#some kind of software error lol

[fruityfinch]

A little preview of a bigger project! This is a blackburnian warbler!

[meanbossart]

Oh boy, VaM is kind of a trial and error experience LOL I couldn't really show you how to use the interface and stuff without a whole video or something, but it's not THAT difficult to get a hang of if you just give yourself a day or two to play around, not to mention the number of tutorials you find out there. Luckily, if you only want to use it as a reference software that makes the process far easier (to this day I have no idea how to animate on that thing, since that's not what I use it for)

As for how I use it, it's pretty self explanatory - if there's a complicated pose I want to draw but I'm either having trouble with it, or just want to double-check angles/anatomy, I will use it as a resource! I use for most of my "proper" pieces (y'know, the nicer looking ones) and every once in a while for my silly comics if I'm having trouble with a pose.

Lets use this drawing for example (the character on top of DU drow belongs to @namespara )

I don't draw a lot of mud-wrestling (shocking, I know) but I had an idea of the kind of pose I wanted them to be in. So the very first thing I did was make a rough sketch of what I was envisioning:

I often do a rough sketch first, even If I know I'm going to be pulling the program up because A) It's less tedious than adjusting the models over and over again until I pick a pose and B) because sometimes I'll decide I don't need the reference, after all, and so that's 30 minutes I'll have spared myself of playing around on the software.

Now, this is a pretty complicated pose! It's in a weird angle and the bodies are making contact in ways I'm not used to depicting, so I did choose to whip out VaM for this one. I went into the program and after some messing around, I flopped my little dolls together like this:

Now something really cool about VaM is that you can completely customize your models, and if you have the patience, I would definitely encourage you to do so! Obviously, you don't have to make picture perfect replicas of every single character you have, but as you can see here I have made a DU drow "decoy" to help me better understand some of his features when I draw him: he has a strong brow, a short nose, a square jawline - these are all going to look a very specific way from certain angles, and I might not always be sure of how to draw it right! So it's useful to have models that bear SOME semblance to the character so you can better understand how different viewpoints will affect their bone structure and mass.

Also thank fucking god for the elf-ear slider. Figuring out how to draw those shits from certain angles was a huge pain in the ass when I started drawing DnD races.

So, with the reference in hand, I go over the sketch again:

Now you may notice that I don't stick to the reference 100%. There's three reasons for this:

posing on VaM is tedious as hell. You can get something incredibly natural looking and picture-perfect to reference from if you wish, but it's going to take you hours to do. So, for the most part I just slap guys together until the results are "close enough" and use that.

In my opinion, you should always aim to ENHANCE your reference material, not replicate it exactly!

While VaM is a PRETTY DANG GOOD source of anatomical reference, it isn't perfect, I often supplement it with further reference from real life resources or make tweaks based on my own knowledge where I catch it falling short (and, antithetical to what I just said, I sometimes fuck the anatomy up further on purpose if I think it looks better that way LOL it's all jazz baby).

Then lines, color, yada yada. I don't have a tutorial on that and I don't think I could make one, because my process is chaotic as hell, but I do at times use Virt-a-mate as loose reference for lighting too when coloring - waaaaayyyy less so however, because that process is even more tedious and I feel like I often get better results by just winging it. It is a feature of the program though, and I'm sure it would be helpful for someone who has a difficult time visualizing lights and shadows. I only started using this program a few months ago, so I happened to already have a pretty good understanding of that kind of thing and just don't personally feel like I get much out of that particular mechanic.

Here's a few other examples of pieces that I made reference for (WARNING: Suggestive)

Now, for the question many of you may want to ask:

"Can I trace this junk?"

And to that, I say: Buddy, you can do whatever the hell you want with the reference material you created.

However,

If your goal is to learn and improve your art, and to recreate realistic proportions and anatomy from memory, tracing won't help you.

Developing your own style, your muscle memory, and personal technique will all be hindered by choosing to trace instead of drawing from observation, so I would encourage against it. Hell - even when tracing is employed as a technique, it's usually by high-skill realism & concept artists who are looking to either cut some corners, save time, or just double-check their own proportions in order to improve further - if you try tracing as a beginner, you will most definitely find the result to still look stiff and "off".

So trust me, there is so much more to be gained from drawing from observation. Make note of tangents, compare proportions, use all the elements of the picture to dictate where and how things should go - it will be a far more rewarding experience.

Hopefully this has been helpful! VaM is a really cheap program (you get it on the guys' patreon for I think 8 dollars, just google it!) and it's definitely been worth my money as an artist since I found it. Learning to use it can be a little intimidating at first glance, but as I said above you only really need a day plus one or two tutorials to get a hang of the interface.

A fair warning though, IT IS A SOFTWARE MADE FOR VIRTUAL SEX/ADULT ANIMATION So when looking it up expect to see a some spicy content.

[prettyboykatsuki-moved]

TELL US THE LORE????

dkjfhsdgj ITS KIND DERANGED LMAOO. sorry for yapping about her backstory but its relevant to their insane dynamic lmao

my self insert / oc is basically like. disillusioned software engineer. shes based off edward snowden. she's from the planet of talia (which is desert wasteland) and she's an orphan and was raised with other bandit gangs lol. she learned how to write software and engineer thru trial and error. she's an orphan and doesn't really have any family with the exceptions of like two people she considers. but no blood. no idea who her parents are lol

she gets picked up by the ipc when she's in her teen years because she gets caught trying to steal from them using some phishing software she made. they offer recruitment instead of jail-time bc her skillsets are valuable and she sees it as a good opportunity.

she quickly finds out the ipc is crazy corrupt and she gets really like. she wants to get out but the contract is insane. so she basically. like. steals a bunch of money from the ipc and then goes permanently on the run LMAO.

she finds refuge in different planets but the ipc is everywhere. she keeps stealing from them though and interrupting their business models. very robinhood i guess. she has more of a moral conscience than other inserts i make she's really upright.

her personality is really like super antisocial and paranoid. complete loser forreal. after all that jumping around, she ends up hiding in penacony bc its huge and even with ipc presence, it's really easy for the blend in

this is where her relationship with sunday starts. he's really into her because he doesn't like the IPC for one, but also because he finds her to be benevolent (and she is to her credit she's really morally upright). he offers her like . complete refuge and protection in exchange for being part of the family.

she. adamantly refuses this proposition (he will keep asking though) but offers to work for the family as a contractor in exchange for protection. sunday agrees, she's an important and valuable asset with tons of insider information but also he feels weirdly comfortable around her.

they have such a weird relationship LMAOOOAOAOA. sunday develops this very possessive feeling about her and is really coercive and manipulative to her in general. he comes and goes as he pleases but she's not allowed to stray too far. quick to tug her leash basically. he has a really complete control over her and he's paranoid about her trying to leave him. always pulling her into corners and being kind of humiliating and controlling about how she dresses and acts etc

THE INSANE THING IS THAT SHE'S KIND OF. FINE WITH IT. she's really aware that sunday is crazy and manipulative and batshit. but she has HELLA abandonment issues because she has no "home." sunday constantly breathing down her back to stay with him and be his possesion gives her a comfortable sense of belonging and she doesn't think of him as evil - so she's weirdly content with him and just wants to be with him

SOMETIMES. WHEN SUNDAY IS IN A GOOD MOOD. he'll ask her what he wants and he's always expecting her to like beg for her own freedom but she never does. always asks for like intimacy like bathing together and cuddling. and it always shocks sunday LMAOAOA because he's convinced she secretly depsises him but its like dude. Lol.

they're genuinely so in love. this is deranged im aware but they really genuinely love each other and feel understood by one another. but its insane by all accounts

[system-architect]

no one tagged me in it but i rlly wanted to do a character tag meme like ive seen ppl on my dash doing so,,, :"") here's the one that's been going around, for plex!

personally obsessed with the fact that his ingame visage is extremely babied boy and then when i draw him it reveals the fact like oh this is a very tired, awkwardly built, angular guy who's nearing 30. ok anyways, stuff below the cut!

-- B A S I C S

Name: Plex (fully titled: Infotechnist Plex)

Nicknames: (none. his handle on various console software is pl3x tho)

Age: 28

Birthday: 63 Scion 1308

Race: Asura

Gender: trans dude of some kind, he/him

Orientation: gay

Profession: he is an Inquest Technician very literally! minus the wiki bit mentioning magic since the stock npc is an ele lmao. ingame he's an engi, but as a character he has no combat skills whatsoever other than basic required training on how to use a firearm (which he hopes to never have to use)

-- P H Y S I C A L A S P E C T S

Hair: white (technically very very platinum blonde, natural)

Eyes: they're technically black with permanent yellow nightshine going on in his pupils. or irises. whatever the yellow dots are. don't worry about it.

Skin: albino (w/ light cream-tan stripe markings)

Tattoos/Scars: he's got a Y-shaped scar across his chest, and a couple of metal ports embedded on the right (viewer's left) side of his chest near his sternum, which have scarring around them

-- F A M I L Y

This section of the report has been obscured from view by the Inquest Legal Bureau at the behest of Redactor Trejj. Please contact your krewe's Overseer to initiate the proper clearance check measures if you believe this was in error. If you do not believe that it was in error, and instead that your ability to access this report whatsoever was unintended, please close the report at your earliest convenience and report to your facility's Inquisitor to be disciplined for reading this far.

-- S K I L L S

Abilities: Adept programmer with an eye for detail, and a photographic memory for numbers/strings of code specifically. Excels at combining complex pieces of information.

Hobbies: Gaming, movies/animations/shows, putting together model kits. Gets in a lot of arguments on programming and golemancy forums.

-- T R A I T S

Most positive generally helpful traits: Hard working (....usually), fast + thorough at things he puts his mind to, prefers to stay out of other people's business, good at keeping secrets, relatively open minded, has a pretty big capacity for empathy (even if he doesn't always show/use it)

Most negative generally unhelpful traits: Has a big mouth/isn't able to suppress his opinions about certain things, picky/fussy/whiny, socially awkward, tends to make interactions tense quickly, deep insecurity that bleeds over into how he acts around others, wants to 'win' things constantly, easily gets an inflated ego from said 'wins' that leads him to bite off more than he can chew after that

-- L I K E S

Colors: black LOL. also yellow (matches him!)

Smells: fresh coffee, cool rain on concrete, lemon, pine, canned air

Textures: leather and suede, soft fabrics (but not 'plush')

Drinks: coffee of course... also novelty flavor energy drinks even though they make his stomach feel like it's caving in on itself every time

-- O T H E R D E T A I L S

Smokes: lord no he'd start coughing on it

Drinks: his alcohol tolerance is about -2 so this is also a no. the man's veins and stomach lining are made of like.. tissue paper

Drugs: what do u think

Been arrested: no.. aside from being in the inquest (Which Is In Itself Literally Not A Crime) he's a fairly law abiding mild-mannered citizen lmfao. i mean he probably torrents things under a vpn but that's very low on the list of concerns for the peacemakers,

[call-me-rucy]

law anon here (off anon for pictures!) (get some rest lol answer me whenever)

i feel like video games and fair use is soooooooo weird, because intrinsically, no two playthroughs of a video game are the same. a playthrough in of itself is transformative because the player is interacting with the world and affecting how the story is told. that's one of the reasons why no commentary playthroughs typically stay up on youtube and don't get copyright striked, technically they fall under fair use. just because layton as a series has a more linear story doesn't mean each playthrough is the same.

what's weird to me is this highlighted section:

it's so vague that, legitimately, i have NO idea what they mean by "other means". this could also be an error of google translate, regretfully i cannot read japanese. my brain immediately goes to like, pirated software or unauthorised screen recordings.

i think it's in level-5's best interest to rerelease these guidelines in other languages so there's clarity. i think you're right in not wanting people to panic, it's really just cracking down on a formerly very weak copyright claim. it's like when nintendo randomly took down thousands of OST videos; they're just getting their shit together.

tl;dr - video game playthroughs are nebulous but ultimately transformative, level-5/google translate is vague, and if you're really, really curious or concerned, ask someone who's actually in the business of international copyright!! it never helps to be too informed

Ooooh, hey there, nice to meet you, vinnie! <3

Yeah, it makes sense that playthroughs are transformative, although I had never thought about it like that. Lucky us, I guess! :D

From the part you signaled as weird, from my understanding, it's less a "we know you're illegally recording" and more of a "we know you can upload to twitter a clip from your switch directly". So what I think they're saying is that using the console functions exactly how they're supposed to go is allowed, even if the resulting product is a non-commented video.

But if you're recording the screen by other methods that's not just the one built in the console (which is all of gameplays, I guess, cause what did the switch allow, like 60" videos?), they ask that it has commentary.

I guess it's understandable that they want to be a bit harder on copyright and spoilers now that they expect NWOS to blow up. But yeah! It would be best if this were translated, because if not we're left in a kind of limbo state.

If there's any person who knows in international copyright reading this that wants to weight in, please do so! :D

Thank you so much for your asks, they clarified a lot!!

[the-selfinsert]

Spare a quote for a poor, poor voice actor (In progress)?

Guys I'm too lazy to find these, so I'm crowd sourcing.

Recently I asked @howlsofbloodhounds for some Killer Sans quotes for a video I'm working on rn. (LOTS of progress to be done, given I need to learn a brand new video and audio editing software, lol (Also my mic is shit, but fuck it, we ball)) And I need the same thing for Error Sans.

So, if you would be so kind as to reblog with some of your favorite Error Quotes, I just need 2 casual (ish, they can have some seriousness to them or menace) and 1 serious quote.

Thank you in advance for your time! :)

[saamaton]

hiiii many many amv ideas came to me in a dream (courtesy of brat ofc) but unfortunately, i know fuck all about editing so i figured i'd ask u creator of the brat f1 amv that lives in my head rent free !! mostly just wondering where u get clips from + how unreasonable it is to make an amv in windows' native editor (climpchamp)? thank you <3

hi anon!!!

i'll be honest i might not be the best person to ask this but i'll try my best to answer!! hope it helps at all lol <3 if anyone else has better suggestions/other good tips pls feel free to give them i'd also be happy to know them!!

so! finding clips is always the most difficult and probably the most time consuming part of making an edit for me.. but usually i just try to look for ready scene packs that all the very lovely people on the internet compile 🙏 but f1's own youtube channel also has a lot of very good content! you just have to know what you're looking for over there and you'll have to skim through a lot of other content to find the good stuff,, but their channel is especially good for racing content itself (obviously) and their videos are almost always available in 1080p which is a huge perk!! they also have some of their own compilation videos which can be very useful. and ofc teams' own social medias have a lot of content and usually their youtube channels have a lot of good video content about race weekends beyond the race (which, i think i'm stating the obvious here but yeah)! so honestly it's a bit of a scavanger hunt and you just have to be patient, especially if you're picky with the cohesion of your clips like me 😭😭

and i'll be honest with you i know nothing about clipchamp 😭 i used to use premiere pro until the free access i had to it at the time stopped and then i couldn't be bothered to find a good pc alternative.. but honestly i think it totally depends on what kind of editing style you're going for! if you have a similar style to mine i'm pretty sure most editing softwares have the capacity for that! as long as you can import clips, music and fonts and can work in enough detail (!!!) you can probably make it work with enough time!! ofc then the main differences between softwares are in the interface, intuitivity and usability so it might take a bit of trial and error, as well as getting used to, to find a software that works for you! then again if you want to use more fancy effects, transitions and tools you'll most likely have to look around quite a bit and usually free softwares don't have super great options on that front unfortunately.. there's a lot of recommendations on the internet tho so if that's the case you'll just likely have to spend quite a bit of time researching and trying stuff out but you might find something very good from people's recommendations ! (if you do pls share them with me lol)

also i can't believe i'm exposing my best kept editing secret just for you anon BUT if you're not opposed to editing on mobile i'd very heavily recommend an app called inshot, which is what i use!!! i think it has a super super impressive variety of different kinds of effects and a lot of very useful tools you don't find in every editing software! they keep constantly updating it and adding new features too, it's been heavily updated in the past couple years and seems like it'll just keep getting better! plus it's completely free, you just have to watch an ad while exporting your final video lol,,

anyways i hope you find something useful in my ramblings and i hope you succeed in your amv visions 🙏 pls let me know if you ever post any, i'd love to see them <3

[rhan-hastur]

Hi! @velvetcloak asked me to do some kind of lineart tutorial/step-by-step, I'm by no means an expert so don't hesitate to ask if you need some things clarified! Always glad to help.

I use three different methods that are pretty much trial and error, depending on what works best for the artwork but I'll do my best to explain with screenshots - these were taken on photoshop, I draw with procreate, but I'm guessing the layer modes are similar on other softwares. (Also mine are set in french, sorry in advance for the confusion.)

If you're already familiar with digital lineart and softwares, this probably won't be of much use, it's very basic stuff.

Otherwise, more below the cut! (It got a bit long.)

I. Solid black lineart, with this illustration used as reference.

I used the basic gesinski ink brush in procreate, 100% opacity in normal mode to get pure black. Very basic, it's set on top of the colour layers, everything above that is just additional effects and filters + textures. Note that I always draw separate elements on different layers and fuse them later, it's easier to deal with details this way. The isolated layer looks like this (I changed the colour of a disappearing hair lock, more on this later):

And the colours without it, like this (my style relies heavily on lineart, lol):

Both:

Good! It's a bit harsh though, I like to add a second layer to soften things up, set in 45% opacity multiply mode right under that. I duplicate the main lineart, and add a gaussian blur to the copied layer (between 3 and 5px, values vary from one artwork to another, same with the layer modes.)

Not done yet! I use the blured lineart as a colour filter by locking it to pixels only and filling it with the tone I want. In this case, red. Isolated layer:

And the end result:

The second method, I tend to use more on sketches and loose drawings to get a better blend of lineart and colours:

II. Semi-transparent lineart, with one of these sketches.

Basic 6B brush in procreate (my fav), quite thin here but you can get great results with a larger brush. It's not really obvious looking at this scale, so here's a comparison between a black solid lineart (1 layer, normal 100% - the scars are on a separate layer because of the colour, otherwise it's the same setting) and a semi-transparent one (2 layers), especially visible in lighter areas, note how the second one lets hues show through. I find this to look a bit less stiff.

Now for the method! Since this relies on the layers underneath, you want your colours to a bit more precise than the previous example. Without lineart:

TBH it's also a two layers solution, super easy. Once you're statisfied with your basic lineart, set the layer to overlay 100%. You'll get something like this:

Then duplicate this layer, put the copied layer above the overlay one and set it to normal 70% (or whatever looks best, this is 67%) and you'll get the final result as previously shown! In this particuliar case, I erased the black circle around the iris in the normal mode layer to keep the blue of the overlay one. You could also skip step two depending on the desired rendering.

The third method is a blend of the other two result-wise:

III. Coloured lineart, with this illustration. (tw: a bit of gore and blood in the full artwork, I'll crop it out of the screenshots. Poor guy can't get a break. It's the only file in this style with a semblant of organization, don't be like me, rename your layers and use folders.)

Fountain pen toothy brush, from the MaxPack watercolor set. It has a bit of a texture to it, and isn't entirely opaque so it blends nicely with the layers below. The lineart is set to normal 100%, for this method it's preferable to have separate layers for each elements, since you'll be recolouring them individually. Here, the hands, skull and additional details are all on individual layers.

Just like the blurred layer in the first method, you need to lock your pixels (the little grid to the left on photoshop):

And either fill you layer with colour, or paint on it with an opaque round brush/a soft one depending on the desired outcome. (Some zones might need a gradient, or various colours.) You can also use another normal layer on top of a black lineart and set it as a clipping mask, same result, different method. But I prefer to keep the layers count to a minimum when possible. With the layers below, it will look like this:

You can notice a bit of lineart transparency over the skull colour layer, cool stuff. (The shading of the skin is set on top for some reason, I don't remember why but surely there was a reason.) However! In this illustration, I need a yellow glow for the fire so let's create yet another layer, shall we? This affects the whole rendering. I painted a diffuse light source using a soft gradient brush, and set the layer to hard light. Isolated layer:

End result:

All done!

Now go create!

[midnightsandmadness]

How do you write when the words don't come? I'm suffering from a writer's block and am looking for anything that can help

So, this is hard for me answer for a lot of reasons. I have a really bad habit of just not writing if I'm not at peak inspiration. And that just doesn't work in the long term if you want to finish stuff. But I'll give it a shot for sure.

I think "solving" writer's block or at least a specific instance of it really can be a such a varied number of things. A few things that have helped me and I do have a couple of weird ones I think lol

My biggest issue is and probably always will be trying to forget the audience/what others are going to think. This goes hand in hand with my perfectionism I think as well. And it's still something I'm trying to work on. Right now the mantra I'm running with is what I'm going to regret if I die. And not finishing something, not trying to write novels as hard as I can is that thing. I want it. And I've always been scared to try for the things I want, but I'm sick of that.

Ask yourself if it is you or the story. There have been quite a few ideas where some where along the way, I just lose the passion for the project. And I think it's really hard to write something if you don't feel that drive anymore. Maybe that drive is gone because there's something wrong in the development or motivations, or something else. Or maybe you're just no long interested in the story. Or on the other hand, it could be you. Something mentally blocking you from writing, a hang up or issue. This can be hard to answer and can take time. And a lot of trial and error lol.

I'm just gonna list a few that I think are pretty common suggestions and which can help reinvigorate that feeling of joy in writing. Refill the well, watch, read and ingest whatever content you're feeling most excited about or things that remind you of your own story. Try a different project for a while and come back to the one giving you trouble after a break. Get back to what made you want to write this story specifically. What about it excited you, what elements, what characters are you most interested by? If you had any direct inspirations, go to those and see if maybe that could spark something.

Okay now for the couple of odd ones. if I'm actively typing at the keyboard and struggling to get anywhere, I'll erase the last little bit and start rephrasing it. I'll do it a few times and sometimes it works for some reason. Especially if I'm trying to get back into a scene or chapter. Another thing I really like doing is coming up with different way for the scene to play out. Different things for the characters to doing or for something to drastically change the direction of it.

The last one is kind of odd, espeicially considering I am not an organized person, but maybe that's why it works for me lol. I will reorganize all of my notes. Sometimes transering them and making them work in a different software. Or transfering bits of them into a mindmap on paper. Sometimes I get new ideas while doing this and sometime I don't. But it can help a lot of the time. Also probably because I lean far more toward pantsing than plotting.

I hope any of this might end up helping! and that at least most of it is coherent. Got off a 12 hour shift four hours ago and really need to sleep lol. Thank you so freaking much for asking me anything, it genuinely makes me really happy.

[danniswrites]

Advice to someone wanting to publish poetry

I wrote this advice out, but couldn't post it on Reddit r/selfpublish because it was too long. So I made a blog post LOL.

I would use LibreOffice to format your poetry. It's free and works like Word.

For Kindle Direct Publishing, there is a lot of help about what all the choices mean.

You will need a bank account to get paid and that info handy. You will also need an EIN if you are in the USA but if you don't use your Social Security Number for tax purposes, you can use it.

Do read through all the help info before starting your book. You can save it as a draft and solve all the problems before actually publishing, so if you want to just do it, that won't hurt anything. It just makes it faster once you make certain decisions, but you can do it later.

Don't hit publish until you're absolutely sure everything's correct because you wait 2 or 3 days for Amazon to review your work [by this I mean, your cover's okay, you don't have blatant spelling or formatting errors, etc. They don't review it as to literary merit, just to see it meets their minimum standards, no feedback]. It's really not hard, just a LOT of choices, like 3 pages of choices.

Do think about keywords. What kind of poetry is it? You get 7 keywords. Those keywords need to be the ones that best describe your poetry. Do use them all! Think of words your possible reader will put into that search box. Make sure they truly represent what you've written. Read some articles on Amazon keywords so you know what to put and give it some thought. Your keywords will make all the difference in your possible reader finding your book.

In KDP you have the choice to also create print versions of your book. I strongly suggest you do this. There is no disadvantage! Putting your poetry book up on Amazon costs nothing. Royalties are 35% or 70% depending on if you choose to do Kindle Unlimited, where people can get your book free if you agree not to publish it anyplace but there. I used to put all my books on KU. Now I publish on other platforms and like the freedom. I do let Amazon publish to all its countries. But there are other platforms such as Draft2Digital, and if you let Amazon do international, you can't do Draft2Digital or other platforms unless you undo it. I'm still researching. For print, formatting is more complex. However, Kindle Create makes this pretty easy. If you just want a standard format, it will work nicely. Things get a little more complicated if you want a picture for each poem, but it's still not too hard from the looks of it. That said, I've never published a book with graphics. There are a few more steps involved and the help pages on KDP are detailed enough to be very useful for you.

I also publish on Wattpad and my poetry book is getting a lot more reads than my science fiction, which shocked me! I'm not popular by any means, but I feel good to see the views and comments on my stuff. Right now I'm doing the free stuff, but I usually check the boxes for willingness if Wattpad Publishing might be interested. Hey, I can dream, right?

I've never used a paid service, and I'm not making but a few dollars on Amazon anyway, so I can't justify paying for it when I can't cover it from profits.

I do my own book covers and use Canva, among other software. The one exception is my poetry book on Wattpad, and I did use AI to produce it because I didn't like the one I came up with. But, you can't copyright your cover if you use AI, so I strongly suggest you create your own.

For book covers, a good free site for public domain photographs is Pexels.com. Don't use photographs unless you are sure they are public domain, because the last thing you need is legal troubles. Read up on copyright.gov and avoid problems. Everything on Pexels.com, Pixabay.com and a few others are a pretty good bet. Photographers that upload are releasing their work into the public domain on these two sites, and they have an info page that states this. Beware of photo sites that have no site into on whether it's public domain or not, that's a red flag. I have little trouble finding what I need on Pexels.com and it includes Pixabay and some smaller sites and individual photographers, so I usually go there.

I also use a free software called DAZ Studio, from daz3d.com for character models and it also has buildings, props, clothing for their models, etc and weekly freebies on Wed. It's easy to use, of all 3D software, and tons of tutorials to get up to speed fast. I use this for a lot of characters, especially if I can't find the picture I want on Pexels. I'll use their AI for blog posts but not for book covers, I make those myself. Using DAZ, you can do a realistic scene with characters first, then transform those into line drawing or painting styles with a click. There are comic artists who use DAZ for their graphics. This is not considered AI generated because you set up your scene first, then use a style, so it's still your composition and placement. Human models are included in the free software, with clothing, props, hair, and a few settings, with the option to buy more. There are also websites with free and paid models like Renderosity.com that has good quality models in DAZ format. For realistic models, Genesis 9 is the most recent, but Genesis 8 is mostly what I use. The older models are often free but not as detailed or realistic. However, they take less RAM on your computer so if you're not going for realism [watercolor painting or abstract modes] they are still very useful.

Last, but not least, I have an old version of VUE [2016] from before they went to the subscription model, that I use for landscapes and have experimented with animation. You can also do animation in DAZ. I mainly use my old VUE 2016 for alien landscapes, but it was expensive to buy. Many movie studios use VUE, but the commercial version.

Once I have my artwork or photographs ready, then I go to Canva.com to make a book cover or blog graphic. I don't bring it to Canva until it is ready. If I need any photo special effects like blurring or color correction, or need to put several photos together, I do that in GIMP, a free software that's like Photoshop but free. Some people who use GIMP and Photoshop say some functions are actually better in GIMP. Canva is easy to use and has a great selection of fonts. I wouldn't use it for publishing, but it's great for book covers. There are templates with nice designs or you can start with a blank slate. Templates may be created by artists who have studied color pallets, which fonts for which genre, etc so I usually use them. But I might make different choices for fonts. There are a lot of tutorials out there if you want to do something fancy, but generally, I have what I need with a good template. Personally, I think if you start with good artwork, Canva is a good way to go.

You can also use Amazon's built in Art Painter to do your cover. There is a limited selection of photographs there, but I usually go to Pexels rather than hope one of those photos in Art Painter will do. Canva also has photos available, but a better selection. Most of their photo editing options require a subscription. I use the free version and if I have my graphics ready beforehand, I'm usually pleased with the result. This post is too long, but I hope it helps you. Good luck! Pair your poetry book with frequent, regular posts on all your social media. If no one knows your book is there, you won't get sales.

[zaptap]

uhhh i just bought a second gamecube lol

like. my gamecube is a dol-101 which means it doesn't have a digital out port (which means converting it to hdmi is always going to look like shit) and i've wanted to get it modded to add the port but that seems to be impossible at least for the time being (the kits have been sold out for so long and now the one site selling them seems to have taken down the listing. plus on top of that i'd have to have someone do it for me and idk where to go for that either) (from what i can tell getting a modchip added also seems trickier than on a dol-001?)

most of the advice ive seen for this situation is "just get rid of it and get a dol-001" which is uh. not the point. this is my childhood gamecube i want to keep using it. it's also a perfectly good console so it's annoying to see people so eager to just throw them aside

but i looked... and for just $100 i found a dol-001 that was already modded with picoboot (ipl replacement that makes the console boot into whatever you want) and they refurbished it (cleaned all the parts, recapped the motherboard which according to them will extend its life by 25 years). disk drive doesnt work but with picoboot that's kind of unimportant. seller seems to be pretty reliable too, they have almost exclusively good reviews going back to 2016

feels a little redundant to get a second gamecube, especially since i can technically already get a digital signal out of natively run gamecube games on my wii u and wii... it does add that to the game boy player though (also: with picoboot you can set a button to hold to automatically boot into the game boy interface, which btw is the homebrew replacement for the game boy player software that does a better job displaying the games apparently). also been thinking about getting a gba flashcart anyway (ez flash omega definitive edition) to add more to that

also my experience using nintendont on my wii u has been kind of awkward. you have to go all the way into wii mode and the homebrew channel and nintendont and then pick the game (sure, injects are a thing, but i've tried a few and they all black screen, and i've tried everything the devs of the inject program, uwuvci, say to do to make them work--and they also say for some people it just doesn't for some reason and nobody knows why). sometimes i get in there and it gets some kind of error and i have to start all the way over. meanwhile modded gamecube boots into swiss and you pick a game from there and that's it

the drawback is that since you're loading from an sd card (either in a memory card adapter or in a serial port 2 adapter, they're functionally the same) there's compatibility issues since it can't always read from there fast enough to run the game full speed. however there's also something called the M.2 loader coming that'll be able to load the data faster (from the ssd you attach to it). you plug it into serial port 1 (where the broadband adapter would go). but anyway if there are any games that don't run right booted from the sd i could probably just do them on the wii u or wii instead

anyway. my hope is that someday i'll be able to get my original gamecube modded (and then either sell this new one or give it away i suppose?), but it's good to have a backup

and it's not like gamecubes are going to get cheaper, probably, so getting that now is good i guess? like. that's a really good deal .a gamecube that's pre-modded and refurbished and apparently comes with an sd card? (the seller casually mentioned they could include some games if asked. the only way to run games on this one is through an sd card, so those would have to be iso files. on an sd card. if theyre giving me the card already then copying files doesnt cost them anything. so maybe there's a card in there). anyway yeah all that for $100. pretty good i think

well. maybe someday as they become more scarce people won't be so quick to abandon dol-101s and there'll be more resources for modding them

[veilder]

One of my own personal headcanons for him is that his face is very immobile. His custom face plates were never sculpted and, during his mock-up test runs, he was given placeholder ones, the same that are used in a lot of mannequin androids. These faceplates are more static, designed to hold a singular expression for a long time, and the limited range of them makes it very hard for him to make expressions with any degree of exaggeration. In that way, it alienates him from humans who find him stoic and unapproachable. Even some androids with less robust interface capabilities might be put off, though as a whole, I don't think they as a species rely on microexpressions or outward displays of emotion to communicate like humans do. Of course, I think I already mentioned to you about I think the RK900 and RK800 models look aesthetically the same, but lemme reiterate: The only time we the audience ever see the RK900, it's in the Zen Garden, a virtual world that Amanda has almost complete control over. It's a personal theory of mine that the RK900 in there is merely a sort of projection, an incomplete mass of coding rigged together into an android-shaped model and that, for visualization purposes only, was reskinned using the RK800 cosmetic overlay. In other words, the RK900 at that point would not even have a corporeal form yet, he's still be in the very very early stages of testing if anything. But, in order to make her last point as viscerally as possible, Amanda uses Connor's own cosmetic code to display a sort of mock-up of his successor in the Zen Garden. Truthfully, I'm of the mind that the RK900 might not even exist at all yet by the conclusion of the game? Especially considering the go-ahead for his production hinges upon how Connor himself functions during the events of the game. But I do like the thought of Nines eventually existing, so borrowed RK800 coding is my work-around. XD And speaking of borrowed things... I already mentioned that his stiff face plates might play an important role in how he's perceived, but my headcanons actually extend a bit further. Because when I say he was only in the very first trial stages of development, I mean it. I hc that most (if not all) of his custom parts hadn't even been manufactured yet during his trial runs. Whatever body his nascent coding inhabits would've been made up of spare parts at first, gleaned from many different models that his code would be compatible with. When CyberLife is taken during the Revolution and all production halted, Nines would end up stuck in this Frankenstein'd together body, on that hasn't been extensively field tested or even specially designed to hold his robust computing power. And I think this would lead to a whole host of problems for him down the line, especially when it comes to breaking down or overtaxing his systems. (And yes, also skin glitching, lol.) He was designed to be so much more than he's had to make due with and there is a real disconnect between his software and hardware. So not only does his apparent stoicism isolate him around humanity, but his constant glitches and jumbled system data alarm androids, too. I think he would feel his differences quite starkly and it'd be a real trial for him, learning to be at peace with who he is, despite his errors.

Because none of the physical really conveys who he is, right? My headcanon for him is that he is a gentle soul, someone who, against all odds, tries to always look for the silver lining. His short life has be fraught with obstacles, but it makes him appreciate all the more the very act of being alive, and he tries not to take it for granted. He values life more than anything else, adores animals, and would probably develop into a stanch pacifist. He's soft-spoken and very introspective, thoughtful and philosophical and just... kind. I love the idea of this machine made to be such a potent weapon has instead chosen to be kind, over and over and over. That he doesn't let his messy origins define who he wants to be.

But this has turned into a whole essay, so I'll cut it there. XD But yes, suffice to say that I've had a lot of thoughts about Nines over the years and I love him dearly.

OK so @veilder put so many thoughts in my head about RK900 still being an "imperfect" model bc Amanda probably rushed his production and I am going bonkers thinking about how he'd have certain quirks that can rival even CONNOR'S

Like yeah his systems are much more advanced, he's faster and stronger than Connor BUT did you know his balance center is just slightly shifted to the left? Or (from that one post of mine) his skin retracts when he's stressed? so many thoughts I love imperfect Nines now

[fairycosmos]

how did you get that kind of job without a university marketing degree or whatever? i'm kinda struggling here :(((((

it was a (relatively) long process of trial and error and a lot of freelance work/not having a stable income but basically to break it down. a few yrs ago i went to careers advice and asked how to maximise my future prospects or whatever and the first thing they said was add ALLL of ur skills onto your resume even if youve never used them in a job role before. if you're proficient in (or capable of learning) excel, photoshop, adobe creative suite, wordpress, social media, copywriting, seo software....even if youve never used it in a professional capacity its rly good to kind of emphasize ur digital skill set as much as possible and start researching it as much as possible too. then i started a wordpress blog and would write copywriting articles on there (or in google docs) even though i had no one to send them to lol just to build a portfolio that i could send out to freelance content and copy writer agencies who were hiring. there's tons of tips and articles and pdfs online that can help you write great articles and help u learn content design. anyway i did this for a longgggg time and finally got some actual freelance work coming in. from this, i started interviewing for actual full time copywriting jobs, and was hired to intern at a digital agency at the end of 2021. did that for months then went back to freelance but was able to get more projects with my slowly growing experience. while doing freelance i was interviewing for a shit ton of full time copywriting and content management roles, most of which i got rejected from after like the 1st interview. finally i heard back from a team i had interviewed for and they had me give a presentation outlining my approach to copywriting/media managemenet and from that they've hired me and ive been really really lucky that they have. unfortunately that's what i think it was more than anything, like a stroke of luck that they saw smth in me and took me on despite me unconventional background. im rly rly grateful to them for it. i would also encourage you to look for literally any volunteer opportunities in admin, soc media, bookkeeping - it looks rly good on the resume and can sometimes expand into a job. also look up general cv tips cause there's a ton of cheatsheets out there that can help you get yours to the top of the pile or near the top. good luck and im really sorry you're struggling atm!! ive absolutely been there and it's honestly so discouraging, the amt of times i quit job hunting while doing freelance out of sheer despair was a lot. it's hard but there are ways to show what you have to offer in a really favourable light, and the more you interview/resume edit/write the better you will get. it's all one horrible big skill at least that's how it felt to me, and i still suck at it. just clawing my way up TBH. anyway sending you a lot of love ❤️ hope you catch the break u deserve soon. X

[leftski-if]

Hi!! I'm in the works of making an IF and I'm struggling with twine, so I'm looking at the possibility of making a choicescript game but just posting the demo on Tumblr and not advertising/publishing through cog and it seems like that's what you're doing if I'm not wrong?

Do you think it's a good idea? And how do you find coding with choicescript?

Sorry if this is a weird thing to ask you're just one of the only IF authors I follow who isn't using twine lol, I hope you're having a good day!!

Hello! Congratulations on the game!

I don't think it's weird at all; I'll do my best to answer what I can ^^

That is indeed what I'm doing! My game(s?) are just something I'm making for fun, so I post the WIPs to Dashingdon and I'll share the links and answer questions here, but I have no presence on the CoG forums (or anywhere else IF-related, really; I’m kind of a hermit).

For me, it works great! I've never had any intention of publishing my works or seeking revenue from them, so this setup is ideal and very casual. I know this sort of approach doesn't appeal to everyone for a number of (very understandable) reasons, and I don’t think I can tell you if it’s the right one for you, but it definitely feels right for me.

I have no experience with Twine so I can't really compare the two, but I personally love coding in Choicescript. I was able to pick it up pretty quickly and I find it really straightforward and simple to work with, especially because I use CSIDE (The ChoiceScript IDE) which is software that highlights the code in different colours, points out errors, and keeps things very organised (a dream come true for my ADHD brain).

That being said, I know there are a lot of resources out there that provide templates and tutorials on coding with Twine, and I’ve also heard that it’s really nice to work with once you get past that initial hurdle, so depending on what it is you’re struggling with, there might be some resources out there that can help you!

Even just searching “twine coding” here on Tumblr returned a lot of tips and masterlists that seemed like they could be great places to start, although with no knowledge of the program or your issues with it, I’m unfortunately not sure which ones would be helpful to link. I would definitely recommend checking them out yourself though, if you decide Twine is the way to go after all.

So yeah, I think that’s about all I can say? I’m sorry I don’t have any concrete answers for you, but I think it ultimately comes down to your personal preferences/goals for your project. Do you value ease of access over versatility, or is it perhaps worth dedicating more time upfront to learning the program to then have more freedom later on? Is there a chance you might want to use your game as a source of revenue someday?

I hope that this helps make the decision a little easier, or at least gives you some things to think about. Best of luck with your IF, whatever your choice, and I hope you’re having a good day, too ^^

[bossthebicon]

youtube anon here!! omg thank you!! sorry im so late with this i was busy bc deepavali + wanted to make sure id thought of everything to ask ahsjdjdkf and ofc if you decide not to reply to this i understand as well, so really no pressure at all, okay? 😊 what software do you use to edit your videos? what made you decide to start making videos? do your videos get taken down bc of copyright? how do you deal if/when that happens? what are some of your favourite kinds of videos to make, and why? how long do you usually spend on a video (idea conception, filming, editing etc)? and since i know you from this blog, even before you started making videos: do you have any advice about putting out content in fandom? bc you make gifs + write + make videos and like. idk im just wondering if you ever feel shy about posting? (not that you should bc for real everything you put out is great- including all the off pictures you keep posting… thank you for that btw i dont have social media so thats the only way i get to see his beautiful face) i guess it sounds stupid but IM really really shy and the thought of putting anything out there for anyone at all to see makes me want to hide forever sdjfhskjg but like. i kinda want to make video edits too. mostly for myself as like a visual journal thing? like its a personal project. but i thought okay since im putting in so much effort why not share it with other people too? and id love if people discovered new music + shows bc of me yknow? but yeah anyway like. how do you deal with it if you ever feel that way? thats all i can think of for now, wow this got LONG. i hope its not too much rip. and again thank you for letting me ask you these questions ❤️

hi, OOF you really had QUESTIONS lmaooooo

I use the free software shortcut to edit my videos. I hate it & it's very slow which makes my already least favorite part of the video making, editing, even worse (:

I decided to start making videos bc 1) I saw a gap in the youtube market where people who talked about bl either did reactions or short analyses without showing their faces. 2) there were many topics that were easier to tackle in a longer video than a blog post. 3) if I were to be able to make a living off of youtube (which will not happen but wish I had known that then lol) it would solve most of my problems & allow me to combine pretty much all of my interests at once.

my videos ABSOLUTELY get taken down bc of copyright, if you look through my community page I've talked about that many times.

when that happens, I always appeal but most of the time it doesn't work, which means I spent 30+ hours MINIMUM on something that will never see the light of day (: it's in big part why I'm switching to thailand focused content instead of thai series content tbh, it was very heavy on my mental health for a hobby that takes so many hours out of me every week. not worth it.

my favorite kinds of videos to film are definitely my ranking ones or reaction ones bc they demand very little preparation & scripting and are just about me rambling for 2 hours, but my ranking ones take FOREVER to edit so on that part any non scripted video is the worst haha

the time spent on a video really depends, but usually the writing of a video takes me between 3 to 6 hours, the filming takes me 2 hours & the editing takes me a good 20 hours (funny bc I hate editing so much lmaooooo.) but some videos have only taken me 10 hours (short reactions), while others have taken me well above 50 (longer commentary ones.)

about putting out content in fandom, you're right in saying that I've basically done every kind of content LMAO. honestly the faceless one like giffing, writing fics, making fanvids, etc. is easy? like it needs to come from a drive of wanting to do it but bc your personal image isn't really attached to it, I feel like the trial & error is easier? if you wanna stop tomorrow no one will really care? but when I started making videos that demand significantly more time & that have my face clearly attached to it, that's when the doubts started creeping in. I never feel shy bc I just haven't been shy in a while, but I do feel ashamed to talk to irl people about my videos bc they aren't successful & I've invested over 2 years of my life in them so it's just kinda pathetic LMAO. but about you being shy, you can focus on the fact that it's the internet? like if you really don't want anyone to know it's your fanvids, create a new username & post them under it, bc then literally NO ONE will know it's you. to be honest it's taken me years but I've gotten rid of the notion of "cringe" and "embarrassment" out of my vocabulary. just do what makes you happy bc people will hate on you no matter what. I just know I personally want to live my life authentically & not filter it just so MAYBE I'm not as hated. so yeah, I hope you DO get to create the fanvids you want & good luck with that! thanks for the support as well, it means a lot <3

xxx

[findmeinthealps]

@le-red-queen replied to your post “NO BUT MY TYPE IS SUCH A GROOVY SONG. And if...”:

Tbh I'd be up for you talking about your process too, like do you board first? what do you use to edit, etc etc Just. All very good.

​ah, process. it's always kind of hard to talk about because i wanna be like "i just open the program and then sort of shuffle clips around until it makes my brain happy" but obviously there's a little more to it than that.

as far as software goes, i do all my editing in Sony Vegas Pro 14, which is enough for my purposes since i'm not a big effects user (i tried to use After Effects once and it made me wanna cry so i stopped). i've vaguely looked at some other programs and i know a lot of vidders are switching to open source stuff like DaVinci Resolve these days, but i just cannot be bothered to learn a new thing and i like the system i have, so, eh.

the process itself pretty much changes with every vid tbh, but in general i like to have a pretty good idea of what i'm doing/the rough structure of the vid before i start editing. sometimes that involves me just taking a big old notepad and writing the idea out on paper (either that or in notepad++), with like some lyrics/clip matches i can think of and some general ideas of the different segments. i also usually clip very thoroughly (in Vegas, you can basically scrub through the episodes in a little window and create subclips from it, which you can sort into different folders etc.) unless i already know the source very well and i don't feel like it anymore (which is a point i've definitely reached with CK lol - so excited to get new material though!).

and then from that point it really is just kinda... trial and error, just putting stuff down and seeing what works, i can't explain it.

btw if you're interested in the technical side of vidding/general vid discussion, there's a vidding discord i'm in that i could share the invite for, it's a server where a lot of vidders hang out and talk about current projects, new tech etc. like no presh, but it's open for anyone to join and it's pretty chill (and this goes out to anyone else reading this as well)