#it's fine if it's out of your budget but my art isn't expensive

[nerdferatum]

I got told off today because my illustrations prices are way too high for a non professional (i literally get paid less than the minimum wage here) and especially for a project for kids.......... By another freelancer. We all deserve livable wages except when it's our time to pay them apparently.

[inkskinned]

i keep thinking about hobbies and how i often spill over myself to pick up new ones. i have adhd, i end up trying something for like a month and then just getting far enough in it that i move on, satisfied.

and that should be fine; but it's never fine.

i am a pretty decent artist; but i can't just make art for my dnd campaign, i should be selling dnd maps and character designs and scene setting pieces. i can't just make my friends matching earrings, i need to get an etsy and ship them internationally and take bulk orders. i make pretty good props and decorations and use them to throw my friends parties - but i should be running a party planning business and start taking paying clients and networking and putting my skills to actual use.

for some reason, i never figured out the specifics of pottery. it was a fun class and i enjoyed myself - and still, i'm embarrassed, years later, that i put in all that useless effort. everything i make has to be stunning. stellar. i should have applied myself more. maybe i'm too lazy. maybe i'm broken and selfish and needy. actually creative people would have kept going; they would be bettering themselves at every possible opportunity.

we find ourselves in this trap, even accidentally: we need to commodify our time, because it is a commodity. if we spend our efforts and our time not earning, isn't that the same thing as burning free money? and god forbid you ever take up a hobby that ends up being more expensive than you thought. you sit in your car and you look at the receipt and in your head you hear a conversation that isn't even happening - your mom or your friend or your partner all saying oh great. not this shit again. it's always something with you, and it never actually means anything.

i have realized this horrible thing, recently - i'll get excited to start a project, pick up a new hobby. and then i just... stop myself. i start thinking about the amount of time it will take, and how it'll look in my monthly budget. what if i can't even produce a good enough final product. sure, it's exciting to think about how i could make my friend her own custom dice. but i'm just polluting the earth if i don't get it right. better not bother. better not try.

restless, i get caught in the negative space. the feeling that oh god, i want to create. and that horrible sense - yeah, but i don't have the time to just put to waste.

[lilblucat]

I just saw the ask by slushysblog. In response you sent a gif that blew me away:

You see, I'm just getting into digital art, and my PC can only handle about 5 or 6 layers before my graphics environment crashes. (Ofc this forces me to restart my PC and lose anything not saved.)

I've learned to work around this, my art isn't nearly so complex as yours, but I know if I want to continue I'll have to get a better computer at some point.

I was hoping you could tell me a bit about the technical side of your work. What are your PC specs? What software do you use? That sort of thing.

Thanks in advance! I love your art!

My set-up is complete overkill for art. It's a heavy gaming-ready desktop PC I got a few years back that I've upgraded the RAM and storage on over the years. I was doing fine with 16GB of RAM but I always have open a lot in CSP and other stuff so upgrading was definitely something I needed to do. 16GB should be fine for most people though.

You can also see that I run Arch Linux and uh yeahhhhhh it's a long story. The short of it is that my old laptop broke its Windows install during an update and I was completely unable to fix it so I just.... switched to Linux lol. I started out on Ubuntu and switched to Arch after a while. I don't rec using Arch unless you know what you're doing, Ubuntu is way easier.

What you might find more interesting is my away from home set up on my laptop since it's an older gaming laptop.

The graphics card is actually a NVIDIA Geforce 850 or something. It's so old that you can't play some games on it. However, I have no issues with it for art. I can open my comic project files in CSP fine on it. It's also running on Linux Mint, which isn't showing up on the little image for some reason. Both of my devices run Linux, but that's a me preference/need thing and I don't rec messing with your operating system if you don't know much about computers. It gives me a bit of an edge since the system doesn't use as much RAM as Windows but yeah don't touch unless you're committed to learn. Windows will serve you fine. Or MacOS even.

As for my program, I use Clip Studio Paint EX. I bought Pro a long time ago and upgraded to EX because of the extra tools for comics and animation (I've heard animators don't like CSP though, it's the BEST program for comics however). It's a really solid program but the recent changes to pricing and updates is really stupid. Fun fact: I use only default brushes and materials because getting it to run on Linux breaks the store. I also use an older version of it because of how I got it working on this system.

For my tablet I use an XP-Pen Artist 12 Pro. It's a pretty solid screen tablet on a budget (I bought it on a sale) and I have no issues with it. I actually partly got it because I thought it was cool that XP-Pen carries official drivers for Linux too, and this helped a bit since this was before Windows bricked on me and I switched to that. It was kinda weird how it played out lol. I would heavily not rec a Wacom tablet unless it's an older one for cheap. Wacom is stupidly expensive and you can get a better bang for your buck at other companies. My first tablet is a Wacom and it's still holding up pretty well but their quality on their new tablets isn't great. Check out XP-Pen, Gaomon, and Huion for better tablet options.

[kyojuuros]

Hello all!

So, I've had an unplanned expense come up that is way out of my budget and I am needing to find ways to come up with a few hundred dollars in a short amount of time, so I've decided to open up for commissions for a couple of weeks. Whatever I'm able to bring in will help toward being able to get my rent paid and keep food on the table while I navigate through this.

Series I'm willing and able to work with are: demon slayer • attack on titan • fullmetal alchemist brotherhood • inuyasha • jujutsu kaisen • my hero academia • kill la kill • spy x family • dragon ball z • pokémon (no gifs)

*Please do not ask for any series not listed as I do not have the resources for them **I can only make creations using the source material or official art

Pricing: I'm only looking to charge $3 (the kofi default) per commission since these will be simple edits.

What I'll Do*: I don't have a lot of time to make things super fancy but I will do- • Headers • Sidebars • Up to 10 icons • Gifs/gifsets • Simple graphic edits *keep in mind that giffing is my strength more than making standard graphics.

You can go to my kofi page to request a commission. Make sure to let me know who you are on tumblr so I can ask questions and/or let you know when your commission is complete.

Be as detailed as possible with what you want (especially if you need an image in a certain size/dimension). If what you want isn't necessarily a specific thing - that's also fine! It'll be first come first serve, so keep that in mind while you wait for your commission to be completed.

*If you're unfamiliar with my work, you can have a look at my edits tag or my edits page.*

I'm also fine with donations if anyone wants to do that instead. I'm not going to explicitly ask for them, but any little thing helps. (kofi | paypal | venmo | tumblr)

If you don't want a commission or can't afford to help that's totally fine - a reblog is always appreciated. 💕

Thanks guys!

[ferndalegoodgames]

Narrative Design: Ace Attorney

The next time I design a game, it will probably look a lot like Ace Attorney.

I recently picked up the Ace Attorney trilogy on Switch for $15. A few hours in, it's clear that this package, at this price, is an absolute steal.

The genius of this series is immediate. It's design is clean; the craftsmanship impeccable; the feedback loop inviting to an audience that is broad, both inside the usual game-playing humans of the world as well as outside of them.

The more I study this series, the little surprise there is that it began life on the Gameboy Advance, thrived on the DS, and has ascended into the pantheon of Capcom staple IP's, playable across all game-playing devices along with your Mega Mans and Resident Evils.

Much like Pokémon, Golden Sun, Advance Wars, or any great series that starts on a handheld but aims for gameplay and narrative ambitions far beyond the confines of the little device it was born on, the makers of this game are cut from a different cloth. They know what you could be playing on your more expensive box hooked to your TV. And they want to deliver that same experience to you. But they have different boundaries to work within. Their work requires them to be more nimble, efficient, and able to do much with little.

Let's quickly review the basic building blocks of an Ace Attorney game:

Ace Attorney falls under the more-interactive-than-average visual novel genre.

You play as a lawyer named Phoenix Wright. He begins as a clumsy, bumbling fool with spontaneous shows of courtroom mastery, traits which I imagine remain consistent so you can always be sure to laugh when he falters but still feel responsible for when he triumphs.

You are joined by an over-the-top anime-as-f cast. Unlike, say, some store-brand JRPG party members, Ace Attorney characters ooze charm. Their silhouettes are iconic; their mannerisms delightfully characterized with choice few frames of animation. (though, as is often the case in Japanese character design, the untamable boobs of the women cast makes me embarrassed to play this on my tv)

The game is divided into episodes, each a court case you tackle, each fairly short and easy. The narrative is linear, but designed to instill a greater feeling of agency than what's actually possible.

The vertical slice of these games, more or less, goes something like this: chapter setup, acquire info/items > enter courtroom, hear testimony > cross-examine, press arguments, present evidence > repeat for new testimonies / cross-examining > reach verdict, chapter conclusion.

The whole thing is zany; it almost instantly fails to live up to real-world courtroom scrutiny; it's wonderful.

The more I study this game, the more I start to wonder:

Why isn't the market flooded with games like this? Or, more importantly, why aren't they as popular as Ace Attorney?

I'm not talking about more courtroom / detective hybrid narrative games. I'm talking about games with the same building blocks. You can swap the lawyering out with other content, but keep the same bones, and still have something thoroughly pleasurable; something you could apply to any number of narrative journeys.

And yes, I'm aware this genre is indeed populated with games that have similar, if not the exact structural DNA of Ace Attorney. But I would argue few are as engaging; as broadly entertaining; as finely honed. This is a present-day story with a well-understood job. Most similarly-designed visual novels deal in fantasy and sci-fi tropes that turn the masses away. I'd wager that this design framework is primed for widespread success in the right hands and with the right execution.

That's what I mean when I say, the next game I design, I'm stealing from Ace Attorney. Here's how I'll do it:

Minimal Investment: Ace Attorney is cost-effective-as-f. The vast majority of the budget for these games, I imagine, is spent on character art, background art, and writing the narrative. I imagine that programming these games, while not trivial, is rather straightforward compared to virtually any other genre of games. And yet, this minimal design yields a rewarding gameplay experience, elevating it beyond a fun visual novel that you tap through idly. Which leads me to...

Narrative Design: Ace Attorney makes you feel smart, even in the bare-bones opening tutorial case. It does this by funneling you down a straight path, then presents a sprawling set of pathways, which all ultimately loop back around to the main line. It does this by letting you do a few things in your own order and by giving you an "inventory." But the number of possible things you can do, or items / information you can possess are manageable, legible, and meaningfully connected to tasks at hand. It strikes this incredible balance of forward momentum with player choice; of being able to experiment with options, and ultimately fail, but with legible boundaries and room for forgiveness in errors.

Flexible Scenario / Aesthetic: Best of all, Ace Attorney games, to me, simply don't feel tethered to stories centered around a courtroom; to stories this framework was designed around. To me, the most important elements are that you have a protagonist doing an activity that requires talking to accomplish goals, which is often informed by additional resources, be it some sort of object or some piece of external information.

Example: What about a game where you're a car salesperson? You could start out at a lowly used dealership. A customer approaches. They lay out their case for what they want. You could seize upon moments where they're hesitant and unsure, like when they say "well, my spouse might not want to spend that much..." Your "inventory" could contain useful talking points about cars that would entice the customer. Or maybe you could utilize a limited special deal that your manager bestows upon you. The game could allow you to fail, to let the customer get away, or you could claw your way to the top of the monthly charts, wowing and annoying your NPC co-workers.

Holy shit...

I think I'm accidentally writing the initial pitch for the game I'm going to make. I should probably seize this creative flourish of energy into something tangible.

But I will probably just pick up my Switch, and resume the delightful rabbit hole that is Ace Attorney.

[clockworkspider]

If you believe this non-essential thing, like a video game or a comic book, isn't worth the money it's charging, just don't get it. Don't waste your time on it. You don't have to have it. The corporation isn't robbing you of any rights by not giving it to you for free.

If you still believe it's worth your time, but it truly isn't as good as it promised to be, wait for a sale. It'll happen.

We all want to fuck capitalism, but we still do, in fact, living in a capitalist society. When you pirate games and music and books, you're not fucking over the capitalism system as a whole—it will still be there even if 99% of people pirate—you're fucking over the creators.

If creators gets no money from things they create, there will be less creators. The result is not social change. The government isn't gonna fund the arts because of piracy. Corporations like Amazon aren't gonna magnanimously give creators a larger cut of the profit because of piracy.

The fact is, many things which you believe are too expensive are incredibly high-budget to produce. Live theatre, books, music, comics, indie games, all these things are basically money sinks until they hit a very high point of success. (You can look into them individually.) The starving artist is not a myth but a reality. Even fairly popular cult-favourite musicians and authors still struggle to make money.

Now, for TV shows and movies, ofttimes the creators are already compensated for their work by the time it's out. It is up to the producers/TV/streaming network to budget and cover for any losses, so the worst thing that can come from pirating is your favourite show getting discontinued. Pirating these does minimal damage.

Academics are often more than happy to share their research for free, and the paywall really only benefits the institution than the creators themselves. So if you gotta pirate those, fine.

Video games are quite different, depending on whether it's indie or large studio. However, even AAA games have developers doing crunch and thousands of hours of overtime, which they hope to be rewarded for by bonuses that will come from sales. While this kind of culture is wrong, you won't change it by pirating games. It just means the overworked devs will not get their bonuses.

It is not fair that a greater variety of entertainment is available for those with more disposable income, yes. There was a time, as a young person with no income, when piracy really did broaden my horizon. Whatever you do it for, know that piracy isn't activism. It isn't justice. It's a practice that's actively harmful to artists and creators.

[zealynstan]

Unlabeled Interview Part 4

Isabelle: Umm... Okay, so I wanna go back on a little bit about why I like this podcast is I can get a little deeper than what people see on social media.

Zealyn: Yeah. Mhm.

Isabelle: And what people see- umm... the stuff that we choose to share. So, for you, being an artist now, what's something that is in your daily life and that's part of the artist life that you either struggle with that most people wouldn't expect would be part of your life?

Zealyn: Oh my goodness! I think that the... hands down, the biggest struggle of an artist, especially- I have so many ideas through my head I want to do so much and the only thing that holds me back from doing things is money. Like that's- being an artist is expensive. It's every song costs x amount of dollars and every video you wanna do costs x amount and every tour you wanna do costs this and every- I mean, everything's so expensive and think that if I had a bank, which is usually a label, I think that if I had a bank, life would be so much easier and creativity would flow more because I'd be able to do every idea I think of.

Isabelle: Yeah.

Zealyn: But now I need to only choose... my- the most important things to me. I need to be very "pick and choose" and careful and make the most of everything, but I think that- was that the question? Was that-

Isabelle: That was the question. Yeah yeah.

Zealyn: Kinda.

Isabelle: Did I asked you- Yeah, I think I asked you. That was the question.

Zealyn: Right? And you said it was like the hardest thing an artist for me right now or something?

Isabelle: Yeah, people don't like- see people think- I think people think... that we're doing really well financially.

Zealyn: Yeah! Yeah. Totally, and I don't blame them for thinking that because on Instagram, I don't think I portray myself- you know what I mean like-

Isabelle: The pictures look professional.

Zealyn: Right! Exactly.

Isabelle: and everything looks glamorous and smooth.

Zealyn: Yeah.

Isabelle: So most people would look at that and say, "Wow! She's living a great life and she must be doing really well and she must be frolicking on the beach all the time." You know.

Zealyn: Right.

Isabelle: No!

Zealyn: But it's what people are seeing is a very well thought out and really "well cared for" process. And, you know, even it looks nice and it looks expensive and that's the point. I wanted to do that. I care about my brand, I care about my work, so I put everything I can into what I'm doing. So I'm glad that if people think, "Oh! She's-"

Isabelle: Yeah. The music is supposed to transport you like-

Zealyn: Yeah!

Isabelle: Even Instagram and social media, that's almost an art form because you are transporting people into thinking almost like of a fantasy life where maybe, you know, your music is taking them through a journey they need to go through and taking them out of their own problems that they're going through in their own life.

Zealyn: Yeah.

Isabelle: So all the pictures and everything represents almost like this illusion.

Zealyn: Mhm.

Isabelle: Which isn't a bad thing, that's why we love music because-

Zealyn: It's art! It's photography, it's an expression and I love it. I love all of it and umm... But yeah, if there's like an artist watching who's just like, "Ahh, your music is- I love music but I can't afford it." Like, I understand and I got ya like-

Isabelle: Yeah.

Zealyn: Every artist starts with nothing, you know, so-

Isabelle: A pen and a paper and maybe a friend who's gonna help them produce a song.

Zealyn: Exactly. And that's the other thing, I'm very thankful for so many friends and photographers and musicians who have helped me along the way and umm... yeah. It makes a huge difference.

Isabelle: That's like... we couldn't do what we do without so many supporters.

Zealyn: Oh yeah.

Isabelle: Whether it's friends who shoot photos for free, produce- those who produce your song for free, friends who are musicians who are like, "We'll lend you my, you know, I'll play guitar for you for an hour or for a show-"

Zealyn: Oh yeah.

Isabelle: We wouldn't be able to do any of this. There are very few people who can do it all like very few. And if you are in a position of... maybe you wanna be a songwriter, maybe you wanna be a dancer, maybe you wanna make videos of your own or produce a play or anything, don't be afraid to ask people. I think that's something that we do a lot of. We are always asking people to help us. So and... don't ever be afraid to say yes to something even if it doesn't pay or even if, you know, you don't make anything off of it, it's not about you. I think we can both attest that every single experience we've been a part of has helped us in some way.

Zealyn: Yeah. Absolutely. Oh for sure. But then also the flip side, if I ask someone if they can help me out with something at a low cost and they say, "No, I'm sorry.", that's fine. That's totally fine. We get it, everyone needs to make money, everyone's gotta support themselves. So I just think that- I think that money needs to be a more of an okay topic to talk about like it's okay. "Oh, you can't do this gig." That's totally fine, I understand or, you know, anyways-

Isabelle: Yeah, yeah. And to bring that to- you know, I'm really inspired by Zealyn because I'm about to go on my first tour in the summer and she's already been on one massive tour. Right, one? One big massive tour?

Zealyn: One. 2017.

Isabelle: And then- yeah, as Zealyn. And then, she's going on another tour. If she is near you, you have got to see her. I promise you like I do not "up" this many people about live performance and she is-

Zealyn: Aww.

Isabelle: She's one of the best so what are the dates you're going on tour?

Zealyn: Uhh so, we're splitting it up more this year so 10 days in May, 10 days in June and 10 days in August. And actually, some people are hearing this for the first time.

Isabelle: Oooh!

Zealyn: So we're doing Midwest in May, East Coast in June, West Coast in August. So umm...

Isabelle: Wow.

Zealyn: Yeah, not all the dates have officially been announced but they will soon. So yeah.

Isabelle: And go support her because I know, because I've called her many times, freaking out about budget. It's really expensive to go and get in a bus and take all of your musicians and pay for their food and pay for everything upfront. Like, if you could spare 10 or 20 dollars to go see a show like it goes so far and so, if you're on the fence, just know that- like that money, we normally don't make a dollar if anything, we go in the red from tours. If you can support her, just know that it goes so much further than, you know, just seeing her show, it goes beyond that for sure.

Zealyn: Aww thanks.