#i haven't practiced with a tutorial in a long time

[didderd]

Tou and Marsh are workout buddies. and Tou convinced Marsh to flex for a pic. after Marsh rolled his eyelights at Tou flexing at his phone. :3

(i might draw a Tou flexing pic some time to go with this hehe)

[gingersnappish]

A Big Collection of Art Tutorials

I find art tutorials really useful and also, sometimes quite far-flung. I'll come across one cool resource here and another incredibly helpful post in a totally different place, months later. I've been collecting bits and pieces of art advice that ease my way for a long time now, and I wanted to make a post to share some of the good art resources I've come found all in one place! GENERAL RESOURCES The Etherington Bros. have an enormous repertoire of drawing advice on their blog and I find almost all of it spot on! Griz and Norm have an incredible tumblr chock full of tutorials!

Drawing Den is a great tumblr that collects how-to-draw resources! Zephy.fr has some lovely free tutorials on their Insta (their main site is paid, but I've found the free resources to be quite helpful all on their own)

Sycra has a truly wonderful YT channel comprising a zillion vids on practically every topic - he's been going a long time and it's all excellent (his stuff on human anatomy and figure really fixed some difficulties for me)! DRAWING PEOPLE THIS is my favorite basic breakdown on expressions! A HELPFUL WAY to conceptualize drawing hair! People are complex - simplifying with CLEAR SILHOUETTE helps!

Aging or de-aging characters can be rough- THIS HELPS imo! WHEELCHAIRS are easy to get wrong if you don't have one/haven't studied how to draw them - and this is a very helpful remedy!

CLOTHES Hats are difficult to get sitting right and THIS POST helps a lot!

Suits and formal clothing can be A Lot: THIS LAYS IT OUT helpfully!

Historical Menswear is tricky: TRY THIS LINK by Shoomlah

And as always.... DON'T FORGET TO STRETCH YOUR HANDS!!!

(this makes a big difference in the long run, I can't emphasize enough that you oughta try a little stretching on the regular!)

[kiemiu]

𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐣𝐨𝐜𝐤!𝐜𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐝!𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 . . .

jock!chris who can't help but stare. Sharing a class with you, let alone his favorite one, was something Chris looked forward to. It was motivation for him to get out of bed, even if he'd just end up staring at the side of your face for the entire period. Always taking notice of the new hairstyle you're trying out, or a new sweater you've never worn before, he even notices when you've gotten new frames for your glasses. He's entirely absorbed by your presence even when you don't pay him any mind. But when you do start to feel his piercing stare and you look his way, it always catches him off guard. Sometimes he'll wave, other times he'll look away as fast as possible, nearly giving himself whiplash. He'll sink down in his chair out of embarrassment whenever the teacher calls out his unfocused gaze. "Chris, am I teaching or is Miss Y/n? Because you haven't looked my way since you've sat down." If you ever pointed it out to him he only responds by saying "I can't help it! You're impossible to ignore."

jock!chris who awkwardly compliments you. Chris is confident and very self-assured, yet anytime he crosses paths with you he starts to feel like a little boy with his first elementary school crush again. Sometimes he'll stumble over his words, he can barely look you in the eye, and he's always fiddling with his hands. He can't stop himself from shoving his hands in his pockets or running his fingers through his hair, and if you're sitting down at a table he'll constantly drum his fingers against it until you ask him to stop. He doesn't understand how or why you have this effect on him, but it's so addicting and he can't help but crave you more and more each day.

jock!chris who'll defend you tooth and nail. When his jock friends and old party girl hookups that hang around his friend group start to notice him walking with you around campus, they start to tease him relentlessly. They'll say things like "Ooh, trying to get smarter by association by hanging out with that loser?", "Didn't know chunky sweaters and thick glasses were your type. You usually like your women half-naked.", and "Please, tell me you're not sleeping with that geek and you're just her month-long tour guide or something." Chris will genuinely become upset at the things they say about you and will argue tooth and nail, always defending you while simultaneously denying his feelings for you. His friends think it's funny how sensitive he can be over you, which only increases their teasing more much to Chris's dismay.

jock!chris who tries his hardest to impress you. He'll look up youtube tutorials of origami the night before your next class together and practice all throughout the night so he can do one in the middle of class and gift it to you. Instead of bringing one to class already premade, he thinks you'll be more impressed if he did it on the spot, which is why he memorized the steps despite it taking him all night to do so. Despite the lack of sleep he got and the growing bags under his eyes, the wide smile on your face made all of his hard work worth it. Now he does anything he can to see that smile on your face again. He randomly brings up fun facts about your favorite interests ( things you already know but feel too bad to say so because he genuinely looks happy that he learned something about you ), carrying around a book that he saw you recently read and pretend to read it in front of you, ( you know he's not reading it because he keeps looking at you every 5 seconds and the book is upside down ), opening bags of candy or twisting the cap off of your water bottle for you when it's too tight, and other minuscule things that he hopes you take notice of.

jock!chris who invites you to his games. He asks you if you've ever been to any school sports games and when you say 'No' he finds a way to slip an invitation to his upcoming games in every conversation. Your excuses pile up until you eventually end up running out of them and just give into his pleas. He'll be so happy when you finally accept his invitation and it shows in his performance. At practice he barely shows any signs of being tired, he's more hype than usual, and the smile on his face won't wipe off no matter what. On game day you're the very first person he looks for in the stands, refusing to focus on anything or anyone else until he sees you in the crowd. He starts to get a bit discouraged when he still doesn't spot you after the first few minutes of the game has already started, but after another play of chasing the ball, he'll turn his head back to the stands for the hundredth time that night and spot you walking down the steps of the bleachers to get a closer view, adorned in school colors like they were made for you. He waves at you as soon as he spots you, ignoring his coaches yells for him to focus. You'd wave back, slightly embarrassed at the amount of attention he attracted your way but still holding a smile on your face.

jock!chris who is now glued to you. Now that you've showed up to support him, he's stuck to your side. He starts walking you to your other classes, meeting up with you for lunch, ditching frat parties to accompany you to the library or a local cafe, and a lot more. He sends you memes on a daily basis, and sometimes a random pic of him at practice, encouraging you to send pics of yourself as well, even if you're just at the library studying or just woke up from a nap. He's practically glued to his phone when he's away from you, always waiting for the next notification from you, and smiling like a kid in a candy store when he receives it.

jock!chris who starts doing things for you without you having to ask. He's always done simple acts of service like open doors for you and other gentlemanly acts that his mom and dad taught him growing up, but as the two of you get closer, those actions become more prevalent. He'll wait for you when you have to tie your shoes, he'll carry your books for you, he'll stop by a cafe and get you something to drink, he fixes the collar of your jackets, and every now and then he'll adjust the frame of your glasses on the bridge of your nose. Things he doesn't even do for friends he's known for years he'll do for you, he just can't help but dote on you.

jock!chris who starts sitting next to you in class. Once you stop pushing him away and practically ignoring his presence, he takes it a step further by starting a routine of catching up to you on your way to class and sitting next to you. He'll poke you with his pencil when you're taking notes, he'll rip off pieces of paper from his notebook and write down random things like 'you look pretty' 'can i see your notes after class pls pls pls' and 'lunch later? my treat :)'. He also likes to subtly have one of his body parts touching yours, even if it's just his elbow grazing yours or your knee leaning against his, it all drives him crazy and he craves those interactions desperately.

jock!chris who secretly writes poems about you. Only time he's writing in his notebook during class is when he's admiring your features and wants to implement your perfections onto paper. It drives him crazy sometimes on how much you stick in his mind, he'll think about you at practice, in his other classes, at lunch, and even at parties that are thrown in his frat. Multiple delicate pieces of paper crumbled into the drawer of his nightstand, all about the same muse. In his solitude and the confines of his room, his imagination runs wild, and his words of affirmation are endless.

jock!chris who has never had to work for his feelings to be reciprocated but is prepared to for you.

jock!chris + nerd!reader masterlist | wc: 1.4k

' 𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕 ' 🌱: @emely9274 @ginswife @chrisstvrns @conspiracy-ash @lovetaylorrussellgrr @nervoussagittarius @sacaydia @chrissturnsss @hearts4werka @chrisprincesss @koilaniazul @starsforu @sturn777 @sturniolosiphone @chrissweetheart @sturnsmia @leaningoutthewindow @certainfestivalnerdshepherd @dominicfikeenthusiast @st4rcs

[sirfrogsworth]

I'm glad folks seem to like my light and effort photography post because I nearly melted my brain trying to write it. Every long post I write usually takes several days and a lot of mental discomfort. But I need to write for my sanity, so I keep on keepin' on.

My recovery is going so slow. In two months I have reduced the dose of the offending medication by 75%. Which sounds like a great success when you say it out loud, but it feels pretty miserable most of the time. The last 25% is proving to be much harder.

It is kind of a mindfuck because the worse I feel the more progress I am making. When I feel shitty, I feel productive. When I don't feel as bad, I feel guilty for slowing my progress.

I am bored because I struggle to concentrate. I am lonely because it is very hard to communicate with friends. My CFS is greatly exacerbated to where it feels like my limbs weigh a thousand pounds. My house continues to be a disaster zone because I can't clean. I barely have any counter space because I am too tired to wash dishes.

I've reached that point of desperation where I keep cleaning the same spoon over and over again.

I have simplified my self care to food, medicine, and sleep. I make sure I am eating. I make sure I take my meds. And I make sure I get as much sleep as possible. I will sort the rest out later.

I haven't been able to do any photography or photo editing in the last 4 months. I miss it very much. But creating that post and giving out photography advice helps a little. Even if it was difficult to write.

It's weird looking at my photography from over 7 years ago. It feels good that a lot of it still holds up. But I know so much more than I used to. Especially when it comes to studio lighting. I have all of this unrealized potential and no energy to create new photos. I have leveled up so much and it is frustrating when I can't show off what I'm capable of now. But I'm hoping if my recovery is successful I can finish building my home studio and photograph cool shit.

In the meantime, I do find photography education rewarding when I have the energy. If my body was fully cured tomorrow I think I would try to be an actual teacher of photography. I really enjoy sharing what I've learned and I think I am pretty good at it. The internet has been a great resource for knowledge but lately it feels like there is a lot of educational noise. It is really difficult for beginners to tell the difference between good and bad information. I look at some of these threads in the "Ask Photography" subreddit and many of the answers make me cringe.

I feel bad because I could really help some of these folks seeking answers but they are stuck with people who aren't really suited to educate. Either they don't know what they don't know and are too confident in their current expertise—causing slightly inaccurate to straight up confusing to blatantly wrong answers.

Or they do know their shit but are patronizing and arrogant to newbies.

I won't lie, there *are* stupid questions. But it is still best practice to act as if there are no stupid questions.

It's hard for me to criticize too much because I started a photography education Tumblr way before I was qualified to do so. I really thought I knew what I was talking about but I did not fully understand what I was teaching. I was mostly parroting what I heard from actual qualified educators. Thankfully when I look back at those posts all of the information is fairly accurate. It seems my saving grace was selecting good teachers.

Knowledge is so weird. You can have the correct information in your brain. You can use that information to get good results. But it is entirely possible to not understand that information.

I actually had a personal "eureka!" moment where everything unlocked almost all at once. I was watching a tutorial and the teacher talked about "image forming reflections" and it felt like every neuron in my brain fired at the same time. I had an epiphany and ever since I have had a deep understanding of light.

Just a single phrase inspired a realization that caused a cascade of other realizations. I've never experienced anything quite like that.

Have any of you ever had an epiphany like that? Aside from that single instance, I've only had mini-epiphanies. Like when I realized the moon is just constantly falling and missing the earth. My brain always imagined astronauts and satellites and the moon as things floating out in space. But everything in the universe is just free falling... all the time. Tom Petty knows what I'm talking about.

But that baby epiphany failed to unlock understanding for all of quantum gravity.

What was this post about?

I think I rambled into a few tangents.

In any case, I feel like crap and that's fantastic.

[selkiesharkpla]

GM Cannon II (Space Command Type)

It honestly feels a little surreal posting this right before the new year rolls in, but it also feels so satisfying to put this project behind me so that I can focus on my backlog in 2025. This is a project I started a few months ago at this point, and at long last I can properly show it to you all! It's a custom colour scheme that I decided to paint on the GM Cannon II.

If you don't care to read about the process of painting this thing and just want to see some extra pictures and angles of the finished product, scroll down to the end of the post :)

I like the design of this mobile suit but I thought the original colour scheme was kind of gross and unpleasant to look at, so I decided that I would use this kit as a practice to familiarise myself with brush painting techniques. I decided to go for something simple enough and just adapt the GM Space Command colour scheme to use with the GM Cannon II. In case you haven't seen what the kit looks like out of box, here it is:

I originally expected this project to take me a few weeks, but it ended up spanning months, and for a first time attempt at this, I'm actually very proud of it! I think it looks very clean, and despite the GM Cannon II kit being kind of a piece of hot garbage when it comes to articulation and stability, it served as a good practice kit that I considered to be low stakes.

I'm not going to go into the entire process in detail about how to paint this and instead I will just point you towards the Tea and Gunpla youtube channel, specifically their video about brush painting gunpla. All of the videos on their channel are extremely informative, to the point and act as great tutorials for improving your gunpla customization skills.

The Process (Summarised)

To summarise the steps it took from start to finish though, I first had to familiarise myself with how the kit is assembled and identify the seam lines I wanted to remove (mainly around the arms, shoulders and legs). I then had to remove those seam lines, either by using plastic cement or putty, and then I had to sand every single part down so that paint would adhere to it more easily.

From there, I could start painting the kit, initially priming all of the parts and then painting them all with the respective colours I wanted them to be.

From there, my usual process would be to assemble the painted pieces very carefully as to not chip any paint, and then brush paint on a layer of gloss varnish in order to protect the paint and prepare the piece for panel lining and decals. For the decals, I used G-Rework's GM II decals, since there are no decals to be found for the GM Cannon II specifically and the GM II decals looked very good and appropriate for this kit.

This process is repeated for the rest of the kit until everything is ready to be top coated with a matt spray coat.

I incorporated some additional techniques to make the painting process a bit easier for myself when working on this kit, and the main one I want to point out is the use of masking tape to cover parts that you don't want to paint over. I found this to be most useful when painting the bottom of the feet, as I wanted to paint the thrusters on the feet as well as extra details in order to make it look nice, but I didn't want to stress myself out with needing to be precise when painting.

Lessons Learned

I highly recommend using masking tape when painting those kinds of details on a piece, though do be careful with it as you also risk the paint building up on the edges of the tape and making the finished paint job uneven and messy.

I unfortunately had some breakages on the kit as I was working on this project, the most noticeable one being one of the antennas on the back of the head breaking off. I tried to repair this using a piece of runner, but I decided it would be too much work in the long run so I decided to leave it. It's a practice kit after all, so I allowed myself to make some mistakes!

I also had the shield arm joints snap on me completely because I used too much gloss varnish on them and they stuck together, so do be careful when applying the brush varnish. I ended up fixing the arm using some plastic cement, but they no longer have any articulation and are basically stationary at the elbow joint. In future I will look into perhaps spraying the varnish on using a rattle can instead, but I have no idea when I will start another project like this lol.

This practice kit served as a very good lesson in how to pace my painting projects going forward. When working on this, I did every step one at a time for every piece of the kit. That is to say, I first sanded every piece, then I painted/panelled/decaled every piece, and then I matt coated every piece. That ended up being a mistake on my part, as it was incredibly easy to burn out of working on this project. I ended up missing the simplicity of just snap building a kit, and my one-kit-at-a-time policy will not work here for future. Next time I take on a project like this, I will do the painting in the background of other gunpla projects, and I'll treat it as more of a long-term side project.

I also learned to NEVER MIX PAINTS when working on a project like this, unless I'm mixing a large amount of a colour in advance to use multiple times. I originally didn't intend for the kit to have a two-tone white colour scheme with the offwhite and lighter gray, but a mistake when painting the gun arm made me improvise a bit and adopt the two-tone scheme. It ended up actually being a sort of happy accident, because I think it looks great, but keeping the colours consistent like that was a huge hassle and just added extra stress. In future I will be primarily using paints straight out of the bottle and minimising mixing paints.

One thing I didn't give enough attention to was priming my pieces. I sort of haphazardly primed my pieces for painting, and I should have been a lot more careful with it. I let primer build up in corners and it was unevenly applied, and it ended up making some of the painting take much longer than it should have, especially when painting offwhite on pieces that were originally darker in colour.

The last thing I would really want to mention is that matt coating certain colours, particularly metallic ones like what you can see on the head sensors, is not a great idea as it will end up dulling the colour. perhaps it might be better to spray a glossier coating on it, or leaving it un-coated so that the metallic aspect can shine through a bit more. It still looks pretty good overall I think, but definitely something to experiment with.

In Conclusion...

This was a really fun project, and while it was quite tedious and sometimes annoying, the finished product makes all that suffering worth it. I learned so many things and adopted new techniques that I can transfer into my usual gunpla works, which I'm really happy with. If you have any questions as to the process or anything else, feel free to ask! Reblogs are also appreciated <3

[exercise-of-trust]

everyone clap and cheer for my beautiful daughter who has every disease 🥰 her name is þerindë because her wheel is made out of an embroidery hoop; she is entirely handmade and boy howdy does it show

a whole bunch of things have stopped working since i took that video last night and i'm not sure how much more wherewithal i have to keep messing with her, but i did manage to spin about two feet of something before then! so i'm showing her off a bit now, and if i can figure out what-all i fucked up maybe you'll see more of her in the future. some process and progress photos under the cut (not a tutorial. do not do this. i cannot sufficiently stress how bad of an idea this was and is*)

(*if you are going to do this and have questions not answered here i am always happy to answer them, inbox and dms are open etc, but like. i would strongly advise against it)

here's the hoop! it's about a foot across, with a groove carved out with a speedball. this ended up being way too shallow (who'd'a'thunk) so the final version is a lot deeper than what you're seeing here. the paint stirrers are held in with straight pins because i was worried regular nails would just crack the hoop lmao. my girl is so deeply and profoundly scuffed <3

the flyer is made from three cedar shingles glued together because i didn't have a solid piece of wood large enough. astonishingly nothing broke while i was sawing out the rough shape and it whittled down pretty nicely! the hooks are scrap 2mm copper wire, the orfice is a couple inches of plastic drinking straw, and the pulley wheel is also hand-carved, which is why it looks like a fucked-up oreo and has the weird hitch at the top of the spin that you probably saw in the video 🙃 frankly i am astonished it works as well as it does

the wheel frame is. man. the axle supports haven't broken yet but frankly it's a miracle they're still in place with how much strain they're under every time. the original base was that weird little bit of paint stirrer, which (shocker) did not work out in the long run; it's been replaced by an offcut from the frame and is significantly more sturdy now. it's surprisingly level, though, and turns pretty smoothly all things considered!

the frame was a nightmare start to finish; i've never done any serious woodworking before in my life and the whole thing was just kind of slapped together without a plan or any sort of concrete measurement. it wobbles so fucking bad and every few hours i have to push a couple of the parts back together where the nails are sort of drifting out of the wood. you may observe a weird post sticking out the left side of the mother-of-all; that is supposed to be for scotch tensioning. does it actually do that? sort of! the belt is a length of cotton crochet thread that is, after much fiddling, just the right size to not slip out more than once every three minutes.

treadling was another pain to figure out and i think i probably made it way more complicated than it needed to be. it still doesn't work very well and i can't tell if that's something i can fix hardware-wise or if i just have to suck it up and practice a lot more. turns out feet are not as coordinated as hands! i would say "now i know for next time!" but frankly i am never doing this again. you couldn't pay me. speaking of which, i did the math and at my current pre-tax hourly salary i could've bought two brand-new ashford travelers with the number of hours i spent building my awful rickety daughter. at the end of the day, do i love her? immensely. is she "good"? by no stretch of the imagination.

anyway. this was a terrible use of my time <3 but i do finally feel confident enough in all the parts of a spinning wheel and what they're for that i can brave the dangers of facebook marketplace's "spinning wheel" category without getting too badly scammed! which is pretty valuable in its own right, i guess.

[axidentshappen]

Hello Miss axidentshappen. How are you today? I've been looking at your art and comics, and I really admire how well you draw rito.

I was wondering how long you have been drawing for and where you learn how to draw rito? I haven't drawn in decades, and I'd like to relearn how to draw, but I'm not sure where to start, and I don't feel very confident with my skills.

Are there any books/websites/video tutorials that you recommend or where you learned? Thank you for taking the time to read this and respond if you do.

-Lady C-

Thanks for the ask!

I took 20 min on my lunch break to sketch this out for you! It's really quick and dirty but gives an insight to how I sketch rito.

Most of my experience is through trying and failing, so I would recommend to practice practice practice. A lot of YouTube tutorials are alright, but idk which ones are good tho.

When ur practicing, focus on quantity over quality!!! Save your effort for the pieces that are worth it.

[cleolinda]

JANUARY 6: I fought my first monster in Silent Hill 2, or any video game, for that matter. It was rough, but James and I prevailed.

JANUARY 7: I went back to try the combat tutorial again and get some practice. This audio (my voice only) is more of a walkthrough than just the fight itself—a description of the "lying figure" monster, my inability to get over hitting the wrong healing key, the way the game teaches you 1) how to pick up healing items and 2) disappointment, the side effects of long covid, and my continued struggles to get James through doors. And then, finally, we fight. I've improved so much!

CURRENT DAY: I am working on getting some actual video gameplay of my fights (yes, multiple) with Pyramid Head. I sincerely have 20+ minutes of him killing me 11 times so I can practice Basic Gamer Skills. This will follow the video of me originally shrieking for 3 minutes.

(Comments directed at my player character are in parentheses.) {Comments directed at the enemy/monster are in brackets and bold.} Content: Vomit is one of the monster's attacks but I don't describe it at much length (I don't care for it either). A body-horror monster is described but only in terms of clothing.

The problem was that when I was trying to fight this lying figure… monster… the camera was way too sensitive, and every time I tried to move, it was going around the room and I wasn't able to see exactly where the vomit was coming from. 


So, if you haven't played Silent Hill, if you're not—Silent Hill 2, rather—and you're not familiar with this—this monster... they're all fucked up, just off the bat. But specifically, this is a... feminine-looking figure... the top half is kind of a weird... I don't really know how to describe this. It's supposed to kind of have.... aspects of maybe a body bag and a straitjacket and kind of some corset lacing detail? This is all like a maroon color. Uh... it doesn't have a face, that's covered. Somehow it's able to vomit through all this. It vomits acid—HUGE shower—cone of—of acid, and the bottom half is just like... legs... in platform heels. When I get to the actual recorded gameplay, we'll talk about what the fuck this has to do with anything, because it's got—it—this imagery is for a reason. They never explain it in-game, but it's for a reason. 

So I'm having to rock up to this figure—oh, it doesn't have arms. It does, but they're like... bound underneath this straitjacket-type... business. So all it can do is... run at me... headbutt... vomit... I forget if there's a third thing it can do... specifically. These are extremely difficult, actually—oh, oh, it gets on the floor and it slithers around. That's not helpful either. So, that—which makes it harder to hit—like you want it on the ground where it can't vomit on you? But that also makes it a lot harder to hit it. So... this is what I'm having to deal with [laughing] in my very first combat. And that's why I was sitting there the other day going, “No, no, c’mere. C’mere. Can’t reach you. C’mere.” And that's why I said I got vomited on.... a lot, because I have the camera spinning around the room and I can't see what direction it's coming from. And life is already hard. Life is already hard, and I'm already having a hard enough time making this man walk forward. So...

And there's also a stomp... kind of function—I thought this was maybe a separate control, like press this for hit, press this for stomp. No, it's just whatever James feels like. It's just whatever he feels like in the moment. People really enjoy the stomping—players really enjoy the stomping. And I was like, I don't—I don't know how much I like this. It's a lot of grunting. I'm not—I'm not sure how down with this I am. And [then] I'm like oh, oh okay, I don't get to choose. This is just James working some feelings out. That's. Okay. So stomping actually works really well when something slithers across the floor. So I will let him make that judgment call.

Right now we are in this skeevy house on Martin Street—oh, oh that [camera] is not sensitive enough at all. Oh, boy, yeah that's not fast enough. Okay. Settings—you get to come along for the ride with me, I'm very sorry about that, but... this is.... this is part of the ~journey. “Look” sensitivity [i.e., mouse control of the camera sensitivity]. Let's put you back on [0.]20 and we're gonna see how that goes.

Also, I'm kind of... not sorry we're putting off the combat. I... survived. My first combat tutorial, I survived it... but it was rough. Uh... I nearly failed this man. He was at death’s door. He had the plus sign come up, he had the really thick red border vignette come up. We just managed to find a syringe in time. That was my fault—well, all of this is my fault—but that was my fault because they gave us a health drink before going into this. That's why it's a tutorial, they kind of walk you through—here's what you're gonna need during it, here’s what you're gonna need after it, after you've got your ass beat. And you hit V [key] once to take this health drink that heals you a little bit. And then when you have a syringe, you hold V down to take this greater healing item. And I, in my infinite wisdom, hit V down and held it in my urgency to heal him while getting vomited on, and obviously he didn't have a syringe yet, we hadn't gotten that far, and so I just stood there doing nothing, healing nothing, while getting beaten up by a monster without arms.

So... it was an adventure—see, here's what's so funny. Most people know how to do the health drink tap and they can't figure out how to do the syringe because they miss the part where you have to hold the key down. I did the reverse where I couldn't figure out the normal basic thing. Because that's me. That's me as a person and a gamer. I will always find a new and interesting way to be wrong about something.

All right, let's see... how does this—okay that [camera sensitivity is] livable, that's livable. All right, all right, point the camera. The Camera Is The Most Important Part Of Walking. Nobody told me that. I learned this… for myself. 

[In the room just before combat:] I have to point him at the door knob, not just the door. Okay, so here is the cabinet. We're gonna point him at this cabinet. (No—a little bit—there you go. This is on me. This is not you. This is a little bit on you. E [key], we're gonna pick that up.)

This is the nutritional supplement—how this heals you? I—how would a nutritional supplement heal you? Are we talking like, Ensure? Are we talking Boost? Are we talking kombucha? Yeast? I don't know what this is. Why would—why would this do anything? “For adoh”—[sigh] I can talk. I really can. [Reading:] “For adults only. Do not exceed recommended dose.” So we're gonna take 500 of these. Okay. That's fine. All right, and so then— [The game tells you to tap V to use the health drink.] I'm not pressing V now! I'm not pressing V now! Then there's another cabinet. It's empty. The game demonstrates for us: disappointment. It demonstrates for us that sometimes things will be empty, because I would not have understood that otherwise.

All right, so here is—here is the door. I went through the wrong door last time.

[Long pause.]

My brain just... died, what am I doing? I'm pointing him at the door knob. Okay, I have long covid. I'm blaming that on everything. I'm blaming everything on that—I—both ways. I'm blaming everything on everything. (Please walk through the door, sweetie...) [I am struggling to direct James through doors. Again.] (I know, that's the hinge—don't—don't bump into it like—don't—just act like you're so inconvenienced. Come on. YOU KNOW WHAT A DOOR IS! —That’s the wall, I’m sorry. I—don't—don't just brush into the wall like you're just really playing it up. I know I'm a terrible person.)

(Okay, open door... open door. All right... all right...)

I'm probably gonna die this time. I'm probably going to be complacent and I'm going to die. All right. So: here's our monster detector/wife communicator. “E.” Cutscene. Here we go. (Pick it up!) It's making noise. All right. [Repeating what James says:] “Stay back.” I agree with that, I cosign that. 

Monster falls out. It's fucked up. Stare at it a little bit—the ratio looks a lot better. [I had spent a week trying to figure out how to correct the “wideness” of the picture.] That's what I'm focusing on in this moment—it's standing up. It's standing up. (Okay. Get that stick. [Your first weapon: in the cutscene, James picks up a plank of wood with nails on the end.] Get that stick. Get that stick.) 

{Stay back. Stay the fuck back.} Here we gooooo... [Vehement mouse clicking.] (Hit it? Hit it. Hit it? Hit it. Hit it—) {Are you gonna vomit?!} (Dodge! Dodge? We DODGED IT! All right! Do it again. Do it again. Okay, we’re gonna come forward—we're gonna—beat the shit out of this thing, come on, you can do it! You can do it.) 

{No! Are you about to throw up? Are you about to vomit—}

(Get it! Get it—) Oh! This is so clean. Oh, this is so clean. I didn't—didn't— (STOMP IT. There you go. It's not done until you say “what the hell is that.”) [The combat tutorial is over when James says, “What was that thing?”] (Stomp it? Yeah, just keep hitting it. Yeah.) “What was that thing?” he says. [Audibly clapping hands:] All right... all right. I didn't take a single hit. All right. 

(What was that, James? I don't know, hit it again.)

What are we doing? Okay, okay—where—where are we going? Do we get to leave? Is that a thing we get to do? No? Ever. Do we ever get to leave? Here we go. 

[beffalumps]

hi there! recent art school grad here and i was wondering if u have any tips on learning color + approaching backgrounds? even though i learned a lot, i still find myself struggling with these focuses, especially colors as i never had a class that really taught me that. thanks so much 💗 your work is so lovely

First off, congrats on graduating!! Backgrounds and colors have always been the hardest for me lol tbh I still struggle a lot with colors especially, so please take everything I say with a grain of salt!

Using adjustment layers helps me a lot (especially color balance to make things more unified or complementary).

Another thing that I think has REALLY helped me with color overall is actually switching between color and grayscale.

In photoshop I set up a custom proof profile and then am able to switch back and forth by using the hotkey Ctrl + Y. This helps me check my values which, I've found if you have solid values, colors tend to work so much better even if you don't know much about what you're doing lol. Another way to do this is making a solid black layer on top of all your color layers and setting the blending mode to "Color". Then you can toggle that on and off to look at the values.

One last thing I've played with re: colors is finding a reference that has the colors I like and "crystalizing" it and color picking a palette from that.

This can be super helpful if you're having a hard time visualizing or coming up with a color palette!

As for backgrounds, they became a lot easier for me when I started looking at them like their own character. Thinking about the story I'm trying to tell, adding little details that I think would add to that or be fun and fun ways for the character to interact with it.

That and doing value sketches/just a bunch of really quick and sloppy experiments. 9 times out of 10, they don't work out, but sometimes they spark something that turns into something fun and workable!

This has gotten really long for someone that really just bs's their way through every piece, but I will say one thing that was a big game changer for me (in my personal opinion, who knows if other people think so lmao) and it's just incorporating aerial perspective. Making things a bit more blue tinted (or whatever the sky color is) and lighter as they recede into the background. Has made a huge difference for me when it comes to creating depth!

I really don't know if any of this is helpful because to be 100% honest, most of my illustrations are just product of trial and error lol. But practicing and making a lot of really bad scribbles have (I think) helped me the most, so yeah my biggest advice with anything is just look at lots of art, just draw and don't worry if it looks bad because tbh, it probably will at first. But you'll get better!

@tamberella Has a ton of amazing free resources and brushes, so if you haven't checked out their stuff, definitely do so!

@iniro also has some really nice tutorials on color (and other topics) available so I'd also recommend looking at those too!

But yeah, sorry for going on about my hair-brained process, I hope at least some of this was helpful!

[pepperpepi]

Hey! I wanted to start off saying that your art style is a huuugeee inspiration and that I always try to learn from your osc art.

That said I have a few questions as I’m struggling to draw objects myself and I can’t figure out why :’)

What digital drawing app do you use? And with what brushes?

Whats a good tip you can give me to improve other than trial and error?

It has been quite frustrating-

Thank you >3<

Heyyy!! thank you so much!! :D For me, I use Clip Studio Paint! Although, you can use any program for drawing, as I sometimes like to switch it up in times of art block or burnout For brushes, I usually like having the most control over my art so I always pick out circular/square brushes that don't have any blending or transparency!! Basically opaque and solid as can be. I AM trying to switch it up a little but that's my main choices! It helps with making things more clean and sharp IMO

you should practice drawing 3D shapes if you're trying to learn how to draw objects. I'd DEFINITELY say if you're struggling with where to start on that point, don't be afraid to look up tutorials and references!!

If you're struggling with a complicated shape, I recommend breaking objects into shapes so you can better understand them more. For example, if I wanted to draw lightbulb, I'd have to break it into pieces

with limbs you can always look at how other artists draw them or look at object show screenshots for reference! pay attention to where exactly they're placed, how long they are, etc.

Personally for improvement, you always gotta get out of your comfort zone and try things you haven't before. For example, if you're not used to drawing certain objects, spend a hot minute practicing and looking at references of that object until you get it right/semi-right! I also like to look up specific tutorials on Pinterest if i just CAN'T get something right

also drawing everyday is important! although, if you draw the SAME thing everyday, you probably won't see much improvement. you gotta draw new things! don't be afraid to experiment or try different things

another thing!! DONT BE AFRAID TO LOOK AT REFERENCES!!! REFERENCES ARE GREAT!!!

anyway UHH don't take this as like a professional thing though this is just a few things I can think of at the top of my head

[berrysemifreddo]

First of all I need to thank my artist friends @meizze-art and @annarielmidori for leading me into this brilliant software... (it's so much better than Photoshop goddang)

Like I mentioned in my previous post, I was doing a "research" this morning...😂I took notes of artworks that I really love the style of, and then also took notes of the ones that I wasn't a fan of. I also wrote what feature I'd like to learn. My note looked like this... (please don't misunderstand, these artworks are all amazing in their own way, I'm only making notes on their artstyle to decide my personal preference)

And second of all sorry it's not a Hogwarts Legacy character😂When it comes to the process of learning, I'd prefer practicing on the faces I'm most familiar with, and...that's just Dan. I'm not sure if I should switch to my Dan Stevens content only account because if I tag my friends there it'll be a bit weird...so...

Anyways, because this is literally the first time I actually do a rather "serious" colored digital art (previously my experiences in drawing are only limited to traditional methods, and most of them are either b&w pencil sketch or copying manga panels/manga art with colored pencil/copic marker), and I just got this pen tablet a week ago, so umm...I'm still exploring. This one took me too embarrassingly long, idk exactly when did I start but probably 6 hours or something. I used this photo (my favorite screenshot from "The Guest"...) as reference:

I admit that I acturally traced some part of it (like the sihoutte of his hoodie, and hair shape overall), however during my drawing I realized I actually cannot directly follow his face's jawline's contour, because the proportion would look a bit weird...so I sort of redrew that. Also on the eyes, originally I wanted to do a full realistic size, however I noticed that if I used the actual eye size, there won't be enough space for me to emphasize his eyes, so I enlarged them a little bit. I guess I'm still...leaning towards modern anime style more?

I checked my "research notes" (🤣) for many times and in the end I basically just did a 4:6 mixture of Vinland Saga and Variable Barricade (???), I wasn't planning to reference Vinland Saga in the beginning but I really really want to add his unique "aegyo-sal" in my drawing but most of the works mentioned in my notes don't really have it, so I experimented a lot and...well, Vinland Saga's method sort of works...

Managing layers is a real pain in the ass. Like previously when I was only working on Photoshop I didn't really have to deal with so many layers that constantly requires modification, and now it's like...I need to remember which is which and the logic and order of putting different parts into different layers.

(This screenshot was taken before I changed the gaze direction. In the original screenshot he was not actually looking at viewer, but I feel like it's gonna be more "fetching" (???) if he's looking at viewer, so I basically just cropped out the eyes and paint the area white and masked the cropped out eyes and fixed some details )

Well, this is only my day 2 of using CSP and I haven't even watched any tutorials of what's the proper way of drawing this kind of anime...hopefully I could get the hang of it soon.

[dino-nonbino]

Hello OneShot community!

So I am FINALLY ready to release the silly project I've spent the better part of a week working on!

Have you ever wanted your personal desktop to look like the one in the World Machine Edition of the hit game OneShot? Now you can!!!

I took the icons from the game and converted them all into PNGs, cleaned them up a bit for scaling, and converted them to files that your computer can use! (.ico and .cur and .ani files! yippee!!)

I have all the icons in every color theme available in the game, color picked directly from the screenshots. I ALSO have all of the mouse cursors, plus some custom ones I made (like the Person Select cursor, which I haven't even seen in practice, which is the same as the usual pointer but with the Friends app icon added onto it) available for download!

Click here to download them from my DropBox, and if you need help with setting any of it up then check out the "readme" file included for a link to the video tutorials that I also made!

AND IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED ONESHOT GO GET IT ON STEAM OR SWITCH (I recommend first time players go in blind and play the Steam version in windowed mode for best experience hehe)

Anyways, this is my very long-winded, hyperfocus-heavy, personal-project-turned-accidedntally-massive way of saying thank you to @nightmargin and team for making one of my favorite games with a story that I don't think I'll ever forget <3

[yi7hui]

If you ever have doubts about your crochet journey, here's mine!

May of 2023: Around summer vacation of 2023, I rediscovered my passion for crocheting. I already knew a bit about needlework/fiber art since I grew up surrounded by people with the same hobbies. It was just a matter of time 'til I come back to my roots.

July 05, 2023: I successfully bought yarn! It's only Milk Cotton yarn (4 ply) and while it's not the best kind, it was good for beginners.

July 07, 2023: I bought an ergonomic crochet hook set, complete with stitch markers and even knitting tools. I immediately started learning from tutorials on YouTube.

July 08, 2023: I bought some fiber fill and , as well as black bead eyes for plushies since I watched tutorials about amigurumis first (it was what I was recommended to learn first). Let's just say it didn't turn out well in my experience...

August 27, 2023: I bought a large capacity storage bag to store my yarns and kit. I only put them in a shoe box since I don't know if I'll take a liking with my new hobby. I did love it and have been exploring more about yarns!

August 29, 2023: I bought some bamboo yarn since I liked the result from a vlogger on TikTok and wanted to try it out.

August 31, 2023: I bought some chunky yarn to continue my amigurumi journey. It didn't turn out well and was just a waste of time... I also bought some bamboo crochet hooks but I haven't really had the chance to use them...

September 01, 2023: I bought more fiber fill. At this point, I was just making a pillowcase instead of plushies since I no longer had the passion to continue making amigurumis. Despite this, I did buy a set of beaded eyes.

October 10, 2023: I decided to try out making keychains. While working on this, my crochet hook broke...

October 20, 2023: I bought a set of new crochet hooks. It's made out of aluminum and will withstand my grip strength (probably). My mom also said that they used to use similar crochet hooks before so I look forward to using it for a very long time.

November of 2023: I decided to take a break for this month since I wasn't feeling well...

December 15, 2023: Around Christmas vacation, I decided to crochet again, buying some 8 ply milk cotton yarn and made a beanie for some practice.

December 27, 2023: I bought more milk cotton yarn to make small bags, keychains, and coasters.

January 11, 2024: I decided to try a new hobby that is still on the same (if not higher and more difficult) wavelength as crocheting; I decided to try knitting. I bought a 4.0mm circular knitting needle (as recommended) and immediately hated it.

March 05, 2024: I bought some compression gloves since I've been crocheting nonstop.

March 06, 2024: I bought 100% pure cotton yarn from a trusted local shop and immediately fell in love. I stopped buying milk cotton yarn around this time as well.

March 12, 2024: I bought straight knitting needles (4.5mm).

May 16, 2024: I bought mercerized cotton yarn (5ply) and crocheted tumbler sleeves for my family.

May 22, 2024: I wanted to give chunky yarn another chance so I bought more. Wrong move for me. I only made rugs out of it.

May 27, 2024: I bought 8.0mm knitting needles made out of aluminum and made a hand towel for our kitchen.

June 08, 2024: I bought some milk cotton yarn to try out amigurumi again (I never learn) and this time, I wanted to try making a doll. I didn't get pass the head...

July 25, 2024: More milk cotton yarn...

September 16, 2024: I bought lace yarn. It was really thin! I made a coaster out of it. I wanted to crochet a doily but I got lazy and only got around the third part of the pattern before I gave up.

October 18, 2024: I bought more knitting needles. This time, I bought different sized but certainly smaller than the 8.0mm I bought since it was hard to navigate with.

October 20, 2024: I bought Rainbow Cotton yarn but have not decided on what to make with it.

Around this time, I bought my friend (who also crochets and does business with it!) a set of crochet hooks.

October 23, 2024: I bought more Rainbow Cotton yarn since I decided to make a long-sleeved mesh top. It is my very first official project after a year of practice :)

November 02, 2024: I bought a cone of undyed Cotton Yarn to surprise my sister with a white cardigan.

November 05, 2024: I bought some Aqua Blue Bamboo yarn but still hadn't decided on what to make with it...

November 30, 2024: I bought more undyed Cotton Yarn to complete my sister's cardigan.

December of 2024: I completed my sister's cardigan!

January 31, 2025: I bought more Aqua Blue Bamboo yarn to make my mom her own cardigan (with pockets!).

February 05, 2025: I bought more yarn to finish my mom's cardigan.

February 16, 2025: I made this blog :)

A Note on Dates: The dates you see here are based on when I bought the materials, not the exact dates I worked on each project.

It's been almost two years since I started crocheting, but it wasn't until October 2024 that I felt like I truly found my stride with my first mesh top. If you're just starting out, please don't feel like you need to make huge projects right away! I spent my first year experimenting, and I ended up with tons of practice pieces and granny squares in all sorts of yarns and sizes.

While I'm not planning to make a big impact on this community, I am passionate about sharing my journey and inspiring others. This blog will also be a great way for me to keep track of my progress and stay motivated.

Thank you for reading! I hope your crochet journey is filled with joy and creativity.

[refinedpet]

I beat Pikmin 1 in 9 Days

Okay, so first off, that's not /that/ big a deal. It's not a tie for the world record or anything, however it is, as far as I know, the quickest the game can be beat without exploiting any major glitches.

I purposely went out of my way to do this run without researching the optimal path because figuring out everything myself was fun. Pikmin is one of my favorite games of all time and I usually replay it once a year

So, now I'm gonna go over that, what my process was, and do so in a way you'll understand even if you haven't played Pikmin.

So first, let's disect what those days actually mean. The time limit for the game is 30 Days, in which you have to collect 30 ship parts. Days themselves are 13 minutes and 30 seconds long in Pikmin 1.

There are 5 areas in the game, so naturally you'd think, "Well, can't you just do it in 5 days then? Finish each area a day?"

And that's a blatant 'No' (at least without glicthes)

Day 1 must always be spent in the Impact Site for the tutorial. Here you will get 1 Part and 25 Red Pikmin regardless of how good you actually do. There's another part here, but both yellows and blues are required to get it.

Meaning that 2 Days must already be used to get 1 part each. When you mix this with the final area, it means 3 days of this run have to be spent wasting an entire day on a single part. Meaning the other 6 is where we have to get the remaining 27 Ship Parts.

Day 2 is also very limited in what you can do. You have to break down a wall and build up reds while doing so which already takes more of the day than you'd like.

Now in a normal run, this wouldn't be a big deal. I'd build up reds, get Yellow Pikmin, build them up and get at least two parts.

However that's a colossal waste of time in this run.

The Forest of Hope (where you go in Day 2) has 8 ship parts. So you'd think. Okay, build up yellows and reds first day there and then the remaining 5 parts or whatever wouldn't be hard to round up in a second day. That sounds like you're making good time, right?

Well, you need to have 5 Ship parts to unlock the Third Area (The Forest Naval)

And you need the Blue Pikmin found in The Forest Naval to get all the ship parts in the Forest of Hope.

So, during this first day where you're already rushed due to building up 2 types of Pikmin for the first time. You need to collect at least 4 parts, or else this easy 2 Day Area will have to a 3 Day Area with alot of time wasted on two of those days.

I won't go into too much detail because routing what parts to grab, while very fun, probably won't be the most entertaining.

What's important is I was able to get the 4 parts in a single day there. Meaning 2 days in, I could already go to the Forest Naval.

Day 3 the hope is to get Blues as quick as possible. I usually like to lure the Breadbug near the Blue Onion because that's the easiest time to kill it for the ship part and then it won't get in the way.

Now the Naval has 9 Ships parts in it. Meaning you probably wanna do one day that's building blues and getting parts near the base, making sure you take care of walls and bridges to the best of your ability. Which is exactly the approach I took. And fortunately this area took the least practice for me to do.

I got a good first trip run pretty fast, which just left.

Day 4 has 5 Parts remaining, which is alot. Especially since two of these were busses while others were kinda long puzzles needed to do. But, I believe it just took me two real attempts before I was able to just do so. Meaning on Day 4, we've completely our first of the 5 areas.

Day 5 and Day 6 you can either go back and finish the Impact Site or finish up the Forest of Hope. The Impact Site is nice because it's just a single part, and as a result you can build up all your Pikmin types, meaning from this point onward you don't need to worry about enemy corpses and growing Pikmin. You'll have enough to finish the run.

And the Forest of Hope's 4 parts are easy to finish up as well now that we have Blue's.

Day 7 is where this gets TOUGH. The Distant Spring is by far the most difficult area in the game. It's really the only bit in this game where I tend to lose Pikmin to any meaningful degree during casual playthroughs. Wollyhops are annoying to deal with, Spotty Bulbears are BRUTAL and there's a ton of them over the map. Swooping Snitchbugs and Burrowing Shearwigs really make it hard to leave Pikmin unattened unless you're confident. And it has 10 Parts for you to get. Going into this I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it in 2 days and I shot for 3.

At first, I was only able to get 3 parts in a day, and even that took alot of work, mostly working on the ones in the open water area near base. However after realizing how I was almost able to get the remaining 7 on the second trip, I decided to try again, just shooting for 4 parts and one of the puzzles done so all I had to do was carry it back the next day.

And, I got 5 Parts in a day! The 3 in the water behind base and then two of the closer ones. This and I had managed to destory every wall on the map which would make my next day way easier

Day 8 went smooth as a result of Day 7 going so well. There were some parts where Wollywogs have to be gotten through, but both of those are an ease. Then the far side of the map with the puzzle where you have to use Candy pop buds to make Blues Yellows and then Blue's again. Which is unfortunately time consuming above all else and ruined a few of my runs when I was trying to do 7 in a day.

But that's manageable, just leaving a boss fight you have to do with some reds. That for me isn't a problem.

However the only big Pikmin loss this playthrough did occur as the red Pikmin carrying the treasure back woke up a Spotty Bulbear and they all died.

But even with that hickup, the day was finished with time left to flower some reds to make the final day even easier.

Day 9 is anticlimactic. This is just an area (The Final Trial) with the final Boss in it and a single ship part. There's an easy puzzle I optimized my ability to do quick for no reason, then it's a matter of using Bomb Rocks to Stun the boss, followed by attacking with Reds. The day finishes with basically half the time left, it's not a challenge whatsoever, more of a victory lap.

And that's that!!!

Pikmin 1 is one of my favorite games of all time and I've played it so much since I was a kid (this was done on the Switch version, thus why only 3 playthroughs have been recorded. Launch Playthrough, mine earlier this year and then when I decied to do this)

And it felt really nice to optimize myself and go through, and not look at any speedruns or take advantage of any glicthes.

I can't speak too confidently, but I think 9 days is the lowest possible amount without taking advantage of any major glitches. Since Days 3/5 areas need to be completed in 5 days. Just leaving The Forest Naval and Distant Springs where you could theoretically do them in one day. But given the size of each area that sounds near impossible (I'm sure I've already been proven wrong by a TAS)

Point is, I feel good, and it felt nice to do this with one of my favorite games

[tribow]

I've been playing Rivals of Aether 2 and noticed the Steam reviews have become mixed. Curious, I checked why that might be the case.

It mostly just seems to be a coincidence that it became mixed. A good amount of people left a negative review around the same time. Some of it is because the game deviated from Rivals 1 gameplay, but like....the first game isn't going anywhere. You can still buy it/play it without any issue. Do you know how many fighting games would love to have that luxury?

A good number of the RoA1 crowd think RoA2 plays like Melee/Smash4/Ultimate now, but....no. Melee's gameplay is way more precise with way less emphasis on defense, Smash4 plays way slower, lacks movement options, and punishes unsafe aggression, and Ultimate feels like fencing....so aggression without the approach (if that makes sense). RoA2, to me, is a game that heavily revolves around counterplay. I never felt like I was in a situation where there was absolutely nothing I could have done to prevent a loss, albeit, that's because I'm actually aware of the game mechanics.

A large amount of review also complained about how the game feels to beginners and this is a criticism I couldn't counter if I tried. As of right now, the game severely lacks tutorials and singleplayer modes to help you get better. This is being addressed, but it's gonna be a while. Right now there's some very basic tutorials and an arcade mode, but nothin too helpful. This wouldn't feel as bad if there were casual multiplayer things to do...but there isn't. People rarely play free-for-alls and that's the closest thing to a casual multiplayer mode the game has. Unless you have friends who have the game, you're outta luck.

There also seems to be server issues. I haven't had problems myself, but depending on where you live, you might have problems. RoA2 uses server-based rollback with no peer-to-peer options as of now, so if you're super far from the servers they have, you might experience the lag problems I've seen other reviews complain about. It's something the devs are aware of and will likely address, but solving networking issues is a slow process and it might not be as important as finishing new characters on schedule.

Speaking of that schedule, RoA2 is a live service game, probably one of the best. There's no slimey predatory practices here. No FOMO, no P2W, no money-hungry nonsense. All future characters will be free, the singleplayer modes will be free, and stages will be free. Which is great, but it also reveals that this game isn't necessarily "Feature Complete". Like I said earlier, there's barely any singleplayer modes/tutorials. However, RoA1 released in a very similar fashion. I'd argue it was even more scuffed than RoA2, so I'm not surprised. Yet, some reviews are very surprised.

I'd blame communication for this one. I think some people expected the game to be completely done, but the team has a ton of work to do. It's work that they need money to get done while financially supporting their effort. It's why there's a live service model to begin with. Without support from the community this game's fate could end up like Rushdown Revolt (cool game btw).

This is what baffles me about many of the reviews. They need the community's support. They can't address a lot of issues without that support. Why not encourage people to give it a try anyway? Their support would go towards improving the game anyway. Most of the negative reviews aren't complaining about the game heading in a bad direction. It's just not currently in a state that they would call very good, but they believe it will be very good as long as the devs keep working on it.

???

Isn't that positive? I don't get it.

Look, if you believe in the game, give it support. If you like how the game plays and just need more features, give it support. If you never played the game and are new to the genre, I'd buy the first game unless you don't mind playing a game that's in active development.

Give it support.

[dravidssideblog]

"Hey, have you seen this yet?"

"Huh? 'Poke-Forms'... The hell is this?"

"It's that technology that can transform people into pokemon. It just recently got approved for commercial use."

"THAT stuff!? Ew, that's weird! People are really paying to turn into animals?"

"Well yeah. Haven't you ever wanted to fly, or breathe fire?"

"No thanks, I'll stick to being an actual person."

"Alright. I'm planning on spending a couple days as a mudkip, see what it's like swimming in a body like that."

"A mudkip!? Not even something cool, like a charizard, or gyarados?"

"Evolved forms cost extra. I want to start small, just dip my toes in, you know?"

"Whatever. Have fun crawling on all fours, I guess."

"Hah, maybe I will! Anyway, gotta go, see ya."

"..."

-

"Gah, darn these stubby little- Aha! Hey, you home? You forgot to lock up- ... Uh."

"I can explain."

"Oh, so when I want to be a mudkip for a few days I'm a weird little freak, but when YOU want to be a meowscarada it's apparently different?"

"It IS different! Just let me explain!"

"Okay. Explain."

"... meowscarada is really cool."

"You're a cat."

"I'm a MAGICIAN! See, look at this! I've got powers, and I can do magic tricks and stuff! And I've got a cool mask, and a cape-"

"Those aren't real clothes, you're actually naked."

"I- So are you! And at least I'm standing on two legs! You couldn't even be bothered to be a marshtomp instead."

"Yeah, because evolutions cost extra- ... How much did you spend on this?"

"That... is none of your business."

"We're splitting rent, I think it IS my business. How much did you spend?"

"... 50 days worth."

"WHAT!?"

"I had to! Look, just getting to meowscarada needs 36 days, and then I needed to buy MORE days to actually spend time as meowscarada, and it'd be a waste to spend all that money up front for just a few days, so... I got two extra weeks worth."

"... You're a idiot."

"You did the same thing!"

"No, I bought a few days of transformation to test the waters, and I gotta say, it's a pain in the ass sometimes not having my normal human body! YOU paid for 50 DAYS with NO IDEA how it would feel! Why didn't you pick some 1st stage pokemon to try it out first?"

"I don't WANT to be a 1st stage pokemon, I want to be meowscarada! And hey, I got hands, I got two legs, and I'm almost as tall as I was before. AND check out what I can do with this flower yo-yo-OW!"

"Mhm. Right."

"Okay so I need a little practice, but this is way better than being some tiny, 4-legged beast."

"Tell that to your bank account. Anyway, I'm going to take a nice, long bath, because this tiny body makes water feel GREAT."

"Fine, I'll just be here being an awesome magician with plant powers... Okay, swing it up, then around, then across like- Gah, almost got it..."

-

"Around and around, then watch it waver and waggle, aaaaand how about some loop-de-loops!"

"Okay I know that's on an invisible string, but I still have NO idea how you're moving it like that. You're barely even moving your hands!"

"Hah! Just instinct, practice, and youtube tutorials, my adoring audience! Now let's bring it UP, oop, oh no~ Now where has my flower gone~?"

"Well, you swung it behind your back..."

"Check behind your chair~"

"You couldn't have- Oh my god!"

"HaHA! Never underestimate a master magician! Now, for my next trick, keep an eye on the flower, watch it twirl, until in 3, 2, 1- WHA! *THUD*"

"Whoa, how'd you do that!?"

"Ha ha, very funny, but no, tripping wasn't part of the performance."

"No seriously, you timed that perfectly!"

"Timed wha- ... Why are you so tall? Oh, shit, has it been two weeks already? Damn it!"

"What, is being a floragato so bad?"

"I'm 3 feet tall, you tell me."

"So... What now? Gonna head to the Poke-Forms place and turn back to a human?"

"I guess, but... *sigh*, I spent so much money on this. It'd be such a waste. Maybe I can extend it, get more meowscarada days..?"

"And, what, keep giving the company money for your whole life? And either way, you still won't get to use those... what, 30 extra days you bought?"

"36. And yeah, I guess not. A whole month's worth of days... Gah, I can't just let it go to waste! I mean, I've still got powers! And I'm still mostly humanoid. Better than being a mudkip, at least."

"Disagree on that."

"Shut up. Ah, my flower's turned into a bud. And the vine's so thick and- Oh. Oh, it's got some weight to it, some real momentum! Hey, yeah, I can work with this!"

"So I guess you'll need help reaching the top shelves for a few weeks?"

"Actually, I won't. Observe! Uh, ah, shit, FUCK!"

"... You're cleaning that up."

-

"Hey, short-stuff! Didn't expect to see you here."

"I told you I'd be out tonight."

"Yeah, but at a party? You know everyone can see how small and cute you are, right?"

"Pff, whatever. Just means they're more shocked when they see my tricks! The ladies love the yo-yo, you know~"

"Yeesh, and after you spent days holed up inside because you didn't want to be seen as a meowscarada."

"That was a month ago. I'm used to all this now! Besides, no way I'm staying inside when the sun feels so nice on my fur."

"I keep forgetting you have fur now. Does that like, change how you shower, or..?"

"Oh yeah, I got a whole routine figured out for it."

"Wow, you're really settling into this. I don't think I could stand being a pokemon for more than a week, much less a month."

"It's more than worth it to have these floragato powers. Seriously, I'm like spiderman with this yo-yo!"

"You're about as tall as a spider, too."

"Just makes it easier to move around. And hey, everyone wants to lose weight, right? I've lost nearly 150 pounds!"

"You sure make the most of it, jumping on counters and climbing over the couch. It's like I actually have a pet cat."

"Come on, this cat's way too cool to be your pet."

"You won't be cool for much longer. How many floragato days do you have left now?"

"Oh. Shoot, I dunno. Probably only like 2 or 3..."

"Yeah, that sounds right. Better make the most of it then."

"Good point, absolutely. Hey everyone! Check this shit out!"

-

"Um, hey, so uh..."

"Huh? Oh! Finally out of floragato days, huh?"

"Yeah..."

"Need me to drive you to the Poke-Forms place then?"

"... Well... No..."

"Okay. Careful on your way there then, don't want someone deciding to kidnap a pet sprigatito."

"No, I... What I mean is...... it'd be a waste to not use all the days I paid for, right?"

"... You're gonna stay like that?"

"... Yeah."

"For two weeks?"

"Well, I've gotten really used to this. The fur, the paws, watering my leaves-"

"So THAT'S what you were doing with that spray bottle!"

"It's just been a really... interesting experience, being a pokemon. And this was really expensive, I doubt I'll do it again for a long while, so this is my only chance to experience this. I've gotten into the groove of my new body, and I just kinda... don't feel the need to stop. You know?"

"... You mean you like it."

"... Yeah. I like it. That's... That's not weird, is it?"

"It's absolutely weird."

"No- I- Shut up! You're being a dick!"

"Come on, you've been a pokemon for a month and NOW you're scared of being weird?"

"You... make a good point. Heh, I've been a freak all this time, the least I can do is own it... Hey, I don't have hands, can you get breakfast for me?"

"Of course, short-stuff."