informed points of view. And she went completely off the rails when the COVID lockdowns interfered with her local small business. She was ready to throw grandmas under the bus to protect her profits.

Negotiating how A.I. is used in filmmaking needs to be handled competently by someone who understands the technology.

And that is not her.

First you have the pretentious "very raw" statement. Movies contain multitudes and the ones that are not... raw... are valid too. Then she conflates visual effects with A.I. and throws VFX artists under the bus with the grandmas.

If you want her seal of approval you can only do minor fixes and effects. That is so vague and not at all how modern movies are made. Even smaller films without superheroes and crazy CGI can make extensive use of VFX for set extensions and myriad other invisible things. And while there are some "A.I." powered tools in VFX, that is completely different than generative video. Those tools are used by legit artists and still require skill and experience.

The latest Spider-Verse movie used A.I. tools. They trained the A.I. using their own artwork so it could understand their inking style and apply it to the CG characters. It was not a magic push-button effect. But it did save artists hours and hours of tedious, frame-by-frame work. Would that get Justine's stamp of approval or is it not raw enough?

And then she imagines this A.I. blender thing that does not exist. I guess she thinks the still image generators will easily translate into video and work the same way. I'm reminded of Y2K when people were predicting exploding electrical grids and digital armageddon.

The truth is, we have yet to really see what A.I. will be like in a more video-centric context. The tech is mostly based in the realm of still images. From what I understand, generating images is extremely intensive on servers. Actually, text generation uses quite a bit of computing resources as well. So generating complex A.I. video could require orders of magnitude more resources.

Currently any A.I. video you see is usually just a static talking head that had an animation assist from After Effects. Corridor's controversial A.I. anime video required taking live action footage and converting every frame to an anime-style still image. It took them months.

If you look at this video, no one talks, there are no dynamic camera movements, no dynamic lighting, and people mostly just... blink.

Generating still images is much different than generating video.

And as of now, you cannot even create a finished product with A.I. with still or moving images. I mean, it can barely do hands. The stills are not very high resolution, the prompts are often finicky and take a lot of trial and error to get a usable result. And usually you still have to do a lot of cleanup to use an A.I. image for anything considered professional.

Yes, it will get better and probably at an exponential rate. But we don't actually know what the capabilities will be and how people will take advantage of them.

So to make wild predictions of A.I. blenders that can mix multiple actors into a composite super actor is a little premature.

Creating feature length, cinema quality 4K video is a very long way off. Which means we should probably focus on the current problems and when the technology advances more and we have a better understanding of how it will be used, we can cross that bridge.

Also, even if the studios had the capability to create a composite virtual actor, I don't think audiences would ever accept it. People already get grumpy about CGI. Virtual actors do not worry me that much. I think audiences are always going to demand real people saying lines written by human beings. Maybe I'm being optimistic. And I'm not saying we shouldn't put in place safeguards to prevent misuse of A.I. tech. But I still don't think this is a huge concern.

Right now deepfakes on social media are more troubling than A.I. video generation. A scam Mr. Beast deepfake was just passed around and it was definitely good enough to dupe people. We need to figure out how people's likenesses can be protected. We need ways to verify a video's authenticity.

And when deepfake tech is used in filmmaking (e.g. The Mandalorian season 2 Luke Skywalker) actors need very specific approval powers. It makes sense to use deepfake tools to put an actor's face on a stuntperson. That is an amazing way to improve safety. And I don't have a huge issue with de-aging effects (again with consent). But the actor should be able to approve everything on a case-by-case basis and also control what happens to the training data.

Beyond that... what do we do about dead people? Is it good enough that their "estate" approves? Perhaps it would be a good idea for all living actors to make their wishes known before they pass.

And we need to come up with protocols to ethically train A.I. tools.

I believe A.I. has great potential to actually *help* the filmmaking process if we approach this intelligently. It isn't all good or all evil. It could be used for things like rotoscoping which is a thankless and mind-numbing task. It could make big budget-style VFX accessible to indie filmmakers who can't afford ILM. People could make their own superhero movies outside of the studio system on tiny budgets and a gaming PC.

I have been using A.I. tools to paint out things in Photoshop and it works so much better than the old clone and heal tools. There are so many tedious tasks with my photography and art that I would happily pass off to A.I. so I can focus on the more artistic aspects of creation. And I really hope that is the future of how A.I. is utilized.

I don't know if the dreaded A.I. blender is on the horizon, but I really hope a more serious person takes up this fight. We absolutely need to be careful how this technology develops. But if we leave this to silly people, all of the *actual* negative eventualities are going to happen because we were trying to stop a mutant JLawMeganMerylGinger Cruz from dancing in our movies.

[wondrous-eos]

FFXV Modding Resources

Flagrum is a modding tool and mod manager, lets you install both Steam Workshop as well as earc mods very easily. It also lets you create mods, browse the game files with model and texture previews, extract all kinds of files from the game's earc archives, and more! For some features/early access you will need to support the developer on Patreon and link your Patreon account with Flagrum. Video guide how to install and use Flagrum. Flagrum Blender addon for those who want to create Steam Workshop mods or make renders. The addon lets you import individual FFXV models or entire FFXV environments into Blender. It also lets you export models for Steam Workshop mods. An entire wiki page with multiple guides and information about FFXV modding that the Flagrum developer has collected over the years. Lucent is a visual scripting tool, lets you alter the game's script files visually via nodes. To download the tool you will need to support the developer on Patreon. "Exineris" discord server where you can discuss mods and/or other FFXV related topics (try not to derail the discussion to projects like KH or versusXIII; that's not the purpose of the server). Also contains practical information for modders or 3D artists with links to many useful resources. Flagrum cannot do everything yet so you may still require other tools such as: Noesis (can preview models but only once you extract them from the game's earc archives (Flagrum lets you view these even inside of the earc archives); also lets you preview animations which Flagrum cannot do at the moment) Cindy Text Editor (lets you modify text in the game such as subtitles or various signs, etc) Audiomog (lets you mod the sound files including dialogues, sound effects, and background music) More information can be found on the wiki page linked above. Where to download FFXV mods: Steam Workshop for Steam mods (weapons, outfits, model replacements; you need to have an account to DL) Skymods (a Russian repository for (not only) old Steam mods, no need to have a Steam account to DL) 3DM Game (a Chinese repository for old Steam mods, no need to have a Steam account to DL) Nexus mods for (mostly outdated) earc mods (mods that modify the game's "ebony" archives aka earcs). Flagrum should still be able to install these as legacy mods. Modworkshop (another repository with earc mods, was mostly active when Flagrum started) CurseForge (yet another repository with earc mods, where the Flagrum developer moved as a more suitable hosting platform with the latest updated earc mods, including the Chocomog carnival) Snapshot mods for the bros and others (earc mods that make characters use specific poses so that you can take interesting pictures; links also contain instructions) Reblog to spread awareness! Thank you!

[axiasart]

Exploring My Growing Passion for Virtual Production in Animated Content

As I dive deeper into the world of animation, I’ve found myself increasingly drawn to the possibilities of virtual production, especially for creating stylized or anime-inspired content. This interest has been fueled by the breathtaking visuals and intricate worlds seen in games like Genshin Impact and Zenless Zone Zero. These projects exemplify how cutting-edge technology can bring fantastical universes to life while maintaining an expressive, hand-crafted charm.

Virtual production is revolutionizing the way animated content is created, blending real-time rendering, motion capture, and dynamic lighting to streamline workflows. For someone like me—working toward a distinctive aesthetic with my friends in Academia Studio—this approach feels like a natural extension of my passion for animation and storytelling. The allure lies in the ability to iterate quickly while maintaining artistic control, enabling both efficiency and creativity to flourish in harmony.

My vision for adopting virtual production techniques leans heavily into stylized visuals reminiscent of 3D anime or painterly styles. Artists like Mayoebifly continue to inspire me with their ethereal, cel-shaded designs that balance detail and simplicity. Likewise, videos like this breakdown of stylized shaders reveal how tools and techniques can bring seemingly 2D designs to life in 3D spaces. The interplay of light, texture, and motion in these works showcases how virtual production can achieve high levels of immersion without losing the essence of an anime aesthetic.

What excites me most about virtual production is its ability to merge worlds—combining the painterly quality of traditional animation with the flexibility and depth of 3D environments. This is particularly appealing for stylized storytelling where mood and atmosphere play crucial roles. Imagine an intricate chase scene through a neon-lit cityscape or a serene moment in a fantastical meadow, all rendered with stunning, real-time accuracy while retaining a hand-drawn feel.

For my future projects, I envision a pipeline combining tools like Maya, Blender, Unreal Engine, and real-time rendering engines. While I’ve started exploring lighting setups and shaders to create non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) effects, I’m eager to dive deeper into workflows that enable interactive environments and seamless transitions between cinematic moments and gameplay-like sequences.

I see virtual production not just as a tool but as an opportunity to push boundaries. It’s about creating immersive worlds that don’t just tell a story but invite the audience to live it. With every experiment and exploration, I’m stepping closer to bridging my inspirations with my own unique voice—crafting animated content that feels both innovative and deeply personal.

The journey is just beginning, but I’m thrilled by the possibilities ahead. Whether it’s a small test project or a full-fledged series, virtual production is the frontier where technology meets artistry—and I’m eager to carve my path in this space.

[aghostwithnoname]

DATV GAMEPLAY SPOILERS

In other words, don't read this if you don't want my hot take.

So for the past week, I've fallen off the deep end to play Dragon Age: The Veilguard to avoid whatever the fuck is going on in the world.

First, for the pros.

The game is visually very stunning, and by the gods, the character customization is fucking amazing. The HAIR. The complexions! The scars and the FACT YOU CAN FINALLY BE A FAT HERO. My god, I spent two hours alone just creating my Rook. I LOVE that we finally have a Thedas that actually reflects the diversity of our world.

For the first time in the Dragon Age series, I can actually play as a nonbinary person and have that be recognized by the story!!!! I love that Neve is disabled, and it's not even the main focus of her character! Thank god for finally giving us a cast of companions that aren't white!

Partly why I wanted to support the game, despite knowing about all of its troubled development, was because we need to show as players that we want and support this kind of content and thus will show a demand for it in our capitalist hellscape. (I don't make the rules - that's just how this stupid industry works.)

Now, despite giving us ALL of that, this now brings me to the cons.

Veilguard just doesn't *feel* like part of the Dragon Age franchise.

Maybe it's just me but like 20-30 hours into it and I just... I'm not feeling it, guys. Like it feels like the devs just fired all the writers and threw the flashy battle mechanics of God of War, *some* of the relationship dynamics of BG3, and the user interface of Mass Effect (which for the record, I don't actually like Mass Effect) into a blender and produced... whatever this is.

The dialogue is so... bland. I skip through half of it and I *never* skipped through dialogue in any of the previous games. Progressing on this plot feels like a chore, because there is literally nothing else to do except pursue the main story line. The world deceptively *looks* expansive, but you're really just being funneled from one major plot point to the next with no room to breathe.

What was fun about BG3 is that you could drop down a fucking hole in some random part of the Underdark and the game REWARDED you for your curiosity or your weirdness (lick the spider, goddammit!). By contrast, even though GoW was basically one plot, it was poignant and meaningful because of the excellent dialogue, acting, and relationships - you cared about Kratos and Atreus and Angrboda and Thrud and Thor because they were excellently explored. Imo, BioWare clearly saw these games winning game of the year over the last decade that they've been working on the next DA game, got jealous, tried to mimic these elements to chase the success of these franchises and failed miserably, while also just not understanding the unique idiosyncrasies of the franchise they themselves created.

As someone who has played origins, awakening, da2, and inquisition, at least i felt there was some tonal consistency - despite the fact we can all argue what the "best" game was. Like, your companions are snarky and funny and weird in ways that are completely irrelevant to saving the continent, and we know the Chantry is fucked but so are the apostates and the Qun and the Dalish, and there are no clear "good guys" vs "bad guys", and not EVERYTHING said is plot-relevant.

Sweet Andraste, I think Bellara's said "The Evanuris - you know the elven gods!" like about 50 times already. I get it that they want new people to come into the world and understand what's going on, but it just feels like the devs are holding my hand like I'm a little kid who cannot be trusted to know what's going on or make their own decisions.

Don't even get me started on how Varric is narrating everything, telling me how to feel about what I am going through. It's like on top of all this disjointed gameplay mechanics and narrative design, BioWare is trying to tell me it's all okay, even though it is not.

Maybe the next 60 hours will change my mind... (I haven't even MET my loves Davrin or Taash yet) By the Maker, I hope it does.

[astramachina]

WIP questionnaire tag

the indomitable @fortunatetragedy tagged me on this baby while i was away and boy howdy do i love talking about my projects.

diving headfirst into The Singularity Project (codename: T.E.S. CO) for this one, babes.

What’s the first part of your WIP that you created?

The Vibes. Last October I was being harassed by a brain worm (lol) that did not want to become concrete in any way, and the only way I could get it down was by writing "the vibes" of what I wanted. Those vibes included "hazy 60s lounge", "synth", "Panos Cosmatos' style for weird ass stuff", and "burnt orange".

If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

What Have You Become by MNQN, but more 80s-fied. And because I feel like it, it's end credits song would be I Remember by Tristam but like... slightly more melancholic.

What are your favorite characters that you made? Why?

So far, it'll have to be Verne. Neither hero or villain, he's the protagonist's father, and while he isn't physically in the story (as far as I can tell) he inescapably haunts the narrative. By "saving the world" the only way he thought possible, he doomed his son to a life no one deserves. He's also a silly guy who thinks himself a god (derogatory) and is wanted for several crimes against humanity. Second fave is Mike, our deuteragonist. He's just a guy trying to make a living but his work crush has been acting super weird by knocking back 20+ cans of soda per shift and claiming he can "hear the Mall speaking to him".

What other pieces of media do you think your fanbase would share?

Tumblrinas (affectionate, gender neutral) would probably also be reblogging some horror webseries things (SCP, The Walten Files, The Backrooms, etc), as well as more classic horror such as Re-Animator, The Thing, and The Fly.

What has been your biggest struggle with your WIP?

.......Yes. When the story started to form I struggled with the idea of capturing it in a single medium. I am first and foremost a writer, obvs, but a lot of the story relied heavily on visual storytelling. I eventually decided to turn this into a "multi-media project", which means there's a huge chunk of writing, but there are also segments that can only be experienced through audio and visuals (and maybe some fun ARG-esque puzzles). Three POVs? Each POV has its own timeline and its own medium? Did I embark on a multi-month journey to learn Blender and video editing? Am I still trying to get the story down? The answer is yes. (Help me.)

Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

Yes. Mike has an anthill because it's the only thing he can keep alive.

How do your characters travel/get around?

In the 1911 portion? Via ship. Ernest Shackleton's ship on its voyage to the Antarctic, to be exact. In the 1981 portion? Via bus. Mike's too broke to afford a car. In the 2021 portion? Via car. [Cy] is the man with the plan... and also the car to drive his crew around.

What part of your WIP are you working on right now?

Mike's journals, which covers the events of 1981 through 1983. This part is the bulk of the entire project, and the part that is mostly told through writing.

What aspects (tropes, maybe?) will you think draw your audience in?

So many morally gray characters. But also morally corrupt characters. And morally confused characters.

I hope you like your monsters goopy, and your effects practical.

Don't worry about the cult swearing they can save the soul of a poor young "confused" man.

The true friends were the transgender allegories we made along the way.

What is the point of Man vs. Machine when the Man knows not what he is.

The worm can talk and it has anxiety. I think it's gay?

What are your hopes for your WIP?

TO COMPLETE IT. LMAO. Mostly I just want to be able to stand up and say "Hey, look what I made! I made it because I wanted to and all my hard work paid off!" But I guess it would also be neat to have some sort of cult following? Would love to see fanart of what people think some of the characters look like! I wanna see fic! Give me fan songs I can blast while I drive! I wanna see certain YouTubers react/try to "solve" it so that I can sit there shaking my head. You know. The usual.

this took way longer than i expected so i'ma quick tag @ap0stle, @kairahara, @wrencatte, and YOU.

[pixadoo96]

Pixadoo: The Future is Now - Projection Mapping Experiences You Won't Forget

Ever wished a plain wall could be more exciting? Pixadoo can turn it into a giant screen for a mind-blowing light show with their cutting-edge visual content solutions!

Pixadoo isn't your typical tech company. They are creative content experts who use special effects to transform everyday objects and spaces into amazing experiences through projection mapping.

From Humble Beginnings to Lighting Up the World

Pixadoo started by creating custom visuals for events, but then we discovered the world of projection mapping. Today, Pixadoo has a team of talented artists, technicians, and project managers who work together to make their clients' wildest ideas come to life.

How Does Pixadoo Do It?

Pixadoo uses strong projectors and special software like Unreal, Blender, and C4D to change any surface into a moving picture screen. It's not just pictures though; they consider every bump and curve to make the image fit perfectly on the chosen surface. This creates a neat trick where the visuals seem to become part of the object they are on, delivering an immersive experience.

How Can Pixadoo Help You?

Pixadoo has something for everyone, whether you're planning a big event, a fun shopping experience, or an amazing art installation. Here's what we can do:

Events: Pixadoo can turn your next concert, product launch, or meeting into something unforgettable with special effects and amazing 3D visuals.

Retail: Make customers connect with your products in a new way with interactive displays and cool visuals.

Art Installations: Pixadoo helps artists be even more creative by transforming spaces into interesting and inspiring installations.

Mixing Tech Together: Projection mapping can be combined with other technologies like motion sensors and touchscreens to create an interactive experience you can touch design.

The Dream Team Behind the Magic

Pixadoo wouldn't be successful without their amazing team. We have a group of passionate people with many different skills. From artists who design incredible visuals to technicians who make sure everything goes smoothly, each member plays an important role in creating unforgettable experiences.

Ready to Make Your Project Shine?

If you want to create an experience that people will never forget, Pixadoo is the one-stop solution for all your visualization needs. With a passion for storytelling, cutting-edge technology, and a talented team, we have the power to turn your vision into a reality that will amaze everyone. So, check out our website and get ready to be impressed with our creative content!

Address : 610, 2nd Floor, 80 Feet Rd, 6th Block, Koramangala, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560095

219, 2nd Floor, Laxmi Plaza, Near Laxmi Industrial Estate, New Link Road, Andheri West, Mumbai - 400053

Phone Number : 9886298296