#like idk how best to explain it... like say ur picking an avatar in a game

[privatelife]

whats the opposite of hyperfixating cause i do that tbh. if i get really into something i force myself to do something else because i dont wanna focus my energy on One Thing, it has to be Many Things In Different Intervals or else im not winning. do you know what i mean

[frostbite-the-bat]

Your roblox pngs are so gosh darn cool!! Never seen em done like that before, the poses are so fluid and the lightings just right. What's your process like?

gaah!! thank you so much! it's actually a little less conventional than you'd think - but it works for me! idk how others do it anyway, i figured this out on my own. THIS guide will be a bit messier because it's late and i was talking to others during this but... hopefully it'll help!

i actually use the pose editor in a roblox game (or EXPERIENCE i ur roblox itself) named 'catalog avatar creator'. it exists to create and preview outfits - but you can also take cool pics in there an customize your poses (and even your items!)

you can even change background to various greenscreens, so that helps! i use this regularly to plan oufits before i may want to buy them! for example i haven't even bought the things for the tv head avatar i showed.

bu anyways, lemme show you how i do my pngs or 'renders'!!

first you either make an outfit in there... or just use your regular avatar! my current avatar is my silly space kitty i concepted in this game, so i'll use that to demonstrate.

FIRST you wanna click here on the sparkle button i masterfully highlighted in mspaint

2) and right away you see the pose editor!! click it!!

okay, at first glance THIS MAY BE SCARY!! but if you're even LIGHTLY familiar with even the most basic of like... 3d stuff WHICH I KNOW NOT EVERYONE IS - you will do swell. a lot of roblox editing things use this sorta system so you might've practiced there before? (i sure have in tprr's animatronic oc editor!)

3) what you wanna do is just select a body part you want to move. it will then highlight on your avatar and you can use the balls to turn em in it's respective axis. some angles will not work as well so move your camera while you do this

(but have a good camera point set in mind! you may wanna do camera trick stuff in your pose depending on what angle you're at. for example i disattach the tail from the body and make it slightly visible on the side. you aren't able to tell! makes it look nicer.)

to MOVE stuff and not just ROTATE it click the little arrows thing! you will move and not rotate that way. just play around with it :] don't be worried to de-attach things - roblox isn't exactly realistic so don't worry to mess around w that!

4) just pose it! go wacky! here's a few things to keep in mind

certain body parts are connected! and ofc, their respective items - i will cover this later.

for example, the pelvis, if moved, moves the torso as well. if you wanna make a floaty pose, move up the pelvis and rotate it first and then the chest (and other parts of the body)

references for poses may not hurt, but being an artist who likes drawing silly poses i'd say i have a DECENT enough grasp of good poses - so that definitely helps with the Flow of my poses you (anon) mentioned! practice makes perfect!

ALSO, you can save poses!

anyways, here's a pose i came up with!

but that's not all! i wanna move the items!

5) well, just click "apply" and re-enter the effects menu!!

then you click whatever you wanna edit and... boom! fancy new window! now you can play around with your item here - i won't explain that, just have fun!

but to move your item around just click "transform item" - it'll bring up the same options you had before while moving body parts!

aand... here's the result!

so, the pose is done... but we wanna prepare it for editing and actually take a picture! well, first, we can't use this background. so...

6) click the gear and then select 'environment' and select a good green, blue or pink screen! i have to settle with what's best since my fella is rainbow. (whatever doesn't clash with the edges of the character is best!!)

here you can also set the lightning! if you go back and pick 'camera & lightning'

I HIGHLY SUGGEST YOU SET A LOW EXPOSURE AS IT MAKES LIGHTER COLORS LESS "FUZZY" AND **WILL** MAKE EDITING IN A SECOND EASIER! it makes it darker but you can edit that, too!

anyways... here's my final product after fiddling with the lightning!

7) take a pic! you can either angle your camera as is which is a bit limited... or... free-cam! which is a bit better but dear GOD is it annoying to control. (tho holding shift makes it less sensitive)

so... here's the final stage we'll do in-game! one last thing i did to make it look better is for a second turn my graphics to max and THEN take a roblox screenshot. (then turn it back down to not deepfry my computer)

honestly, i could've turned the avatar to face the camera with their body a little more when tuning my camera, but i'm not gonna fix that now i don't have much time now LOL let's speed thru this.

8) the TEDIOUS PART. yeeting this into an editing program.

your editing program WILL require anti-aliasing OFF options, a bucket tool and if you really wanna fix issues - a selection tool and just.. layers. and brushes. i use SAI 2 so it's specific to SAI 2.

if you did your camera settings right, you will have a pretty crisp outline everywhere, unless you're me and fucked up here. but this can be fixed. we don't want this fuzz that much

well, i use sai which has a nice bucket tool! i set it to paint with invisible/eraser bucket and adjust the rance of similar color. may take a few tries to get right pick 'similar colored area' or ' all similar colored pixels'.

personally, i pick all similar pixels.

AND TURN ANTI ALIASING **OFF**!! CRISP PIXELLY LOOK

before i do anything tho, i use the selection tool and pick up everything that's the same color as the background in it - being pink.

you can also use the selection pen!

some get tricky and pixel precise... remember if you use sai that the pen is fuzzy - but selection tool is more precise (not the lasso - that's fuzzier too)

here's the goober with all the Protected parts selected. then just invert the selection... (pointing at how u do that quickly)

9) ok NOW you get that bucket tool and just tap at the pink and watch it BE GONE... ofc, make sure you set it to transparent/eraser bucket tool

BOOM. gone. b-but... ENHANCE...!

NOT PERFECT!! CLICK THOSE OFF TOO! remove manually with pixel tool or whatevz if you must

10) look around the edges of the image and look for any fuzz like this... remove it! and if there's any jaggedies...? you can edit those in yourself, usually it's small enough to clear up yourself. (you can also just - save with a diff name, reopen original, copy the section you erased/has jaggedies and paste it into this edited version)

depending on what bg / greenscreen color options you chose (and yoour avatar's colors) and how careful you were... this may take a time to edit! it depends!

also, see texture mess up? depending on the texture and ur skill/patience... goot bye! i usually keep cover ups to simple things like this myself and i can edit things pretty well, too. u can embrace some roblox silliness and imperfections!

10) color adjustments i do to brighten it up...! once i crop the screenshot around the avatar to be a good size i copy it and paste it into the image again

and i set the layer effect of the top pasted image to SCREEN and fiddle with the settings...! (ofc, you can also use other settings - or even the regular color layer settings - but this one's more straight forward to me!)

then i may double check for stuff but... we're done! here's your finished "render" !!!

i don't have time to proof-read this currently, so i hope everything makes sense and there aren't any weird typos or left-overs from previous editing.

hope this was helpful! and not TOO long.

[spoondrifts]

long post ahead I'm sorry-

crack au where Jonah Magnus is a good guy but everything keeps going wrong and he spends all of his time running around trying to stop his employees from diving headfirst into their Fuck Up™ of the week

in this au Jonah is almost entirely incompetent but he's got the exasperated parent thing down enough to make up for his lack of braincells

he's also at least 7% dumber than he is in canon

s1 Jon: please call pest control there are so many worms

s1 Elias: I already did

Jon: and??

Elias: they ate them

Jon: the worms?

Elias: the pest control guys. the worms ate them

Elias spends the entirety of season 2 desperately trying to convince Jon that none of them killed Gertrude (in this au Gertrude just had a stroke or something in the tunnels). Elias stops Jon from destroying the table but a week later something heavy falls on it and the NotThem escapes anyway. Elias bashes in Leitner's head with a pipe after mistaking him for the monster and Jon gets framed.

now Elias has to convince this hunter that Jon is innocent while Jon runs around and harasses various fear avatars (who are all very amused with Elias' wayward Archivist). Jon assumes Elias knows nothing about all this bullshit because Elias is just his weird and uptight boss who accidentally killed someone, he can't possibly know that there are literally fear gods ruling over them

olive ⚰ has named the group 'Avatars ✨'

JMagnus 👀: Jude please don't hurt him. I'll explain everything when he gets back to the Institute.

🔥: too late

JMagnus 👀: What?

🔥: too late

🔥: burned him

[JMagnus 👀 is typing]

JMagnus 👀: Where is he now.

🔥: going to mike

JMagnus 👀: Mike Crew???

🔥: ya

Elias RACES to Mike's house but he. he fucking misses them. the Beholding helpfully tells him that they're all going back to the Institute so Basira and Daisy can interrogate him, which isn't ideal, he'd really like to not go to jail, so he drafts up an employment contract on the way back and barely manages to escape the whole thing with his life intact.

then he explains everything to Jon because if Jon is going to end up being the Archivist, being uninformed won't do. Jon becomes the Archivist completely on accident and Elias is desperately trying to make all of this work because, haha, the Unknowing is coming up, and Elias is not in the fucking mood to deal with clowns.

olive ⚰ has named the group 'all that is terror uwu'

spidey🕸: lmfaooo jonah how do you make an archivist on accident

JMagnus 👀: He stumbled into it. All I can do now is ensure he doesn't die.

JMagnus 👀: Or get further injured by the rest of you.

🔥: woops

🎭: hEy gUyS lOnG tiMe nO sEe

🎭: gEt iT eLiAs

🎭: sEe

JMagnus 👀: Beholding puns are not amusing from a manifestation of the Stranger.

🎭 has named the group 'eLiAs bE niCe tO niKoLa cHaLlEnGe'

🔥: haha

spidey🕸: I'm sure Nikola will be on her best behavior

🎭: yEaH i wOnT kiDnAp yOuR aRcHiViSt

[JMagnus 👀 is typing]

mike n ike: hey guys what'd I miss

🔥: arent you dead

mike n ike: yeh but I came back

JMagnus 👀: NIKOLA ORSINOV WHERE IS JONATHAN SIMS

🔥: can't you see haha

mike n ike: heh "see"

JMagnus 👀: NIKOLA

spidey🕸: wow he must be pissed

spidey🕸: he left out the punctuation

JMagnus 👀: I WILL BREAK ALL OF YOUR PLASTIC BONES WHERE'S MY ARCHIVIST

🎭 has left the chat.

JMagnus 👀: what the FUCK

since he's still a coward Elias sends Michael to go fetch Jon, only finding out after the fact that he very nearly almost signed Jon's death warrant. Elias is now speedrunning Jon's development because fuck the Unknowing is coming up really quickly and Tim is a self destructive mess and Melanie keeps trying to stab Elias and Martin is a pining idiot and goddammit he didn't sign up for this

Elias prepares Jon the best he can for the Unknowing, because even though he knows the ritual will fail, the Circus can still cause a considerable amount of damage and he needs them out of the way.

the Unknowing happens. Jon ends up in a wack ass coma, Tim is dead, Daisy's in the coffin, and Basira is starting to look like the better choice of Archivist because jesus christ Jon has no self preservation instinct. Elias doesn't get arrested this time around but his ex husband starts coming by the Institute and fucking with all his employees. and the Flesh is attacking. jesus. goddamn.

olive ⚰ has named the group 'bully elias'

JMagnus 👀: Why are you all so mean to me? I'm arguably the nicest one here.

🔥: ur joking right

Peter Lukas: you're not nice you didn't buy me an anniversary gift 😢😢😢

JMagnus 👀: I was busy.

Peter Lukas: doing what

JMagnus 👀: Stopping the Flesh from destroying my Institute. Besides, you didn't remember my birthday.

Peter Lukas: you're 200 years old how could I remember 😓

helen!!!!!: We All Know I'm The Nicest One Here!!

JMagnus 👀: How did you make your text that colorful?

helen!!!!!: IDK

JMagnus 👀: Liar.

helen!!!!!: That's Literally My Job

olive ⚰: hey eli your archivist just woke up I think

🔥: ew why

helen!!!!!: How Delightful!! Maybe I'll Throw Him A Glad You're Alive Party!!

olive ⚰: should we invite him to this chat since he's an avatar now

Peter Lukas: no 🙅 🚫❌

Peter Lukas: I hate archivists 😤😤

olive ⚰: still mad about gertrude huh

🔥: were all still mad about gertrude

🔥: but jons fine once you burn some manners into him

JMagnus 👀: Can you all please stop hurting Jon? Or talking about hurting him? I would like my Archivist to not acquire any more scars.

🔥: damn

Peter Lukas: damn 😔

Elias keeps trying to teach Jon how to pick certain victims to feed off of because personally he has no qualms about feeding from innocents but Jon!! actually trusts him!!! so Elias doesn't want to push Jon into making decisions that will offend his moral sensitivities.

things are actually going okay for a while. Elias starts going home at a reasonable time in the evenings and Jon is actually getting some sleep. and then-

Elias is having a nice dream about Peter trying to fish Simon Fairchild out of a sky filled with eyes when he abruptly sits up in bed, wide awake.

"Ah, fuck," he says to Peter, who is laying on the floor where it is Lonelier™. "Jon's doing something stupid. I Know it."

Peter's mumbled "isn't he always" goes unnoticed as Elias hurries to the Institute, where he finds a fucking rib on Jon's desk and the coffin in the middle of the room.

Peter Lukas has named the chat 'archivists ruin my sleep schedule and my sex life'

JMagnus 👀: What the fuck do I do?? I can't go into the Buried! Why is Jon so stupid? I didn't know he had zero braincells when I hired him!

🔥: ngl why havent you fired him yet

JMagnus 👀: Beholding won't let me. We're all bound to the Institute.

🔥: F

JMagnus 👀: Why are there no Buried avatars in here? Please someone help me.

mike n ike: lol the buried is gross why would anyone go down there

spidey🕸: does he have an anchor?

[JMagnus 👀 sent an image]

🔥: is that a fucking rib

spidey🕸: wow that's not a good anchor at all

spidey🕸: he needs someone he loves

JMagnus 👀: Thanks. Gtg.

spidey🕸: np

🔥: are we not going to talk about his rib

🔥: how the fuck did he get that out of his body

🔥: yall

🔥: YALL

it takes three days for Elias to find Martin.

"Please tell me why the fuck you're dabbling in the Lonely," Elias says as Martin steps sheepishly out of the fog.

"Ah. Well. Jon can't See into it very well and sometimes we like to spice up our se-"

"Stop before I have to gouge my eyes out again."

"A-Again-?"

Elias drags Martin back to the Institute. Martin starts setting tapes on the coffin because "Jon loves these" and Elias starts bashing his head into the wall.

Jon climbs out of the coffin with Daisy and Elias almost considers locking Jon in his office so the damn archivist can't do anything else ridiculous. instead, Elias very calmly takes Jon by the shoulders, and shakes him like a rag doll.

"Stop fucking with entities, you stupid, stupid man," Elias says, shaking Jon more viciously now.

after several hours of breathing exercises Elias returns to his house and doesn't take his Sight off of Jon for the rest of the night, which is a fun experience for Peter when he wakes up and finds Elias' bloodshot eyes staring directly at him in the morning.

JMagnus 👀 added Daisy to 'archivists ruin my sleep schedule and my sex life'

Peter Lukas has named the chat 'archivist hate club'

JMagnus 👀 has named the chat 'shut up peter'

Peter Lukas has named the chat 'you love jon more than me'

JMagnus 👀 has named the chat 'I don't love either of you I'm heartless'

Peter Lukas has named the chat 'I want a divorce'

spidey🕸: jeez take your marital dispute elsewhere

spidey🕸 has named the chat 'lonelyeyes dni'

Daisy: wtf is this

mike n ike: it's a chat for avatars

mike n ike: and ex avatars ig

Daisy: didn't I kill you

mike n ike: yea

JMagnus 👀: Hello, Daisy. Welcome to the group chat.

Daisy: why is Jon not in here

Peter Lukas: because I hate him 😁

spidey🕸: Elias talks mad shit in here and Jon would get offended

Daisy: if you talk bad about Jon I'll rip your throat out

Daisy: :)

JMagnus 👀: Noted.

mike n ike: he's kinda rude tho

Daisy: I've killed you once

Elias' only goal now is to keep Jon and his assistants from pulling any more wild stunts without his supervision. his renewed involvement with the archival staff results in a few things he'd hoped to avoid: drink invites, physical contact (Martin is surprisingly quick to start hugging Elias once he realizes Elias won't stop him), and- shudder -feelings. because Elias genuinely cares about his staff and doesn't want any harm to befall them. especially Jon. Jon is his Archivist, the only one to ever succeed like this, and Elias will be damned if he lets anything happen to him.

"Why do you care?" Jon asks, once, compulsion thrumming like static on his tongue. "About us, I mean. I would've assumed you'd want to perform the Beholding's ritual."

Jonah Magnus attempted the Watcher's Crown once, when he was young and new. he'd brought his patron close, but not all the way through, and the backlash of power killed all the inmates at Millbank and severely crippled Jonah's connection to the Eye for months afterward. he grew to assume that the Beholding simply preferred the world as it was--ripe with fear for watching. it didn't need a ritual.

he instead dedicated himself to growing stronger, cultivating his Institute of knowledge, his stronghold. if he tore out a few people's eyes when he got too old, then, well, collateral. but he doesn't want the world to end, and knows now that no ritual will ever succeed unless it brings in all the Powers at once. and he doesn't want that either.

it's concerning to him that Jon seems to be collecting marks regardless. the only ones he's missing are the Dark and the Lonely, and Elias is determined to keep it that way.

he explains all of this to Jon who, to his credit, takes it pretty well. Jon is fascinated with historic life and Elias spends some time simply recounting tales of his youth, when he still bore the name Magnus.

they bond. it's good.

and one day Basira does a little too much research and discovers the dark sun waiting in Ny Alesund. she insists they need to go and see what's left of the People's Church, they need to ensure everything is taken care of. Jon is rather insistent too. and Elias wouldn't have been inclined to let them go, except Peter was finally home after weeks at sea, and it wasn't like Jon was defenseless, he could call Elias if anything went wrong...

so, very reluctantly, Elias gives them the all clear. Basira, Jon, and Martin head north, and Elias almost forgets they've gone when he arrives home and Peter already has dinner prepared.

Jon comes back marked by the Dark.

Elias curses himself, over and over, for being foolish enough to let them go, for not keeping a closer eye on them. he knows the ritual won't work unless a certain incantation is spoken, so he'll just have to keep world-ending written chants away from Jon. easy. and it's not like Jon will even get marked by the Lonely. Peter wouldn't.

(but Martin doesn't have the same level of control, and sometimes...)

it's an accident. Martin and Jon are testing it, pushing the boundaries, when Martin pulls them both into the Lonely. Elias threatens divorce until Peter caves and fetches them, but it's too late. Jon has been marked by all fourteen Powers.

Elias tells him, and warns him to check everything he reads.

helen!!!!! has named the chat 'apocalypse babey'

JMagnus 👀: How are you doing that?

JMagnus 👀: And the apocalypse is not imminent. I have the situation under control.

olive ⚰: ha yeah

JMagnus 👀: What do you mean by that?

olive ⚰: nothing

JMagnus 👀: Well, now I certainly think it's something.

olive ⚰: it's just

olive ⚰: don't you think it's kinda weird that @spidey🕸 has been offline for so long

🔥: thats weird shes always online

JMagnus 👀: Oliver, what are you implying?

olive ⚰: idk

olive ⚰: just weird, that's all

🔥: never good when the spiders are quiet

olive ⚰: hear hear

Elias gets a sinking feeling in his stomach, and beside him, Peter looks alarmed. meanwhile, in his flat with Martin making tea in the other room, Jon has a statement clutched in his grasp.

Hello, Jon.

I would apologize for the deception, but I'm afraid that's quite what I'm good at. I'm not one to monologue, that's more Jonah's shtick, so shall we get on with things?

I admit I underestimated Jonah Magnus. He's still remarkably easy to manipulate, but when he abandoned the Watcher's Crown ritual I knew I would have to take a different approach. The Mother is not so satisfied with the world as she may have insinuated. It is our turn to rise, Jon.

At the age of eight, you were marked by us. We sent you to the Magnus Institute in the hopes that a new Archivist would rekindle Jonah's desire to end the world. Unfortunately, it seemed as though he grew fond of you, and so we brought in a new plan. We marked you. One fear at a time. Jonah gave an admirable attempt at protecting you, but ultimately, he is an incompetent old fool, and I am a Weaver. Even Jonah Magnus dances to invisible strings.

Everyone underestimates a spider until it bites. Poison is poison, Jon, regardless of the medium in which it is served.

You will be safe in this new world. Martin, too. Perhaps even Jonah and his Lukas, if the Mother deems them worthy.

Now, please repeat after me...

Jon reads the ink scratched words, eyes welling up with tears and hands trembling, as thunder crashes outside and a howling gale picks up beyond the windows. Martin is shouting something, there's the crawling press of Elias' gaze as it rests heavy behind Jon, a silent observer. He can feel Elias' soothing presence, cool and calm in the raging storm.

Elias is still watching out for him.

Strings are wrapped around his wrists, jerking his arms up in a poor mockery of religious regard, strange hysterical laughter clawing out from his throat.

Jon's tears run red. Somewhere, Elias is still watching.

The door opens.