#or very western cartoony. or trying to copy something elses style. if it was anime it leaned too hard into the anime part

[s1ld3n4f1l]

the fact there are so many creepy 2000s fake girly flash games but I have only found ONE that comes close to the 2000s girly flash game style is depressing to me. like no one else gives a shit but how quickly have we forgotten our roots?

[shock777archive]

I got this question on deviantart, and I felt like reposting my answer here, in case anyone is interested :P 

THIS IS GONNA BE A LONG REPLY BUT BEAR WITH ME LOL When I first started drawing/am I self taught : I've been drawing since kindergarten. Anime specifically, since I was about 8 years old. so that's been uh...18 years since I've started drawing in the anime-esque style? I am self taught on these areas. I picked up a digital artist tablet at the age of 13 or so, (it was a wacom Graphire 4 4x5 in) so it's been 13 years of digital art practice i've gotten in. I have picked up several how to draw books over the years until i surpassed some of them. But even now i'm constantly referencing tutorials and poses, looking for ideas and color palettes, etc. I have taken some schooling in college for art. I took beginner's drawing and color theory and maybe a little of art history but that's about it before i quit lmao What inspired me to draw in the first place/what I first drew: The thing that inspired me to draw in the first place was my favorite cartoons. from a very young age i knew that cartoons weren't real, but it fascinated me that actual people could create almost living people. I related to cartoons, and even though they were fake characters, I just loved the idea of creating a whole world of my own. So I took up drawing in kindergarten. First things I drew were flowers, rainbows, trees, etc. But My first biggest undertaking was powerpuffgirls. lol This was the series that started it all. Began drawing tons of powerpuffgirls stories and oc's. For the next few years I would watch different things like all the standard cartoon network shows. But I watched yugioh and dbz and other anime things too. What also got me into anime art style was the online game neopets lol Their faeries designs ( http://images.neopets.com/games/pages/icons/screenshots/586/4.jpg ) kind of had an anime resemblance, so I started drawing those for a while. When I was 8 or 9 years old my father bought me my first how to draw manga book (this one in particular: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Drawing-Manga-Ben-Krefta/dp/1841931713  ) looking back on it, this book is terrible and the anime in it is so ugly looking lol. However, i used that thing religiously and began making my own characters like a blue elf girl and a human friend of hers. ( in fact, here's the post. i tried redrawing them recently lol: https://shock777.tumblr.com/post/145898896143/finding-old-art-is-the-best-cause-you-can-redraw ) ...Then the real transformation began once I started watching Teen Titans when it aired in 2003. I was 10 at the time. That show started my love for japan. The language interested me and I began researching Japanese songs and trying to sing along to them. I didn't know what the words meant, but the artistic style and meshing of western cartoons and anime of the show really piqued my interest. My earliest drawings of them suckedddd XD; As Teen Titans drew to a close near 2006-2007 ish, I picked up Naruto and then it was all over since then lol my anime style and weeb days really came into full force lol I thank naruto though. I learned how to draw more realistic anatomy as opposed to cartoony anatomy. It was a very wild ride, but it's all documented here on my deviantart page as I got this exact account around the same time! I started posting my work in 2008, so you can go back far enough into my gallery and see the progress XD; I keep the old cringe up because it just motivates me and hopefully others, to keep drawing and keep going farther! :) PHEW lol long history there XD I do have some of my old art!!! If you wanna see some, I've posted a little here: https://shock777.tumblr.com/tagged/old-art plus I already said there's a few still on my dA gallery haha Tips I can give to you: 1. And I think this is most important, JUST KEEP GOING. It's soooo tempting to quit drawing when things aren't going right and when you're not happy with how your art looks. Trust me, every artist I've ever known including myself have gone through this. It's so easy to compare your work to someone else's. The thing is, we're all in this together. No one expects a newborn to be able to file taxes or drive a car lol. We all have to evolve and change, and that change comes from consistent work. Art isn't an inherent talent, it is hard work that is honed over several years of blood, sweat and tears lmao JUST KEEP GOING. as I've mentioned, my old cringe art is still on my dA page. Back then when I was younger I was less concerned with things being perfect and I spam posted almost every doodle. And I began a "fanbase" i guess because of those days and my consistent posting. I've had this freaking deviantart page for 11 freakin years. If I had stopped drawing whenever I felt my art was imperfect or not good enough, I would have stopped posting around 2009. so...just keep going. And I'd even dare you to post your "shitty doodles" that you think aren't that great. Because you never know what someone else will see in it that you don't. Be confident, and never give up! 2. Soak up any tutorial and really focus on studying your favorite artist's styles. If there's something you want to replicate in your art that someone else is drawing, try to see how they do it. sometimes artists have tutorials posted and sometimes they don't. I have a few posted on my youtube channel ( https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRB9xQBsGpfetNJbmXWZ1fL9d5IlqQs1w ) and some in my gallery. Don't exactly copy some things stroke for stroke, but try to add your little spin to something. Like sometimes I will see art senpai drawing a specific eye style I wanna replicate, but I don't like one part of the process. So sometimes I'll just add my own little addition, or just omit that process completely. Usually though, if the art style isn't necessarily super unique, you can copy a lot of mainstream styles without anyone really griping saying "oh you're just copying so and so's art style". It's important to look up to art senpais i think. They make me want to try harder lol 3. Take an art class if you're able. Color theory really helped me grasp things that I never had before. LIKE REFLECTIVE LIGHT FOR INSTANCE. I never drew that shit but now I do because DUH it's so freaking obvious lol It also helps to learn what colors neutralize others, complementary colors, analogous ones, etc. It's nice to have an eye for what matches together and to know the principles of art. I still have a lot of work to do when it comes to perspective, which we did cover a little in class lol but work on your own pace. If your college near you offers a class for beginners, take it if you're able. it will help you view things differently. 4. Copy realistically. Like, I'm talking look at a freaking object in your room and try to draw it. Once you can draw it semi realistically, you can then add your own little stylistic choices to it. Like so many artists who draw chibis or cartoony things, they more than likely know the proper proportions of people and anatomy. But they draw the proportions all whacky and it creates their own style. However it does help to know how they work in reality lol 5. TRACE OVER POSES. Sometimes I do this. I'm not saying to trace someone's art, but if you see some kind of pose on say a google image, or a stock photo, try sketching over it to get a feel for where the joints connect if you're working on anatomy. It reaaaallly helps you memorize where the arm would end, or where the torso connects to the hips. 6. Take advice and criticism well. If someone sees something you don't about your art, they may be on to something. It's not wrong if someone gives you a heads up that a proportion seems lacking or something seems too big or out of place. It will actually help you to see what others see. Sometimes we get in the habit of drawing something a certain way and it's hard to break that habit especially if you've drawn the same thing several hundred times. It will help you in the long run to just accept that you're always going to be improving. You'll never be perfect at drawing, so what do you have to lose? Just keep walking forward and learn what you can. 7. Flip the canvas. This is more or less a digital art tip, but please flip the canvas to make sure the proportions are not off. lol A lot of professionals have to flip the canvas until they get a feel for where things are placed. Another good tip is to use a stabilizer of some kind to draw straight lines. Paint tool sai has one at the very top of the window. It helps tremendously. 8. Draw what you like and don't feel bad for not drawing everything everyone else likes. Don't sacrifice your morals or your personal desires for something everyone else likes. If you're paid to draw something you don't like, thats another thing. but don't let people pressure you to draw stuff that you don't want to. You'll be much happier, and build an audience that is much like-minded to you. Be considerate of what your audience likes, sure, but remember at the end of the day, art is something to express one's self. Art is not and should not be a job. Even if you get paid money to draw or design things, it's important to take a break and draw something for yourself every once in a while. Be self indulgent, and treat yo self from time to time :) And uhhh...that's all I can think of for the time being. :') let me know if you have any further questions or if I need to clarify anything :) Thanks again!

[ciathyzareposts]

Game 108: Nippon Safes, Inc. – Introduction

Written by Torch

Doesn’t look very safe to me

Two years after my first ever playthrough for The Adventure Gamer, I’m finally up for another. Quite the gap, but – surprise! – we’re still doing games from 1992! We sure are taking our time here, or perhaps 1992 was just a particularly bountiful year. Either way, the next game up is Nippon Safes, Inc. This game was developed by Dynabyte software, an Italian game creator. I couldn’t find a lot of information about this company, but running a couple of Italian wikis through Google translate helped a little.

Dynabyte. I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that it’s a portmanteau of dynamite and byte

Dynabyte made 6 games in all, of which 3 were adventure games. Nippon was the first in 1992, followed by Tequila & Boom Boom – a cartoonish western themed adventure named starring anthropomorphic animals – in 1994, and finally Big Red Adventure in 1995 ( 1997 on Amiga ).

Can you spot the KGB agent? ( It’s a trick question. They’re all KBG agents )

Big Red is a direct sequel to Nippon, but I doubt Tequila is related. Not sure how they’d make that work… In 1997 they either changed their name to Ludomedia or disbanded and then created a new company named Ludomedia, I can’t tell for sure. Either way they went out of business the same year, so I guess it doesn’t matter much.

Logos from ‘95-97 Can’t put my finger on it, but it’s like they didn’t fully commit to the new company name

That’s pretty much all I could dig up about Dynabyte, so if any Italian readers see this and know more, please feel free to chip in.

So let’s get back to the game at hand. I read about Nippon Safes Inc. in an Amiga magazine many years ago, and the cartoony graphics kind of caught my eye, but that’s the extent of my familiarity with this game, so I’ll start off by checking out the manual, to see what I can expect.

The story begins like this: “In the most disreputable parts of the Japanese metropolis of Tyoko,a shady character wanders around looking suspicious. What can this mysterious person be up to?”

Talk about suspense building.. To help me learn more about this mysterious character, I will be able to control the dynamic trio of….

“DOUG NUTS. He is an electronics genius who uses his knowledge for not exactly a lawful purpose (with meagre results). His career as an electronics engineer at Oxford ended abruptly when he was caught fiddling the results of the exams stored in the faculty computer. After moving to Japan, the homeland of electronics, he has problems with the law each time one of his breaking in gadgets doesn’t work quite like it was meant to.”

“DINO FAGIOLI. A former boxer of Italian origin, basically a good and honest soul,often falls into the traps set by people taking advantage of the fact that he tends not to think very hard. After a series of defeats in the boxing world, he boarded a ship bound for Japan as a deckhand. After getting into the umpteenth scrape he was thrown off the ship in Tyoko, where he is trying to make ends meet.”

“DONNA FATALE. A variety actress, she abandoned a promising career as a ballet dancer to follow the path of the glittering world of show business. She arrived in Tyoko dazzled by the promises of a self-styled impressario who, after having squandered all her possessions, left her to a life on the border of legality.”

Ok, so brains, brawn and… show tunes? How’s that for diversity? According to the manual, these guys are linked together, and I’ll be able to play them either one at a time, or I can alternate between them. This is referred to as something called the “Parallaction system”. Yes, “parallaction”. As in… “parallel action”. These Dynabyte guys seem to have a thing for wordplay. You may also have noticed that the name of the city where the action takes place is “Tyoko”. That’s not a typo ( or a tyopo – sorry, couldn’t resist ). The manual states that the city of Tyoko is located “somewhere not better identified half way between Tokyo and Kyoto as the crow flies.”

Easily one of the safest mountains to climb

In general, the manual has a certain… let’s call it “Lost in translation” vibe to it. In addition to character introductions, it also contains a test quiz, to help me decide which of the characters I should play. Hmm.. I thought I’m supposed to play them all eventually? Anyway, here’s an example question:

1)YOU ARE ON STAGE.YOU MUST CHEER UP THE EVENING.WHAT DO YOU DO?

I bring out all my artistic gifts. NA Nothing.I would feel out of place. NE Ever heard the one about the airship? WA

It doesn’t say how this helps me decide on a character though. Each answer corresponds to a 2-letter combination, and there are 6 questions so I can end up with a “word” like NARAKIWANAHO. I have no idea how this will help me with such an all-important decision, but hopefully we’ll find out when I actually start playing the game.

Lastly, the manual contains some information (fun facts) about Japan that may or may not be related to copy protection, including but not limited to Japanese written language, the geisha, fish, public baths, hotels and railways. This is actually a fairly interesting and a fun read, both for its content and for the sometimes strange English. Take this section about the subway trains:

To understand just how crowded they are, you should know that most stations have “oshiya”, or throwers-in. These are people charged with pushing the passengers inside the carriages. Each passenger is determined to get in, in order to reach his place of work on time, but the doors of the carriages will not work until until everyone has either got in or out. Since the other passengers are far to well-bred to interfere, these “oshiya” with their impecabble white gloves, help the poor devil make up his mind.

Having read through the manual, I feel ready to take on the game itself. The game is listed as working in ScummVM with a “Good” support level, but in for authenticity, I’ll be playing in Dosbox.

Tough call, but I’ll probably go for japanese engr… soll…sorry! English!

So join me next time as I make my way through the thriving metropolis of Tyo… wait, what?

So it WAS a tyopo after all

Anyway, prepare for a barrage of “safe”-related puns ( or maybe it’s better to Nipp(on) the whole thing in the bud ) as we explore the cartoony world of bank robberies and who knows what other crimes in an imaginary Japanese city.

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There’s a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no CAPs will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. As this is an introduction post, it’s an opportunity for readers to bet 10 CAPs (only if they already have them) that I won’t be able to solve a puzzle without putting in an official Request for Assistance: remember to use ROT13 for betting. If you get it right, you will be rewarded with 50 CAPs in return. It’s also your chance to predict what the final rating will be for the game. Voters can predict whatever score they want, regardless of whether someone else has already chosen it.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/game-108-nippon-safes-inc-introduction/