#infinite loop

[4gifs]

Endless wave

[spectrowhirl]

spectrowhirl.etsy.com

[futureselfbeats]

ABOVE THE NOISE

🎶Kenji Kawai - Unnatural City II

[nullen-void]

What Use Are Explorers In An Empty World?

[Hollow Knight/Bug Fables]

Part 2

---------------------------------------

Hallownest. The last and only kingdom, so they say. Beyond it are only endless wastes or endless stone, tunnels long since collapsed, and incomprehensible horrors. If there was ever anything beyong her borders, none remain who are able or willing to talk about it. There is nowhere else.

Kabbu always thought that that was a load of nonsense. After all, he knew he came from the north... but that was all he knew. There were newcomers to Hallownest all the time, but they rarely knew more than snippets of before crossing the border. Master Lurien said that they came to Hallownest feral, mere animals, and it was only after arriving that the Pale Light granted them the spark of intelligence.

Kabbu... doubted, though he would never say as much out loud. He remembered happy faces and jokes shared among friends, even if the names and faces were missing. The feeling remained to fill the void left by the memories. And he very definitely traveled to the kingdom with two others, based on what the ants who saved him from the garpede said. They were not so lucky, but Kabbu had returned to the scene of the attack since. He knew in his heart that they gave their lives to defend him. Would a mere animal do such a thing?

But he would never voice these thoughts out loud. The bugs of Hallownest worshipped the King as a god and believed everything he said, and Lurien was among the most devout. If the King said that there was nowhere else, and Kabbu said that that couldn't be true, Kabbu would be shunned for daring to voice dissent.

...Perhaps he was being paranoid. Lurien was a good bug, and a good boss. His fanaticism only served to make him an ever more effective Watcher, and Kabbu respected him dearly.

Maybe, Kabbu thought, if he could see the Pale King in the shell, he'd get why everyone else revered him so. But as he looked out over the City of Tears, watching the endless rain splash against the glass, all he could think was that maybe he should have stayed with the Ants. Elizant II had her own hangups, but she didn't hide from her subjects and demand worship. She ruled by action, proving herself in every decree. No ant went hungry in the Colony's borders.

From here, Kabbu aimed his telescope at a darkened alley. A loose lumafly fluttered over the head of a destitute butterfly, his wings waterlogged and torn. Kabbu felt for the poor bug... but as a Watcher all he could do was make a note of it and hope it found its way to someone who could do something about it.

It wouldn't. They never did. All that came of it was a reprimand for not paying attention to important things.

"Kabbu."

The beetle jumped, fumbling his telescope. He managed to catch it before it could break on the floor, and he turned to looked up at the robed figure of his boss. "Yes, Master Lurien!"

"At ease," the bug of indeterminate species said, waving an arm. "Are you well, Kabbu?"

"Of course, sir!"

Lurien stared at him through the hole in his mask. Kabbu could see no eyes, but he felt the gaze all the same. "...You were sighing again, Kabbu."

He was? He hadn't noticed. He sighed, then caught himself as he realized he did it again. "I apologize, Master Lurien. I just... don't feel like I'm making a difference, up here."

Lurien tilted his head. "Don't feel like--Kabbu, you've spotted five robberies and four assaults this past week alone. Last month you provided ongoing reports during an active pursuit that were critical in preventing that murderous spider from getting away. You're a valuable member of the Watchers."

Kabbu fidgeted. "But who is comforting the victims? Who is helping the lay-bug with their troubles? The King's automotons are formidable, but they lack the care that a normal guard would. I am stopping criminals, but am I helping bugs?"

Lurien leaned back, absorbing that. "...Hm."

"Please don't misunderstand me!" Kabbu added hastily. "I enjoy the work, I do! I know I'm doing good work up here, but--"

"I understand." Lurien rubbed his chin through the mask, a curious quirk of his Kabbu never understood. "You know, Kabbu, you've built up some vacation time. Perhaps it would do you good to get out of the Spire for a few days."

"Oh, Master Lurien, I couldn't possibly--"

"And if," Lurien said, raising his voice to cut Kabbu's protests off, "In that time, you happen to patronize the Soul Sanctum, perhaps you could pick me up a souvenir? I've been meaning to go on one of their guided tours, but all these missing bugs cases are occupying my time too much."

Kabbu blinked, trying to parse the odd emphasis in Lurien's speech. "...I--wait, hold on. Are you suggesting--"

Lurien raised a digit to hush him. "I would never say anything ill towards my venerable colleague the Soul Master, of course," Lurien added, with heavy sarcasm. "The Sanctum is the foremost compository of learning in Hallownest, after all."

Kabbu thought furiously. He wasn't stupid, he could read between the lines. "And of course, if I see anything untoward," he mused under his breath, "I can act in my capacity as a Watcher to--Yes, of course you're right, sir," Kabbu agreed. "I have been under the weather lately. A break is just the thing I need, yes sir."

Lurien chuckled. "At ease, again, Kabbu. I understand the desire to be down on the ground with the Kingsmoulds. You are far from the first Watcher to say as much. Maybe after you return, I can talk to His Majesty about letting officers patrol alongside them. There ARE still tasks the Moulds are ill-equipped for, I've noticed."

Kabbu's eye widened, but he pushed his surprise down quickly. "Yes sir, thank you sir."

Lurien turned to leave. "Finish your shift, Kabbu. I need to find someone to cover your station while you're 'on vacation,' hah."

[critter-casey]

“Fun with Shawn and Shiny” (cut, folded and pasted paper craft with printed drawings) — CW

[opendirectories]

[confusedananass]

(instagram)

Tutorial in After Effects under the cut.

• Create a new composition and call it Split.

• Write your text, pre-comp it, call it Text or whatever you want.

• Create a mask from the center to one side (top/bottom), change anchor point to the top.

• Bring down Scale property and unlink it, keyframe the text to go from 100% to 0% in 1s towards the anchor point.

• Cut the layer at the end.

• Duplicate pre-comp.

• Select the bottom one, click M to bring down mask properties, invert the mask and move anchor point to the bottom (so the text scales to the bottom).

• Duplicate Text pre-comp one more time. Select it, press M and delete the mask, move anchor point to the center. Create new keyframes to scale it from 0 to 100 in 1s (properties unlinked). Select both keyframes and delay it by 1 frame. It makes the text look like it’s scaling from the center.

• Change bottom and top text color by adding Fill effect to the pre-comp.

• Easy ease all keyframes.

• Select all pre-comps and duplicate them, put them at the top and put them at the back to extend your animation (or arrange in your preferred order if you’re doing a phrase like me). So far it should look something like this:

• Create new comp Wave of 10s, add your Split comp.

• Create new Solid layer, call it Map, add Gradient Ramp effect, make white at the left, black at the right and hide the layer.

• Select Split pre-comp, Right-click → Time → Enable Time Remapping and extend the layer to the end.

• Add loopOut() expression to Time Remap.

• On Split pre-comp add the effect Time Displacement, on Time Displacement Layer select your Solid layer (Map), and on Source select Effects & Mask.

• Change Time Resolution (fps) to 250-300.

• Add Fast Box Blur effect, change Blur Radius to 0.5.

• To bring back the sharpness add Curves effect, change the Channel to Alpha and change values (see screenshot).

• Play around with Max Displacement Time [sec] on Time Displacement effect depending on the look you’re going for. I set it to 0.5.

• Now this whole animation is driven by our Solid layer (Map) we created. So if you make any changes to it, the animation changes too. For example, you can change Ramp Shape to Radial on Gradient Ramp effect, and see how it changes your animation.

• I additionally added some texture on the text, used Track Matte and added wiggle(5,500) expression to the Rotation property so texture would be constantly moving. Also added some additional effects to the new Adjustment Layer on top such as Roughen edges, Turbulent Displace, Posterize Time and Noise. Let your freak flag fly - it’s a matter of taste and creativity of what you do with it. Your animation should look something like this:

[talos-stims]

zooming in on a fractal tree | source

[javier-montero]

[fakevyral]

[ost-futurist]

"Tears in The Rain" is the 7th and final tapeloop from "Loop Cinema", which was originally going to be part of our next release, but then we had another idea and agreed that it should stay here to close the album.

Free listening and download are available on our Bandcamp profiles, please use headphones for a better experience.

Thanks for your support!_

[spectrowhirl]

spectrowhirl.etsy.com

[futureselfbeats]

TENDRIL

original music + animation

[maryjaneszombies-blog]

Everything happens when it happens for a reason

[nichrome-media]

Infinite Loop

Slice #165