#cool background and effects options

[picrewdealer]

Fiammazzurra's Avatar Maker

[hauntingsofhouses]

Very interesting to me that a certain subset of the BES fandom's favourite iterations of Mizu and Akemi are seemingly rooted in the facades they have projected towards the world, and are not accurate representations of their true selves.

And I see this is especially the case with Mizu, where fanon likes to paint her as this dominant, hyper-masculine, smirking Cool GuyTM who's going to give you her strap. And this idea of Mizu is often based on the image of her wearing her glasses, and optionally, with her cloak and big, wide-brimmed kasa.

And what's interesting about this, to me, is that fanon is seemingly falling for her deliberate disguise. Because the glasses (with the optional combination of cloak and hat) represent Mizu's suppression of her true self. She is playing a role.

Take this scene of Mizu in the brothel in Episode 4 for example. Here, not only is Mizu wearing her glasses to symbolise the mask she is wearing, but she is purposely acting like some suave and cocky gentleman, intimidating, calm, in control. Her voice is even deeper than usual, like what we hear in her first scene while facing off with Hachiman the Flesh-Trader in Episode 1.

This act that Mizu puts on is an embodiment of masculine showboating, which is highly effective against weak and insecure men like Hachi, but also against women like those who tried to seduce her at the Shindo House.

And that brings me to how Mizu's mask is actually a direct parallel to Akemi's mask in this very same scene.

Here, Akemi is also putting up an act, playing up her naivety and demure girlishness, using her high-pitched lilted voice, complimenting Mizu and trying to make small talk, all so she can seduce and lure Mizu in to drink the drugged cup of sake.

So what I find so interesting and funny about this scene, characters within it, and the subsequent fandom interpretations of both, is that everyone seems to literally be falling for the mask that Mizu and Akemi are putting up to conceal their identities, guard themselves from the world, and get what they want.

It's also a little frustrating because the fanon seems to twist what actually makes Mizu and Akemi's dynamic so interesting by flattening it completely. Because both here and throughout the story, Mizu and Akemi's entire relationship and treatment of each other is solely built off of masks, assumptions, and misconceptions.

Akemi believes Mizu is a selfish, cocky male samurai who destroyed her ex-fiance's career and life, and who abandoned her to let her get dragged away by her father's guards and forcibly married off to a man she didn't know. on the other hand, Mizu believes Akemi is bratty, naive princess who constantly needs saving and who can't make her own decisions.

These misconceptions are even evident in the framing of their first impressions of each other, both of which unfold in these slow-motion POV shots.

Mizu's first impression of Akemi is that of a beautiful, untouchable princess in a cage. Swirling string music in the background.

Akemi's first impression of Mizu is of a mysterious, stoic "demon" samurai who stole her fiance's scarf. Tense music and the sound of ocean waves in the background.

And then, going back to that scene of them together in Episode 4, both Mizu and Akemi continue to fool each other and hold these assumptions of each other, and they both feed into it, as both are purposely acting within the suppressive roles society binds them to in order to achieve their goals within the means they are allowed (Akemi playing the part of a subservient woman; Mizu playing the part of a dominant man).

But then, for once in both their lives, neither of their usual tactics work.

Akemi is trying to use flattery and seduction on Mizu, but Mizu sees right through it, knowing that Akemi is just trying to manipulate and harm her. Rather than give in to Akemi's tactics, Mizu plays with Akemi's emotions by alluding to Taigen's death, before pinning her down, and then when she starts crying, Mizu just rolls her eyes and tells her to shut up.

On the opposite end, when Mizu tries to use brute force and intimidation, Akemi also sees right through it, not falling for it, and instead says this:

"Under your mask, you're not the killer you pretend to be."

Nonetheless, despite the fact that they see a little bit through each other's masks, they both still hold their presumptions of each other until the very end of the season, with Akemi seeing Mizu as an obnoxious samurai swooping in to save the day, and Mizu seeing Akemi as a damsel in distress.

And what I find a bit irksome is that the fandom also resorts to flattening them to these tropes as well.

Because Mizu is not some cool, smooth-talking samurai with a big dick sword as Akemi (and the fandom) might believe. All of that is the facade she puts up and nothing more. In reality, Mizu is an angry, confused and lonely child, and a masterful artist, who is struggling against her own self-hatred. Master Eiji, her father figure who knows her best, knows this.

And Akemi, on the other hand, is not some girly, sweet, vain and spoiled princess as Mizu might believe. Instead she has never cared for frivolous things like fashion, love or looks, instead favouring poetry and strategy games instead, and has always only cared about her own independence. Seki, her father figure who knows her best, knows this.

But neither is she some authoritative dominatrix, though this is part of her new persona that she is trying to project to get what she wants. Because while Akemi is willful, outspoken, intelligent and authoritative, she can still be naive! She is still often unsure and needs to have her hand held through things, as she is still learning and growing into her full potential. Her new parental/guardian figure, Madame Kaji, knows this as well.

So with all that being said, now that we know that Mizu and Akemi are essentially wearing masks and putting up fronts throughout the show, what would a representation of Mizu's and Akemi's true selves actually look like? Easy. It's in their hair.

This shot on the left is the only time we see Mizu with her hair completely down. In this scene, she's being berated by Mama, and her guard is completely down, she has no weapon, and is no longer wearing any mask, as this is after she showed Mikio "all of herself" and tried to take off the mask of a subservient housewife. Thus, here, she is sad, vulnerable, and feeling small (emphasised further by the framing of the scene). This is a perfect encapsulation of what Mizu is on the inside, underneath all the layers of revenge-obsession and the walls she's put around herself.

In contrast, the only time we Akemi with her hair fully down, she is completely alone in the bath, and this scene takes place after being scorned by her father and left weeping at his feet. But despite all that, Akemi is headstrong, determined, taking the reigns of her life as she makes the choice to run away, but even that choice is reflective of her youthful naivety. She even gets scolded by Seki shortly after this in the next scene, because though she wants to be independent, she still hasn't completely learned to be. Not yet. Regardless, her decisiveness and moment of self-empowerment is emphasised by the framing of the scene, where her face takes up the majority of the shot, and she stares seriously into the middle distance.

To conclude, I wish popular fanon would stop mischaracterising these two, and flattening them into tropes and stereotypes (ie. masculine badass swordsman Mizu and feminine alluring queen but also girly swooning damsel Akemi), all of which just seems... reductive. It also irks me when Akemi is merely upheld as a love interest and romantic device for Mizu and nothing more, when she is literally Mizu's narrative foil (takes far more narrative precedence over romantic interest) and the deuteragonist of this show. She is her own person. That is literally the theme of her entire character and arc.

[yuri-is-online]

I love your one sided Floyd vs Ace thing because Ace is just trying to play wingman from the background so Yuu will stop talking about how Floyd's "Such a sweet boy!", like he didn't just try to take Aces head off during practice. And "He visited my class today" , yeah perfect, Floyd visited him today too. For very differnt reasons though. or "He just helped me dye my hair! Doesn't it look good?". It does but that's besides the point.

Bro Floyd is pining SO HARD rn it's not even funny anymore! He's always lost in fantasies but they're not even the hot kind! No, he's daydreaming about holding Yuus hand and going to that one really cute Cafe in Port city that Yuu always calls a "French Cafe". He doesn't know what the hell a French is but you know what! Calling it that makes you happy so that Cafe is French! He wants that excuse to come find you whenever he wants a nap and fall asleep in your lap as you pet him to sleep, and no one can even say shit about cause like! You'd be together.

But he thinks that Ace is trying to get together with Yuu and that just puts his mood way below the poverty line. HES NOT. HE SWEARS HES NOT. ACE JUST WANTS TO TEASE YUU FOR THEIR STUPID GROSS CRUSH NOT BE CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF IT!

AlsoYuuisthepervertintherelationshipthankyouforcomingtomyTEDtalk

ah confused the ducky you. you always see my floyd visions so clearly, i am so happy

I like Ace's relationship with Yuu in pretty much all flavors, when I'm writing floydyuu I think of Ace as the self appointed mom friend/older brother. He likes the feeling of power and responsibility he gets from it since he's used to being the baby of the family. Floyd thinks that little shrimpy is funny and cute at first, someone he could chase around similar to Riddle.

But then they beat Azul. They beat Azul by annoying Sea Lion, who constantly ignores and mocks his attempts to fight him. They got under his skin, that's just on a different level. He's paying close attention now, and he likes what he sees. At first it's exciting, he likes new things and these feelings are certainly new. But it also makes him notice little things. Like how much closer you are to Crabby than you are to him. The jealousy just eats him up because he feels like he shouldn't be? Crabby kind of sucks? He's seen how his color changing magic is, he can't imagine he'd be a better option than him. But shrimpy giggles at his jokes and spends almost all their free time with him. He hates it, and it's starting to effect his... not quite but yeah kind of friendship with Crabby.

Meanwhile Yuu is savoring any sort of contact they can get with him. I love the hair dye suggestion, Floyd says he'll give you one color but really he just wants an excuse to put a streak of teal where his swoop would be on your head. He's too much of a coward to do it, going with whatever you request instead and how happy you are makes it almost worth it until you babble about how you'll have to show your friends how cool it is and what a good job he did. He makes a point of visiting Ace intending to threaten him but he ends up just whining about how he doesn't know how to get through to you, and asking if Ace knows anything about what a "french" is (he thinks it's a dessert) before he lapses into the silence of daydream while Ace wonders if it would be worth it to get Jamil involved.

Yuu gets the perv title for being into a literal fish on top ha of going along with whatever Floyd comes up with. Please do not underestimate his imagination he can be quite filthy when he wants to be, he's just being a good boy and only thinking about extramarital h*nd h*lding for now (•̀⤙•́ )

[izunias-meme-hole]

You've been rebloging a decent amount of Soulsborne stuff, so if you have time, can you say who your favorite character's are in all these games?

Oh... well a fair amount of my thoughts CERTAINLY changed, but I'll give you a top 10.

Number 1. Messmer The Impaler (Elden Ring) - Messmer was certainly a welcome surprise. He was the firstborn son of Queen Marika, ultimately the one who personally oversaw the genocide of the hornsent in the Land of Shadow, and event so horrific and cruel that its impact could still be felt within the present day. He was afflicted with a curse at his birth, in which a dark and malevolent snake threatened to eat him from the inside, which resulted in Marika plucking out his eye and replacing it with a seal of grace. Sounds like quite the monster, right? Well here's the thing. Messmer's a surprisingly good boss, like he literally preserved his enemies culture inside a storeroom just because one of his knights requested it, and has at least some level of compassion. Sure some of his men defected after finding out about the true nature of his existence, but there were some that even stuck around because they know who he is as a person. So why did this great guy commit literal one of the most horrific events in history? Well you see, Marika basically told him to eliminate the hornsent, and it wasn't just a standard order... it was a secret banishment for him, and Marika's vengeance on the hornsent. That's right, Messmer was exiled so he could be a scapegoat for his mother in the Land of Shadow. While this doesn't absolve him of his crimes, it ultimately makes him extremely pitiable.

Number 2. Queen Marika The Eternal (Elden Ring) - A god, a vessel, a warmonger, a mother, a schemer, a monster, and a pitiful woman. These are all the things that Queen Marika The Eternal was, and by god she deserves to be remembered by all of them. Radagon is her other half. The Demigods were her children. Messmer is her son. The Lands Between were her lands. She destroyed several races. She destroyed the Elden ring. Everything in the game is connected to her in some capacity. This is some Sauron tier shit that's been done with someone who's now just a prisoner in her own fortress thanks to her fear of her reigns inevitable end. Elden Ring has a TON of antagonists, each one active in their own right across the Lands Between. Marika on the other hand is both a prisoner in her own home, and a god on her last knees who faces The Tarnished through Radagon, yet almost every last evil committed in the game is connected to her past history of cruelty and malevolence in service to her Golden Order.

Number 3. Malenia (Elden Ring) - Malenia was my fave for a good while, and is still one of my top 5 bosses in the series. Her background, how that background ties into the world, her difficulty not being too bullshit yet still giving veterans a good taste of the dirt, her simplistic yet effective character, and the concept of someone being that goddamn sickly yet still being so undeniably persistent, powerful, and near-invincible is intriguing and cool, and it's executed very well in her case. Her boss being optional is just icing on the cake. Overall she's a spectacle.

Number 4. Miquella (Elden Ring) - He's a charming lil guy. Yes he cut out everything that made himself a good person in order to become the god of a new era, and is an expert manipulator due to his powers, but he's still just a lil guy.

Number 5. Father Gascoigne (Bloodborne) - Originally, Laurence was my favorite Bloodborne character, but after some careful reconsideration... this guy is at the top. Why? I like how simplistic his lore is, but aside from that, he's basically a reflection of the Good Hunter and a really great first legit boss. He serves as a gatekeeper for new players, and his transformation from skilled hunter to a monstrous werewolf mid-fight is a perfect introduction to what fate usually awaits any hunter who inevitably gets blood drunk in Yharnam. And the cherry on top? He's just a guy. He was just a normal ass hunter with a wife and child before all of this, hell you could even use his daughter's music box to snap him out of his blood drunk state for a second. IMO Gascoigne is underrated as hell.

Number 6. Lady Maria (Bloodborne) - Between the Plain Doll being based off her, her connection to Gehrman, and being one of the hunters at the Fishing Hamlet, Maria is undeniably a great character with a vast presence.

Number 7. Ludwig (Bloodborne) - Tragic Hornse. In all seriousness though, Ludwig is a perfect summary of Bloodborne, and honestly one of the top 3 bosses in the entire series.

Number 8. Isshin Ashina (Sekiro) - Isshin's presence overshadows that of the main antagonist, Genechiro Ashina, and its entirely intentional. He basically is the symbol of his entire clan, leading a rebellion against the invading forces alongside many warriors and triumphing. Isshin was a living legend in the past, but in the present? He's old, sick, and on his last legs. He's still defending his clan, but for his strength, he's still mortal. He's still human. He's the perfect reflection of his clan. That and he’s an amazing final boss. Go Grandpa Ashina!

Number 9. Gwyn, Lord of Cinder (Dark Souls) - Horrible, HORRIBLE god. He ruined humanity, is a bad father, and is SO worthy of being hated... yet he's so pitiable and pathetic. Gwyn is responsible for almost every tragedy in the trilogy, yet even his own story is a tragedy. A paranoid god king making the literal worst decisions ever to the point where he literally destroys himself. There's a level of understandability with his character that makes him tragic, but ultimately, he's still a monster. And this isn't even bringing up the Soul of Cinder.

Number 10. Slave Knight Gael (Dark Souls) - An old slave knight from the age of fire, literal cannon fodder, not only outlives the gods, but goes on a quest to get the Dark Soul so that The Painter, his niece, would paint a new world. You get familiar with him in the Ashes of Ariandel DLC, and by the time of the Ringed City DLC you see that Gael has slipped into madness and stands atop literal desolation. At first he fights on all 3's, only using his sword as a weapon as he jumps and crawls around, but after his guts are cut open and he gets the power of the dark soul, he truly begins fighting like a man and will occasionally rely on the newfound power he has to strike the Ashen One down with magic. Still at the end of the day... this fight is just between two nobodies who outlived the gods.

[neopronouns]

flag id: two images of the same flag with a dark silver background. in the center of the flag are 6 slightly wavy stripes, which dip down near their left edges and go up near their left edges, forming the shape of a waving flag within the flag itself. they are medium light purple, light turquoise, very light yellow-green, cream, soft golden yellow, and tan. in the center of the left flag is a simple, stylized, dark silver symbol of a pencil, which is angled to the right, writing on a piece of paper with its edges rolled like a scroll. end id.

banner id: a 1600x200 teal banner with the words ‘please read my dni before interacting. those on my / dni may still use my terms, so do not recoin them.’ in large white text in the center. the text takes up two lines, split at the slash. end id.

comuniterm: a neogender umbrella for terms conceptually related to participating in mogai/liom community

[pt: comuniterm: a neogender umbrella for terms conceptually related to participating in mogai/liom community. end pt]

concepts included under comuniterm:

coining terms

creating flags

archiving terms

requesting terms

collecting/hoarding terms

using neopronouns, identifying as neolabels, etc.

making edits of flags, masterlists of terms/pronouns, etc. (basically any other types of mogai/liom posts not listed above)

helping others find terms that fit them, either through locating existing terms or coining new ones

knowledge and preservation of liom/mogai history

neolabel, subtliden, and liom inclusionism

running mogai/liom blogs

feeling connection with other members of the community

the joy, community, and creativity found in mogai/liom spaces

and more!

derived terms:

niol: a comuniterm person. plural is niolae.

comut: a comuniterm gender. plural is comuts.

ctin: comuniterm-in-nature (ex: ctingender)

cotermine: having comuniterm qualities. noun form is coterminity.

transcotermine: transitioning towards coterminity/a comuniterm identity. can be shortened to transcoter.

termaic: gender alignment to comuniterm/coterminity.

comu, comut, muni, munit, iterm, term, coter: optional/potential prefixes and suffixes for comuniterm genders.

the term is 'comunité' (old french for 'community') + 'term'! most of the derived terms are just various permutations of 'comuniterm', but 'niol' comes from 'neolabel' and 'liom'!

i've been thinking recently about just how the liomogai community has affected my identity over the years and how those effects feel like aspects of my gender in themselves, so... here's a neogender umbrella!

i took inspiration from the coinergender, requestgender, archivigender, and flagmakergender flags, so i went with cool colors, warm light neutrals, and golden yellow. the flag is meant to look like a flag in an editing software, post editor (as a new post or reblog), or other site/software (ex: being put into a rentry or carrd)!

here's the template if anyone wants to coin comuts!

the symbol is a pencil and paper, inspired by both the flag creation and writing (definitions, tags, lists, etc.) aspects of the community! i made the pencil myself and the paper is edited from scroll (2) in this folder. here's the symbol by itself:

[image id: a simple, stylized, dark silver symbol of a pencil, which is angled to the right, writing on a piece of paper with its edges rolled like a scroll. a blank image is next to the image so that it doesn't take up the whole width of the post. end id.]

tags: @radiomogai, @liom-archive, @macchiane, @genderstarbucks, @sugar-and-vice-mogai

tags cont: @freezingnarc, @skrimbliest, @seraphtrix, @en8y, @spadescrewcoining

tags cont: @mogai-sunflowers

dni link

[comicaurora]

(sorry for the long ask)

So there's this thing? That's been kind of bothering me, I've noticed it in the shera remake but also other places, where all these faceless minions are just there to show how hard/easy it is for the protagonists to get rid of them.

There's a couple of things, but I think that it just boils down to that they're not treated as characters? The hero will push them into a volcano and celebrate, then get all conflicted when facing the villain captain puppy kicker because "if I kill/hurt you I'll be just as bad" and in the same shot there's a pile of downed henchmen. And I get that, because from a meta perspective it would be hard to animate several hundred or however many individual people all fighting, but it's just weird right? In the show the only people without helmets on 24/7 are the main cast and of course the Rogelio/Kyle/lonnie group. Which is Confusing?? Because it seems like there's only a few options, either every single other person likes wearing the helmets all the time with no breaks, or they're breaking dress code and getting away with it, or "cadets" means they're in training. And somehow way more competent than all the other trained soldiers. It's weird, and I'm not even fully sure how to describe it. Do you have any thoughts?

Faceless minions are a time-honored storytelling tradition that persist despite being slightly reality-breaking story convention because-

They make it very easy to choreograph cool-looking fights against a big pile of interchangeable bad guys

You only need as many extras as you'll be showing together in one shot, meaning you can imply a vast army of evil with only like five costumes/character models

They make it easier to pick out the heroes in group shots and fights

They provide contrast against the important villains with unique designs

Easy protagonist disguises for sneaking around in

This is pretty useful stuff, but it does all feed into the effect that armies of faceless minions are generally not composed of full-fledged characters. They're a pile of broadly interchangeable mooks. This is one of those things that's technically dubious from a realism standpoint, but I honestly don't think it's automatically a bad thing for a story to make it really easy to tell who's an important character and who's an interchangeable obstacle in their way.

This does get shaky when the characters start acting like that. To them, in the reality of their story, those mooks ARE real, dangerous people, and their facelessness doesn't detract from that. The protagonist's morality shouldn't depend on how important a character is to the plot or how unique their design is, and that character inconsistency is the more disruptive bit of writing. Mowing down minions by the truckload only to spare the big bad makes it feel like the main character is standing apart from their own story and making the kind of value judgment the audience is, and that's weird. It's not weird that the faceless minions exist, it's weird that the protagonist evidently doesn't see them as real people.

But that doesn't mean every stormtrooper or background orc or ninja needs their own unique design, name and backstory. Narrative conventions exist for a reason, and while I do love a setting that feels like it's absolutely full of unique main characters all living their own lives, it's absolutely not mandatory. Sometimes things in stories are made unrealistic so they don't undercut the impact of the story itself, whether that's simple theater sets that don't draw the eye away from the actors, unrealistic lighting so a movie viewer can actually see what's going on, song and dance numbers, flashy showstopping villains, or convenient armies of ninjas to take down with one punch each. Storytelling has its own tools.

[bambicito]

hello!! how do u make the graphics for the events? they are super cute

★ apps needed

- pinterest : looking for images and overlays

- picsart : editing, adding overlays

- ibis paint x : editing, using masks

★ looking for images

- open pinterest and use some of these keywords to find nice overlays that fit this style of edit :

- doodle png

- tattoo ( sheet ) png

- doodle icon

- y2k doodle png

- y2k star png

- transparent doodle

- abstract art png

- doodle overlay

★ starting the edit

- open picsart and open the image you’re going to edit. in my case i will be using this newjeans picture and will make a ‘ cool with you ’ inspired edit :

- all of the edits i made had a 3:2 aspect ratio, so i will be using the same ratio for this edit. you can choose whatever ratio or size that fits your edit better.

★ adding overlays

- now that we have our background image ready, we need to start adding our overlay images. the first one i will add is gonna be the song title on the middle of the image, like this :

- add photo > select image > center it using the helping grid lines

★ adding non-transparent overlays

- if the overlay you’re going to use doesn’t have a transparent background this is what you’ll need to do :

- white overlays :

- add photo > select image

- effect > colors > negative ( only if your original overlay is black )

- blend > screen

- black overlays :

- add photo > select image

- effect > colors > negative ( only if your original overlay is white )

- blend > multiply

★ adding colored overlays

- if the overlay you’re going to use is colored and has a non-transparent background this is what you’ll need to do :

- add photo > select image

- opacity > 50 %

- blend > multiply

★ placing overlays

- i recommend placing the white / black overlays around the corners and the colored ones on all sides and behind the people, so they look integrated into the picture. here is how my edit turned out :

★ blurred edges

- for the blurred edges effect i use this website and choose the blur edges option. these are the configurations i used on my edits :

★ final result

[milgram-tournament]

MILGRAM Best Song Tournament, Round 1, Match 2 BRING IT ON vs. AFTER PAIN

Propaganda for both options under the cut!

Propaganda for BRING IT ON:

"Reasons why Bring it On should win:

- Just by starting the song, the instrumentals are BANGER. Like his more rock style is very cool, even better than After Pain’s more mellow style - Arthur’s voice (Futa’s va) had bills due because have you HEARD his singing?? His raspier voice fits Futa so well - It feels so explosive and like a call to action in a sense, which very much matches Futa’s mentality during trial 1. He also wasn’t playing victim like a CERTAIN girl… (jk, love you mu!) - SAA HAJIMEYOU USOTSUKI KARIDA - UNDEAD HEROOOI YES SLAY KING HIS HIGH NOTE HERE IS HEAVENLY - His scream at the end. Oh my god. HE LITERALLY ATE THIS NOTE. AFTER PAIN COULD NEVER. BRING IT ON FTW 🔥🔥🔥" - His range goes WAAAAAY higher than Mu. She would end up like PHG if she even tried hitting any of his high notes in the last chorus /j

---

- The vocals are amazing, those growls are so well done - You’re able to get Fuuta’s crime and motive pretty succinctly, only based on the visuals - But it still leaves a lot up to interpretation, like how he only attacked once in the final fight scene. It lead to some cool theories. - On that note, the game aspects are so cool!! Especially when paired with him going after people online, just good synergy with awesome style! - Fuuta’s scared face after he realizes what he did. The great contrast of other foes simply being knocked out then being met with blood splatter. - The tempo of the song changing with his mood is a really good touch as well. Make the song more chaotic which highlights his character traits well

---

"propaganda for bring it on: the music FUCKS it genuinely slaps so hard listening to it. song style is incredible its perfect for fuutas personality and gamer vibes. also the way the mv frames everything as a game? the only time real blood and real gore happens being when killcheroy dies? the little details of all the usernames, the different monster designs, the generally distorted feel of everything being too lighthearted?

okay i could go on about the mv for hours but lets not. aside from that: the FEEL of the song!!! the vocals!!!! it really feels like fuuta putting his whole heart into it, into this point of view that both blows problems out of proportion and minimises them, and DEEPLY fucking up. my darling little hypocrite gamer boy twitter user. he makes his witch hunt genuinely sound like something that could sweep people up into it. also the instruments goddddd. the guitar and synth the bass and the drums the DRUMS. im relistening to it to write this propaganda and it keeps making me headbang when i should be writing. if you arent headbanging to bring it on you are LYING.

the way the lyrics are written is wonderful too!!!! they feel so brash and brave and powerful and like. cocky about it. and it fits PERFECTLY. its gets someone swept up into it and it FUCKS. vote bring it on im serious. lets go!! a victory march!! dan da dan!!"

Propaganda for AFTER PAIN:

"so here is why people should vote for AFTER PAIN !!"

Muu's vocals. Need I say more?

The bridge to it is absolutely wonderfully done, the way she softens her vocals to an almost creepy point is incredible

during the final chorus you can hear the desperation in her voice and it’s very well portrayed

The coloring in this music video were phenomenal

The overlapping vocals at the end of the song just have a really really nice effect

Its just a pure banger

In some parts of the song there’s the sound of a clock ticking in the background used as a sort of beatline… GENIUS??

Its just a banger

even with what we found out about Muu in her second trial, After Pain on its own portrayed bullying in a very realisitc and artistic way (from someone who deals with it regularly)

---

"After pain propoganda: She just girlbossed too close to the sun and happened to be holding a knife at the time"

---

"Gosh everything about After Pain... How can you NOT like it? It's literally such a good song and is very singable. The instrumentation is absolutely amazing and I've listened to it on loop so much."

[pictureamoebae]

Another couple of shots using the Nice Guy Lamps shader, just to show what's possible (they're not great shots lol), also the settings I was using in the earlier shots. I want to play around more with the depth options today.

Original Lighting: lower = darker background; higher = more of the original scene's lighting comes through

Position: left = moves the light from left to right; middle = moves the light up and down; right = not sure but I think it moves the light forward and back

Precise Position: same as above but different. The right-hand number at -0.002 was perfect for the strength of light and shadows I wanted. Any higher or lower had a huge impact on how it looked

Shadow Softness: anything higher than 0 causes noise/dither on the edges of shadows. I believe he wants to fix this one day but for now it means this is really only suited for anything where sharp shadows look good.

You can add 4 different 'lamps' or point lights. I only needed 1 for this effect, which aims to simulate flash photography. Adding more could be really cool for photoshoots, especially since you can change the colour. I'm going to experiment in the little in-game photo studio I've build later and see what I can do. Having the option of 4 lamps also means you can set up 1 like this for flash photography, then turn that off and turn on the others for different situations without having to lose and reset your settings all the time.

[ravel-puzzlewell]

Hi! Do you mind elaborating on what you meant by "tiefling politics" on that wotr vs bg3 post? Just curious, ignore if you want

its about the fact that bg3 has a lot of tiefling characters, somehow more than wotr, and huge theme of like hells and connections to demons\devils and somehow manages to say absolutely nothing interesting about it.

in wotr we have examination of tieflings fitting into human society, ostracization and (literal) demonization of them, where even if some of them would want to help in war against hell, they are scared (frex, group of tieflings thieves you save which you can ask to help u and they are like are u kidding me, crusaders will torch us). woljif in particular is a deconstruction of selfish chaotic neutral tielfling rogue archetype, his story both exploring how both he was pushed into being a criminal bc he had no other options, but also interplay with how he then himself tends to dismiss his own agency in being able to decide for himself and choose better, forever excusing himself with "well this is a crappy hand dealt to me", his survivalist attitude of everyone for themselves vs desire for community, how when given a smidge of stability and access to decision making in council, he tries to awkwardly, but eagerly advocate for societal improvement for all tieflings, and this is one of his most sincere moments - and gets laughed at immediately, etc etc. and speaking of community, v interesting intersection between "good" and "bad" marginalized groups of mongrels vs tieflings, with Lann being self-righteous about both his moral superiority and how mongrels "have it worse", while ignoring that mongrels - and he himself specifically - are mistreated literally bc they are mistaken for tieflings.

btw if anyone wants me to talk more about mongrels vs tieflings thing, hit me up, i think there was a interesting stuff, even if not properly dramatized

meanwhile in bg3 being tiefling largely means nothing? like the refugees would sometimes like drop a line out loud about how tieflings should stick together bc humans won't help them, but like that's it. the refugees could literally be humans running from war or blue cat ppl from avatar running from capitalism and nothing in the plot or characters would need to be changed. tieflings is just cosmetics for them, like idk its cool to have colorful NPCs with fire eyes and sexy horns. And even companions wise, you know I love Karlach and tried to romance her, but being tiefling is just looks for her, its not meaningful. It doesn't matter for her backstory, she could have been a strong human from poor background who was sold out to idk, underdark. like it sucked bc she was forced to do violence and everyne was an asshole and she couldn't see sun, but otherwise it being Blood War specifically doesn't come into play. and like. Blood War has famously huge effects on ppl with hell heritage! I'm not saying she should have been Valen Shadowbreath with entire plotline about struggling with blood war calling, but like. idk, something?

my point is that tieflings and hell has a lot of lore and like, FLAVOUR in this setting, which were not explored at all. these are just ppl with horns and generic Bad Place.

and then like. devil essentialism. bg3 has central motive of how evil races are not ontologically evil, but like, devils are. sdfghjk. apparentely mind flayers can fight actual mind control if they are V Special, but all devils/demons are evil with no exceptions. karlach was in hell for 10 years and never met a single sympathetic devil. the closest one he had mocks IS Evil when we meet her in game. and I actually liked Raphael (transition could've saved her), but there is nothing particularily interesting about him, he's also straighforwardly evil. this severely limits how interesting interactions with hell are. in wotr there is a wide range from reformed succubus to most evil sadists, with every shade in between, which allows for complex stories, like that that fucked up love between that betrayer dwarf and demoness who seduced him. she's legit evil, but she also has actual twisted affection for him, and he knows she uses him, but he was pushed too far by humans and chooses her anyway. this background story is honestly has more depth than wyll's and mizora relationship, where shes just evil and he's straighforwardly martyr. when mizora offered to have fun wink wink, i immediately knew she's gonna Evil It. and she did. and she didn't even get anything out of it! it was just staining your soul to be evil:3 like ok, but boring tbh.

and like yeah war with hell is central plot of wotr, obviously it has a lot more to say and explore about it, but like. bg3 didn't HAVE to have to include so many tieflings and have us follow their stories through all acts. it didn't have to include hell in "no race essentialism" game if it didn't want to talk about it. it chose to, and when game has big chuncks of content about smth connected by a theme, i expect it to say smth about it? anything interesting? eh.

btw, this is not to say i think wotr's writing is perfect, far from it, i can talk for ages of my problems with that game's writing, but this initial phrase was from shitposts specifically comparng things in wotr to bg3, so

[picrewdealer]

1+1 is 2 Maker by 膝栗毛

Artist's Twitter

[littlesliceofimmortality]

got some goodies from a new manufacturing company ive been wanting to try - melodycharms! :-] VERY happy with how they look

longer review & closeups under cut

OKAY so. ive been an avid vograce customer and supporter for the past few years, always recommending it to friends when asked, & have made consistent sales when working with them to make stuff for my shop

the only reason why i wanted to try another company was that their minimum order number is 3 for most products - which is a bit inconvenient when you just wanna get something for yourself

& melodycharms has the option to get only one! i got:

a double sided holographic keychain

a series connection keychain

a rainbow acrylic keychain, &

a "gold edge" keychain

it had a quick turnaround of only about a month, which is impressive considering it shipped from china to america

FIRST IMPRESSIONS : the box was securely packaged & easy to open! the thank you note is super cute ALBIET a bit too large, crinkling the edges. came with a melody sticker as well!

each keychain had a film, was then wrapped in a bag individually, and then they were all put in ANOTHER crinkly bag. lots of trash (fun to open, not as fun for the environment)

DOUBLE SIDED HOLOGRAPHIC KEYCHAIN

i got the broken glass variety only on the front (callums) side, which gives a SUPER cool effect when looking at it from the back. only negative effect is that the colors on the front are a bit duller in comparison, since the acrylic is thicker

SERIES CONNECTION KEYCHAIN

i dont know if i accidentally ordered two or they accidentally gave me two, BUT excellent surprise nonetheless! they look how i imagined, no complaints :-)

RAINBOW ACRYLIC KEYCHAIN

oooh yeah baby. SUPER happy with how this came out. i left the tv screen transparent on the image it sent, and it translated PERFECTLY to the semi transparent background. photos dont do it enough justice 10/10

GOLD EDGE KEYCHAIN

aah this one was less exciting to receive.. on the website, it looks like a raised, metallic edge on the keychain. in real life, its more like a flat outline. it reflects light like the rest of the keychain - but doesnt have the metallic golden look, instead just seeming yellow

additionally, it came without the accessory keychain so i cant hang it on my bag yet :-( i reached out to melody via their live chat, & got a reply within the 24 hours saying theyd send a replacement though

OVERALL : id rate melodycharms a 3.5/5! they get knocked for a mistake, no company is except from a whoopsie daisy - they were very kind and apologetic when i responded which matters more & i appreciate alot

[christiansorrell]

TTRPG Read-Through: Liminal Horror

Here is a read-through I did last year (originally posted on Twitter) of one of the my current go-to game for modern horror: Liminal Horror by Goblin Archives! - Christian

I cut my teeth learning to GM as a Keeper in Call of Cthulhu and I've really been jonesing for a game in this genre that's more in the style of rpg I enjoy these days. I'm hoping this will be it!

Really excited about this. Shifting away from mental illness and trauma, both of which have their obvious problematic pitfalls, is something I could see really opening up what a character looks like and goes through after having things go wrong in interesting new ways.

Big spread on Facilitator and Player Principles. I think this is all very solid advice as a one-time or just-before-play read, but it's definitely too much for quick reference. That said, I always love reminding folks that we "play to find out what happens."

I may be off the mark but these two bullets make me think Goblin Archives is a Friends at the Table listener. Both of these make me immediately think of Austin's openings on there (which is a very good thing, for me).

Very straightforward stats. I like the HP distinction here and how it seems to refill between events/encounters and when drained is when you see actual damage occur. More inventory structure than I expected (I like that tho!) Cool to see character AND party questions here.

I really loved the Backgrounds and character options in The Bureau, a Control-inspired megadungeon-like module for this system I did a read-through of about a month or so ago. Excited to see more of that here. Also, I really need to play as a Very Online character.

Nice open character creation. I enjoy these types of questions: why do you believe there's something weird going on? What ideology guides you? What are your connections in the world, important relationships, etc.? Those create way more juicy bits than stats alone can provide.

I first encountered these kinds of character bonds in Fate years ago, but it's been a go-to house rule of mine during Session 0/1 for anything my group is planning to do longer than one-shot play for. Even in a single session, it can add a lot. Cool to see it here.

It's a d20 roll-under system (no modifiers, yay). Adding fatigue to inventory slots is a great way to make a mechanic out of that. Also, associates were unexpected! Shows this game could be more than just 3-4 bumbling normies going into the unknown (which is what I envisioned).

Combat is fairly straightforward (in a good way). No rolls to hit, it's just damage that is varied. Props to not using Advantage/Disadvantage as a game term like everyone else. Again, the Detachments make me think this game could have some wild situations come up!

Open-ended spell casting here (reminds me most recently of Primal Quest). They come and go day to day which is interesting, potentially changing entirely. I like the failure being equal to the desired effect. Want to kill someone with a spell? Be prepared to die if things go bad.

Okay, these relics are extremely cool. A blade that does MIND DAMAGE and requires recharging by feeding it memories? Good stuff.

Fallout is really interesting. Take enough DMG to go through your HP and it ticks away your Strength until you die (or take crit DMG). Fallout is the same but wears at your Control. Gaining Fallout makes you odder/more open to the true nature of things, but makes you heartier.

This is a good approach bc it means leaning into the things most games gate behind "sanity" here makes you more able to cope with the weird in the future. Feels like a path to more interesting stories (rather than the CoC-style "you are in a sanitarium now" character ending).

Remainder of the book is a small bestiary with monster creation guidelines, spark tables and a lean but comprehensive mystery creation guide along with a sample mystery. The loose framework, a steady clock ratcheting tension, and a focus on lots of clues feels like good guidance.

Having a mystery take only 6 pages feels much more approachable than the very traditional heavy-prep and lots-of-writing mysteries of something like Call of Cthulhu or Delta Green. I homebrewed a lot of CoC, and the prep work there can be pretty huge. This feels nice tho.

Overall thoughts: the book is a very lean and focused take on creating horror that doesn't get bogged down in the other ttrpg pitfalls of the genre while also having nice mechanics for associates, large scale encounters, etc. so there's room for a lot of types of stories here.

I'll definitely be trying to knock out a mystery for this as part of the jam. I've got a lot of weirdness to get out of my system and this seems like an easy, streamlined way to do it. Also, excited to play The Bureau and The Mall.

You can pick up the most recent addition of Liminal Horror in print via Space Penguin Ink. You can also find it on Itch. The rules and additional content also available entirely for free on Goblin Archives github.

Also, I wrote an adventure for this system last year: Tunnels in White.

Old money siphoning new money from every corner of your city. An aging mansion, quiet and worn. An old corporation shifting its gaze from development to development, always hungry, always growing.

A warehouse bearing the name Singleton Solutions, small and unassuming in one of a hundred industrial parks like any other, takes in truckload after truckload but never sends anything out. It’s the same for the people. Sometimes, they arrive in towncars, other times in shuttle vans. None come out. Ever.

What you know is something strange is going on inside that warehouse and you are determined to discover what it is. What you cannot know is where and how far the mystery may take you.

You can grab a print or digital copy HERE. It's also available via Itch.

Lastly if you like seeing my thoughts on games and how I make stuff for them, here's my monthly newsletter (which now has a free TTRPG thing to take to your table each month): https://meatcastle.substack.com

[artsekey]

Procreate Dreams

I've been playing around in Procreate Dreams for about a week or so now, and I think I've got enough of a handle on the software to offer a fair review! If you're interested in hearing my thoughts, click the read-more below.

A little context before we get started; I have two degrees in animation, but they're both in 3D. My personal specialty is tech and articulation/rigging, but I think my background puts me in a unique position with Procreate Dreams; I know all of the theory behind animation, but I'm not going into Procreate Dreams and comparing it to a professional-grade software I generally prefer to use (like Toon Boom Harmony, for example).

So, let's get into it!

First Impressions

I hated it. I opened the software, it crashed. I couldn't figure out how to enable onion skins. I couldn't increase or decrease the exposure of my frames. I couldn't figure out how to swap to the eraser. I was confused, I was frustrated, and then I realized that I was expecting to jump in and animate without taking the time to learn the software first.

Once I stopped trying to strong-arm it and started looking up documentation, things got a little easier.

Re-Thinking My Approach

Procreate Dreams isn't comparable to any other animation software I've used before. The UI is different, there's a focus on gesture over buttons, and everything about it is meant to be minimalistic. None of this reflects poorly on the program, in my opinion. It's different. You can't go to Procreate Dreams and get mad at it for not being like the other software out there in terms of how it's used. In fact, I think one area of Dreams that should be applauded is the sheer ambition on display. It's a hybrid of traditional frame-by-frame animation and offers a slimmed down version of some of After Effects' most useful compositing & motion graphics tools. That's just plain cool.

The Good

For those of you who've used Procreate Dreams, you may find it's a little... difficult to see all the good it has to offer through the muddied waters it's launch-day bugs kicked up, but under all the grime, there's a little bit of gold.

Dreams is a one time, $20 USD purchase. That's huge in terms of affordability and accessibility in the software market right now.

The "Perform" option is great, and I think we'll see the longer that it's out, the more creative people are going to get in using it. I've already seen people create gorgeous parallax on their illustrations.

Simple compatibility with Procreate is a huge win. I'm finding my pipeline uses both software together.

The UI is a mixed bag overall, but I find the ability to move between flipnote mode and timeline mode to be great. It keeps the screen free, but I can still access the features I need while doing frame-by-frame.

The move/filters option is a great way to add a little compositing magic to your work.

The Bad

The "bad" here exclusively covers issues with the software as intended. Bugs will be covered under "The Ugly" below.

The lack of a lasso tool is a huge setback. I've seen people saying that it doesn't make sense not to have that feature at launch, especially when it's part of Procreate, but I understand why it may have been difficult to implement in conjunction with the move/perform/warp options. If you save a warp on top of an illustration, then cut and move part of the drawing, how is the warp/local translation data applied to that image? Does the pixel remember it's movement, or is it applied on top of the drawing? There's a lot to consider.

Similarly, the "reference" tool in Procreate would be an excellent tool to add color to layers beneath current layers. "Add Reference Track" would be great! That said, I think this conflicts with the move/warp tools like the above.

The timeline is a time sink. I should be able to adjust the exposure of my frames easily and consistently. As of right now, I have an 80-20 shot of selecting my layer or grabbing the handle for exposure. A small button on the edge of each frame (like a dot) would improve this considerably.

As far as I can tell, you can't mask a group onto another group.

No double-tap on the Apple Pencil 2 to swap to the eraser. This one I'm not sure about; it runs in Procreate, it seems simple to implement here... though it'd be great to see it customizable.

The Ugly

This includes bugs and other issues that are separate from the features (or lack thereof) of Procreate Dreams.

Crashes are frequent. I haven't used the software reliably during any of my sessions so far, but Dreams' autosave feature is extremely strong and very forgiving, so I have lost no work.

My pen pressure become erratic at times, necessitating a restart of the software.

Sometimes my pen will stop working, though other features in the app will continue to run.

The good news is, I think that Dreams is overall a huge win for artists and animators worldwide. Everything that's not working about Dreams will hopefully be resolved in future updates. I'd encourage anyone who wants to try animating for the first time to pick it up-- with the understanding it might take some time to get used to/master.

[horsegirlz]

Reviewing Horse Picrews - Part 1

Check out: Part 2 here, Part 3 here

A brief review of every horse Picrew dollmaker I could find! (The small exception being any generic MLP G4 pony makers.)

I'll be trying to create an either sunbleached black / seal brown / liver chestnut horse in each one (my favourite coats), as well as one or two more exciting horse designs, showcasing the options.

(These Picrews are created by people in their free time without getting paid, so let's remember that and respect the artists!) ------------------------------------------------------------

⬆️ Horse Designer by shadowscar00 Rating: 🥕🥕🥕⚫⚫ 3/5 carrots + tasty apples 🍎🍏 A neat little horse maker! Decent variety to create different realistic coats, and some fantasy colour options too. Enjoyable and cute.

⬆️ 🐴horsesona maker🐴 by thereisteainmyshoes Rating: 🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕 5/5 carrots + gold star ⭐ This one has amazing variety. Horse expressions, colours and styles, accessories and details, backgrounds and bonus effects. Really great for both cute regular horsies and humanoid ones. My only minor criticism is that the brown nose and brown mane colours don't have a match... other than that I love it.

⬆️ Equine Creator Vol. 1 by The.LastValkyrie Rating: 🥕🥕🥕🥕⚫ 4/5 carrots + epic flames 🔥🔥🔥 There's a ton of options here, both realistic and fantasy! The reason it's not a full 5/5 is because the experience is a bit confusing, it doesn't use the built-in colour option system and the thumbnails can be hard to understand. But if you fiddle with it for a bit you can make very cool horses.

⬆️ Horse Maker by TTMVStaff Rating: 🥕🥕🥕⚫⚫ 3/5 carrots + shiny sparkle ✨ This is apparently a maker for an RP called Through The Misty Valley. There's a decent amount of realistic options, definitely enough to make a pretty horse! This one is also a little confusing with thumbnails and not using the built-in colour system. The backgrounds look suspiciously like AI imo.

⬆️ Foal maker by TTMVStaff Rating: 🥕🥕🥕⚫⚫ 3/5 carrots + baby bonus 🍼💘 Pretty much same as above but foal version. The backgrounds again look suspiciously like AI. But, the foals are pretty cute and there are decent customisation options for realistic coats! (The "free lineart" credit in these makes me think the lineart artist may not have had anything to do with the Picrews, as a note.)

⬆️ Handheld Horse Production Farm by 木兎 Rating: 🥕🥕🥕🥕⚫ 4/5 carrots + sweet pudding 🍮 Make a little horse that you could hold in your hand! There aren't a ton of options here, but the horses are very cute and huggable. This one also doesn't use the built-in colour system, but the thumbnails are easy enough to grasp quickly, so it wasn't a problem.

⬆️ Horse OC maker by BeelYourself (Picrew user PorcelainBee) Rating: 🥕🥕🥕⚫⚫ 3/5 carrots + fun lollipop 🍭 Many realistic options for coat colour and details. There's only one option for mane and tail style, and no accessories or backgrounds, and it was a bit confusing that thumbnails use words instead of images (as a visual person - and it makes it less accessible for different languages). But, the horses look cool!

⬆️ 46-style Favourite Horse Maker by n046 Rating: 🥕🥕🥕🥕⚫ 4/5 carrots + teddybear 🧸 This one is adorable, another one where the design makes up for the slight lack of options for coat details and such. It doesn't use the built-in colour system, but was easy enough to use. I want to hug them.

⬆️ Stick Ponies by Sodateru Rating: 🥕🥕⚫⚫⚫ 2/5 carrots + pens and crayons ✏️🖍️ The creator's note says that it's mostly a Twilight Sparkle clone maker right now, which is pretty true based on there only being one mane and tail style. But there are lots of colours to choose from and different hair colour effects, so you can still make a cute little stick pony.

⬆️ Race Horse Maker by Ninjinfactory Rating: 🥕🥕⚫⚫⚫ 2/5 carrots + a nice flower 🌼 It's a pretty simple one, not that many options to choose from, but the expressions are charming so it's still a cute horse. It also doesn't make use of the built-in colour system and the thumbnails could be hard to see, but since there weren't that many options, it was still easy to use.

⬆️ Wasteland Pony Dress Up Game by uhohkiya Rating: 🥕🥕⚫⚫⚫ 2/5 carrots + crispy bacon 🥓 I'm not sure if this is for a fandom or the creator's original setting, but you get to pick a few options for dressing up 3 different horses, like the simpler kind of old character dressup games. The horses are cute, but there isn't much to customise.

⬆️ Anthro Pony Maker by BabyBunnyBab Rating: 🥕🥕🥕⚫⚫ 3/5 carrots + waffles 🧇 It's hard to make a regular-looking horse in this one, but if you want to make a colourful anthro horse with fangs, you're in the right place! It partially doesn't and partially does use the built-in colour system, but the thumbnails were easy to understand. There are some minor artefacts around the edge of the feathering. But, overall it's a cute anthro with a decent amount of options.

⬆️ Supported Horse Icon Maker☆ by Riu (in the sense, the horse you're supporting in races / being a fan of) Rating: 🥕🥕🥕🥕⚫ 4/5 carrots + a little treat 🍬 There aren't that many options, but the design is really cute. For the purpose of representing the race horse you're backing, it has what you need. It's always interesting seeing how much of Japanese horse culture has to do with racing rather than other equestrianism.

⬆️ Horsemaker by Hajen14 (@hajen14 on Tumblr!) Rating: 🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕 5/5 carrots + strawberry cake 🍰 This is the first one where I really felt I was making a seal brown horse. There aren't any accessories or extras, but the extensive coat patterns and colours, and mane and tail options, is more than enough to stand on its own. If you want to design a realistic horse coat with a lot of detail options, this one is for you!