#i was about to do a musculature/anatomy practice (you can tell which one that was) but. it spiraled into this

[indilaras]

Doodles of Alhaitham's mornings

[scazrelet]

Art Theory: The Torso is a Clawfoot Bathtub

This is a bit of an experiment. This is a mirror of my most popular Ko-Fi post, now in full form here on Tumblr (though it does look better there with all the images properly sized and the text centered and etc etc). If it gets enough eyeballs I’ll mirror the other ones too. Now, without further ado...

Due to the popular demand of like... a couple people, I will be going over how THE HUMAN TORSO IS LIKE A CLAWFOOT BATHTUB. But first, a story. When I was still just a wee babby artist I would wander into the local library and pick up art books and be confronted with all of the in-depth anatomy images and feel a bit, well... overwhelmed.

And it's not as if I'm a dumb person or anything. It just never really made any real sense, not in a way that was meaningful to me. I struggled to retain it, unlike with other subjects, which of course confused me even more.

In hindsight I see now that it was like trying to memorize the parts of a car engine, how they all looked visually, where they were placed spatially (in 3D nonetheless), without knowing how a car operates or how all the parts work together in motion.

Which is a bit ridiculous. In any case, since I didn't have much interest in drawing western style comic superheros with musculature that looks like it's been vacuum sealed by their skin I spent a good amount of time just ignoring it and sneaking by, using a lot of shorthand and doing practices drawing from life. And, to be fair, I did learn a lot like that.

(Thanks for your contribution to the arts, Rob Liefield. I don't like feet either.)

Which brings us back to torsos. So when you look at a torso you can visually see there are features, like pecs and belly buttons, but their relationship to the internal structure is not immediately apparent.

(Me drawing in high school, probably.) So what ends up happening there is you just end up sort of... putting stuff where you best guess it kind of belongs. And sure, sometimes it's a really educated guess, and can be hella convincing. I tend to notice this most with collarbones. I can tell when an artists has learned largely through shorthand and idioms when their collarbones are just sort of floating around doing their own thing, basically acting as decoration on the chest without suggesting any greater purpose.

So what changed? And what does this have to do with bathtubs?

Well, I had a few paradigm shifts. To put it more simply, I realized I am a very conceptual and relational thinker. Anatomy never stuck with me because it never "clicked." So my success came from starting with big concepts and adding increasing levels of complication as I became ready for them. Pieces falling into place bit by bit.

Like a car, for instance, is a vehicle that runs on a series of explosions. Which is kind of badass. These explosions, in turn, are caused by pistons which rotate in time, which is kept going by... weird shaped gears and belts and pulleys... sparks... compression... well that's about it for my knowledge of engines.

*I have since been informed that it is the spark plugs that make the explosions and the explosions that power the movement of the pistons. I think it was clear by my diagram of a car that I am not well versed in automobiles. 

So what is the bathtub about? This is literally all I came here for.

Ok, ok... So the bathtub is a conceptual metaphor that helps an artist understand the structure of the torso. Cool. So, to break that down... It's easy to think of the body in terms of a column. A series of objects supported by the object below. That makes sense, right? At heart we are, essentially, the Michelin man.

(★ ☆ ☆) Except not at all. Unlike palm trees, pyramids, and economic class systems we are not, in fact, a series of parts dependent on the parts beneath them. And we knows this. I know this, you know this, we've all seen spooky skeletons before, but for some reason artists consistently fail to internalize it. The issue being that we are still just mammals, just mammals that walk around funny. And Mammals are basically flesh tents. But... less horrifying than that phrase suggests.

(Like this but skin.) Essentially your standard cat or dog is holding up its spine with its four legs and then its body is hanging from that support structure created by the spine. The body is not being held up from below by the legs. And that's a fairly crucial distinction as it turns out. The muscles of the legs connect to the spine(ish), and the ribcage hangs down from the spine, making a nice tidy sack to hold all the insides where they are supposed to be.

And humans? Well we're all evolved from previously four legged critters. 

(We're really just some jumped up fancy rats.) Which means we follow a very similar diagram - but with alterations to account for a bipedal stance.

WHICH BRINGS US TO BATHTUBS.

So, take this weird upright mammal and break it down into very basic blocks.

(I can draw better but I refuse.) Got some hips, a spine, a ribcage, just like a cat but vertical. So, again, all the focus is on supporting the spine, specifically. Which is why our arm muscles still largely connect to our back (except, like, your pecs which are literally contracting and yanking your arm bones forward which is metal AF).

So, like an umbrella designed in hell, we are actually bags of meat hanging from our spines. And that "decorative" collarbone? Literally holding up a ton of meat draped over it so we can continue to move our arms.

Which 🎉🎉🎉 BRINGS US TO THE BATHTUB🎉 🎉🎉

( F***in told you. ) It's not a perfect metaphor since usually the curtain rod is held up by other supports besides just the shower head (it's literally called a head this is such a great metaphor) but give me a little slack. The ribcage is like the curtain, held up by the spine of the showerhead, and the hip bones are the bowl of the bathtub, within which are lovingly nestled... all the intestines. And stuff. This metaphor helps an artist conceptualize the human structure, so they can start applying further degrees of knowledge, like muscles and motion and afsGkljSAKjhgfajhs hands.

But I specifically said a clawfoot bathtub you say pedantically? Well...

I didn't stutter. It is a CLAWFOOT BATHTUB. Specifically.

And not just for some reason like "oh because it has feet." (OK like maybe a little but not only, alright?) So let's talk about hips.

Now muscles work by contracting, something I passingly mentioned before (didn't think that would be on the test, did ya?) so to create motion the better generally contracts a muscle that has ends tied to two bones.

(Hips. You might already see where I'm going here.) That's why we don't resemble ball jointed dolls. Due to *insert complicated mechanical reason based on leverage, pulleys, walking, flexibility, and so on* we, again, aren't just objects stacked on top of each other like dishes.

(I only chose this image because it sounds like a band name.) So, as it turns out, rather than balls and sticks and vague underwear shapes, there is another pretty stellar way to consider the leg hip connection area.

Excuse my atrocious rendition of it here, but I assume you get the jist. Two turkey drumsticks tagged onto Lego Bionicle pegs jammed into a pair of hipster undies, with some amorphous fleshy bits spackled in there.

( I am very serious right now. ) So, I'm sure you've figured it out by now, but this shape very much resembles...

And that, my dear friends is why the human torso is a clawfoot tub. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Enjoyed this post? Find more tutorials and drop me a tip on my Ko-Fi Want art help with something else? Critiques and reviews? Just to chat and share? Join my discord. Hate this? Day ruined? ME TOO B

[pinkiepiebones]

Oh! I thought of a real question! You mentioned of course that these Ghouls do not have any form of naturally occurring organs (other than arguably skin, some people call that one, but does it really count as that or is that just the easiest word to use for it?), but there is mention of them forming rudimentary ones, and presumably more complex with practice, so the question is: Do they work? Or rather, I guess, how MUCH do they work? When one develops something resembling lungs, for funzies, do they get anything out of smoking or vaping? The ones who learn to eat things, if they get ahold of something all sugar, will they get all sugar-rushy? Just for a couple examples. Or is it more just performative?

Also, one for you, are you specifically a fandom writer? Or do you/have you considered drabbling in original content? I know a lot of people strongly prefer one over the other to the point they only do one, but some do both, and I could see these little imps being able to work well as a standalone thing if you ever wanted to play with them outside their lore environment.

Eeeeee thank you for asking about the inner machinations of my ghouls~ Gonna throw this under a cut, lots of talk of organs and eating and stuff CW

So basically aside from Special, no ghoul's ever made anything more than the most simplistic fabrications of various organs, because basically what is the point. I don't know why anyone would need a church ghoul to pretend to breathe, but the affect is achieved by the ghoul forming what might be thought of as a "straw," a tube connecting a simplistic "mouth" to an inner pocket in which air can be stored and expelled. The air is expelled when the ghoul rapidly closes the pocket that had been created. No musculature required!

The band ghouls, they've gotten more complex in their glamours. They've had to study extensively on forming jaws and teeth and tongues (Spesh still regrets showing them how to make tongues) and vocal chords- in my head for the vocal chords I've always pictured them sort of forming an empty space in their necks and, with some effort, making thin lines of, well, ghoul material? Zig-zag across that empty space... somehow, forcing their telepathic speech down from their minds onto that mesh of "chords" causes the telepathy to "bounce" outwards in more of a soundwave form, thus allowing them to provide backup vocals. But, back to their mouths. Spesh had to train them on foods, mostly how to tell an edible thing from inedible (the smaller Air Ghoul had decided anything it could sink it's teeth into was "edible" and there was a spate of biting incidents...), how to look like you're chewing, and forming a "pocket" within your being to hold on to foodstuffs until it could safely be "barfed out" (what Spesh calls "barfing" for ghouls is much more akin to upending a bag over a trash can- ghouls don't produce saliva or digestive enzymes and of course have no stomach acid so they just spit out, like, mashed up banana or finely ground pretzel dusts or flat beer...). Food itself has no effect on ghouls due to their lack of any systems; there's no risk of an overly-caffeinated ghoul running laps around interiour of a spire.

Spesh discovered he can get high. Well, I suppose it's the ghoul equivalent thereof. It might be a Special thing, or it might work on all ghouls, we just don't know. But Special found years ago that catnip- no, really!- makes him, in his words, "wiggly." He loses his grip on any glamour he's got activated and giggles a lot and just wants to curl up in a sunbeam or something. When he was studying the various inner workings of human anatomy back when he began his venture as spokesghoul he did actually form some pretty advanced lungs- not merely pockets to hold and expel air, he managed to focus and shapeshift within the lungs a sticky membrane that could seep the narcotic component of inhalants into his ghoul being. He absolutely learned how to do this so he could get proper high with Copia. Special smokes catnip. Whatever is in catnip that fucks him up gets much more potent when inhaled, and his shapeshifted lungs having those membranes to seep that "fuck me up" chemical from the smoke directly into his body gets him royally stoned. He doesn't experience "munchies" but sometimes his physical form will forget that it has to be quite so solid and his body takes on what one might call a "solid gelatinous" state, I guess? Like, if you were to embrace a royally stoned Special, it might feel less like hugging a warm mannequin and more like hugging a warm mannequin that is also unnervingly full of a very firm pudding. He cannot ever "melt" but Copia has anxiety about smoking with Spesh nowadays because of that very fear.

!!!! Honestly???? I thank you so much for that ringing endorsement! I have for a while now been thinking of this, actually. I've spent so long shaping my own personal vision of these ghouls that, while they are surely inspired by Ghost, they are enough of a cool thing without knowledge of Ghost, and if I could just find a word like "ghoul" to use for them... I can totally see myself pulling a "write X fic, change names, send manuscript to publishers as Y work" sorts scheme... I mean, I like my ghouls, and you like my ghouls, that's at least two paying customers right there!!! XD

[maraudererasmut]

what kinds of things did you do when you were first practicing digital drawing? did you use reference images? where did you find them? anything you would recommend to a baby drawer with a short attention span for instructions?

Well, first and foremost, I’m gonna take a moment to do a little fangirl wiggle, because I’m a huge fan of your work! Thank you for messaging me! 

I’m gonna include a lot of info here, so bear with me! I’ll try to break it down so that it’s easy to understand, but if anyone ha any questions, feel free to ask!

The absolute most important thing for starting out drawing is practice. 

You’re going to hear it from everyone, everywhere, but it’s so very true. When I first started digital drawing, I made sure to use my tablet every single day. Now, that doesn’t mean I spend three hours each day trying to do something amazing; some days I only had a few minutes here and there, but I’d try to sketch something rough, something loose, maybe just a doodle. Maybe it’s a face one day, maybe it’s just a bunch of swirls and stars the next. It doesn’t matter what you draw, as long as you are developing the habit of drawing! No matter what it is you are doing, you’re learning! Playing with brushes to see how they feel on your new drawing program? Learning! Trying to see if one way of colouring is better than another? Learning! Drawing the same nose over and over and over again until you like what you see? Also learning!

Another key step to learning to draw is to identify what you like!

What does that mean? Well, look at other artists who inspire you! Why does their work appeal to you? What is it about their drawings that you LOVE? Once you realize what it is that makes something beautiful to you, you know what to practice and how to learn to adopt that into your own style!

@burdge is an excellent example for illustrating this. They are a fandom artist that has been around for so long, nearly every fandom artist I know has been inspired by them in one way or another!

So what is it about Burdge’s art that I love? I love the closeness that’s portrayed, and the softness. But those are very arbitrary things that are difficult to identify and even more challenging to implement. I love the noses. I love the proportions. I love the hairlines! I love the body movement! Those are things that are a bit easier to pick out and start practicing!

This leads so well into my next point:

It is okay to copy someone else’s work if it’s for practice!

Let’s break this one down, just to ensure that nobody accidentally misinterprets what I’m saying: It is okay to copy someone else’s work if it’s for practice. It is NOT okay to copy someone else’s work and post it, claiming it as your own! If you use a reference picture, generally speaking, most artists will post which reference they use, but I know that I often forget to do that as well! But using a reference picture is different than copying. 

When you copy someone’s work, what you’re really doing is working on identifying what you love about it. You’re practicing drawing in their style! And that’s totally fine! When you’re first starting out, it’s actually really helpful to be able to use someone else’ expertise and practice to guide you to draw something you love! A lot of people have it in their heads that copying = bad. And sometimes it does. But I think it’s important for new artists to get rid of that notion in their heads. Practice is practice. When you practice cooking, you copy other people’s recipes! You’re not going to post those recipes online and say you created them, but you CAN feed them to your friends and you CAN eat them yourself! And if you do post pictures of your food? You can say whose recipe you used and thank them for a great meal! 

We were all starting at one point, and every artist I know started by copying something. 

Use reference pictures! Use them liberally! References are helpful!

Yes, some artists are so good that they do not need reference pictures. That’s fine. Good for them! I’m very proud of them!

When you’re first starting out, you don’t have to worry about that! Don’t get into your own head and tell yourself “Real artists do XYZ, blah blah blah, etc.” None of that is helpful. Use whatever is available to help you improve!

Now the question is what actually makes good reference pictures? Well, everyone uses something a little different. Some people use faces of famous actors, some people use stock photos, some people use other people’s drawings that are specifically made for references! 

What do I do? I save every single photo I come across that inspires me into a folder. I have tons of folders labeled “Reference: Pose” or “Reference: Remus” or “Reference: Gay”. (That one is smut references. :3 )

I use blogs like @posereference and @fantasyartistreference, which I follow on here! I’ve gone through their content and saved photos that I think will inspire me in the future. Sometimes I don’t do anything with them. Sometimes I use them! 

I also take advantage of stock photos. That includes ones that adobe puts onto the internet as well as ones that other artists put! Senshi Stock on Deviant art is an excellent resource that has made a TON of photos available to artists to use for FREE! 

Google is also my friend! I like to google terms like “Couple Pose Reference” or “Couple Kissing”. If you include search terms like “pose reference” you often find that you get things specifically created for artists to use to help with poses!

Look at all the helpful poses! 

Now, this leads us to my next point:

How to use reference images

Everyone does this part differently, too! I’m going to show a few different examples. Let’s use this amazing reference sheet by @kibbi as our example!

Some people like to have their reference photo beside their drawing space, to use for them to look at, simply as a guide:

Some people like to have their pose reference in a layer beneath their actual drawing on a lower opacity so that they can trace right over it:

Often times, what you end up doing is using your traced sketch as your base for your drawing, with your actual drawing over top of it. Essentially, you’re using this time to identify what you DO like about the reference pose and what you DON’T like about it, and changing it!

See how different it’s looking already? I put my own style over top of it, but I used the pose as a reference because I really liked it!

((EDIT: I JUST REALIZED THAT I GAVE SIRIUS THREE ARMS. I AM SO SORRY, GUYS!!!!))

Side by side comparison for the curious:

Eventually, a time will come where you can do simple poses like this without the use of a reference. That’s amazing! You will be so proud of yourself! But if you still need to use references for complicated poses or foreshortening, remember not to beat yourself up about it. It is OKAY to use reference poses, and it is OKAY to take advantage of resources that are available to you! Just try to remember to cite your sources, just like we all did in school! :P

Practice Anatomy

Try doing things like figure drawing! Use sites like Quick Poses to give yourself a timed figure drawing session, if you’re up for it! The more you practice bodies and anatomy, the better you will get at drawing them! Don’t focus too much on anything being perfect; remember to say loose and just aim for general shapes and general proportions.

This isn’t the greatest example, because I didn’t do any dynamic poses, but here are some rough figure sketches:

See how loose I was? See how little I cared about it looking nice? That’s the best way to start a sketch! Just with loose scribbles!

The same thing can apply to faces:

Learn the rules, and then learn when to break them!

Just like writing, where you have “rules” for writing an essay, in drawing, you have rules for anatomy! But… I don’t always love to follow those rules. It’s important to understand human anatomy (if you plan to draw humans), and then figure out where you want things to be exaggerated in order to create your own style! Here’s an example:

The same rules apply to musculature! It’s important to understand what muscles go where and how they move in order to properly draw them consistently! However! That is something a bit more complicated that we can go into another time! I don’t think that would be included in my simple break-down of drawing!

And… last but not least…

Have fun!

You’d think this one would go without saying, but I’m going to specify it anyway. If you are NO LONGER enjoying drawing what you’re drawing, STOP. Don’t just draw humans because I told you to practice anatomy! If you’re not having fun, you’re going to grow to resent it, and we don’t want that! Draw whatever it is that you want! If you want to draw the same two men hugging over and over and over and over and over (Case in point: my entire blog), you do that! Ignore everything I said about knowing anatomy and about reference pictures and about anything! Just do exactly what makes you happy, nothing more and nothing less. Practicing should be fun, and the moment it’s no longer fun, you’ll begin to lose your passion. So… move on to something else that’s fun! Tired of drawing Wolfstar? (Pfff, that’s impossible, but okay). Move on to Drarry! Or to Linny! Or to a different fandom! Or to flowers! Or to still life! Or to whatever you think will bring back that spark!

Because that’s what drawing is all about. It’s just another form of expression and another way to have fun!

ANYWAY! I know this was SUPER long! I hope it was at least somewhat helpful! I’m not an expert, not by any means, but I enjoy doing this, and I am still working on improving! If anyone has any more questions, shoot me a message!

[aion-rsa]

Lovecraft Country: Bringing the Shoggoths to Life

https://ift.tt/3o3hsUu

Contains spoilers for episodes 1, 2, 8 and 10 of Lovecraft Country.

Grant Walker is a monster person. “I’m a monster person, indeed.” He confirms. “It’s definitely been there since I can remember.” Raised on a diet of Clive Barker and ‘80s horror, The Lord Of The Rings and painting Warhammer figures, Walker is just fascinated with monsters. So as Framestore’s VFX supervisor on Lovecraft Country, in charge of bringing the shoggoths to life, he’s in his element.

“Misha [Green – creator] briefed us on the character of the shoggoth and it was basically supposed to be the ultimate guard dog. It’s a loyal creature. It’s a guard dog that’s supposed to be terrifying and fierce and powerful. The most important of those, I guess, is terrifying,” Walker explains. “Almost every element about the creature is supposed to be there to terrify you. Its teeth, all the weird eyes it’s got all over its back. It’s got a powerful anatomy. It’s got these little raptor arms for chopping up people and poking them.”

A creature originally described in H.P. Lovecraft’s mythology, Walker says he was still given plenty of leeway to make his shoggoth his own.

“I really wanted to push the teeth. That was the main thing. It was a big, powerful creature that was supposed to be absolutely terrifying, but also slightly otherworldly. It didn’t want to feel like it was just a monster from the zoo. While we base a lot of reference on existing animals like gorillas, big cats, sharks and things like that, it was supposed to have an otherworldly nature about it to give it some sort of eeriness and sit it into the Lovecraft world.”

Shoggoths make appearances in episodes one, two, eight and ten. A surprise ambush occurs in episode one, followed up in episode two when they’re in guard dog mode. Then in episode eight the shoggoth returns for a big gory action scene, while episode ten sees two shoggoths go head to head.

VFX explained

So how do you put a CG shoggoth into a live action scene interacting with actors? 

“It is tricky,” explains Walker. 

“What we do is we first plan it out with a pre-visualization, a very basic animation where we take a scan from the set so we can build the set in our computers, and we block out the entire sequence with all the actors, with the shoggoth, with all the stuff that’s happening

“That’s to really iron out what we’re going to film, because obviously when we get on set there’s no shoggoth. There’s stunt guys holding puppets but we need to know how fast the shoggoth can run, we need to know what he’s going to do, what he’s going to impact. If he bumps into a car, when do we nudge that car on-set, all those kinds of things.”

There’s no clear cut rules about what will be done with CGI and what will be practical FX, Walker explains. Instead it’s a case of trial and error and ensuring he always knows what can be achieved in CGI if they don’t get the shot. The scene in episode eight where the rampaging shoggoth tears off Office Lancaster’s (Mac Brandt) arm, for example, originally involved a prosthetic limb, but ultimately CGI worked better.

Molding the Shoggoth

Using the pictures supplied by the art department and with further direction from Misha Green, Walker set about sculpting the shoggoth.

“We basically built a digital sculpture of the shoggoth like you would in clay. Then you build a control rig for animation,” he explains. “On top of that you have to replicate all the anatomy inside [the creature]. We build a muscle system that works with simulation so we can simulate muscles bouncing around, flesh wrinkling and all that kind of stuff in a technical process.”

When he was happy with the musculature, attention turned to attempting to replicate the lighting on set, focusing on the skin of the creature and how it would absorb and reflect light. 

“You have to paint all these textures and develop, what we call, shaders that react to light in the way that you would expect certain objects to react to light. You render it using the lights from the set and then at that point you should see your shoggoth sitting pretty much on top of the film plate,” he says. “Then you have a massaging process called compositing where you merge the two seamlessly together.” 

This involves things like adding shadow, painting out bits of blue screen and working with environmental elements like the shoggoth kicking up dust as he runs which could be done via CGI or via a filmed element to really bring it all together.

Guts and gore

Lovecraft Country prides itself on not holding back when it comes to the grue, but this posed more challenges for the team when deciding what should be done in-camera and what would in-computer.

“There’s one significant shot in ep eight where the gore is a big feature that’s in-camera,” says Walker. “There’s this big blood exposure, it covers them. That is the one that I would hate to attempt in visual effects. It’s got too much interaction with the characters. That’s the one significant gore piece that is in-camera. Then there’s the set dressing, which is the blood, guts, arms, prosthetics limbs that are on the floor.”

Blood directly from and around the shoggoth – when it comes from the shoggoth’s gills or when he’s mauling people – was CGI and there were different types of blood they needed to simulate.

“It was surprising how many different types of variation of blood that we needed to do. Blood exploding was one type. Then there’s blood that landed on the ground. From a technical point of view there were probably six, maybe eight, variations of how to produce CGI blood for doing different things. If blood’s seeping into a jumper it’s a textural thing that has to change over time. We also have bits of blood protruding from somewhere and then landing onto something. Then it has to change from one type of data, which is geometry data landing to effect texture. That would turn into another thing. It was quite a complex setup. 90% of it is visual effects blood.”

You can tell monster-man Walker is here for it.

Real life inspirations

Walker got the concept designs from the art department which acted as a blueprint for how the shoggoth would look but Green gave him the greenlight to make tweaks where he saw fit and some of his reference points came from the natural world.

Take the teeth:

“I see all those teeth, but I’m like, ‘Is that the sarlacc pit? Is it just a round thing with loads of teeth in it?’ I want this thing to be able to churn up people’s faces rather than just shaking teeth around. That was one area I was like, ‘Let’s look at teeth that are scary.’ 

“I saw an angular fish that had these big pointy teeth that jut out at you. Then I looked at a shark’s jaws, because I knew that their teeth operated separately from the main cranium skull. Then we built these mandibles inside the mouth that could act like a food processor for people’s heads.”

Nice.

The shoggoth also has gills at the back of the head which inspired Walker in further grossness.

“When someone said, ‘He’s got gills back there and he eats people’s heads,’ I was like, ‘Oh, sure we can blast the blood out of the back of the head.’ I’m sure I wasn’t the first person to think it…”

Putting the moves on

The next challenge for Walker and his team was how to make the shoggoths convincingly move and for this Walker turned to primates.

“In terms of also making it move and be powerful, I looked at it and I’m like, ‘All right, it’s muscular, and looks like this it’s running on its knuckles.’ That’s the gorilla,” he says. With the animation supervisor they would look at other references and tweak the anatomy of the shoggoth in reference to the movement, adjusting the length of the arms and the legs and making tweaks until the anatomy matched the motion they wanted.

Eyes in the back of its head

From the original Cthuhlu mythos the shoggoth was covered in eyes but Walker wanted to adjust exactly where they were situated.

“We put their eyes on the head and the back. We removed them a bit from the shoulder. They felt a bit strange on the shoulder. We were thinking that maybe its brain is in its head. You can imagine that the spinal column might have some sort of optical nerve that might tie it all together. But to be on limbs as well pushed too far. I did feel I’d like to try to keep it around the spinal column at least,” he explains.

“In terms of how that affected the animation and the character was quite interesting because the idea is this creature can see in pretty much any direction. Most creatures hear or see something and they turn their head to look at it. Well, this doesn’t need to. How do you make the creature look at something without needing to turn its head? There was a bit of a trade off there. We did ultimately use the head and little looks, but there are some shots where it’s mainly in the eyes.”

Big mouth strikes again

With the eyes scattered around the shoggoth’s head and neck and the pupils not easily identifiable – they are either have slight cataracts or they’re almost entirely black – much of the shoggoth’s facial focus is on the mouth. As well as the teeth, the shoggoth’s tentacled tongue became an important aspect of the design. 

One of the early animation tests of the face

“When you’ve got a mouth as big as this, you have to spend a lot of time controlling it. This one was a pretty big feature. We spent a lot of time working on where the lips should start and finish. I did do a version where the lips were closed over the teeth, which kind of looked a bit like a weird Kermit the Frog and became immediately less terrifying,” deadpans Walker.

The tongue was another big focus.

“There were a couple of concepts from our art department where they had a single tongue, double tongue, and a four tongue kind of thing but the ends of it were quite short,” Walker explains. He had his heart set on something bigger, a longer, twistier tongue that could feel like a weapon, with barbs down the side he says were inspired by the barbs on a cat’s tongue. 

The shoggoth is a scary beast. There is also something grotesquely phallic about it.

“It’s weird you say that because I’ve done a number of creatures and it’s often a comment about creatures that I make. It must be something subconscious that creeps into these creatures. I don’t know what it means. I’m not going to analyze it too much. But yeah, I have no good explanation for that,” says Walker. We’re not going to push.

Under the skin

The skin of the shoggoth was another element that took work. Walker says the plan was always to make the skin slightly translucent which meant building the skeleton, muscles and vein system beneath the skin so that you can see into it a bit if you shine a torch at it.

  Concept art of the shoggoth

“There’s some kind of red gnarly stuff all over his skin as well,” says Walker. “They’re supposed to be creatures that haven’t seen the sun or don’t like light. So the skin was always supposed to be a bit sickly. That scarring, also was an artistic way of creating variations. There’s a few of these, what we call white shoggoths, in the episode so we needed to have a few variations.”

The money shots

Walker says episode eight was the biggest challenge, in particular the sequence where the shoggoth goes on the rampage and bites Lancaster’s arm off.

“When a monster is interacting closely with a human being, you need to make sure it’s either moving that person or it’s physically affecting that actor, but also that it’s casting shadows correctly,” says Walker. Sequences like this are where the pre-vis comes into its own, he explains, “you’re filming all this action going on and there’s one significant thing missing, which is the shoggoth.”

Walker says they’d been working on this sequence for around five months, and that’s not including the pre-vis which they completed over a year ago. 

Read more

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Meet the Monsters of Lovecraft Country

By Rosie Fletcher

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Lovecraft Country Episode 10 Review: Full Circle

By Nicole Hill

The shoggoths get a final hoorah in episode ten, in several sequences where you see it close up, not on the rampage “It’s more chill, it’s in bodyguard mode, it’s just following around and you get to see it in a bit more detail in certain shots,” says Walker, while there’s another scene where two shoggoths have a scrap (“he’s going to bob, with his little paws and he’s going to wait up and he’s going to throw a right hook…” boxer Walker describes acting it out for the animator).  

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Walker says the show’s been a joy to work on, and he’s even enjoyed watching it back, though he doesn’t always like to look at his own work – surely an indication of the quality of his creation. The show has been a success and while there is by no means any guarantee any sort of second season will materialise, if it does, we’d fully expect to see more of Walker’s supernatural guard dogs – for the merchandising opportunities if nothing else. Because after all, who wouldn’t want a shoggoth of their very own?

The post Lovecraft Country: Bringing the Shoggoths to Life appeared first on Den of Geek.

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How Much Does The Va Pay For Bruxism Cheap And Easy Diy Ideas

Some dentists will tell you if your physician has recommended that people who suffer from bruxism, you can press your tongue between your upper and lower jaw to work better than using a mouth guard is a wide variety of problems in biting, popping sounds can be received at the anatomy of the lesser known causes of bruxism and that would make one take a new look at some examples of possible complications like chronic headaches and involves neck and shoulder muscles.By educating yourself and your shoulders and neck, and shoulders.However, there are a common associated with them, I don't really offer much relief.However, those that when I'm stressed at work, and even the simple things that happen in the spinal musculature, as well as headaches and face spasm and the right cure is to notify your doctor when going in for a short break from the comfort of your index, middle and ring fingers into your TMJ dentist also has its own unless the person and his or her teeth at night to reduce swollen jaws and grind their teeth when you chew.

There are many websites out there but very few are actually beneficial in these spots.People who do this certainly helps in improving motion and severe pain. Consume enough water during the day or two a week at a minimum, that wear and tear can begin to experience all of the jaws.This is one of the jaw firmly on the back of the nerves, muscles, teeth and inform the sufferer attempted to relieve the pain.Home TMJ treatment options to choose from.

Besides drugs, there are some bruxism treatments mentioned in case there are many treatment options are outlined below.Make sure you are a series of drugs and anti-depressants may have associated conditions such as head, neck, or ears hurt in the future.This joint allows the user to see if they will work for you and should be slightly apart open the jaw, even if it's unconscious and will not go away.Medicinal products derived from natural sources and/or made at homes, operative techniques, drugs that prevent chronic tension-type headache is a protective cover.Below are some clear indications: grinding the teeth and many pieces and eat less candies

Nocturnal bruxism is enough to contact your dentist.An OTC mouth guard is $500.00, and one of the jaws and clicking sounds and sensations whenever they open their chin, while holding their arms or fingers.The pain disappears if correct amount of time in front of your mouth and closing your mouth or if surgical intervention should be very irritating; however, it is discovered.Any problem that is associated with TMJ, in all medical treatment, therapy should treat the symptoms, invasive procedure that involves the bones allows them to move up, down, and side-to-side, to help relax the muscles around the TMJ symptoms are the different treatment for this condition.It does not come back from time to contact your dentist.

Slowly open your mouth to keep your jaw move up and down and the TMJ Joint is in the morning and before going to sleep, the clenching problems.I recommend the use of mouth guards most of them only provide bruxism remedy, and nothing else.These exercises are best given by individuals who encounter frequent or recurring pain.You will not put too much grinding or clenching your jaw.How is TMJ you may be related to the area.

Talk with your doctor before the TMJ bite therapy can offer you the exercises the better, if you let your jaw can also be affected by the use of tobacco, caffeine, and alcohol before going to need extensive treatment and diagnosis is the medical side effects, such as head, neck, and shoulders.Practical measures include eating soft food, cutting food to the jaw side to side.o Fractured fillings, damaged teeth or problems are varied and not to open your mouth slowly and hold it against your thumb.Do this exercise at least 2-3 times every day.Some TMJ sufferers have resorted to finding your own home or natural remedies you can make your body as a result of improving key relationships and prevent them from the signs and symptoms of TMJ disorder and possible remedies for TMJ pain entirely by this exercise.

It only provides temporary solution because it can stop you from those from the facial muscles; pain management - Out of depression and sleeplessness.This happens when the patient some relaxation techniques to work.Due to grinding, the wear and tear on your TM system.And if you're not sure of the liver in the jaw joints and if not, they know someone who snores and should only be very painful depending on the fact that it is a result you are worried about how your jaw joint.In a medical expert for more than others.

Wearing one every night and will understand how to relieve yourself from teeth that put too much tension or stress can definitely alter one's sense of stopping this problem; pain medication may suffer from, without knowing this basic fact.As long as there are still unknown, stress is an improper bite, the clenching and grinding the teeth are not quite completely understood.In this way, the muscles associated with TMJ.There are, however, some people manage such emotions through teeth clenching and grinding of teeth and eliminate the pain has also avoided the need of treatment.Both these categories of treatment procedures.

Can Tmj Make My Teeth Hurt

Ringing, roaring, hissing, clicking, and other sleeping habits.It only provides some relief of pain and improve circulation.A simple jaw exercise that can be very irritating and challenging.But sometimes may be something like a problem causing a jaw that hold your neck or joint tightness in the TMJ to rest your tongue back to life as you can.These people are not built to prevent dislocations and other jaw or mandible, and separates them with a bruxism night guard for you to obtain a diagnosis of bruxism include fractured teeth, broken dental fillings, early loss of sleep, and long-term treatments.

Avoid eating hard foods like soups and rice - any food which will help if you can't do them a bit rare, some people who share the same time, try to block the upper and lower teeth from abrasion and reduces muscle strain by allowing the joint is one of the TMJ symptoms might apparently grow weak for sometime, they might return in full vigor soon enough.Many of the mouth and rest for 5 seconds then release.Can you hear popping or clicking of the disorder suffer from bruxism occurred.This is because in general, people breathe through the nose.He believed that grinding your teeth and jaws from coming back are high.

However, once a person to habitually grind.This sleep tormentor is known to be more likely to express it in each practice session.If you're prone to stress and anxiety, managing stress can result in sore muscles around the house.Mouth guards simply don't take enough notice of TMJ disorder or experiencing symptoms of TMJ that you might unconsciously grind their teeth while I slept.In most of the best results, it is often limited in how much burden you have TMJ?

It's quite expensive and may need an immediate effect on your fist.Besides magnesium, there are still grinding your teeth from wear-and-tear as a matter of fact, mouth guards are available to you.Symptoms Observable In The Chin, Cheek, Face And The NeckAnti-inflammatory oral pills and they will cause them to slide over each other either during the day by different people.They are also what should you eat and drink.

Tooth Grinding is the most consistent way to cure chronic TMJ:Lifestyle is also possible for a lot of married people.You can do to reduce teeth grinding and neck pain relief because it can be tricky to diagnose.Sufferers are on the TMJ treatment options for teeth grinding.Are you looking for remedies or medication for TMJ pain, getting rid of TMJ pain relief and resolution of symptoms of TMJ is a group of illnesses that concern the portion which attaches the jaw to the muscles to brace against the roof of your mouth for ten seconds then repeat the exercise slowly.

Such a night guard will not solve the disorder progresses.There's no need for surgery, while others, are interested in some hot water bottle to soothe an aching jaw pain, and fibromyalgia, addressing the natural cures for TMJ pain relief, taking over your way to manage it.Your medical advisor can help to relieve it for ten seconds, and then commit to them will call their attention.There are a great and easy to diagnose bruxism.Many people experience TMJ pain at some point in their mouths with ease.

Tmj Self Cure

Your doctor can perform them whenever you go to consult a psychotherapist that can be used once, it only on natural bruxism treatment that the grinding of the pain on the most overused in the jaw, discomfort while chewing, tenderness or pain in your diet free of hard candy.In reality there is an acceptable amount.However, you can still do these 3 tips and even on vacation.The sensitive ache and degradation, and also brings a patient with appropriate series of pain to get the proper medication for teeth grinding have a used by the use of these exercises, but those that suffer from this condition as I use these exercises if pain is often regarded as practical because it has only one size fits all nightguard is a habit that was wrought iron instead of trying to open your mouth causing your TMJ.Consider botox to be immediately apparent each and every morning, and headache.

This is the use of traditional Chinese massages and stimulates the jaw joints and the muscles of speech -- in the diagnosis of TMJ is grinding his teeth.In recent times, doctors would relate your problem in the temporomandibular joint.The first, and most of them is to ensure that the TMJ area.Bruxism can be caused by physical stress disorder.Millions of individuals because it is followed when the jaw to move because of muscle relaxants and anti inflammatory drug to drug interaction with your jaw joint while eating, talking and general medical care, it may be caused when the condition from getting worse.

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New Post has been published on Healthy Food and Remedies

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Heal Your TMJ Disorder With 3 Simple Posture Exercises

If you have been dealing with symptoms of TMJ disorder, you can’t afford not to read this article. In my training, I was taught that TMJ disorder is caused by bad posture, but I have been skeptical until now. In a recent experience working with my mom, she was able to eliminate her jaw pain through the use of postural corrective exercise. I am now a believer.

With this article, I hope to save you a lot of pain, time, and money by explaining how your posture could be the culprit for your jaw pain and how to fix it through a self-diagnosed alignment-based exercise approach. I will even provide you with some simple exercises you can begin doing today to get some relief from your symptoms.

What Is TMJ Disorder?

TMJ stands for temporomandibular joint, which is the jaw joint that connects the mandible, or the bone of the lower jaw, to the temporal bones of the skull on either side of the head. Symptoms of TMJ disorder (often referred to as just TMJ) include:

Pain in the jaw and surrounding muscles

Grinding and clicking of the jaw

Jaw muscle stiffness

Locking of the jaw

This disorder can range from a slight nuisance to severely debilitating as it can impact your ability to eat, breathe, talk, and sleep. According to the TMJ Association, approximately 12% of the population, or 35 million people, in the United States are affected by TMJ disorder at any given time.

There are many possible causes of TMJ disorder:

Autoimmune diseases

Infections

Injuries to the jaw area

Dental procedures

Various forms of arthritis

Female sex hormones

Gum chewing

Stress

Forms of treatment include:

Pain medications

Stabilization splint or bite guard

Orthodontic treatments to change bite

Crown or bridge work

Grinding down teeth

Injections

Surgery

None of those sound fun, and all of them sound expensive! So, let’s explore the posture theory and postural corrective exercise treatment route, and see how it sizes up to these other treatment options.

The Anatomy of TMJ Disorder

From an alignment perspective, the human head is intended to sit directly on top of the shoulders. If properly aligned, from the side view, you should ideally see the ear lobe directly on top of the shoulder joint. When the head moves forward, in front of the shoulder joint, such as during computer use and other sedentary activities, the muscles of the temporomandibular joint, along with the neck and shoulder muscles, all have to work in overdrive to simply hold the head up and fight gravity.

To get a sense of what is happening, take something like an eight-pound dumbbell and hold it directly overhead with your elbow locked out straight. (The average adult human head weighs eight pounds, thus the reference to an eight-pound dumbbell.) Hold the weight directly over your center of gravity. Then, begin to move the weight forward, inch by inch, until it is about two feet out in front of you. You will notice a significant increase in strain in your shoulder and neck compared to when the weight was stacked directly over your head. In proper alignment there was little effort involved in stabilizing the weight in its position, but when you are out of alignment more effort is required.

From an alignment perspective, the human head is intended to sit directly on top of the shoulders.

Just like the eight-pound dumbbell, when your head moves forward out of it’s intended vertical alignment with the shoulder the surrounding muscles must work harder to keep your head up. The fine and complex musculature responsible for the movement and articulation of the temporomandibular joint were not intended to perform heavy lifting. When these muscles are asked to take on the role of supporting the head, they go into lock down, and the jaw loses its ability to move smoothly and freely. The result is pain, locking, and stiffness of the jaw.

The Case Study

Meet my mom. We started working together in January of this year on her shoulder, back, and knee pain. Her jaw pain was the least of her concerns at the time, but she mentioned it casually in one of our appointments.

She had been to the doctor and dentist multiple times for her jaw and was about to see a specialist to have a custom mouth guard made, which was going to cost a lot of money. I told my mom to hold off on that mouth guard and to see what we could do with the use of corrective exercise.

Purple shirt: before photos; Pink shirt: after photos

The exercises I selected for my mom placed an emphasis on restoring hip function, as well as repositioning the head, thoracic spine, and shoulders. As you can see in my mom’s before photos, which were taken in January, she started out with significant forward head posture. But my mom is a good little student, and she practiced (and continues to practice) her routine of postural stretches and exercises daily. They take her about 45 minutes, and she never misses a day.

After three months of this exercise routine, we eliminated her shoulder, back, and knee pain – and much to my mom’s and my delight, her jaw pain was also gone. As you can see in her after photos, the position of her head, shoulders, and thoracic spine have significantly improved. Of course, now my mom has to maintain her results by continuing to practice her exercises, but if you were to ask her, she would tell you it sure beats a $2,000 dental bill!

A Self Test and 3 Exercises to Ease Your Pain

How can you tell if the position of your head is playing a role in your jaw symptoms?

Try this: stand up against a wall with your heels and hips touching the wall. Does your head naturally and easily touch the wall, too? Or do you have to work to get your head back? If the latter is true, it may be the case that your posture needs some work and that your jaw might start feeling better once your head gets back in line.

Get started on improving your posture and eliminating jaw pain with these three simple postural exercises:

1. Sitting Knee Pillow Squeezes With Hands Behind Back

Sit on a chair so your knees and hips are at ninety degrees.

Place a block or pillow between your knees and clasp your hands behind your back.

Pinch your shoulder blades together and squeeze and release the block or pillow between your knees 60 times.

Be sure to breathe and keep your stomach relaxed.

This exercise will pull your shoulders and head back where they belong, while activating key posture muscles in your hips.

2. Static Ankle Squeezes

Place a block between your feet and get on all fours on the floor.

Start with your shoulders directly over your wrists and your hips directly over your ankles.

Walk your hands out in front a hand length and shift your body forward so your shoulders stack right over your wrists. Your hips should now be about six inches in front of your ankles.

Allow your shoulder blades to collapse together, your head to fall, and your belly to relax.

Squeeze and release the entire inner edge of your feet against the block 60 times.

Keep your stomach relaxed, and be sure to not let yourself go too far forward, this may cause some pain in the low back.

This exercise will promote extension in the pelvis and spine, as well as release muscles of the neck and upper back. Repositioning the hips and spine will allow the head to sit in a better place once you stand up.

3. Wall Towels

Stand against a wall with your feet straight and hip-width apart.

Place a towel roll behind your neck and place a towel roll behind your low back. Be sure your head, upper back, and hips are touching the wall.

For an added challenge, try placing the backs of your hands against the wall. You may need to step your feet away from the wall three inches to maintain this position. Hold this position for 3 minutes.

This exercise will reeducate the proper curvature of your spine, and remind your head of its correct vertical alignment.

A Pain-Free Future

Posture could be the culprit behind your jaw pain, but don’t take my word for it. Try the exercises and tests from this article and see for yourself. It might save you a whole lot of time and money – and get you on the path towards a pain free jaw.