#and a lot of people used them for the post. there was other pixel art too from other media

[cheezitofthevalley]

Part 1

Hi! Sorry this took so long (new job). Let's get right to it.

Q: What are dividers?

A: Dividers are any graphic that is used to divide two things, usually bodies of text. They are useful for breaking up blog posts and signalling the end of a topic. You might not have noticed, but many websites feature dividers of some kind. Bloggers, however, tend to be a bit extra about their dividers. Here are some good examples:

Q: Ok, cool. It probably wasn't necessary for you to put that many examples, but it does make it clear that dividers can be pretty much anything. Still, I think there are more graphics that you've posted. What about those tiny thingys?

A: You mean favicons? Yeah, let's talk about those.

Favicons are tiny images that represent a website or company. Any easy example is probably right in front of you, if you're on a laptop. Look at the Tumblr tab you have open; do you see the little "t" icon? That's a favicon. Favicons were originally 16x16 pixels. They can be animated.

That being said, lots of people use the term to refer to any small pixel art. These can also be called pixels.

Q: Wait. Why call pixel art a pixel? Aren't pixels single points on a screen?

A: Well, yes. And favicons are supposed to have very specific dimensions and uses, but here we are. "Pixels" can sometimes refer to tiny pixel art, usually between 16x16 and 32x32 pixels (I know, confusing) large. These pixels are often animated. I use favicons and pixels to refer to the same thing.

Q: Ok, I think I get it. But what are pixels used for? Are they essentially icons, or trademarks, like favicons?

A: Sometimes, but usually not. They are often used like bullet points in website directories or lists. I've also seen them used as emoticons, buttons, and decorations. Some people like to simply collect them.

Here are some examples of pixels/favicons:

Q: oOoOO. I like those. Is there anything else people collect?

A: Yep! Pretty much all graphics are collectible. That being said, some lack any use except to be displayed. Fanlisting buttons, for example.

Q: What are fanlistings?

A: Fanlistings were a way for fans to connect online before social media really took off. They were basically online bulletins listing contact info of the fanbases members so that you could connect with like-minded people. They aren't much of a thing now, but they do exist. People who love Spacehey and Neocities are likely to use them. You can register for some and take a button to put on your blog to let others know you're part of that fandom. It also links to the fanlisting itself for others to join. Here are some fanlisting buttons (I haven't joined any):

They are usually 50x50, but don't have to be: they can even be other graphics, like 88x31 buttons! Some other common dimensions are 75x50, 100x35, and 100x50.

In part three, we'll finish up with a couple odd graphics, some interesting old websites, and useful posting tips.

[hbystuff]

Process breakdown #1

Here is a breakdown of the butterfly animation. This was originally posted as a twitter thread, but a real blog post seems to be a much better format for it.

Step 1: Static Drawing

I've long wanted to experiment with Bokeh effect in pixel art as a way to avoid drawing background. It ended up being a lot more challenging than just a normal background 😂. Still an interesting experiment nonetheless and I might use it for some other stuff in the future.

Step 2: Rough Animation

I traced the static drawing with a contrasting colour, then roughly sketched the other frames. Seeing it in motion made it clear to me that the form was very obviously incorrect, but I thought I'd adjust as I go.

Step 3: Refined Animation

Before I got to this point, I naively tried to put in the colour. I quickly realized making the "veins" look consistent would be very hard without guides. So I looked up pictures of actual Morpho butterflies to study the wings in detail. Also made the shapes (mostly) correct and doubled the frame count once I was happy with the shapes.

Step 4: Colours

This was the most fun part. I conceptualized the wings as two blue tinted, matte, textured mirrors rotating in 3D space. When two mirrors come together, they start reflecting each other. The closer they get, the less the lighting from the surrounding world contribute to the colours you see. Eventually, nearly no light from the outside world make into the gap and all you see is dark blue/black.

It started looking almost like mirrors as I figured out the rough movements of the reflections; then a shimmering mess of colours as I threw in more details from the static drawing. The key trick to making the complex colours look consistent was to pay attention to every "partition" of the wings to make sure the dark colours creep in and out smoothly.

I also gradually filled in the eye spots and details on the backside of the wings, not sure if many people noticed them but I was pretty happy with how they looked.

Step 5: Shadow

A big part of realism comes from how a moving object affects the lighting around it. In this case: the shadow on the flower. This is a rough version of the shadows as I worked on it. Wasn't too concerned about making it look 100% correct, since the wings probably catch all the attention anyway.

Step 6: Final Touches

I spaced out the movements so it didn't feel quite so frantic. Instead of using the last frame as the resting frame, I used the second last, and only briefly showed the last frame at the begging and end of the motion to add a bit of realism (although in reality, butterfly wings probably don't have enough mass for that to happen, but hey, 🤷‍♀️).

Also spent some time to reduce the palette down by merging similar looking colours. Also reused the darker, subtler yellow in the background to create the illusion of more flowers out of focus.

[genericpuff]

ok as someone disabled with severe motor skill issues i really hate the argument that "anyone can learn art" and that it's completely accessible to everyone. it's not. there are lots of disabled folks who are getting left out of this discussion with the ableist argument that anyone can do art and if you can't you're just not trying hard enough (which is an argument a lot of abled people tend to use against disabled folks in general). i'm against ai art and will never use it but we have got to stop acting like art is an accessible hobby to everyone because there is unfortunately a lot of people who would love to become artists but will never be able to because of our disabilities.

nah you right! I try to be mindful of that sort of thing but it does admittedly fly under my radar at times because I'm not someone living with a physical disability (and thus it's not as front-of-mind as someone who is) so thanks for catching me on that, many apologies. My argument was regarding the people I've seen who have exclusively used "well I've tried to learn how to draw and it's hard / took too much time / etc." as their driving argument (of which there are just. so many) when like. these are realities for many artists who have been doing this for years, too, including those who are disabled. yeah, making art takes time and practice and a lot of hard work! welcome to the party LOL

but I also understand how keeping that argument so simplified can be exclusionary to those who do genuinely face barriers when pursuing art due to living with disabilities. I've met and observed the work of many disabled artists - webcomic artists, game designers, musicians, etc. - who are out there making their stuff and it comes with all its own unique struggles that shouldn't be forgotten about or overlooked in the discussion regarding AI art, struggles that bar many people from even getting into making art from the starting gun.

I do genuinely believe that art can come from anywhere, that anyone is capable of expressing themselves through whatever medium that compels them... but you're right that many artistic mediums in and of themselves are not wholly accessible to everyone. And I hope to god that more tools are developed to help those who are both working artists as well as aspiring ones.

But AI, in its current state, just isn't one of them. And I'm seeing this sentiment being yelled from the rooftops by many disabled artists who firmly believe that the ends do not justify the means - that they don't want the medium to become more accessible if it comes at the cost of other artists (many who are disabled themselves!) whose work and livelihoods are being replaced with cheap carbon copies. AI art doesn't allow anyone to actually participate in the joy of creating straight from the heart, it just takes from others' joy and spits it back out with an impression of what it thinks the joy of creation is supposed to look like through lifeless pixels. That's not even getting into just how much damage it's already actively causing to our environment, and how quickly AI has started to replace other surrounding industries as well.

Separately from that, you're right, paying for art is a luxury for many, but that's all the more reason why we shouldn't be supporting the current climate surrounding AI IMO which is the crux of what my argument was in that previous Simpsons meme post. Many people do face severe limitations in trying to create their art; the people I'm referring to who are heavily pro-AI are often not those same people and only face the limitations of their own entitlement, which is destroying the livelihoods of many human artists. Is it worth participating in AI art to save money if that same participation perpetuates a growing system that's costing people their livelihoods?

Maybe some day we'll get AI tools that are less predatory and destructive and help those who want to create art do so. Maybe we'll finally get some stricter regulations around what companies are allowed to get away with in their respective industries. I'd like to think also that the rise of AI art will, by extension, make human-made art all the more valuable. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish for tools that made making webcomics just a teeeeny bit more efficient without being completely unethical LOL But until any of those scenarios prove to be true, we're dealing with a monster of our own design that will never stop eating even after we've all been consumed. The toothpaste is out of the tube.

[tournament-announcer]

Hey ik this is not tournament related, but in case you didn't know and want to spread the word, Tumblr is selling everybody's data to AI companies.

Here is the staff post about it https://www.tumblr.com/loki-valeska/743539907313778688

And a post with more information and how to opt out https://www.tumblr.com/khaleesi/743504350780014592/

Hi thanks for the information and sorry for my late reply. I was a bit low on spoons this week and I wanted to form thoughts about this.

Because the thing is, I am doing a PhD at an AI department in real-life. Not in generative AI, in fact I’m partly doing this because I distrust how organisations are currently using AI. But so this is my field of expertise and I wanted to share some insights.

First of all yes do try to opt out. We have no guarantee how useful that’s going to be, but they don’t need to be given your data that easily.

Secondly, I am just so confused as to why? Why would you want to use tumblr posts to train your model? Everyone in the field surely knows about the garbage in, garbage out rule? AI models that need to be trained on data are doing nothing more than making statistical predictions based on the data they’ve seen. Garbage in, garbage out therefore refers to the fact that if your data is shit, your results will also be shit. And like not to be mean but a LOT of tumblr posts are not something I would want to see from a large language model.

Thirdly I’ve seen multiple posts encouraging people to use nightshade and glaze on their art but also posts wondering what exactly it is these programs do to your art. The thing is, generative ai models are kinda stupid, they just learn to associate certain patterns in pictures with certain words. However these patterns are typically not patterns we’d want them to pick up on. An example would be a model that you want to differentiate between pictures of birds and dogs, but instead of learning to look for say wings, it learns that pictures of birds usually have a blue sky as background and so a picture of a bird in the grass will be labelled as ‘dog’.

So what glaze and nightshade are more or less doing is exploiting this stupidness by changing a few pixels in your art that will give it a very different label when an AI looks at it. I can look up papers for people who want to know the details, but this is the essence of it.

To see how much influence this might have on your art, see this meme I made a few years ago based on the paper ”Intriguing properties of neural networks”, Figure 5 by Szegedy et al. (2013)

Finally, staff said in that post that they gave us the option to opt out because of the maybe upcoming AI act in Europe. I was under the impression that they should give us this opportunity because of the GDPR and that the AI act is supposed to be more about the use of AI and less about the creation and data aspect but nevertheless this shows that the EU has a real ability to influence these kinds of things and the European Parliament elections are coming up this year, so please go vote and also read up on what the parties are saying about AI and other technologies beforehand (next to everything else you care about) (also relevant for other elections of course but the EU has a good track record on this topic).

Anyway sorry for the long talk, but as I said this is my area and so I felt the need to clarify some things. Feel free to send me more asks if you want to know something specific!

[factual-fantasy]

29 asks! Thank you!! :))) 🛝

@skatermusic

Oh boy.. dare I even look.. 😅💀

@holly-opal

AAAAAA THANK YOUUU!!!! :DDDD

@anikakitty11

Oo! It all looks so yummy! 😋😋😋

@cat7890

Unfortunately due to my poor health, I'm unable to work on it atm.. hopefully I can get back to it someday! <:)

Oooo!! I'm surprised by the tender hearted motive! Perhaps I should give this game a look.. 👀👀

I have actually never heard of this challenge-- so yeah, I have nothing planned for it <XD

A little yeah :00 Everyone is almost exactly what you'd think they'd look like <XD Barnacles has white hair, Kwazii has orange hair, Peso has black hair.. etc.

@artistiemi

Its fiiiiine <XDD

@mahlifeissad

ooo :00 Sounds tasty! Thank you for the recipe! :))

They're intended to be there yeah. But I STILL. HAVE NOT PLAYED THE GAME. 💀 So I don't know any of the games lore and how to incorporate them into my story- <XDDD

XD Emmet has a few strong words for Arceus..

@uallstupid

Woah.. who is that guy? Is he actually a cyborg?? :00

XD I get that comment a lot actually- and I take no offence! I see the resemblance! XDD

@skatermusic

<XD Silly Barnacles!

(In response to this post)

And there's likely more where that came from!! :DDD

@chromchill (In response to this post)

Haha! XDD I'm afraid :))

@beryl-shade

I've seen 8-BitRyan play it. I like the concept and the RUIN like style it seems to have.. though I'm not a huge fan of how the animatronics/characters look in game..

I'd like them to be bigger. And either clearly fully animatronic or fully living animal. They some how look kiiind'a somewhere in between..? <:0

@justvibinginvoid (Referencing this post)

XDD Well as I get further into the show, more fanart from me is likely! :)) I'm glad you liked it!! :DDD

@gizmos-n-gadgets

Its been a while since I made their designs so I don't remember much.. but I think I tool a lot of inso from Navy/Marine/ocean?? Military?? Uniforms <XDD

Oooo :0 sounds like a slick tool! Thanks for telling me about it! :)

(In response to this post)

NOOO NOT BEAKER TOO XDDD (I assume you meant Beaker-)

@emmetest (In response to this post)

XDD They're still dealing with Kermit!!

(In response to this post)

I'd be lying if it didn't seriously discourage me at first.. but then everyone rushing to support me reminded me why I post here in the first place. :))

I'm so honored to hear that my artwork helps you through your depressive times. That make's two of us! XDD I hope to keep posting for people like you that really benefit from it <:))) thank you so much and I wish you well 💞💖💞💞

@untitled-7613

😔

(In response to this post)

You know? With how long I've been ill for.. the thought of trying to sell stickers or some kind of merch has crossed my mind more than once..

@tallchest13-blog

XD There ARE humans in their world for sure. Though they don't have a trainer. It felt weird to kind'a.. insert myself into the world..? Or someone that was meant to take my place.. And I like that with the absence of a trainer, Gloria is the leader of the group and everyone looks to her for guidance. :)

They mostly just travel from place to place. Staying away from humans due to their recent attempts to catch Anastasia.. Sleeping in caves or abandoned structures.. looking for food and sparring with each other. Just living life :))

And I am 3 days late to respond to this <XDD

<XDDD I'm sorry- but who are Bingus and dent?? XDD

@hershelwidget

AAAA THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! :DD IM SO GLAD TO HEAR THAT IM YOUR FAVORITE ARTIST AND THAT YOU'VE GOTTEN BACK INTO PIXEL ART BECAUSE OF MEEEE 😭😭💞💖😭💞

@stupid-thatsme (Post in question)

Thank you!! Though I'm not sure I understand the question.. <XD But I have a comic I'm thinking about making that shows how Grimace mega evolved! :DD

[wavyskies]

A post that's very much related to a separate post that's been going around the graphic side of Tumblr. (To the person that made the original, this is not in bad taste. I'm just stating opinions of my own and opinions that others may have in common with me. I genuinely have no intent on trying to make you look necessarily bad in any way. The first half is just kind of me rephrasing the original post because I thought it had a good point, but that point got lost along the way.):

Make a pretty blog because: you enjoy making it, having one makes you happy, looking at it comforts you, etc.

If making a pretty blog doesn't feel like something that would be worth your time or would make you happy, then don't.

Just have fun and be yourself, there is no standard to meet and you having a "non-aesthetic" blog doesn't reflect on you. People are here for YOU, not your blog aesthetic.

That being said, to anyone and everyone who DOES have an "aesthetic" blog, that's cool. I hope it makes you happy.

And I hope that some people realize that making and decorating a blog, even if it's super "aesthetic," IS a way to express yourself. Art is self expression, fashion is self expression, music is self expression, even book covers can be self expression. It doesn't matter if it follows a color scheme, maybe that's just what you like and what feels right.

And using myself as an example because I'm sure I'm not the only one, I don't make my blog appearance for ANY of you. I'm sorry. It's for me, because it brings me comfort. I like having a pretty blog because it helps with my anxiety, I enjoy looking at it, and it feels more like mine. And also, there are so many blogs I have made that I find "aesthetic" that are on private. They could not be less for followers or status.

"It's just copying" (<- paraphrasing here.) No idea is original. Listen to me: no BOOK idea is entirely original. Every story has technically been done before in one way or another. Does that mean the author has no personality? Does that mean the author has no creativity or is just trying to seem cool? No. There is no such thing as an entirely original thing. But they we're expressing their talent and what they like to do. Let people have fun, let people do what they want.

This same argument can and does happen in the artist community, the writing community, and every other form of art. This is not a new argument, it's just a slightly different context. If this was applied intensely to everything, no one would participate in hobbies anymore.

I love everyone who doesn't have "aesthetic" blogs. I love everyone who does. And yes, some people with pretty blogs get followers more easily, but those followers have minds of their own. If they realise "hey, this person isn't actually all that great of an individual," then they'll unfollow them. A color scheme and some pngs don't earn love and forgiveness. It's all for enjoyment and fun.

Please do be yourself. But be yourself in whatever way works for YOU. At the end of the day, it really is just pixels. So the appearance of your things or how cool you seem DOESN'T matter. But take that again with the context of this post: the appearance of your things or how cool you seem DOESN'T matter. So do what you want.

I am very aware that this post is much less than perfect. There are definitely parts that I could've phrased differently, and things I could've added to convey the message better. But I hope you can understand what I was trying to say. Thank you for your time if you read this far, and if you have any comments or things you would like to add on to improve this, please let me know. And it's more than likely that I'm wrong about a lot of this, and this entire conversation is up to debate. If you disagree, then please discuss it publicly because I think this is an interesting debate and I would love to understand more than my biased stances allow me to right now. Again, thank you so much for your time. Have a lovely day. <3

[eggyolkguzzler]

mod, how do you edit your portraits? aka what program do you use :)

Hey!!! So glad you asked! I was actually talking to some friends on discord about this exact topic.

I'm gonna write the best tutorial I can for you anon. Other ask bloggers feel free to reference this!!

KEBBY'S STARDEW VALLEY PORTRAIT/SPRITE EDITING TUTORIAL!! 💪💪💪

Personally, I use Medibang Paint pro. It's a free art program that you can use to draw pretty much anything. Normally, I use it for regular, un-pixelated digital art.

(If you'd like to see some of that, my art sideblog is here!)

However, Medibang Paint also has a dedicated pixel brush! It comes in handy a lot with sprite editing.

Another suggestion is getting Aseprite. It's a program entirely dedicated to making amazing pixel art. If you want to specialize in pixel art, then you might prefer Aseprite over a more generalized art program like Medibang Paint. A lot of professionals highly praise it. The one catch is that Aseprite costs money.

Though I've been told that it's worth it, so it seems like a good investment to me!

Anyways!! Onto the sprites.

Here's every single one of Alex's sprites and portraits. I got this image from Spriter's Resource's website, where they carry high quality sprite sheets for every single character in the game. Clean and crisp 1x1 pixel ratio.

So for a lot of my custom Alex portraits, all I did was copy different facial features and paste them onto his face.

Take his happy portraits and his surprised portrait, for example.

Stealing the eyes from the surprised portrait and slapping them onto the happy portraits, we get these rather insane looking boys here.

I tend to use these edits whenever Alex is excited about something!

Though sprite editing can also get a lot more complex. There have been many instances where I've had to add something completely unique to his portrait.

Like these edits, for example!!!

What I'd usually do is choose which basic portrait I'd like to use as a base, and then start to draw over it using Medibang's pixel art brush. It's actually a lot easier than you think, as long as you study the portraits!!

Take a second to really analyze ConcernedApe's pixel art style. What do you see first? Well, the colour palette is already there! I already know what colour his skintone is, what colour his hoodie is, what colour the shadows are, etc.

I can also see that his hoodie is shaded with little specks of darker and lighter pixels. This gives his hoodie an interesting texture, so I tried to mimic it when drawing his sleeve for the facepalm edit.

I can also tell exactly where the light source is. It's off to the side! so I knew where to place the shadows and highlights when shading his hands or that egg he's holding.

I encourage you to mess around and do some practice edits until you get the hang of it! Again, it's a lot easier than you think. Most of my edits take either a few seconds or a few minutes.

Here's a collection of every single Alex sprite edit I've made so far!!!

Now, keep in mind, every Stardew Valley portrait is drawn on a 64x64 pixel canvas. That's teeeeeny tiny. If you posted your edits at that size, it would look a little silly. It would be hard for people to see!

So once I've completed a portrait edit, I'll resize it!! Luckily Medibang's got a handy resizing feature.

I go to the top of the screen, I click "Edit" , I click "Image size" , and right beside where it says "Set size to 200%" I click "Apply" , and then I click "OK!!"

Ta-daaaaah!!! Now you have a high-quality, high-resolution sprite of your goober!!! You can resize it more if you'd like it to be bigger, or you can size it back down by setting the percentage to 50%.

That's basically it!

I hope this helps somebody else in the community!! Thanks for the ask, anon. It was really fun to type this out and show off some of my work!

Wow... That's a lot of clones! Where'd they all come from!?

[dragon-appreciator-fray]

I spent most my entire day yesterday playing Tales of Mistria. (For the first time.)

For context, none of the other Farming Sims have really done much to convince me to buy them. And I don't even go back to my modded Stardew Valley saves.

You all have no idea how much I needed a fantasy farm game with a Dragon Guardian spirit and a Dragon themed Tavern.

The cast of characters that actually feel like a community remind me that the number of people I actually play and share video games with has shrunken dramatically since coming out as trans.

The main sibling I talk about Stardew with has been kinda unavailable lately. So you're gonna receive my posts instead.

The pixel art, customization, and how immediately available the community's resources are really appeal to me. No needing to upgrade a house to start cooking.

So much of the cast shows up for each little stage of progress. Characters drag us from scene to scene as we ask other members of the community for help. No dialog will play as the dog walks up to my avatar, receives pets, and returns to his lil cushion all independent of the unfolding dialog. It's just a cute thing happening on screen that sells the world and its characters.

I can even get perks that make my cooking sometimes considered a universal like by the townsfolk. Which means a lot to me, because I like to cook food I like to eat and share it with others.

I'm really glad this game exists.

I think I might be playing a lot of it.

Hopefully no one minds if I share a lot of my experience with it.

I... really like taking screenshots but don't wanna drown my partners' DMs.

Anyway, here's my cute little horned Fray (She/They) with the progress I have made on my home throughout the first season. I've got a new bed and rug pattern. I have just yet to set aside the personal time needed to craft them when my focus has become breeding chickens and expanding the amount of farmland available for Summer crops.

[rockybloo]

An important skill I am still working on is just accepting that some of my fav OCs and stories aren't gonna be as popular with my followers as my "fan favorite" ones.

It's def something I am adapting to even though it's never not gonna be a wee bit jarring for me since all my OCs come from the same place (me) but one group may resonate more with others than another group.

I think, for me, the one part that makes it difficult is just having newer fresher OCs that, while I do care about them, lack that strong emotional connection I have with an older batch that have been through a lot of development and growth to the point I feel like I grew up with them. And having their story mean so much to me both as an artist and a storyteller and how they have sort of paved the way to me developing other stories.

I can't just expect people to be able to see this intangible thing and be completely aware and think the same way I do. I can't truly communicate how important some OCs are to me in words, and even if I do manage, that doesn't mean people HAVE to care about them the same way. People are people and have their own opinions. Regardless of how many times I may repeat I adore some characters, people are gonna have favorites or preferences that aren't those faves of mine.

It's def easier to handle this "fan favorite vs personal favorite" thing than the early days where I was trying to get used to suddenly getting a big boost of followers. But it's still a skill I need to develop better because in the end it def is a ridiculous feeling.

Like, I have multiple series I adore from people that make other series that I don't care as much about. It's just NATURAL for people to have varying opinions, and I think this is another element to accepting people have varying opinions in general online about everything.

I def think this also goes hand-in-hand with that need for validation many online creators, myself included, have. It's nice to share something online and see people interacting with it. IT'S NICE TO SEE A NUMBER GO UP. And we creators always notice when something we make gets waaay higher of a number than something else we make.

It's a big reason why I turned off visible likes on Instagram. Not because of how many numbers other people get, I'm too old to be jelly about other's success, but because it made it more apparent to me what art I made got more interactions. And I didn't wanna internalize that and have my brain auto pilot to drawing what I think will get more interaction instead of what I genuinely want to draw.

OVER ALL - The internet is a series of tubes that I shouldn't be thinking too hard about.

I'MMA KEEP DOING WHAT I DO and accept that not everyone will vibe with what I make the exact same way as me. They might vibe harder with certain things. AND THAT'S FINE!

In the end, I am but a mere creator online that puts various pixels together to make a pretty picture to then post and shimmy off to drink my second cup of coffee and take my daily nap. I MUST HUMBLE MYSELF LEST I FALL TO THE HORRORS THAT BE GETTING SCREENCAPED ON TWITTER AND CLOWNED ON!

[vaspider]

re the ai art thing: there are absolutely some shitty things going on with ai art at the moment, but i feel like this whole thing would benefit from more clarity on the bad actors involved so that arguments could be meaningfully directed at them instead of the nebulous concept of "ai art". i suspect elon musk's name is being used as a buzzword here - while he was one of many founders of openai, he resigned from the company before things like gpt and dall-e even came into existence, so i find posts that talk as though he's still actively involved to be suspect. second, it's entirely possible for an ai art generator to create something thats no more derivative of existing work than a human using it as inspiration. i agree it's still not 100% ethically pure, but at that point it sort of becomes a philosophical debate, not a practical one. a lot of ai art bots DO use significant parts of work, though, and the medical photo story would be horrifying even if ai art wasn't involved - these are specific bad actors, specific people who put private photos into the public domain, specific people who don't do the due diligence in making sure their model doesn't violate the copyright and forgery boundaries we already have in place, specific users who choose to generate derivative art for unethical purposes, and aiming this very justified anger at them is likely to bring about a lot more positive change.

No, Elon Musk's name is being used because he has a very long and very loud history of thinking he shouldn't need to credit artists or writers and that he should be able to use anything in any way he wants and people should be grateful that he did. That context is very important when talking about the intention behind the Tech Bro Collage Machine.

Second, no. It is not possible for an AI to create anything that isn't 100% derivative. There are a few reasons for this:

"AI," that is, actual artificial intelligence, does not exist. This is not nitpicking terminology, this is extremely important and crucial. What we are talking about isn't a brain. It doesn't think. It doesn't create. It cannot create. We may wish to think that it can create - humans love to wonder and we love to anthropomorphize everything, but no. Calling it "AI" is a branding decision, and propaganda. It isn't fact. AI doesn't create anything, first of all, because AI doesn't exist.

Tech-Bros Discover Collages™️ is a program. An algorithm. It does not create any more than a paint mixer creates purple paint when the Home Depot worker puts red and blue paint into a can and loads it into the paint mixer. All it can do it take what it is given and smash it together over and over and over again. And that is - in a very simplistic but also very real way - all that TBDCs do.

I'm very sorry, but androids do not yet dream of electric sheep, computers don't think, and comparing the pixel output of a machine that's just as likely to barf put a man with three fingers growing out of his cheek as it is a "masterpiece" that, if you unfocus your eyes and ignore the watermark artifacts and look past the weird smeary edges and all of the other tells, almost looks kinda like it's not AI art to the output of an actual working artist is absolutely facile. I genuinely cannot believe that people are actually making this argument. Like, I really can't. No, the computer isn't thinking and it can't actually create anything. You're playing with an extremely complicated kaleidoscope loaded with millions of dollars worth of stolen art, intended to help billionaires further defraud everyone else by replacing artists with digital garbage. That's it. That's all. It is nothing more. It cannot be anything more.

I really do wonder what people think is going to happen, here. Do y'all really think this is going to do anything but make it impossible for small artists to make money?

People are already selling "prompts lists" on Etsy as if that is original art, which it is not. People who have gotten really good at playing with the kaleidoscope have gone on long huffy rants about how they shouldn't have to reveal their prompts because they put work into coming up with that specific prompts list... all written without a shred of self-awareness or realization of irony.

I genuinely don't want the answer, here, because as a working artist, I am really exhausted of people trying to defend the destruction of the livelihood I've poured myself into, and the destruction of my friends' livelihoods, too, but I want you to ask yourself (quietly, in your head, and if you want to post about it, do it on your blog, don't put it here) what you think the end result of all of this is going to be.

Do you think this is going to result in some grand new wave of art democratization? It will not. Do you think computers can really create? They cannot. Or do you think instead this is going to lead to a lot of artists no longer being able to find sufficient work as the Fiverr/Uber/Amazonification of everything combined with AI art means that a lot of the meat-and-potatoes commissions and art jobs dry up, because why would you pay someone $100 to draw you a really original picture of your OC with their hours of labor and years of experience when you can get Midjourney to make you one in minutes ✨️for free✨️?

While y'all are busy talking about how computers are doing something not at all different from the human mind (lol), you're hammering the livelihood of a lot of people into the ground, duped by the same people currently burning Twitter to the ground, lighting piles of money on fire as crypto, and minting NFTs. This is just the next thing in a long line of tech bro scams.

Stop falling for it. You're fucking shit up and I'm tired.

[kerubimcrepin]

Exploring dofus-le-film.com and talking about movie-related events. [PART 1]

This will not go into the goldmine that is the interview Tot and Xa give about Joris. This is just a little, self-indulgent post. I hope you will enjoy it nevertheless.

The first silly action I took was extracting the site's icon and enlarging it in Aseprite, so here's your daily dose of cute official Joris pixel art. Anyway.

I love how the movie blurb literally lies about Khan being Joris's life-long idol.

CHARACTER BIOS.

Most of them include the information we already know, so I will only be pointing out things I personally find interesting.

For example - this art here depicts Joris's bald head under the hood as very round. Very useful info for us joris enjoyers. Reblog to slap his bald head, like to slap his bald head.

(Hacks up blood) Deeply caring in nature... papa poule... It is the second time, when Kerubim is called that, in his character bios, and I would like you to remember are these different explanations of this word combo:

I'm insane. I love him a lot.

Bakara is a pleasure to have in class :)

Anyway, I love how non-specific and non-alarming these character bios are. We can't scare the hoes by saying that beneath her cool exterior she wants to kill people around her and also drink 20 gallons of vodka, so "shy and stuck up" it shall be.

Again, it's hilarious how non-threatening these character bios are, considering Lilotte's whole parent thing is basically: (substitute "women" with "kids with families")

Coloring pages + Crayon Contest

A part of me wanted to be "haha, I colored all these coloring pages, for the Full Understanding of The Experience of this movie."

Then I realized that, as a person who is making a Joris painted music video, and had drawn at least 1:07 minutes worth of artwork of him and some other characters of this movie, I would rather-- [remembers that suicide jokes are bad] take cactus for a wife, than draw him for this blog too. I'm sorry.

Not much to be said about the contest, though this is epic:

This little Joris can be found at the bottom of the "win some crayons" page. It's cute.

BLOGPOSTS

This image was drawn for MIFA.

I want to unpack what is occurring here:

Goultard is holding his dragon boyfriend rather gayly on the shoulder. Interesting.

One of the candles landed in Nox's face?

Atcham, Joris, and Lilotte were holding the cake together. Lilotte is sitting on Yugo's shoulder, while Joris is standing on Kerubim's arms. It is reasonable to assume that Yugo turned to the camera, which made Lilotte turn as well, which made Atcham fall, which made Kerubim step away, and the only people carrying the cake who are still even a bit happy are Joris and Yugo.

Adamai is getting ready to catch Joris when in like 5 seconds all of them are going to be tumblring down Atcham-style.

Incredible. But this illustration is not the only gem that Annecy has brought us!

It also brought us more of Atcham being cool and awesome.

I'm insane.

There's more rare art here: these t-shirts featuring designs from a fan contest.

They were made in limited numbers. I'm including them here because we don't exactly have copies of the artwork, and I am insane about preserving art. It might be somewhere — but that somewhere is probably 2016 french facebook, so as far as I'm concerned, trying to seek these out is a lost cause.

Exclusive Merch

There were playing cards, and I am happy to report we DO have artwork for them in HD:

And also, here's a slightly higher definition little game sprite esque Joris:

This is the future crepinjurgenites want.

Kerubim VS Atcham Rigged Pet Contest

I am sad to report that Atchamheads have lost again, in this rigged contest. Imagine asking:

Would you like a fluffy guy you have watched an entire series about, or this bald guy who appears twice in the franchise?

At the very least, this gives us a canonical kitten Atcham design.

(Also, both of them were added, jsyk... Still salty though.)

Maliki Art

Maliki is a webcomic not made by Ankama, but with a long relationship and connection to Ankama due to being published by them in the past.

It's cute, really.

[dokidokitsuna]

...I just remembered I wanted to make my own statement on the AI thing. ^^;

So you've probably heard, but in case you haven't: Tumblr just sold out everyone's data to the AI trash compactors, they probably did it long before they gave us the option to opt out, and even if you do opt out they're probably still taking and using your work anyway (telling people to opt out instead of actually asking for their permission is already scummy business practice, but when it comes to AI it's functionally meaningless. :/ It's always "well, we're telling them not to use these people's data and we're hoping they'll be nice and go along with it" with no regulations or consequences if they decide to just steal everything indiscriminately...)

Despite that, I am not leaving Tumblr anytime soon. I'm looking into other sites*, but at this moment in time, I have nowhere else to go. ^^; Besides, I still like it here. When I left DeviantArt I was already getting sick of the place, having my art stolen regularly by "fans" and paradoxically getting less and less interest in my work over time. By the time the devs turned the website into eye-blinding slop with Eclipse, I was more than ready to move on.

But I still enjoy using Tumblr. I like writing long text posts that no one would bother to read anywhere else, I like answering asks, and I like the unique sense of humor and style among the users here. ^^ It would take a lot to force me out.

Also, I can take a little solace in the fact that AI-bros do not value "low-quality" art like mine. ^^; If messy cel-shaded sketches with visible pixels ever become popular, then I'll worry, but for now I think it's highly unlikely that anyone will want to wholesale regurgitate my art. If anything, I think prioritizing it in their datasets would only make them worse...and on that note, if you do have "high quality" detailed/painterly/semi-realistic art that would be targeted, I'd recommend 'poisoning' it with Nightshade/Glaze. Although I heard a rumor a while back that AI is "building immunity" to Nightshade and already learning to work around it, but I'm really hoping that was just a wishful lie from the trash compactors themselves. I haven't heard it repeated since then, so I think it's still worth a shot. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So anyway, like the post I reblogged said, I think the best thing we can do now is to make it clear that WE DON'T WANT AI ART. We don't care how easy it'll be to instantly generate thousands of hours of mindless 'content' to look at; we don't want it. Since regulation is lagging so far behind (wanna know why Disney's copyright hounds didn't shut this down on sight? Most likely, they're hoping to profit from it down the line) the only way to fight this right now is with individual litigation and consumer demand.

Don't support projects made with AI**; don't hate-watch them or spotlight them. Focus your energy on the millions of human artists who are still here, and need your support now more than ever.

*I've heard people mention moving to Twitter and/or Artstation: fam, you're jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. ^^;;; IIRC, Arstation was one of the FIRST art sites to start flirting with AI, and Twitter has been selling off its users' data for several months already. Go there if you must, but don't go under the impression that it's "safer".

**Please keep a cool head when discussing AI art, and keep in mind that it used to mean something other than "mass theft". Artists have and still do create AI tools that are built on limited data sets with permission/compensation, that are used to aid them in their work and encourage human artistry (Vocaloids and DAW's, for instance) rather than stamp it out. Until a specific word evolves into popular use for exploitative AI, we're kinda stuck with this confusion, so remember to get the facts before you speak out.

P.S. Praying every night that this is a dumb fad that will soon die and go to the same hell as NFTs. >_< Praying every morning that the influx of AI art into its own datasets will eventually corrupt itself and make it useless. >_< >_< Praying every afternoon for both at once! >_< >_< >_< Like to charge, reblog to cast, all that

[nouralkhaldi]

Emergency!!!!!🚒🚨🚨

My name is Nour El Din El Khalidi from a middle-class family that loves life and joy from Palestine, specifically Gaza. Our house was destroyed while we were in it on our heads and we were pulled out from under the rubble and a person was martyred in this Israeli strike on our house. I am studying software engineering at Al-Azhar University and all my brothers are educated, but the war did not allow us to complete our dreams and now we live in a place full of sand, insects and dirty things and an environment full of diseases. We live 8 people in a small tent in very harsh conditions. We wake up every day hoping for the war to end and return to our home and we remember that there is no home and no future for us. I liken our situation to a person living without a goal, without a future, without a home, without work, without anything. Sometimes I wish that death was better for us, but I am strong for the sake of my family and to achieve even a part of hope for them. I hope that everyone who sees my post will like and comment a lot and share the post on their page, and donate whatever they can. Donate $5 to $10. $100, no matter how small the donation, even one dollar makes a big difference in my family's life🥹😭🙏🏻🍉

Notes:

***To help me and my family, follow these steps:

*Like, comment, leave many comments and share my story to reach the largest possible number of people

*Donate even $5, every donation, no matter how small, makes a big difference to my family's hope.

*Be the voice my family and I depend on around the world.

*Everyone in my family needs $7,000 to leave Gaza.

***Please do not pass by my post and donate if you can to save a family***

I took this picture in 2022 when I established my first company in electronic marketing, and in the blink of an eye everything was gone, the location of my company was bombed, my only source of livelihood was eliminated, and currently I am lost and do not know what to do, my future was eliminated on October 7, so you are my only hope in this life....🥺😊🙏

***like+comment+share+donate=save my family***

Donate if you can 🥹✅🙏

@90-ghost @communistchilchuck @northgazaupdates @el-shab-hussein @fairuzfan @vakarians-babe @nabulsi @sarazucker @fairuzfan @a-nautilus -as-pixel-art as-pixel-art @13eyond13 @stil-lindigo @baby-indie-blog blog @just-browsing1222 @sar-soor soor @sayruq @appsa @akajustmerry @annoyingloudmicrowavecultist @feluka @marnota @el-shab-hussein @sayruq @tortiefrancis @flower-tea-fairies fairies @tsaricides @riding-with-the-wild-hunt @vivisection-gf @belleandsaintsebastian @ear-motif @animentality @kordeliiius @commissions4aid-international international @brutaliakhoa @raelyn -dreams @troythecatfish @the-bastards -of-the-barrel -king @4ft10tvlandfangirl @queerstudiesnatural

@timetravellingkitty @deathlonging@briarhips @mazzikah @mahoushojoe @rhubarbspring@shesnake @pcktknife @transmutationisms @sawasawako @feluka @terroristiraqiss @irhabiya @commissions4aid-international @wellwaterhysteria @deepspaceboytoy @post-brahminism @junglejim4322 @kibumkim @neechees @mangocheesecakes @kyra45-helping-others @marnota @7bitter @tortiefrancis @toiletpotato @fromjannah @omegaversereloaded @vague-humanoid @evillesbianvillain @aristotels @komsomolka @neptunerings @riding-with-the-wild-hunt @heritageposts @ot3 @amygdalae @ankle-beez @communistchilchuck @dykesbat @watermotif @stuckinapril @violentrevolution @mavigator @lacecap @socalgal@chilewithcarnage @ghelgheli@sayruq @northgazaupdates2 @papenathys @slicedblackolives @heliopixels @nimbooz @hiveswap @irhabiya @feluka @anneemay@tumkaafiho @fleshdyk3 @balaclava-trismegistus @heritageposts @ripley-stark @paandaan

[moshieee]

Hello it is I, random anon who does not know you and has never interacted with you before, what is your opinion of your mutuals?

Oh hi @bixell-pixell I'll include you even if we're not mutuals I think you're pretty chill all things considered

That's kinda it idk you that well

Anyways

You didn't specify so I'm going to list all my mutuals in the order of oldest to newest on my following page that I remember sorry of I missed anyone and for the @ s

*inhales*

@e-the-village-cryptid (I don't have a tag for e yet but it would probably just be E)

Not only the first person who I became friends with here but also the first one I ever started sharing my stories with, even if we don't talk too much I'm glad Every time we do and I see them on my dash, (they bring some of my favorite posts and when I do send posts sometimes I mix up and send them their own reblogs) I'm so glad we're still friends, thanks for letting me ramble about stuff for 6 hours hehe

@jaqofallgenders (no tag for jaq yet either)

my in person friend and the longest friendship I've ever had with someone, love you 🫶. I'll be more specific on Monday if our ADHD doesn't kick in and make us both forget

@strawberry-seal77 (seal-berry!!!)

Hi hi hi yellows my friend 👋 the person I consider to be the second ever friend I made on here, a lovely person as well and wait waaa and an amazing artist too 👀??? Love you silly goofball and the amazing posts and jokes you have we should chat more often I thinkith.

@rabid-mercenary16 (Rabid jumpscare)

Hey hey hey .... BWAMP! Hope you feel better soon

I probably have the most to say about Rabid but all try to make it a bit shorter. besides being the first artist to do art jokes and include me, with we also became mutuals and interacting around a time when my life started to get a lot better. Even if she's not the only factor in that I definitely associate her with stuff improving, and she did play a big factor in it (I already explained a lot on my Valentine's Day gift to her and the others). Also she's just an awesome person to spend time with and be goofy, amazing sense of humor and I just love being friends with such an awesome person and artist.

@dia-smthidk (Dia fren)

I'm assuming you don't want a bowl of soup

I also said a lot about them in my Valentine's Day gift, but we've become closer friends sense then even if we don't get to chat as much as I'd like to. I relate a lot and am surprised how we have so much in common. Amazing artist and person as well and I wish we could hang out more, idc if they think they're bringing down the mood when/if they bring stuff up about irl, and maybe I won't figure out their timezone but oh well, please take care of yourself gender sibling.

@bunnybunnsowo (BUN BUN BROTHER!!)

little brother 🫶🫶💝💞🫶✨👋❤️!!!

(I could have sworn we became mutuals before Dia?)

another person I shared a lot about with the Valentine's Day gift, I love you my little brother! Seriously one of the kindest people I've met and I'm so glad they have bug in his life. Bun deserves the world and they keep sending me opposum images!!! Gona die from cuteness and his kindness one of these days istg

@spookykittyzzz (greaah why don't I have a tag for you???)

A very kind person and artist I don't know too much sense we're not that close yet but love the few chats we have had so far. Hope we get to hang out more even if I'm awful at reaching out to others and saying hi.

@glitchyk (goop buddies)!!

Nooo the parallels

One of the first people who was interested to deep dive into my creations and ask about my stories and worlds They're probably competing with Rabid with how much I have to say about her/silly. Seriously it's incredible how much we have in common and now I get to share and collaborate our sonas stories together it's amazing. And as someone once said "you can yap for hours". I love how creative and clever they are, I just wish they would be kinder to herself. One day I'll make glichy see how awesome she is.

@unfunnyaceartist (Floridian disadvantage) I feel like I should change that

When I say I was shookith when ace asked to be friends I mean I was shookith first person so show up and ask that (the others kinda just happened). Amazing artist and don't believe her lies she is funny. I'm so heckn glad we're friends., love the goofy and silly idc if she's a bit of a simp they've helped me a lot start to understand slang and references I'm supposed to understand shhshsh (such is the curse of how I grew up) we need to make our mafia sonas interact at some point I can already imagine the chaos /silly

@neptunestoast (plushy slime)

Hugs hugs hugs*

Trying my best not to baby talk I swear. amazing person first person to show up and be like "hey I Wana do something for you and your friends". Love their humor and another gender sibling!!! Hugs for ever for as long as they're ok with it. I love their creativity as well and Noodle is so adorable. I just want to pick them up in a hug so much. Kibbity/silly

@ner5y (no tag woops ill figure something out)

What are you doing here??? How are we friends???

I was absolutely confused and startled when they followed me especially since it was during a spoons argument . Amazing artist like holy heck I wish I was allowed to curse on this blog. Their humor also took me by surprise when I got invited to the discord, and even if they doubt how well they're running it I think they're doing amazing. And I love our silly interactions like this one

@vexation-816 (chaotic ADHD buddy!!!)

Why did it take me so long to follow you istg

ADHD ADHD ADHD my buddy oh pal we both got that and it's driving us insane/silly. Love how creative he is and the ideas for his sona and character lore. Also one of the first people who shared a character they added to my nightlight au. This is getting twords the end and I'm tired of whiting so much and am on a timer oh no. But your amazing dude don't ever forget thag

@butlerbugbunny (anxiety bunny buddy)

This is why I didn't respond to the DM yet hshsh

New friend who I feel anxious talking to sometimes but a wonderful kind bunny who I'm also incredibly happy to be friends with. Love his art so much it's amazing (shoot shoot timer is going off) I'm glad he's their for bun and wish them the best I possibly can 🫶.

@lilithloves-you (lillith my be-loathed?) need to change that

Don't you dare bring up grilled cheese

Glitchys friendo who I'm also friends with now. We don't interact too much but I've sent her on missions to go hug glitchy (to help both of them feel better but shhh). I hope we become closer friends in the future.

[angelinanguish]

TL;DR, changed takes on paywall drama. Shit is hellish right now.

Previously I had defended a paywaller against some snark and even posted a little rant supporting "little creators" on my alt and...dear god do I feel fucking stupid. Like- call me an "EA bootlicker" here but my goodness has being passive towards these paywall-leeches totally fucked the community?

Sure in theory supporting the little guy is ideal but in current times it's only perpetuating this weird vulture mentality. Offering your cc and dropping donation links is totally reasonable but swooping into a new community just to peddle broken bullshit makes you no better than EA. At that point you're just trying to create a mini get rich quick scheme.

Not to mention a lot of these paywall creators aren't just utilizing their own content but art and meshes from other creatives. What gives them the right to yoink a digital artist's illustration and slap it on another basic ass crop top that's going to be locked for like what?...seven months, gross. Of course, none of this is meant to back EA in any way. Everyone knows their only interest in this whole mess is preventing non-EA affiliates from profiting off TS4 but that's no excuse for these "simmers" acting out.

Due to all that enabling rhetoric of small artists with a passion for creation being bullied by EA simps or whatever these weirdos feel comfy just crowding into communities they don't care about to make a quick bag only to dip once the well dries up. Let's all be real here that is what's happening.

Do any of us really NEED that one locked pixel dress? no. But are any of these exclusive Patreon content producers entitled to your dollar? again, no. There have been so many situations in which pro-paywallers have gone out of their way to be outwardly disrespectful going so far as to ridicule their detractors for being too broke or even worse. Comparing them to sexual predators for pirating cc. How can a group of people be so fucking self-centered it just doesn't make sense.

All of this to say: how much is too much? Because at this point it really seems like anything goes so long as you aren't EA. As if being independent makes any of this poor behavior virtuous. I'm sure Karl Marx is saluting you guys from the afterlife for selling broken hats to other minimum-wage workers and then whining when called out for poor craftsmanship.

Real working-class heroes you guys are. Good job.

(But seriously, if you aren't willing to pay for EA's poolside Splish Splash whatever the fuck kit please don't buy someone else's BGC addons. Don't get got. Neither are worth it in the end)

[deltaruneinfuturetimes]

Okay here's a personal guide on how to make future designs (obviously you don't have to follow this advice if you don't want to, I'm mainly showing how I do it) First of all

Do NOT just make a Deltarune character taller and say you aged them up, that does not work Or not even make them taller at all and say they're older, put some effort into making them look older Also, do not make them extremely tall either (if you're making pixel art), I think what a lot of people kind of ignore is that a lot of the adults in DR aren't crazy tall (unless they're Darkners, for some reason), I can't really tell you how tall you should make them, but you could probably find a good balance if you compare them to other adults in DR Second

Well, obviously actually making them look older I think the best way to make them look older (at least that I've used) is changing some of the structures of the body in general Like, for example, making Noelle antlers be more to the side like Rudy's, making her face wider, changing her hair to make her look more mature, etc. (This isn't REALLY required, it's just the option I found best) Third

Okay this one is more of a personal thing but I found giving a character new clothing actually sorta helps, it just depends on what clothing you give a specific character Like, for example, Noelle is the mayor here So I gave her more mayor-ish clothing (if that makes sense) This isn't really a thing you need to, obviously, but I found it to help a lot in making characters more adult-like if they have more fitting clothing That's pretty much all I have for now, I'm not that good at explaining but I hope this helped at least a bit If I ever feel like updating this with a better explanation or more info I'll probably make another post, but for now this is all I have