#deep learning tutorial for beginners

[annbourbon]

The Useful Post (Part Two)

Part One || Part Two || Part Three || Part Four || Part Five || Part Six

>-< Because apparently only 100 links are allowed per post.

I'm gonna finish the other one and edit both to make it look a bit more... clean.

Be That Girl 101

Although it's not the only blog with this kind of content, it is one of the best I've seen. So follow @prettyinpink for more content. The list I'm creating of course doesn't only includes her blog but others too. If I find it's interesting, useful or something along the lines, it'll be here.

♡ Learn something new

♡ Making your phone to be intentional

♡ Making Friends

♡ Self care 101

♡ How to stop procrastinating by managing your emotions

♡ How to romanticize exercise

♡ How to be the Main Character

♡ Cariona: Pads that actually help

♡ Success Formula 101

♡ The It Girl Mindset

♡ 5 Habits to Fix your Problems

♡ Sexual Education

♡ Ultimate Friendship Guide

♡ Things to Manifest

♡ Watch your posture

♡ How to Build an unshakeable confidence

♡ How not to Die if you have an ED

♡ Don't let others to paywall human connection

♡ Read only women

♡ How to stop overthinking

♡ Youtube Channels 4 Girlies

♡ Stop self~sabotage and doubts

♡ Becoming an adult

♡ You can do this

♡ Set your own pace

♡ Friends

♡ Content creators

♡ Don't date for love

Ballet 101

♡ Diet

♡ Routine

♡ Victoria Secret Workout

♡ My own Diet & Workout Routine

♡ What is healthy for one person might not be for another

♡ How to lose weight fast naturally

Food 101

♡ Pancakes to cure depression

♡ Vegetarian recipes

♡ Vegan recipes

♡ Gluten Free Ideas #1

♡ Prosciutto & Blue Cheese (I don't support EDs but these recipes are so tasty!!)

♡ Food List & Some advice

♡ Common myths about migraines

♡ Fluffy Bread

♡ Eating Tray Hack

♡ Pasta

Nature 101

♡ Orchids

♡ Identifying Plants?

♡ Learn How to Like Bugs

♡ Birds

♡ Plants can talk

♡ Bees are dying

♡ Frogs

♡ How to grow....

♡ Worms

♡ Dandelions

History 101

★Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.~ George Santayana. ★

♡ Disability History

♡ Who are you? *Master List*

♡ Irish Mythology

♡ Autism through the years

♡ White People Culture: Long post

♡ History is closer than you think

♡ Asexuals and Aros through history

♡ Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice

♡ Belgians

♡ European History is not white

♡ Ronald Reagan

♡ Pompeii Fact

Art 101

★ This category includes Drawing and Painting, among other forms of art. It also includes some authors I really liked and works to use as inspiration, or to at least have some knowledge of their existence.★

♡ Art: Vintage

♡ Drawing cozy interiors

♡ Beautiful...

♡ John Singer Sargeant (watercolor)

♡ František Dvořák

♡ Primary colors in a fight

♡ 3D Website

♡ Outfit References

♡ Fake Colors

Etiquette 101

♡ Be polite!

♡ Stop your Lizard 🐊 Brain 🧠

♡ Emotionally Competent

Others

♡ Useful for anyone with an appendix

♡ Ad Blockers on YT

♡ Books should be free according to Human Rights

♡ Libguides

♡ What makes Theatre great

♡ Librarians & Teenagers

♡ American Archive

♡ Sundown Towns

♡ Use this instead of

♡ How to keep following people when a social platform implodes

♡ How to Network

♡ How to use Google & Pinterest

♡ Youtube - No Ads

♡ How to find a post really fast

♡ Nothing to do online??

♡ Mythbusters: Sleep

♡ WWC’s A Beginner’s Guide to Academic Research

♡ Wayback Machine

If you want to be here, write me. I'll check on your post and see if I can make it work 😉

Feel free to promote your account in the comments and i will eventually add it to this post~♡

[mariyekos]

The struggle that is me wanting to work on several longfics and just not having time for them all.

The big problem right now is that I'm getting really excited about the Time Travel fic again but I have two (2) multichapter fics partially published right now and I don't want to abandon them to get that one out. I definitely want to finish "Within a forest dark" before I get to TT, but I'm not sure about whether I'll stick with Inheritance Found before doing some of TT. Idk. It's hard to say. IF is an interesting concept to me, but not nearly as much as TT. I've been in love with Time Travel concepts since I was around 10 or 11, so it has a bigger grip on me than the kidnapping premise of IF. That and TT is currently sitting at over 100k words while IF is only the 5k I've published.

I guess one of my big decisions here is how in depth I want to go with IF. The more in-depth I go, the longer it will take me to get to the stuff I'm currently excited about writing. But if I rush IF, I might end up disappointed by the result. So it's hard to say.

...also there's the Nidstinien fic sitting at 45k in my drafts that I really want to fix up, but I have a feeling it won't be done in less than 60k so. That's also going to be time consuming. Ahhh! So many fics to write, so little time. Spending my evenings playing FFXIV 4 days a week really sucks up a lot of my free time... I'm looking forward to when we clear so I only have to raid 2 or 3 days a week for reclears instead. (Currently I have 3 days for Savage Raiding and 1 day for Extreme Mount Farm. Though....my FRU group wants to do more reclears too which will take up extra days so ahhhh my free tiiiiime I want you baaaaack).

[cherrystaineddoll]

𝓽hings to do instead of scrolling ౨ৎ

summer is here, school is over and you have way too much free time on your hands. so unless you want to spend your whole days with your eyes locked on a screen, here's an in- depth guide on what to do this summer, or whenever!!

learn a new language - trust me, speaking more than one language is a skill that everyone should have, and it always comes in handy. you can watch tv shows, movies or youtube videos in your target language, read beginner books, use apps (not duolingo though.. ) and even just listen to music!! just expose yourself to the language as much as you can, even better if you know anyone you can have conversations with. you could also learn sign language!!

journal or scrapbook - writing down your feelings really helps understanding your own self more. you can try doing shadow work to really dive deep, or just write whatever you feel in that moment. it doesn't have to become a chore, and remember, write for yourself and not as if someone else was going to read!! as for scrapbooking, just print out some nice photos and decorate the pages with stickers, drawings, fun colored paper.. whatever you want, just be creative!!

make art - it doesn't have to look perfect, remember that all art is beautiful in its own way. even if you think you're not good at it, just create, it will help you feel better & you'll also get better with time!! you can draw, paint, sculpt, do pottery, etc. you don't have to follow any guidelines, just buy a random sketchbook, bring out your inner child and do whatever you feel like doing

learn how to play an instrument - this can be a bit expensive, but if you have any instrument in your house that you've never used, it might be a great time to start learning it!! you don't necessarily need to take classes, you can easily find tutorials on youtube, even though it might be harder to learn by yourself. but making music is a really fun activity & good for the soul

reading and writing - i will never recommend reading enough !! everyone should read. it helps you learn new things, understand different perspectives, expand your vocabulary, and so much more. i know books can be expensive, but you can always try to buy them at flea markets, or ask a friend/family member to lend you some. and just in case, there are always some sites where you can read books online for free, like zlibrary!! you can read before going to bed instead of staying on your phone (which is sooo bad for your sleep), at the beach while tanning or outside while getting some fresh air. and if reading books inspires you, you can try to write something!! i'm not saying you have to write a 600 page book, but you can try to write small stories, or poetry, and who knows, someday you might actually write a book! if you want to get published, there are some small literary magazines you can find on social media that publish the works of small writers, it can be a great way to start. you can also always post your works here on tumblr, substack, or any social media platform!! you could also try to write the story for a movie and start screenwriting, if you're into cinematography

research interesting topics - now that school isn't forcing you to study things that maybe you don't care about, you can study whatever you want !! remember, knowledge is power, and with the internet, you basically have the world in your hands. you can watch a youtube video, read a book, or simply research on websites (make sure they're reliable though). you can also take online courses!! i might make a post on ideas for what to research??

start a new hobby - your life can't only be made of school/work, sleep, and a screen. you need hobbies that you actually like and that make you feel good. some of these can be: baking and cooking, crocheting, knitting, embroidery, jewelry making, nail art, makeup, photography, editing, blogging/vlogging, coloring, candle making, soap making, perfume making, modeling, origami, sewing, making diy stuff, chess, puzzles, acting, singing, flower arranging, meditating, lego building, trying new hairstyles or outfits, doing animations, discovering new music, sudoku, the things i previously wrote, and probably a million other activities i can't think of right now

stay active - moving you body is good for both your physical and mental health, i'm sure we all know that. you can go on walks or runs in the nature with your headpones on, or do any sport that you like- some ideas: swimming, dancing (ballet, hip hop, modern, ecc) , tennis, martial arts (judo, karate, taekwondo, ecc), volleyball, basketball, athletics, gymnastics, football, archery, fencing, table tennis, boxing, surfing, rowing, hockey, horseback riding, softball, golf, biking, figure skating, rollerblading, skating.. you don't need to do it competitively (unless you want to), as long as you're having fun and moving your body. you can also do workouts, like yoga or pilates, at home or outdoors, or go hiking.

watch movies, tv shows, or documentaries - it can always be a good learning experience, or just something fun and relaxing that isn't mindlessly scrolling. a bonus: after you've watched something, write a very long, detailed and in-depth review in your journal. you can also post it wherever you want (like letterboxd, to fight all the one liners)

hang out - with friends, family, or even by yourself !! (i know, i know, it can be scary). you can do anything, as long as you're with the right people everything is fun, but here's some ideas: have a picnic, go to the beach, go to a water park, have a baking contest, do temporary tattoos, go to a concert, go out to eat, do a one day trip, go on a road trip, take a walk in the nature, go hiking, go to a trampoline park, go to an amusement park, visit a museum, go thrifting or shopping, have a board games night, try out a new cute cafe or bakery, do an escape room, have a karaoke night, have a movie marathon, and so much more!!

i hope this helped!! ♡

[just-a-sketchbook]

First Quilt!

It has been a lot of fun and a lot of trial and error but it's done!!!

It's roughly 1.20 x 1.20m (which is a number of feet I can't be bothered to look up but let's say it's about child sized and it'll be great to chill on the couch).

I want to thank @langdon813 who I've never talked to (sorry if you hate being tagged) but whose gorgeous Drunkard path quilts made me wanna do it too :)

I had never done any quilting before (but I did sew), so here's what I've learned, if any beginner is interested in jumping off the deep end the way I did and wants advice from someone who has freshly acquired experience but will also not use any confusing technical terms (with pictures!) :

Fabric picking : so most advice I read was to go for pre-selected bundles of fabric that already go together, but I'm contrary and like to do my own thing so I used wax fabric (the blue ones on top the pile) I had laying around, which I strongly recommend: it's very easy to cut due to it being waxed, and I added a few fat squares from the shop, plus I also had the orange and blue floral and I based the coulour scheme on it. One thing that's true is it would have been easier to work with fabric of the same thickness, and the floral was givne to me by my ma who got in on trip to Thailand and it was alot thinner than the rest which didn't help.

Cutting: I got a rotary cutter for the occasion and it's great! Do not maybe push too hard on it and give yourself nerve damage the way I did (temporary but still), it's actually ery sharp and easy to use, so long as your template doesn't slip you're fine

Piecing :Yes you can do curved piecing even if you have zero experience, you just gotta make a template and

pin it a lot.

1/4 inch margins is the standard so I rolled with it because I don't like converting, but when you're strictly metric it is kind of annoying but doable because my machine does have a 1/4 inch mark and if you stick a length of tape along it it's pretty easy to follow, even for curved piecing.

Layout: At some point you've got to decide the layout is done, because I've re-arranged the blocks at least 6 times and it's a very good way to go insane. (For rough reference, my plan was to have no repeat fabrics in any of the circle-in-a-square blocks, and I only made one mistake which I clocked too late to change)

Chain piecing!! Meaning you pile your blocks together in a specific order (that I personnaly wrote straight up on each piece with a very sophisticated letter/numbers down/across system) and then just sew them together in a line without having to cut the thread between each pair. Looks a little like a fanion banner and at some point it feels like you'll be forever tangled into it but then it's magic :) It's not that hard actually and will save you a lot of time + there's a lot of online tutorials you can use.

Basting! (which it took me while to understand is the part where you attach the backing, the fluff and the quilt top together) : you need more safety pins. Safety pins will save you from the wrinkles and the unfortunate oopsies of realising you've caught your backing double folded into your quilting stitch, which I did a good three times and was not fun to undo. Also, I forgot to tape the backing to the floor and it probably would have helped with the wrinkling...

Backing : I used an old linen table cloth I got for 10€ at a charity shop, and I've still got about 2/3 of it left, so I recommend that, it's sturdy but soft enough, doesn't thread easily and can be washed at very high temps, if that's a thing you do.

Quilting! Well, my machine came with a quilting foot for free motion quilting (which means you're the one moving the fabric along in whichever direction and you can sort of draw with your stitches) and it seemed fun so I did that, and here's what I learned : curves are hard but doable, also my machine doesn't like to go back (kept skipping sitiches for some reason) so it involves a lot of shifting the quilt around, which isn't easy considering the bulk. And also, drawing the quilting pattern you want so you can follow it while quilting actually does help, I used an iron/heat-erasable pen and it worked just fine. Check your stitch tension, mine was too loose and I realised too late so there's spots where I could pull on the thread and it looped, had to stitch back over that.

Quilitng pattern : I wasn't sure what to do, supposedly your batting (aka: the fluff) comes with instructions on how tight you should quilt to avoid it coming apart through use but I got mine cut at the fabric shop and forgot to ask so I just rolled with a rough 10cm maximum distance in between stitching lines but tried to do less in most places. According to many blogs : the tighter your lines the stiffer your quilt, so I kept it loose for comfort. (Picture is halfway done, I added a smaller square/circle inside each square/circle and if you look at it you'll see it's actually diagonal lines form one end of the fabric to the other.)

Binding is boring, and there's nothing to it. I got a length of pre-cut bias binding, machine-sewed it front to front to the quilt top side of the quilt and the folded it back and secured it by hand to the back with a ladder stitch. Took me roughly and entire rewatch of the Last Of Us. There's a trick to doing the corners that's fairly simple but I've lost the tutorial...

Overall : I got myself a quilting book with techinques and such and it helped, but there's a ton of stuff online, and once you get over the very Christian American mum vibe of most of the blogs, it's all very helpful (and gorgeous!) (no offense meant to Christian American mums, it's just a bit of a culture shock from where I'm standing).

[anything-pov]

Reader is a WOC and Emily wants to learn how to do their hair for when they have kids in the future

Reader lets her play around in it and falls asleep

when they wake Emily has a tutorial of how to braid hair up on the tv while trying to follow the instructions in readers hair

Reader hearts swells with love and passionately kisses Emily.

The End :)

Enjoy :)

The Learning Process 🎀

The living room was warm with afternoon light, golden rays spilling over the couch where Y/N sat cross-legged, half-watching a nature documentary and half-scrolling on her phone.

She wore a soft hoodie and worn sweatpants, her long braids tied into a loose high ponytail that still grazed her shoulder blades. The house smelled like cinnamon tea and fresh laundry.

Everything about the moment was quiet and slow, until Emily appeared in the doorway with that specific look, the one that made Y/N set her phone down without even being asked.

Emily padded over in thick socks and one of Y/N's old shirts, oversized and comfy. She stood behind the couch, biting her lip a little. Y/N tilted her head. “What’s up, babe?”

Emily exhaled. “Will you teach me how to braid?” Y/N blinked. “My hair?” Emily nodded, then climbed over the back of the couch and sat behind Y/N, legs on either side, hands hesitating just above her shoulders.

“Not just your hair. I wanna know for... ” she paused, cheeks pinking slightly, “... our future kids. If they’ve got your curls, your texture, I want to be able to care for it. For them.”

Y/N didn’t answer at first. Her lips parted, but nothing came out. Her chest rose slowly as she turned just enough to look at Emily over her shoulder.

The love in her eyes was instant, soft, deep, and trembling a little. “You serious?” she asked, barely above a whisper. Emily only nodded again, her hand reaching to gently touch a braid. “Show me.”

So, Y/N scooted closer to the edge of the couch, explaining how she parted her hair, what products she used depending on texture and curl pattern, how she sectioned everything off to keep it clean.

She guided Emily’s hands through the motion of a simple three-strand braid, gently correcting her fingers, occasionally glancing up at the TV as she talked.

Her voice lulled into something low and soft, sleepy. The slow rhythm of teaching, the comfort of being between Emily’s legs, made her eyes close somewhere halfway through the second demonstration.

Emily noticed. She smiled as Y/N's head tilted forward just slightly, her breathing evening out. Warmth bloomed in her chest. She reached for the remote, turned on YouTube, and found a video titled “Braiding 101: For Beginners Learning Black Hair.”

She turned the volume low and began to practice, over and over, undoing the braid she’d just made and trying again. She listened closely, eyes flicking between the screen and Y/N's head.

Her touch was gentle. Her hands fumbled more than once, but she didn’t give up. Because this wasn’t just about hair, it was about care, about history, about showing up for the people you love in the little ways that matter.

An hour passed before Y/N stirred. Her brow furrowed as she woke, eyes fluttering open to the feeling of Emily’s hands moving slowly through her hair. She sat up straight.

Emily startled. “Sorry... d-did I wake you?”

“No, no,” Y/N said, voice still heavy with sleep. “You were… following a video?” Emily shrugged, a bit bashful. “I figured I’d keep going while you napped. I wanted to get better.”

Y/N turned fully, twisting in Emily’s lap to look at her. Really look. Her eyes were glassy, her lips parted like she might say something, but she didn’t at first.

Instead, she kissed Emily.

It wasn’t rushed or playful. It was slow and full of something that hummed beneath the surface, an overwhelmed kind of love. A future-looking, forever kind of love.

Her hands came up to cup Emily’s face, thumbs tracing over her cheekbones like a prayer. “You learning to braid for our babies,” she whispered against her lips.

“You don’t even know what that does to me.”

Emily pulled her into a hug, her nose in the crook of Y/N's neck. “I just want them to feel seen. Loved. Taken care of. By both of us.” Y/N was crying. Just a little.

Just enough that Emily felt the dampness at the edge of her collar. “I love you,” Y/N breathed, pulling back just enough to say it like it was the only truth that mattered.

“I love you more,” Emily said. Y/N laughed, watery and quiet, wrapping her arms tighter around Emily. “Okay,” she whispered. “Then you’d better practice. Because if our kid’s anything like me, you’ve got a whole jungle of curls coming.”

Emily grinned and kissed her again. “Then I’m learning every style there is.”

[colorlessjay]

truly, absolutely love your artwork. the style is just amazing, like literally so amazing i love it, love it so much ❤️❤️

do you have any tips for beginners? those just starting in art/drawing i mean

Aw thank you!

As for tips, it really depends if you're drawing because you wanna make a career out of it or a hobby

As a career, my best advice is to start with the basics. Jump in whenever, sure, but you have a build a solid foundation. Really learn and study the fundamentals, look up more than just "Do this, not this" tutorials. Replication is good, but knowing why something is the way it is is better. Balance your skills, don't be afraid to be bold with it, and NEVER shy away from criticism. You improve by asking others what parts you failed at, and focusing on strengthening your weaknesses

As a hobby, my best advice is to find something you're passionate about and make it your muse. If you wanna improve, same advice as the career one, but if you wanna do art for JUST fun, do it for FUN. Create. Never be afraid to create and be wacky and weird with it. Be boundless with your art. Doesn't matter what medium you use, as long as you have fun with it

My biggest advice is to make art for yourself before anyone else. I've had friends who've been discouraged from making art because their work doesn't get as much attention as other artists. And it sucks because I personally am inspired by them, and I love watching them draw and create and it makes me wanna do the same. They make me wanna improve because I wanna be on the same level

The value of your art is based on YOU and YOU alone. Not the numbers or likes you get from strangers. Create because it makes you happy

I'm not a professional artist. I'm an unemployed freelancer who's having fun with a bunch of people who are just as deep into this fandom as I am. My advice is surface-level at best

But I'm glad you asked

[markrosewater]

hi a friend walked me through a commander game and I liked it and so I got a couple premade decks. I then went to a couple commander nights and I kinda liked it except for the part where I felt like I was a little kid with floaties in the middle of the ocean trying to sing a little song to myself so I wouldn't think about the things that might be lurking just below the surface that I can't see. Magic is vast and deep and I don't know how I can enjoy playing when there's just too much. I get that the hugeness is part of its staying power, but it feels too big and too much to even approach beyond playing my premade deck and hoping the people at the table won't look down on me for it (which they often do). Even looking up tutorials and guides is overwhelming because each one of them is sharing a *different* tiny slice of material! I haven't felt this baby-beginner starting something new in a very long time (and I say that as someone that is otherwise well-versed in being a terrible beginner at new things). Is there a way to play magic without getting absolutely lost in the depths? or is that the nature of the beast and I just gotta "git gud"?

The two formats I would suggest are draft or Cube. Both use a much smaller card pool, one you can more easily learn about.

[kiraastro]

Any sources you would recommend to beginners to Vedic astrology?

Youtube channels to learn Vedic astrology:

Farfaraway, Youtube - Learn the nakshatras and planets in nakshatras

Farfaraway has a really good playlist about the nakshatras and a generalized run down of what it means to have certain planet placements (in the nakshatras). He also discusses the stories behind each deity associated with them. I believe he also has a website although, I haven't looked into that yet.

Astrology Loka (Gina Lyhane), Youtube - Great all rounder: Basic vedic astrology, nakshatras, planetary placements, chart aspects, transits and predictions, and more

Gina has such a great Youtube channel that features many good videos pertaining to vedic astrology. She has videos on the nakshatras, meanings of the houses, transit analysis, sometimes she does case studies on celeb figures' charts. Overall, her channel is the best "all rounder" for vedic astro content.

Cooking Astrology, Youtube - Intermediate level videos on jyotish

This channel is particularly useful if you're starting to understand the basics of vedic astrology, and what to dive into more in-depth techniques/knowledge/tutorials. I find that his videos about the house axes are very interesting and help you to better understand houses in relation to each other (and not just as individuals). He also talks about yogas and has a good amount of videos discussing the D9 navamsa chart.

Picture Astrology, Youtube - Learn the placement of planets in particular houses/rashis

Great channel if you just want quick, generalized meanings about planets in a particular rashi or house. Their rahu-ketu videos are also quite insightful, in my opinion.

Dr Arjun Pai Astrology, Youtube - Advanced level lectures on nakshatras and other vedic topics

Dr Pai's videos on the nakshatras are great if you really want to deep dive into the meanings, significations, and interpretations of the nakshatras. Dr Pai and his team do such great videos telling us why a particular nakshatra is associated with certain characteristics. If you are a beginner, his videos might be overwhelming but I think it's helpful to listen to them like podcasts and absorb the info.

Astrology with Ninad, Youtube - Great videos on current transits and future predictions

I particularly like Ninad's videos on transits and upcoming predictions. It's useful to also listen to transits aimed at other rashis signs (other than your own), as it helps you to understand/learn how moving planets affect the chart.

Astro Urvasshi (Urvasshi Behla), Youtube

Vedic Oracle by Kadambari, Youtube

Both channels are great for learning about nakshatras, as well as some basic knowledge about vedic astro. Vedic Oracle (Kadambari) also does interesting transit analyses in which she combines jyotish and tarot.

Vedic astrology blogs:

A list of blogs useful in learning about vedic astro (mixed levels)

Milkyway Astrology

Chitra Vedic Astrology

Vedic Astrology Lessons

☆彡

(All resources listed above are hyperlinked)

[wishingstarinajar]

Hihi, I know you aren't looking to open commissions anytime soon, but do you have any good resources, references, and recommendations for someone wanting to get into the fandom and make their own OC to be able to integrate with the setting and eventually get art done?

^~^;;

I know very little, myself, but a friend has a passion for it and I want to indulge them in RPs, as well as yourself and various other blogs here showing me some high quality husband-quality bots

Any insight and such would be greatly appreciated!

~💖

Putting effort into your friendship, that's very sweet of you!

The best way to get into the Transformers mindset and learn something about it is to either watch one of the series/movies or read the IDW or Skybound comics. The fastest way is, of course, to watch something.

I answered an Ask with suggestions for "beginners" not that long ago which you can check out here:

If you don't mind watching stuff on YouTube, the official Transformers YouTube channel has uploaded episodes of several Transformers series. You can check out their playlists for a series that might tickle your fancy, or your friend has brought up before: https://www.youtube.com/@TransformersOfficial/playlists. Not all series are on there, unfortunately, but you can always put on a pirate hat and take to virtual sea if you don't have access to streaming services hosting these series.

If you don't have the time to watch series/movies or read comics, there is always the TFwiki which hosts info about every character and series in existence, and even does episode/issue summaries. The site may be overwhelming to dig through as a new fandom goer because there is just ssoooo much info to soak up (forty years worth!), but it can be helpful if you need to look something up.

When it comes to drawing the bots or creating your own, I made a post a week ago with two "how to draw Transformers" tutorial links that might be helpful with the creation of an OC:

Under the cut, I'll give some simple basics about the lore usually present in any TF series.

---

Transformers are a robotic race called Cybertronians from the planet Cybertron. These large robotic aliens can transform into vehicles or devices and survive on an energy source they call energon.

There are two prominent factions present on Cybertron: the Autobots and the Decepticons. As their name implies, Autobots take on the appearance of (recreational) vehicles like cars or motorcycles to blend in better on Earth (robots in disguise, da da da da daaa) while the Decepticons turn into more destructive (war) vehicles and weaponry like tanks and jets. This is usually the norm but there are some exceptions as there are Decepticons with car alt-modes. And then there are also boomboxes, cassettes and cassette players, memory sticks, and microscope alt-modes, to name a few that aren't vehicle-centered. The options are endless, as long as they serve a purpose.

Unfortunately, the two factions have been at war on Cybertron and neighboring planets for 4 million years, and have nearly depleted the planet(s) of its resources. To survive and hopefully win the war, the Autobots go on a voyage into deep space to try and find more. The Decepticons give chase, only for them all to crashland on Earth and be stuck there.

It takes centuries for them to wake from the crashlanding, but when they do, they find out Earth is an energon utopia and the Decepticons are eager to conquer the planet and take it all for themselves. The Autobots take a stance against them and try to protect Earth and its people, leading to several ties and friendships with humans (but also wobbly alliances).

---

Decide which faction your OC is part of and what their alt-mode might be and you already have a good foundation for your character.

Good luck, and have fun!

[meatball-headache]

This is Meatball's Warframe Post.

As usual, it was @chiclet-go-boom who got me to play. Right around when Endwalker was on the horizon, Warframe also released a new trailer, and Chic gibbered like three rabid squirrels to rush off and drool over it. It seemed uncharacteristic, since Warframe was some kind of parkour PVP game, right?

It was, in fact, not a PVP game, and as Chiclet soon explained, had lore as deep and intricate as any Final Fantasy or Dark Souls. To be a good friend, I watched the new trailer, too—of course, nothing meant anything to me, but the visuals were cool and had quite a lot of mystique, so it was intriguing. So, I downloaded the game, since it's free and all—and that was that for now. Endwalker was coming!

...and so Endwalker went. Some months later, in a lull between patches, the conversation returned to Warframe. I think it came to mind and I was mooded to crack it open and give it a try. What I found was... profoundly confusing. It opens with a cutscene, and I'm thinking: this game is years old. Is this like Destiny, I'm supposed to know the story so far, I'm supposed to be familiar with these characters? It was all very confusing.

The opening cutscenes celebrate the Tenno, and give you three Warframes to pick from: Excalibur, Mag, and Volt. My impression at the time was that these spirits, the "Tenno," were something newly added to the game? Were these the three new Warframes or something? Or, are they starting me at the beginning of the years-long update cycle? No time to be confused, though, I had to pick a Warframe. I wanted to be the cute girl, Mag, but it said Excalibur was the best choice for beginners, even though he looked weird, so I went with him.

I have never played a game that moves like this. It's so... fast. But it's not jagged or janky or spastic, it's very smooth. It's hard to aim, though, since I was playing on PS4, and I suck at a) shooting games, and b) aiming with a controller. All was going well until, early in the tutorial, it teaches you how to "bullet jump." Oh, I thought: this is so weird and awkward. Bullet jumps? Wall latches? Ugh. I'll just play this game normal and not do that very much.

I didn't really like Excalibur; he looks weird. Aesthetics are important! I only played for an hour or two that first night, but I was disappointed with Excalibur... I wanted to start over, but it doesn't seem like you can reset your account. I was frustrated... but, then I learned that Chiclet plays on PC. Obviously, I mean, c'mon. Could my computer even run the game? It was a years-old laptop that I only originally bought to have Youtubes on the side while I played FFXIV on PS4. But, turns out it could run FFXIV... maybe I'll try Warframe? Start fresh, and be Mag this time—even if she's too hard for a noob?

So, I started over. I installed it on my PC and created a new account and started with Mag this time, and boy, things were different—by about 40 fps. My computer, it turned out, could run Warframe... in slideshow mode. I turned down the graphics, and I was still getting around 20-30 fps. Well... good enough, I guess, if it means I can play with Chic.

I don't know how long that first session lasted. A day or two, maybe a weekend, something like that. The game was very much to my liking in this regard: you just play it. It's got story and lore, sure, but pretty much you start the game, you go through a "Press X to jump" mission, and then you're on your own! In this regard, it's a Soulslike—you do what you want because you want to, not because the game tells you to. You go over there because you can see it and you want to know what's there, and when you get there, things happen; cf. the classic Final Fantasy setup, where you can't go over there, not until the story tells you to go there.

I didn't understand mods or ranks or 90% of the things in my menu. It was a very simple game where you just pop in, run some quick missions, shoot a bunch of guys and grind for loot. It scratched a lot of itches—although performance wasn't ideal, but whatever, I'd manage gladly.

So, I played for a couple days, and then I got to the first big turning point: Cetus. All of a sudden, I was in a town? With other players? And what players they were! My little, unadorned Mag looked positively naked next to these Warframes in extravagant costumes, with animations, flowing capes, glowing wings, all sorts of things. Of course, I didn't know a single one of these 'frames, could not possibly comprehend how any of these things were acquired—pay to win, I assumed. I could only wonder how long it'd be until I got cool stuff like that.

Now, Cetus, if you know Warframe, you know it's different. It's not just a normal mission, it's a town, like I said, connected to an open world region, the Plains of Eidolon. Naturally, I assumed this was my next mission, and figured out how to take on bounties from Konzu. And these... were a whole lot harder than normal missions! It said it was my level, but levels apparently mean something else out here, because these missions kicked my ass. I remember doing a side quest to unlock Gara's blueprint. Excited to get my first new Warframe, I ran to the foundry to start making it, and got confused when it seemed to need more Gara blueprints to make it. Eventually, I realized the bounties Konzu offered had a chance to drop these component blueprints... but, some of the bounties were way beyond my level. Even the ones that weren't were already too hard. My hopes of getting a new Warframe seemed to wither.

I think I got to Mars, and then stopped playing for a bit. I'm not sure, exactly. I spent a nice weekend or so trying out the game, it wasn't bad, the grind seemed very steep, and then it was time to move on.

Months passed.

Somehow, I was inspired to play again—maybe Chiclet gushing about another trailer, maybe seeing the icon on my desktop for months eventually wore me down, but I picked it up again. I was on Mars, which was much harder than Earth, and still had no clue what I was doing, but I plugged ahead anyway, clearing nodes on the map. I still had only Mag, with no cool outfits, no new weapons or anything fun like that. Well, eventually something would drop, right...?

Hm—if I remember correctly, and it's all kind of fuzzy, you can't go from Earth to Mars at first. You have to clear Venus and Mercury, right. So, no, I wasn't on Mars yet. I was on Venus, which of course means—

Fortuna.

I was prepared. I had seen the music video on Youtube, I'd already heard the song. In fact, I'd heard the song long before I tried the game, long before I met Chiclet, a real long time ago. It was good, I liked it—and part of what kept me going was wondering where this amazing song would crop up. As I played the game, it seemed more and more out of place. But then, all at once, it happened. Imagine my surprise when I learned that, no, that wasn't a cinematic music video just to promote the game, that was the cutscene in the actual game!

It was transformative. It was profound. Yes, I teared up, of course I did! And then the story in Fortuna has you helping the workers unionize to defeat a capitalist? Sign me the fuck up! So I was motivated to play, to be part of this world, to help them out. The only thing is—the mission turned out to be incredibly hard. I died again and again. It wasn't until I went into the arsenal and added mods to my Warframe and my weapons that I was finally able to win, and even then, only barely. The game was starting to get hard! Did I have what it takes to get harder?

Open world missions on Orb Vallis were much harder than the Plains of Eidolon, but by now I'd also learned that these were optional. It was more reputation quests, more vendors... This game was getting really complicated. All I was doing was clearing the map, and there was so much to this game... Not only that, but around here I decidedly to bravely try to do public missions, though I was afraid I'd hold everyone back... this turned out to not be an issue. Everyone was super strong, super competent, and they blazed through missions with ease, with or without my presence. Thanks for the carry, you thousands of online strangers!

But, by doing public missions, I saw the vast gulf between Warframe's and FFXIV's philosophies. FFXIV has rigid requirements for every duty, fixed party sizes, role requirement, level sync, all that jazz—so that everyone has the same experience every time. Warframe just lets you do whatever. You might do this mission and have an MR30 Saryn Prime nuke the map from the start and be done in seconds; you might have a MR2 Excalibur still leveling the starting gear and trying to learn how to double-jump.

Never was this more evident than what I choose to remember was my first time playing a public mission. It was a defense mission on Earth. I'd done it before solo, and it took a long time and it was very difficult, since I had to machine-gun each enemy individually, being generally clueless as I was. After that, I decided to try a public mission. I can't get lost and be too slow for everyone else, since it's defense, and it might help to have more, well, help. I got a full group, and, I have no earthly idea what Warframes they might have been, but I remember one of them clearly: as soon as the mission started, they all cast a bunch of spells and the entire map started exploding. Then this one guy jumped on top of the defense objective, whipped out a guitar, and just stood there playing music the whole time while all the enemies exploded before I ever even saw them.

This is what lies ahead of you, Meatball, I thought. This is what you might achieve someday.

So, back on Venus, I proceeded to the end of the map, and this time—there was a boss fight! The Jackal. Needless to say, I died and failed the mission. I didn't understand what the hell I was supposed to do. Perhaps this is where I finally went on public, to get carried a little by experts? Whether it was my first public exposure or not, it worked—some pro players annihilated the Jackal before I could understand what was going on. This paved the way to Mercury, and culminated in another boss fight—and the end of the road. But, with Mercury out of the way, I could go back to Earth and travel to Mars.

In order to unlock a new planet, you have to defeat the boss in the junction, a mirror match against another Warframe. The first few were easy, but Mars I think was spicier. For the sake of the narrative, let's say I couldn't do it for now. I slunk back to my ship in defeat, and went to tinker with my mods and foundry and stuff like that. Have I gotten any new weapons or anything? No, I don't think so, I don't have any weapons or Warf—what's this!?

"Rhino chassis." A Warframe component blueprint. Not Gara, which was out of reach, too high level—where did this come from? Tooltips soon revealed it: it dropped from the Jackal. Bosses drop Warframes! My eyes lit up, my heart raced. I'm going to get my first new Warframe. I raced back to Venus to tackle the Jackal again, and farmed that bastard to oblivion, again and again until I had all the Rhino parts. Finally, finally, it was time—

—to wait. Twelve hours for the component, then three days for the thing itself. Okay, that's fine. I could use a break. I'll come back next weekend and be Rhino.

Now, I did exaggerate, dire reader. I had some new weapons ready when Rhino came out of the foundry: the Boltor machine gun, the Frigor giant hammer, and some secondary weapons but who cares. At this point, I didn't even realize that's how you grind MR. But everything was exciting and new—and stronger. I had to level them up, and with Rhino's shield ability, now I was tough enough to handle the junction and get to Mars and beyond!

At some point, I got to Deimos. Unlike other planets, this time you start in an open world, and work your way to the town. There was some story missions here, but I don't remember the main beats, only that in the end you get to test-drive a Necramech. This game keeps adding new things—first you had normal missions, then open world, then Archwing, now Necramechs... I remember the story mission being monstrously difficult again, so I bailed on Deimos for now.

There was something else I finally had access to. Somehow, I had gotten to MR5, and could fight the boss on Earth. It irked me that I couldn't finish off Earth before moving on, but, I guess they didn't want you to start with finished planets until you'd done a little story and unlocked some new systems.

This boss... is where this play session ended. It was so incredibly difficult and incredibly frustrating. He's a tiny flying drone, only vulnerable for brief windows when his face is exposed, and he's impossible to hit. I was playing solo, so my suckitude doesn't waste anyone's time, which just made this boss nearly impossible. I kept dying, I ran out of ammo constantly. It was the most frustrating experience in the game by far—but, bosses have new Warframes. Except Mercury, for some reason. And Mar's boss just dropped Excalibur, who I'd already tried. Earth's boss had a new one, something called Hydroid, which was the dorkiest name in the world, but oh well.

To make a long story short, I farmed this boss for all the Hydroid parts, which infuriated me beyond belief. I threw him into the foundry, and it was time for a very big deal: Jupiter. Now, when I'd first started playing, I joked with Chiclet, something, "Can I do what I want? Can I just go to Jupiter and deal with high-level enemies and hilariously get my ass kicked?" She gave me kind of a wishy-washy answer, something along the lines of sort of, but not really, but you wouldn't want to anyway. I had, in fact, found a couple of blueprints that needed components from Jupiter. I was very excited when I saw I could finally get these things. So, while Hydoird cooked, I tried to go to Jupiter.

And tried.

And tried.

And tried.

But... I just couldn't beat the junction boss, at all. She had too much health, and if I got close, she's instantly melee me to death, even through Rhino's mighty shield. You have to do these solo, so no getting carried, and there's no map or any other enemies, so I can't go collect energy before the fight. I had basically one ability, and that had to get me through. Try as I might, I could not win—so I stopped playing.

Months passed again.

I picked up the game again around April 2023. Pretty soon, I remembered why I stopped—this damn Valkyr Specter. But, I had some other stuff to do now. I had a new Warframe, Hydroid, to level up, and a new gun, the Boar, to try out. I certainly didn't understand how to play Hydroid at first, but I got him to 30, and then... I guess I'll try Valkyr again. I'd have to do it on Rhino, because he has that shield. Would the Boar be strong enough to beat her?

No.

Okay, now I'm getting pissed. I just can't beat her, no matter what I do. I was, remember, still pretty dumb, probably less than a hundred hours in the game—I'm a slow boil, what do you want :p—so fusing mods, damage types, or anything other that clicking Automod was beyond me. But, I said, fuck it, if Rhino can't beat her, I'll try Hyrdoid. I ran in with him, with the Boar shotgun and Amphis staff, and—died. Take two, I ran in, used my 1 ability, barrage of water bombs, but that fell off her like so much rain. Died. Take three, I used my 2 ability, the tidal wave dash... all that did was get me into melee faster so she could one-shot me sooner. Died. Fine! Take four! I used my 4 ability, the tentacles—well, that was no good, she was a boss, so they couldn't grab her, and once again I died. Well, I haven't tried the 3 ability, the puddle? A roving dot? It doesn't sound like it does much damage, but—

Dire reader. I turned into a puddle, and Valkyr ran to me, and—sploosh. She fell into the puddle. She was gone. She vanished. The only thing on the screen was a puddle, and damage numbers popping out of it. There's no way this works, I said. There's no way this lasts long enough to kill her. There's no way this does enough damage.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tiny damage numbers poppped out of my self, and I watched first Valkyr's shield slowly faded, and then her health began to dwindle—until, just before I ran out of energy, her health bar fell down to zero—Mission Complete.

I'm sitting there slack-jawed, astonished. There's no way this ridiculous puddle move just completely annihilated this invincible boss. But, it did. It happened. I made it to Jupiter. All thanks to this absolute boi, Hydroid—my new main. With the power of Hydroid's puddle, I ran through the star system like a beast. Jupiter fell and I moved on to Europa; Europa was defeated and I went to Saturn; Saturn was finished and I went to Uranus.

"Operator, a new quest is available," said the Lotus. And I had a funny thing on top of my screen that just said "NATAH."

Hm! I wonder what that is. Oh well. And I returned to my delightful grind. Some of these planets had bosses, so I had to farm for new Warframes. I had finally figured out how to buy blueprints from the market, so I was making new weapons. All this stuff had to get leveled up, so I went back and ran missions, defense missions—I figured out how to do Void Relics (sort of), and also tried to finally do some bounties—Earth only, Venus and Deimos were still wicked hard. And whenever I got back to my ship after a successful mission—

"NATAH." Hm! What a meaningless word. Sounds like a main quest. No thanks! Why do MSQ when I could grind, explore, and waste time?

So another hundred hours passed. I was starting to get good at the game! I leveled up my weapons and my Warframes and finally figured out how to fuse mods, so I crammed all my weapons full of as much damage as I could. Orokin Catalysts and Forma were still years away from my mind, though—but, it seemed to me that I was as strong as I could possibly get. I thought about the guitar guy, blowing up the entire map constantly without even moving—how can I get that strong? I thought about the K-drive, the Archwings, the Necramechs—all the weird stuff this game has invented. Maybe there's more weird things later? Maybe I have to... do story to unlock things?

It was finally time. I had done as much as I could, but it was finally time to do the MSQ. So, I took up this new quest, NATAH. It was like the other quests—you do normal missions while the NPCs talk over you. It was kind of interesting, because it got into the Lotus's story a little bit. Neat! But, unlike other main quests or side quests, this didn't give me a new orbiter segment to unlock some new machines to let me do something different. This didn't even give me a new Warframe blueprint! But, it unlocked another main quest. Ah, so this is how it's gonna be? But one MSQ at a time. Let's let it digest a bit. So, maybe tomorrow I'll do this next quest...

The Second Dream.

Dear reader. Dire reader. Dour reader. Nothing could have prepared me for the Second Dream—and this was the best possible experience I could've had. Legions of fans telling me "Just wait till the Second Dream!" would've tipped me off that something big is going to happen, and my whole attitude would've been different. My expectations would've been high, and perhaps even the profound experience that it was wouldn't've been enough. I assure you, I'm getting the chills writing about it, just thinking about it.

The Second Dream was like nothing else in the game. The missions started normally—well, not really. It started with a cutscene. Had the game ever had cutscenes before? Other than Fortuna, that is. After the intro, you do normal missions with voice-overs, like before. It has to do with... things I don't understand. Did I forget the story? Is it supposed to be mysterious? Lotus talks about her father, there's a Sentient, there's a Stalker—we proceed with the mission, and then things really come unzipped.

From the beginning of the game, I noticed something wrong with the star chart: where's the Moon? Well, not every body in the solar system is represented; Europa's its own world, but Io, Callisto, and Ganymede are just individual missions on Jupiter. Ceres and Eris are their own worlds, but not Makemake or Haumea. But, it turns out I was right to wonder, because in this quest, we're teleported to somewhere we've never seen before: the Moon. It turns out there's a lot of lore surrounding the Moon, something special is there, and through the plot, the Moon is added to the star chart—a new world to explore, a new tileset to play in!

But of course, that's not all, because once we venture into the Moon, we find something very special: the Reservoir, the power source of the Tenno, the spirits that control the Warframes. Right from the game's very first opening cutscene, we saw the still Warframes, silent until the spirit of the Tenno entered them. We, the player, are the Tenno, controlling the Warframes. That's why, when you select the Warframe, you're not "putting it on" like armor, so much as you're activating it, and controlling it from afar—it's a little bit meta, the way Ordis always addressed you, the player, as "Operator," not talking to the Warframe itself. Lotus would say things like "Your Warframe is low on power," not "You're low on power."

There's another cutscene. Deep in the Moon, we find the Reservoir, a lotus-like set of pods. One comes out, and from it comes... a person. And—our Warframe drops dead immediately.

The cutscene continues. My nose is an inch from the screen. This is captivating. I've been playing this game for a couple hundred hours, and only now we're getting cinematic story like FFXIV started with. Imagine if you had been playing Tetris for years, and you finally get to the kill screen—and it zooms out and it was Karl Jobst playing at an arcade machine in a bar this whole time, and now you're watching him. Imagine if you've been playing Minecraft and terraformed a whole world, and then Steve turns to the camera and says, "Now... we can finally begin playing."

The human crawls over to the Warframe, touching it with a glow, and the Warframe picks them up. The Stalker appears—but hesitates. The voice of the Sentient threatens to attack, and then you're playing again. You're playing—but it's different. You're still carrying the person. Your Warframe powers are gone, you can't use your normal weapons, and these monsters are attacking you—what else can you do but point and click?

And it fires! The person you're carrying raises their hand a blast of energy annihilates these monsters. You carry them to safety as they blast hordes of these strange new enemies, and reach extraction—you're back to the safety of your ship.

Ah! Your beloved orbiter. You've been playing for hundreds of hours. You know this ship like the back of your syandana! Well, except for those weird closed doors at the back. Lotus instructs you to take the person to the back of the ship—oh, what? Wait—those closed doors? Really? We're going to find out what's in there? You go to the back of the ship, and then, all of the sudden, the doors open, as if they always could. Inside is a mysterious chamber containing one of those pods from before—and the Stalker! This time, he attacks you himself, and the person you're carrying fends him off with their power. You bring them to the chair, but he pushes you away, and you drop the person. The link is broken. You—your Warframe falls dead again, and the Stalker stabs it with his mysterious talking sword. The Stalker grabs the person, lifting them off the ground by the neck... and then you—your Warframe comes to life, grabs the sword—and breaks it. The Stalker is destroyed, and in a flash of light, both you and the person are out cold.

But then... someone picks up the person. It's not you, your Warframe is lying still. It's—the Lotus. On your actual ship. She puts the person in the pod, and then there's a pulse of light. The Warframe moves again.

"Now we fight on two fronts, my child. The war without—and the war within..."

This is mindblowing. This is beyond anything that's ever happened in this game. It's like if you were playing Pac-man and then suddenly after level 69, 2001: A Space Odyssey starts playing. This is a profound shift in everything about the game's... everything!

And then, and then, AND THEN...

...it dumps you into character creation.

This is what you are.

After hundreds of hours of gameplay, after traipsing across the entire solar system, after, for some people, years of playing—

Tutorial complete. Welcome to Warframe.

This is, bar absolutely none, the single greatest moment in any game I've ever played. You know FFXIV is my favorite game, but moment by moment, it doesn't have an absolute wham line like this. This is on the same level—beyond, really—but the only thing that comes close to holding a candle is the E ending of Nier Automata, Rom in Bloodborne, or the World of Ruin in FFVI. But even all of those were presaged by the game's tone, clearly building up to, and showing the potential for, a moment like this. FFVI had a map that teased the whole thing, in fact.

Character creation. Hundreds of hours into the game. Out of nowhere. Like I said, nothing could have prepared me for this—nothing should have, either. This completely blindsided me. It completely changed everything about the game. It turned everything I expected on its head. It's like fighting Psycho Mantis and finding out he knows you played Castlevania. It's like learning that the ghost is always behind you in PT. This is beyond "outside the box," this is in a whole different box factory.

And I'm just talking about the meta impact! To say nothing about the lore—when Ordis was talking to the "Operator," when Lotus was talking the Tenno, they weren't talking to you, the player—they were talking to your real character, the Tenno who was asleep in the Reservoir this whole time. This is who you are.

This is who you are. When I got to the character create screen—I didn't change a thing. I couldn't. I wasn't just creating a character at the beginning of the game like some lesser game like Elden Ring, I have been this person the whole time. I did fix her voice, though, I admit that much. She looks like... Nathan Explosion. I didn't mean to pick a girl this time, either, that's just... what it gave me. (Can you even change their body and give them boobs? Or you just differentiate gender by voice selection?) This is who you are. This is who you've always been.

After the bombshell, I was hooked. I played nonstop, day and night, week in, week out, for months on end. Warframe shot to the top of my charts; I wasn't playing Chiclet's game just to humor my pal, this was my game now. I was into it. And, of course, I finally started to learn. I got into Forma, Lenses, started cracking open Void Relics left and right, started churning out new weapons and Warframes, did Railjack missions, tried Lunaro (lol), syndicates, bounties, you name it—everything, of course, except main story. I had to let this soak. And, Warframe is a horizontal progression game, unlike FFXIV. Every step you take unlocks a thousand hours of grinding to get your Rivens and Kuvas and whatever—I'm getting ahead of myself, though.

I was completely addicted to Warframe, not even FFXIV could pull me back. The only thing that got me to stop grinding MR was Lies of P, and after that, the furor had died out, so it was a little while before I got back into Warframe some more. When I did, I finally did the next story quest, the War Within—this was also excellent, better cinematically, but the bombshell could not compete with the Second Dream. However, with the War Within, I had some big new grinds unlocked: Eidolon hunts (actually this came with the Second Dream, but I didn't figure it out until then) and Kuva weapons. Kuva weapons. I'd heard of these! I'd seen millions of players with these special weapons that go to rank forty—forty!—and have a million words in their names, someone comes in with "Dax Thrall Suva Kuva Zarr" and just blows up all of Helene in one shot. Here, surely, lay the path to greatness! And with Eidolons, I could get Arcanes, which I vaguely knew about from glancing at builds on websites, builds which had lots of mods and these Arcanes I knew jack shit about. After the New War The War Within [typo], it was time to shelve story for a while; I had a lot of grinding to do.

Let me rewind quite a bit. All the way to the beginning. When I first began playing, I did figure out that if you press Equip on your Warframe in the Arsenal, you could see a list of every Warframe. For a very long time, every time I browsed that list I saw some names I was sure I hadn't seen before. I had to start with Mag, of course, but... which Warframe was the one for me? Which one looked the coolest, had the best powers, the most interesting lore? I instantly discounted some ugly ones, like Hildryn, and some with stupid names, like Hydroid. We see how that turned out. As usual, I was looking for a cute girl... but these were all very strange, weird, alien robot monsters. Lavos—he was the last boss in Chrono Trigger, maybe go after him. Sevagoth, that's similar to Sephiroth, but he looks weird. Ember, Frost, Volt... I don't really go in for these "elemental" things unless it's a superlative element. So like, holy or dark, that'd be a cool theme. Speaking of themes—music! When you click each one, it takes you to a page where you can see their skills, read their lore, and it also plays their theme music. Or, some music anyway, there's some repeats, I guess it's just some generic music. Yeah, Garuda, Gauss, Gyre, these all have the same music, Harrow—

Rap. Tap. Tap.

Okay well this is different. An eerie, industrial grind, haunting, strange whispers—this is very interesting indeed! I read his lore—he's a void priest?! Okay, now that severely fucks. I read his moves—whoa. This guy's got all kinds of support buffs? Well, that's certainly a lot more interesting than "This attacks in a cone, this attacks in a line, this attacks in a circle." Okay. I'm sold. How do I unlock this guy? According to the thing ingame, you have to do the "Chains of Harrow" quest on Pluto or the Void or something. Okay, well, then I just have to plow ahead to the Void and I'll be able to get him! Oh, neat, it looks like Phobos has a shortcut to the Void!

...anyway, that didn't happen, obviously. This was still my first weekend. Once I started to learn how to get other stuff, I forgot about Harrow, but still had him in the back of my mind. And, a while later—around the Second Dream session—I had finally gotten the hang of Void Relics. I had tried to get them before, way at the beginning, because I saw "Octavia Prime" and "Nezha Prime," and I recognized them as Warframes—a couple I thought looked pretty cool, in fact. I had no idea Primes were a different version, I thought it meant... "This is the primary part to make it," or something. Of course, day one player, I couldn't get all the things I needed from mere Lith Relics, and the higher levels were beyond me. It wasn't until much later, when I had access to more stuff, that I began to realize—oh, hey. I might be able to get a Prime Warframe! Wouldn't that be cool.

I jumped into Void Relics until I had exhausted my supply, went to grind more, and crack them again. I got so many parts for so many things, but never everything for anything. I just kept aimlessly grinding, getting 3/4 of everything, but something always eluded me.

Dire reader, you know what Void Relics happened to be in the rotation at that time? Why, none other than Harrow Prime's. I noticed it, of course, and grabbed the blueprints when they were available. And it wasn't until after doing a lot of grinding that I sat down and said, okay, what exactly do I have? I went through my foundry to see what I had, what I was close to, what I might be able to finish off—and, surely enough, I had three pieces of Harrow. All I needed were the Harrow Prime Neuroptics, which were the rare thing from an Axi, I think. But, I had some Axis. We had a mission, and from then on, I was grinding with focus, farming Axi relics, upgrading them for the maximum chance at the rare, and cracking them—in full parties, of course, in case anyone else had one. And so it wasn't long before it happened: Harrow Prime Neuroptics. I had all the pieces I needed. I had all the materials, I had the Argon Crystals—I was going to have my first Prime Warframe! And it was going to be Harrow.

I love Harrow—though, he is admittedly hard to use well, and having one "press this button to blow up the room" ability would be nice... but he's stylish, he's cool, he's mine. I used him a lot once I got him—he's a Prime! He's better than anyone!—but he wasn't my last Prime frame by far. Soon came Nidus Prime, Garuda Prime, Wisp Prime, Baruuk Prime, and more, and more, and more... Now, he's just one of dozens in my stable—but I still remember how he was the first one that stood out to me. In fact, dear reader, I reordered things a little—I got Harrow before I did the Second Dream, and it was as Harrow that I did it. He's my Story Frame—although another one I've had my eye on for a while, Baruuk, is really making a run for the top spot. Baruuk, the "patient monk," always caught my eye, being at the top of the alphabet as he is, so I'd always be starting at him when I was picking which frame to play today. I really enjoy his "neutral" theme, the commonality in his 1-3 abilities, and the absolute astonishing power of his 4 (my record is 2.3M damage). And Harrow did get stabbed through the chest with War (which is his "official" weapon now... every Warframe has "their" weapons to me, so if I want to use the Boar, I just have to play Hydroid, that's just how I am) so maybe he needs a break.

But, dear reader, this brings me back to the image at the very top of this brief post: the quest "Chains of Harrow" is my next story quest. Truth be told, it has been next for a little while—but it had to take a back seat, of course, for side quests like Octavia and Titania, and a little thing called, you know, Dawntrail. But Dawntrail is done. All my sidequests are done. There's nothing left. The way is clear. It's time to return to the beginning—to Harrow. And then...

...and then...

The New War— ...which, if the number of quests that have it as a prerequisite, and the fact that it doesn't even show up as a future quest, are anything to go by... this will change everything.

EPILOGUE

There's a few things I can talk about that I didn't include here. Duviri. Sevagoth. Lavos and Yareli. That one time I had six Warframes going at once and thought "whoa I'm finally getting this game!" And probably more... but these are the main beats.

Thanks for reading. Why do you keep doing that? I just don't get it...

[iztea]

hello iz ik it's such a cliche question and idk if you've already answered that but- how do you learnt drawing humans??? like everyone says practice but i don't know how and i struggle so much :( thanks already for answering!! i really really love your art

hi!

the very regulated, academic, objectively correct bs answer: learn the fundamentals, study and practice!

the unhinged, off-the-counter, cool uncle from your dad's side of the family answer:

Imo, the best way to learn how to draw on your own is to reference and study other people's art. There is no need for you to reinvent the wheel, and if you are a beginner and have no idea what you're doing, tackling multiple fundamentals at once can overwhelm and demotivate you quite a lot. So, for your morale and motivation, I think it is totally okay to just observe multiple artworks from multiple artists and engage with them critically ( * N.B. : artistS - plural; by referencing multiple works, you lower the risk of accidentally becoming a copycat or locking yourself into an art style that will never be as good as the original because it was not yours)

What I mean by critically engaging with an artwork is to analyze how they're tackling difficult body parts that you struggle with. For example, let's say you can't/don't know how to draw legs. Look at a picture of a real human leg, observe how someone else has simplified that leg form and anatomy, and then try to recreate it. Don't just copy their linework 1 to 1. That is not the point. Do it your own way, incorporate aspects of others' art that you like, and make them yours. You should have 5++ references of that leg from 5++ different artists. There are maany people out there who post their studies online, raw sketches or structural drawings (TB Choi comes to mind for example). Look for people like them, and if you can't find someone, then Pinterest is your bff. When learning how to draw, hunting the internet for how people sketch >>> rendered art. If speedpaints are more your thing, then youtube has you covered. Personally, I've learned more from a 20 min speedpaint with nightcore bgm and zero annotations from some guy that doesnt even speak english that has 300 views than I've learned from 10 min long art tutorials from fluent english speakers with 1 mil views. At the end of the day, we can yap and theorise as much as we want, but it's the act of drawing that brings results and seeing how other people draw is sometimes worth a thousand words.

> References in general also help a lot. I can't tell you how many times I was too lazy to look something up and spent 14235 hours trying to draw it off the top of my head only to have it done in 10 minutes once I finally gave in and pulled up a reference. So yeah, always use references. Don't be like me this is actually a bad habit

Okay, but how to /use/ that reference if you're a beginner? Very simple: draw on top of it ( *Do Not trace the outlines, that's pointless if you actually want to learn something). Draw guidelines over the body parts, deconstruct and simplify the ref into just boxes and lines ( always think in 3D ). This will help a lot with keeping the proportions in check. You can start by drawing those guidelines first and then get into details. Kinda like in sculpture: you start with a big block of a rock, and then you slowly carve and build form and then detail. The more you draw, the less you will need those guidelines as you get a feeling for the proportions yourself and will no longer need this step.

Once you become more confident in your skills or have a "sense" for drawing and you are in too deep to just give up after hitting your first wall, then you can tackle the scary intimidating stuff that is art fundamentals ( or you can do them simultaneously, all I'm trying to say is to never forget that you are not the only drawer in the world; looking in your neighbor's yard is totally okay within the reasons of common sense ). You don't have to raise and milk a cow it to make butter, you can just buy it from the store. If you want to bake a cake, a beginner chef will use store-bought cake mix because they have no idea how to cook. Once they learn the science behind baking (because it really is a science) they will buy their own ingredients and then improve or personalize the cake with better, well-researched ingredients, they will add their own twist, flavours, adjust the macros, perfect the technique and so on.

This is how I've personally learned how to draw by myself bc I'm self-taught and didn't care for formalities as it's just a hobby of mine that I do for fun. If you want proper advice you should probably listen to more qualified people but I can only preach what I practice.. Anywayssss hope it helped!!

[hob28]

AI Deep Learning Online Course: Mastering Advanced Techniques

Embarking on an AI deep learning online course is a transformative journey for students and professionals alike. Deep learning, a subset of artificial intelligence (AI), focuses on training algorithms to learn from data and make intelligent decisions, mimicking the human brain's neural networks. This guide explores the importance of deep learning education, key concepts covered, choosing the right course, popular platforms, and career opportunities in this dynamic field.

1. Introduction to AI Deep Learning Online Course

Diving into the realm of deep learning through an online course provides a structured pathway for individuals keen on mastering advanced AI techniques. These courses offer comprehensive insights into neural networks, convolutional neural networks (CNNs), recurrent neural networks (RNNs), and generative adversarial networks (GANs), among other cutting-edge technologies shaping AI innovation.

2. Importance of Learning AI Deep Learning

Deep learning plays a pivotal role in modern AI applications, from image and speech recognition to autonomous vehicles and healthcare diagnostics. Understanding and applying deep learning principles are essential for driving innovation and solving complex problems across various industries, making specialized education in this field highly valuable.

3. Key Concepts Covered in AI Deep Learning Courses

AI deep learning courses typically cover fundamental and advanced concepts:

Neural Networks: Building blocks of deep learning models that mimic the human brain's structure.

Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs): Specialized for image and video analysis, enabling tasks like object detection and image classification.

Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs): Effective for sequential data processing, used in natural language processing and time series prediction.

Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs): Used for generating new data instances, enhancing images, and creating realistic simulations.

4. Choosing the Right AI Deep Learning Course

Selecting the right AI deep learning course involves considering several factors:

Course Structure: Evaluate the course outline, modules, and learning objectives to ensure they align with your learning goals.

Instructor Expertise: Choose courses led by experienced professionals with practical industry experience in deep learning.

Platform Credibility: Opt for reputable online learning platforms like Coursera, edX, Udacity, and specialized AI academies known for their high-quality courses.

Hands-On Projects: Look for courses that offer hands-on projects and practical exercises to reinforce theoretical concepts and enhance learning outcomes.

Student Reviews: Read reviews and testimonials from past learners to gauge the course's effectiveness and relevance.

5. Popular Platforms for AI Deep Learning Courses

Explore leading platforms offering AI deep learning courses:

Coursera: Offers courses from top universities and industry experts, including deep learning specializations.

edX: Provides courses in collaboration with prestigious institutions like MIT and Microsoft, focusing on AI and machine learning.

Udacity: Known for nanodegree programs that combine theoretical knowledge with hands-on projects mentored by industry professionals.

6. Course Curriculum and Learning Objectives

A typical AI deep learning course curriculum includes:

Introduction to Deep Learning: Basics of neural networks and deep learning frameworks.

Advanced Topics: CNNs, RNNs, GANs, and their applications in image recognition, natural language processing, and more.

Practical Applications: Hands-on projects to implement deep learning algorithms and analyze real-world datasets.

7. Hands-On Projects and Practical Exercises

Hands-on experience is crucial for mastering AI deep learning techniques:

Image Classification: Implementing CNNs to classify images and improve accuracy.

Natural Language Processing: Building RNN models for sentiment analysis and language generation.

GANs Projects: Creating realistic images or videos using generative adversarial networks.

8. Career Opportunities in AI Deep Learning

AI deep learning expertise opens doors to diverse career paths:

Data Scientist: Analyzing large datasets and developing predictive models using deep learning techniques.

Machine Learning Engineer: Designing and deploying machine learning systems for automated decision-making.

AI Researcher: Conducting groundbreaking research in neural networks and advancing AI technologies.

AI Specialist: Consulting on AI projects and implementing solutions across industries.

9. Student Success Stories and Testimonials

Real-life examples of students benefiting from AI deep learning courses:

Career Advancement: Securing roles at leading tech companies and research institutions.

Skill Enhancement: Applying deep learning knowledge to solve complex problems and innovate in AI applications.

Networking Opportunities: Connecting with industry experts and peers through course communities and events.

10. Conclusion

Enrolling in an AI deep learning online course equips you with the knowledge and skills to thrive in the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence. By choosing a reputable course, engaging in hands-on projects, and leveraging practical experience, you can accelerate your career growth and contribute to cutting-edge AI innovations.

Closing Thoughts

Investing in AI deep learning education is an investment in your future, empowering you to tackle global challenges and drive technological advancements. Start your journey today by exploring AI deep learning courses that align with your goals and aspirations, and embark on a fulfilling career in artificial intelligence.

[lgbtransgirl]

Warframe Beginners Guide

Have you been wanting to get into Warframe, trying to get a friend into Warframe, or are already playing and struggling?

This can be your full guide to the basics of Warframe, feel free to share and send this around!

What is Warframe?

Warframe is a sci-fi fantasy 3rd person co-operative shooter game. It is free to play with zero paywalls and no pay-to-play aspects. It has dozens of hours of amazing animated story quests, cutscenes, and dozens of NPCs for you to meet and interact with.

This game is +10 years old with that much content. +10 years of content. If it feels like too much, just take a breather and step back. You don't need to know all of this, just take a look when you're confused or frustrated. Its an amazingly fun game but you can't start a hobby/game by diving into the deep end on late game mechanics and story (So push aside all the stuff you've seen for Warframe 1999 it will make sense in time)

And yes, there is both cross-save and cross platform play.

And for the love of stars above, play your first handful of missions on solo until you are comfortable playing with people who will speed blitz through the levels. Many high level players will knock out earlier missions for one reason or another and entering a stage and realizing extraction is ready before the lotus is done yapping isn't always a great feeling, so take it slow.

How do I play?

In general, its a 3rd person shooter. You have a primary weapon, a secondary weapon, a melee weapon, a companion (you don't start with one), and your Warframe. Each Warframe you play as has 4 different activated abilities and a passive ability, meaning they all play very differently. You go from node to node on the star-map battling enemies and trying to gather resources and defeat the enemy factions of the game. For now, just worry about doing that.

The movement is difficult

It can be, but it takes time to learn. Its a new game, and the unique movement keeps it fluid regardless of what you're playing. Take some time and experiment If you need a stress free environment to practice, try bullet jumping and rolling around an open world lobby like Cetus or Fortuna to practice.

Why am I not doing enough damage?

Mods. No, not game Mods. In Warframe you will pick up mods that allow you to change your weapon to deal additional damage types, enhance the critical chance or damage, modify fire rate, and many more. This is the main progression mechanic. Almost anything in Warframe is viable as long as you mod it, so there is a lot to cover.

How do I use Mods?

In your arsenal, which you unlock during the tutorial quest "Vor's Prize" you have the ability to modify/upgrade your equipment with Mods. Each mod has a lot on their display but your main focus should be the cost of the mod (top right) and the description of what it does (bottom).

What does the cost mean?

Each piece of equipment can be leveled up from levels 0 to 30. At level 0 they have 15 mod capacity, and for every 2 levels the equipment gains the mod capacity increases by 1 (So 30 mod capacity at level 30) Remember this cost is only for that piece of equipment, you can mod every part of your build including Warframes, all weapons, and your companions

I'm at max capacity and still not doing enough to get through my missions Upgrade your mods. I will explain why this is way more important that you may think Weapon-A is rank 0 (15 mod capacity) has a base damage of 100 and you have a fire elemental mod (Hellfire) and a cold elemental mod (Cryo Rounds), both with a base total of 6 mod cost each and giving +15% damage. With a total of 12 mod capacity you can make your weapon deal 100+30% elemental damage. Or Weapon-A still being rank 0 with 15 mod capacity and 100 damage has a single elemental mod installed on to it, max level Cryo Rounds (11 cost for +90% cold damage). So now that mod, with 1 more capacity for other mods to wriggle in, deals 100+90% elemental damage. Upgrading your mods can make you soar

How do I get new weapons/Warframes?

Firstly, you can use in game currency to purchase blueprints from Weapons normally only need specific resources and then can be crafted, so the hunt for that isn't bad. Warframes needs parts blueprints to be acquired and the built, usually a systems, chassis, and neuroptics. These can be obtained from defeating bosses in Assassination missions (Except for Vor on Mercury, he gives 2 weapons).

What the hell is mastery rank and why are weapons locked behind it?

Mastery rank is a lot of things, but all you need to focus on is this:

Mastery Rank is based on how many unique weapons and Warframes you have leveled up

As Mastery Rank increases, so does your base mod capacity (If MR > Weapon level, then it uses the mod capacity of your MR rather than the weapon level)

It is a way to slowly introduce weapons and funky unique mechanics with said weapons to players instead of bombarding them

It limits how much progress you can make with any given faction in a real world day, so if you want to level up your standing with a faction you should also focus on leveling up your mastery rank

What are Relics? (Lith, Meso, Axi, etc)

Your one-stop-shop for "prime" materials. Primed weapons and Warframes are special versions that have increased base stats to make your modding have that little bit of extra oomph You take the relic into a relic mission and kill the golden glowing enemies. They have a chance to drop reactant, a resource you need 10 of before you complete your objective. if you get the 10 reactant, you will get one of the 6 rewards from your relic. If you play with other people, you will have the choice between all of the opened relics once you complete your objective meaning that if you got something you already have and your buddy gets something super rare, everyone can just choose to get the super rare thing.

This game seems like it is very grindy/has a lot of grinding.

The one downfall to Warframe F2P is time. Crafting times, time spent in the open worlds gathering resources, time spent popping open relics, its the only thing premium currency can help you with. If it helps, don't spend your time actively trying to do the thing to get the thing to do the thing to get the thing to- Just relax and have fun. I've spent god knows how long mining and fishing in the open worlds because I thought it was super fun and neat, and when I started trying to progress through those areas stories and factions I had tons of resources to do exactly that. Don't rush. Take time to enjoy the game, Warframe isn't going anywhere for a long time.

However I heard they are working on a system to allow players to get un-tradeable premium currency by doing certain quests/missions a few updates for now, so whatever that may be if we get it could help.

How does Warframe/Digital Extremes stay afloat?

They Listen To The Playerbase And Maximize Potential Fun Rather Than Profits.

DE rarely nerfs things and instead likes us to have a power fantasy of a game where we can kill hundreds of enemies in a few blows and light up rooms like a firework show gone wrong. They make their game so fun to play and stay responsive with the player base so people feel inclined to spend money because "I love this game and hope they keep making more" I've probably sunk ~$200 into Warframe and I will keep giving them my money because I love the game. I don't feel pressured to do this, I don't even really feel stressed or worried about FOMO because Warframe always comes through with the ability to nab things from old events and even bringing some back around for a 2nd time.

If you have any further questions, comments, or concerns, please let me know and I will add it to this list!

[sarkariresultdude]

"Study Smarter: Expert-Recommended Tools and Materials for Students"

 Whether you're a excessive faculty student, university undergraduate, or lifelong learner, having the proper have a look at substances can extensively enhance how efficaciously you analyze and retain know-how. Below is a curated list of encouraged resources labeled by means of topics, getting to know styles, and desires, overlaying each traditional and virtual codecs.

Study Materials For Students 

1. 📖 General Study Materials

Books

A have to-study for all rookies, this book explores proof-based mastering techniques and helps you increase greater effective study behavior.

"How to Read a Book" by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren

Teaches analytical reading strategies and how to approach distinct genres of texts seriously.

Stationery & Tools

Highlighters, sticky notes, flashcards, notebooks (ideally sectioned or dot-grid)

Apps like Notion, Obsidian, or Evernote for virtual be aware-taking

Use Pomodoro timers like Focus Keeper or TomatoTimer for time management

2. 🧠 Cognitive and Memory Aids

Flashcards

Anki – Spaced repetition software program first-rate for memorizing anything from scientific terms to vocabulary

Quizlet – User-friendly with heaps of pre-made sets for almost each challenge

Mind Mapping Tools

XMind or MindMeister – Great for visual rookies and organizing complex ideas

3. 📘 Subject-Specific Recommendations

🌍 Humanities and Social Sciences

History

"A People's History of america" by way of Howard Zinn – A fresh, alternative perspective

CrashCourse History on YouTube – Fun, speedy-paced, and informative

Oxford History Series – Detailed but on hand instructional sources

Literature

The Norton Anthology of English Literature – Comprehensive and properly-commented

SparkNotes and CliffsNotes – Great for summaries, subject matters, and quick evaluations

Poetry Foundation – Great for knowledge poems and their analyses

Philosophy

"Sophie's World" with the aid of Jostein Gaarder – Fictional introduction to philosophical standards

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) – Free, instructional-stage articles

🔬 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics)

Mathematics

Khan Academy – Free tutorials from basic mathematics to multivariable calculus

Paul’s Online Math Notes – College-degree notes and worked examples

Brilliant.Org – Interactive math problems and puzzles

Physics

"Fundamentals of Physics" via Halliday, Resnick & Walker – A staple for undergraduates

MinutePhysics and Physics Girl on YouTube – Bite-sized physics defined

HyperPhysics – Visual-based on-line physics concept map

Chemistry

ChemCollective – Virtual labs and trouble units

Organic Chemistry as a Second Language with the aid of David Klein – Excellent for understanding difficult standards

Periodic Videos (YouTube) – Fun deep dives into the periodic table

Biology

Campbell Biology – Comprehensive and general for maximum university-degree courses

Bozeman Science – Great video content for AP and university biology

BioInteractive (HHMI) – Interactive resources and animations

Computer Science

CS50 by way of Harvard (edX) – Free, newbie-pleasant intro to CS

freeCodeCamp – Free interactive studying in coding and net development

Cracking the Coding Interview by using Gayle Laakmann McDowell – For technical interview prep

Languages and Communication

English (and ESL)

Grammarly – Writing help and grammar checking

The Elements of Style via Strunk and White – Classic writing guide

BBC Learning English – Free resources for vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar

Foreign Languages

Duolingo – Great for beginners

LingQ and Pimsleur – For immersive language studying

HelloTalk / Tandem – Connect with local audio system for actual conversations

four. 🎓 Test Prep Materials

ACT Prep Black Book by means of Mike Barrett

Khan Academy’s free SAT prep – In partnership with College Board

GRE/GMAT

Manhattan Prep Series – Strong for both GRE and GMAT

Magoosh – Affordable, digital-first gaining knowledge of platform

Official ETS GRE Guide – Direct from the check makers

Medical (MCAT, USMLE)

Kaplan Series / Princeton Review – Comprehensive applications

Anki Decks (like MilesDown for MCAT) – Top-rated for memorization

SketchyMedical – Visual mnemonics for microbiology and pharmacology

5. 🧘 Mental Health and Study Techniques

Wellness Apps

Headspace / Calm – Meditation and mindfulness apps to enhance attention

Forest – Encourages you to stay off your cellphone while you look at

Study Bunny – A cute gamified productivity app

Study Methods

Pomodoro Technique – 25 minutes paintings, 5-minute smash

Feynman Technique – Teach the idea in easy phrases to yourself

Active Recall + Spaced Repetition – Proven satisfactory for lengthy-time period retention

6. 🖥️ Digital Platforms and Online Learning

Coursera – Offers publications from top universities in really all fields

EdX – Similar to Coursera; first rate for incomes certificate

Udemy – Huge library of affordable ability-primarily based guides

YouTube Channels – CrashCourse, Veritasium, CGP Grey, Kurzgesagt, and extra

7. 📅 Organizing Your Studies

Planning Tools

Google Calendar – For scheduling classes, study classes, and reminders

Trello or Todoist – For handling responsibilities and assignments