#I feel that with this program I will develop my animation skills

[cat-brrr]

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[tofupixel]

⭐ So you want to learn pixel art? ⭐

🔹 Part 1 of ??? - The Basics!

Edit: Now available in Google Doc format if you don't have a Tumblr account 🥰

Hello, my name is Tofu and I'm a professional pixel artist. I have been supporting myself with freelance pixel art since 2020, when I was let go from my job during the pandemic.

My progress, from 2017 to 2024. IMO the only thing that really matters is time and effort, not some kind of natural talent for art.

This guide will not be comprehensive, as nobody should be expected to read allat. Instead I will lean heavily on my own experience, and share what worked for me, so take everything with a grain of salt. This is a guide, not a tutorial. Cheers!

🔹 Do I need money?

NO!!! Pixel art is one of the most accessible mediums out there.

I still use a mouse because I prefer it to a tablet! You won't be at any disadvantage here if you can't afford the best hardware or software.

Because our canvases are typically very small, you don't need a good PC to run a good brush engine or anything like that.

✨Did you know? One of the most skilled and beloved pixel artists uses MS PAINT! Wow!!

🔹 What software should I use?

Here are some of the most popular programs I see my friends and peers using. Stars show how much I recommend the software for beginners! ⭐

💰 Paid options:

⭐⭐⭐ Aseprite (for PC) - $19.99

This is what I and many other pixel artists use. You may find when applying to jobs that they require some knowledge of Aseprite. Since it has become so popular, companies like that you can swap raw files between artists.

Aseprite is amazingly customizable, with custom skins, scripts and extensions on Itch.io, both free and paid.

If you have ever used any art software before, it has most of the same features and should feel fairly familiar to use. It features a robust animation suite and a tilemap feature, which have saved me thousands of hours of labour in my work. The software is also being updated all the time, and the developers listen to the users. I really recommend Aseprite!

⭐ Photoshop (for PC) - Monthly $$

A decent option for those who already are used to the PS interface. Requires some setup to get it ready for pixel-perfect art, but there are plenty of tutorials for doing so.

Animation is also much more tedious on PS which you may want to consider before investing time!

⭐⭐ ProMotion NG (for PC) - $19.00

An advanced and powerful software which has many features Aseprite does not, including Colour Cycling and animated tiles.

⭐⭐⭐ Pixquare (for iOS) - $7.99 - $19.99 (30% off with code 'tofu'!!)

Probably the best app available for iPad users, in active development, with new features added all the time.

Look! My buddy Jon recommends it highly, and uses it often.

One cool thing about Pixquare is that it takes Aseprite raw files! Many of my friends use it to work on the same project, both in their office and on the go.

⭐ Procreate (for iOS) - $12.99

If you have access to Procreate already, it's a decent option to get used to doing pixel art. It does however require some setup. Artist Pixebo is famously using Procreate, and they have tutorials of their own if you want to learn.

⭐⭐ ReSprite iOS and Android. (free trial, but:) $19.99 premium or $$ monthly

ReSprite is VERY similar in terms of UI to Aseprite, so I can recommend it. They just launched their Android release!

🆓 Free options:

⭐⭐⭐ Libresprite (for PC)

Libresprite is an alternative to Aseprite. It is very, very similar, to the point where documentation for Aseprite will be helpful to Libresprite users.

⭐⭐ Pixilart (for PC and mobile)

A free in-browser app, and also a mobile app! It is tied to the website Pixilart, where artists upload and share their work. A good option for those also looking to get involved in a community.

⭐⭐ Dotpict (for mobile)

Dotpict is similar to Pixilart, with a mobile app tied to a website, but it's a Japanese service. Did you know that in Japanese, pixel art is called 'Dot Art'? Dotpict can be a great way to connect with a different community of pixel artists! They also have prompts and challenges often.

🔹 So I got my software, now what?

◽Nice! Now it's time for the basics of pixel art.

❗ WAIT ❗ Before this section, I want to add a little disclaimer. All of these rules/guidelines can be broken at will, and some 'no-nos' can look amazing when done intentionally.

The pixel-art fundamentals can be exceedingly helpful to new artists, who may feel lost or overwhelmed by choice. But if you feel they restrict you too harshly, don't force yourself! At the end of the day it's your art, and you shouldn't try to contort yourself into what people think a pixel artist 'should be'. What matters is your own artistic expression. 💕👍

◽Phew! With that out of the way...

🔸"The Rules"

There are few hard 'rules' of pixel art, mostly about scaling and exporting. Some of these things will frequently trip up newbies if they aren't aware, and are easy to overlook.

🔹Scaling method

There are a couple ways of scaling your art. The default in most art programs, and the entire internet, is Bi-linear scaling, which usually works out fine for most purposes. But as pixel artists, we need a different method.

Both are scaled up x10. See the difference?

On the left is scaled using Bilinear, and on the right is using Nearest-Neighbor. We love seeing those pixels stay crisp and clean, so we use nearest-neighbor. 

(Most pixel-art programs have nearest-neighbor enabled by default! So this may not apply to you, but it's important to know.)

🔹Mixels

Mixels are when there are different (mixed) pixel sizes in the same image.

Here I have scaled up my art- the left is 200%, and the right is 150%. Yuck!

As we can see, the "pixel" sizes end up different. We generally try to scale our work by multiples of 100 - 200%, 300% etc. rather than 150%. At larger scales however, the minute differences in pixel sizes are hardly noticeable!

Mixels are also sometimes seen when an artist scales up their work, then continues drawing on it with a 1 pixel brush.

Many would say that this is not great looking! This type of pixels can be indicative of a beginner artist. But there are plenty of creative pixel artists out there who mixels intentionally, making something modern and cool.

🔹Saving Your Files

We usually save our still images as .PNGs as they don’t create any JPEG artifacts or loss of quality. It's a little hard to see here, but there are some artifacts, and it looks a little blurry. It also makes the art very hard to work with if we are importing a JPEG.

For animations .GIF is good, but be careful of the 256 colour limit. Try to avoid using too many blending mode layers or gradients when working with animations. If you aren’t careful, your animation could flash afterwards, as the .GIF tries to reduce colours wherever it can. It doesn’t look great!

Here's an old piece from 2021 where I experienced .GIF lossiness, because I used gradients and transparency, resulting in way too many colours.

🔹Pixel Art Fundamentals - Techniques and Jargon

❗❗Confused about Jaggies? Anti-Aliasing? Banding? Dithering? THIS THREAD is for you❗❗ << it's a link, click it!!

As far as I'm concerned, this is THE tutorial of all time for understanding pixel art. These are techniques created and named by the community of people who actually put the list together, some of the best pixel artists alive currently. Please read it!!

🔸How To Learn

Okay, so you have your software, and you're all ready to start. But maybe you need some more guidance? Try these tutorials and resources! It can be helpful to work along with a tutorial until you build your confidence up.

⭐⭐ Pixel Logic (A Digital Book) - $10 A very comprehensive visual guide book by a very skilled and established artist in the industry. I own a copy myself.

⭐⭐⭐ StudioMiniBoss - free A collection of visual tutorials, by the artist that worked on Celeste! When starting out, if I got stuck, I would go and scour his tutorials and see how he did it.

⭐ Lospec Tutorials - free A very large collection of various tutorials from all over the internet. There is a lot to sift through here if you have the time.

⭐⭐⭐ Cyangmou's Tutorials - free (tipping optional) Cyangmou is one of the most respected and accomplished modern pixel artists, and he has amassed a HUGE collection of free and incredibly well-educated visual tutorials. He also hosts an educational stream every week on Twitch called 'pixelart for beginners'.

⭐⭐⭐ Youtube Tutorials - free There are hundreds, if not thousands of tutorials on YouTube, but it can be tricky to find the good ones. My personal recommendations are MortMort, Brandon, and AdamCYounis- these guys really know what they're talking about!

🔸 How to choose a canvas size

When looking at pixel art turorials, we may see people suggest things like 16x16, 32x32 and 64x64. These are standard sizes for pixel art games with tiles. However, if you're just making a drawing, you don't necessarily need to use a standard canvas size like that.

What I like to think about when choosing a canvas size for my illustrations is 'what features do I think it is important to represent?' And make my canvas as small as possible, while still leaving room for my most important elements.

Imagine I have characters in a scene like this:

I made my canvas as small as possible (232 x 314), but just big enough to represent the features and have them be recognizable (it's Good Omens fanart 😤)!! If I had made it any bigger, I would be working on it for ever, due to how much more foliage I would have to render.

If you want to do an illustration and you're not sure, just start at somewhere around 100x100 - 200x200 and go from there.

It's perfectly okay to crop your canvas, or scale it up, or crunch your art down at any point if you think you need a different size. I do it all the time! It only takes a bit of cleanup to get you back to where you were.

🔸Where To Post

Outside of just regular socials, Twitter, Tumblr, Deviantart, Instagram etc, there are a few places that lean more towards pixel art that you might not have heard of.

⭐ Lospec Lospec is a low-res focused art website. Some pieces get given a 'monthly masterpiece' award. Not incredibly active, but I believe there are more features being added often.

⭐⭐ Pixilart Pixilart is a very popular pixel art community, with an app tied to it. The community tends to lean on the young side, so this is a low-pressure place to post with an relaxed vibe.

⭐⭐ Pixeljoint Pixeljoint is one of the big, old-school pixel art websites. You can only upload your art unscaled (1x) because there is a built-in zoom viewer. It has a bit of a reputation for being elitist (back in the 00s it was), but in my experience it's not like that any more. This is a fine place for a pixel artist to post if they are really interested in learning, and the history. The Hall of Fame has some of the most famous / impressive pixel art pieces that paved the way for the work we are doing today.

⭐⭐⭐ Cafe Dot Cafe Dot is my art server so I'm a little biased here. 🍵 It was created during the recent social media turbulence. We wanted a place to post art with no algorithms, and no NFT or AI chuds. We have a heavy no-self-promotion rule, and are more interested in community than skill or exclusivity. The other thing is that we have some kind of verification system- you must apply to be a Creator before you can post in the Art feed, or use voice. This helps combat the people who just want to self-promo and dip, or cause trouble, as well as weed out AI/NFT people. Until then, you are still welcome to post in any of the threads or channels. There is a lot to do in Cafe Dot. I host events weekly, so check the threads!

⭐⭐/r/pixelart The pixel art subreddit is pretty active! I've also heard some of my friends found work through posting here, so it's worth a try if you're looking. However, it is still Reddit- so if you're sensitive to rude people, or criticism you didn't ask for, you may want to avoid this one. Lol

🔸 Where To Find Work

You need money? I got you! As someone who mostly gets scouted on social media, I can share a few tips with you:

Put your email / portfolio in your bio Recruiters don't have all that much time to find artists, make it as easy as possible for someone to find your important information!

Clean up your profile If your profile feed is all full of memes, most people will just tab out rather than sift through. Doesn't apply as much to Tumblr if you have an art tag people can look at.

Post regularly, and repost Activity beats everything in the social media game. It's like rolling the dice, and the more you post the more chances you have. You have to have no shame, it's all business baby

Outside of just posting regularly and hoping people reach out to you, it can be hard to know where to look. Here are a few places you can sign up to and post around on.

/r/INAT INAT (I Need A Team) is a subreddit for finding a team to work with. You can post your portfolio here, or browse for people who need artists.

/r/GameDevClassifieds Same as above, but specifically for game-related projects.

Remote Game Jobs / Work With Indies Like Indeed but for game jobs. Browse them often, or get email notifications.

VGen VGen is a website specifically for commissions. You need a code from another verified artist before you can upgrade your account and sell, so ask around on social media or ask your friends. Once your account is upgraded, you can make a 'menu' of services people can purchase, and they send you an offer which you are able to accept, decline, or counter.

The evil websites of doom: Fiverr and Upwork I don't recommend them!! They take a big cut of your profit, and the sites are teeming with NFT and AI people hoping to make a quick buck. The site is also extremely oversaturated and competitive, resulting in a race to the bottom (the cheapest, the fastest, doing the most for the least). Imagine the kind of clients who go to these websites, looking for the cheapest option. But if you're really desperate...

🔸 Community

I do really recommend getting involved in a community. Finding like-minded friends can help you stay motivated to keep drawing. One day, those friends you met when you were just starting out may become your peers in the industry. Making friends is a game changer!

Discord servers Nowadays, the forums of old are mostly abandoned, and people split off into many different servers. Cafe Dot, Pixel Art Discord (PAD), and if you can stomach scrolling past all the AI slop, you can browse Discord servers here.

Twitch Streams Twitch has kind of a bad reputation for being home to some of the more edgy gamers online, but the pixel art community is extremely welcoming and inclusive. Some of the people I met on Twitch are my friends to this day, and we've even worked together on different projects! Browse pixel art streams here, or follow some I recommend: NickWoz, JDZombi, CupOhJoe, GrayLure, LumpyTouch, FrankiePixelShow, MortMort, Sodor, NateyCakes, NyuraKim, ShinySeabass, I could go on for ever really... There are a lot of good eggs on Pixel Art Twitch.

🔸 Other Helpful Websites

Palettes Lospec has a huge collection of user-made palettes, for any artist who has trouble choosing their colours, or just wants to try something fun. Rejected Palettes is full of palettes that didn't quite make it onto Lospec, ran by people who believe there are no bad colours.

The Spriters Resource TSR is an incredible website where users can upload spritesheets and tilesets from games. You can browse for your favourite childhood game, and see how they made it! This website has helped me so much in understanding how game assets come together in a scene.

VGMaps Similar to the above, except there are entire maps laid out how they would be played. This is incredible if you have to do level design, or for mocking up a scene for fun.

Game UI Database Not pixel-art specific, but UI is a very challenging part of graphics, so this site can be a game-changer for finding good references!

Retronator A digital newspaper for pixel-art lovers! New game releases, tutorials, and artworks!

Itch.io A website where people can upload, games, assets, tools... An amazing hub for game devs and game fans alike. A few of my favourite tools: Tiled, PICO-8, Pixel Composer, Juice FX, Magic Pencil for Aseprite

🔸 The End?

This is just part 1 for now, so please drop me a follow to see any more guides I release in the future. I plan on doing some writeups on how I choose colours, how to practise, and more!

I'm not an expert by any means, but everything I did to get to where I am is outlined in this guide. Pixel art is my passion, my job and my hobby! I want pixel art to be recognized everywhere as an art-form, a medium of its own outside of game-art or computer graphics!

This guide took me a long time, and took a lot of research and experience. Consider following me or supporting me if you are feeling generous.

And good luck to all the fledgling pixel artists, I hope you'll continue and have fun. I hope my guide helped you, and don't hesitate to send me an ask if you have any questions! 💕

My other tutorials (so far): How to draw Simple Grass for a game Hue Shifting

[nijuukoo]

It feels surreal to see this out there, in the wild, and being played by real people. It feels like a dream--a crazy fever dream that's been going on for years and now Date Everything! is officially live on all platforms, and I am so immensely proud of everyone involved in this game ♥

This is Sassy Chap Games' first project, and I could not be more humbled to be a part of it. Everyone poured their soul, their excitement and humour into this. This isn't just a dating sim; it's one giant love letter to creative passion, to artistry, and to self-expression. It's a celebration of artists and creators of all forms and backgrounds, from programmers to writers, from artists to cosplayers, and from musicians to voice actors.

Long thank you ahead, as well as character spoilers if you wanna go in blind!!

I wanna give a huge, immense thank you to my art team: Tay, Pejnt, Renoni, Elle, Debz, Palea, Cael, Helly, Nick, Mel and Shenae. This game is jam packed with so much beautiful hand-drawn artwork, and I'm so lucky to have worked with such incredible artists to complete all those gigantic spreadsheets of assets TuT Thank you all for all your hard work. I love that I can recognise who did what based on the styles, and I’m so happy that people will see your uniqueness in this project.

A big shout out to Jay, our 3D modeler, and Clara, our animator, who are so incredibly skilled at what they do. The house is beautiful, as is the world outside, and you both did such a wonderful job giving all the Dateables a roof to live in, and a cosy world for the players to roam. For a game that takes place in one location, you’ve made it feel like a whole world.

The characters would not be complete without the creative minds of the writing/narrative team. William Hinz, Jay Choi, Souha, Logan Burdick, Brendan Blaber, Dom Dinh, Devin Connelly, TJ Young, Nick Thurston, Sam Ortiz, Julia McIlvaine, Ray, Robbie, Amanda--oh god i know im missing a handful Q_Q but damn, the amount of work and creativity needed to create so many branching stories, endings, and weaving together relationships amongst various characters--that's such a feat that I was lucky enough to see develop behind the scenes <3 I can't wait to play the game myself to find out how the stories have changed and ended up--it's a very funny feeling to be involved in the game so intimately and yet i still only know about 10% of the characters’ full stories, and I know i'm going to be surprised when I play through this myself XD.

Thank you to our composer and maestro, Garrett Williamson, and his team of music masters--the OST is absolutely incredible, so unique, and mind-blowing to know that all our dateables have their own theme that's beautifully reflective of their personalities, theme and stories even without needing to see them. You are insane at what you do, and i know you and i can volley compliments back and forth until the end of time, but I get the last word on this blog: you are an absolute beast at music, sir, and I can't wait for the rest of the world to know your big music brain.

All of these amazing assets would just remain a big ol’ pile of assets if it weren’t for the incredible dedication, time, and energy of our programming team headed by Thiago Moreira. You and Sam Reinhart are so crucial to making this happen, for piecing things together, for making things move and animate, and for fixing all the bugs as they arise. Oh my god, all the bugs. You guys are some of the chillest people I’ve ever met, and y’all been such a rock for everyone when things go awry.

A shout out to Greg Batha and “MsMinotaur” Adriel. This game literally would not have gotten off the ground without you two at the very beginning. Y’all the OG team, and I am so happy I got to meet the two people who built the launch pad that started this whole thing.

To the producers, and the brains behind this crazy game--Ray Chase, Robbie Daymond, Max Mittelman, and Amanda Hufford--You guys are absolute legends. Thank you for so many years of pitching the game, and keeping the idea alive through the blurry years that was 2019-2022. It's crazy to think how I first knew y'all as game characters from FFXV almost ten years ago, and now you guys are game producers. Amanda, you are such a fun energy to be around, and it was so incredible working with you on your characters (Thank you again for the big brain behind Eddie and Volt--I will never get over them.) Thank you for your voices, your writing, the long hours, the organisation, and for keeping everything so exciting! Y'all form the absolute bedrock of this thing. Thank you for believing in the team, and weathering through the obstacles to keep this party going. this would not have come to fruition without you guys at our backs.

I love all of you, and i know this is just the beginning ❤️

[maletofujoshi]

I dont think it's worth dooming about AI art because largely i still think audiences that are invested in art largely are compelled by process about as much (and sometimes more) than end product, and i'm not sure that AI models can really catch up with process. even when people cared a lot about AI images during their sorta bizarre nonsense era, it was kinda because of the inscrutable process creating works that were like. fun to think about. like remember 2021 neuralblender and the like?

this was fun because it was the kind of image that like... only an AI model would think to make, and there's elements of it that would likely be difficult for human artists to replicate-- not impossible, but like, difficult. as such this image was and is captivating to many people. current AI image generators are basically trying to imitate either photography or, especially now, particular illustrators or particular styles of art. except like. it skips past the process, or like, the process is completely different and like. not i think especially compelling? ppl might think differently about that but there's something about like a heavily rendered AI anime girl that is less interesting to me to an otherwise heavily rendered anime girl. i remember coming across a dark fantasy genre artist on tumblr, and i was about to send them an ask about how they got a certain texture in what looked like digital work-- before i looked closer and realized "ah, this is AI, they can't give me a replicable answer." that dampened my enjoyment of images that were otherwise fun to look at. this maybe sounds bad, but without process, an object becomes kinda kitschy to me. the art-object itself is more functional than anything at that point, like how "fountain" is interesting because of the presentation of it as art, though a urinal is just a urinal otherwise.

thinking about it with games, i think there's a lot of interesting lines people draw there: what elements of development would you have a problem with if you found out some developer used AI for them? image generation is particularly useful for textures, but texture work is something a lot of people care a lot about. people care about photography, painting, and image editing... but what about like, generating a height map for that texture? what about photographing a texture, and then asking like some AI model to make it tile better? different people care about different things more or less. there's games out there who's textures tell like, interesting stories, "Sonic Adventure"s developers went on trips to places in the real world and took photos and used them in the game. that's like, really very appreciable, and makes me admire that game more-- but like also. there's a lot of games where i kinda either don't think about the texture work at all, or only really admire it for obvious observable qualities- the end product.

Using AI for code is another thing. I think like, it's kinda obvious that people would do this. programming is like an obvious use case for a language model, and i think it's questionable when people get up in arms about it. programs like RPGmaker are kinda highly appreciated for essentially taking out "programming" as a required skill to make games. this enabled a lot of artists and writers to create games, with mostly 'readymade' tools, which led to a lot of interesting art... obviously there's still programming work involved, event scripting, custom mechanics, but like i think that's similar to having to think about scripts at least somewhat even if you're getting some AI model do a lot of the work of implementation for you... but then again, there's games that are beautiful for systems that are programmed, and thought up by highly skilled people.

basically i think a lot of AI takes away the work in areas people don't necessarily care about. and that's a subjective thing. there might be a lot to care about in those areas. it makes me feel kinda bad seeing like, clipart go away in advertising. like. i saw some ad that had this AI generated art of a bowl of noodles, and it was passable from a distance, but there were a lot of problems with it that annoyed me, mistakes a trained human illustrator wouldn't make-- bad tangents, lines that didn't actually flow. but also like. okay. so what. like that's not art i necessarily care about being good... but like otherwise. process is literally cool and a lot of process will kinda have to remain human. i'd be weirded out if i saw some major company using a shoddy generated image like that because it'd feel cheap. similar to how it's a bit cheap when a game opts for 'readymade' assets.. if there's still some interesting process elsewhere there, interesting thought, that still creates intrigue. but i wouldn't be interested in like, an asset flip without ideas, lol.

tldr; i dont think writing, art, or programming are dead forever now, but like if ur writing copy, making illustration, or doing amateur work or something you will probably struggle with finding cheaper clients. which does kinda suck tbh. finding an audience that appreciates ur work and the process behind it will probably just be as variable as it always has been, though.

[marshmallowgoop]

2024 AMV Review

[2022] [2023]

2024 felt like a huge video editing year for me. It was characterized by three major developments:

Submitting to contests

Editing MMVs (Manga Music Videos)

Participating in timed challenges

For contests, I maybe really threw myself into the con contest scene (that is, for AMV contests that take place at conventions) after sparking a heated discussion about submitting personally captioned videos for the sake of better accessibility. An initially stressful situation ultimately became one of overwhelming support, and I've since become more involved with this part of the AMV community, which has been so kind, encouraging, and inspirational. I'm certain I wouldn't have made the strides in my editing that I feel like I made in 2024 had it not been for the community.

In fact, the last two developments on my list are purely because of the community. It was the community who pushed me into making MMVs; after signing up for an MMV exchange (check out the video Violet Skies gifted me here!), I practiced MMV-like skills with an AMV/MMV ("No Choir") and also made my first full-blown MMV in DaVinci Resolve ("15 Min Flame"), which involved thinking in a more motion graphics way and utilizing my program's 3D camera, something that maybe looks a little wild (but is sincerely less complicated than it seems!):

Incorporating more motion graphics and manga panels into my work then became almost "standard" for me. Four of the six AMVs I made for Project Org Editor (POE)—of which none are unfortunately in this reel because they remain unfinished, but you can check out a preview here—utilized a fair amount of manga as well.

And that brings me to my last development: participating in timed challenges. POE is a biennial video-editing tournament with six preliminary rounds in which participants have one week to edit a video to a theme. I took part in every round (always with a Detective Conan video because I think I'm hilarious), but it was actually my second timed challenge in the year. The first was SLICE (Short Little Iron Chef Edits), wherein participants had about four days (100 hours) to create a video set to a song from a list of songs only revealed at the start of the challenge. "If You Kill Me" was my entry, and I finished it pretty much to my satisfaction by the end of the 100 hours, so I thought I would do even better with POE.

But POE was extremely hard on me. I finished nothing, never scored above mediocre, and had a meltdown after Round 2, where I must have cried all day after submitting an entry that I hated (and won't be revising). It was my most difficult video editing experience thus far—emotionally and physically, as I sacrificed sleep to edit and wound up sick by Round 6. I really wanted to stand out and impress, but... I wasn't there yet.

And that probably describes my feelings about my AMVs in 2024 better than anything else: not there yet. There's been a lot of growth in my skills, in my eyes; there's the aforementioned MMV experience, where I practiced 3D camerawork as well as manga animation for the first time, but I've also made longer videos, utilized "Twixtor" effects ("Feel About You"), learned how to make my own VHS tapes for the ultimate VHS aesthetic ("Eyelash"), and continued to work on my pacing and compositions (even if I still have a long way to go with the pacing and even intentionally made it "worse" as an experiment once). Videos from 2022 and 2023 that I used to be so proud of almost became painful, and I'm overall much happier with everything I made in 2024.

But whenever I'd make finals in a contest—which happened at seven cons (green text in the video, with yellow being when I didn't make finals but still had a video exhibited, which happened at six cons)!—I knew I had no chance of winning a category, and I have yet to. Because I'm not there yet. I'm satisfied with most of my videos from 2024, but they don't feel special enough. Good, maybe, but not great. For POE and Anime Frontier, where I entered nothing but Detective Conan videos, I captured attention for my dedication to the franchise, but the AMVs themselves still feel lacking.

In thinking about 2025, I've been thinking about what it means to be there. I've been thinking about how to measure growth, as measuring the times I make finals, or my note counts, or YouTube likes, or even scores I get in tournaments like POE, don't seem to be healthy ways of defining development (especially when what makes finals at cons might not really correlate with what's most beloved online, with "If You Kill Me" being my most successful con video of 2024 but "Nosedive," which never made finals once, being my most successful video on the web). Conversations with others (thank you!) have provided a wealth of wonderful suggestions for considering growth: trying new things, doing easily what used to be difficult, finding joy in your work.

And in 2024, I do think I made progress in all those things! But being there goes back to my question of what is good art?, and, well, I think I'll need to continue working on defining what that means to me.

Still, my major goal for 2025, at this time, is to be less hard on myself. As my videos have become longer and more elaborate, they've taken more time to complete, with each AMV in this reel (excepting maybe one) representing at least 30 hours of work, with many being 50+-hour efforts. That's a fair chunk of time, but I still beat myself up for "not doing enough" or "not completing enough videos," which isn't fair to me.

It's regrettably not something I did for 2023, but my year-end DaVinci Resolve hour count for 2024 (counting time from when I first got this computer in late August 2023) is 1,107 hours!

The earliest total-hour screenshot I can find is 666 hours in July 2024, so this means I spent, at the very, very minimum, over 441 hours in Resolve in 2024. And dedicating that many hours to improving my craft isn't nothing!

In the end, I am sad that there are only 12 videos in this reel when I at least started brainstorming and drafting for 9 more. But all the improvements I made, all the ways I challenged myself, all the seeing things like this at cons, in person, on the big screen... that's worth celebrating.

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me so far. I hope to post even "better" videos in 2025—ones that are there!

[jackie-mae]

Intro Post/ FAQ

Name: Jackie, Mae,  or anything in-between!

Pronouns: Mostly She/Her but do whatever the hell you want/pos :p 

Time zone: Canadian and live at eastern standard time (EST) but I used to live on the west coast (PST) so my post time can fluctuate if I wanna get some of my friends attention lol

Blurb: I’m a Illustrator/Animator drawing for a variety of fandoms while also trying to expand my skills in original art while also slowly developing a Webcomic with fellow mutual @catzgam3rz!

I post mainly art here (I have a terrible habit of not reblogging things xp) But if you're only here for one thing (IE. My 1tau for Zelda) please be aware I’ll post other fandom art and a string of non-fandom centric pieces doesn’t mean I’ve dropped the fandom entirely.

LINKTREE: Found here! Where to find me elsewhere (But Tumblr is where I’m most responsive lol)

COMMISSIONS: Currently CLOSED But hoping to open up at the end of April

ETSY: I have an Etsy! Found here! Mostly a few stickers and Prints of fandom works but planning to have more prints available soon!

ART PERMISSIONS/ART FAQ/ LEGEND OF ZELDA SPECIFIC FAQ BELOW

ART PERMISSIONS / ART FAQ

Can I use your art as a pfp? - So long as it’s with credit absolutely! 

Can I make dubs/ readings of your fan comics? - Again, So long as you credit me I’m totally down! I’d love to see anything made with my art but that’s not a requirement!

Can I make art with your designs? - Yes! I would love to see it if you do!

What programs do you use? – For illustrations I use Clip Studio Paint EX. And if you see any animations most likely I’ll have used Toon Boom Harmony Advanced 21

Your art looks familiar, have you done work for other fandoms? – Most art I do can be found on this blog but I have also done art and had a sideblog for the Warrior cats series. And I also have a tiktok where I post mostly Genshin Impact related comics. On this blog specifically you’ll find old Dream smp/ Philza, Pokemon, and Zelda art!

I’m happy to answer any other questions! feel free to shoot me an ask whenever!

LEGEND OF ZELDA FAQ: As the one timeline AU as I’ve named it has gained a fair amount of popularity heres a few questions I’ve been asked about it

What is the 1tau?: The 1Tau (One timeline AU) Is a legend of Zelda alternate universe I made where the timeline of the Zelda universe has been molded to fit into one line instead of the branching routes of canon. It’s also a Links Meet AU because those are cool!

Where can I read it?: Unfortunately this is the only place you’ll find material for this Au, FOR NOW AT LEAST! I have been known to dabble in fanfiction so it’s not out of the question some stories might pop up.

Do you have a story planned for this AU?: Kinda? But mostly it’s just character-focused interactions. I’m not a fan of writing super dark or introspective Zelda, *I lean more toward Hurt/Comfort, found family vibes in these parts~

Is there a Sideblog for this AU?: Not at the moment but that might b e something I'll look into if it becomes hard to navigate within my main blog

Can I use your character designs: Please do with credit! And optimally with me tagged so I can see your work~

Can I send you art of this AU: PLEASE PLEASE DO I’D LOVE TO SEE IT!!!

[lifeafterpsychiatry]

Hi Kat, it's nice to see you posting things again. I'm happy you're taking care of yourself, know how difficult it is so lots of respect for doing it. Here's some cat pictures for you

I think I told you about my entering the IOP program back in December and wanted. To update that it's going okay? I haven't noticed like significant progress but I noticed I'm self correcting more with negative self talk and actually thinking. About using skills. I'm not really using them yet but I'm trying to get myself to do it. One step at a time

Also good news ! I'm making progress in my vision therapy even though it's hard to notice and my vision therapist praised me for certain parts which felt. So so good.

Is it wrong to crave praise/appreciation It feels like I can't generate it for myself really and thus every time I get praise it feels like a hit of drugs and euphoria and id basically do anything to get it lol I feel like I need people to like me no matter what so I can earn their praise. It's helped that I have a partner now and I get it from it but still is a serious thing for me

I hope you have a good day! One last cat picture

Hi, thanks for the update and the cat pics! There is nothing wrong with desiring praise and appreciation - it is a very natural part of being a social animal. Of course there are unhealthy ways to seek praise and appreciation, just like some people can develop an unhealthy dependency on it, but that doesn't mean there's anything inherently wrong with wanting to be liked and appreciated - and it's not something most of us can expect ourselves not to need.

[gsenvs3000w25]

Unit 2: My Role as a Nature Interpreter

My ideal role as an environmental interpreter would be one that fosters curiosity and wonder for children in a way that aligns with their developmental abilities. Working at a summer camp has always been incredibly fulfilling, witnessing the joy and inspiration my campers find during daily activities, whether it’s exploring the forest through free play, embarking on hikes through the ravine, or splashing around in water play out in the field. If I were to create my own program, it would be set in environments such as a nature preserve, forest, or campground. I would craft programs for "nature adventures" that progress in an orderly, story-like fashion, engaging children in ways that resonate with their natural thinking patterns.

A quote from the textbook that resonated with me is: “To the child, there is no clear line of separating objects from living things...” (LaPage, 2001; Roads, 1987). The same paragraph went on to mention that children often believe that rocks, trees, and animals can communicate with us if we simply “tune in.” This way of thinking, as described by LaPage and Roads, reflects the childlike view that both the biotic and abiotic components of nature have the ability to share messages with us. As a nature interpreter for young kids, I would embrace this perspective, using it as a foundation to foster their curiosity and connection to nature. A simple hike could incorporate fun activities like “listening to the talking trees" as we walk through a forest, offering a creative and interactive way for kids to learn about the vital role trees play in ecosystems.

For children in Piaget’s concrete operational stage (ages 7-11), my form of interpretation would involve direct, hands-on experiences as recommended for this age group. For example, exploring a creek to touch cool water, feel the smoothness of stones, and observe aquatic life firsthand would provide interactions that are stimulating and provide a multisensory approach.

To engage the affective domain, as outlined in chapter 6 of the textbook, I would use storytelling, role-playing, or creating nature-inspired art. Activities like crafting animal masks to "become" creatures in the ecosystem blend emotional engagement with creativity. For the kinesthetic domain, activities such as planting a garden or building birdhouses, which involve physical movement and skill development, would promote active learning.

In executing all of the above, I would require lesson planning skills, much like a teacher in school. I would need to be able to communicate less with facts, history, and information, but more with interactive games, discussions, and stories to effectively hold my audience's attention. Ultimately, this approach would enable me to create a playful and entertaining learning environment that fosters engagement and critical thinking and allows children to establish a deeper connection to nature in a way that works for them!

[cookiestar360]

why are you actually so talented.

like how drop a tutorial pal

or I WILL personally place several ants inside of your pants

okay but seriously like how do you do all the roblox animating, the undertake things, and just all that cool stuff you do? I’d love to learn!!

bro is NOT subpar

I just was inspired by my friend burger to do some of the stuff he does

If you ever get to see some of the stuff he does its essentially the exact same but far better! A lot of my actual work I do is just me finding ways to avoid showing the glaring flaws in my competency to make it look presentable as nice

Although I know a lot of stuff, I'm not actually super good at anything I do truly, so I call myself subpar overall because I feel like that's the best way to describe everything I do, even if I can do a lot.

The animating stuff I tried learning more of in a day just so I could give Daisy a present, which is why it looked choppy because I stayed up super long trying to make it look nice for them, I wanted to do something kind. But some of those skills were when I tried developing games in the past on Roblox. Its only really worth animating on roblox if you can obtain moon animator for free though, otherwise itd just be better to animate in blender The sprite creation/pixel art i picked up when I wanted to make a character for rivals of aether with burger and eventually got to make a terraria resource pack which lead to me getting to speak to the creator a bit. Really most of it looks special at a glance until you get aseprite, which made everything really nice to get into and is one of the only media software I know that doesn't try to oversimplify things for a general audience but in return makes it simpler to be creative The little undertale dialog sprites I drew out of boredom and decided to use sometimes, theres a website for generating them but its only really useful for getting text the dialog stuff is better to just manually edit in aseprite https://www.demirramon.com/generators/undertale_text_box_generator its hard to explain but once you start developing skills in basic programs other completely different programs start becoming easier too, so you can always explore multiple different forms of media creation at once and it could open up being able to understand software easier. Programs tend to have some familiarities even if they do drastically different things like being a drawing application or creating 3D models. Sorry though I should talk about myself less lol

I like making stuff with a purpose, like a profile picture or something for a game or a gift for someone else instead of creating stuff just for the love of creation, which isn't that good of a mindset but it can make you far more proud of your work, even if you aren't at a level you see as good yet.

Really I'm only at a base-decent level at everything I've shown off on this profile, so if you want to go ahead and try it'd be quick to learn.

...if you have a pc

I wouldn't do any of this on a mobile phone nearly as efficient

(besides full art, I'd probably be better at that on a tablet)

Mobile creators have to put like 3-15 times the effort just for the same product sometimes due to its inefficiency and I deeply respect their efforts

The one thing I have 0 talent at though is anything social related, I should work on being a better person hehehe

Angel is really talented at being a cool person and I am inspired by them to be cooler too, same with chip and asa and a lot of other people who are helpers and above

wait this is derailing fast uhhhh bye guys!!!!!

[theoddvet]

Hi !

I'm a Vet student and I'm wondering what made you choose pathology?

Hey there, lovely to meet you!

I admit, I did not even consider a career in pathology until my second year out as a practicing veterinarian. Even in vet school, it never flagged as an obvious passion to me (but that could have been because I was consistently, highly stressed with undiagnosed adhd).

My love for pathology developed post-graduation, because the one part of being a vet that consistently gave me excitement and satisfaction and continued to intrigue me was the pathology aspect - taking samples and analysing them cytologically, analysing blood tests, etc. I could easily spend well over twice the consult time doing pathology alone.

Another factor that contributed as well was that I was beginning to burn out from the other aspects of the job, and while I did enjoy being a vet in general, I just wasn't coping well enough.

I completed a distance education course on clinical pathology and, about a year later, just happened across an available local training program for veterinary pathology at the university where I completed my undergraduate studies.

I think in general I just love the expansive nature of pathology; I feel like a detective or investigator but for disease. Vet students often remark that pathology as an undergraduate is hard, and I agree with them because you could quite literally build an entire degree just on pathology alone.

Pathology is quite literally the blood and guts of veterinary medicine and being trained and qualified to recognize and interpret the importance of observable pathology in a specimen or patient is an incredible skill to practice. As a primary career, it is highly engaging and rewarding and you can even go as far as contributing to the concept of One Health (recognition of the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment), research into disease pathogenesis and diagnosis, and disease surveillance and security.

Veterinary pathology is definitely growing in importance and if you have an interest in it, I highly recommend it as a career choice.

[catprinx]

I know art is all about practice and trying out new things and not being afraid of using references, but do you have any advice for newer artists about areas to focus time on? Especially for learning digital art/colouring? I've always loved your art style so any advice you have would be valuable.

hi anon!!! Thank you for the kind words :)

There's no one good answer to this because art is about a lot of things. So rather than give you clear-cut actionable items to do, like a checklist, I'll just write down my own philosophies about art exploration. I've also been thinking a lot about this in terms of my own improvement.

(Also for everyone reading this I am by NO MEANS a teacher so take everything I say with a grain of salt. I'm simply someone that just enjoys thinking about art)

I think art is a lot about the combination of technical skill + visual language + concept.

Practicing technical skill, as you said, involves using reference and doing studies. I think an important thing to remember is you need to know what you're trying to learn. Here's a good example the former is a traditional still life of grapes, the artist probably intended to make a piece with a good composition and an impressive rendering technique. While the latter is definitely more of a value/color study. I'm certain this artist could have gone into detail rendering those grapes but being realistic isn't their intention/style. So when you're doing your studies I think simply asking "what do I want to work on?/what am I trying to communicate" can be helpful.

If your goal is working on color specifically I think it would be important to practice values, hues, and temperature control. Those things are the basis of color and after that you can play with more stylistic color. In the end my advice is to do a lot of studies, and look at a lot of art! Doing these studies digitally is just a matter or practicing and familiarizing yourself with the art programs (it takes time). If you have an artist you like you can probably look at their work and breakdown what you like about it. For example the narumitsu art I was working on here is kind of a study of @/rei_17's art (from twitter). I love her use of non-local colors and colors that are very close in value but the depth comes from the hue/temperature shifts in color. It's so masterful to me!!! So, now that I know what I'm looking at it becomes easier to break down and put it into practice for my own art.

Visual language usually refers to "style". To me, it can mean a lot of different things but for the sake of this long ass text post let's say it's just about "art style". My tip is to...copy! Copy what you like and figure out what it is you like about it. I feel like your hand will guide you towards your own art style in the end. I don't view myself as someone with a particularly interesting or unique art style but I can breakdown my influences a little. I'm someone who grew up with anime/shoujo influence but also copied a lot of popular tumblr styles back in the day lmao. I want my anatomy to "feel" correct even though it's rarely realistic and I don't really exaggerate form too much because I don't have a preference for it. I'm someone who values drawing speed and clarity of form over details. And all those things added up are the reasons I draw like I do. You can totally make a style by more intentionally riffing off others, and you can also develop a style just by doing your own thing. Your art will always have an identity of its own even if you don't know it at the time!!!

Concept is just your idea/intentions/narrative etc. I really think concept can be anything you want. Some people can go really in-depth with their concept with studying and research and etc, and other people can make something visually interesting simply by going "I want to draw a cute girl". Everyone is different! I wouldn't take concept advice from me personally because I don't make original illustrations. Fanart is easier to work with because usually you're interpreting someone's existing narrative and you can churn out something cool from that. Maybe my advice is draw more fanart???

[sarahbduck]

Subscription for a Paintbrush

A painter might feel like a paintbrush is an extension of themselves, developing muscle memory and skill to create beauty. But what happens when that tool is owned by someone else, and they charge rent? What if they've decided to take it away from you? What if they've decided your art isn't yours?

As a 3D artist, I was professionally trained in using Autodesk Maya, a 3D modelling and animation application. I became really good with it, and grew to love it! I used it at work and at home for my own projects. It became muscle memory, an extension of myself, an organ for expression.

The full version of Maya is ludicrously expensive at CA$2,500 a year! So I had to settle for a cheaper version called Maya LT. It was missing some features, but I wasn't using them at the time so it worked out. I paid CA$360 a year for 3 years.

COVID struck, and I lost my job. I had to use savings to continue paying my license for an additional 2 years, yet in that time they provided no updates. I was just paying for access.

In 2022, Autodesk announced that Maya LT was being discontinued, replaced by a new version called Maya Creative. Instead of a subscription, you'd buy "tokens", spending one token for 24 hours of use. You could only buy tokens in bulk, the cheapest being 100 tokens for CA$405, and they expire after one year.

I've never seen such a predatory, disgusting pricing model for a piece of software. It's like an arcade machine! I thought subscriptions were bad enough! I refused to participate.

Despite spending nearly two grand, the tool I love is going to deactivate itself soon, and I don't have any say in it. It's bytes will still be on my computer, but it'll refuse to launch. Maya LT had a proprietary file format, so all of my projects will be unusable.

It feels like I'm losing a part of myself.

I feel like a fool for even letting this happen in the first place. I let myself become attached to a tool I didn't even own, run by a faceless corporation! My own art is being held hostage! How unfair! Should it even be called a tool, or a service?

I've been avoiding 3D art lately, focusing on programming and game development. My friends and I started working on a game in the Unity Game Engine. A couple months in, Unity's owners were saying and doing some unsavoury things, so we swapped to the Godot Engine. I feel incredibly lucky that we did because of the Unity drama that followed.

Unity wanted to start charging a fee for every user that installed your game. They wanted this to apply to every Unity game retroactively. This is obviously a stupid idea, and they walked it back, but it begs the question: Do you even own the game you developed? It seems like you don't.

I don't want to let myself fall into this trap again. I feel like we as artists form a personal relationship with our tools, and it shouldn't have to be an abusive one! I want to own my art and tools! That shouldn't be difficult as a digital artist! I've been recommended some proprietary subscription based "tools" by friends recently, and I refuse to use them. I won't let this happen to me again.

I'm going to use as much open source software as I can. Open source software is the only software you can truly "own". You have access to the code, and you can do with it as you please! It's often democratically run by the community! You can distribute it to your friends, and it's not piracy! There's a ton of excellent open source art software out there, and I encourage you to check it out!

Autodesk broke my heart. When I get back into 3D art, I'm going to be learning Blender.

[takodeyalko]

I want to find friends like it's 2019

I've never done a kinlist before, which I don't think is a very common story considering I'm 22.

Alas, this one isn't done in the cool radical original sense, but a pathetic parody where I shoved a bunch of characters I was obsessed about/who left a mark on me (and about whom I'm not all that universally ashamed (though I should be (was rightly booed for The Bachelor by my friend(learned nothing)))).

I fell out of fandom culture when I was about seventeen, and now I really want to get back in there, while also not knowing know how.  I don't have the best grasp of the English language, but I do acquire a taste for plays no one's ever heard of, extremely questionable drawing and writing skills, even in my native language, ability to criticize anything and I'm frankly too old to fit in. Well, as I see it.

And yet, I'd like to find some mutuals. Or hang out with someone on discord. Or in other places, I don't really care. I want a good old-fashioned internet friendship with imaginary weirdoes and freaks from my phone.

A little about me: I live in Russia, and a queer student, studying to be a game developer.  Left-wing in words, useless in deeds. Used to be a gifted kid in STEM, but burnt out, and changed my education path after losing three years learning programming in one of the best faculties of my country. I know about programming enough to realize how much I SUCK at coding. Still, would very much appreciate finding someone to chat about it. I have a beautiful lovehate relationship to it. Unit testing is my beautiful toxic wife.

 I love animation in all its forms, obviously into indie games, roleplaying (every type there is: tabletop, text, games like SS13, foxhole and barotrauma, literal running with a sword in a forest) theater and sci-fi. Trying to finish reading Mahabharata due to finding a delightful fanfic I can't fully understand. Similar reasons, which is funny, were not enough to read homestuck.

I'm also slightly into philosophy, like Brennan Lee Mulligan and dropout, was watching Bo Burnham as a child a lot, really like Natalie Wynn. All the classics.  Favorite youtuber is CJ the X.

I dunno, I just want to yap about things with someone. The last such thing was ‘guards of Taj’, which was butchered (pun intended) by the theater in which I was seeing it. The original thing, however, feels like a good angsty fic, and I’m extremely surprised it doesn’t have…Well, anything?

So, ehm. Trans rights. God, I wish I was cool.

Bottom text.

[eatmangoesnekkid]

My Second Belly Dance Teacher and Friend

I am compassionately twirling out of Germany on the train making my way back to Amsterdam to see my 2nd belly dance teacher. Yes I am blessed to have 2 teachers because each one teaches differently and I get to develop a more dynamic practice. I had homework to do on my side belly waves and shimmies 🧘🏿‍♀️🌊 and she will test me this evening. Germany is definitely not my country🤣🤣 but I love giving love and care, one of the prime roles of a lover archetype in practice. Being a lover isn’t just about dancing, playing, art, music, sex, nature, animals, or loving your way through this reality, it is a real care practice, as I see all of the above as ways we care for others. I do believe that an embodied belly dancer could dance and her sacred dance would bring back the eyesight of a blind person who gets to witness her, to feel her…in their heart. Feeling is always key. In my travels, I sense how she could journey around the world and heal ailments in the bodies of weaker or compromised people through her belly waves and breast rotations—that pure kundalini innocence. Because when a person sees/feels/perceives a beautiful, lighthearted, open-hearted woman (one who is holding pain/hurt in her heart/spirit) and interacts with her in the slightest way, their body naturally releases chemicals called “endorphins” that cause them really feel good and even healthier and more powerful or capable. These lost forbidden arts I hope to revive and reclaim in my lifetime and I see myself getting to that place in my heart one day. When people think of Oshun, they tend to omit two of her most important skills-her ability to care for the sick and her warrior aspects, but we must remember that it's either all of it or none of it. ☀️

I do believe that it’s important as you learn these medicinal arts that are not only medicine for others, but medicine for your own mind, body, and spirit—whether you learn on YouTube or with a teacher, you 'womb' yourself and don’t blast on social media right away. I see women do this as well when they start a new work out program. Embody your practice first then share or you may find that you dilute your progress and become stagnant because social media tends to take us away from our heart and its purity of passion to embark on a new skill or habit imperfectly, and drown us in our ego and its need for constant approval and addiction to comparing and contrasting. This was a big learning for me that the ancestral mothers whispered. Much of social media emanates a frequency of disembodiment —pretending to be embodied. Some of the most vibrant, brilliant, and embodied artists, dancers, writers, and singers I adore like Sade and Tracy Chapman don’t have a social media presence. They lead private lives and create in the dark, in mystery and silent ritual. They aren't under the constant bombardment of notifications, distractions, or stress nor operate with the common "text-neck" which malnourishes the female body and blocks the lymphatic pathways from detoxifying the face, upper back, and shoulders, the death-grip to more wrinkles (however beautiful, merely sharing for Aunties who buy toxic anti-aging cremes), and neck, shoulder, and back inflammation/pain. More than the fact that these women are aging backwards as a result of their private lifestyles and the accompanying incontrovertible power, there is benevolent advanced intelligence in the quiet, whether you are creating books or music or dilating your hips in a new dance practice or abductor workout regiment. While in the learning curve or creative process, discretion and care are needed.

Having an audience occasionally cheer on your progress can be a nice feeling due to the quick dopamine hit but it can easily become like a drug and it matters more that you see yourself and believe in you. “Giving birth” is multidimensional, multidisciplinary, and not something that everyone should be privy to seeing. Eventually you openheartedly share your gift, but not in the early or mid-developmental stages. And yes feeling stronger in your body from the discipline (and sometimes discomfort of) working out is also a gift that you give to this world.

This life is so temporary and we all asked to be here so be here fully grounded in your feet, legs, and hips and overflowing in your gifts. Embody the art. Midwife the dancer. Share the baby when it’s time. Mm, One loveliness 🫀🫀🫀🫀

[twurtlil]

About Me

Hello there! I'm Jacob, a 2nd year student at QUT doing a double degree in Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Games and Interactive Environments. Specifically, my majors are Physics and Software Technologies.

Hobbies & Interests

I love playing games! Some of my favourites are Resident Evil (4, 7, & 8), Tekken, Genshin Impact, Terraria, Minecraft, and Wuthering Waves. I love games that encourage creativity and those that challenge you to improve skills. I also love the narratives embedded into games as you feel transported into a different world.

I love programming, the ability to control outcomes with only a few lines of code really fascinates me. Especially with applying these skills in game development, giving life to the characters and objects in a virtual environment always seemed fun to me.

I also love creating art, although I'm still trying my best to improve. 3D modelling and pixel-art are my two most favourite genres when it comes to art.

I would also love to learn animation as bringing inanimate objects to life seems so fun and interesting.

Why I chose this Degree

I was first planning to take a single degree in Science. However, as I was scrolling through courses in QUT (the university I really wanted to study in), I saw this double degree program for both Science and Games. Without hesitation, I applied for this program. So far, I have been enjoying the degree as I have learned a variety of skills.

[deardarlinggames]

Devblog 1

Hi! My name is Wendy, I'm a software developer, and the creator of Dear Darling Games. I'm going to be using Tumblr as a more relaxed and unpolished blog. For now, because I don't know how to format a blog post professionally quite yet. Later, I'll want a break from the structure of it, and have many things I feel I can chat about.

About me! I'm currently twenty two years old, and my goal is to be a solo game developer with a heavy focus on visual novel RPGs. I have no experience, and I'll be logging and citing my entire process as I learn to the best of my ability. Even figuring out the right questions to ask has been quite the task.

Tonight, I'm starting at square one. I'm using an IdeaPad laptop, and operate on a night-shift schedule due to work and life circumstances. This means most updates will be around four in the morning for me. I'm head of household in many ways, so sometimes I will have to step away for a day or two to get my affairs in order.

Here's all I'm learning, planning to learn as of now, and what I have so far.

Planning to learn: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Godot Engine, Procreate, and Blender. 2D paper-doll animation, rigging, video editing, layering, how to use Alpha lock... Sound design - cello, violin, piano, flute, foley techniques, and general sound equipment. Navigate and create - a website, a put together GitHub profile, and my first game pair; a 2D Mouse themed VN RPG, and a 2D farming game inspired by Zombie Farm with significant changes to the storyline, main mechanics, and characters. In essence, a reworked fan remake, and it will be free to play. I will also be learning how to navigate matters of intellectual property, copyrighting, and more in that area. Finally, I'll be learning Bootstrap, Sass, and React and Redux to create Single Page Applications.

Learning now?: HTML, CSS, Godot Engine, Procreate. Foley techniques, and I've officially gotten down plucking scales on my cello. No luck with the bow yet... I'm refreshing my guitar skills, and saving for a keyboard. I'm utilizing RPG Maker to start familiarizing myself with very, very basic aspects of how to communicate with the computer. Plus, it gives fast results which help lulls in attention span for learning how to do it all myself. I am not planning on publishing a game with RPG maker for *professional* purposes to illustrate learning or ability, but it is very fun to use.

What I've got: Full storyline and pathway branching for decisions, voice bits and character voices [done by me], snacks, water, and a dedicated workspace. Character sketches on paper, most of the dialogue, a working title for both, and most of the battle and other systems planned. It feels like all that's left to do is code and Learn How to Draw Digitally, but that's sure a lot when you have to break it down into all the little steps and refocus those into groups and whatnot. I also have a GitHub profile and joined their Developer Program, I have this tumblr, a Jira account to break down tasks and to-dos in a more manageable way, and my Neocities website has officially been set up to the point of Having It.

I'll release a pinned post with my production announcements later.

fin: 4:04AM