#now that my preset finally looks exactly how i like i can really start playing and taking pics <3 i'm so happy with it... like EYE did that

[the-punforgiven]

All My Tarnished In Elden Ring

2 of you said do it so I'm doing it lmao

My first character is Ari, they were my very first character and are currently my "main" character. They started out as a raw Strength Claymore-only build and just kinda stayed that way until after I'd beaten the final boss. My original intent was to have them do the rad Carian Sword stuff as a sort of spellsword/battlemage thing, and while they can do that now, I just kinda waited a little too long to spec them into INT so now they're just a friendly summon who's a tanky sword-wielding sword mage who can deal a casual 7453 damage with Carian Grandeur under the right circumstances (As for weapons since they're my Main character I've got a bunch of random shit I've leveled for hyper specific situations, but Claymore is still, as always, Old Reliable for them)

My second character is one named Bryndegaard, she's a VERY heavy Strength/Faith build that I like, accidentally made good lmao Turns out guard counters with the Great Mace do a lot of stance damage Her shield doesn't have an Ash of War on it, and her mace has Prayerful Strike, so even if someone does manage to hit her through it, her vigor is so good and Prayerful Strike is so strong that the damage is usually pretty negligible. She's my tank/healer build first and foremost, but I also have the Envoy's Longhorn levelled up for her just in case I need to absolutely decimate a large boss like Placidusax or Astel. The Longhorn also worked surprisingly well against Elden Beast, as turns out its 80% Holy Damage negation doesn't mean much if you output too much damage for it to matter

My third character's named Edge, Lord He was supposed to be my Spooky Scary Death Mage but tbh I haven't touched him in a while so right now he's just a really unoptimized scythe guy with like, Rancorcall and that's it. I tried to make him look like a black metal musician and I think I did really well, but he also looks so angy it's really funny to me fhdjksahfkxz

Fourth character is Vlad, he's my funny little Dracula Boy. He's not very good but I love him nonetheless. He's built around claws, bleed, and Lifesteal Fist, which I'm very glad was recently buffed because man, this guy was not great to play before that lmao Also I love how tiny his head looks with that cape it's really funny to me

5th character is Guano Gobbler. Very original. Do Not Steal. Idk man I wanted to get the Dung Eater ending at least once, and idk I didn't want to get it on anyone else. I did use the Dung Eater's facial presets for him, I just thought it'd be funny to make him bald too

6th character is the lovely Cap'n Rumguzzler. My entire thought process behind him was 'want pirate' and then I made one. I have no idea what build I was gonna make with him and as a result he fucking sucks but I love him anyway. He also has a cannon hidden in his back pocket or something (I am aware what his name is one letter away from, that just straight-up did not occur to me at all when I was first naming him)

7th character is my Gravity Boy, I don't like his name so you don't get to know it. I've decided he's not going to progress past Maliketh because I still want at least one character I can co-op with in Leyndel. He's exactly what he says on the tin, he's got a Zweihander with Waves of Darkness and he's got a bunch of gravity spells. Not much else to say tbh aside from that I really like how the purple of the gravity magic goes with his All Black Everything look tbh. It's just very aesthetically pleasing to me

8th character is The Legend Herself, 4PattyCheeseBurg. She's built with the express purpose of having the highest possible health achievable in game. Her first 85 levels were all in Vigor (She started out with 14). She only uses the Star Fist. Red Sun gets stuck in my head every time I play her. She's somehow the strongest character I've ever had for Colosseum battles. I've made people just straight-up avoid her completely for entire matches. Demigods fall before her. The earth itself shatters at her victories. She's so fun to play I love her

Her health bar looks like this btw.

9th character is, regrettably, RudolphReindeer. My friend wanted to do a funny holiday-themed run and he'd already claimed Santa, so this is the best I could come up with. You don't get to see his face up close because I hate it

10th is my sleep build, Eurythmics (Because, y'know, Sweet Dreams) idk what else to say about them aside from that they're here, they do sleep, I don't know what to do for their fashion, and they're Not Very Good

11th character is just this one, I've named her Sellsword because idk what else to do with her She's a Quality/Quality-Mage build and I just kinda use her for testing out all sorts of wacky shit trying to wrangle huge damage and big AoE's (Fun Fact: Hoarah Loux's Earthshaker is buffed by the Highland Axe, and the buff stacks if you have a second one, but for some reason it is not buffed by the Roar Talisman) I like making her dual wield stuff also

and the 12th (last) character is this one, She's a Quality build with a bit of arcane. With her I typically use either the Claymore, Marais Sword, or Eleonora's twinblade, and the Dragon Communion Seal in her off hand. Her damage is surprisingly good for me barely playing up her bleed potential, and for some reason she tends to get summoned by randos way more than my other builds, couldn't possibly imagine why She's in the Hoslow set here, but sometimes I switch it up and put her in the Briar armor (With the Vagabond legs/arms) instead. idk just kinda depends on mood but I think the Hoslow chest's red bits compliment her eyes idk

And that's it, that's all of them minus a few I started, got like 5 feet from Limgrave, and haven't touched since

Elden Ring 10/10 game, absolutely consumed my life 👍

[prettyoddfever]

I have a few different questions in my inbox that revolve around my perspective on being a teen in the 2000s. A few points weren’t relevant for me, but I’ll try to cover some other aspects here in one rambling post since this might be faster...

TECHNOLOGY:

There were no apps, filters, or presets back then. If you wanted to edit a picture, you had to sit down & actually learn how to use photoshop (I think some kids with Microsoft computers used Paint too but idk). Knowing how to use photoshop gave you a huge advantage on myspace and most likely made you popular in online forums because you could actually make icons, wallpapers, & stuff like neopets userlookup profile banners. The kinds of things that kids can do to pictures today with a single tap of a button used to take like an hour + a lot of talent. Also, photoshop didn’t used to have the kind of recurring payment nonsense that Adobe does now. You’d just go to a store, buy the software cd, install it, and then it was on your computer for good.

Selfies weren’t really a big thing until myspace... and a lot of people called them “myspace pictures” for a while if you turned the camera to face yourself lol. Gifs also didn’t have a name... I just called them “animations" at first.

Modern cell phones can replace so much stuff that I used to have to haul around... like my heavy Nokia phone, disposable camera, giant chunky video camera + its gear, a giant binder of cds plus my cd player & headphones, a notepad with pens, and maps I printed out from the internet. My friends would also bring their GPS, a portable dvd player for longer trips, and ipods... except we didn’t have a way to get the ipod to play in a car yet (in 2008-ish I got one of those cords that you could set to the frequency of whichever radio station was pure static and then you’d get to hear part of your song... but you’d have to keep changing the radio station on the cord as you drove because pretty soon another song would start to cut into yours).

I didn’t even get the type of cell phone that could have internet or apps until like 2013. I was def late to that party, but my point is that the few kids who had sidekicks in 2006 weren’t the norm. I had a basic flip phone, but don’t remember texting much until 2007. Most of my friends and I just used our phones to call our parents, and then talked on MSN or AIM on our computers (if you were fortunate enough to have one in the first place... a ton of kids at my school didn’t have internet at home).

I know that videos on youtube from 2006 look like they're "filmed on a potato" and really bad quality or whatever, but part of that low quality wasn't the fault of our video cameras!! It was really distressing how I could have a relatively decent video, try my best to get all the settings right to export it for webstreaming, and then it would look like a garbled mess by the time it finished uploading through whatever hell portal it went through while getting online. Sometimes the process of sharing & downloading video files also lowered the quality. So the quality of the original videos we recorded wasn’t quite as horrid as the final uploaded versions (cell phone videos do not apply to this... those were just atrocious period).

Our tvs were not super blurry & pixelated like the bad quality youtube videos you might see of recordings from 2006 lol. Have you ever seen a movie from 2002? It’s fine. I do remember tvs suddenly becoming REALLY clear towards the end of college, though... maybe around 2010? I don’t remember exactly when. I only remember spending a few months continually pointing out how clear the details were onscreen and being shocked that we could literally see someone’s pores. So I suppose there was some minor improvement, sure.

My random opinion: there was something nice about having fewer choices in entertainment and needing to wait to access something (I’m not saying that having the freedom to do your own thing on your own schedule these days is bad or anything... it’s just different). My high school friends and I had like 5 tv channels to pick from so then everyone watched the same exact shows at the same time because we didn’t know when the next rerun would be (although weekly TV guides that got delivered in the newspaper would list the names of each episode coming up on the schedule and I would highlight the ones I wanted to see). Some kids with cable would leave the tv on for hours in the hope that they’d see their favorite music videos show up. Now people can instantly access an endless range of entertainment on their own time, so some of the excitement that came from anticipation is lost (like even waiting for someone to return the movie you wanted to rent felt like a bigger deal than just clicking on whatever’s next in your Netflix list). I spent a lot of hours of my life waiting in fun lines for midnight Harry Potter book releases, but now I suppose you could just download an e-book right when it’s released. 

There weren’t verified social media accounts back then. YFly’s main selling point was the fact that celebrities were verified (that site didn’t really take off, but Brendon still had to sign up for an account in fall 2006). Without verified social media accounts, it was often really hard to tell if someone was real. There were SO many fake accounts for any & every celebrity. I legit believed that one account on Neopets was Emma Watson simply because so many other people were convinced too. There were a lot of fake myspace & facebook accounts for Ryan Ross & Brendon Urie by late 2006, but those always seemed very obviously fake to me (even if they actually managed to spell Brendon’s name right lol). Some newer fans who didn’t know as much about the guys were definitely fooled, though, so that’s yet another place where some harmful and/or inaccurate info came from.

FASHION:

movies from the 2000s aren’t a totally accurate picture of what teens dressed like… it’s more like an adult costume designer’s interpretation. 

Most kids I knew in high school just wore a lot of American Eagle, Hollister, Abercrombie, and whatever PacSun sold (like Roxy). There weren’t so many aesthetics back then. The high schools that my friends and I were familiar with (in several different states) mostly had kids who were skater, scene, emo, goth, kind of punk, the generalized preppy look that made everyone into a Laguna Beach clone, or kids who didn’t care & just wore sneakers, flared jeans, and whatever graphic unisex tshirts came with their school activities. 

Emo & scene were not the same thing. A lot of scene kids would get really upset if you called them emo. Some emo kids would be offended if you thought they’d ever be scene. Also: in my experience, emo kids were bullied waaaay more than scene kids.

I spent a lot of time at malls and was really into teen fashion magazines in high school like Teen Vogue, YM, Seventeen, Cosmogirl, Teen People, Elle Girl, etc. I just want to point out that styles changed SO much while I was in middle school & high school (2000–2007) and even more when I was in college. The popcorn shirts that I was obsessed with in 7th grade were only around for a short time. Flared sleeves were in towards the start of the decade, but that didn’t last long either. The 1960s came back briefly when I was in middle school, and then the neon 80s had a short comeback a few years later (but now I’m understanding why our teachers grumbled about how we were generalizing an entire decade with the looks of one moment lol). I can’t think of a single style that could possibly represent the whole decade of the 2000s. In 2004 I desperately wanted the flared jeans that Amanda Bynes wore in What A Girl Wants, but I wouldn’t have been caught dead in them in 2008. In 6th grade my favorite outfits were track pants that could snap off, flared jeans with flowers embroidered on them, butterfly clips in my hair, those clunky chunky brown sandals that looked like turtles, the spaghetti strap tank tops that were banned at school, a little triangle bandana thing on my head, foundation as some weird form of lipgloss, and body glitter. I fit in at that point, but I would’ve looked weird by 2002. Trends were super temporary & changed quickly. It’s not like the entire decade was into camo cargo pants, trucker hats, shirts/purses/hats/anything with your initial in rhinestones, madras shorts, platform sandals, jeans that laced up the sides, pants with flares as big as you could possibly get, colored skinny jeans, denim miniskirts with cropped leggings underneath, long camisoles with a lace bottom for layering, boleros, gauchos, striped polo & rugby shirts, that one style of adidas shoes, those velvet tracksuits, massively furry uggs, crocheted purses & shirts, jeans that looked like they were patched together, suede belts with the fringe that hung down to your knee, studded belts, etnies & vans, etc. Those things were from a range of different years. 2008/09 feels like it had way more in common with 2011 than with 2005. I thought the early 2000s had more in common with the late 90s than with 2006. I’m just saying... you can’t generalize the whole decade as a continuous look or sound.

TOXIC ASPECTS OF 2000s FASHION / TEEN CULTURE:

TW: eating disorders

Maybe movies didn’t show the actual types of tshirts that teens wore because those had a giant brand name plastered on them or were inappropriate? There was SO much sexual innuendo on shirts around like 2004. I just tried to google this and I’m shocked at how there are so few examples (I put some in this tag). I mean, it’s awesome that our culture has changed enough to recognize that those should be buried, but they were also so prevalent that it feels strange to see those shirts are just gone as though they barely existed. I’m able to find some examples of Abercrombie shirts still because the brand is popular, but those types of graphic tees were at almost every store in the mall for a season… even Kohls & Target were questionable. For a short time it was such a chore to find a tshirt that didn’t subtly say something sexual, which legit made me anxious as a high school freshman. A 14-year-old girl shouldn’t be walking around in a tshirt with colorful smiling flowers that say “guaranteed to get you up in seconds!” I hate that I was so naive that I wore that shirt to school for a long time, but I also hate that those types of shirts were created for the junior’s section of some stores. The graphics on those shirts were mostly designed to look like ads for things like tropical islands, travel, Asian restaurants, cleaning products, mountain resorts, etc… except it was usually sexual in some way if you stopped to actually read the small text. Other shirts were also surprisingly racist, sexist, and just generally weird for something that was obviously created for underage girls to wear. 

Parts of the teen fashion industry basically fostered a bitchy culture where girls hated each other and were striving for male validation. Most stores at the mall (and even Walmart & Target) had those popular attitude tees that pitted girls against each other or reduced our worth to a few physical characteristics. The Abercrombie t-shirt that said “I make you look fat” stands out in my memory (but it’s just one drop in the bucket of all the similar tees they sold). And there were SO many shirts at various stores about blondes vs brunettes that I remember wondering whether my friends who dyed their hair felt like they were switching sides in a battle lol (there weren’t many shirts about redheads, but I remember seeing one at a store like JC Penny or Sears that had some kind of flames & implied something sexual because of course).

There was even a weird trend of graphic tees that made fun of rural populations... like Urban Outfitters had so many shirts mocking states that were stereotypically redneck. Abercrombie and other stores did too. 

I still remember a teen magazine (maybe Cosmogirl?) had an article whose condescending tone was basically congratulating Rachel Bilson in The OC for eating cheeseburgers, being ok with her body/weight, and not trying to be skinny (she was probably a size 6 btw). She was legit considered “large” by several magazines back then, whereas Marissa on The OC was the standard of what was supposed to be “normal.” The media would create a culture where you needed to be super skinny to be acceptable, but then they’d blast those same celebrities for possibly being anorexic (and that shaming wasn’t done out of concern for their health… the tone was more like celebrating that a celebrity screwed up yet again). There really was no way to win.

I recently saw a current teen talking about that Senior Year movie on Netflix and how ridiculous it was that the main cheerleader girl claimed to be on an ice cube diet (as though that idea was absurd and Netflix was inventing it as a joke). That was an actual thing, though. I even remember reading the “helpful tip” in more than 1 magazine that the act of chewing on ice cubes would trick your brain/body into feeling a bit more full. I remember a couple girls who’d have cups of ice at lunch complaining about how their dentists told them that chewing on ice cubes was bad for their teeth. 

The top & middle shelves of jeans at Hollister & Abercrombie were like sizes 00-5 and then the biggest sizes were at the bottom. You had to kneel on the floor to try to find a size 9 in their limited stock, which was the biggest size some stores sold (others went up to a size 11). Way too many of my friends viewed themselves as “disgustingly obese cows” for being a size 9/10. I was legit ashamed to be a size 5/6. Our world was created through a really narrow lens of magazines & tv & movies, and we mostly saw super skinny white girls. 

Another aspect of the one-way dictation of culture was how “poor people” were very much looked down on in the early 2000s. The kiosks at the malls near me were full of counterfeit designer bags, sunglasses, shoes, etc. I’m mostly speaking for the preppy crowd here, but at a lot of high schools you were basically expected to have a small Coach bag and one of those chunky chain Tiffany & Co necklaces with the heart on it. That was just like the bare minimum (and it was embarrassing for the girls who were called out for clearly having knockoff ones… like I felt safer just not having those things than being caught looking like I wanted to, while clearly not being able to afford it). I was watching this youtube video last night (which is seriously funny btw) and the guy points out how Kate calls out Lizzie for being an outfit-repeater and then the characters in that movie look down on blue collar workers and people who might live in a trailer park. That is such a solid example of what our culture felt like back then. I’m glad that those comments seem noteworthy or abnormal now, but it’s hardly like the Disney channel invented that mindset. It was just everywhere. Like I cleaned hotel rooms throughout high school to be able to afford my clothes from American Eagle & Hollister, but that was a serious source of shame (even my mom looked down on me for that job). Sometime around 2009-2011 I started to notice a shift where it started to be more acceptable to admit that you shopped at Target or used coupons, and then shopping at thrift stores became mainstream cool and people were openly talking about their budgets, financial problems, etc. Maybe this shift was partially because of the recession in like 2008, but I really do think that a more connected society via the internet weakened the media’s ability to dictate such a narrow culture as we started to get inspiration & ideas from a wide range of perspectives. 

You know how in the movie 21 Jump Street there’s that scene where Channing Tatum & Jonah Hill go back to high school in like 2012 and it’s totally different? That was one of the most relatable scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie lol. Suddenly it was cool for teens to care about things or actually try in school? Admitting that you like Lord of the Rings or anything “nerdy” was no longer an actual risk that might make you lose friends or expose you to ridicule? Wtf I felt so ripped off. You’re not asking to be bullied if you wear your backpack on both shoulders?! I had been willing to give myself back problems because I thought that was the price of survival. I spent a lot of the early 2010s being cranky that the teen culture I had worked so hard to conform myself to was vanishing and being replaced with something that I would have absolutely loved in the first place, thanks. 

(I’m definitely not saying that everyone who went to high school in the early or mid-2000s had the same experience I did btw. This is just my perspective). 

SOME PAGES FROM TEEN MAGAZINES

Teen magazines were full of “entertainment” in the form of attacking female celebrities. That mindset definitely wasn’t limited to just teen magazines or the audience of teen girls, but I’m more shocked in hindsight by how 12-year-old girls were basically taught to judge, sabotage, and compete against each other. It seemed normal at the time, too. It fostered a culture where a lot of us were super insecure & anxious that everyone was waiting to laugh at our smallest mistake or mock our flaws. Here are some random examples of the culture we were fed in the mid-2000s. 

[fairefolked]

so @okelli​ said they wanted a more in depth tortilla so ya gorl is here to deliver. here you go. click this link. that's it. that's the tutorial.

ok i'm done trying to be funny. i've chucked this in here under a cut, but please keep in mind, this is not a professional tutorial. i am in no way an artist/professional/the be all and end all/guru/god; this is just my editing process. so you don't need to follow it exactly to the t. you're more than welcome to change any processes and do your own thing. i know there are some more technical and frankly better tutorials out there by other simblrs that go really into details and what have you which are really helpful (and i do encourage everyone to go check them out), but please keep criticisms close to your heart bc i reiterate; i have no fucking clue what i'm doing. but let's get started bc this bitch gon be long.

what you're going to need:

photoshop or some other editing program. i personally use ps cc 2019, however gimp will probably also work

reshade; however whatever version you use is up to you. again, i use 4.6.1.

google is your best friend and mine

a screenshot of your choosing w some slick lighting

a lot of patience

for images where the resolution isn’t clear, click here for full size.

step one:

open up your screenshot in your editing program of choice. i have picked this screenshot for the purpose of the tutorial bc of the spicy lighting. also did i spend an hour building this for the purpose of this tutorial? i cannot confirm or deny these suspicions, but we're usin it ok. for this picture i used @intramoon​‘s alethiology reshade preset bc it’s my fav atm. you can find it here.

step two:

apply your colourgrade. i used the sonder actions by again @intramoon​ bc this tutorial is sponsored by asia. i’m not going to go too in depth here, bc this differs from screenshot to screenshot. i’m only mentioning it bc it’s fairly important to the next step. adding the colourgrade turned my screenshot from what you see above to this.

as you can see, the colours are now slightly more muted and there’s more of a green hue to it. 

step three:

depending on the colour scheme you’re going for with the screenshot, you’re going to want to pick a colour that compliments it. since my screenshot is still quite warm toned, i chose #fff4d8 which is a pale yellow. you’re going to want to take this onto a soft brush (they come with photoshop so if you’re new to using ps, it’s a default, you don’t need to download anything). i’ll include a screenshot of what it looks like. 

before painting anything, what you’re going to want to do is create a NEW layer. you can do this by either pressing shift + ctrl + n or by clicking layer in the menu bar up top, selecting new, and then new layer.

on your new layer, with the colour and brush selected, what you’re going to do is paint over the areas that are already highlited by ea lighting. for example, my screenshot ended up looking like this.

looks pretty messy, but that’s ok bc we’re going to change the blending mode to overlay as seen below. obviously this made the lighting look slightly too intense. dw this is not how we leave it.

i also change the opacity to suit the image. i set my opacity to 50% and this is what it ended up looking like.

i added in an extra step that i only use occasionally for this tutorial, and basically that extra step is going in with a soft WHITE brush and taking it to the areas that look extra glowy - i.e. the typewriter, the pie and the counter handle. this is what mine looked like. this needs to be again done on a new layer, so make sure you ctrl + shift + n or select a new layer in the menu bar.

again changing the layer to overlay, and changing the opacity. this is what my settings looked like. 

again, please refer to the full size image folder, however for those lazy like me; opacity is at 65%

step four:

on your main layer of lighting overlay (if you didn’t add more like i did it should be your only one), you will want to add a layer mask. this can be done by clicking this little button here 

once you’ve done that, it should add a white box on your layer and look like this 

because the colour has lightened some of our shadows, and depending on how deep you want your shadows to be, you’re going to want to click onto the white layer mask and with a soft brush set to the colour black, you’re going to want to draw over the shadowed areas that you want to deepen again.

for reference these are the areas that i went over. and my layer mask now looks like this 

step five: 

creaTE A NEW LAYER!!!!!! this time we’re going in with shadows. pick a dark grey colour (or black, your choice. i prefer dark grey), i used #1c1a18 and paint over the areas where you want to deepen the shadows further again.

this is what mine looked like 

set that to soft light and change your opacity (don’t use overlay this time, it’s too harsh on the picture). 

my picture now looks like this:

subtle changes make a world of difference.

step six:

FIND A LIGHT RAY!!!! i mentioned in the ask i published that i particularly like using this one i found on google, and i did use it for the purpose of this tutorial as well.

pop her on your picture and change the positioning. positioning can be changed by pressing ctrl + t and either flipping/rotating (which can be done by right clicking on the texture and selecting flip horizontal etc) and dragging the corners. if you’re dragging the corners to make the texture smaller, maKE SURE YOU’RE HOLDING SHIFT DOWN WHEN YOU’RE DRAGGING SO THE DIMENSIONS STAY THE SAME. with the positioning, make sure you’re putting the light areas of your texture where the light source is coming from. it’s really important to have a basic understanding of light and shadows. i flipped mine horizontally and made the texture smaller as well as rotated a little. 

set her to screen and change you’re opacity.

boy i’m sounding like a broken record lmao, but my picture now looks like this.

starting to look kinda nice right? 

step seven:

download this video. open it up in photoshop and make sure you have your timeline window on. if you don’t and don’t know how to change it, up the top, select WINDOW and make sure there is a tick next to timeline which is near the bottom of the drop down. once you’ve done that, click ANYWHERE along the little timeline that has shown up and it gives you a frame for the dust texture. it should look something like this. (the red is bc that little blue and red guy is important)

press ctrl + a on your keyboard to select all and copy that motherfucker. past her on your screenshot, set her to screen and play with her opacity again.

if you’re unhappy and feel like it’s too busy, you can go back and add a layer mask and using that same soft black brush, erase problematic areas the same way we did in step four. mine ended up looking like this.

NOW THIS PART IS OPTIONAL!!!!!

using the colour fill or paint bucket tool, i went in on another new layer with another pale yellow (#e4dcb1) and filled in the whole image. i set that to COLOUR and put it on a clipping mask RIGHT ABOVE the dust texture. you can add a clipping mask by right clicking and selecting set clipping mask. it now only applies to the layer directly below, which is our dust layer. i only did this because the white was too harsh (lol) and i wanted the dust to blend a little better with the surroundings.

finally step eight:

again optional, but if you like the vintage look like i do, select the layer with your screenshot and using the noise v2 action by @intramoon​ (hi again asia) in this set, add some noise. it creates a duplicate layer, which you can then play with the opacity of to set to your desired strength.

once you’ve done that, you’re basically done!!! this is what my screenshot ended up looking like by the very end. 

that concludes our spicy lighting tutorial. i hope you were able to do better than i do on a good day. enjoy!!!!!! if there are any parts that you need clarification on, please feel free to yell at me and i’ll see if i can help lol

[fellowstrangetownappreciator]

Playing Favorites (part 2)

Here we go again! Another 4 TS2 premades that really strange my town! (I’ll see myself out.) Anyway, I have to preface this with saying that so far I’ve only played the 3 base game hoods and although I really enjoy PV and VV, I added them to Strangetown just recently, so I’m still getting acquainted with their casts. That’s why my Playing Favorites posts are so dominated with desert-dwellers - but I definitely plan on including more non-ST Sims once I got to play with them more!

And I also low-key love everybody in Strangetown.

TOP 15 TS2 Premades (according to my personal tastes somewhere in May 2021) (not in any particular order) (and I can’t guarantee I stop at 15 either)

Tank Grunt (Strangetown)

Yes, I am one of them. I am a Tank Grunt apologist. Brace yourself!

Similarly to the Pleasant twins, I view Tank as a victim of his father (Buzz Grunt, the esteemed Strangetown's Worst Parent Award nominee). Of course, that's not to say he's innocent. He is absolutely guilty of bullying Ripp and Johnny and equally guilty of being a bigot. And, most importantly, totally guilty of casually wearing camo face-paint. (that he canonically gets tatooed on his face down the line, which is... its own kind of tragic.)

But that is exactly why I like him so much!

Let me elaborate.

Tank is a very multilayered character, albeit a bit cliché. He is very artistic a eager to always do his best, whether that is in school or home where he competes for his father's affection and approval. Buzz provides both of that but it always feels conditioned – if Tank was to stop getting A+, stop parroting his opinions, stop working out, stop following in his footsteps, would that go away? Even though the answer depends on your interpretation of Buzz and his levels of horrible, Tank definitely thinks so. Just take a look on how his father treats Ripp!

I read Tank as somebody who believes firmly in order and good but has a very twisted understanding of both given his militaristic and hyper-masculine upbringing. He has an enormous potential for character growth. Can he gain (psychological) independence of his father? Can he follow his dreams and become a dancer? Can he free himself of his father’s biases now that he’s out on his own? Can he mend his relationship with Ripp and Buck? (...or maybe even Johnny?) It makes him so fun to play.

Also, I think that it was indeed very cowardly of the developers not to set his gender preference as gay.

Conclusion: Tank is fun! (Although he would probably resent me for saying that.)

Dina Caliente (Str- wait, Pleasantview)

Finally someone who doesn't live in the desert! Both Nina and Dina are such interesting characters, with their connection to Bella’s disappearance, their alien bloodline and their opposing personalities and ambitions.

I feel like the sisters are often getting unjustly demonized. (or mixed up together, I’m looking at you, TS3 and TS4) They’re young, very attractive and in unconventional relationships, thus often labeled as predatory. They’re not.

Dina is a very nice Sim, with Nice points above the average and many Playful points and she tends to roll wants to start a family by the start of the game, although she is not a Family Sim. She’s actually a Fortune Sim, smart and business-oriented. She’s a widow who wants to remarry and has her sights set on the husband of her missing former sister-in-law.

I know that doesn’t make her sound that nice but there is nuance. First of all, the man in question is Mortimer Goth, well in his twilight years, a father of two, simply an adult. He is not a hapless trophy, the decision to start an affair with Dina not long after his first wife got pronounced missing, is his own. He knows he won’t be here for long and doesn’t want to die alone, he wants someone who can make him feel young again and loved once more. Dina, on the other hand, pursues a shotgun wedding to take an advantage of the Goth fortune that will kickstart her business ventures but she is ready to provide what Mortimer needs. She canonically loves him. (proven by the love flag in her relationship panel)

In my personal gameplay, I had Don take Dina on a date before their marriages to their respective Goths, and Dina kept rolling wants to flirt with Mortimer instead. Later down the line she also helped out the Brokes financially, and after her close friend Brandi died young in childbirth, she took in her youngest children, so that her oldest son Dustin could go to college and not worry what’s gonna become of his younger siblings in his custody while he’s gone. I figured it made sense because of Dina’s Nice points, her relationship with Brandi and her now being partially in charge of so much money it isn’t even funny.

In conclusion: I support and condone Dina! Even if it’s somehow implied that she and her sister might’ve just staged her rival’s alien abduction.

Circe Beaker (Strangetown)

Circe is yet another... unwholesome character on my list. She canonically tortures people, namely Nervous Subject, and her bio eludes to there being more in the past or the future. She's cunning, ambitious and very mean.

But she is also very fun to play! Her aspiration being Fortune (not Knowledge) puts an interesting spin on the whole evil scientist routine. She doesn't do it for the love of discovery like the Curiouses and she doesn't care about credit as her husband does. She's out for power and she may as well get it.

Her rather extreme personality would lead one to think she has to be rather disliked around the town but her default relationship panel says otherwise. She doesn't have any close friendships except her husband, though. That makes me think she is superficially charming and tends to act diplomatic to obtain people's loyalty without necessarily caring about any of them. It makes playing her unique from most other Sims.

She is also canonically bisexual! I personally have a deep appreciation for each and every Sim that Maxis sneakily preset to be LGBTQ+. I may not seem like a big deal now but it is.

Conclusion: "She could gaslight, gatekeep and girlboss me any day.” - half of Strangetown’s population

Lazlo Curious (Strangetown)

Lazlo is a ray of sunshine in the Curious household! A very sloppy ray that makes messes wherever it goes, true, but sunshine nonetheless.

I’m very fond of Lazlo because he’s the type of person that looks like he can barely count to five with his easy-going and messy nature but is in fact very clever and, by some measures, the most competent Curious brother, since he is the youngest and it seems like he’s fresh out of college, yet holds a higher career position than his older brothers. “A smart person that doesn’t necessarily seem smart on the first glance” is a trope I have a big soft spot for. (...and it shows)

In my current gameplay, Lazlo wanted to resurrect Vidcund (who died in childbirth), so he switched from Science to Paranormal to swipe a Resurrect-O-Nomitron and, like the madlad he is, succeeded before their round was over (in a span of few days). It was a combination of dumb luck and him having a compatible degree that gave him a hefty bonus but it still made me realize Lazlo could achieve whatever he sets his sights on.

Luckily, his sights are generally set on pizza and video games.

(relatable)

Anyway, I find Lazlo somehow cute, most probably for his constant and very unfruitful attempts to make Vidcund laugh, and in general, how friendly and easy to get along with he is. While he doesn’t have that many Nice points (5, which is a pretty average number), combined with his playfulness he usually tends to act very amicable.

In conclusion: I simp for Knowledge Sims and it shows.

Ok, I’ll be back with another 4 when my horrible procrastinating gruel of a brain feels like it. See ya!

[manjuhitorie]

Interview with Shinoda - Guitar Magazine March 2021 - English Translation

I began to wonder "What have I been deeming as ‘good’ all along?"

-Thank you for coming all the way out here. To kick it off I’d like to ask what the story behind the title ‘REAMP’ is.

AMP is like the recording mechanism, correct. I recorded by re-amping a lot this album, after it was recommended to me by our engineer. I recreated most of the sound in an amp simulator, sampled it at home on a line-in, then brought that in to the studio. There I sent the line-in signal to the guitar amps, recorded the sound coming from the amp, and voila. This way the guitar playing and the sound engineering become two separate things. At home I focus on the recording, at the studio I focus on the mixing.

-That’s a great way to localize your focus.

Though my workload multiplies (laughs).

-Ultimately you’re spending even more time focusing (laughs).

Yep (laughs). To put a long story short, we dipped our feet into new techniques for this album. So when it came down to deciding the title, 'Restart' or 'Reload' or any words with the prefix 'RE' were among consideration, but we couldn't find a good one. When at last I remembered that I had re-amped (laugh). I proposed the idea, it clicked with everyone, and now here we are.

-A bit of a double meaning to it then. What felt the most different this time in regards to the new techniques?

Back when wowaka was with us, he was the ultimate judge over whether a take or sound was good or bad. But now I have to be the judge and the one who takes the rudder myself... The main difference is that I need to become the axis now. When I was alone at home it hit me just how little I had a sense of good and bad (laughs). I began to wonder "What have I been deeming as ‘good’ all along?”.

-I see. What do you find difficult about singing and playing Hitorie’s music?

I found that I don’t have much leadership (laughs). I’m more fit for the sidelines and such... I’ve had a long career of being the lead guitarist, wherein there’s always been another leader figure above me who’s actions I’ve responded to and taken my own approach to.... A correspondent presence in a way....

—Then the necessity for a number one in command popped up.

Yep. It was like, I was really in a pinch back there. If I was to get anywhere, before anything I needed to establish my own standards of good and bad. I looked back at the music I’ve loved throughout my life, and started from there.

-Were you able to establish your own judgment through this album then?

I did what I could do. But, I’m still missing something... I don’t think it’s something you can find through just one album. I still haven’t, and there’s parts of the album that I still feel my optimization was lacking. I feel that I want to make a more polished, less rugged around the edges, piece. I’ve only established the groundwork for now. Such as what makes good music, the rhythm, pitch and so on. The basics.

-What makes good music ‘good’ to you, Shinoda?

Hmm... Phrase before sound... I think there needs to be a phrase before anything. To put it simply, the music needs to be what’s encouraging the phrases. Whatever achieves that the most effectively tends to be what I deem as good music. There’s a bunch of options when it comes to even strumming one chord. To use a single coil, a humbucker, a P-10.... Not to mention that strumming different will change how a chord resonates. Each note has its own goodness scale as well. Contemplating all that is what makes music.

-When I look at your music itself, I can see how this came into play as well. The phrases themselves have become less complex, while the riffs have become even more powerful. Especially ‘curved edge’, a killer tune even among the rest.

My bandmates and I each pitched in to write the music for REAMP, I wrote 10 while they wrote 1 each initially, basically I had to write a lot (laughs). And the last and final piece I wrote was ‘curved edge’.

-I see.

We intentionally lessened the riff-tastic music, we were eschewing following the old ‘Hitorie formula’. I made more chilled out downers. But the more I did it, the less interested I noticed my bandmates become (laughs). It didn’t click with me myself either, and it didn’t bring us together much. I thought I was doomed to never write a song that would properly fit Hitorie.. When I got the idea to write a song that mixed intense riffs and modern beats, ‘That I might be able to do’.

-In a way you wrote that song at wit’s end.

From there I drew inspiration from K-Pop. Stuff like Blackpink. Wherein you can’t discern if the climax of the song lies in the hook or the riff. I found that interesting, thus can the climax of ‘curved edge’ be found in the riff. Enough that the hook is the riff itself. When I told the members, their reaction was positive as well.

-It fits the modern Hitorie. In a previous interview Yumao (drummer), when looking back on Hitorie’s history, had mentioned that Hitorie could write music without a peep, after so many years together. Following this change to your writing formula, is that feat still possible, have your exchanges with your bandmates changed as well?

-When it comes to my written pieces, well... It depends on the song. For ‘curved edge’, ygarshy and I didn’t share a word. While we were making the demo song, I asked him to ‘Just play bass that works with this’, and with that little information he actually pulled off something incredible. I was like ‘Holy shit’ (laughs).

-The first verse alone is a stroke of talent (laughs). How about the drums?

The beat is unlike anything Yumao had played for Hitorie before. 4/4 beats were always our go-to, but we tried to venture a little into unknown territory. So I handled the  director job quite a bit, the drums may be the aspect I directed the most actually. It turns out that my concept of beat is completely different from wowaka’s.

-What do you mean exactly?

-I’m probably not... as much as wowaka.. No wait. I can’t say this for sure but, he was someone who was creative with his beats, so he tended to conjure up ones that would be virtually unplayable in context. I make up beats that are out of control sometimes too but. I stick to the rules, or, how to put it... Even when I make up a brand new beat, the voice in the back of my head will tell me ‘Wait, there’s rules’.

-I see. So wowaka wouldn’t bother with the rules much.

I haven’t put much deep thought into wowaka’s perception of beats until now though, this is only a quick assessment from my experiences. Though near the end, it seemed like his mindset changed to ‘It’s better if I let Yumao play however he desires’. Imyself haven’t reached that level yet.

“I need my love for guitar to grow even more, I say.“

-Allow me to ask you about the guitar solos. In the songs ‘Marshall A’ and ‘dirty’ are the solos in abundance and in the spotlight. What do you deem as good and bad in terms of guitar solos?

For me there’s only two types of guitar solos. You either play well, or you don’t (laughs).

-That’s a strict guideline (laughs). How do discern between the two?

It ultimately depends on the song. I like solos that are played “poorly”, such as by Momo Kazuhiro of MO’SOME TONEBENDER. I think their’s are awesome. When each and every note of a solo is poignant, it actually brings out the charm of electric guitar. So I think that solos can be wonky as hell, or precise as hell. Or in the middle is okay too. I like solos that are catchy with proper phrases to them even. Like HI-STANDARD’s ‘Fighting Fists, Angry Soul’, the solo could be a song on its own. It depends on what fits with the song. In regards to the solos of Marshall A, they fall into......

-The ‘Played well and proper’ solos.

That’s it. The song kicks off with unsteady distorted notes, but the solos are clean, it’s gap moe.

-The tone is clean as well. Did you intend for it to be gap moe?

To a degree. Like, 'is this really that kinda song' (laughs). On the other hand, when it came to 'dirty' the song has always been nothing but alternative rock style since the get-go.

-The solos are full of grunge and fuzz after all. ygarshy wrote that song, correct.

'Cause ygarshy and I are the same age from the same generation, our ideas match up as well.... For this song, it was like the Nishikawa Susumu idea- (laughs).

-I see (laughs). Back to what you said earlier, that your "optimization was lacking". How would you like to evolve as a guitarist?

I don't think I'm Hitorie's guitarist anymore. In the current world I'm in I'm not just a guitarist, I'm a singer-song writer, and that's become my primary focus. Yet despite that guitar is still absolutely a must for me. It brings the physical world and the world of music together better than anything. Thinking about it, my approach towards guitar is probably going to evolve after this as well. Up until I've played as Hitorie's guitarist, adding and adding to the sum of Hitorie's parts  (laughs). My attention was always on how to optimize to hell. Going forward my attention is probably going to shift when I play guitar. But that doesn't change the fact that guitar is essential for bands in general, and essential for Hitorie as well..... Aghh, I never thought about what it means to be a guitarist to me up until now (laughs).

-(Laughs).

I think my ideal guitarist self is still far away though. But I've grown a lot by being with my bandmates, and I can't be losing my eagerness to learn. I need my love for guitar to grow even more, I say (laughs). That's where I think I'm lacking. There's still so much about guitar I'm yet to understand, and that's my weak spot. There's a lot for me to reflect on.

Gear: Fender 1963 Jazzmaster The main guitar used in REAMP, a jazzmaster on borrow from wowaka. The serial number points to it being a 1963 issue. The saddle on the bridge has been swapped out to an Astro Notes. Shinoda selects the front for concerts/recordings, and doesn’t use preset switches. The guitar you can hear from the left channel in “High Gain” is this one. While the guitar you can from the right channel is a Tokai LP.

Fender 1965 Jaguar Also on borrow from wowaka, it was heavily used in Hitorie’s previous album ‘HOWLS’. For ‘REAMP’ it was used for the backing of ‘dirty’ and the main riff of ‘Utsutsu’. In regards to the Buzz Stop Bar, Shinoda himself prefers the musical range he can reach without it, but others oft react better when it’s on.

Pedal board: 1 WEED/GCB-95 mod wah 2 BOSS/TU-3W tuner 3 S-Distortion SASAKI 4 Prescription Electronics/Experience 5 Octave Fuzz & Swell 6 Keeley Electronics/Son of Fuzz Head 7 E.W.S./ Arion SCH-Z mod chorus 8 BOSS/PS-6 harmonizer 9 BOSS/DD-20 digital delay 10 Providence/Provolt 9 power supply

His guitar signal inputs at 1, then connects all the way to 8. He adores his 1 because there’s a gain knob on it, and as soon as he turns it on can he drive*. His main distortion pedal is number 3. His standard is to set  the volume knob at 12 o’ clock, the tone at 11, and the gain at 8. To give himself a boost in guitar solos he turns on pedal number 5, with the volume set to max. Pedal number 6 found its use in the song ‘(W)HERE’ on Hitorie’s album ‘Imaginary Monofiction’, but recently its fallen out of relevance for him. 7 was used in the song ‘Montage Girl’ on Hitorie’s ’Roomsick Girl’s Escape’, and harmonized phrases in general. He primarily uses 8 for the short delay, and it found usage in ‘curved edge’.

Amplifier: Hiwatt DR103 Custom 100 Marshall 1960 AV The number one weapon is volume. Shinoda’s main amp is this Hiwatt. The reason he started using it was because ’The only thing that could oppose the volume of wowaka’s Matchless amp was a Hiwatt’. The clean sound of it is what brings bass to Shinoda’s playing. For concerts that will be recorded, he sets the EQ bass, mid, and treble knobs all to 11 o’ clock. He sets the presence knob to about 13 o’ clock, but this gets adjusted every performance. This one stays the highest to ensure his music comes up front. He alters the high frequency and the level it pierces the ear with his pedals.  

[seoulphiles]

Hey I would like to know what apps do u use for moodboards ??

Moodboard Apps I Use

Oh I use a ton! Let me break it down into types of moodboards and such ^^ In total, I use 15 apps. I only use free apps and don’t pay for any. I don’t like monthly/annual payments for apps. If I do pay for an app, it’s a one time purchase.

For pictures, I use Pinterest. It has the easiest search function for pictures that fit the ~mood~ I’m going for. Let me use my Trashy House Party board as an example! I started this board by searching for hot summer nights aesthetic photos. (Hot Summer Nights is a popular movie about clubbing, drug use, and wild young adulthood that’s exactly the vibe I was going for. It’s a movie that sticks to its aesthetic very well with a warm tone, indie-like lighting, and blurs.)

Okay here’s the Pinterest Board!

I add photos onto this board. If you click onto the More Ideas part, more pictures like the ones you already have on the board shows up! The More Ideas pictures corrolate with the newest additions to your board, so be careful with what you add!

Btw I find pictures of the BTS members BEFORE I make the moodboard. So I make the icons before I make the moodboard. When I make moodboards, I use them to exemplify the mood the icons have in them. Not really the other way around. I usually only make moodboards then find icons of the members when I find really good aesthetic pictures I like.

(Also I’d reccomend googling some things about color theory and look at color palettes for inspiriation!)

That’s how I find pictures, now onto how to put the photos together. When first figuring out the filters and such, I put 9 photos together onto a grid pattern using either the PicsArt or PhotoCollage apps.

I put the photos into a 9 grid so I can put filters on and see how the filters look on all the pictures before cropping and finalizing the moodboard. Here’s how my Jimin moodboard looked like before I applied filters. Take in mind, I haven’t done any cropping yet!

Usually I find photos that have very similar colors and vibes to each other. Then, filters can come on and make all the colors similar to each other!

Here’s how I organize my apps and determine filtering.

The main apps all have a variety of filters.

Snapseed itself doesn’t really have filter presets, letting you edit photos with a lot of different sliders and options.

PicsArt is the go-to when editing with filters. The free version has some decent ones. Getting the Premium version is a worthy investment if you’re into photo editing and use it a lot. It has a lot of fun tools. The filters are more general with lots of variety.

B612 and SNOW are basically the same app with the same filters. They’re just labeled different things in each app. They have a lot to give when it comes to filters. You don’t need to pay anything too.

These Cutesy apps are all the same really. They’re all made by the same company. Pinkscam is like only filters. Girlscam gives some photo effects and stickers. PINS has filters and some collage stuff. I like using these apps for more pastel-like or softer moodboards. They have pink-toned filters and “girly” things like sparkles, glows, etc.

These are my retro/vintage apps! 1998 Cam gives you the most with textures and light overlays, but I love the other apps too. Lomograph has presets you can randomize through. 1967 has some rougher presets that don’t give much room for adjustment, but they’re nice. VintageLab doesn’t have as much as 1998 Cam, but it has some basic textures and filters I like.

Here’s vaporwave! These two actually have some limited filters, so I wouldn’t reccomend them unless you really like vaporwave/cyberpunk textures and filters. Vaporcam has some basic filters that give that VW feel. Glitch Studio gives a limited amount for free, but I like the ones they do give!

I use a combination of all these apps when creating moodboards. Must haves are all the Main apps. Everything else is optional. You can do a lot with just a few apps, so don’t worry!

After applying filters, once I find something I like I go to the individual photos and crop them all into squares. You can do this really easily in any of the photo apps bc they have a square crop tool preset for you already. (B612, SNOW, Lomograph, Snapseed, VintageLab, etc.)

I then apply ALL the filters to each individual photo. When I post moodboards, I end up actually posting NINE photos to make the square.

My Hobi moodboard was nine photos!!! You can do the same thing as earlier and combine all the photos into one picture though if you like that look more! Here’s my TXT moodboard where I did that:

Moodboards should be fun and express what you feel! Just play around with the apps, try different combos, and keep what you like! I used to have like 30+ but I dwindled it down bc I found the ones I liked the best.

If you want any tips on specific types of moodboards, please feel free to leave another ask. I have a lot of collections like Date Looks, Summer Nights, Boyfriend Looks, Trashy House Party, and Dream Looks that you can search for on my page.

Good luck on making moodboards! 😚

[altarwaiting]

How to gif without photoshop (second method)

Hello! A couple months ago I made a tutorial on how to gif without photoshop using the website ezgif. I got a really great response for it and received some requests for the other giffing program I use when I don’t have access to photoshop. The program is called instagiffer; this is a software so it needs to be downloaded but I have never had any trouble with my version.  

Warning that this is VERY text and image heavy because I know how frustrating it can be when a tutorial feels like it’s skipping steps and I want this to be as clear as possible. Also please read this on desktop, tumblr mobile kills the quality of gifs inside text posts.

Please reblog if you found this helpful!

This is the video I will be giffing and here is the gif I will be making!

What you need:

Instagiffer

This program has been around since 2013 and I have used it since 2016. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been updated since 2016 and the download link on the official website is broken. That being said, there are a few other websites that still have a working download, which is what I linked to above.

ezgif

Although we aren’t going to use this website to make the gif, we are going to use it to add more color and brightness to the gif.

A video downloader 

This is the video downloader I use but basically any youtube/video download website works. There are two ways to gif on instagiffer; using a video and using the built in screen recorder. I will show you how to use both. 

A video to gif

This program is a lot more forgiving about video quality than ezgif is, but for best results 720p or 1080p is still the standard. Scenes with good lighting and bright colors turn out the best, but you can still make good looking gifs from darker or unsaturated scenes if you know what you’re doing. 

1. Making a gif with a downloaded video

 Step One: Getting the frames

First, you download the video you want to gif. Then you open up instagiffer and click on “load video.” Scroll down until you find the video you want to gif and click on it. 

The video will appear on the screen in the right hand side. Go ahead and put “smoothness” up as high as it can go. This increases the frames per second and makes the gif look smoother. It also makes the gif longer, so you may have to bring it down later so it doesn’t go over tumblr’s size limit, but I always start as high as possible then work down. 

Next, find the moment in the video you want to gif. You can either use the sliding bar or just type in the start time (you can use hours, minutes, seconds, and millisecond). You also want to put how long the clip you want to gif is. 3 seconds is the default but I usually bump it up to at least 4 (unless I know it’s a really short clip) just because it’s a lot easier to delete frames than add them. 

If you do this, you’ll quickly realize your gif has extra frames that appear slightly before and slightly after the moment you want to gif. It’s really easy to get rid of those frames; just click on them until you only see the frames you want in the gif. Use the scroll bar at the bottom of the gif to move around the frames, and use it to make sure the only thing on screen is the clip you want included in the gif. 

Step Two: Resize the gif, brighten the gif, change the speed and add captions

Now, it’s time to size, brighten, and color your gif! First look at the “frame size” option. Using the correct gif size for tumblr is one of the easiest ways to make sure the gif looks good. For gifs that take up a whole row, the size should be 540p wide. For two gifs in one row, the size is 268p each. For three gifs in one row, the sizes are 177p, 178p, and 177p in that order. Here is a visual of it.  You can see what the width/height of the gif is in the bottom right hand corner of the gif screen. I am making this gif 268p. Get the frame size as close to the width you want as possible; right now, it is 269x151. To get it down to 268 exactly, go up to the top of the program, click on “frame” > “manual crop”. This little box will pop up. Just set the width to 268 and make sure the size is listed as 268 under the gif as well. The height can stay the same. 

Keep quality up to 100 obviously. I almost always brighten by 2. Unless you’re giffing something with a huge spot of light, 2 is basically standard. Going up any higher usually makes the gif just look grainy, but if the scene is REALLY badly lit, you can go up to 3. Playback rate is usually -1, just to make the gif look smoother. Unless it’s a super long gif or a super short gif, I don’t mess with it further.

Captions are obviously optional but if you want to add one, click on “click here to add a new caption.” A box will pop up with options of how you want the text to look. I only use this to “caption” gifs (aka add dialogue). The settings I use are 12pt font, calibri, white, bold italic, bottom of gif, outline up to 3. You can also chose what frame you want the caption to start/end on if you want. Since this gif doesn’t have talking, I’m not going to include the caption in the final gif, but I wanted to show how to use this function.

Step Three: Color the gif

There are two parts to this. The first place I color the gif is on instagiffer, and then I use ezgif to add more effects. The second part is totally optional but they have more choices for coloring there. 

Click on the “open effects panel”. A window will open showing what the gif currently looks like, along with a variety of filters you can use. Ignore how grainy it looks, it won’t look that way when it’s finished. 

First thing is keep “enhance” up to 100. This is basically a sharpening function and without it the gif will get super blurry. There are a ton of filters you can play around with, but the only two I focus on usually are “color fade” and “colorize.” For color fade, I click it on and set it at 10. Obviously, if you’re trying to make a desaturated gifset, you can raise it up for a faded color effect, but I use it more for color balance than desaturation. Next click on colorize, and then color picker. 

I almost always pick a light shade of blue, purple or pink; it brings out the color in the gif and tends to keep skin tones from being washed out. This is usually my default: 

Then, I bring the “colorize” option down to 90 to increase the effects of shadows. 

Last thing to do is click create gif! It’ll take a few seconds, especially for longer gifs, so be patient. ALSO there is a good chance you’re going to get a message saying something to the effect of “this gif is too big for tumblr’s photo limit.” Feel free to ignore that; the software being old means it still has the photo limit as 2gb when now it is 5-6gb so almost any gif you make will be considered “too big.” 

Your gif now shows up in a preview tab! It should also show up as a file labeled “insta” on your desktop. 

Here is the gif so far. 

You can end here if you want. But when using instagiffer, I always go to ezgif to brighten up the colors further. 

This part is basically the same as how you would color a gif you made in ezgif (see this tutorial) but I’ll quickly walk through what I do.

Go to ezgif.com/effects. Click chose file and upload your gif. First, you’re going to want to up the saturation, brightness, and contrast. You have to play around with these functions a lot because every scene is different, but in general, I have my saturation up pretty high and my brightness and contrast at at least 8. For a scene as dark and desaturated as this, I put saturation at 200, brightness at 12, and contrast at 16. 

Afterwards, you want to go down to “color presets” and select “tint.” In my other tutorial, I recommended tinting with a light red or light blue, but for gifs made on instagiffer, I tend to use a light yellow/gold. I already tinted the gif purple in instagiffer so adding yellow in ezgif tends to balance it out. The shade I used for this gif is #fffcf0. 

If the gif ends up looking too yellow, either decrease saturation, or click the “effects” button under the gif and add a layer of light purple to balance the colors more. 

Your final gif should look like this.

2. Making a gif with the “capture screen” feature

This only changes the method of how you get gif frames. Everything related to resizing, coloring/effects, and adding captions is the same as above. 

What if you don’t have a download of the thing you want to gif? The great thing about instagiffer is it has a built in screen recorder so you can gif any video you want, even if you can’t download it (or if you’re like me and don’t want to deal with downloading a 45 minute episode of something just to gif one scene). 

To use this tool, click on the “capture screen” button on the top right corner next to “load video.” Then this screen will pop up.

You’re going to want to take this blue screen over to the screen you want to capture. I’m going to put it over the youtube video I am giffing. Adjust it so the only thing it’s focused on is the video and set the length in seconds. I usually set it for longer than the clip is just because it’s easier to remove extra frames than rerecord a scene. There is also sometimes a lag so starting it right before the scene you want to gif helps with that. For example, if the clip I’m giffing is 3 seconds long, I set it to 3.5. Then start running the video and click “start” on the screen!

Your frames will now show up on instagiffer. Everything is the same, except you can’t change the frame rate or timing. Go ahead and delete frames that you don’t need by clicking on them. After that, just use the same resizing, and coloring method I outlined above. 

Some notes:

When using the video download option, the effects you use will save, as will the size of the gif. So if you gif one part of a video, then move the time stamp to another part, it will stay in whatever size you put the gif as. However, when using screen capture, you have to resize the gif and go to the effects menu each time because they reset after each use of the screen recorder.

You can also just paste a youtube link into the white bar at the top of instagiffer to gif it, but I’ve found that the quality is much better if you download or use the capture screen.

To crop a gif, move the red box around (just make sure it stays the right width size!) 

If you are using the screen recorder and only want to record part of the video (like just a characters outfit) size the gif recorder so it’s just surrounding the part of the video you want to see. 

I hope this made sense lol, it took me a few days to write it all so please let me know if you have questions or need anything clarified! Support me on Ko-Fi if you’d like and are able 💕💕💕

[allofmylovelove]

@beomgyutie​ was asking me about giffing with topaz and i couldn’t find a tutorial that was similar to how i gif and me being me i decided to be Extra and just make a whole tutorial for it!  tutorial under the cut

things you will need:

photoshop (i’m using photoshop cc 2018, but i’ve used this same/similar process on cs6)

topaz plug ins clean and denoise downloaded and installed

downloaded video to gif in the highest quality you can find

side note:  i’ve seen people say “don’t bother giffing something if it isn’t at least 720p”, but like that isn’t always practical or possible.  so just find the video in the highest quality you can

.ts files are the way to go for giffing live stages!  you can find a really great guide for how to find .ts files here.

one of the main things that determines gif quality is the video quality of what you’re giffing, so it’s important to use the highest definition you can!

if you’re interested in seeing my vapoursynth process you can see it here!  the tutorial i used to learn how to use vapoursynth has been deleted, so if you would like a more detailed explanation let me know!

also i did not include how to add text or how to blur out part of a gif, so send me an ask if you’d like help with it!

all right so here we go:

1.  figure out which part(s) of the video you’d like to gif!  people do this in lots of ways; i usually watch the video through then make notes of what time stamps i want to gif.

2.  open up photoshop and go to file -> import... -> video frames to layers

3.  this window will pop up with your video!  use the little slider things i’ve circled in red to select where you want your gif to start and end.  don’t worry about it being too exact; we’ll narrow it down further in a minute.  make sure that the limit to every x frames box is NOT checked!

4.  it will create a frame animation from the clip you’ve selected.  now you can trim the gif down even further and get the exact moment you’d like to gif by deleting frames from the beginning and/or end of the animation.  i usually aim to have between 60-80 frames in a gif.  keep in mind that bigger gifs mean bigger file sizes, so if you’re going for a big gif it might be best to go with fewer frames.  (ex. if you’re making a gif that’s 540px by 400px, aim for 60 frames to help keep the file size down)

5.  tbh it doesn’t matter when exactly you crop your gif in the process, but i usually crop and resize it at the beginning.  i ended up cropping this gif again at the end too, so it really, truly doesn’t matter when you crop it. 

you’ll also want to make sure your gif fits the current tumblr sizes for photosets which you can find by googling.  the main ones i keep in mind are 540px wide for one gif per row and 268px wide for two gifs per row.  for posting purposes, the height is not as important as the width, so don’t worry too much about the height.

you can crop the gif to whatever looks good to you then go to image -> image size and change it to the appropriate width.  make sure you’ve clicked the little chain/handcuff looking button so your height will also be adjusted to maintain the height to width ratio!

6.  next we’ll need to convert the frames into a smart object in order to sharpen and use topaz.  click on the three bars just above your frame animation to select all frames, and also select all of your layers by using shift + click on the first and last layers (you can see the layers in the bottom right corner of the second image).  you’ll want to make sure every single layer and frame is selected, otherwise part of the gif won’t be converted into a smart object.

7.  convert frame animation to timeline animation by clicking this button i’ve circled in the bottom left corner

you’ll want to make sure the blue play head button thing is at the very beginning of the gif before continuing

8.  click filter -> convert for smart filters and your smart object will be made!

9.  next we’ll use smart sharpen to sharpen the gif.  go to filter -> sharpen -> smart sharpen, and this window will pop up.  these are the settings i use for every gif, unless it is a lower quality video in which case i will turn down the amount percent

10.  now it’s time to use topaz!  i always start with topaz clean for whatever reason, but regardless you’ll go to filter -> topaz labs -> topaz clean.  there are two settings i choose from that i’ve saved as presets.  for this handong gif i chose the first settings.  you can compare the settings with the unedited version by clicking the original button at the top of the preview window.

11.  next up is topaz denoise!  same process as before:  filter -> topaz labs -> topaz denoise.  i always use these settings but adjust the overall strength.  i usually end up somewhere between 0.03 and 0.05.

12.  now we’ll click on the three bar menu again and select convert frames -> flatten frames into clips.  do NOT touch your computer while it’s processing!!  topaz is a finicky creature, and we cannot upset it while it’s working.  there’ll be a progress bar so you can have an idea of how far along it is in the process.  it does take a while, so be patient!

13.  the process of flattening frames back into clips creates an extra layer that we don’t need, so go ahead and delete the layer where you can see all the smart filters we’ve just applied listed.  it will be at the very bottom of the layers list, and also the only one labeled layer (you can see the rest are called frames now) as well as the only one that’s hidden (aka it doesn’t have the little eye icon to the left of its name)

14.  for the moment we’ll still be in timeline animation, so we’ll want to click on the three squares in the lower left corner to go back to frame animation

15.  you should only see one frame in the animation window for now.  click on the three bar menu again and select “make frames from layers” and we’ll have all of the frames we started with back except this time with sharpening and topaz-ing!

16.  using the three bar menu again, you can select all frames then adjust the delay between frames (aka the timing!).  once the frames are selected, click on the little arrow next to the number underneath one of the frames (doesn’t matter which one as long as they’re all selected).  then you can choose a preset time or enter your own.  my gifs are usually 0.04, 0.05, or 0.06.  for this handong gif, i went with 0.05.

17.  now you can add coloring!  i’m not really going to get into how to color, but you can either find psds (aka premade colorings) that creators have shared on tumblr as a starting point or just mess around with different editing layers (like levels, selective color, curves, etc) until you land on something you like.  when coloring while in frame animation make sure you drag the editing layer to the top of the layer list so the coloring is applied to all the frames!

18.  now we can export the gif!  i use save for web and these settings.  sometimes i will change the quality (circled in red) from bicubic smoother to bicubic sharper, but i usually leave it on bicubic smoother

19.  and now you can upload it to tumblr and you’re done!  here’s the final result without text

let me know if you have any questions!

[demonfox38]

Completed - Faxanadu

So, at the end of my last post game evaluation, I brought up "Faxanadu" as a better alternative to "Zelda II: The Adventure of Link." I honestly don't know if that's a controversial opinion or not. On the surface, I can see that raising the gall of a lot of dyed-in-the-wool Nintendo fans. Like, how dare I lift the third-party product over something created by Nintendo itself. And, to be honest, I can feel that contradiction. "Faxanadu" looks worse, sounds worse, and plays just a bit stiffer than "Zelda II." Why would I like this game more if it is an inferior product?

Well, in this case, it all comes down to attitude.

"Faxanadu" is a weird little offshoot from a prestigious pedigree. Directly, it's a spin-off/side story to "Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu" of the "Dragon Slayer" series. I'm guessing that if you are as familiar with Japanese computer RPGs from the 1980s—that is to say, knowledgeable by the name alone—you might recognize its sister games "Sorcerian" for its lovely soundtrack and "Tokyo Xanadu" from a list of titles available on Steam. But, hey. TL;DR—"Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu" sold 400,000 game copies in 1985, so Nintendo was all too happy to get a slice of that pie. In the translation from computer to Famicom ("Faxanadu"? Get it?), the adaptation lost its RPG battles and became a more stream-lined action platformer with some vestigial RPG elements.

Sounds strange? It kind of is. Just think "Zelda II" without death pits.

Adding to the uniqueness of this game is its peculiar plot. In "Faxanadu", your PC is charged with stopping a horde of extra-terrestrial forces and dwarves hopped up on meteor dust from killing all of the elves living alongside them on the World Tree. It's like the Yggdrasil myth meets "Night of the Comet." Very, very 1980s in its mix of mythology and weird space shit.

The game itself is as you might expect from an action platformer. Move around locations, purchase equipment, fight, keep moving until you find the final boss. The weirdness of it flakes off a little bit at a time. Like, those experience points you accumulate? They don't go into stat improvements. You talk to a guru (a priest dude) to bank them in and earn a title. This will aid you when/if you die, as the game will drop your corpse off at the last guru you visited with a preset amount of money based on how awesome your title is. Dying can be a great way to warp around, as well as to get your ass back to full health for free. Hell, you don't even lose accumulated items if you die. (Although, if you use a key, that’s gone for good. You may have to purchase a few extra if you die in the wrong spot.) Death isn't always the best strategy, but it can help in the right circumstances.

Frankly, the game is very chill about your failure. Pretty much everything else, too.

The mellow atmosphere of "Faxanadu" is something to be appreciated. Even if most people have given up on their home being saved, they're more than alright sitting around, smoking and drinking and chatting you up. (God bless, there are so many smokers in this game.) People are constantly telling you to not try too hard to save their asses, as well as encouraging meditation and keeping calm in the face of defeat. Not to be crass, but it makes you wonder if people have something other than tobacco in their cigarettes.

Let's be honest. If they were toking, it would explain a few laughable bugs.

Oh, man. You've got to hear about these errors. Like, I know register mathematics and assembly coding is a bitch, but this game makes some choice mistakes. Like, that title system I mentioned earlier? You're supposed to be given more time to use special items like hourglasses and winged boots when your title increases in rank. In execution, the opposite happens. The more monsters you kill, the less time you're given on the clock to use cool shit. It doesn't ever lock you out of an area, but it is something to keep in mind. Additionally, there's this pendant that you're supposed to get in the second area that should increase your attack power. However, the game already thinks you have that equipped at the start, so when you get it, that attack boost gets turned off. That's right. Take the pretty necklace and you do less damage. I mean, hey. You don't want to get it accidentally broken, do you?

This game isn't particularly bright in the aesthetics department, either. Most of the color palette is brown, green, cream, and salmon. Character portraits have this weird animation when they talk to you where their blinking and speaking is desynced in a disturbing fashion. Hell, of the allegedly dwarven enemies, I can only point to one or two enemies that I believe are dwarves. The music is a little better than average for the NES, but nothing I'd put in a playlist (minus the opening theme, which is an awesome fantasy rip.) I mean, it's sure better than the "Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu" footage I saw on YouTube, but it's not exactly a feast for the eyes and ears. Even platforming and movement of your PC is a bit stiff. Also, this uses password systems to save instead of batteries. Which, hey, fine by me. But, it's definitely cheaper than using a battery, and I know a lot of people find passwords to be difficult or annoying to use.

So, if this is an inferior looking and feeling product in comparison with "Zelda II", why do I like this one more?

Well, the chillness factor, for one. The difficulty in this game is much more manageable as well. You can carry several healing potions on you, and there are classes of enemies you can farm for food to get your health up in dire straits. Hell, there's even an elixir that will auto-pop on you if you take too much damage. Additionally, screwing up platforming doesn't automatically kill you. It might make you have to take a few rooms to get back to where you were trying to go, but it's not a kiss of death.

Yeah, this one's easier, for sure. But, I don't feel like it's purposefully wasting my time, either. The cash for most equipment upgrades can be ground out within ten or fifteen minutes, if you're willing to put in the time. You can skip certain locations, if you really don't want to deal with their hassle. Granted, skipping too much could cost you the best equipment, and you certainly need that to fight the final boss. But, the trials you face to get that aren't the worst. Hell, getting the Dragon Slayer itself becomes retroactively sad and metal once you figure out just what you were fighting to get it.

There are important things to do, sure. Nobody's on your ass if you screw up. The NPCs want you to succeed, and they want you to do so with a clear head (and an empty purse, in some cases.) It's the kind of game where you take an afternoon or two to knock out. Nothing overwrought, nothing dramatic. Just you and a handful of Keebler Elves fighting back cosmic horrors that have taken over the neighbors.

It would be interesting to know the scale of this world. The dwarves don't seem to be that much shorter than the elves, so I have to wonder if everybody's just four feet tall or something.

I'm almost certain that I picked this up off eBay decades ago after reading either a genre list or recommendation list on GameFAQs. Even now, the price on it is cheap. (Of course, ROMs are free, but it's a $10.00 cart.) This was a better game than what I would normally get out of my other source of NES games—that is to say, the K-Mart bargain bin (which may have been leftover stock the company bought from FuncoLand? Not sure.) Long story short, this game is relatively short, cheap, and fulfilling. If you need something retro and easy going, this game might do the trick. It might not blow your socks off, but it won't blow your head off, either.

[carnistcervine]

Cyberpunk Avatar RPG

Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a cyberpunk Avatar RPG?

[Image Description- A logo that says “AVATAR Neon Lights in the Eternal Night” “AVATAR” is done in a classic 80′s chrome style, and “Neon Lights” and “Eternal Night” are done like neon lights. Raava’s diamond dots the “i” in lights, and Vaatu’s diamond dots the “i” in night. The phrase is set over a starry night sky.]

[Video Description/Transcript-

A woman pants a few times, out of breath. She pauses, and hesitantly turns around. Behind her is an ominous tree with a creepy glowing orange object in it looking like an eye. We cut back to the woman who has turned around and is facing the tree.

Next we cut to a simple game scene where the woman and the tree face each other. There is some simple game gui displayed on the screen. A dialogue box is open.

“A strange tree in the middle of the room regards you carefully. You stare back into a glowing object in the tree’s hollow that you can only assume to be it’s eye. you become transfixed, gazing deep into the strange hollow as the soft hum of neon lights and the strange, heartbeat-like ticking fade into the background.

Suddenly, a voice emanates from somewhere. It is low, but commanding. It calls to you...”

Another dialogue box with a portrait of the tree and labeled “???”

“Well, well, well. What do we have here? You seem... different from the usual humans that bother me. Yes, you don’t wear that hideous outfit and you seem to carry yourself differently...”

Another dialogue box

“...

That tremor in your mortal core...

...

You aren’t supposed to be here, are you?”

Another dialogue box but with the woman and the label “Ember”

“...”

Another dialogue box for “???”

“Do not worry, I am not going to raise any alarms. Quite the opposite, actually. You see, I require your assistance. I have been imprisoned here for well over 10,000 years, and if that wasn’t bad enough, in the past few hundred years humans have come across my prison and decided to exploit me for their own gain. They’ve been draining me for hundreds of years. Please. If you consider yourself an ally of spirits, HELP ME.”

Dialogue options for Ember

“>[Ominous] “I don’t know...”

[Accepting] “Sure...”

[Mean] “Not my problem...”

[Silence] “...””

The ominous option is chosen and this dialogue box from Ember appears.

“I dunno, you seem pretty ominous to me.”

Another dialogue box from “???”

“So, I don’t deserve your assistance because you find me scary??

I deserve to be in pain then.

Wow.”

Ember responds

“That’s not what I said.”

??? replies

“It was implied.

Ember’s dialogue box:

“No it- Look. I don’t even know your name.”

??? now known as Vaatu replies.

“My name is Vaatu. I am an eternal spirit. I have watched the sun’s violent birth, and will be here for it’s burning end. I have existed before time began, and have played role in the shaping of the very universe itself.

My counterpart trapped me in here so she could shape the world without my input. The humans are draining me of my power and I’ve been in agony for centuries. Is that good enough for you?”

Ember’s dialogue options:

“[Kind] “You poor thing...”

>[Accepting] “Sure...”

[Mean] “Not my problem...”

[Silence] “...””

Accepting is chosen.

“Sure. Why not.”

Vaatu replies,

“So, you’ll help me?”

Ember’s options:

“[Accept Quest] “Of course.”

[Deny Quest] “No.”

>[Inquire] “What about me?”

[Silence] “...””

Inquire is chosen.

“That depends... What’s in it for me?”

Vaatu responds:

“Hmm... What’s that you mortals are always prattling on about? Morality?

Do it because it’s “the right thing to do” or something...”

Ember’s dialogue options:

“[Accept Quest] “Fair.”

[Deny Quest] “No thanks.”

>[Assuming] “Bold of you...”

[Silence] “...””

Assuming option is chosen.

“Bold of you to assume I care about doing the right thing.”

Another narrating dialogue box appears.

“There is a silence. Annoyance rolls off of Vaatu in waves. You almost expect the tree hollow to narrow at you.

But instead he replies:”

Vaatu’s reply-

“Fair enough. Help me, and you will be rewarded... quite handsomely.

Do you find these terms agreeable?”

Ember’s dialogue options:

“>[Accept Quest] “Sure.”

[Deny Quest] “Not good enough.”

[Tease Him] “I dunno...”

[Silence] “...””

The quest is accepted.

“Sure. Why not?”

The dialogue box closes and a pop up appears. Saying that the quest log has been updated.

Another dialogue option appears indicating that the player has chosen to interact with Vaatu again.

“Soo, how exactly am I supposed to free you?”

Vaatu replies:

“Well, ending the drain of my energy would be a great start.

Occasionally humans will come in here and check these strange electrical vines for anomalies. Sometimes talking about a “system overload.” It seems this would take their whole set up down. Maybe look into that.”

The dialgue box closes and the characters continue their idle animations for a few more seconds as the video ends.]

Like, that’d be pretty sweet huh?

Anyway, here’s a thing I’ve been working on for past couple weeks. It’s gonna be a long one, so lots of concept art, vids, and descriptions below the cut.

So, anyway, I kind of got this idea for a cyberpunk Avatar RPG fangame and did some concepts and mockups for it. :D

A working title I came up for it was Avatar: Neon Lights in the Eternal Night. The main idea/driving force of the plot is that humans are exploiting Vaatu/The Tree of Time as a sort of infinite clean energy source. And well, while the energy gotten doesn’t cause runaway greenhouse effects that would devastate the planet’s climate, it has upset the spirits, and caused major metropolitan areas to be cloaked in eternal darkness. Also, over the past few hundred years, the physical realm and spirit world have been drifting further and further apart, creating a void/rift realm between the two. And if that weren’t bad enough, the world governments are corrupted and run by big business, and their iron will is enforced by the corrupted police systems.

So you’d have to deal with dark/corrupted spirits, bad cops, evil corporations, and uncaring governments. :’D

My idea for the main game is that you can either choose a preset character or create your own character from scratch. You can choose your gender, bending ability(including being a nonbender!), national alliance(which determines where you start), your appearance, starting stats(make your character as balanced or min-maxed as you want) among other things.

Here’s a GUI mockup I made for the character creator, it’s very basic, only a first draft but it gets the basic idea across. I hope. :’D

[Image Description- A simple gui mockup for an RPG game. It shows the options for naming, gender, ability, choosing an alignment to a particular nation. It also has unshown tabs for looks and stats. There is a window for finalizing the character open, asking “Is this your true form?” A yes or no option is given.]

I’m not 100% on this look/design, but what I was thinking was that the character creator could be split into three tabs- Bio, Looks, and Stats.

Bio would be your name, gender, bending ability(you can choose nonbender!), and which nation you align with. There’s also an option to be unaligned(the yin-yang like symbol), and you’d be offered some info about your ability/nation combo. Like information about the Fire Nation if you choose to be a Fire Nation firebender, or even info about nonbenders in whatever faction you choose, or how people of other bending types exist/are treated by your chosen faction. Like how waterbenders live in the Fire Nation, or firebenders live in the Water Tribes.

I am considering adding the swamp tribe and splitting the Water Tribe into the Northern and Southern variants, but again, this gui thing is just a first draft. :’D

For looks, you’d choose your characters skin color, hair color and style, eye color, as well as from a few small cybernetic options. Of course, you could have a character with no cybernetics as well.

With stats, you’d choose your starting stat distributions. I’m thinking that I’d have stats like strength, bending, speed, agility, and maybe even stats like charisma or spirituality. Charisma would effect your character’s ability to interact with others, and spirituality would affect their ability to interact with spirits or connect to their patron deity.

Someone who isn’t very spiritual wouldn’t have much of a connection to their deity and isn’t likely to be blessed by them however they’re more resistant to the effects of negative spirit energy and dark spirits. Meanwhile, someone who is highly spiritual would receive buffs and bonuses from their patron deity, but would also be much more vulnerable to dark spirits.

Also yes, the character creation screen is absolutely your character standing there as Vaatu ominously stares at you in the background.

Also here’s how I picture the character creator minus the GUI-

[Video Description- A short video of a character standing in front of the Tree of Time, doing an idle animation. The video looks very reminiscent of PSx style rendering.]

Here are some character models I’ve done thus far~ (They’d probably end up as preset characters)

[Video/Image descriptions- A simple idle animation of a woman swaying slightly from side to side. After that are a series of screenshots to show off her design. She has brown skin and dark turquoise eyes. Her hair is a slightly darker brown than her skin. She wears a dark purple hazmat/wetsuit type deal. She has dark blue gloves and boots with cyan tops. The boots also have a stripe going down the front. The wetsuit has a cyan collar and a design on the front that looks a little like a fishbone or a pelvic bone with a few vertebra. She has cyan water symbols on her shoulders, and has a water tank on her back. The water tank also has a water symbol on it. She has a dark purple gasmask with white markings over the eyes and nose, cyan filters, and fancy-looking lenses.]

I don’t really have a name for her, I just made the design on the fly, and called her “Cyber Water”. :p I really ended up loving her design though, and her idle. Like it’s just a simple sway/shift weight from foot to foot, but I quite like how fluid she looks, and the way here ponytail swings so nicely~

For her design I kind of got this idea of a hazmat/wetsuit type thing. While, unintentional, I do really like how the marking on her front kind of looks like a fishbone/pelvis and spine. I feel like it kind of adds to the hazmat type effect. Also, I meant for the white on her gasmask to be shine, but it ended up looking like snow/markings, and well, I actually really like the effect it gives actually! She also has a tank of water on her, so she also has some element to use. I haven’t decided whether the water should be tainted so it poisons the people she attacks or purified so she can drink/heal with it should the need arise.

I also really like her face, I feel like I’m getting better at texturing faces. My only regret is that I keep forgetting to add some hair around the edges of her face so her hairline isn’t so awkward/abrupt.

Also yes, I did make her hair danglies droplet shaped on purpose. I couldn’t help myself. :3

[Video and Image Descriptions- A young woman sways slightly once, and taps her foot impatiently twice. Next are a series of screenshots showing off her design. She has lightly tanned skin, dark hair with green highlights, neon green eyelashes, her left eye is normal and dark green, her right eye is cybernetic and looks like it’s made from a smoothed emerald. Her face is dotted with neon green crystal freckles, she has a silver nosering and snakebites, as well as earring with the same crystals that make up her freckles. She wears a dark green tunic with a gold collar, and golden Earth Kingdom symbols as accents down the front. The bottom is lined with neon green symbols. The symbols don’t mean anything, they just look cool. Her hands are robotic, and she has brown pants that are tucked into bluish-green boots.]

LORD. I had WAY too much fun with this one! Her idle is by far my favorite! That little foot tap. I just, it’s such a small thing but it adds so much character. <3 Also it’s just cute as hell~

Her face is also my favorite. Like, I love her creepy, crystal eye, her nose ring, crystal freckles, even just the way her face turned out. <3 <3 Like, I’m gushing but I’m super proud of her~ Like my idea for her is that she kind of takes body mods to the next level and has crystals implanted into her face, giving her crystal freckles.

Also she got robot arms/hands.

I have more characters, but I’ve reached my video limit, so rip.

I mean, I’ll just make a second post with the other three I’ve made, no big deal.

butsneakpeek

[Image Description- A screenshot preview of five cyberpunk style benders.]

I’ve made three levels/environments so far~

The Tree of Time-

Once a part of the sacred balance of the realms and a keystone holding the two worlds together, as well as a prison to keep Vaatu from reeking havoc upon the world, this place has since been exploited by an enterprising group of humans who decided to use the tree and it’s hapless occupant to power the world and it’s vanities. Hundreds of years later, both the tree and Vaatu remain as a source of infinite energy for mankind, with the cost being the slow spread of eternal darkness and chaos. While Vaatu isn’t happy about his predicament, he is an eternal being. He bides his time, waiting for his inevitable freedom...

[Image Description- Multiple screenshots of a cyberpunk take on the Tree of Time. The first two are rendered in unreal with dark purple lighting and some PSX shaders for some good old PSX crunch. The last three are screenshots from Maya with neutral lighting. The level’s ceiling is a downward pointing cone of many black cables/wires connecting into the top of the tree. The tree itself is also covered in black wires with red lights. Vaatu peeks out from the tree’s hollow. With the way the model is designed, the tree hollow looks like an eye that follows the person looking at it.

Because it is.

The tree sits on a red platform with it’s roots entangled in wires coming up from the floor. Tall, grey metal walls surround the tree, they are all adorned with the symbols of the elements along with a symbol for light and a symbol for dark.

Ember is also there because Vaatu needs an emotional support firebender and Zuko wasn’t available.]

The Jasmine Dragon-

The Jasmine Dragon is a teashop opened and ran by everyone’s favorite proverb giving, tea drinking, fire-breathing Uncle. It sits comfortably in the upper ring of Ba Sing Se, many patrons describing the tea served there as divine, and something to experience at least once before you die. Being an old retired general and ex-crown prince of the Fire Nation, Uncle knows how to lay low in the public eye and hide his cards well. Which is why, despite not appearing on the radar of the Dai Li, Uncle has managed to create safe space for those rebelling against Ba Sing Se’s authoritarian regime.

[Image Description- Multiple images of a more modern take on The Jasmine Dragon from ATLA. The first two are renders from Unreal, with that good ol’ PSX crunch. The rest are screenshots from Maya, which is why they’re actually legible. The walls are a beige color, there are many cream colored tables surrounded by green chairs. There are two rectangular windows at the front with a long table and sofas for customers who want to look outside as they drink. There are also two sets of two smaller hexagonal windows on either side of the restaurant. Down the center isleway there is a green rug with a dragon design on it. The walls are also adorned with many deep green posters, depicting earth symbols or dragons. In the employee’s only backroom there is a counter with a table and a few shelves as well as a couch for employees(Zuko) to rest while on break. There are red posters in the back room and a red backdoor for emergency exits. The Earthbender girl is featured in the first two screenshots. Ember can be seen in the Maya screenshots. She likes the boba tea.

Here’s what all the posters would say if Carnist wasn’t poop at writing Chinese.

-Earth is strong

-Jasmine Dragon

- It is better to go for three days without food than one day without tea.

-Fire

-Fire is fierce

-Exit

-The world [all under heaven] is guided by one.

-Fuck the police.]

Convexity-

As the rift between the material and spiritual planes widens, an airlock of sorts has been created. A void between worlds, created by the imbalance, and shifting of spiritual energy and physical matter.

Yes this place was inspired by convexity from The Legend of Spyro. :’D

[Image Description- Multiple screenshots of dark hexagonal stones with purple/pinkish energy flowing through them. The stones appear to be floating in an empty void, however once one looks down, a spiraling galaxy or maybe a quasar can be spotted.

Also Ember is there.

She really gets around.]

Finally, here’s a bunch of concept sketches-

[Image Description- Several concept sketches depicting a cyberpunk Gaang, the Krew, and even the best Avatar: Wan.]

One last thing I feel I should mention- I wasn’t planing on making a fangame, but if this post gets 150 notes or the video at the top of the post gets 150 likes, or both, I’ll make a functional demo and make the project open source with my assets and such also available for download.

I’m making the game, lol.

Credits-

Character models were made from Jugapugz’s lowpoly base

Aight, I desperately need sleep, so I’ll post the other three characters tomorrow. And I’ll update this post a better description for the concept sketches. Until then, thanks for checking this out~

[bltngames]

SAGE 2020: Indie Games

SAGE may closed more than a day ago, but thankfully, the website remains up for those who still want to download its games. So even though this article is technically very late, nothing listed here is out of date. The event may be over, but the games live on! Which is honestly a relief, because I think doing ten games per article is taking its toll on me. Normally, when I’d write for TSSZ, I’d do somewhere in the realm of 5-7 games per article, and even that would eventually burn me out. After writing about 20 games this year, I was clearly starting to feel like I was running out of steam. Oh well. We live and learn. Here’s another ten games!

There’s one more article left after this, a sort of “honorable mentions” round-up that will feature much shorter blurbs as I blow through way more games way faster. If I didn’t talk about your game here in these three articles, now’s your chance to let me know so I can say something about it in the final article.

Anyway, onwards to our ten indie games.

Victory Heat Rally

I’m all for any game channeling the spirit of Sega’s old SuperScaler arcade technology, and Victory Heat Rally is all about that. Everything about this game seems so MY AESTHETIC that my only complaint is that I’m hungry for more. A lot more. This demo is a simple time trial on one race track and I’m itching to sink my teeth into literally anything else this game has to offer. There is an older demo from back in April with more content, but it’s running on a different version of the code base -- this newest demo is significantly improved both in terms of visuals and control. I really don’t have anything else to say about it. There’s not much here, but what’s here is charmingly retro in the style of Sega’s Power Drift, but cuter and even more colorful.

  Sondro Gomez: A Sunova Story

I had been interested to revisit Sondro Gomez after playing the first demo last year, but I don’t know if I just wasn’t in the right mood for it this year or what, but I kind of bounced off the game this time. To my memory, Sondro Gomez is a kinda-sorta side game in the Kyle & Lucy universe. You may remember Kyle & Lucy as one of a growing number of games coming out of the Sonic fan gaming community trying to break out as an original title. A while ago, the developers announced a partnership with Stealth to use the Headcannon engine to make the game with, something that extended to Sondro Gomez here. The problem is, it feels kind of weird now, and I can’t quite put my finger on why. I think it’s the little stuff -- you don’t get a lot of positive feedback when attacking using your whip (the sound is a bit quiet), and the difficulty balancing errs on the side of caution. I died a couple times in my time playing this newest demo, but I wouldn’t characterize Sondro Gomez as a game that feels challenging. Some of that probably has to do with the fact this is still just a demo, which means you spend a long time fighting the same four enemy types in every single level. There’s a lot of charm to the story and the characters it involves, but that only takes you so far when it feels like you’re doing the same things over and over in the actual levels, you know? Either way, the touched up visuals and the new boss fights are welcome. Interested in seeing what the full release looks like next year.

  Delta Gal

In retrospect, a Mega Man Legends fan game seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? Where Delta Gal has a leg up is in controls. Even considering the era Mega Man Legends was released in, it had very awkward controls. Delta Gal’s response is to embrace standard third person action game controls with a mouse and a keyboard. Now, there is controller support, but even once you get it set up, you have button layout presets like “Bad” and “Almost Good.” Honestly, if you can, just play it with a keyboard and mouse. The demo offers about 30-40 minutes of gameplay, with a bit of the town, a forest section, a cave, and one whole dungeon. Visuals nail the best parts of the Mega Man Legends low-fi aesthetic, colors are vibrant, and the pixel art textures look very good. The town is full of characters with lots of personality, too. A particular favorite being the guy who runs the junkyard who likes to show off by flexing his muscles but then ultimately chickens out when it comes to exploring the cave he discovers. The only downside I’d say is the sound design. The game sounds okay, but some of the music is a little bland, and certain sound effects lack the right kind of punch. Granted, this style of sound design isn’t easy, so I can empathize with the developers in that respect. Honestly, it doesn’t really detract from anything at all, so maybe it’s not even worth bringing up. Either way, good stuff, and I’m looking forward to the full release.

  Bun n’ Gun

Here’s a cute little game about a bunny in the old west. I’m absolutely in love with the visuals and the music here, but the gameplay is… interesting. Bun isn’t a typical shooter or platformer, thanks to the fact that he appears to only have one arm, which is occupied by his gun. Now you wouldn’t think this would matter, as it’s pretty easy to design a game around only having to jump and shoot, and that’s fair enough. But there’s a strange heft to this character. It takes them a little bit to pick up speed, and it takes them a bit to slow down, and there’s an unmistakable, split-second delay between pushing the jump button and actually jumping. I know enough about this kind of game development that a delay between pushing a button and actually jumping has to be a deliberate design decision, and I split on whether or not I like it. I don’t think I hate it, because it’s pretty easy to get used to the way it feels, but it does mean you’re working with a handicap when it comes to split-second movements. Given the bunny seems to only have one arm, though, perhaps that’s the point. Either way, it’s cute. Give it a look.

  Shield Cat

I feel like I’ve been over-using the word “charming” to describe games at SAGE this year, but you know what? Shield Cat is charming as heck. People also tend to think it’s reductive to describe things by comparing them to something that already exists, but I say nuts to that, too. Saying “It’s like…” is an easy shorthand, and besides, if somebody is saying your project is like one of their favorite games, it just means they’re giving you praise and might lack the words to accurately describe that praise. Thing is, that’s actually kind of hard to do with Shield Cat. The nearest relative to this game would be The Legend of Zelda, but Shield Cat honestly plays very little like Zelda, beyond having a top-down perspective. Secret of Mana, maybe, with the stamina meters? I don’t know. Regardless, this is a charming (!!!) top down action game where you roam around exploring an overworld and solve light puzzles. It controls well and the aesthetics are nice. Can’t really get much better than that, though I do have to wonder what it is you’re supposed to be doing in this game. It took me about 30 minutes to see everything available in this demo, but there’s no story setup and only the smallest pieces of what could be considered a dungeon. What’s on offer here is interesting enough that I find myself wanting to know more about this world. For example, it’s called Shield Cat, but clearly you’re some kind of ferret. What’s that about? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

  Prototype N

I’ve sat here staring into the void wondering what to write about for this game for a long time, because it’s one of those demos that’s just… a solid and fun game that nails exactly what it’s going for. I would say that Prototype N leans a little too far towards the easy side of things, but the third level provided in the demo ramps the challenge up enough to be just about perfect. And, really, that’s it. That’s the game. You get two softer introductory levels to get you acclimated to the controls (which are similar to Mega Man, but different enough not to be a direct clone) and one “real” level to actually give you a bit of a work out. There’s nothing else to really say. This has the vibe of a 1993 or 1994 Capcom game, or maybe something from Data East. Every single part of this game’s presentation is laser-focused on that aesthetic, and it pulls it off flawlessly. Sound design, music, visuals, it’s a bullseye. This game fell out of a time machine in the best way possible. Definitely give it a look.

  Yan’s World

From a game that nails the SNES aesthetic to this, a game which pays tribute to the Virtual Boy… but not really? I actually became aware of Yan’s World many years ago through a mutual Discord, and it always looked interesting, but simultaneously a little confusing, something that still mostly holds true to this day. Per the game’s own Kickstarter sales pitch, Yan’s World is “stylized as a lost title for Nintendo's Virtual Boy.” I can get down with that, but the game almost instantly breaks its own rule because Yan’s primary method of attack is to shoot a missile from his head that can only be aimed using the mouse. As such, Yan’s World doesn’t have controller support, even though one of the stretch goals currently listed on their Kickstarter page is to make a version that can be played on real Virtual Boy hardware. And, honestly, what’s the deal with this game’s whole… everything else? Why is this kid an onion? Why are the platforms made out of clocks? Why does all of Yan’s dialog make him seem like he’s sort of pissed off when he’s got such a big happy smile? There’s a bit of a hand-wave to suggest the entire game takes place inside of a dream, and for once that actually means throwing logic out the window, I guess. Oh, the missile is a pillow? Fine, whatever. Use it to blast this demonic apple, and then threaten to kill an innocent NPC. It’s a dream! Despite how little sense that makes, it… kind of works? The sprites are big and lovely, the game controls well, and the level design is plenty creative. I can’t fault the game for that, it’s just trying to figure out everything wrapped around the game that feels so bizarre.

  Cosmic Boll

I don’t know if I really understand what’s going on in Cosmic Boll, but I love to play it just the same. This plays like if Treasure made Dragon Ball Advance Adventure while strung out on cocaine. The end result is pure hyperactive chaos. There is a whole complicated combat system at play here, and a very lengthy in-depth tutorial when you first start the game, but you can figure out a lot of it by just skipping the tutorial and playing the game for real. You can get by pretty easily by just mashing buttons and seeing what happens, and that’s not a complaint, because a lot happens in this game. Like, constantly. It never stops, it never really slows down. You’re always zipping around, spinning and flipping and punching soldiers, explosions everywhere, collectibles everywhere, just utter madness. It’s Sonic the Hedgehog plus Devil May Cry plus Gunstar Heroes and all of it is mixed up in ways you probably don’t expect. All of this is to say that Cosmic Boll is messy and cool and fun and you should probably play it.

  Brock Crocodile

This is a game I’ve seen a lot of around social media, and it’s nice to finally be able to try it. Weirdly enough, this is the first game all SAGE that has flat out refused to see my controller. For the last few years at SAGE, I’ve been using a Playstation DualShock 4, which typically causes me all kinds of headaches with games expecting an Xbox controller. This year, I’ve been using an 8bitdo SN30+. These things are designed primarily to be used on the Switch, but using a controller macro, you can change it to Xbox or Playstation modes. The “Xbox” mode has served me well so far, but Brock here fails to let me use the controller at all. Fortunately, with only three buttons, Brock manages to be mostly playable on a keyboard. That being said, a lot of this game feels a little bit off. The camera is kind of swimmy, as it's almost constantly in motion trying to get a better angle on what's around you. Brock himself doesn't have a smooth acceleration curve either -- it's more like shifting gears in a car, where you reach one top speed and then click up into the next highest speed. That can work, but Brock changes gears much too quickly and without much feedback, making it look like one jerky acceleration curve instead of two. And then there’s the visuals. Level art looks great, character portraits look great, but I’ve never been the biggest fan of the sprites I’ve seen in this game. Take Brock himself, for example: he’s got insanely thick thighs for some reason but the rest of his body looks thin and wispy, and he stands with kind of weird posture. The good news is, despite these complaints, Brock Crocodile is actually really fun to play. You eventually get used to the game’s control quirks, and the level design and included boss fight are excellent, striking that perfect balance where they aren’t too easy but don’t feel unfairly difficult, either. Plus, even though the cutscenes aren’t skippable (annoying as I was dealing with controller issues), the writing is snappy and the dialog is funny. It may not be perfect, but there’s still a lot to like here.

  Marble Launcher

Here’s one of those games where you can tell the creator is just starting out making games. And that’s great! These sorts of endlessly complex, winding mazes are exactly the kind of levels I started making when I first got into game development when I was 16 or 17 years old. One could spend hours searching every nook and cranny in these levels, which is simultaneously awesome and exhausting. Thankfully, near as I can tell, nothing FORCES you to go exploring, so if you’d rather just finish the game, it’s easy enough to head straight for the goal. Gameplay is extremely simple, otherwise. You’re a marble, you can attack enemies by bouncing off of their heads, and you have a slam move. That’s it. You might think that with this being a marble game, you’d get real rolling ball physics, but all you get is simple platformer controls. They’re good enough, especially considering how esoteric the shape of the levels can get, but it’s hard not to be a little disappointed. Still, it’s not a bad little game for what it is. Controls a bit better than some of my earliest attempts at game development, too.

Thirty games total! That’s a lot of games to talk about. And there’s still more to come, so stay tuned for that.

[official-michael-afton]

Made a tier list of FNaF media!!! Not counting the activity book or the security survival log because those don’t really add anything, they’re just neat activities or summaries of game info

I explained the choices under the cut, equal parts personal bias and objective opinion, so if you think differently then hey, good on ya!

Going down to up XD

F

The Silver Eyes Graphic Novel: Do I even need to explain this one? Rushed art with countless mistakes, horrid coloring, samey designs, the important scenes come off as bland and even goofy instead of impactful. It’s clear Pinky wasn’t used to drawing humans, the colorist had no idea what they were doing, and no one on the team made a graphic novel before. It’s laughable how bad this was XD

E

The Fourth Closet: Does anyone really know what happened at the end? I... really don’t like what they did with Charlie in this one. I don’t like how William was able to get out of his Springtrap- it was SUPPOSED to trap him, and yet he just... is out of it... I think the whole thing with Baby being like this hot clown girl instead of what she is in Sister Location is very... ... it exists... Tbh I respect the bold direction it took, but I honestly felt it was too much of a stretch and just didn’t work.

D

FNaF AR, Special Delivery: Not bad! The character models and voice acting is where the game shines most. Other than that, there isn’t really much substantial to the game other than some lore with Vanny/Ness and Luis. The gameplay can get frustrating sometimes(I cant collect remnant, read my mail, or even work on my own animatronics without DING DONG SOMEONES HERE every 5 seconds), and all you do is spin in a circle until you get glitchy, look away if they get glitchy, or zap them when they run at you. Some people probably love this game and good on them for that, but I find myself not touching it for weeks at a time.

Freddy In Space 2: GREAT game for charity, great art, great music! ... That’s all it has going for it, though. It was clear that this was a quickly made game designed to be beaten in one sitting, and it did exactly what it needed to do! Other than being amazing how it was for charity, the game doesn’t have that much going for it(except introducing Lolzhax aka BEST ROBO), so overall not bad but also did almost nothing outside of being for the Charity Livestream XD

Fazbear Frights, Into The Pit: Again, not bad! A nice collection of short stories, almost like goofy campfire horror you’d tell to kids... like goosebumps! I felt each story was REALLY lacking in some areas, but I liked the general idea they were going for. That being said, they’re moreso neat scary stories with the name FNaF attached than anything else(except maybe the first of the three). It hints that they have an overarching plot that will be covered in future books, but as of right now, I feel no one’s missing out by not reading them.

C

FNaF 3: A satisfying end to the original trilogy story! Purple Guy gets justice, everything gets tied together with a neat bow, and the first arc in the series comes to an end. Also Springtrap, aka my favorite. This game is riddled with neat 8-bit minigames and bits of lore, but the gameplay itself is where I find it not as good as the S A and B tiers. The new setup with the system reboots are def really interesting, but other than that, each night is just... the same thing but harder. Most other games introduce different characters on different difficulties per night, but since Springtrap is the only deadly one, it’s just... him more aggressive each night and systems failing more often. Makes the gameplay pretty repetitive and frustrating after Night 3 or so.

FNaF 4: The beginning of what I like to call the Afton saga(4, SL, FFPS, UCN)! This is when the lore began to get REALLY good... and also really confusing. Props for it taking such a bold direction by taking place in a child’s bedroom instead of in an office with cameras, its a neat change of pace! That being said, the gameplay can get frustrating and there’s a high learning curve for needing to listen to each sound the anmatronics make. Also lore wise... there really isn’t much! Just mainly focuses on what happened to this poor kid. Also the box still being a loose end... yeah.

The Twisted Ones: I enjoyed this one! It had a very interesting direction that kinda kept me guessing on what was going on, and this is when Scott really started nailing in the foreshadowing for the reveal in TFC. The Twisted animatronics are SO cool, and the introduction of those little alteration chips provided new context to games like 4 and SL! That being said, I don’t remember it being... that memorable? I also didn’t like how Charlie’s and John’s relationship was... so awkward... It was neat, but honestly nothing to really go crazy over, in my opinion.

B

The Silver Eyes: Honestly, I adored this book when I read it back in 2016, before Sister Location happened. At the time I wasn’t trying to connect it to any lore, so it was really great just to see a sort of retelling of the FNaF story. A lot of people complained about how long it was... I might agree if I reread it but tbh it never bothered me before. It was delightfully creepy, yet had a simple plot and wasn’t NEARLY as out there as TTO and TFC. Especially TFC. I felt this book didnt need 2 sequels and would’ve been just fine on its own, but whatcha gonna do. Carlton is forever my fav, and it’s the first time we really learn about Henry AND it was the first time we got a name for our Purple Guy: William Afton!

Sister Location: I like this one for just how bold of a game it was. I’m also including SL’s Custom Night wrapped into this package. Jam packed with lore, our first (main) game with VOICE ACTING, and honestly the humor has no right being as good as it is. I love how this not only expanded on the crying child from 4′s story, but also gives us so much Elizabeth and Michael content. The gameplay has a lot of unbalanced features and feels a little too over the place at times, but I appreciate where it was going with it!

FNaF World: ... This one is pure personal bias. A lot of people don’t like it. I adore it. Honestly I love the cute overworld, I love beating up enemies as my favorite animatronics, I love the horror, nihilism, and lore shoved into this game alongside SO MUCH humor. Update 2 was nothing short of an absolute delight and... wait, no!!! FNaF World had our first voice acting!!! So many endings and nods to other games Scott’s made, a cool scene with Desk Man/Henry and Baby, just... muah. Good content. Also Scott 57 <3

A

Ultimate Custom Night: Name a better way to end the Afton Saga, I’ll wait. It’s so obvious how much time, thought, and care went into this one. I love how the game rewards you with funny cutscenes the higher scores you get, and I just! So much voice acting! I love how each preset- no, each character has their own moves so every time you do a certain mode, you need to learn to manage them all and get a good strategy. I like how it’s way more strategy and skill than the RNG that many previous games had. Also, Scott!!! You managed to put this into the LORE by making it William’s hell, MUAH, couldnt have done it better!!!

FNaF 2: This one might have bias for being the peak of the fandom, but it was one of the greatest times to be in that fandom. Freaking out over the trailers, theories galore, prequel vs sequel, and just... so good. 1 didn’t have much plot, 2 DID. 2 had more mechanics and strategy to it than 1, and gave us over twice as many characters! We finally got a “face” to our killer, Mr. Purple Man, and how could I ever complain about more Phone Guy~? This one also introduced the 8-bit minigames, which became a HUGE staple for the series! Perfect expansion of the first!

Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator: The PERFECT blend of old and new gameplay. The salvage scenes are intense, the nights had a great balancing mechanic of juggling doing tasks while also avoiding animatronics, multiple endings, and a neat tycoon segment to give the player a breather... but with LORE!!! Midnight Motorist is easily one of the best tracks in the series. Also has a GREAT canonical ending, when(with paired with UCN), ties the plots of 1-6 SO nicely with a neat bow. 

S

FNaF 1: Okay. From a personal and gameplay standpoint, I was going to put this much lower. Like B or C. That being said... this has to go in S. Yes, it has the least lore and arguably the worst gameplay(too much RNG for 4/20 mode), but this was the game. I can’t even exaggerate when I say just how much FNaF changed not only the gaming community, but especially the horror and indie communities. So many names got big from this: Markiplier, Dawko, Game Theory, The Living Tombstone, DA Games, SCOTT HIMSELF, just to name a few!!! And to think, this was originally going to be Scott’s last game! FNaF changed gaming HISTORY, and I think that alone makes this title deserving of S.

FNaF VR, Help Wanted: Okay, personal bias time, but I truly think VR deserves this S. Seeing Glitchtrap for the first time incited a panic in me that I hadn’t felt since FNaF 1 and 2. You get FNaF 1-4 in one, all in VR, WONDERFUL character models that you can WATCH MOVE!!! SO many minigames and fun challenges to play, so many neat knickknacks to collect, the Halloween update is FANTASTIC. The introduction of some great characters, such as: Glitchtrap, Vanny, Tape Girl, Dreadbear, Grim Foxy, etc!!! There’s also just- something so nice about being able to see every office and the pizzeria in 3D spaces where you can look around! Just from a gameplay and environment standpoint, this was an AMAZING addition and deserves the S.

... Thanks for listening to me ramble XD If you disagree... then good for you! I won’t fight anyone on this, I’m aware that this is a lot of personal bias. But if you made it this far... thanks for hearing me ramble!!!!

[cyberzombiepenguin]

My Photoshop - kind of - Tutorial

Skill-share (pixel animation tutorial)

Hello, I am sharing my new-found pixel animation skills that I learned using Adobe Photoshop, in the hope that I can help other people to learn how to make simple 2D GIF pixel animations. Some people out there may be wondering how to create their own GIFs to add to their social media sites, or to other sharing platforms. As I am new to Tumblr, I will also be using my new-found Tumblr blogging skills to create my very first tutorial blog-post for readers to follow. 😉

This post is a very basic, easy-to-follow tutorial, for anyone who is looking to start animating in Adobe Photoshop, suitable for all ages. So, if you are a beginner and you want to have a go at pixel animation, then please, follow my tutorial. I have tried to use plain language and instructions (no jargon). I believe that everything I have explained, every instruction, is easy to understand. If not, please feel free to comment and I will do my best to help and rectify any problems. Your feedback posts will let me know if my tutorial has been a success or not. Anyway, I really hope that you find my tutorial useful.

The basic knowledge and skills that I will be sharing are:

How to create, upload or select an image to develop (digital character-design).

How to use editing tools in Photoshop.

How to use ‘Layers’ in Photoshop to create frames.

How to use tabs in Photoshop.

How to use drop-down selection menus in Photoshop.

Animation concepts and how to create walk-cycles.

How to save and export created pixel animation GIFs.

Rule number one about Photoshop is that it is very hard. If you are using it for the first time, take it easy, don’t over complicate things because otherwise, you will most likely get very frustrated and may even quit before you begin your animated journey.

The first thing you are probably going to want to do, if you want to start animating in Photoshop, is to open the program and start a new document. Open the desired image file or create your own images from scratch. You can rearrange the details so it fits your needs perfectly; don’t worry, that part is fairly simple.

Next, select the ‘Paintbrush Icon’ from the toolbar, get out your brush-tool and start drawing! Keep trying to get the character to look how you desire. Remember, you can use the drawing tools to edit images you have uploaded or you can create images from scratch. It’s okay if it doesn’t look great immediately, you’ll get there, most good things happen with time.

‘Layers’, they are a thing and a very useful thing. If you layer-up your work, you can start to make your animation. Also, the useful thing about layers is that you can trace over other layers, so, they look the same and are in equal proportion. You start at the base layer and stack-up layers as you create your characters. The final layer will be the first visible. 

Once you have some layers sorted out, you can look to the bar at the very top and see where the tab says “Window”, go all of the way down the drop-down selection menu list and click on “Timeline” and when you do, a bar will pop up at the bottom of your screen. You will see a button that says either “Create Frame Animation” (which is the one that I used) or “Create Video Timeline”, for the animation I would suggest using Frame Animation, as I don’t know yet what the other one does exactly. After you have clicked on Frame Animation, you can put all of your layers side-by-side and move them around, edit them. You can do whatever to make the animation how you want it to be. When you have finished creating, don’t forget to name and save your animation.

Once you export your finished animation, you can upload it to your blog, social media, any website or email messages.

Figure 1 - Adobe Photoshop Toolbar and Drop-Down Selection Menu

Simple Steps to Create a GIF:

Open Adobe Photoshop.

Upload and open your created image.

If you want to, you can edit your uploaded image or draw your own character using the drawing tools from the toolbar on the left. 

Click on ‘Timeline’ in the window drop-down menu.

Click ‘Create Frame Animation’.

For every new frame, create a new layer.

Open the menu icon on the right, select ‘Make Frames From Layers’.

Under every frame, choose the time-span length for appearance before switching to the next frame.

At the bottom of the toolbar, select amount of times to loop.

Press the ‘Play’ icon to preview your GIF.

Name, save and Export Your GIF.

Upload your GIF to your blog, social media site or email messages.

Steps (from Adobe Photoshop) to Export Your GIF:

Go to File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy)...

1. Select GIF 128 Dithered from the ‘Preset’ menu. 2. Select 256 from the ‘Colors’ menu. 3. If you are using the GIF online or want to limit the file size of the animation, change Width and Height fields in the Image Size options. 4. Select Forever from the ‘Looping Options’ menu. Click the Preview... button in the lower left corner of the Export window to preview your GIF in a web browser. Click Save... and select a destination for your animated GIF file.

Now you have an Animation, I hope. If not, I am very sorry. Good luck!

Please let me know how you get on.  If you encounter any problems or have any suggestions, I would really value your feedback posts.  Thanks 👍

Thanks to rai-smik for the feedback below:

Basic Moving Strawberry GIF - from rai-smik

Created following my Adobe Photoshop Tutorial

Tutorial Review

First of all, I have to say that writing my first Adobe Photoshop pixel animation tutorial was not easy. Trying to explain and write instructions for other people to follow was quite hard. I really had to stretch my brain to try and formulate a comprehensive guide that other people would be able to understand and follow. Using Tumblr for my skill-share was a brilliant medium; it was easy to use and a great platform for sharing skills quickly.

So, after receiving clear feedback from rai-smik (as above) I am now able to reflect on how successful, or not, my skill share was.

I believe that I was able to convey all the necessary information to share my new skills in my tutorial, this is because the feedback from rai-smik reported a successful animation creation (bouncing strawberry GIF above) using my guide. The user said that they were able to understand my numbered instructional list, and they also found the tutorial language/tone simple and easy to understand. So, as the user was able to follow my step-by-step numbered list with no problems, and they managed to create their own GIF, I would say that my tutorial achieved what it was designed to do.

However, after reading my feedback, I realised that I should have taken screenshots in Photoshop of each step that I took to create my animated character, and I should have inserted the screenshots underneath, or above, its corresponding numbered instruction in my tutorial. It’s so obvious now that visual images should have been pasted in to complement the written instructions. I can’t believe that I overlooked such a simple thing. Next time I write a tutorial I will definitely insert screenshots to better convey my ideas to the audience. 

Writing the tutorial also reinforced my own knowledge, and instilled a deeper understanding of the things that I had learned during the Photoshop training. I feel more confident about revisiting my new skills and moving forward with new projects. If I go wrong, I can always look back at my tutorial to remind me how to get it right. Also, now I know how to write a tutorial, I can apply this knowledge to other subjects and produce this kind of documentation when it is needed. It is a good skill to have and I know I will keep improving my technique.

Overall, I enjoyed writing my tutorial, it was a fun document to create. I had fun creating the jpeg that shows both the Photoshop toolbar and the drop-down menu. I also had fun searching for a thumbs-up GIF to add at the end of my document. It gave me the chance to look around Tumblr and see what’s going on out there. Mostly, I am so glad that someone was able to use my tutorial, understand it and get good results.

Summary: so, what did I learn from creating a tutorial? ✔✔✔✔✔✔✔

I learned how to share skills and knowledge through blogging, using Tumblr as a platform.

I learned that sharing skills reinforces learning.

I learned to hone my technical skills online and in programs.

I learned how to create a tutorial (transferable skills).

I learned how to write a review (transferable skills).

I learned how to add instructional screenshots (transferable skills).

I learned to consider my audience, beginners who might use my tutorial.

Critical Review - Skill-share (pixel animation tutorial)

Disappointingly, from creating my pixel animation tutorial, I learned that I am not as good as I would like to be at it, sharing skills that is, and I need more tutoring and practice. I also learned that I am not the best at writing a review. I tried so hard to create the tutorial, but I missed so many obvious factors (like lack of screenshots) that someone else who might want to learn how to use Photoshop (an absolute beginner) might not be able to follow my tutorial very well.

Summary: so, what do I need to improve? 🤦‍♀️

I need to learn how to explain myself better in writing; to convey better.

I need to include more detail and less waffle in what I am writing.

I need to practice and create more tutorials to improve.

I need to practice writing reviews to improve.

I need to include screenshots of every stage of animation.

I need to learn how to add instructional screenshots appropriately.

I need to be more critical of my own work.

I need to learn how to judge and edit my own work to get it right.

I learned that I need to get third-party feedback.

Considering my intended audience user-base (those who might use my tutorial); I wanted to share my new skills to try and help people like me, who lack education and access to good facilities. I was hoping that disadvantaged people, who are basic beginners, might be able to learn from an easy-to-follow tutorial, for anyone who is looking to start animating in Adobe Photoshop (for all ages). Beginners who might want to learn animation. I tried to use simple language and instructions. I believed that everything I explained, every instruction, was easy to understand. However, I now realise that my tutorial was not very useful for some people in society.

Crucially, one thing that I stupidly overlooked and have genuinely learned from, is that most disadvantaged people do not have Photoshop or access to Photoshop; I only know one person, in my whole association, that has access to Photoshop. I came to realise that once you’ve had access to something (like Photoshop) how easy it is to fall into the patronising bourgeois trap of “Let them Eat Cake” 🎂 -- so, that was very foolish of me! 😒😒😒

APOLOGY: the label ‘Disadvantaged’ is considered to be discriminatory. ‘So-called’ disadvantaged people find it insulting and patronising (I should know, I am labelled as disadvantaged).

“Once you label me, you negate me” - Søren Kierkegaard 

This is a ‘Critical Review’ and I am criticising my own work and abilities. I apologise to any reader who is offended, it is not my intention to patronise, alienate or offend. 🤔

[writehardwhumpharder]

Carson uses WAY too much magic (Part 2) in the hospital

After being admitted to the hospital Carson spent six whole days unconscious before slowing starting to come back to himself.

When his mom heard what happened she wanted to rush down there immediately to see him but Daniel managed to convince her that that wouldn't be necessary. He was stable, spiked two high fevers but each went back down by the next morning. It was just a matter of waiting.

The nurses tended to him diligently and Daniel managed to stop in once a day after work. They'd been in this position before but somehow this time felt different. The anxiety that welled up in Daniel's chest never seemed to go away and he was getting more and more restless, wishing Carson would just wake up already.

Some time on Tuesday night he finally stirred. Just a twitch at first, then he managed to pry open his tired eyes and look around the room. His vision was blurry, actually his whole body felt blurry. He managed to move his hands a little and one came in contact with a piece of plastic, he pressed the button out of muscle memory, still not quite sure what he was doing.

A nurse came in right away armed with a pen light, Carson's one true nemesis. He groaned when she tried to shine it in his eyes, making him feel sore all over again.

"Can you tell me your name?" She asked.

Carson knew damn well who he was but getting his mouth to form the words was a bit of a struggle, "Carson Hall," he said, barely above a whisper.

The nurse nodded, "and do you know where you are, Carson?" She asked sweetly.

His eyes swept the room again, unable to make sense of what he was seeing. "Not.. my bed." He said finally.

"That's right, you're in the hospital." She told him. Yeah that makes sense, he thought to himself. Seeing as he looked ready to pass out again any second the nurse kept the questions simple.

"I'm Nurse Emma, you can press that button any time you need anything. Before you go back to sleep can you squeeze both my hands for me?" She asked, and Carson did, albeit a little weakly. "And wiggle your toes." Carson complied. "Alright, you can go back to sleep now, Dr. Owens will stop by in the morning."

Carson didn't catch much of what she said after saying he could go to sleep. He turned on his side away from her and realized his muscles felt stiff and achey after not moving for several days. Maybe it would be a good idea to do some stretching. Nah..

--

When Carson woke up again it was light outside and when the nurse came by he didn't remember waking up the night before. Today he was a lot more capable and even managed to drink some water. Nurse Emma wheeled a table up to the side of the bed and left him his phone and the tv remote.

Carson couldn't remember the last time he watched cable TV but he turned it on just for the hell of it. It was preset to the local news channel which was, unsurprisingly, covering the event that happened last week. A woman stood in front of where the old building stood, most of it was on the ground now.

"Police have yet to comment on the strange explosion Wednesday night. Witnesses from the neighborhood reported seeing a strange blue light along with the explosion leading to much speculation about its cause. Some believe it was a chemical reaction from residual particles from when the factory was in use. Others believe the event was supernatural in origin. Here are some overhead views of the factory." The camera switched to prerecorded shots from above, taken by a helicopter. Carson nearly split out his water seeing just how extensive the damage was. There was a perfect circle in the center about six feet across surrounded by mounds of rubble covering the entire block. No wonder he felt so drained. Grainy CCTV footage from a nearby building caught the explosion. This time Carson really did choke on his water. He coughed harshly but kept his eyes glued to the screen. At first there was a burst of smoke and fire blasting through all the windows. The light was overwhelming but the flames were quickly snuffed out by an even brighter light. The building exploded outward, pushed by an invisible force creating a split second of distinctly blue light. It reminded him vaguely of a lightening strike in reverse. The whole thing happened in a matter of seconds and it was hard to tell exactly what was going on. But one thing was certain from the video, it was NOT a normal explosion.

When that channel went to commercial he switched it to another news channel, it seemed though that everything but the local news had already moved on to bigger things. He turned the TV off and leaned back against his pillow, oddly exhausted. Just sitting up for a little while sapped away what little energy he had managed to gain back. Carson would have gone back to sleep if his nurse didn't come in at that exact moment followed in by the doctor. She set a tray of food down on the table next to him then left them alone.

Dr. Owens flipped open a chart that he didn't even notice was hanging from his bed.

"Good morning, Carson. Do you remember me? I've been your doctor several times before in cases like this, but you always manage to check yourself out before I get the chance to discharge you properly." He said. Carson did think the guy looked vaguely familiar.

"Speaking of which, can I go now?" Carson asked.

Dr. Owens laughed heartily, "I'd like to see you try." He said. "Actually I came to share your test results with you and suggest that you stay an extra few days to fully recover. While I can't see the human body the way you do Mr. Hall, our medical tests are quite accurate, and you are not exactly the picture of health."

Carson leaned back and prepared himself for the scolding that usually followed any time someone called him by his last name.

"When you were first admitted Wednesday night I ordered a full body CT scan." He handed him several photos which Carson held up against the light steaming in from the windows. "Everything appears to be normal but if you'll look closely at the skull here, these spots show bleeding which explain why you experience nosebleeds and in this case, bleeding from the ears, as a result of overusing your magic. It is a very minor intracranial hemorrhage, virtually harmless, but you still need to be very careful. If something were to block the blood flow inside the skull that could cause serious damage."

Carson scratched the back of his head. He figured it went something like that but hearing it from the doctor made it sound a lot more scary. He handed Carson a second CT scan this one just showing his head.

"We took this scan three days later on Saturday. You may not be able to see the subtle difference but this scan is completely clean, no bleeding or abnormalities so we can confidently say now that you've recovered without any serious damage."

"So-"

"There's more," the doctor interrupted. "We also did some blood work."

"Sounds expensive," Carson remarked. He internally groaned knowing that if this hospital bill was too high he'd have to go do a job and land himself in the same exact situation.

"Everything is within normal range except your white blood cell count is a little elevated in response to whatever havoc you wreaked on your immune system. You also appear to be a tad anemic." He stated. Where doctors usually this blunt? "Normally we'd discharge you once your blood count returns to normal but I'll make you a special deal. Once you can stand by yourself you're free to go." He said with fake cheer. "Any questions?"

Carson went over the information overload the doctor just dropped on him once more in his head. He only had one question, "is that a challenge?" He leaned toward the doctor.

"No, stay in bed for now. I'm serious. If you need to go to the restroom or get up for any reason press the call button and a nurse will come to assist you. Get plenty of rest over the next few days and make sure to eat well. I'll check back in with you then." Dr. Owens said then turned to leave.

Carson picked up his phone and texted Daniel, "SOS, I'm bored."

He stared at his phone impatiently. Daniel would be at work at the book store at this time so he was probably busy.

It only took him couple minutes to respond but it felt like forever. "When did you wake up?"

"A lifetime ago. Save me," Carson texted.

"I can't leave no one else is here."

"NooOoOo," Carson whined, not caring how needy he sounded. "I'll just check myself out then..." he threatened.

"Don't move."

Carson smiled and sat back to wait. He settled on playing phone games until then but at some point his eyes started getting tired and he must have fallen asleep.

--

"Dude, you begged me to come and you're not even awake?" Daniel said, punching his shoulder lightly before sitting down.

"Hmm?" Carson groaned. He stretched for a solid ten seconds before looking at Danny, "what?"

Danny sighed, "Nevermind."

"Ugh, I can't believe I have to stay here. It's, it's not even comfortable..." he said, feeling his eyelids grow heavy. Daniel watched as Carson nearly fell asleep again.

"Oh wait..." he said suddenly, sitting up. "I gotta go to the bathroom."

"Do you need help?" Danny asked, a little concerned about how out of it Carson still was.

"Psshh I'm a grown man I can-" Carson swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood with confidence only to black out almost instantly.

Daniel felt a little guilty for not stopping him. He crumpled to the ground so fast there was nothing he could have done but he still looked around to make sure no one saw that before tip toeing over to him.

"Carson buddy, you okay?" Danny asked, poking his shoulder. No response. "Alright, back to bed."

He scooped him up and deposited him back on the bed, pulling the covers up over him. Carson's head lolled against the pillow and his eyelids fluttered open.

"What happened?" He asked, blinking away the spots in his vision.

"You tried to go to the bathroom and failed horribly," Danny replied flatly.

"Oh yeah, I still need to do that," Carson attempted to sit up.

"Just slow down a second." He said, then noticed the tray on the table next to him. "Hey is this your breakfast? It looks you didn't even touch it." Danny said. He removed the lid and grabbed the fork. "This cornbread doesn't look half bad."

"I'm not hungry," he said, pushing the table aside.

"Oh come on."

"No. I'll eat something later."

"I shouldn't have told your mom not to come. Maybe we can call her up so she can tell you to stop being a little bitch and eat your food," Daniel said. Not to be mean, that's just exactly what his mom would say if she were there.

Carson put a hand over his eyes. "I have a headache okay? It looks gross right now." He muttered.

"Fine. Now do you want me to help you up or do you want to call a nurse to help." Danny suggested.

Carson couldn't exactly wait until he was fully healed to go to the bathroom so he swallowed his pride and accepted his help.

Daniel held out his arm for Carson to hold then prepared to support all his weight as soon as he was on his feet. Carson wobbled sharply and leaned into Daniel. Even then the process was exhausting and he had to take a moment to catch his breath before Daniel walked him the rest of the way.

Carson took slow, careful steps, then once he was inside the bathroom and holding onto the safety bar Danny shut the door to give him some privacy. He felt pathetic struggling so much to do something so simple.

By the time he was back in bed Carson was too dizzy to function. Daniel sat on the edge of the bed looking worried. "Is it that bad?"

Carson tilted his head back and covered his eyes with his hand, "eh" he waved him off to show he wasn't ready for questions at the moment.

Danny checked his phone, it was almost time to head back to the shop and reopen. Taking an early lunch break was pushing it as it is.

"I have to go back to work now but I'll pack a bag for you and bring it here after I'm done. Try not to die of boredom until then," he said.

Carson groaned, "No promises."

--

He ended up staying another two days. The hours spent alone in his room were agonizing, even after Daniel came by and left him his laptop and some clothes. If he was being honest, Carson just didn't like hospitals. They were filled with sick and injured people, people he could save but didn't. Instead he laid in bed while people suffered and died.

Carson pulled his pillow down over his face in frustration. At least he'd be going home soon. All he was waiting for now was someone to come pick him up. Riley had sent numerous texts asking if he needed anything, obviously feeling guilty for what happened. Morris seemed to be taking it even harder. He stopped by yesterday with a card signed by all the officers who were still alive because of him. All in all he now had 10 get out of jail free cards which hopefully he wouldn't need to use.

Carson's phone buzzed, "Almost there." Danny texted. He looked around the room which was now a mess of his things. Very slowly he went around picking up socks and charging cords which he threw back into his bag. Lastly he put on his shoes and coat and sat on the edge of the bed to wait.

Dr. Owens stopped by with his discharge papers just as Daniel arrived.

"So where's the bill? How many thousands of dollars do I owe you now?" Carson asked the doctor.

"Nothing, it's covered under your healthcare plan," Dr. Owens said then left after all the papers were signed.

"I have a job and healthcare, take that!" Carson cursed at no one in particular.

"Most people are employed, it's nothing to get excited about." Danny said, but he laughed anyway. "Let's go." He crouched down for Carson to get on his back.

Carson of course pretended not to know what he was doing, "what? I can walk by myself, you know. It's been over a week." He defended.

Danny rolled his eyes, "fine but I will laugh at you when you fall on your face before we even make it out of the hospital."

Carson pouted for a moment before giving in. Daniel managed to carry him and his bag without a strain.

"Did you get even lighter? My nephew weighs more than you," he teased.

"Fuck off," Carson replied, unable to think of a more sophisticated comeback.

[fancifulwritings]

The Song Remains The Same

Chapter Fourteen

     The minute the words were out of her mouth, everyone was turning to face Calypso. They had a dazed sort of look on their faces. In that moment, Calypso wanted to disappear. She wanted the floor to open up and swallow her. Should she not have said that? Should she have kept quiet and let the moment pass? A thousand thoughts were running through her head at a million miles an out.

     Jonesy put those thoughts to rest. "You know, she has a point," he offered after a few moments. Calypso let out an audible sigh of relief. Robert chuckled softly, clearly hearing it, but no one else seemed to pay her any attention. The last thing she wanted to do was fuck up the reunion of a lifetime.

     It took a few seconds more of silence before anyone else answered. They all stood there looking back and forth between each other. It was still all too much to take in. How did they even begin to tackle the problems that were laid out in front of them? A handbook for this sort of thing didn't exactly exist.

     There was no preset way to deal with it. She was sure they had encountered everything else in their times. They must have had emergency plans. This wasn't one of those times, it couldn't have been.

Jimmy hadn't planned for it to happen so late in life. He had been trying to avoid getting old. He'd been trying to do it when no one would notice. He hadn't thought ahead. Didn't think Robert would find love, would find her, so late in his life. It just wasn't a thought for a strung out rock star in 1973.

Jimmy opened his mouth. It was likely going to be something to break the silence, a suggestion of what they might do or what to talk about. God would only know what it was, though. His train of thought was derailed by a loud, almost angry, sound coming from Robert's stomach. Calypso giggled softly.

"Put a hold on that, Jim. At least for a bit, if not forever," he said with a grin. "I think a big meal is in order first, yeah?" Robert said as he looked around. None of them had eaten today. Perhaps the others had before they came. Robert and her certainly hadn't.

"I think I could go for something. I feel like I haven't had a good meal in about two decades," Bonzo said with a laugh.

The laugh itself sounded a bit forced. His face was just contorted enough to notice it. Clearly, this was still a situation that he was uncomfortable with. Calypso couldn't blame him. They all were uncomfortable, it seemed. His humor was at least an attempt to deal with it, to come to terms with everything he'd been thrown today. Any emotional band aids would have to be ripped off as time went.

Calypso prayed she wouldn't have to play therapist for all of them. Robert she could do. She cared about Robert, deeply already. He'd done so much for her, without even thinking of it.

"Perfect, dinner it is, then," Robert said with a firm clap. "It looks like I'll be cooking for everyone tonight. It is my house after all," he said with a grin. "Calypso, darling, do you mind helping me?" He asked.

The grin on his face meant that she could only give one answer. A no just wouldn't suffice. "Of course I don't mind." She said as she followed him into the kitchen. Everyone else returned to the living room to sit and wait for the time being. The sound of idle chit chat filled the silence. It would at least give Jimmy and John a moment to catch Bonzo up.

"As much as I love Jim, I might have started to go crazy while you were gone," he said with a sigh. Once they were both fully in the kitchen, he picked her up and placed her onto the counter. "I haven't managed to get in fifty words," he said. He leaned up to kiss her.

It was hard for her to picture Jimmy as a talker. He seemed, if anything, to be more of the brooding type. That was what his public persona gave off. Things, obviously, could be different than her perception of them. But the idea of Jimmy just talking for hours and hours without an end in sight? She chuckled a little at the idea.

"Steal away for a few moments," he said. He kissed her again and pulled away with a sideways smirk. "That and I know Jim can't cook. Last time he touched a stove, it caught on fire. Helpless man," he laughed.

It really hit how domestic Robert seemed to be. He would have made a perfect husband, well, besides all that cheating nonsense. That didn't matter now, though. Calypso doubted they would ever get that far. Even if they did, was marriage necessary? After all, fate and the universe seemed to dictate that they would be together.

Robert drew her out of her domestic ideation when he wrapped his arms around her waist. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close. Her legs separated to allow him to nestle close. This all felt like second nature to her. It had only been a few days, but she could feel herself slipping into their routine.

They stayed like that for some time; the only thing moving between them was their lips. Robert, being the devil he was, drifted his hand up and cupped her breast. Calypso pulled away and playfully swatted at his hand.

"Robert! There's other people around!" She hissed.

"Oh, my darling dear Calypso," he chuckled, "if you think they haven't seen worse, you don't know my bandmates." His grin was only comparable to the Cheshire Cat, and Calypso could only manage to laugh. She doubted she could ever stay mad at him for long.

"They haven't seen worse of me! I hardly know them!" She pointed out. It went mostly back to that fear of Jimmy catching them. She doubted he was going to leave his place in the living room. But, she still didn't want to give him any ammo. That, and she would feel bad if Jonesy walked in on them. He didn't need to see anything more than he already had.

"Fine fine," he said with a chuckle. "I'll keep paws off and to myself, for now at least," he chuckled. He winked at her and she just laughed before kissing his forehead.

"Whatcha gonna make?" She asked once he walked away. Her legs were crossed at the ankle now. Might as well get used to her perch from the counter. If Robert needed something, she'd get up. But, she doubted he might need any help.

"Whatever I can find," he said. "I wasn't exactly planning to have over my old bandmates and the loveliest gal I've ever met. And Jonesy's wife," he said with a smirk. Calypso, at the moment, could only manage to blush.

She wanted to stop him and ask about them. What did he want? Where should she put herself? Where did they stand? But that would be all too much to ask. Robert had to be just as surprised by this as she was. For now, she decided she was going to take it as it came to her. Maybe in a few days she would ask him. For now, she would have to wait and calm her own nerves and anxieties.

For the next hour or so, Calypso didn't move from her spot. Neither of them talked. It was a comfortable sort of silence. Robert would occasionally walk over to her and place a kiss on her cheek, or offer her a little bit of food to taste. It was sweet. Watching him cook was easily the most beautiful thing she had ever watched.

"You've really managed to domesticate yourself, now haven't you?" She asked with a smirk.

"Wasn't always the creature you see before you, I suppose," he chuckled. He turned to look back at her from the stove. "Wouldn't have seen me in a kitchen, let alone in front of a stove, when I was actually this old," he said. He motioned down his body as he talked.

"Well, what would I have seen, Mr. Wild Animal?" She asked as she hopped off the counter to get closer to him. He just winked at her, and she burst out laughing.

"I didn't start doing this until my last son, Logan," he explained with a shrug. "I never thought I needed to before, I guess." He shrugged.

"Well, that doesn't answer my question now does it? What would I have seen? Reminiscence a little with me," she asked. All she hoped was that she wasn't pushing too much. If he diverted again, she wouldn't bring it up. But, she wanted to at least try this time around.

Robert chuckled. "Stubborn girl you are," he teased. "I, myself, was a monster. It's no reason my wife divorced me," he said with a shrug. "I was a good dad, I'll always hold that. I loved my kids, I'll never stop loving them."

There was a hint of sadness in his voice. Was this about his son? Calypso didn't dare push on that issue. "But I never helped around the house. A useless loaf, she used to call me," he chuckled a bit. The light returned to his eyes, and Calypso was grateful. She didn't want to be the one responsible for putting him in a foul mood.

"Couldn't cook, couldn't clean. My life was a mess when she finally let me and took the kids," he said with a shrug. "But, I learned and grew, I suppose," he said with another shrug.

"Went from a big ol' scary lion to a domesticated cat?" She asked with a grin. He burst out laughing and just nodded his head.

"Yes, exactly. My son helped. Needed to prove I was a capable person so I could see him and all," he said.

"Well, the look fits you," she said with a smile. It was all so home-y. She wanted to fall into it and never let go. Hopefully, just hopefully, Robert wouldn't want to let go either. The universe or Jimmy or something might have said they were to be together, but did Robert really want anything? Or would this be a case of right person, but the extremely wrong time?

For now, she would just wait. It killed her, but she couldn't ask for anything. Take it as she could, and enjoy it. Otherwise, what was the point? Asking what he thought now was too much. It scared her.

     "Would you mind grabbing the plates from that cabinet-" Robert turned to point "-and set the table? Dinner should be finished any second now." He turned back to the stove. Calypso just nodded and headed to the cabinet he pointed too.

     The dining room and kitchen were practically one in the same, only partially separated by an entrance way. She went and set the plates down, and then the silverware once Robert let her know where it was.

     "All set!" She said as she walked behind him.

     "Perfect timing back." He spoke as he turned to kiss her. "Help me get the food to the table before we get our guests?" Robert asked.

     Those words practically had her melting inside. Their guests? Their guests? She couldn't believe it. There was an implication behind it that should have answered her questions, but it simply raised more. She was, after all, a bit to insecure to believe she was good enough for him.

     But, the idea of their guests. He was including her in the house, in his house, whether he knew it or not. She had to keep her cool. On the outside, she went through the motions of helping Robert with the food. Anything he said to her was lost, though.

     "Of course," she answered without missing a beat. She couldn't afford to. But their guests? She wasn't one of the guests! They carried the food over to the table. It looked like a feast, but she supposed there was enough to celebrate today to warrant it.

     Robert disappeared for a moment and came back with a few bottles of wine. Calypso shot him a look. Apparently, he could read her mind, or at least her face. "We'll all be watching him tonight," was all he said.

He placed them down on the table, next to the wine glasses, before he wrapped his arms around her. She was forced back into his chest and she just leaned into him.

"I'll go get them, you go on and sit," he said. He pushed her gently toward the table before disappearing again. She took a seat, and smiled as everyone began to fill in around her. Robert was the last to appear. He took the remaining seat, the one to her left. Jonesy sat next to her.

For a moment, things felt at peace. How long that would last? She wasn't too sure about that. Now felt like the calm before the storm. With all of their young faces looking back at her, she knew a real storm was brewing. How would this all go over? At some point, she knew that they would all have to go public. If they didn't on their own, surely people would find out about them.

Once everything settled a bit, and everyone had food on their plate, Jimmy opened his mouth to talk. It seems like he had the same worries as Calypso. At least she assumed. She'd never get to know what he wanted to say. Robert, at the same time, looked up at the man across from him and just glared.

"I know we agreed to talk and eat, but I think we've all had enough of dealing with this mess-" he twirled his finger in a circle, "- so let's try fresh and early tomorrow. Brain storm them and all, yeah?" He asked while looking between everyone.

"God knows I've already had enough today." Bonzo mumbled as he took a sip from his already full wine glass. Calypso mentally noted to keep an eye on Bonzo. Everyone else might, like Robert had said. But, she wanted to keep a bit closer of an eye. They might let sketchier behavior off.

Everyone at the table, except for Jimmy, nodded and the conversation roared to life. It felt like she was back at the restaurant from two days prior. It shocked her how fair away that felt.

So much had changed in a single day. It was hard to get a grip on. The amazement and sheer joy she felt was something she would have to get used to. This was her new normal, for now. She'd have to adjust. It was a weird and tricky situation to be in.

They were all launching into stories, this time with the addition of Bonzo. Calypso listened closely, especially when he talked. These were stories that had never been shared. With Bonzo, it was a whole new point of view. One, that for a time, had been lost forever. Now with the direct source in front of her, she listened with bated breath.

Naturally, there was a whole world to catch him up on. After all, he had disappeared for over two decades. So much had changed, culturally, technologically, politically, musically. It was all so much. That was too be avoided, for now. It could wait until tomorrow.

Eventually, the conservation slowed. All of them ran out of things and ideas to talk about, for now. More would return to them in time. No doubt there were a thousand more stories hidden away in everyone's mind. It would just take some time to unlock and retrieve them.

"Some things never change, do they?" Jonesy asked with a smile. He looked around and took a sip from his own wine glass. In the years following Bonzo, nothing had ever felt like this. No one said it explicitly. Calypso could feel it. Could feel that nothing had ever clicked like they were now.

"Especially now, it seems," Robert said. He laughed as he looked around. "Physically the same people again, give or take a brain cell." There was a glint in his eyes. Something else, something deep was hidden behind that. This whole thing wasn't sitting well with Robert, Calypso could see that. She'd have to ask him about it later. Now was hardly the appropriate time.

It didn't take long for them to all to finish eating. Everyone moved from the kitchen to the dining room, placing their plates in the sink and finishing their glasses of wine. "You're all, obviously, welcome to stay the night. Guest rooms are on the first floor," he said with a wicked grin.

Calypso caught it and she knew that meant trouble for her. Not that it was trouble she didn't want. She welcomed it. After all, it was why she was here in the first place. She rolled her eyes a bit and he laughed.

They all nodded and thanked Robert for his hospitality. There wasn't a choice to the other. Having Jimmy and the Jones's make the trip back to their own houses just to have them come back would be a waste. And, they were more likely to get caught. The more they stayed in one place, the better. Bonzo, on the other hand, had nowhere else to go. Calling Pat now wasn't an option. That is, if it ever was one.

Once they all left, Robert turned to Calypso. "Would you mind helping me clean this up before we head to bed?" He asked with a devilish grin. Calypso could only imagine what plans he already had in store for them. The night, after all, was still young.

[paulisweeabootrash]

Pokémon 2.B.A. Master

I stumbled across a piece of weeb trash media I had heard of, but neither attempted nor expected to find.  And it’s a bit different.  Today, my friends, we are not doing an anime or manga, or even another novel.  We’re doing a tie-in music album, a American blatant cash-grab based on a Japanese franchise.  Oh no.  Oh yes.

Pokémon 2.B.A. Master (1999)

As a young weeblet, I was a regular watcher of the first two arcs of Pokémon (Kanto and Johto).  It was in both weekday and weekend timeslots, and never seemed to be broadcast in any sensible order, but I nonetheless watched it frequently and enjoyed it no matter how many times WB decided to rerun episodes I’d already seen.  At some point, this CD came out, and I remember seeing ads for it when it was new.  There were even televised music videos for a few of the songs, broadcast as a segment called “Pikachu’s Jukebox”. I never saw a copy of the album in person, and never expected to. Maybe it was one of those that you had to order by calling some number?  I don't remember (or, frankly, care enough to look it up).  Anyway, I recently encountered this in the small music section of a used book store, and I figured "why not?"  And the obvious answer is "most of the contents".

The cover, in addition to using proud and unironic Comic Sans for the subtitle "2.B.A. Master", boasts that the album contains both "Music From The Hit TV Series" and "10 Brand New Songs!"  The former refers obviously to the main theme of the show and every child's favorite mnemonic device, the PokéRap (or “PokéRAP” as it’s spelled for some reason?), but I'm not sure what the third song from the show is.  And again, I don’t care enough to look it up.  The important thing is, John Loeffler wrote all of them, and apparently an absurd number of other Pokémon-related songs.  The "Brand New Songs!" here are mostly new to me, and they’re... a doozy.  Except for the songs from the show, plus “Double Trouble” and maybe “Misty’s Song” if I want to be very generous, I am tempted to suggest you could get a similar musical experience in a shorter time by putting on an episode of Pokémon, playing a mix of Milli Vanilli and Boyz II Men songs over it, and banging your head against a wall.

1. Pokémon Theme

We begin with the extended version of the classic theme, this is a sure dose of nostalgia for anyone who watched the show.  It sounds, considering the release date, a little outdated — I get kind of a "Beat It" vibe, not from the melody, but from the instrumentation, combining 80s-gated drums and searing electric guitar.  But the theme, already one of the few TV themes out there I find enjoyable and not instantly forgettable, extends to a full length surprisingly well, avoiding getting boring or devolving into complete idiocy with lyrics.  I actually like this song as a song, and you can’t convince me otherwise.

2. 2B A Master

The instrumentation in this track is absurdly 90s, and again kind of Michael Jackson-y, but is interesting and varied, especially in the sudden attention-grabbing rhythmic change accompanying the line "the greatest master of Pokémon".  It shows better restraint in its use of things like record scratch noises and basslines running parallel to vocal lines that I find get really old really quickly.  I actually, on the whole, enjoy this song and think the music could have been the basis for something great.  “Could have” being the keyword.  Lest you think I'm going to give a rosy, loving review of this album, no, it quickly gets bad.  Some of the lyrics feel like such forced attempts to get Pokémon references in that I am embarrassed on behalf of the people stuck singing and rapping them, 20 years later.  It’s a waste of what could’ve been a fun funky song.  (Incidentally, why is the title of the song punctuated differently from the title of the album?)

3. Viridian City

The slide downhill continues.  What the hell is this song?  The lyrics are only marginally less stupid than the previous track, the music sounds like a keyboard "dance" preset, and it has a weird rapped/spoken "echoing" of sung lines it’s incredibly hard to imagine anyone ever liked.  Ugh.

4. What Kind of Pokémon Are You?

Third time's the charm, I guess?  After the previous two tracks tried and failed to force Pokémon-related lyrics that just don't work, this one at least manages to fire off a series of type-related puns.  The music, however, turns back towards gratingly boring (and for some reason, the bridge comes thisclose to ripping off "Eye of the Tiger"?).  Actually, no, hahaha, the lyrics remain very stupid, I think I'm just getting "ground down by a Marowak" by how bad the preceding tracks were.

5. My Best Friends

The parts move in unison too closely for my tastes, the lyrics are bland, the vocal arrangement makes it sound downright inappropriately dramatic, and what’s up with the bridge that veers off into doo-wop?  The main thing this song has going for it is the vaguely pleasant piano part in the verses, which really appeals to me (it sounds familiar, although I can’t place what specifically it reminds me of).  The melody of the chorus sounds even more familiar — so familiar in fact I'm starting to wonder if it's a copyright-violation-skirting ripoff of something famous. But otherwise, this is a solid “meh”, sounding like a boy band song that would only briefly have made the charts.

6. Everything Changes

And now we're back to impressions of Michael Jackson.  This one's instrumentation and mood and even bits of the melody are so him that I could almost believe you if you told me this was an outtake that didn't make it onto Bad. (Although the singer sounds less like Jackson the longer the song goes on.) The lyrics, although vaguely applicable to everything, are a welcome change from the previous few tracks by not feeling like Pokémon has been painfully shoehorned in... up until the part where a clip from the show plays during a break between choruses.  Ugh.  Could you really not come up with a better way to make this into a distinctly Pokémon song?

7. The Time Has Come (Pikachu's Goodbye)

Yuck.  The sentimental ballad (I want to call it a “power ballad”, but I’m unsure what exactly counts as one), as a general rule, is a fire hose full of melodrama best used for comedy.  I don't understand how songs like this have ever been taken seriously.  I would expect to hear this as the ending theme to a movie that tries to be a tragedy but can’t quite pull it off.

8. Pokémon (Dance Mix)

I assumed from the title that this was a remix of the theme song, but instead, it's just sort of a filler track...  It makes almost no impression on me at all, although I do enjoy the intro’s use of "backward-sounding" and morphing synths.  Otherwise, this is another track that sounds like it uses keyboard preset backgrounds.

9. Double Trouble (Team Rocket)

Okay, look, I can’t rate this one fairly.  The longest-running fandom-related internal conflict of my life has been whether I'd rather be James or have James as mai hasubando, and I love Team Rocket in general as comedy relief villains.  I used to enthusiastically perform their ridiculous introductory speech with a friend from band camp (I am even more of a geek than you thought).  This song actually bothers to be more specific in terms of its Pokémon subject matter, meaning this is finally a song about Pokémon rather than just a generic pop song with Pokémon flavor, and it uniquely is performed by voice actors from the show, namely those who played Jesse, James, Meowth, and Giovanni.  It really grates on me when the VAs talk over the singers, but unlike some of the other songs, it feels like it builds up and goes somewhere.  We have at least broken free from the boringness of the last few tracks, with almost industrial percussion and chromatic and sometimes dissonant bass and synth lines that really make it a solid villain song, even though it has a hokey “rap written by people who haven’t actually listened to any rap” feel.  And James’s absolutely ludicrous laugh will absolutely alienate who isn’t already a fan of the character, and most people who are, too.

10. Together Forever

The “disappointing imitation of Michael Jackson” theme returns, this time mostly in the voice.  It especially pops out at me with the pronunciation of "friend" as "fraynnnndah!".  Unfortunately, rather than trying to imitate Jackson’s songwriting again, this song seems to want to rip off Stock Aitken Waterman.  And it succeeds at that, too well, as it somehow manages to outcompete a song those writers wrote for Rick Astley to be the worst song with this title.  Also returning here: the use of clips from the show to clumsily force an otherwise generic song to be Pokémon-related.  Hooray.

11. Misty's Song

Huh.  Now this one is interesting.  Buried deep in the album, we get something from a character POV that doesn’t just set trivia or quotes from the show to music.  Yvette Laboy does a believable job filling in as the singing counterpart for Rachel Lillis's speaking voice for Misty, and I just don't find it nearly as ridiculous as the other ballads on the album, for some reason. It even portrays a tsundere as insecure rather than just an obnoxious walking trope!  Sure, it's not great, but it's not bad either, especially after the other attempted ballads on here.  Until you remember that it's a 14-year-old singing a love song to a 10-year-old, which... ick.  It could've been sweet if put in the mouth of another character with a more age-appropriate relationship. Anyone want to rerecord this as “Kaname's Song” or something?

12. PokéRAP

Oh, educational rap.  Why?  It’s just unbearably cheesy and doesn’t seem to have had much thought put into it, as a general rule.  And this song is no exception.  Sure, I guess it has value as a mnemonic exercise (and it does a decent job of that, as anyone who still has large chunks of it memorized can tell you), but no value as music.  It often doesn’t even come close to rhyming where you’d expect it to, and it's obvious that Loeffler et al weren't sure what to do with a few of the names at all — Grimer and Chansey have egregious pauses after them, for example, and Omastar is stretched across space enough for two or three names for no good reason.  It is broken into convenient-sized stanzas that are only somewhat awkwardly forced into the established meter, but that meter has a too-regular feel, bouncing like a musical Superball, that even I, someone with no particular knowledge of nor interest in rap, recognize as being cheesier than Vanilla Ice.  It also hasn’t aged well.  The sung parts have absolutely no dynamic range and stay at MAXIMUM DRAMA LEVEL at all times.  Over the past 20 years, the lyrics have also become obsolete due to the many additional generations of Pokémon media and consequently much longer list of Pokémon to memorize.  Those topics have been covered in excruciating detail by Brian David Gilbert, who is much cleverer than I am, and yes, I do highly recommend sitting through that entire half-hour video.  All I can really add to that is, it's considerably less annoying than certain other mnemonic songs I was exposed to growing up. A bad song, unless you’re viewing it through sheer unfiltered silliness?  Yes.  A surprisingly catchy song that was a good marketing move?  Also yes.  And 20+ years later, I still can't avoid laughing at the way he says "Wartortle".

13. You Can Do It (If You Really Try)

The album could've gone out on that upbeat note, but no, they had to go for another overblown ballad, this time trying far too hard to be inspirational.  The plus side is, it's not yet another generic 80s/90s pop song.  The minus side is, it sounds like something that would be playing on the PA in a church thrift store.  Or a fake ad on an episode of SNL.  I do not feel empowered by this level of unironic encouragement.  I just feel like my eyes are rolling so hard they'll fall out.  Its only saving grace is that it’s somehow not the most irritating inspirational ballad from the late 90s that was used in connection with a geek-magnet TV show.

Overall... Although I want to describe the music as being "generic" — and it is full of the tiredest parts of 80s and 90s music, wandering from orchestra hits to record scratch noises to cutesy synthesizer "dings" to what seem to be several different singers' bad Michael Jackson impressions — some of it is actually interesting!  See, no matter what impression you got from what I said above, I don’t categorically hate this style of music.  I made multiple comparisons to songs from Thriller and Bad because I think most of the songs on those albums are examples of how to do this genre very well.  But 2.B.A. Master doesn’t just lag because I’m comparing it to widely-beloved albums.  Writing this review actually sent me introspecting for quite a while about what music I enjoy and why.  And I realized, many of the cheesiest and most flawed aspects of this album are also present on less-acclaimed albums I enjoy very much, like the niche The Golden Age of Wireless by Thomas Dolby and the virtually-unknown Playgrounds ‘n’ Glass by Urban Blight.  But, while Dolby’s music often has the same cheesy synthesizer voices and lack of dynamics or has weirdly melodramatic moments, it’s also often clearly experimenting with particular effects and techniques, and his lyrics have evocative images or stories that make the songs really engaging.  And, while Urban Blight’s lyrics are often cliche-ridden or downright idiotic, the 80s/90s pop music instrumentation and style elements are varied and used with... for lack of a better term, more discretion, I guess?, which makes me feel like their songs are building to something musically.  Well, except the song “Favorite Flavor”, which is just garbage.

The point is, while neither of those examples is a great album (at least not to my taste, which I freely admit colors this), they are both still good.  Unfortunately, while some songs on 2.B.A. Master approach goodness, they are the exception, not the rule.  Most of the music is simple and predictable and seem to use the more grating tropes of the time like orchestra hits and record-scratch noises just because they can, and most of the lyrics are less "song about Pokémon" and more "attempts at being vaguely inspirational with Pokémon references forced in uncomfortably".  Some of the songs are enjoyable in a "this was an earnest attempt” and/or guilty pleasure sort of way (and I unironically like the B-52s, so believe me, I know "this was an earnest attempt” and/or guilty pleasure music), but there’s very little on here I’d actually call good.  The best track here musically, “2B A Master”, is wasted on blah lyrics, and the one that most accomplishes the goal of being a song about Pokémon, “Double Trouble”, suffers greatly from its speaking-over-the-singers vocal performance.  All I can say is, I’m glad I got this album used.

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W/A/S Scores: 3/0/7

Weeb: The lyrics require some prior specific knowledge of the Pokémon anime to not be completely baffling, but Pokémon is probably the most well-known and well-entrenched Japanese franchise on this side of the Pacific, and other than that, it’s decidedly American, or at least decidedly within the musical cultures of Western Europe and the Anglosphere.

Ass: No.

Shit: AAAAAAAAH.  Okay, okay, no, seriously, there are a few good points, but it’s at best average-quality 90s pop with a veneer of Pokémon over the top.

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Oh Weird: While writing this and hunting down appropriate links, I was surprised to see how many uploads of, and even covers of, songs from this album there are on Youtube.  I assumed this album was a more or less forgotten piece of bad 90s media, but apparently it’s one with a significant fanbase.

Oh Cool: Maddie Blaustein, the original English-language voice actress for Meowth was also a comic editor and writer for both Marvel and DC and the Creative Director for the Weekly World News. Oh, and she was intersex and, according to one of the sources cited by the Wikipedia article, bi.

Oh No: Educational rap is still a thing, and there are resources to make your own.