#me selecting edge in blender

[moonstruckme]

i am so BUMMED when i realized ive read all of your polymarauders works. can i get more of them please? especially the one like the 'casual dominance' fic omgg. that one made me feel THINGS. btw!!! congrats on reaching the 1k mark. totally deserved <33

-🥀

Wow babe, that's a lot! I'm really glad you're enjoying them! I know I've written a few since you sent this in, but I decided to treat this as a request for specifically casual dom!marauders because I'm weak for them too :*

poly!marauders x fem!reader ♡ 1.1k words

Your teeth chatter as you step out of the fastest shower of your life, barely drying yourself off before starting on your makeup. You’re so dumb. You’re so, so dumb. Of course it’d be the night before your presentation that you’d accidentally set your alarm for PM instead of AM. How many times had you stirred, thought about getting up, and decided to wait until your alarm went off? It had only been when you’d woken to an empty bed, sunlight coming in through the window, that you’d realized. 

You’re still running on the adrenaline of that waking jolt, now mixed with the extra edginess from your frigid shower since you couldn’t afford to wait for the water to warm. You probably won’t be late, but you’re definitely going to be late by pre-presentation standards. You’d planned to get there a half hour in advance to set up and mentally prepare. Now you’re going to have ten minutes at best, and that’s only if you can get out the door in the next few. You finish with your makeup—your hair’s just going to have to dry on the way—and turn to where you’d hung your pre-selected and Sirius-vetted presentation outfit the night before. The hangers sit empty. 

You go into the bedroom, hoping one of the boys had laid them out on the bed while you’d been in the shower. Nothing. Just your socks and shoes where you’d left them by the bedroom door. 

“Shit,” you mutter to yourself, pulling the socks on because you can do that, at least. “Shit shit shit!” 

You take off down the stairs, relieved to see Sirius on his way up. “Hey! Do you know where—” your foot hits too close to the edge of one step, slipping down to the next. It seems inclined to keep going, but Sirius’ hands catch you around the waist. 

“Shit, baby.” He looks down at your feet as you get them under you again, eyebrows drawn together. “Running down the stairs is already bad enough, but with socks on?” 

“Do you know where my presentation outfit went?” you ask in a rush. 

Sirius blinks. “No. It’s not where you left it?” You shake your head and decide this conversation is no longer a productive use of your time, moving past him. “Don’t run,” he says after you, and you slow to a slight hustle down the remaining steps. 

You practically skid into the kitchen, where Remus is just about to sit down at the table with his cup of coffee and James is running the blender. You raise your voice to be heard over it. “Do either of you know where my presentation outfit went?” 

James stops the blender. “Morning to you too, sweetheart. Everything okay?” 

You feel like you could burst into tears, but that would just waste more time. Why is no one cooperating with your need for efficiency?

“I’m going to be late!” you stress to James, turning around to survey the kitchen, the living room, like they’ll just be hanging in some random corner where you somehow forgot them. “I need my clothes, have you seen them?”

“Dove.” Remus sets his coffee down to take you by the shoulders. “Breathe. You’ve got time.” 

You exhale, trying not to twitch as your skin crawls with urgency, or to lecture him on how little time you actually have. Remus watches you patiently. His hands slide up to either side of your face once you no longer seem like a flight risk, thumb stroking your cheek. 

“Your outfit’s in the dryer,” he says in a soothing voice, still holding you as if to keep you from running off. “I was warming it up while you were in the shower.” 

Your next inhale scrapes on the way in, a grateful pressure building behind your eyes. “Rem, that’s so sweet,” you say. “Thank you.” 

Remus gives you a smile and a little shrug, more casual than the faint pinkness of his cheeks would suggest. He lets his hands skim back down your neck, giving your upper arms a light squeeze. “Why don’t you let it finish running while you have your breakfast, yeah? That way there’s no risk of spilling on it.” 

You shake your head, aware this won’t go over well but too anxious to worry much about it. “I don’t have time for breakfast,” you tell him. “I need to catch the bus in, like—” Your eyes search for a moment before landing on the microwave clock. “—five minutes.” 

“I’ll drive you,” Sirius says, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt as he comes back downstairs.

You glance at the microwave clock again in case you read it wrong the first time. “You can’t,” you say. “You’ll be late.” 

Sirius shrugs. “I don’t have a presentation. They’ll deal with it.” 

You look to Remus, expecting him to object to Sirius’ proposed tardiness, but he only nods, sitting down with his coffee. 

“Are…are you sure?” you ask Sirius, trying to adjust to the sudden non-urgency of your situation. 

“It’s no problem,” he promises you. “Stop looking so upset, honey, just eat your breakfast.” 

“Drink your breakfast, is more like it,” James says proudly, coming in from the kitchen to pass you a glass of whatever he’d been concocting in the blender. It’s a murky brown-green, and you try not to wrinkle your nose for James’ sake. 

“Thanks.” You take it from him tentatively. “It’s…it’s a smoothie?” 

James laughs at your expression, and you think you hear Remus snort into his coffee. “Yes, it’s a smoothie. The color’s because of the chocolate protein powder and the spinach, but it’s got fruit, too, don’t worry.” 

You swirl the glass a bit, assessing the color. “Why so much spinach?”

James sets a hand on your shoulder, encouraging you into your chair as he joins the three of you at the table with a smoothie of his own. “Iron, sweetheart.” He casts a pointed glance at your legs, spotted here and there with purple-and-yellow blotches of skin. “Seems like you need it. You’re bruising like a peach lately.” 

Remus hums in agreement as you take a tentative sip of the smoothie. It’s not bad, though you can feel little bits of spinach sticking to your teeth. You make a mental note to have Sirius check your smile before you get out of the car later.

“And I saw that look in your eyes when you stood up too fast from the couch yesterday,” Remus says, quirking an eyebrow when you look at him in surprise. “You’re not as subtle as you think, dove.” 

You bring the glass to your lips again to avoid making a response. Sirius laughs, and when you smile sheepishly, his grin turns goofy. “Hold it there,” he says, taking your jaw in hand. You keep your smile in place as his eyes narrow. “Front tooth on the left. My left.” You lick at the piece of spinach, and he nods, dropping his hand. 

“Knew I could count on you,” you tell him. “Thanks, Siri.” 

Sirius pecks you on the cheek. “S’what I’m here for, gorgeous.”

[laeska]

look at this - i finally spent enough time googling blender tips to figure this one out

if you want to align an edge loop to be parallel to the neighboring edge loop but without changing the overall shape of the mesh, you need to select the edge loop and then:

(1) double press G (so "G G") to activate edge slide;

(2) then E ;

(3) and then finally F to switch between matching the neighboring edge loops

so "G G -> E -> F"

this makes it way easier to align all edge loops to be, for example, parallel to the x axis without changing the overall shape of a mesh

if anyone knows of an even better trick for something that would align all selected edge loops in this way without changing the shape of the mesh pls let me know!

[lwillowlthewicked]

How to Add 3D Models to TS4

Required Applications:

S4Studio - https://sims4studio.com/

Blender - https://www.blender.org/download/releases/4-3/

Note: Make sure the blender path is set up in your S4Studio settings

*This tutorial assumes you know your way around blender*

Step 1: Open S4Studio

Step 2: Under Object, select Create 3D Mesh

Step 3: Check 'Show Debug Items', change 'Mesh Groups' to 1 and search for arch. Choose the following object:

Step 3: Click next, name your package and hit save.

Step 4: Name your object. I suggest adding your creator name or initials in the front so that you can search for it in the catalog faster (ex. creatorname_objectname)

Step 5: Import your textures. The diffuse will be the main texture and the material_lighttex will be what will be illuminated on the mesh. If you don't want an illumination map, just import a plain black image or choose a different object to clone that doesn't have one (eg. the wooden slab/pole??) Ex:

Step 6: Go to the meshes tab and export LOD 0.

Step 7: Open the LODs .blend file.

Step 8: Tab into edit mode and delete the object. Do not delete it in object mode or else you'll lose all the mesh data and S4Studio will throw you an error. Tab out of edit mode.

Step 9: Import your object.

Step 10: Under the object's scene properties, you will see a tab that reads 'S4Studio Mesh Tools'. Add the number 0 to the blank space beside 'Cut'.

Step 11: Go to the data properties and change the UVMap's name to uv_0

Step 12: In the side panel where it displays the name of the objects in your scene, click on the object and then ctrl click on 's4studio_mesh_0'. Make sure your mouse is hovering over the 3D viewport window and hold ctrl+j to join the objects together. The name of your object should now be s4studio_mesh_0.

Step 13: In the modifiers tab add the 'Edge Split' modifier and then apply it. Before I do this, I tend to go into edit mode, select all vertices, click m and merge by distance just to make sure there are no double vertices. Note: If you do not add the modifier, the object will look weird in game, trust me.

Step 14: Save your blend file as 'objectname'_mesh

Step 15: Once you have saved it, go to the data properties again and change the UV from uv_0 to uv_1, this will be the shadow mesh.

Step 16: Save file as 'objectname'_shadowmesh. Choose save as and not save because it will overwrite your main mesh blend file.

Step 17: Back in S4Studio import your main mesh into LOD 0. Once that has loaded in, click on the dropdown and choose the Shadow LOD 0. Import your shadow mesh.

Step 18: Under the tags tab you can change where you'd like your object to show up in the catalog. If you leave it as is, your object will show up in the debug menu, which will have to have the debug/live edit cheat to be able to see. If you'd like it to show up as a decor object instead, uncheck world object, scroll down until you see the 'Decorative' drop down menu and choose where you'd like it to show up. I suggest the Decoration (misc) option.

Step 19: Save your package and test in game

I use this same process for all world/decor objects I make/convert. Let me know if you have any questions.

[c-rowlesdraws]

I really want to learn Blender! It seems like a cool and (most importantly) free way to get back into 3D art. But, tumblr, I need help. This was literally the first thing I noticed when I tried to play around in Blender, I haven't been able to fix it on my own, and it's so frustrating that I'm positive I can't be the only person who's wondered about this.

These little things, the Gizmos, the colorful arrows demonstrating the "Move" tool visible in this picture:

they're for moving different components of a 3D object around in space and editing them (a number of editing tools are visible in the vertical menu on the lefthand side of the screenshot) and are absolutely essential to be able to use hotkeys for. If I can't use hotkeys, my Blender experience will be miserable. But right now I'm having trouble with hotkeys because, when I hit them, the gizmos vanish, and instead the face (I haven't tried this with vertices or edges yet) that I have selected will just move when I move my mouse, with no fine control whatsoever.

I'm used to 3D programs that, when you hit a hotkey, display the relevant gizmos over the selected part of a mesh and then let you manipulate the gizmo by clicking and dragging it with the mouse, letting you move the mouse freely around the viewport otherwise. And, confusingly, when I click the button in the lefthand menu for the tool I want to use (Move, Rotate, Extrude, etc), the gizmo appears just as expected and I can click and drag it to edit the mesh just like I'm used to.

Does anyone else know what I'm talking about and also how I can fix this? I just really want the gizmos to appear when I use a hotkey and let me choose when and how to move them by clicking and dragging on the little gizmo graphic with my mouse. Also I'm asking here because I just looked around the r/blenderhelp subreddit and I know that if I rolled up over there with this nonsense they would eat me alive.

[sleepingsims]

hiii. I love the way you do your cc. could you posibly give me some tips about how you do cc braids ( do you mesh it or start from 0 ?). Thanks !!!

hi! i have used the same method to mesh all of my braided styles since 2020, starting with my bria braids. i mesh them from scratch using curves!

i'll include some tips and little things that i do along with some blender screenshots below the cut :) ⬇️

most of these tips will make sense if you've used blender before, but feel free to ask me any questions about any of the tips, curves in general or anything like that!

i do all of my meshing in blender 2.79. i always start with my braid base of choice + some references!

this is a current wip as curves ⬇️

you can see my curve settings on those screenshots as well. i find that using any mesh resolution above 2 is overkill. another tip is to use the "auto texture space" option. if you have a horizontal braid texture, you can have a live texture! you no longer have to look at gray curves and i also find that this helps me identify clipping.

i also set my bezier curve handles to "automatic" initially, and then when I'm satisfied with the overall shape, I change them to "manual" to better fine tune the braids. i achieve the "look" by starting the bezier curves inside of the sim's head so the braids look more like they are attached to the scalp and there's less cleanup work to be done.

⬆️ using that texture space feature also sets up the uv map but i take it a step further and unwrap the uv map again (using active quads) to get more proportional texturing (notice how on the curves the texture is really tight near the roots?). make sure to mark a seam so the uv mapping actually works.

this is the result ⬇️ notice how the braids are consistent all the way down?

from here i make edits to make the hair more "game ready." this involves moving things around the face, ears, shoulders, etc. to avoid clipping and adjusting anything that looks off. from here there are two specific things that I do:

⬆️ i select the middle vertical edge(?) of each braid and remove it, by dissolving those edge loops. i find that this not only reduces the poly count, but also gives the braids a more realistic, flatter look.

⬆️ to "close" the ends of the braids i select all of the bottom edge loops and simply scale them to zero. this can be easily done with a clean uv map and setting the pivot point to individual origins. i also tend to do this with proportional editing on, so that the braids have a little bit of a taper at the end.

⬆️ here's a before and after of what those edits do to the hair. from here it's weights, morphs, playtesting, hat chops, lods, etc.

[oviraptoridae]

steel towers grow like corals at the edge of the end of the world

detailed process breakdown under the cut:

this is a location from silversea, the (inhales) work-in-progress troika-compatible post-apocalyptic science-fantasy TTRPG slash worldbuilding project i'm developing + running for a few of my friends. i've posted a drawing of this landscape before! someone asked for me to go into my process for digital collage in gimp, so i made sure to document the creation of this piece.

usually i start by gathering a bunch of images from wikimedia commons and by searching on duckduckgo images & filtering for creative commons licensed images. i wanted to start with a surreal landscape that looked more wrong the longer you inspected it, so this time i started by generating a background with commoncanvas (the stable diffusion model trained entirely on creative commons images, more on that here)

this was the final result. i didn't tweak it too much because i wanted the geometry to look unrealistic and warped. through the upscaling process it lost some of the early cgi look, which was sad, so i'll have to work more on trying to retain that.

interesting tangent: at 20% desert and 80% coral reef, a smooth cone briefly turns into a pyramid.

anyway, i decided i wanted it to look like you were on the edge of this environment, not in the middle, so i made some terrain in blender:

this was just a plane that i subdivided a bunch, pulled some vertices around with proportional editing to make dune shapes, and then decimated the faces to get back to a low poly look. i prefer that method to staying low poly the whole time, i feel as though i have more control over the shape.

the texture is a free tiling sand texture i found online, recolored and scaled down to make it pixelated, and then blended with vertex colors to add a little variation. it's very simple and took me maybe 30 minutes of actual work (the rest of the time spent trying to remember how to use material nodes).

this is the point where i took it into gimp and flipped & scaled the terrain until i liked the composition. i'm not bothered about the shadows not matching up, it just adds to how out of place the surreal terrain looks.

next is color correction, but i forgot to take a screenshot of that before adding the next part. gimp has a little fractal generator hidden in the filters tab, and i used that to make a swirling pattern that i overlaid over the sky, masking it selectively so it looked like it was getting thicker with distance. going for an "annihilation" look to the whole thing.

at this point i'm happy with the image and i go on to post processing. this is the part where tumblr's image compression is not doing me any favors, but oh well. when i make glitch art, there are a bunch of filters that are my favorite, but i don't usually use all of them on an image.

first off, i scale the image to 50%, add dithering (3-4 colors per channel looks nicest to me), then scale back up to the original resolution with no interpolation.

then i add "wind" (under the "distorts" option). it makes a cool pixel-sorted effect. at high levels it looks super cool...

but i keep it pretty subtle for this one.

the "video degradation" effect makes the image either too bright or too dark. i like the lcd screen look though. so i use a mask to turn it into a vignette.

i also added bloom at some point during the process, but i don't remember when. i also took the original image before all the glitch effects and overlaid it with the "chroma" blending mode to bring back some of the color that had been lost.

this was a pretty simple collage, but i didn't want to make the post too long. most of my collages involve a lot of moving things around, testing different compositions and images before i decide on a final product.

this image took like 8 hours to make, for example. most of it was spent perfecting the grainy filter.

other gimp effects i didn't use here but i like include deinterlace (which you can use on a non-interlaced image to add deinterlacing artifacts), sample colorize (lets you use another image as a color source to gradient map onto an image), alien map (can't explain. just use it. move the sliders very slowly if you are sensitive to strobing lights), and value propagation (like a very small radius blur that you can tweak in interesting ways to soften an image without losing graininess or pixelated-ness)

i hope this was helpful/informative!

[spaceranger13]

How i made the red crown in blender @mistermattie prt 1

to start with the red crowns shape itself what i did is grab a default cylinder, remove the top and bottom faces to make it a hollow 1 face thick tube and use proportional editing to get that pinchy part of the crown, like this

after that slap a solidify modifier on (make sure its got the offset the right way) and set that to your desired thickness and apply should look like this

now fill in the top (or leave it hollow if you want), id advise that you try and get the mesh looking something like down below. also add a fair few loop cuts down the main body of the crown (not too many).

and thats the basic shape down! i did things a bit differently than this originally but what i changed here should make the later process easier.

now im not sure if its a good idea to put the process of adding the eye here, as in hindsight there are likely a few ways you could do it (i used Booleans, was rather messy) im not sure if you can trace around an object using something like the knife tool? either way it should resemble this somewhat

(this is an older mesh of the original as cutting another eye shape would take a lot of time, the way i did it was slicing a shape using booleans ((making sure that there was a square of mesh around the cut)) and then deleting the surrounding faces and manually reconstructing the shape removing verts that didn't line up, somewhat tedious)

now for the eyeball itself i found the easiest (probs not the best) way of doing it was to add a sphere at the centre of the crown so it looks like this

then select the back panel of the eyehole of the crown, duplicate it and seperate by selection, extrude it along the x axis and use a slice boolean on the sphere to get this

(make sure you recalculate normals while in edit mode by using shift + N)

and then remove the back mesh, remove the verts that arent connected to anything and merge the sharp points so they're perfectly centre and boom

now shove that in the eye socket, make a pupil shaped plane (i just used proportional editing on a circle), make some lines going both horizontally and one down the middle by selecting 2 verts and pressing J, subdivide it, add a shrinkwrap modifier, setting the target as the eye and setting the wrap method as project. set the limit to be something fairly large, probably around 20-40? face cull front set the snap mode above surface and put a very small offset so it isnt intersecting, move the plane behind the eye and it should work!

Note: the subdivision levels severly lag blender if too high, if you notice the shrinkwrap not working so well on the edges of the eye, i'd just scale the eye slightly so it is hidden by the eyelid

and ill end this post here. i wont go over materials or outline as its a bit highly specific but ill give you pointers if ya want. after this is rigging and that'll have to be vague unfortunatly but ill go into detail about the squash and stretch functionality and the eye track (which took me several days to get working)

that should (unless i forgot something) be all of the default stuff. if you have any questions don't be afraid to ask!

[gettingfrilly]

Make up your Ed

I truly cannot look at this anymore but I don't want it languishing away in my google docs forever with no feedback. It can stand as a complete fic as is, but I do have plans to make it longer. Once I actually finish it, and edit it properly, I'll upload it to ao3 with an explicit rating. But for now, it's rated T, and only here on tumblr. All characters are 18 years old.

The plastic folding step stool creaks under his feet, a sure sign that it's either getting too old, or Eddy's getting too fat. He quickly decides the problem is the former theory as he grabs the see-through makeup case off the top shelf lining the walls of his closet, hidden behind a box of comic books. Careful with his cargo, he takes a slow step off of his stool, then saunters back into his bedroom and places the case on his nightstand. The plastic is smooth and cool under his hands as he thumbs open the latches, lifting the lid and running his fingers along the chunky, rougher, opaque plastic bordering the edges of the box. He painted the edges black himself when he first bought it using the money he got for his 15th birthday. The lines are painstakingly clean despite how much his hands had been trembling at the time.

There's more plastic inside, clear dividers creating organized compartments for his assortment of cosmetics, the collection a result of years of careful selection. Brushes and blenders, pallets and powders, dispensers, sprays, tubes, and polish create an array of colors, glass and plastic containers glinting amber under the glow of his lava lamp. Sucking on his tongue in consideration, he starts to pluck items from each section, putting together a color palette that suits the task at hand.

"Thank you for doing this."

Eddy turns to face the source of the soft voice, Double D sitting in the center of his circular bed, knees drawn to his chest as he pulls and snaps the elastic in the hem of his knee high sock, repeating the motion in intervals as he gazes down at Eddy's bed sheets. It's the first time he's spoken since entering his bedroom.

It was with that same soft voice he had asked Eddy on their walk home from school if he'd be willing to do Double D's makeup. The crunch of freshly fallen snow underneath their boots made Eddy unsure if he had heard him right over the noise.

"You want me to do your makeup?"

"Yes, if it's no bother. If it is a bother, then that's fine, it was just a thought."

"You, as in you, Double D, want me, as in me, Eddy, to do your makeup, as in putting sticky and powdery and wet stuff on your face using the same brushes and sponges I use on my own face?" Eddy repeated himself, pointing at Double D and himself in turn before gesturing at their faces.

Double D had huffed through his nose at him, already red-from-the-cold cheeks growing redder as he glared at the path ahead. "Like I said, if it's a bother-"

He cut himself off with a squeak as Eddy grabbed his hand and started jogging home, a wide grin splitting his chapped lips. Ed wished them luck before he was out of earshot, waving them off with his usual goofy smile.

He had ranted at Double D the whole way home, recounting tales of his exploits during the handful of times he drove up to Buffalo for a Saturday night of clubbing and drag, enjoying what the queer scene there had to offer. Stories were interspersed with boasts about his styling skills and the amount of eyes he caught and attention he drew, promising Double D that he’d turn him into a standout masterpiece that any queen would envy. The more he went on, however, the quieter Double D had become, until he had stopped talking completely and kept his eyes glued to the ground.The shift in mood didn’t go unnoticed by Eddy, who slowed his pace and started cracking jokes in an attempt to lighten the mood. Double D paid only minimal attention to him, and by the time they got to Eddy’s room, Eddy found himself sour and uneasy, wondering what the hell could be going on with him.

"No prob, Bob." He grabs Double D’s wrist and pulls his arm closer, flipping it over to reveal the paler side underneath. "Just make sure to use your math skills after to figure out how much money you owe me based on how much makeup I use."

That earns him a dry, withering look.

"Jeez, relax. Can't you take a joke?" He asks as he starts applying swatches of different foundations, watching the tendons in Double D's arm flex under the wet makeup sponge.

"As if I had no reason to believe you might have been serious."

"Oh lighten up." Eddy retorts, starting to bristle under Double D's prickly responses. "You're the one who asked me to do this, ya know—and here you are acting like you're about to go under the knife."

Double D has enough humility to look away sheepishly, averting his gaze and worrying at his lip. "...I know. I'm sorry, Eddy. I should be more grateful."

"Or just a little less bitchy." Double D looks back at Eddy to glare at him, but his expression softens when he sees the small smile on Eddy's face, only teasing him.

"I'll do my utmost."

"Good." Eddy says in response both to Double D and to finding a foundation that matches, putting the rest away as he grabs the makeup he selected and dumps it on the bed. The makeup rolls over the comforter as Eddy's weight creates dips in the mattress, crawling the oversized expanse of it until he's on his knees in front of Double D. He takes Double D's face in his hand, still cool from the face wash and moisturizer he used in Eddy's bathroom. Using one of his cleaner sponges, he starts applying primer, careful not to get any in Double D's exposed hairline. His sparse, dark hairs are held back by Eddy's makeup stained cloth headband, giving him a rare look at the full shape of Double D's face.

"Why do you wanna wear makeup?" Eddy finally voices the question that's been in the back of his mind since his excitement diminished.

"Well, why not?" Double D answers his question with his own question. "You wear makeup sometimes."

"I meant why all of the sudden."

"All of a sudden, Eddy." Double D corrects him while trying not to move his face too much.

"All of these nuts in your mouth." He mutters, hands unfortunately too busy for him to emphasize the point by grabbing his own crotch.

"Eddy, please."

"Just answer the question, Sockhead."

Double D pouts and is quickly scolded by Eddy into keeping his face still. "Just a whim, I suppose. Am I not allowed a whim now and again?"

"I just wouldn't exactly describe you as whimsical."

"Well. We all have our moments."

A silence follows the exchange, Eddy far from satisfied by Double D's answer. He's too distracted by contouring Double D's weird head to interrogate him further, though, too used to working with his own square shaped face. Thankfully for him, it's not too hard to get answers from someone who typically doesn't know how to shut the fuck up.

"Did you ever think you might be a woman?"

"Huh?" Eddy pauses at the sudden question, backing away from Double D's face, applicator hovering in midair.

Double D puckers his lips as if he tastes something sour, pulling the elastic of his sock further away from his shin before letting it snap back. "I mean... with your long standing fascination with clothing, hair products, and fragrances, and then dresses and makeup more recently. Didn't it ever cross your mind?"

He frowns at Double D's simplification of gender, though he understands what he means. Thinking to himself quietly, he goes back to shaping Double D's chin, taking a moment before answering. "Sort of, I guess. Briefly."

"Really?" He asks, voice tinged with hope.

"Yeah, back when I was still having my big ol' gay crisis. Pretty sure sexuality and gender crises go hand in hand. I mean, I liked boys, and I wasn't supposed to because I'm a boy. Makes you question shit."

"Just how much were you questioning?"

Eddy waves his free hand noncommittally before capping the applicator and reaching for the foundation he selected. "Eh. Enough to make me sweat over it for a bit. I kept asking myself which would be worse: being a gay man, or being a woman?"

"Oh." Double D says with a wince.

"Yeah, oh." Eddy agrees with his distasteful cringing.

"Do you still question yourself?" Double D hedges.

"Nah. Eventually figured I didn't want to be a chick, I just wanted to have a boyfriend. I hadn't fully realized there was a difference."

"But you still wear makeup and dresses."

Eddy shrugs. "Yeah, 'cause it's fun."

Double D raises the brow Eddy just shaped. "How so?"

"It's like... a joke, kinda." He answers after chewing on the question for a moment. "It's what people expect from a gay man. So fine, I'll do it. And I'll be smokin' hot and have fun with it. Hopefully make people really uncomfortable along the way, 'cause fuck 'em.” He punctuates his statement by popping open a tube of concealer. “That, and I spent my whole childhood being terrified over being masculine enough. It's a relief, knowing drag doesn't make me any less butch when I'm not in drag."

Double D hums. "Yes, I suppose even when you're in drag or just makeup, I wouldn't exactly describe you as feminine."

"Me neither. Is that what this is about, then?" Eddy asks, gesturing at the makeup on his bed and on Double D's face, starting to get the picture of what’s been making Double D so fidgety.

"Oh, me? No, I- well... perhaps. I don't know, it's all so confusing, Eddy.” He has to pause in his makeup application while Double D’s face goes through a wide range of expressions, Eddy huffing in frustration before forcing himself to be patient and listen. 

“It's something I've been teased about my whole life, to the point where I'm starting to feel there's something about me other people know that I don't.” Double D admits, face settling on a small frown and wrinkled brow. “While I can admit I've always been a tad feminine-"

"Who says you're feminine?"

"Oh, come on, Eddy."

"I'm serious, Dee. What, 'cause you don't like sports? You spend more time reading than tossing a ball around? You're into bugs and nature and organic food?" He starts waving the concealer wand around like a conductor’s baton, jabbing it in Double D’s direction with each question asked.

Double D gives him a flat look, unmoved by his impassioned gesturing. "Eddy, you have accused me of being a sissy time and time again for those very same supposedly nonsensical reasons."

Eddy crosses his arms, careful to not get any concealer on his shirt. "Yeah, when I was a kid. I'm a different man now." He bristles, offended by Double D’s implication that he’s still some bigoted preteen.

"We're still kids, Eddy." Double D’s voice is almost too quiet to hear, as if he’s admitting something shameful.

"Speak for yourself."

Silence falls again, and Eddy takes the opportunity to get back to work. His mind wanders as he goes through the practiced motions of putting on makeup, going off of muscle memory as he tries to figure out just why Double D is being so cagey about this. He’ll never forget how casually Double D came out to him and Ed, only in eighth grade when he told them one sleepover that he was ‘fairly certain I’m bisexual.’ Buttery popcorn had fallen right out of Eddy’s hand and onto Ed’s sticky basement floor, feeling like someone just put his head through a brick wall, ears ringing from the non existent head wound and leaving him too unfocused to pay attention to the questions Ed asked in response. He continued to perform his best impression of a gobsmacked cartoon character until Double D had called out his name in the same tone he uses when he thinks Eddy is about to do or say something stupid. It took him a couple more seconds to recover before he was able to mutter out a ‘whatever floats your boat, Sockhead,’ quickly changing the topic of conversation afterward.

He didn’t sleep a wink that night—just lay awake staring at the glow in the dark stars him and Double D had put all over Ed’s ceiling two birthdays ago, trying to figure out how the hell someone could admit to something like that so easily. Wasn’t Double D terrified? Wasn’t he disgusted? Didn’t he hate himself? And why in the name of Christ and fuck and shit was part of him goddamn happy about this?

It had taken two more years for Eddy to be able to even say he’s gay out loud to himself, never mind to anyone else. When he did eventually come out to the other Eds, it was after a night of nervous binge eating, hours of trying to ramp himself up to it only to stuff his open maw with more junk food instead of letting the words come out. Eventually, Double D had suggested bedtime, and stabbed through the heart with panic as if he’d never get a chance again, Eddy stood, ready to spill his guts out—only to run for the bathroom to puke them out instead. Ed and Double D followed him close behind, and he whispered his confession into the porcelain, sniffling wetly and getting a lungful of vomit smell as he watched his tears drop into the mess below. He was a pathetic disaster, Ed’s attempts to soothe him with a bedtime story going ignored as he hyperfocused on the feeling of Double D’s cool hand running up and down his back. They went on their first date two weeks later.

So now he’s totally thrown off, the ill-fitting shoe on the other foot as he discusses gender identity casually while Double D works at picking a hole into his sock and looks anywhere but at Eddy. Double D never seemed to be insecure about his masculinity before, at least, as far as Eddy knows. If anything, Eddy had been insecure enough for the both of them, frequently pushing Double D to lift or run or take up boxing, anything to up his man cred. Double D had always been resistant, stating each time that his abilities simply lie elsewhere. Had he been self conscious about it all this time and Eddy just never picked up on it?

"Perhaps I was speaking only for myself. I fear you're far more mature than I am, Eddy."

Eddy leans back, startled not just by Double D talking after such a long silence, but by the content of his sentence, too. "Hold up.” He makes a show of digging his pinky into his own ear before tilting his head and slapping the side of it as if he’s trying to get something to fall out the other end. “I know I didn't hear that right. I've never heard you say I'm more ANYTHING than you. Other than loud or rude or messy or other negative shit."

"Well it's the truth!” It’s the loudest Double D has spoken tonight, his hands thrown up into the air dramatically. “I've been left behind in the proverbial dust, Eddy. You and Ed are so sure of who you are. Even you, who used to be the most insecure, awkward, and desperate for inclusion out of the three of us."

"Gee, thanks." Eddy replies, voice dry as the desert and hollow as Ed’s head.

"And now you're able to just... be!” Double D continues, ignoring his own accidental insult towards Eddy. “Without worrying about what others expect or want from you. The only reason you remain in the closet locally is to avoid consequences at home. But with yourself, or in the city, you're so genuine, so unashamed. Yet the older I get, the more unsure of myself I become, as if puberty somehow made me immature. I have no idea who I truly am. I'm rather jealous of you, Eddy." Double D’s excitement peters out as he goes on, slumping forward in defeat as his hands return to his knees.

“Oh. I get it.” And he does, finally. This isn’t just a gender crisis, it’s a growing up crisis, which is much more on track for Double D’s neuroses. Whether he becomes a woman or not, he’s still not gonna be a ‘boy’ anymore.

“Get what?”

“Shut up and listen, because I got something to say and also because I need you to not move your face for a while. I’ll try to put this in words your weirdo crazy bananas brain can understand.”

Double D follows Eddy’s instructions, tightly pressing his lips together and freezing his face into an impressive stock-stillness.

Eddy nods his approval, capping the concealer before grabbing a brush to start blending. “Okay, so. It’s like… we’re just molecules. I said don’t move your face!” Eddy scolds Double D for his poorly repressed grin, apparently finding Eddy’s attempt at using scientific jargon just so goddamn funny. “I know what a fucking molecule is, ya know. I’m not that shit at school.”

“Anyway,” he continues once Double D wipes the smirk off his face, “we’re molecules and atoms and junk. I don’t know who I truly am because there is no ‘who I truly am.’ You could break me apart into the smallest possible pieces looking for it and all you’d find is a bunch of loosely connected random shit.” He grabs a smaller brush to blend in the nooks and crannies of his face. “I never tried to look for who I am. I just spent my life trying to be someone everyone liked, which is impossible, and wanting to be something impossible just made me miserable and mean and shitty. I couldn’t be a complete person.”

Double D opens his mouth like he wants to protest, brows drawn in concern, but Eddy raises his hand to silence him. “It’s in the past. Then there was the whole running away fiasco, and then puberty hit me like a sack of bricks and life was already hard e-fucking-nough, so I tried to dial it back, just be someone that most people will like. That shrunk down to some people, then to just the other kids in the neighborhood, and one day I asked myself, well shit, why not be someone I like? I’ve never liked myself before. Should probably give it a shot.” 

“Oh, Eddy.” Double D won’t be silenced this time, grabbing Eddy’s free hand and squeezing it tightly as he gives him his usual concerned mother face. Eddy sighs through his nose and squeezes his hand back, running his thumb in the junction between Double D’s thumb and pointer finger.

“Like I said, it’s in the past.” He slips his hand out of Double D’s and carefully applies lip liner while holding his chin. “All I’m saying is you gotta stop spending so much time up here,” he taps Double D’s forehead, “and try spending a little more time in here,” he finishes, placing his hand over Double D’s chest.

Double D looks down before glancing back up with a smirk. “In my udder?”

Eddy rolls his eyes at the callback, taking his hand back to get to finishing up. “Yeah, your udder. That’s where you’ll find the person you want to be.”

“So you’re a gay man because you wanted to be a gay man?” He asks flatly.

“Well. No. Okay, so, some of it is probably generic.”

“Genetic.”

“Whatever. The bulk of it, though? How we act, what labels we choose, what clothes we wear, whether we wear makeup or not—that’s all from exposure and desire. We’re all just cobbled together, Dee.”

“Is it really that simple?” Double D asks, sounding equal parts hopeful and doubtful.

Eddy shakes his head. “Nope. Having a true self you could look for under a microscope is what would be simple. Real life’s a lot more complicated than that.”

Double D widens his eyes, breath catching softly in his throat as he stares Eddy down. Eddy narrows his eyes back at him, unsure if he should feel complimented or offended by Double D’s reaction.

“Eddy… since when did you become so wise?”

Offended, then. “Since when did you only give me compliments that were backhanded? Just kidding, you’ve always done that. Now for real, hold still and shut up. Lemme do your eyes.”

Double D complies, trying his best to keep his wincing to a minimum as Eddy pokes and prods his lids. As long as he doesn’t start mumbling about pink eye, Eddy can put up with the occasional fidgeting. Once the eyes are done, all that’s left is the lipstick, and Eddy purposefully takes his time with it, Double’s D’s chin clutched between his fingers as his eyes slip shut, a soft blush glowing through the layers of makeup. Fuck, he’d kiss him it wouldn’t mess up his work.

“Okay, done.” He gropes around his night stand until he finds his gold painted hand mirror, shoving it in Double D’s direction. “Go ahead and lay on the praise for my incredible skills.”

Double D takes a deep breath before lifting the mirror and opening his eyes, face freezing at what he finds. Silent seconds slowly tick by as Eddy waits for any sort of appraisal, positive or otherwise, arms crossed and finger tapping against his arm.

“... I look like my mother.”

Eddy’s wince is automatic and unstoppable. “Mmrh. But, like, a hot version of your mom, right?”

“Eddy, my mother is-” Thankfully for Double D, for Eddy, for the reader, for the author, and for the universe at large, he cuts himself off before finishing that sentence. “And it’s so conservative.”

Eddy shrugs. “Yeah, well. You don’t usually go for gaudy.” He had picked a color palette he’d never pick for himself, all natural colors that would mix well with Double D’s skin tone, highlighting his innate beauty and giving his face a more feminine shape without making him look like he was about to start lip syncing to Shania Twain. The only splash of color he gave him was the lipstick, a deep cherry red and one of Eddy’s favorites.

“I don’t. You put so much thought into this, Eddy.” He murmurs, the content of his sentence not at all matching his dismayed tone.

“You hate it.”

“No, it’s not that. You did an exceedingly good job, your high skill is abundantly obvious, and I am still very grateful.” He quickly explains, still staring at himself in the mirror. “It’s just… I didn’t expect… I thought-” he takes a deep breath and sighs, putting the mirror down. “I feel the same.”

Eddy takes a deep breath through his nose and purses his lips, readying himself to be an ‘empathetic listener’ as Double D often describes it. At least he doesn’t have to put on the fake empathy face for him like he does for other people. “Okay. How did you think you would feel?”

“Different.” Double D gives the obvious answer, and Eddy has to hold himself back from saying ‘no shit.’ He waits instead, keeping his face neutral and his eyes on Double D as he fiddles with his blanket, twisting his fingers into the fabric. 

“I don’t know. Anything, really. Elated, horrified, enlightened, disgusted, at peace, unease. Anything would have been better than still just feeling confused.” Double D starts to clutch his own arms as he talks, fingers digging into the fabric of his winter cardigan. “I still don’t know who I want to be.”

“What, you thought it would happen overnight? I’d share my ‘wisdom’ with you and your big brain would just work out the rest?” He puts scare quotes around wisdom, withholding the impatient huff he wants to give. “Shit takes time, Sockhead. It took me years of self loathing and fear to get to where I am.

Double D looks less than thrilled by the prospect. “Uh. But who knows, might not be that bad for you. You’ll figure something out eventually. You always do, Dee.”

“I do, don’t I.” He gives Eddy a small smile, only slightly forced as he takes his hands in his own. “Thank you, Eddy. You’ve been very sweet to me tonight.”

“‘M always sweet.”

“Of course you are.” He leans in to give Eddy a peck on the corner of his mouth, a chaste and innocent gesture, but when they part Double D stares at Eddy’s mouth for a worrying amount of time.

“Huh? Oh.” Eddy finally figures out what he’s staring at. Double D always opposes messiness. “Yeah, I didn’t use any lipstick sealer. Figured you’d be taking it off right after, so-”

He’s cut off by a far less chaste kiss, Double D sealing his lips against Eddy’s before he starts shifting against them, hands flying up to grab Eddy’s shoulders in a bruising grip. Eddy can do nothing but flounder, his surprised exclamation muffled against Double D’s mouth. Seeing as there’s absolutely no reason not to, he surrenders himself, arms snaking around Double D’s smaller frame, pulling him closer until their bodies are flush against each other, putting up zero resistance when Double D pushes down to the mattress. Glass and plastic makeup containers tumble and clink against each other as their shifting weight creates new divots in the mattress, followed by the soft hush of something smooth sliding over Eddy’s silk sheets, landing on the carpet below with a dull thud.

‘Hope my mirror didn’t just break. Glass is a bitch to get out of shag carpeting.’ That’s all the brain resources he has available for the integrity of his cheap mirror right now, the rest of it occupied by the overwhelming presence and persistence of Double D, hands grabbing and squishing the usual suspects, i.e. Eddy’s stomach, thighs, and love handles. Shortly after Double D’s hands start to rove, his lips start to travel, too, across Eddy’s jaw, cheek, then neck, pulling back a little bit each time to gaze down dazedly at the gory red trail he’s left in his wake. Eddy lets him, making no moves to take control of the situation, just breathing heavily beneath Double D’s ministrations.

Eventually, Double D slows to a stop, sitting up with his knees on either side of Eddy’s stomach as he lightly traces the path of kiss marks decorating Eddy’s heated face. His eyes are unfocused, lids hooded, body loose and face relaxed, not at all the ball of nerves he’d been since their walk home.

“I still don’t know who I want to be.” He admits softly, giving Eddy one last kiss on the cheek before he lays on top of him and nuzzles into the side of his spacious neck. “But I know who I want to be with.”

Eddy wraps his arms around him again, tilting his head to the side to brush a kiss of his own against Double D’s ear, an always hypersensitive part of his body. It brings him close enough to be drawn in by the allure of Double D’s hypoallergenic laundry detergent and natural deodorant, shoving his nose in his shirt and huffing fumes that can really only be described as smelling ‘clean.’ He embraces and is embraced in return, wanting and wanted, loving and loved.

“And I already have you, Eddy.”

[mindsafe]

@st4rsinclined || CONTINUED FROM [ X ]

it's rare that sobriety ( or something close to it ) finds him, && even rarer does it find him well. on those select days where kenny makes a conscious effort to keep clean, he is prone to fits of RESTLESSNESS which worsen with every exhumed memory; this time, the bones stay buried, && he is able to breathe.

❝ --to your health, runt. ❞ kenny toasts, promptly bringing the bottle to his lips, christening it with a generous swig ― good beer always tastes better from a bottle. it's his second one of the day, which ( for him ) is pretty damn good. he'd been keeping pace with his nephew, in between idle chit-chat, && commenting on the other's overly-precise technique. ❝ y'know, it's a waste of time tryin' to cut them all perfect-like; leave that to the blades. . . ❞

it was a variation of an old recipe, passed down his bloodline from father to son ― or in kenny's case, father to grandson. one small batch could fill the stomach of a grown man. before blenders were popularized among households, kenny was forced to make the batter from scratch; shredding each potato on the jagged edges of a rusty box grater. . . some nostalgia doesn't need to be revisited.

there was one night, where kuchel was ‘ working ’, && she had left him some money for pizza. . . instead, kenny raided the pantry, && with a few staple ingredients, he was able to prepare a home-cooked meal. to his surprise, the brat couldn't stop stuffing his face like a teeny tiny chipmunk, && it gradually became their thing: they would cook ( together ); they would eat ( together ); && they would get in shit for the mess they made ( together ). it only made sense that kenny would eventually teach him the process. he wouldn't be around forever. . . he wasn't sure if he'd be around as long as most. . .

kenny shifts in his seat && adjusts the positioning of his legs. uri hates it when he has his feet on the table; too bad uri's not around to scold him. neither is kuchel, surprisingly. frieda had some other commitment ― ‘ roller derby ’ he thinks? && rod. . . didn't need to be here.

otherwise contented, it remains difficult not to get caught up in his thoughts during periods of quiet. REGRET carries over from another life, && refuses to die. it's persistent, like the humming of electricity in the walls. something in his eyes must give him away; that, or he speaks without thinking ( as he is prone to do ). he's hoping on the former; chances are, it's the latter.

❝ --jeez, you weren't kidding about coming for uri's nachos. . . ❞ kenny brays so hard that he almost spills his drink. some things are just too funny. ❝ he's always on my ass about how i'm my own worst enemy, telling me how i'm not the same man i once was; how i can be the person you need me to be, but i have to forgive myself. . . ❞ laughter fizzles && he heaves a sigh. ❝ you know, when 'chel got pregnant, i was ready to break that fucker's legs. . . she never gave me an address, or even a name ― didn't want me getting arrested again, i guess. we were still living with our ‘ zayde ’ back then, but he was already on his deathbed, mind you. . . so i dropped out of high school to help out with money; never was much of an academic anyway. that was when i started taking odd jobs, here && there, && that's how i met uri, so technically. . . i owe you. for making that kind of love possible. ❞

a thick mixture is transferred to a large bowl, && the binding agents && seasonings are introduced. that's his cue. it's their thing, && they have a system: levi makes the batter; kenny fries it. he slams back the rest of his bottle, before he'll have to actually get up && commit to manning the stove ― not that he minds. it was always his favourite part. there's nothing quite like the sound && smell of hot oil in a tiny kitchen, watching it sizzle && spit, while waiting on fritters to take on that gorgeous shade of golden brown, on both sides. often, he'd whistle while working; if he was in an especially good mood, he'd sing.

❝ --i don't need to make a fortune. i married rich. ❞ kenny dismisses the suggestion casually. it wasn't the first time his nephew had brought it up, && it likely wouldn't be the last. part of his reluctance lies in a general disinterest in entrepreneurship; && part of it lies in a stubbornness that seems to run in the BLOOD. . . he readies the stovetop: a frying pan; a spatula; && a shit ton of oil. ❝ patience is a virtue, brat. adank. ❞ he takes bottle number three with a self-satisfied little smile. ❝ go have a seat, now. you've done plenty. ❞ he adds, gruffly, but not unkindly.

[vixencaw]

This is the first entry for my process journal on modeling and printing a 3D figure.

The first thing to note is I have not had any prior experience with 3D modeling or printing before starting this project. My dad, however, has a 3D printer (Ender 3 Pro) that he uses often. He is also somewhat familiar with the 3D modeling program Blender, so that is the program I decided to learn.

Before starting to learn Blender, I drew a simple design of the pose and elements of my figure (image 1). The figure is of a character from a story I am currently writing—he is an angel who wears a cloak and has two sickles as weapons. I had a feeling this would be quite the undertaking for a beginner, but I also didn’t know how quickly I would pick up Blender. If I was going to learn it quickly, I wanted to have enough elements to really challenge myself with.

Once I downloaded Blender, my dad showed me the basics: how to move, scale, and rotate objects; how to add new objects and create meshes; and how to apply modifiers to an object. I also messed around a bit on my own, sculpting a circle to look like a head (image 2). However, I was going to need to learn more in order to create a full figure.

I found this YouTube tutorial by PIXXO 3D which showed me how I could model an entire figure from just a single cube. This video introduced me to mirroring and extrusion, as well as how objects can be altered by selecting and editing a single face. These new techniques allowed me to create first a torso and then limbs and a head by creating new shapes that were attached to preexisting ones. Once I learned how the techniques worked, I used the video as an example but tried to shape the figure on my own (image 3). I did run into some difficulties since the tutorial used an older version of Blender. There were certain ways of morphing an object that didn’t work the way the video showed, and so I had to figure out a different way to achieve the same effect.

After creating a full figure, I then had to pose it. I figured the best way to do so would be to separate the model into pieces that I could rotate and arrange independently of each other (image 4). (You can also see I was messing around with how to create wings—more on that later.) I moved the pieces around, splitting some of them further to achieve the pose that I wanted (image 5). Once the pose was complete, I figured out how to fill in the gaps: by selecting the edges of the gap, I was able to create a new face that joined the pieces together (image 6).

As for the wings, I came up with a technique involving bézier curves. By creating a curve, connecting it in a loop, and then subdividing it with multiple points, I was able to manipulate it into the exact shape I wanted the wing to be. Then I could convert it to a mesh and use grid fill to fill in the shape. I did run into an issue where the fill wasn’t even—there was some weird wrapping going on at the bottom, probably because of how the curve was oriented. But I decided to use it as it was for the moment—I’ll redo the wings later.

I mirrored the wing I’d made and set both of them into the back of the figure (image 7). This was a rough prototype and I wanted to try and print it. I sent my dad the .stl file and he put it into UltiMaker Cura, a program for splicing. Splicing takes a 3D model and figures out what the layers have to be for it to be printed. There were some parts that lacked support because they were hanging in the air (the hands and the wingtips), so my dad showed me how to put supports in that could easily be removed after printing. We scaled the figure to be four inches high and could see the printing would take about three hours.

This was where things got tricky. The first print attempt ended with a big spirally ball of plastic. It seemed the wings were too thin and would need more supports, otherwise the plastic wouldn’t stick to itself and would end up creating a mess. The second print went better, although there were still problems with it—namely, the torso fell out of the body (image 8). The rest of it was in decent shape, but it seems I’ll have to do some work to strengthen the connections. I assume this will involve thickening the objects in Blender so they have more surface area melding them together.

So far, I’ve been able to get the hang of Blender fairly well. This surprised me a bit, although I have had experience with photo-manipulation programs (GIMP) before, so maybe that is helping me more than I thought it would. I am glad the modeling portion is going smoothly, however, since it looks like the printing stage is going to require more finagling than I initially thought.

[midnightsilver]

Artist Process Post

Some process pics and behind the scenes for my Sam and Dean Costume artwork 😄:

My usual style for digital artwork is free-hand painting. I usually either build a reference scene in a 3D modeller or I draw a messy concept sketch from reference photos to get my basic shapes. Next I do a neater sketch on a new layer in Procreate and turn off my old concept sketch layer. After that I draw block colours on a layer underneath my sketch layer, before finally painting the shading and detailed features on a new layer over the top of it all. I use this process because I am a self-taught digital artist coming from a traditional art background. Plus I just really like painting 😄 - laying down colour in freehand brush strokes to build up my picture - it lets me adjust and change my ideas as I go (pre-planning is not my forte! 😅). However a lot of digital art originated in animation and anime styles, so it uses line art and colour fills in closed shapes to produce a much cleaner style. I thought I’d change up my regular process and give that style a go here and I’m really proud of my novice achievements 😄

I still started with a sketch of the boys. I drew the poses and body shapes in blue, using classic superhero poses and musculature. Then on a new layer I added the costume details in red. (I had loads of fun with this stage, it took me back to teenage me who used to draw comic book heroes instead of doing my homework 😂)

Next I lowered the opacity of my sketch and did some line work on a new layer. The trick here is to try and draw clean smooth lines in a single stroke and to make sure that the lines meet so that shapes are closed. (Later on you select individual closed shapes and fill them with colour, but if you have left gaps in your lines the colour floods out into other areas or fills up the whole page.) My lines aren’t the smoothest (I messy sketch for a reason! I have very shaky hands!!😂) and they also don’t have much nuance to them (lines should vary in thickness to add emphasis and flow to the design) but I was just pleased my work was neat-ish and still looking like my concept! 😄

The next stage is flat colour. This is a straightforward stage if you have taken time on the line work. I selected the areas that I wanted and used the fill tool to add my chosen colours inside the lines. (I also painted a freehand background to add atmosphere before I started on my shading.)

The final stages I did were shading and lighting. I drifted back towards my traditional painting style with the shading. Anime styles often use single colour shadows in block shapes, or gradient overlays to add depth, but instead I clipped my shading layer over the top of my flat colour (clipping a layer prevents you from accidentally going outside the edges of the layer below) and hand painted shadows, tone variations and highlights with freehand strokes and a blender brush. The final layer on top of that I used the hard light setting to paint on glows and shine.

And that’s everything. 😄 All in all this took me about 8 hours but that’s because I’m incredibly slow at line work 😭 (I spent soooo much time erasing and undoing crappy lines) and because freehand painting my shading layer is much slower than using block shape shadows - but I would need a lot more practice at that to make it look good, freehand painting is slower but it let’s me cover more of my errors as I go ��. So while this art style for this pic is still not as clean or as efficient as typical anime/animation style digital artwork, I’m really pleased with the look of it compared to my usual loose style.

P.s. if you hadn’t noticed, I’m not an expert! This is not a tutorial, this is just an explanation of how I did this this time - and I’m learning more every day. If you wanna learn more about digital drawing from people who know what they are doing you can check out amazing artists like @kirathehyrulian and many others. 🤗

Stay awesome and happy Arting my friends

- Midnight

Art post on its own without the behind the scenes 😄

[park-haena]

Learning Blender Part Three

Today I learned:

Object Naming

Deleting Mesh

Ghosting View

Solidify Modifier

Hiding Modifier from Edit Mode

Snap to Face / Project Individual Elements

Applying Subsurf Modifier

Hide Backface

Select More / Less > Ctlr + / - (but it doesn't work without a numpad)

Solidify Modifier > Edge Data > Crease Inner

Extrusion

Reflections:

Another Blender tutorial after a while! I should pick up the pace. This tutorial was the longest and most complex of the ones so far. It's not unbearably confusing though, and he is an experienced teacher. I find myself asking myself throughout the tutorial if I can even do all these things in Rhino. I should try to make a donut using similar methods in parallel, so I'm not missing the basics from my Rhino toolkit. Again, I am glad that Blender offers convenient and precise control over the form of the object.

I watched a video on why architects don't use Blender, and it seems to boil down to the fact that it is mostly a visualization software. I'm not sure that I'm convinced yet.

Thank you Blender Guru for tutorial-ing me through my donut icing:

[jellycreamjammedart]

Hei there demons. It is I, ya boi

A while ago I considered making a trivia-like video about the assets I've made for Killer In Purple 2, and maybe show off unused content as well as asset details you probably don't see in-game. Instead I'm posting here!

Part 1: THE VERY FIRST MODEL

I was approached by the dev of Killer in Purple 2, GoldieEntertainment (GFC) after showing off some voxel art I've made in a mobile app called Fancade, and invited to join in on helping expand on Killer In Purple 2. I was like heck yeah let's get this bread!

I downloaded a mobile voxel app called Mega Voxels that actually lets users export their creations, which is exactly what I needed! All set!

My first task was making a new model for the kid NPC that was being used in the game at the time, which was made by Goldie... on Blender according to him, if I recall correctly?

(video thumbnail)

It was also the only kid model in the game at the time.

Looking at it and the rest of the game at the time, I tried to stick to the "blocky aesthetic" it had going on. I started with the head/face.

(don't mind the ads, you can't escape them nowadays.)

When I showed it to GFC he pointed out its "soulless stare" 😂😂😂 And I was not fully satisfied with the result either. So I went on from there.

I decided to retain the blockiness but also making use of more color shades in order to smooth the edges and give it more personality. After some back and forth of experimenting and tweaking, this was the final result:

The little kiddy face we've all become familiar with! If you pay attention you'll see the eyes are still pretty much a square, with a tiny bit of different color shades surrounding it to give the illusion it's rounded, plus different pupil placement to curb the "soulless stare."

The hair is basic, based off GFC's original model while also drawing slightly inspiration from the sprites of Crying Child from FNAF 4.

"But Jelly," you ask, "what about the rest of the model, like the body? That's just a head." Well, I say: DON'T LOSE YOUR HEAD! We're about to get there! (im funny i swear)

The body was surprisingly very straightforward; I tried to keep in mind where the original model was segmented and tried to stick to the same segmentation with the new body. I tried to keep the original clothing when coloring as well.

And here we have one (1) full boye, asserting his dominance!

(The solid green spots were to help GFC see where the different pieces connect, which he could easily color over once they served their purpose.)

Keep this fine young lad in mind, y'all, since he'll go on to also become the base for just about every other child character in the game. I made such choice to make things easier and faster for GFC; that way he could apply pretty much the same rigging and animations to them with minimal modifications, to save time.

Giving the characters different expressions was something that came only later once GFC figured out a way to do it, but it was something I had already been thinking about. He asked me to give the kids a small select of facial expressions; aside from the pre-existing neutral smile, I was also tasked with giving them a scared face for when they see William with the knife out or witness a kill, and a dead face for when... well, when William gives them the ultimate BONK on the head, I guess.

Scared is pretty straightforward, but what would be a dead expression? There are many ways one could go about it. So rather than making one, I made several dead faces with different designs, and left it up to GFC to pick up the "winner."

First is the default neutral smile, second is scared, and all remaining ones are different dead expressions.

I went for combinations of blank faces, empty/hollowed out eyes, tear marks matching the well-known children spirits in FNAF, as well as the cartoony X'd out eyes, which wound up being GFC's pick.

And with that we wrap up for now. These were my first steps in helping Killer In Purple 2 slowly become what it is now and my first contributions to the game (with the exception of the different expressions which we went for after a substantial amount of work.)

It all started with this little guy and his former soulless stare!

Stay tuned for whenever I decide to make new posts talking about other assets! ❤

[puttlesculpts]

Step 3: Finishing my first sculpt! Blender pt 2

Finished up the boots, slapped on a subdivision modifier, thought, "Hmm!" as it ensmoothened within the mesh, BUT I am still feeling great about it!

I toyed with the idea of carving out the soles on the main mesh, but it wasn't looking quite right + it was difficult to work with the modifier applied (and I was too afraid to delete it since I smooshed the model around to fix some things).

Ultimately I decided to sculpt the sole & heel as a separate piece since they're made out of different materials anyway. I skipped the cube and started with a plane since the final piece was basically just gonna be a thick layer anyway, so doing this allowed me to focus on the shape without having to move two sets of vertexes whenever I needed to make a change. Once I was happy with the shape, I selected all the faces and extruded:

I was about to introduce another mirrored object to create the heel but decided to challenge myself by using extrusion again and hey, look at that, it worked out great! And is one less joint to worry about later. I gave him a lil bit of a cowboy heel out of pure indulgence + I think they look neat. I was thinking about leaving them raw and polygon-y with the idea of sanding them later cus I didn't think the softening from a subdivision modifier would give me the look I wanted, but then I realized that 1) Sanding something so small would be a pain in the butt and I don't wanna do that, and 2) I watched this video for tips on merging objects and accidentally found the perfect solution to smooth surfaces that keep a crisp edge (Shade Smooth + Auto Smoothing, my love).

Anyway, final touches including the sculpt tool to minimize the appearance of floating, and that's about it! There's going to be an armor plate + straps + a knee cap before these boots are officially done, but there is indeed a completed and identifiable object here, so I'm willing to take the victory lap early.

The mesh crinkled a bit from when when I rotated the toes to accommodate the heel, but I ain't mad cuz it just helps them to looks like softer leather B)

Takeaways from this are that extruding is fun & to prolly not get carried away with subdivisions lmao Also trying to sculpt from a single form will likely save me tons of heartache down the line when it comes to getting this print ready. I am trying my best to keep things neat and tidy as I go, so hopefully that all pays off.

Up next: the not so easy parts of the boot

[sonic-adventure-3]

jesus christ i miss the flip face crease function from blockbench. why does blender insist on folding quads the worst way every time. it makes it look way too complicated to triangulate everything. also i hate how adding an edge doesn't automatically split the face i have to do it manually. the second one probably has a solution but the first thing i could only find stuff that boils down to "ur fucked lol. triangulate it"

also also i dont like how many shortcuts there are. im not doing that. theoretically it would make everything faster but i will never be the kind of person who likes using my keyboard for anything other than typing and occasionally gaming. i have a laptop so ive gotta lean forward and hunch over. shortcuts and basic functions mapped to keyboard keys will never be my thing. i only learned that in general you can press shift while selecting things to select everything between two things like a month ago. my brother told me in a conversation where i mentioned i only learned that you can press ctrl to select multiple things that arent next to each other unlike drag select a few months prior. the only other keyboard shortcuts i know are ctrl z undo, y redo, c copy, v paste, x cut, and shift ctrl t to restore recently closed tabs. everything else are incantations

[nwbeerguide]

Press Release

NEW YORK ... Today, DIAGEO unveils its Spirited Xchange Special Releases Scotch Whisky Collection celebrating the journey of Scotch, countries and cultures around the world.

Experience the full interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/9221151-diageo-spirited-xchange-special-releases-scotch-whisky-collection/

The Special Releases collection is an annual collection of eight rare and collectible Single Malts carefully selected by Master Blender Dr. Stuart Morrison, to celebrate each distillery's unique characteristics and DIAGEO's robust portfolio united together in quality Scotch making.

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"This year, we're proudly revealing our new series of distillery-first expressions: Spirited Xchange Special Releases 2023. For me, Spirited Xchange is about identifying and celebrating the ideas, flavors, and tastes that surround us each day and inspire our curiosity to create. This collection has given us the opportunity to roam freely through our vast portfolio and experiment with old and new cask types, including various wine and local spirits casks to create eight one-of-a-kind expressions that we've never imagined before." Master Blender, Dr. Stuart Morrison

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Inspired by Scotch's global journey of discovery, this year's collection also explores a variety of ages and spirits characters, delivering new depth of complexity and capturing the essence of cultural exchange through unique layers of flavor:

The Singleton 'The Silken Gown', finished in rich Chardonnay de Bourgogne French Oak casks, brims with warm toffee and rippling layers of buttery golden fruit, characterized by textures of a luminous and enchanting silk gown. SRP: $135

Talisker 'The Wild Explorador', finished in a combination of White, Tawny and Ruby Port Casks, celebrates the sea with currents of spice and waves of dark fruit, finished with a splash of sea salt, embodied by an iconic Portuguese vessel. SRP: $135

Roseisle distillery is proud to join the Special Releases collection for the first time with its first public release: 'The Origami Kite', etched with sweet vanilla notes and a touch of molasses. SRP: $150

Glenkinchie 'The Floral Treasure' 27 Year Old expression is one of its most mature bottlings to date, carrying lush floral aromas and sweet flavours resembling a Spring morning. SRP: $400

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The 2023 Special Releases collection became available in limited quantities from select spirits retailers in the U.S. and on Malts.com starting 1st October 2023.

DIAGEO encourages those who are 21+ to drink responsibly. More information on the 2023 Special Releases Collection can be found at https://www.malts.com/en-row/products/collections/special-releases-2023.

...

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We kindly ask that you adhere to FTC/TTB Guidelines so if you choose to share on social, please use DIAGEO, New York, NY. Enjoy Responsibly. Do not forward to anyone under 21.

#SpiritedXchange #SpecialReleases2023

About DIAGEO DIAGEO is a global leader in beverage alcohol with an outstanding collection of brands including Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, Bulleit and Buchanan's whiskies, Smirnoff, Cîroc and Ketel One vodkas, Casamigos, DeLeon and Don Julio tequilas, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Tanqueray and Guinness. DIAGEO is listed on both the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: DEO) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE: DGE) and their products are sold in more than 180 countries around the world. For more information about Diageo, their people, brands, and performance, visit www.diageo.com. Visit Diageo's global responsible drinking resource, www.DRINKiQ.com, for information, initiatives, and ways to share best practice. Follow our Twitter and Instagram for news and information about Diageo North America: @Diageo_NA.

SOURCE DIAGEO