#Tools and Bots

[valentingaio]

I love the silly little Staff Bot from the concept art

(He's from early concept art of the Superstar Daycare done by cakepaints!)

[flowery-laser-blasts]

Finally finished a sketch based on a convo between @miss-doodle-jester, @theatticdemon and I had about gardening.

The less you know the better.

[altschmerzes]

every day i see 500 posts about archive-locking fics to protect from bot scraping and every day i just want to bang my head into the wall over and over because

1. It Has Already Been Scraped, the damage is done.

2. archive-locking fics is only a Good Solid Protective Measure against bot scraping if you believe that people who have the ability to create and shape this kind of technology cannot make some fairly minor adjustments to access archive-locked fics. it would not be hard. that’s like saying ‘i’m worried about getting stabbed so i have put on a lace-woven cardigan.’

3. ao3 did not “recommend that everyone do this” as i’ve seen about 400 of those 500 posts say. they, in the post where they confirmed scraping had taken place, said that if people wanted to do something that was an option for something they could do if they felt like it. hardly an urged warning that everyone really should take this as an important safety and security measure.

4. the only people this is deterring are people who don’t browse logged in or don’t have an account. literally all you’re doing is making your fic harder to access for people who actually want to like....... read it. it’s security theatre at best and maybe this is a very small hill to die on but i’m very tired of seeing dozens of posts urging everyone to do this Right Now because it’s Critical to protecting your fics from ai bot scraping. that’s just......... can we think about this for a second.

[lordichamo]

SO UH. ITS REALLY FUN TO DESIGN/REDESIGN BOTS.

Design Notes (WARNING. LONG AS HELL)

General note: if im givin em (slight) digitigrade legs im givin em a tail. for balance. and for funsies.

Daigo (M-DIG)

its his stupid lil jacket

to differentiate him from fishiki (both predominately white/monochrome bots) only his upper half is white. again. jacket...

platforms. #shortkingdaigo

slightly wider waist (still. snatched as hell. bc the bots look like that)

Mine (M-MIN)

kirin influence

rgg can pry his red/brown/gold color palette out of my cold dead hands.

pretty sure the lil fur tuft on his tail is real fur.

congrats! you programmed a robot that can experience love! unfortunately this means that he & his bf are going to be Insufferable

Has the gunshot wounds Mine sustained on The Ruff

ALT: he uhm. he fell.

Ryuji (M-RYJ)

BIG FUCKIN DRAGON !!!!!!!!!

added in the black from his coat trim. + the other colors are a combo of his suit + the one dragon from the strength tarot.

also wider waist than default

Has the gunshot wounds Ryuji sustained in the finale

ALT: i think they just . gave him a random spare part arm HJGHKWEHTLEW it doesnt even match w/ his colors..... doesnt even turn into a gun either booo

Nishiki (M-NSK)

hes fish !! i was allllmost considering giving him a fancy lil tail fin thingy but mrrr. nah.

again . lots of focus on differentiating him & daigo. adding more colors n shit helps

if u look reeeeal close in the midsection the uhh. black section has a real faint y0 shirt design.

shortest of the 4 if you don't account for Daigo's platforms.

ALT: i had to look up. so many burnt out cars. anyway. he exploded.

Kiryu

dragon elements but more normal abt it. he doesn't care as much as ryuji (who is. #1 territorial dragonposter rep)

bulkyyy. his legs are the closest to what the actual canon bots have???

Akiyama

bird but also catboy. stray cat strut......

first robot to experience the effects of smoking (outdated)

the lil gold accents come from his lil necklace

Saejima

yes the fur pauldrons are real fur. scritching him....

obligatory tigerposting. this does mean he's SO patterns though.

Tanimura

this guy's got turtle shells. rounding out the whole 4 gods motif

otherwise. pretty standard design. shortest of the 4. etc.

Masato

a lil busted to hell n back

most exposed wiring

most snatched waist of the bots

Cancelled Governor Ryo Aoki

literally just repurposed the masato bot lmfao

anything pure blue was entirely replaced, otherwise they just kinda sorta. painted over. lmao.

bulkier replacement legs since support was an issue

[feintenstein]

So, so, so, SO sorry for this- But mind if i have a killbot 86 sketch? It can be anything. Even a WIP. Pls & Ty🙏

Never apologize for requesting a robot! I've been wanting to draw him :]

[communistkenobi]

coding followers. if someone tells you that they use chatgpt to solve coding errors they get, should you trust that person’s code

[whatwooshkai]

12 for the number of letters in that/whatwooshkai

Chase's frame is a well-oiled machine. It is a uniform, it is a tool for justice, it is nothing more than what he needs it to be to do his job.

And that would be the total and complete truth, if it weren't for these Primus-damned finials.

He has attempted to implement emotion-supressing protocols to stop them from moving so damn much, but he wasn't so good at it that he could hide the coding from medibots, who would immediately delete it upon finding it, despite Chase's protests.

"It will make me better at my job," he had tried. "A field should be kept close and professional, finials should be the same!"

They'd just laughed at him, and laughed harder when his finials pinned back.

Finials aren't rare on Cybertron, but they continue to be an object of fascination regardless. Many times bots would have no qualms about reaching out and touching and groping his finials, just to see them flick and twitch, because leave me alone, those are sensitive- which just encouraged them more.

"You're uptight," Blades had drawled, leaning over the top of his bunk to look down at him. "Try to stop reacting. They just want to see you vulnerable."

Chase's finials had pinned back, flicking when he noticed Blades' optics tracking the movement. "I do not understand."

Blades sighed heavily, dropping down onto his chassis. "You and me both."

Despite the strange end to that conversation, Chase had tried his best to follow the advice. But the finials seem to have a mind of their own, and he doesn't even notice most of the time when they move on their own accord.

At least on Earth it's been better. His rescue bots have known him for so long they're not fascinated by his finials, and the humans don't seem to notice them half the time.

He's still not fond of them. They take away from his professional image and he can't control them.

And then, what a surprise, Heatwave makes it worse.

They had been sitting on the couch. Heatwave was splayed across Chase's lap, drawing, while Chase balanced the datapad he was reading on Heatwave's windshield.

It had been a Cybertronian essay on the mechanimals that found themselves populating solely large cities, a truly fascinating subject he hadn't gotten around to reading about yet.

So by the time he noticed, it was too late.

Heatwave had his digits on Chase's finial, rubbing gentle circles up and down. Instead of an electric jolt and a horrible feeling of wrong, a strange calm comes over him, and an involuntary purr begins to rise from his engine. He slumps forward, leaning on Heatwave, who coos mockingly.

"Look at that," he says with a triumphant grin, putting down his stylus to rub the other finial, and the purring gets louder. Chase tries to push his frustration through his field, but content flows out instead, making Heatwave's grin grow bigger. "Chase-y's got an off switch!"

Chase glares at him, but he knows it comes off as pathetic with the way Heatwave laughs at him.

Stupid fucking finials.

[hitwiththetmnt]

Some B.E.N.T turtles to give you an update

Hopefully a quick fix but I didn’t want to stay inactive just because of a little hiccup

Doodle #2

[slack-wise]

Senseless drawing bot

[the-converse-high-top]

alright everyone place your bets how much do you think I'm gonna spend at joanns today

[asmoteeth]

R! Heatwave and p! Hotshot pulls up, p! Hotshot is in his vehicle mode with r! Heatwave on top, holding on for dear life.

R! Heatwave: "get on loser we're going shopping!"

Hotshot's second name is reckless driving so I wouldn't be surprised if it ended on something like this HJNEAOIKJEFJIKEAFR

also-- first time drawing a firetruck ayyy

[girlwarlock]

maybe it's a coincidence but it's a lil sketch that when i searched the ''intrusive thoughts'' tag (due to some curiosity from a post that crossed my dash) that this thing come up. @wip @changes I really don't like this kind of targeted communication, whether this kokobot is something that tumblr is cooking up internally or whether they're a third party getting the info from tumblr for this kind of targeted spam.

[zontarzon]

The Glaze Anti-AI tool for artists

Since Glaze was just released, I figured I should give it a test run and let you all know how it goes.

This tool is specifically designed to thwart generative AI attempts to mimic art styles. Link to the tool: https://glaze.cs.uchicago.edu/index.html

Before:

After:

Now, it did warn me that due to the settings I used, this image might not have adequate protection:

Takeaways:

It did mess with my watermark on the existing image, so I'd run it on an un-watermarked version and add the watermark afterward.

The glaze effect is most noticeable on areas with large blocks of the same color/flat colors. They admit to this on their website, in the Risks and Limitations section of the "What is Glaze" page.

I appreciate that it warns you when there's not enough protection.

This actually took a long time to glaze; it was about an hour at these settings. However, I was also using Google Chrome, Discord, and Spotify at the time. When I closed my other programs, it sped up significantly. I do not recommend running this on a mobile device.

This tool is still being developed, and improvements are underway.

It really sucks that we must resort to this, but we gotta do what we can to protect our work. Overall, this tool is extremely promising. I'm definitely willing to use it.

[goldemas1244]

AAAHHHHHH HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY Y'ALLS

I made this in January because I'm currently having exams. But I needed to celebrate Courtney Gears, the new selfship waifu, so I dedicated some spare time for her.

Base by @croxovergoddess on Tumblr and the early lineart I shared as a wip

[self-spaghettification]

they/themavos real

[jaeger-bombastard]

Also, yall know if some of those Palworld knock offs leaked and someone said it was like. A regional variant of Eevee, everyone would 100% believe it. Or if that wolf leaked and someone was like "new regional of lycanrock!" We would have people complaining that it's too similar to the original and not creative enough. You KNOW they would.

If you had the artists of Pokemon, Yokai Watch, Yugio, and Palworld all draw the exact same character, you would be able to recognize which is which except for the pokemon clone. And now Pokemon is suing over copyright infringement. What the fuck are we gonna do as fanartists if they start putting copyright laws on art styles because yall couldn't resist playing the fucking pokemon knockoff?????

God damn it, people! We are in the middle of fighting Ai but yall crumble over a fucking pokemon knock off? I'm tired of trying to politely explain this to people I've discussed it with.

This whole website wants to act like they're so capable of social reform and yall can't even perform a simple boycott to save an industry THAT YOU GET YOUR GAMES FROM. Because *one* fucking game out of hundreds of options is all over tiktok and yall just can't stop yourselves from playing it for a little dopamine hit.